Babies growing up

So much has happened in the last few weeks for me professionally, have got my act together as a non mummy/cook/friend and been the other side ie work. Its a bit unnerving when you go back to work after a few years and then it comes together and you find your footing. All good, but now a pause until the holidays finish.
This has actually been secondary compared to the children's activities, I come home, and there's this calendar of activities - again, resulting in another piano grade for my daughter and a guard of honour at Edgbaston for my son (not sure of what it means but know what he did).
Its true, what the old ladies at Sainsbury's checkouts would tell me when they were babies - it will all get easier and you will miss this time. They are no longer 'carryable', do their own tasks etc, have conversations with me and play on their own (mostly).
Watching them grow into normal children is what makes parenting worth it - all the sleepless months breastfeeding, and then still sleepless nights, clinginess, toys, exhaustion, doing the same thing over and over again etc is all temporary, and then.........as our friends with teenagers point out, it happens all over again, but in a different way......

Wild strawberries and easy microwave jam

Of all places, in a corner of our front garden, there are hundreds (literally) of wild strawberries growing. The boys are enjoying themselves plucking some daily. Though tiny compared to standard ones, they taste the same and I have made some jam/compote in the microwave.
Its very simple:
Add the same amount of sugar as strawberries or a bit more.
Add some lemon juice for pectin to get it to set. 
Leave overnight in the fridge. ( This is to get the strawberries to keep their shape without becoming a mush)
Microwave for a few minutes.
Put in clean jar.
Thats it.
Its lovely.

Filo pastry / spring roll pastry samosas at home

Had this big pack of spring roll pastry in the freezer, bought on offer. Aforementioned visiting relatives love samosas, so do the children. Leftover mince. Decided to try them on a Sunday afternoon. They were much easier than imagined. A must view is the 30 second folding samosa video on Youtube.
This is folding the pastry bit, quick and easy to do once you get the hang of it. These were done by my 8 year old.

These are the filled samosas.

The end product, wolfed down in a few minutes!

White chocolate blueberry torte, caprese salad and an easy Peppa Pig cake

Its been a long time since I last blogged properly - real life being too busy. It was my youngest's 3rd birthday, this is the easy option I went for, for his much wanted Peppa Pig cake. If I had the time, and not had to focus on the cooking for his party, cleaning etc etc, would have done the figures in icing, but the main thing was that he was happy. Cake toppers from eBay are an easy quick option for a pound.

For another time we had people over for lunch, this is a 'caprese' salad, cherry tomatoes with a bit of mozzarella and mint/basil on the top. My version here used our wild garlic in the garden :)

This is the dessert I made for the 3rd birthday lunch - White Chocolate Torte with blueberries on the top. Its gorgeous and a must try. Cannot do proper chocolate because of H so have to experiment with the white. I've tweaked the BBC Good Food recipe a bit for us and its still divine.
To those who keep asking, its not a cheesecake, there is no cheese, just cream and white chocolate!