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Robin has learnt how to make puff pastry. It involves two packets of butter for an amount that makes this: Three-chocolate millefeuille and this: Apple turnovers and a pie, and some cheesy puffs, and some cream slices (not shown). Not all at once – it freezes! Apparently it’s really easy to make. I wouldn’t know. I do know that it’s delicious. 
In an attempt to expand our repertoire of dairy-free cakey things (which also includes carrot cake, banana cake and, erm, that’s it) Robin found a recipe for cinnamon biscuits in The Silver Spoon and persuaded me to try it. The ingredients: plain flour, sugar, lemon rind, and cinnamon to sprinkle on top. And olive oil. Continue reading Cinnamon biscuits Robin and I spent a wonderful few days in Spain last week, visiting his sister Agnes and her family. We managed to get everything done that we wanted to: Eat oranges and lemons straight from the tree (Robin likes eating lemons when they’re that fresh – I could only manage one segment!) Go to the Valor chocolate shop and have chocolate and churros, and buy some chocolates to take home (actually only I did this, as Robin thought it would be bad for him, but he definitely wanted chocolates to be acquired) Eat black rice, a local speciality dish: squid paella cooked in squid ink. Can you spot the pattern here? Now we’re back to our kitchenless ready-meal existence. The kitchen units have arrived and hopefully will be put up next week! After nearly six months of dairy-free torture, Robin has begun eating small amounts of cheese and butter again. He started with a spaghetti carbonara with parmesan and pecorino about a week ago, with fresh home-made spaghetti rolled out on the pasta mangle which hasn’t been touched in all this time. We were feeding his sister Heather who apparently had never had real fresh pasta and swore she wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. She had seconds, which for Heather is unprecedented. So after his digestion appeared to be able to cope with that, he’s been eating small amounts of cheese and butter most days, with apparently no ill effects. He’ll probably never be able to go back to lashings and lashings of cream and cheese daily like he used to, but he is very relieved not to have to avoid it so religiously in the future. In fact, he’s really much happier. So I took the day off work today to blitz the cleaning, as the house is becoming a bit of a disaster area. Robin seized the opportunity to take me out to lunch to celebrate my promotion. We decided to go to one of our favourites, Jade Garden, as we remembered having some very nice Italian bubbly there a while back. But when we got there, we found it wasn’t on the wine list. We’d been having some friendly chat with the waiter, so I asked after the wine. He said he thought they’d discontinued it, but he’d go and have a look. Lo and behold, there was one last bottle of it left! So he served it to us, though he said he didn’t know whether there was still a code in the machine for it. ‘That’s ok,’ I joked, ‘we don’t mind if you give it to us for free.’ The wine was even more delicious than we remembered – I think it must have aged some more in the bottle. The food was excellent too, as always, as was the Chinese tea. At the end of the meal, he handed us the bill and told us the Continue reading Free bubbly [Slightly adapted from a post to the Baby-Led Weaning forums] Last weekend (not the one just been, but the one before that) we went to Edinburgh to see Robin’s siblings. For lunch we went to Phuket Pavilion, a Thai restaurant just off the top end of Leith Walk. Faith and I had never been before (though the rest of the party had) and we didn’t know whether they’d cope with a small child, and so I went in first to ask if they served children. There was an oldish man whom I think must have been the proprietor, and a young woman who waited on us. They said that was fine, come on in, so in we all trooped, and the waitress showed us to an ideal table in the window with room beside it for the pushchair[1], and then went off to get a high chair. She asked whether we needed more space than the four-person table, but I said that if the high chair had a tray that would be fine (as indeed it was). We started choosing our food. The waitress came by with two baskets of prawn crackers, and offered one to Faith baby. She’d Continue reading Restaurant review Christmas pictures now uploaded! Faith’s favourite Christmas presents include: A wooden train. Yay us, who chose it. A stuffed animal. The label says it’s a ‘Lämmchen’, so it ought to be ovine (was going to type ‘ovoid’ but that means egglike not sheepular), but it has long ears and a black mane and a plaited tail. Oh, and it quacks like a duck. And, best of all: A wooden olive bowl and spoon. This was actually a present for me, but she decided it must be hers and appropriated it. I meant to post this bit before but forgot about it. Before Christmas we were shopping and looking to buy chicken breasts to make into a Thai curry (one of Faith’s favourite foods). To our surprise, it was cheaper to buy a whole chicken than just the breasts – and that’s absolutely cheaper, not just by weight! So of course we bought the whole bird and cut off the breasts for the curry. We cooked the rest of it with garlic and rosemary. Very tasty. And lastly, today Faith learnt to climb the stairs! Now we need to teach her to come down them safely. We were phoned at about half past ten last night, just as we were about to go to bed. Our organist had taken ill, and would Robin step in? Robin chose to fill in for the morning rather than the midnight service, as that was the one we were planning to go to anyway (I gather one of the other organists in the congregation ended up playing at the midnight). You wouldn’t have guessed that some of the music this morning was sight-read! We were also on sidesduty this morning (must get off that rota, we never wanted to be on it in the first place), so while Robin nurdled introductory music, I stood at the back handing out service sheets while Faith charmed everybody. Then at Communion she walked all the way up the aisle, holding on to Mummy’s hands! The accidental turkey was very tasty indeed, and Faith loved it (though she loved the prawn starter even more, and was very fond of the cranberry sauce). She’s now asleep. We’ve opened our presents and I’m now sitting in front of a lovely orange fire, drinking whisky and sending ecards to various people. Merry Christmas everybody! At church on Sunday Faith and I were pounced on: the shepherds in the Nativity play were all off sick and would Faith like to take part? I reckoned it would probably keep her amused, so said yes. The costumes were all far too big for her; I’d have settled for a tea-towel on her head but she hates anything resembling a hat and kept pulling it off again. So we had an uncostumed shepherd gnawing on her foam crook, being manhandled about the stage by her mummy, trying to chew the straw, and poking the head of the baby Jesus. (We were also short one king, as the two-year-old playing… Melchior, I think… having been very keen in the rehearsals, decided at the last moment that he DID NOT want his costume and he DID NOT want to be in the play and he wanted to stay in the creche and play with the plastic food.) I came home from picking Faith up from nursery yesterday to find that Robin had put up the Christmas tree and the lights were twinkling prettily out of the window. Christmas has really crept up on me this year. Yes, I’ve been rehearsing |
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