Friday morning spent...............cooking.....

H at home this week, different to the normal. Haven't done much work for my forthcoming events, need to make up next week.
Friday morning at home, with all of the non usual food shopping happening, I've spent the past couple of hours cooking:

 Not too clear on my old phone camera but this is sorak with our lovely find of dried prawns, in, of all places, a Chinese supermarket in Birmingham! £1.99 for the pack and its divine, not as in prawns, but the flavour...
On the right is gizzard, which I love and the rest of the household not too keen on, on the left is a pepper and besan bhaji, tastes better than it sounds/looks.

These are sprouts, my newly discovered treasure, love them, easy to cook etc etc. On the left, cauliflower without chillies for the kids and I've missed out on my coriander chutney, made after absolute ages.......my MIL's recipe and its lovely.

Now, after all this cooking and food, I am not hungry, in the least....should do this more often......

Sheela ki Jawaani......

My almost 4 year old singing, rather trying to sing the Hindi lyrics to Sheela Ki Jawaani........and then my 7 year old asking what all the words mean......apart from sexy Mummy, P... told me what that means........
Just before we go into a piano lesson........
Now to bring up the topic again or wait for an appropriate moment....not looking forward to the inevitable explanations as they get older.....
I do like the song BTW, for whatever reason!
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTmF2v59CtI - this link is with the very very funny English translations of 'Sheela's Killer Youth', which my children shall not see.
Edit to say I have now heard what P, son's friend at school thinks sexy means, and its fortunate to be a 7 year old's 'not to be said meaning of beautiful'.......

Sunday lunch at home after months.....

Yes, months since we ate lunch at home on Sunday - various reasons.
This is some meatloaf in a red wine sauce (sounds better than it tasted!), my version of a sausage pulao - chorizo with lots of sliced fried onions and rice and lightly cooked (sound ok?) sprouts. Have recently discovered how easy it is to do sprouts at home and love them. Added masala etc and kids fortunately ate the little they were given - trying them for the first time.
H and I ate it all, liked it, unfortunately kids picked at it - usually good eaters, something not right with this combination.......

And then, for dessert, this being their once a week Sunday icecream day, the youngest made this Blueberry Banana Meringue icecream concoction, which, again unfortunately, tasted horrible......a first I think. Poor child........

Children reading too much?? Going to Goa...

Long time since I last posted.....after our extension, I have been trying to get my career into some sort of path and finding a workable solution with the children.
Quandary - to let my 7.5 year old read for 2-3 hours a day or not. He can't sit still for a minute, like most boys his age probably, always running up and down, fidgeting, doesn't like craft/art much etc etc, keeps asking someone to bowl/bat with him. Of late, for the past few months, he has been reading, increasing slowly to 2-3 hours a day. After school, he comes home and straight to read, unless its some bowling/batting/group sport we're doing.
Spoke to a few friends about my concern for his reading so much, and they were oh you should be happy he likes to read. I am happy, but not so  much. Unbelievably, he doesn't want to play his Skylanders or Mario games either. Fortunately we have 2 and a half Mario/wii games, but they lie unused, for all the £30-40 each cost.
He will watch tv for a bit, but his reading is taking precedence over everything.
Anyway, I hope this is a temporary phase and he will go back to his 30 mins before bedtime soon. (like his sister has been doing).

Looking at flights to Goa/India. We aren't sure when exactly we will go, but its incredible how much higher flight prices are in August or December. Understandably, its the holidays, but its so tempting to save a thousand pounds and go term time (not actually ever going to happen). Thomascook is doing their charters to Goa for £295, with 2 weeks B&B in Colva, this March.......... :) maybe we will go when children grown up and no school to worry about...... we havent been to India since last Jan......too long....

Mojo coming back slowly......A Sat at home

After a very long time, I have had a productive Saturday morning and a bit of the afternoon.
H at work, started the morning by doing some jeera meera rump steak in pressure cooker, a big pork roast with Karma's roast masala in the oven, children made a carrot cake with vinegar and garam masala, yes really (tastes lovely).
To top it all, no chapati flour, so tried flatbreads/chapatis with plain white flour. Suprisingly nice, in between tortillas and chapatis.
(Have to post this - a pic of my shark amotik and mild shark curry for the children from yesterday, friend got me a kg of shark from the Markets.

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Next went on a much awaited survey in the garden. There is piles of work to be done. Had quote from lovely gardener from our church, who seems reasonable. This is for the work I cant do like trimming a 12 foot hedge etc. Discovered some new things and learnt the plum tree I have planted needs to have a much larger area to grow in. £3.99 from Aldi. Cant go wrong with that. Tried to sort out dead fallen over tree without much luck.
Played with the children in the garden, as in solely focused on play for almost 2 hours. Badminton, cricket and some golf (plastic £5 set from Asda).
Inside, sat at laptop and I've built a rough website, facebook page and advertised for what will hopefully be a business.
Children playing peacefully and happily with Frustration - highly recommended and Im glad I opened it.
Now, do I do the usual folding and sorting clothes, tidying up lounge etc or not........