Nice and spicy 101 days :: 8-14

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I’m loving the longer days. The early evening sun that means that I can pop outside when the girls are in bed. Collect the washing off the line. Take a quick look around the garden whilst the pasta cooks. Make plans to dig, sow and plant.

Plans are afoot, decisions have been made and things move onwards. I’ve had some leave approved for June. We find out about schools next week (eek), my parents are up for another visit and I shall be enjoying an ’extra’ day off after the bank holiday as the university still has a closure on some Tuesdays after bank holidays.

So here’s some more of my 101 days countdown.

Day 8

:: Bringing home LittleR’s nursery profile book to look at all the things she’s been up to whilst we’ve been at work.

:: Asking where’s LittleR gone and looking round and seeing she’s up the stairs! This little girl has no fear!! I’m sure she was a mountaineer in a previous life with the amount of climbing she does!!

Day 9

:: Seeing BigR and LittleR enjoy the (surprisingly and gratifyingly quiet) soft play centre. Last time we went LittleR couldn’t walk and BigR didn’t have the upper arm strength to use the monkey bars.

:: My parents arrive for a weekend visit, and take BigR to their place (a little holiday home) for a ‘sleepover’.

Day 10

:: A delicious family meal out.

:: The camellia finally in flower.
 

Day 11

:: Taking both Rs swimming. LittleR hasn’t been swimming before and she was a little nonplussed about the other people in her, slightly colder than usual, bath! She got the hang of it eventually and splashed away whilst clinging to me or the ABO. 

:: Giving the ABO 45 minutes of quiet during the football but taking BigR away to do some baking the result being a very delicious apple cake.

Day 12

:: Making (and eating) jambalaya….haven’t made this meal in a while and it really is delicious. I used to make this with Cajun spice but here was always something not quite right about it. Anyway my discovery of Bart’s Creole spice made it, in my mind, a more authentic taste.

It’s very easy and quick. On this day I didn’t have anything other than green peppers so it is overwhelmingly green.

I knew we were hungry and this made 3 meals (one for the freezer) with seconds for the ABO and myself. I browned chopped chicken breast (2) and half a chorizo sausage together for 10 mins then removed to a plate. In the chicken/chorizo pan I fried off 3 sticks of celery and 2 green peppers, after 5 mins I returned the meat to the pan add 2-3 teaspoons of creole spice, a big tin of tomatoes, rice and 400ml of chicken stock. 

Stirring well until brought the boil, this is turned down to a simmer for about 20 mins…or until the rice is cooked and the liquid has been absorbed. Sometimes, I need to add a bit more liquid depending on the type of rice I have used and how much I’ve thrown in.

Day 13

:: Meeting the ABO for lunch before he collected the girls.
 

:: Finishing another good book! And choosing the next....hmmm...

 

Day 14

:: The light through a stained glass window in the Leeds General Infirmary.

 

101 days

It is 100 days until the Tour de France comes to Yorkshire.

The significance of this is that it’s 101 days until my birthday. 

I’m going to attempt to think of and document (at least) one happy thing every day for the next 101 days.

This calls for a new notebook I think. 

I might even try to take a photo of ‘it’ and post them all here.

Small happinesses

It’s been a tiring day. Up at 4am with a child who had ‘finished their sleep’. I managed to convince her to go back to sleep (until 5.30am) but sadly I then just laid there, wide awake, waiting for her to get up again and for the morning to start (I used the time productively and got on with my book!). This evening could only be described as a parenting fail. Bedtime was a bit (ha!) of a disaster and she finally fell asleep (ran out of excuses?) around 8.30pm. So after a pretty exhausting day which included lots of walking in the rain, rushing and the horrors of ‘networking’ (shudder) I’m going to focus on things that have given me a little lift over the last week.

:: A new butter dish. Reduced in Waitrose I couldn’t resist it. I’ve coveted an Orla Kiely one but this one will do just as well in the interim...until my birthday. Actually can you ever have too many dishes? I could always use two butter dishes, one for unsalted and salted butter each. Easy.

 

:: Daffodils. I’ve barely been able to walk past the flowers in the supermarket. They cheer up the kitchen on a grey morning or on a sunny morning.

:: Just below the daffs...the dishwasher. Also a source of immense joy (sigh). 

:: One of our cacti is flowering. The buds open and close through the day and are longlasting. There are at least 4 buds on this one so we’ll see if they all open.

:: Lemon and lime curd – I cheated and used this recipe (halved) and the microwave. It’s zesty and sharp and delicious on plastic white bread!

 

:: Train travel with a coffee (black Americano) and a magazine. In this case the journey was short (25 minutes) to York for work. But that didn’t stop my purchases

 

:: Enjoying my job. Attending a conference. I don’t like ‘networking’. I find it hard and I’m not very good at it but I do like learning and listening to inspirational people and that’s what was good today. That and the coffee at the venue.

 

:: Walking through Leeds and York at opposite ends of the day, The weather was grey andA rainy. In fact it only seemed to rain when I needed to walk today! But it was time to think and photograph (poorly I know with my phone) ...before heading home.

 The library and town hall at 8am.

Clifford Tower at 4pm.

:: Planning days out in April...including a baby shower (where we’ll have afternoon tea) and a ‘date’ (getting babysitter!!) with the ABO.

 

:: Making lists and plans. A trip to Ikea is needed (we need a step stool...I have a bruise on my head and a broken pyrex bowl to prove it). Just how many totally necessary items will fall into my basket on the way round? I like the look of the Brakig collection....

:: Rev – possibly the funniest show on TV. As ever Olivia Colman is superb!

 

Back to work, eating and playing

Another week goes by here in Yorkshire. I made it a 3 day week...potentially trialling what life could be like if I’m brave enough to mention flexible working to my boss later this week but that’s another story...

The ABO and I had a day together on Tuesday. We escaped to Manchester for jeans (him), a skirt (me) and burgers (us). The shops are the same shops here in Leeds but arranged in a different order so that we’re never quite sure where we are, it’s not that familiar to us and seems to lend itself to pottering. Even the M62 being closed on the way home didn’t dampen the spirits too much.

Friday we had a family day at the seaside. After a fairly long drive to Whitby, we had fish and chips, ice cream and made sandcastles. The tide was coming in (and fairly fast) so we didn’t linger too long. LittleR had no fear and merrily chased sea gulls and ran toward the waves (in direct contrast to BigR at the same age who on Perranporth beach was scared by the very gentle sea) and BigR attempted to make sandcastles without getting too sandy (this is not usually her fear at nursery where she frequently comes home covered in mud and sand!!!).

 

The ABO went back to work yesterday. He’s away most of this week and we’re (literally) counting down the days until he’s based locally now...So in his absence (I find it easier if we have a plan one the weekend) we went to see old friends of mine from Un ii Sheffield. Their children are now teenagers (well one is and one nearly is - how did that happen?!) but they entertained my two really beautifully. BigR came away with a whole host of ‘Littlest pet shop’ toys my friend’s daughter has grown out of. She’s gone to bed with them too!

 

I’ve been enjoying coffee from our new machine....trying out new beans although I’ve been careful not to overdo the caffeine...well not too much...

I’ve been cooking . We made homemade pizzas this afternoon. I used Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s pizza base recipe which can be found in the river cottage bread book or here. 

For the tomato sauce I used this recipe from Sue at the Quince Tree. I’ve made this sauce so many times now...it’s useful for so many things and the girls lap it up. 

BigR added cheese, mushrooms and ham to hers. I kept LittleR’s a very simple margherita. They were delicious even though I didn’t put as much salt as Hugh suggested into the dough as I was going to be giving it to the baby. Actually I think I barely used10% of his suggested amount. I’m so used to eating food without any added salt (unless it’s butter, I love salted butter!). They were a great success with the girls...even if one did get stuck to the baking tray (why only one?)...

As a little treat the other night we had pancakes again. I bought my pancake pan with a voucher from my birthday when I went to my Betty’s cookery school day. It’s been getting good use. They were delicious. Filled with ice cream and mango. Yum.

 

I’m itching to get in the garden. I was reminded though that it’s not as warm as you think with some chilly winds. We’ll hold off on the temperate plants for now anyway... BigR planted peas at nursery and came home with her plants the other day. She was so excited that her seeds had germinated and would become peas!!! She checks on it everyday and so far she’s not been disappointed to see a difference. I’m hoping they carry on thriving and we can transfer them to a pot for outside later in April.

 

Plans for this week are

:: coffee with a good friend I haven’t seen for ages. We used to work together and I miss her. It’s taken us ages to get a date we can both do in the diary!

:: baking a cake for the return of the ABO at the end of the week

:: the usual supermarket type visit but to include some nice things to eat and menu plan for in advance

:: hopefully to get into my new book ‘Raven Black’...having finished ‘The Snow Child’ (superb!)...I’m not sure where my reading mojo has come from!

 

Hope you have lovely things planned too.