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Archive for the ‘Cooking’ Category

On the way home tonight, we called into the local chip shop .

When we were pulling out, Asha asked where hers was. The reply oh the shop had run out of food, other than “nasty kebab meat, and you wont want that.”

Asha’s response… “Couldnt they go to the Cash and Carry!”

There you go.

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Asha got up with Daddy and did some TV, a rare treat these days. After she did breakfast mummy got up, and we wizzed to pwhelli, to do some small jobs.

Once home we played in the Garden, and Daddy did a bit of potting of plants.

Asha and I then came indoors and made some corn tortillas and had some sausage butties as we were all hungry by now!

Daddy made a beef curry, for when R and A were due around. Around 4 pm they turned up, along with a St Johns Wort Plant.. WOW! Steve rappidly got it into the ground, in the hole he had previously dug.

After the two girls had a play outside on there bikes, and then did some HAMA beads, and ate some curry and sausages. We took them for a walk on the beach at Aberdesach,  where we did a bit of water play, looked at some rocks, had a close up of a crab, and did some sea side botany research on return, in the pouring rain, and then along to Pwhelli.  Asha fell asleep on the way home, so I poped her straight to bed.

R and A had a drink before setting off home.

So what is this then?

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Well we were out first thing this morning, enjoing the sun and rain, and sleet. Yes I know its April.. Its what happens in April!

Anyway, after our trip to see the MP, in Caernarfon.. isnt it funny how holiday towns never seem to have to deal with real life, untill you live in them. Anyway.. we called in to pick Asha’s tickets up for CLAYDAY tomorrow.

‘Claytime’ is a play with clay, where the audience are invited to participate. Presented by Indefinitearticles, you are invited to a place where the earth’s natural material meets with children’s imaginations: a world of fabulous forms, amazing animals and morphing monsters.

Each Claytime is totally unique – creating its own world, its own characters and its own stories drawn directly from its young audience. Truly, interactive theatre at its most engaging. This show is made with and for 3 to 6 year olds. Parent / guardian will need to stay throughout the performance.

http://www.galericaernarfon.com

I am so looking forwards to this, I think it will be great for Asha. She has ballet in the morning and then a small period of time out. Then a great afternoon doing make and do and theater, what else can a three year old want!!!

Anyway, after getting her tickets, and me collapsing in a heap, which I woke up from four hours later. We went for a drive down to Trefor Beach. Asha had a lovely walk and play, on the beach, Steve took some photos, and I enjoyed watching them both.

We piled some wood into the back of the van, and came home, prepared and ate tea, did some reading and sewing and then Asha went to bed, tired.

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Since before Asha was born, we have regully brought there custard creams and bourbons, as they dont make anyone ill.

Quite simple really, no wheat no milk = buscuits and happy tummys!

Now I really dont know what to do as they have decided to add milk to Asha’s staple buscuit. We are in for big tears, as she even goes and looks for them when we go shopping these days, as she knows she can have them! Last time she chucked 4 packets of both in her basket

Link to there page

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So I look at familytreehouse, and realise we havent written down half of what we have been doing for the last two weeks. Why? because we have been so busy, doing nothing

Granny was 65.
Daddy was 6 – well that’s what he says :d
We did painting and made cardboard animals at C.L.A.S
We made food, and cooked.
We made goats milk cheese – yummy.
We went shopping.
We sat and watched Mary Poppins.. (what a great film!)
We discussed chimney sweeps, musicals, dancing… and asha wants to return to ballet – so we shall
We have played ball, made bags out of felt, managed to jump down firemans poles unaided!!!
We have started to recognise D,B,S,M,A in capital letters and small letters. Expertly!
We have drawn pictures of flaminogoes, daffodils, puffins, grandads, and made dens and nests.
We have talked about the moon and the sun. How to make electricity, Why people need glasses, Why people live and die, what the difference is between a leaf eater bee and a bumble bee. The difference between wild and domestic animals….

We have practiced ballet, and drawing. We have made mud pies, eaten in restaurants. Tried oysters, and scallops.

Seen Oxford, Stratford, and slept at uncle andrews house. In fact all things considered, its no wonder i cant remeber what we have done this last few weeks, as all I have wanted to do is sleep, sleep sleep!

We have read books, and discussed the moon, time, our bodies, and why we have skin. We have talked about why some animals have fur (like cats) and some have a hide (like rino’s)

And to add to this medley of life, Steve has read her Jonathan Livingstone Seagull !

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Ouch.. got up out of bed, feeling very rough, and with not a lot of rest last night.

Asha remebered where I had put Daddys birthday card, we had made yesterday, and gave it to Daddy whilst I was still in bed :d Oh the joys of nearly four, I get a lie in on Daddys Birthday! – I had planned on breakfast in bed for him, but erm, lack of sleep and a hurt foot put a seal of death on that idea!

We got ready for C.L.A.S and went on our way. On the way, we called into Mac D’s and Tescos. Armed with goods for C.L.A.S and Gwerin Y Coed, we were soon at our destination, and Asha was soon running around with friends, and having a go at makeing bracelets and having tons of fun.

Us parents, well we were doing our normal things, and trying to encourage some of the older kids into having a go at making cheese… Yes, steve did enjoy making the cheese didnt you!

Goats Milk Cheese

1 litre of semi skimmed goats milk. (not tried it with anything else)
bring to boil.
add joice of one lemon per two pints = i lemon.
It will curdle the milk.
Seive off the whey. ( and throw.. or if your creative do what ever with it)
the curds contents in your seive now.. is your cheese. allow to cool, and enjoy on a cracker / similar!

I dont know where the C.L.A.S lot get there ideas from, but this was brilliant!

I spent a bit longer on my feet than I ought to have done, but it was cold and I didnt want anyone outside with the kids too long. Plus I so needed some air!

Asha played well all day today, and tonight. I was very pleased with her!

At Gwerin Y Coed, she did some more cooking! Rice cakes are very easy for an A! She also enjoyed playing with the rest of the group, it was a very busy and big meeting tonight, but it did go well.

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Asha and I got up today and cooked her Mummy breakfast in bed. There was some debate about what we should put on the card, in the end Asha decided to write her name and I did the rest. I always joke that Vicki always wants the impossible so I made her “The Moon on a Stick” I was hoping to use a balloon, but in the end had to settle for a round piece of paper stuck to a random piece of wood found outside.

She also had a cup of coffee.

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Bake off course!

We no longer have a kitchen but Asha has measured, spread, cut, stired, poured, weighed, seived, broken eggs, whsked, counted, ….and watched the cakes rise..

She has also experimented, and ended up making her own egg custard

Result?

1 big bowl of rice pudding, with raisins in
1 Bread and butter pudding.
1 banana and egg custard
1 mountain of banana and chocolate cakes.. all now eaten (yes they did taste good!)

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Aparently it is totally normal for a nearly four year old not to be able to breath / walk or eat wheat / oats or cows milk. According to the DWP the inability to walk as a four year old dosnt mean she is disabled, nor does the horrendous amount of nights we spend up in her room as she is crying / unsettled / struggling to breath due to having had a drop of milk/ gluten somewhere….
Oh well.. we are going to appeal, but things like this just get my back up as its one more thing to deal with. We have sent a copy of our appeal letter to our local MP.. They are not popular at the moment due to the school closures, so I am sure they would like an extra two votes

Vicki xx

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We have been doing it for a couple at weeks at clas now. I really am starting to get my head around the idea, and even managed to start to feel progress has been made.

I plan to do some more work on this, so I can use it in other groups.. But time will tell.

Asha loves clas. Yesterday she was very pleased she could have the pop corn. Especially today when she found the remains of it in her bag… Yummy! – Thanks Annie!

I have today done some croquet – (sp?) and cut some jeans up into small shapes such as hearts, bears and fish. I am going to start getting an applique box together, so as we develop with Asha we can always glue / sew or stitch for those lazy afternoons!….

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It was a friends birthday, and we went to Tokyo Joes at Spital, Wirral.

The food was fair, enough for a normal person for the standard price.. But if you wanted more you had to pay..

Service was not as good as I expect, but then my expectations are said to be unreasonable.

But the taste of the food was excellent, and the Little one enjoyed it as well.

Out of 10… 8… but bigger portions for big eaters are required.. but this was lunch time, so may be night times are different? I dont know!

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We went for a mexican meal at Glasfryn tonight, it was very very good.

The chef there made Asha a lovely starter and main meal, which she woofed down!..

We also brought our normal shopping – Milk, eggs, etc from there. The shop manager appoligised for not having any of Asha’s milk in, but we are o.k. for it right now. The supplier sent the wrong milk!

I forget how wonderful it can be to just have a little bit of family time, doing something that little bit different.

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We finally managed to buy some, it isnt the easiest item to purchase anymore, but its wheat free and a change from rice pudding!..

I then went online to find a recipie. But I am a lazy cook, and couldnt do with the egg whisking and everything else, just for a pudding. Egg whisking is for cakes, and “meals”.

Anyway, it was a success, and my parents are up for the weekend, so I am going to make some more tomorrow for my Dad.. He will either love it or hate it.. But either way, it should start an interesting discussion!

1/2 cup  tapioca – depending on type you may have to soak it.
3 cups of  sweet Soya milk
1/4 teaspoon salt  I dont normally include salt in cooking, but thought it was worth including it.. and it was!
1/2 cup of sugar  I used slightly more with using Soya milk

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1 Combine tapioca, milk, and salt in good sized pan.. A pressure cooker pan would be a decent size i reckon. on medium high heat. Stir until boiling. Simmer 5 minutes, uncovered at the lowest possible heat, adding sugar gradually. – I added the sugar too fast and it burnt the first time.. so do it slowly!

Keep STIRING…

Untill the tapioca looks smooth, and silky, then add the vanilla just before you take it off the heat.  But keep stiring.

If you want to see the recipie i used to try it with eggs and real milk look here  http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000460tapioca_pudding.php

Enjoy!

Vicki xx

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Yesterday I made a chocolate fudge date biscuit thing, with dates in it.

It was basically

4 oz dates

8 oz margarine

8 oz sugar

8 oz of biscuits we had in cupboard

some dark chocolate.

I put it all except the chocolate in a pan and melted it down (cutting the dates up first) then added the melted down chocolate.

I then spread it on some greaseproof. let it cool and poured a little more dark chocolate on the top.. Its yummy!

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I listened to Steve complaing about the kitchen today, and looked in the cupboards and decided its time we used up some ingredients.

We have 5 packets of flour, two packets of millet, enough pollenta to fill the bath, corn flakes asha has gone off, and enough plain chocolate to fill the River Seiont, twice.

We also have a mountain of custard powder, and othe items in, which to be honest I am fed up of storeing.

Money is failry tight at the moment, so we have decided once more on Sunday we are going to do a food plan for the next two weeks.. doing it in two week schedules seems to work better, as you can do deals over two week periods better.. ie tescos 2 chickens for £5 seems far easier if you have 14 days to eat them in rather than 7. especially if each chicken makes two meals!

So the plan so far? I made some polenta up tonight so that can be eaten with some burgers tomorrow, and never know we might manage to get rid of the falafal mix as part of the roast dinner as well useing it as stuffing! Pancakes, some kind of pastry.. probably chicken pie, as they went down well last week.

If anyone has an idea for loads of corn crisp breads do let me know!

We also have some sausage meat in so might try some sausage rolls, corn flake cakes and millet Millet Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups Millet Flour  (I will be useing normal flour here)

1/2 cup Millet Flakes

1/2 teaspoon Bicarbonate Soda1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar  (nah gluten free baking soda here as well!)

1 medium apple, peeled and grated1

1/2 cups milk   (soya milk for us)

1 or 2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup  (Honey – Maple syrup = yuck!)

Method

Mix all dry ingredients together and the grated apple. Add milk and honey slowly until right consistency. Spoon into lightly greases muffin trays and bake in moderate oven until firm to touch – approx 20 – 30 minutes.

Oh well will see.. but the idea sounds interesting.. and my use up some of that millet!

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I love cooking. I love curry. Back in the day, I used to make curries based on a recipe an old friend gave me. Over the years that has been refined and more often than not my curries are pretty good. My method is a one pan method, that is I fry everything together and make the sauce in the pan as it cooks. It has always been good enough for me.

I recently came across a recipe for a curry sauce base that is made seperately. The first attempt was too thick and had to be mixed down with a tin of tomatoes. Todays attempt looked a lot better, much more of a soupy consistancy. It tasted pretty good too, though its hard to be sure as I have a cold and everything is a bit muted.

I was supposed to be making beef burgers today, but I ran out of time after making the curry sauce. I used some of that with some of the mince. I have another 3 meals worth of curry sauce in the freezer now.

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Yep we went to hawden, today to get a new cooker. We also met granny at Wizz Kids for a play date.

The cooker is beautiful.

rangemaster lpg cooker

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