Lara starred in her nursery's Nativity Play on Tuesday, despite a bad cold and teething problems. She was one of the snowflakes - we weren't convinced the male babies were overly impressed at being snowflakes, but Lara seemed to like her fairy costume - the suggestion from the nursery staff had been just for the babies to wear something white, perhaps with the odd doily or two stuck on for that snowflake effect, so we went overboard :-) Just click on the slideshow to see the full size photos and watch the videos.
Lara didn't last too long sitting in her high chair, once she realised we weren't far away, in the audience, she wanted to come and join us, although she wasn't very tearful, she was very loud. We reckon she was singing along :-)
Thursday, 18 December 2008
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Haute Cuisine
It's been a strange few days in our kitchen - I watched Saturday Kitchen and saw what Rick Stein was going to make, and realised straight away that I just had to have a go at making that... Fish tacos with guacamole from Baja California . Considering I'm not a great fan of salsa (too much raw tomato, eeuuchhh) or guacamole (I'll have a little bit of it with some doritos) at first this seemed a strange thing to do. However, Olga and I enjoy chicken fajitas, and this is pretty much a fishy version of that, and I knew Olga would love it.
The funny bit on the recipe page on the BBC website was "Prepartion time, less than 30 minutes". This may be true for Rick Stein, but after I'd spent an hour in Asda finding all the ingredients - I'd never had to find avocados or plain flour before - it still took me an hour just to make the salsa. Then another 30 minutes to make the guacamole... and that's before I'd even started on the fish. I took a break from the kitchen and walked the dog at this point while Olga cut up the fish for me.
Anyway, deep-frying the fish in my batter in a wok half-full of oil worked a treat, as we don't have a deep-fat fryer, and all in all it was a great success, and without wanting to blow my own trumpet, it was the best salsa I can remember having. I didn't take any photographs - my presentation left a little to be desired, but I'm inspired now to make salsa and guacamole more often - visitors, you have been warned! Here's how it would have looked, courtesy of www.loscabosrecipes.com's photograph:
Then, as if to balance things out, on Monday I reverted to a staple meal from my childhood, presented in the style that Mum poineered to make mealtimes more interesting for me... and this time I did take a photo! Can you guess what it is yet?
Yep, sausages, mash and beans. Olga had the castle/moat design, I had the smiley face. Just so you don't think I was completely slacking, the sausages were Sainsbury's special pork and honey ones (reduced for quick sale). Somethings never change!
The funny bit on the recipe page on the BBC website was "Prepartion time, less than 30 minutes". This may be true for Rick Stein, but after I'd spent an hour in Asda finding all the ingredients - I'd never had to find avocados or plain flour before - it still took me an hour just to make the salsa. Then another 30 minutes to make the guacamole... and that's before I'd even started on the fish. I took a break from the kitchen and walked the dog at this point while Olga cut up the fish for me.
Anyway, deep-frying the fish in my batter in a wok half-full of oil worked a treat, as we don't have a deep-fat fryer, and all in all it was a great success, and without wanting to blow my own trumpet, it was the best salsa I can remember having. I didn't take any photographs - my presentation left a little to be desired, but I'm inspired now to make salsa and guacamole more often - visitors, you have been warned! Here's how it would have looked, courtesy of www.loscabosrecipes.com's photograph:
Then, as if to balance things out, on Monday I reverted to a staple meal from my childhood, presented in the style that Mum poineered to make mealtimes more interesting for me... and this time I did take a photo! Can you guess what it is yet?
Yep, sausages, mash and beans. Olga had the castle/moat design, I had the smiley face. Just so you don't think I was completely slacking, the sausages were Sainsbury's special pork and honey ones (reduced for quick sale). Somethings never change!
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Two very tired kids **Updated**
We went for another long walk today, but a little closer to home, around West Wycombe. The baby carrier we bought has turned out to be a good purchase, it makes it so easy for us all to go out for a walk in the countryside. We were lucky today with the weather - it had rained all day yesterday, but was dry today; this seemed to put people off going for walks and we barely saw another soul while we walked for three hours. It also meant that we could let Mishka off his lead, we love to see him running free and enjoying himself, but we love it even more when he comes back to us when we call him! He was very well behaved today, and the long walk (we think we covered about 7km, but Mishka will have done more like 10km!) has tired him out completely. It did mean he got a good bath when we got home, which takes some time, but is very good for his coat.
To help us recover from our exertions, we had a swift half in the George and Dragon in West Wycombe after the walk, where Lara enjoyed playing with the landlord's little terrier - it's nice to see Lara's not afraid of dogs, albeit this one weighed about the same as her!
We really enjoyed our walk, and hope now to make it a regular weekend thing during the winter. Lara was fine all the way round, she had a little sleep for half an hour or so en-route, and was asleep in the car within 5 minutes of setting off for home. Considering it's only an 8 minute drive home, she thankfully slept on at home for another half-hour or so which gave Olga time to bath Mishka!
This wasn't a documented walk, we just made it up from the OS map - I think I might investigate hand-held GPS systems so we can accurately measure how far (and exactly where!) we've been. Here are a couple of photos from a scenic break for coffee, and one from the aftermath! I've plotted part of the route we'd taken on the second photo, just for the fun of it.
And here's a map of the walk (it's been quiet at work on Monday!)
(map: Crown Copyright 2008)
To help us recover from our exertions, we had a swift half in the George and Dragon in West Wycombe after the walk, where Lara enjoyed playing with the landlord's little terrier - it's nice to see Lara's not afraid of dogs, albeit this one weighed about the same as her!
We really enjoyed our walk, and hope now to make it a regular weekend thing during the winter. Lara was fine all the way round, she had a little sleep for half an hour or so en-route, and was asleep in the car within 5 minutes of setting off for home. Considering it's only an 8 minute drive home, she thankfully slept on at home for another half-hour or so which gave Olga time to bath Mishka!
This wasn't a documented walk, we just made it up from the OS map - I think I might investigate hand-held GPS systems so we can accurately measure how far (and exactly where!) we've been. Here are a couple of photos from a scenic break for coffee, and one from the aftermath! I've plotted part of the route we'd taken on the second photo, just for the fun of it.
And here's a map of the walk (it's been quiet at work on Monday!)
(map: Crown Copyright 2008)Wednesday, 10 December 2008
More on Lara's Birthday
Phew, what an exhausting evening! Given that we weren't going to have a party, it turned into quite a party! First Lara opened her cards and presents, and in typical fashion was equally impressed with her balloons as much as she was with her lovely presents! Kids, eh!? Then she had a very big tea involving quiche, pizza and birthday cake, amongst other things. There was an "In the Night Garden" theme to the cake and one of the presents, and indeed you can see Igglepiggle eyeing up the cake in one of these photos.
Take a good look at Mishka in his fluffy coat, he's off to the salon tomorrow morning for a strip. Poor lad will be freezing for a few weeks!
We'll put some more videos up on YouTube later of Lara with her presents.
We'll put some more videos up on YouTube later of Lara with her presents.
1 Today!
Here's Lara at 7am, playing with the Farmyard Shape Sorter that Eve has given her - At Eve's birthday party Lara loved playing with it! Now she's got one of her own.
Lara had another good night last night, although we messed her normal routine about. It was the Christmas Party at the nursery yesterday afternoon, and although Lara wouldn't normally be there on a Tuesday, she was allowed to go to the party. It was only for an hour, but it meant that she didn't have any afternoon nap at all, and by the time I'd wandered round Asda with her after work, getting lots of party nibbles for tonight, she was absolutely exhausted, and she slept in her pram from 6pm until almost 10pm, then had dinner in front of the TV - we're setting her a good example! - then her bath before a very late bedtime. Well, you're only 0.9973 years old once. After a bit of a struggle to get her back to sleep, not surprisingly, she slept through until 4.50am, but again I was a bit selfish and gave her a minute or two to settle back down before getting up, and she duly obliged. She even slept through while Olga had a shower this morning, only waking when the hairdryer started up. Once she woke up properly and had her yoghurt, she was in a really good mood, even better than normal, and she loved playing with her first new toy of the day, the farmyard shape sorter. We'll open the rest of the cards and presents this afternoon; Olga is getting out of work in London early, and I'll pick Lara up from nursery at 4pm. The plan is for the grown-ups to crack open a bottle of bubbly at 17.12, the time of Lara's birth....
Lara had another good night last night, although we messed her normal routine about. It was the Christmas Party at the nursery yesterday afternoon, and although Lara wouldn't normally be there on a Tuesday, she was allowed to go to the party. It was only for an hour, but it meant that she didn't have any afternoon nap at all, and by the time I'd wandered round Asda with her after work, getting lots of party nibbles for tonight, she was absolutely exhausted, and she slept in her pram from 6pm until almost 10pm, then had dinner in front of the TV - we're setting her a good example! - then her bath before a very late bedtime. Well, you're only 0.9973 years old once. After a bit of a struggle to get her back to sleep, not surprisingly, she slept through until 4.50am, but again I was a bit selfish and gave her a minute or two to settle back down before getting up, and she duly obliged. She even slept through while Olga had a shower this morning, only waking when the hairdryer started up. Once she woke up properly and had her yoghurt, she was in a really good mood, even better than normal, and she loved playing with her first new toy of the day, the farmyard shape sorter. We'll open the rest of the cards and presents this afternoon; Olga is getting out of work in London early, and I'll pick Lara up from nursery at 4pm. The plan is for the grown-ups to crack open a bottle of bubbly at 17.12, the time of Lara's birth....
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