Tuesday 22 December 2015

Time Lapse Tuesday - Pswah

How's this for a jolly Christmas activity, well at least they're not arguing.


Since my last post I have enforced some very twinkly festive stuff so maybe they need the Minecraft antidote.

On Saturday we went to the KW Symphony Yuletide Spectacular and on Monday I packed them off to cooking school to make a variety of Christmas treats.  Today we went Christmas shopping and watched The Muppet's Christmas Carol.  All we need now is a plate of mince pies and a glass of mulled wine.

And so to the amaryllis, this is how Rose is feeling about it today.


Which is a bit like how I'm feeling about cooking Christmas dinner on Friday. I have cranberry sauce, braised cabbage and Jaimie's make ahead gravy in the freezer and a ridiculously big, humanely reared, hormone and antibiotic free turkey defrosting in the fridge.  I don't think I can do anything else before Thursday when a frenzy of so called make your life easier cooking will begin.  

It is possible that I'll have to break out the cooking sherry before lunch!

Friday 18 December 2015

Techno Friday

Alright, I admit it, l was too excited about Italian bread to do Techno Thursday.  So here it is on Friday and today there is actually change.


And I don't mean the dressing gown.  Jacob's special try-to-fool-your-brain-into-thinking-your-eyeballs-are-the-same-size glasses arrived and doesn't he look smart.

He is quite proud as they convey extra geekiness and he is under the impression that because they have anti screen glare coating he will be able to use digital devices all the time and never take a break.  There will be a rude awakening at some point I think.

Thursday 17 December 2015

Panettone - success!

I should not have doubted the awesome power of yeast.  This is what the potential panettone looked like when we got up this morning.


After we'd managed to knead it a bit and put it in makeshift mini moulds (various vegetable cans) things were looking hopeful.


And here is the finished, baked product, the big one...


Pretty spectacular eh! And here's Rose with little ones packed up for teachers.



I've got to say that I don't know whether I'll make it again until I own a free standing mixer with a dough hook but it's very, very good.  If you fancy a try I used a Paul Hollywood recipe from the bbc website, I researched it fairly extensively and this was by far the simplest recipe I could find.

Can't wait for breakfast!

Wednesday 16 December 2015

Panettone - maybe

Today I started my advanced Christmas cooking with traditional braised red cabbage.  Bizarrely I think it might be my favourite festive food, for the most part because it is delicious but not least because you can make a ton, freeze it and heat it up in a sauce pan in 5 minutes.  Hurray for Delia Smith!  Anyway, the aroma of nutmeg and cloves permeating the house (and the kids moaning about the disgusting smell) says Christmas to me.

The kids and I also began trying out a panettone recipe for teachers gifts.  It is possible we bit off more than we could chew with this one and I doubt that even the magic of yeast will transform the awful mess that is currently in the fridge into a workable dough.

Jacob really enjoyed getting his hands in (I made him wash them about 4 times, honest), here he is 'kneading' it.


Despite her normal preference for anything revolting or sticky Rose would have nothing to do with it.

Anyway, I have to leave it in the fridge overnight then try to knead it again so I'll update you in the morning.

Sunday 13 December 2015

Tree's Up

We put the Christmas tree up on Friday, the poor old thing is looking past its best now but as it is crammed with about 3 times as many decorations as is necessary or tasteful it doesn't really matter.

Today we went out to a garden centre so the kids could choose their special Christmas bauble for the year.  Rose spent half an hour searching for the perfect robin then bought a sparkly golden reindeer instead and Jacob went for another owl.


Note that we are still using the star on the top that Jacob made out of pasta at play group.

Next week is the last week of school before the holidays.  It doesn't feel like it as its unseasonably mild, today the thermometer on the car said 12 degrees.  Anyway, despite the temperature I've got tonnes of pre Christmas prep to do next week, mainly final gifts, kid's end of term concerts and a massive amount of advance cooking that will hopefully make the day itself easier.  In order to keep my spirits up I bought myself these motivational napkins for those stand still and take a deep breath moments.


A good modern woman's alternative to 'keep calm and carry on' I think.

Thursday 10 December 2015

Techno Thursday

Well how about this? Techno Thursday on Thursday, haven't managed that for a while.

This week someone has 'had' to stay away an extra night for the office party and as I'm not the least bit jealous we had one as well.

We started with a slap up meal of pigs in blankets and tasteless spaghetti at a fine dining establishment (Chez Parker).  Then everyone ate too much cake and inevitably it all went belly up.

The CEO took a selfie of his own butt and set it as everyone's screen saver.


People will regret the embarrassing dancing.


Head of Publicity and Pet Management told the CEO she loved him and tried for a smooch on the dance floor.


And everyone drank too much and passed out.


Ahh, those were the days!

Tuesday 8 December 2015

Time Lapse Tuesday, Yawn

So this amaryllis is either, dormant, stubborn, lazy, dead or a fake.  One thing it certainly isn't is growing.


Still, this photo nicely shows off my posh new California shutters, installed yesterday and effectively making all the 1970s light fittings look even more out of date than they did before.

Rose has written several letters to Santa this year, here is the latest.


I particularly like the p.s.  She must be getting worried.

Monday 7 December 2015

Gingerbread Houses

Lots of excitement this weekend, we went to The Museum in downtown Kitchener (on purpose) and to the closing ceremony of the annual Christkindel Market complete with oompah band and traditional German folk dancers (by accident).  I left my photographic equipment on the kitchen table.  So I'll just say that everyone had a good time even though digital activities had been banned for the day.

Rose and I also made gingerbread at the weekend but we were out having so much fun that we didn't decorate them until after school today.



They look titchy don't they, you wouldn't believe how much icing it takes to stick them together and it will take nearly a week to eat them so it's a good job they're not bigger.
 

Friday 4 December 2015

Techno Thursday

think perhaps I should change the time or day of this post.  We seem to be skyping a lot at five on Thursdays and I don't like to intrude when he's catching up with the U.K.  This photo was faked at 7pm.  He says this is what he looked like at five pm.


Yesterday evening was especially busy as the kids had their annual eye checks after school as well as a Skype appointment.  Jacob has managed a lopsided growing feat and apparently has one eyeball bigger than the other.  This causes his eyes to focus at different distances from his head and means I have had to buy him glasses until he decides to grow properly and even out.

He is quite excited about it as he thinks it will help him to appear more geek like.  I'm quite excited that it will provide something new on Techno Thursday.

And just to finish, I lent Jacob my phone while I was in Rose's appointment and now I know what he does when he thinks nobody's looking.


Wednesday 2 December 2015

Time Lapse Tuesday

Well here it is.


Rose claims that the amaryllis now measures 9cm, that's a mighty 5mm growth in 1 week.  I'm sceptical and suspect that's either wishful thinking, inaccurate measuring or a result of multiple compost flickings making a hole for the tape measure end.

I sincerely hope Techno Thursday is more exciting tomorrow.