Real life take over

Its been more than two weeks since I last posted - I do not currently have a full or part time job but life has been so filled with all sorts, need to document the sagas that have happened at some stage.
Current dilemma is whether to start my own business with all my voluntary and professional experience behind me or find my elusive part time job in the media.
Little did I know before getting married and moving to Birmingham how coveted jobs in the media were in this country. To add to it, I have had three children and long extended periods of maternity leave. The two together does not make me a fantastic candidate for the jobs I am looking for.........hopefully someday.
The option of starting my children's events business seems appealing but.......God willing, will post a positive update in a few months time.
My mum is leaving next week.......after giving me a long break from the cooking and household chores. The garden is looking astonishingly different, thanks to her constant trimming and taking 100 odd bags to Lifford Lane!
Had a lovely horse riding party for my middle child, will post pictures in a bit. Made a huge batch of blackberry liqueur, its all over! Need to do another one but the blackberries arent happening as much as earlier.
Have made lots of apple tart, apple cake etc, Now another 40 odd apples waiting to be prepared. A friend of mine has made this gorgeous apple miskut.
Need to look for some pictures to post now.

Monster Cake - Hulk?

My now 7 year old's birthday :) First cake choice was a racing car, ideally Formula 1 which I was completely stumped - its complex and I am not a crafter. Fortunately he jumped at this version of the Incredible Hulk - I know it looks nothing like the Hulk but for my lovely 7 year old, calling it a Monster Cake was fine, the beauty of childhood.......where the number of presents and wrapping matter more than the inside. Never spent more than £10-£15 on a present for the children, the DS's and Wii games haven't happened in our house as birthday or Christmas presents, well.....yet.
Back to the Cake, would not recommend Dr Oetker gel food colouring at all. Used many of their products loads of times, this was supposed to be better than the liquid and available from Sainsbury's so decided to give it a go. The result is a bowl of pastel green icing which looks very pretty but wont do for a monster cake. Plus I've put the whole tube of icing in, more than recommended. Will have to stick to the specialist colouring pastes I think. This time its good old Renshaw's coloured icing for a £ odd. Over and done with in half an hour (the green bit).
This is a simple square cake with a loaf cut diagonally at the corners. One of the simpler cakes I've done.
Now to sort out the weekend party and his school friends party. Going horse riding, hope its fun for the children.

Comfort food - aloo parathas

Rainy day, after my last post about Indian news, my mum, who is here for a bit, made some aloo parathas - a staple growing up in North India. With pickle and dahi - even more staple North Indian accompaniments.
Love the parathas and love that all three of our children consider them one of their favourite foods!
Now need to get them to eat it authentically - ie breaking off pieces and scooping up some dahi, rather than waiting for me to do it all :)

The death sentences.....and then Narendra Modi

So they've been sentenced to death - no pleasure or happiness, just this sense of waste, of their lives and Jyoti's.
Headlines under this is the appointment of Narendra Modi as the BJP's PM candidate......how much worse can this get.
Best to stay out of politics I think.....have a lovely weekend to look forward to, my children, and some experimental cooking......easier than the Indian news.

The Nirbhaya / Jyoti / Delhi rape case sentencing

So the sentencing is finally tomorrow. I've had these feelings of extreme anger when I think of the 3 year sentence given to the youngest and worst of the *&^$££&* lot. Spoken/written to my friends in the Delhi media who of course, feel the same like all of the horrific enormity of the situation - where are the new laws to prevent this happening, etc etc. It all boils down to the same story of the corruption prevalent at all levels, increasing the higher up the political ladder.
Apparently, there are much more similar cases the media have no permission to breathe about.
Then the Mumbai journalist rape case....its never going to end. I stopped reading the Indian news for a while after that in frustration. Which doesn't help at all.
More important than sentencing them to death tomorrow is making the public aware of the enormity of doing something like this - I think of that poor girl and feel sick - how many times I've passed the same road at night returning from work or a night out etc, many years ago - the difference was I was in a car, not walking.
A couple of my friends, one at NDTV and one at the Indian Express have written fantastic in depth blogs on this, upsetting to read but both eye-openers.
Thoughts in a muddle as is visible from this writing, but, I've given up, India's attitude to women is not going to change.

Garden blackberry pickings ........Mousse and Squash

 The never ending horrid thorny blackberries seem to be proliferating in the back garden. Decided to make the most of it and pluck and freeze - its kept the children busy for brief intervals.
This is blackberry mousse, made for Sunday pudding - whipped cream, whipped egg white and then mixed with boiled blackberries and sugar. Pronounced lovely so will hopefully make again.

 This is the leftover boiled blackberries and sugar strained into a jug.

This is the blackberry squash or cordial, as the recipes call it, tasted great if not as sweet as our usual squashes. H very happy with it and gave up his Sunday margarita to drink this!

Costco meat shopping and pork vindaloo with Karma's masala

 Our regular weekend trek to Costco for our raw meat / milk etc ends up a trolley full of stuff. As the children grow older, the quantities of food we buy are increasing....
First pic is pork vindaloo with LOTS of potatoes on the top (made by my mum so have to ask her why the copious quantity of potatoes). Karma's vindaloo masala - the one in a jar thingie for Rs100 odd is lovely. From my other post, I am a big fan of Karma's masalas and stock up when we go to Goa. Taste lovely and available readily. Comes a close second to my MIL's homemade ones.

This is a pic of some of our freezer shopping from Costco - pork tenderloin, pork shoulder and chicken thighs, one skinless and one skinned (difference is a couple of pounds between the two). Used to last us almost a month, now hopefully more than 10 days!
The mince is the only thing I find more expensive than elsewhere, at almost £8 a kilo, other than that, its mostly cheaper and nicer to buy a big quantity.

The children are enjoying the chapatis/parathas from their grandma these days though......

Hoburne Torbay review - draft

First things first, spoke to Hoburne Torbay on the phone and got a stupendous (for August) deal for a week for us. Much lower than their internet price.
Chose Hoburne for proximity to the beach, stayed in the Cotswolds one 6-7 years ago and mainly, the cheapest in the category of near £1000 pounds for a caravan for a week Aug holiday prices. Yes, close to £1000 for a week. Self catering. For 6.

Anyway, it was a lovely experience, need to figure
 out where to start.


The Birmingham-Devon journey was awful, took 6 hours instead of the 3, traffic jams, single carriageways etc. Prepared for it fortunately, experienced it last year on the way to Cornwall. The view of the sea rising up in front of your eyes as you go down a slope approaching Hoburne, in fact a few places in South Devon is something else. 
First of all, from the price we paid, expected a dump, the park looked nice and well maintained when we entered. Checkin staff lovely and gave us our keys along with a map and showed us where to look for the entertainment schedule Went to the caravan a bit worried but it turned out to be spotless. Seriously very very clean. It wasn't an apartment/cottage/hotel room/B&B so the tiny spaces were expected. Kids overjoyed at a mini house.
Got to continue this later.....the joys of having 3 tired children on a Sat evening when I'm meant to be going out :)

Roses

Saddled with a large neglected garden........Since we moved, I've focused on the house and sorting it out. Put the garden out of my mind for a while. With the advent of my mum along with the gardener's absence along with buying hedge trimmers, have been forced to sort the neglected overgrown bushes out. The few flowers that have survived are these stunning huge roses that keep popping up at various parts. The largest is the size of my splayed hand....cut one of these as seen below.

These tiny beauties are not from the garden but from Morrisons - the second flowering. They were just a pound and some and very pretty to look at. There's another similar plant upstairs on the landing with lots more roses. I'm now discovering the thing of cutting roses back after they are dead and have new growth leading to flowers happen again.

Edited to add, this is the rose plant on the landing:

This is the cyclamen, again flowering the second time round, from Cofton Nursery (the City Council) where I've found lovely much cheaper plants. This was bought 4-5 months ago, flowered, died, was left in the garage, resurrected, watered and voila!

Seems to be good luck with the flowers and roses in this house which I have always been careful to stay away from. Hopefully it will continue. Happy to receive any tips for rose growing!

Back from Devon

Seems like a long time since I last posted. Have come back refreshed from a week in Devon. Lots of beautiful pictures to post, yet to be uploaded.
Lots to post, will do it bit by bit. Separate review of Hoburne Torbay though - merits one.
Last Aug, we went to Cornwall and stayed at the lovely Esplanade Hotel, Ive written about it on here.
Great time, fantastic hotel and most of all, stunning Cornwall - Fistral Beach and St Ives.
This year, decided on South Devon as a last minute break. Very very expensive, as was obvious for August. After much looking, I found a slightly less expensive priced caravan at Hoburne - will go into details separately :)
Lots to hear from friends about why stay in a caravan, go to a cottage, its nicer, Salcombe is much nicer than Torbay etc etc. Never mind, we'd already booked so went ahead.
First thing, Torbay, which includes Torquay, Paignton and Brixham was not as run down as reviews and friends suggested. Apart from the lovely sea views, each was different. Paignton is probably my best from the three, with a sandy beach (smallish), then a fantastic very big Geopark (?) play area for the children and then the main road leading to the high street with the usual arcades/amusements. If there is a next time, we are going to book one of the seafront hotels with a 1 min walk to the beach and the play area.
Next is Brixham, lovely little town - called a fishing village. No beach - we drove there once and then went by ferry from Torquay.

The ferry Torquay-Brixham is a must do, for £2 return for around a half hour trip each way. Fantastic views.
Torquay itself is better than I expected, not rundown, cheapest place to park is the Fleet Walk Shopping Centre, walking from most things. Bit strange to find a TK Maxx and Debenhams a few minutes from the seaside!

Berry Head off Brixham is stunning, with a clifftop view of Torbay, the Jurassic Coast and the sea on three sides. Its in the middle of nowhere, yet costs a pound and some to park, like all places in the area. There's a small visitor centre with a lovely volunteer who gave the children cannon balls to hold etc (remains of the Napoleonic Fort).

Last of all and the best bit of our week away was the crabbing at Stoke Gabriel - fantastic! H said it reminded him of crabbing at the river in Bardez in his childhood. The difference being in Goa you get to eat the crabs and here they need to be put back in. Its is a must must must do for anyone with children, or without. Much easier than fishing and there's the instant gratification of pulling up one or two little crabs up in the net in a couple of minutes. The equipment - wire, bait, net and bucket costs a few pounds. In my book its one of the best things to do with children ever.

My final observations -
The beaches in South Devon (and we went to a few) arent a patch on those in Cornwall, and do not compare to the long coastlines in Goa.
There is much less sand on the beaches ie they are littler.
More pebbled beaches than sandy ones.
Horrible traffic jams all along after the M5 (thought Cornwall was bad, this is the same)
Still had a good time and South Devon is lovely!

Uncle S's coconut curry

Uncle S and Aunty H came and went a couple of months ago and a lovely time was had by all, they are H's relatives who live in another country and were on a whirlwind trip in Europe. Endeared themselves to our children in 3 days and left behind lots of memories, one of which is Uncle S's coconut curry  - its similar to kaldin, similar to a mild Thai curry, but its very very easy to do and liked by all who I've made it for.

Fry onions, add ginger garlic, turmeric, and coconut milk, sugar and tamarind to taste. Thats it! This picture is with mussels from Costco. I haven't added the mandatory red Kashmiri chillies because of the children but its even better with them. Also missed out the veg (potatoes/broccoli etc)
Must try :)

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!