Monthly Munch: October 2015

A mixed month. We enjoyed visits from Graham's sister, Graham's parents, and my parents (not quite all at once!). We suffered with lots of night-time waking, and sick boys during half-term. We celebrated Toby's birthday. I finished work, which made me happy and sad at the same time. And we put the clocks back, which means it really does feel like winter.

Toby

Look at those cheeky grins!

- learned to ride his bike without stabilisers!

On the Tissington Trail

- is learning phonics with sign language at school. He regularly gives us demonstrations.

- got a remote control car for his birthday, and got the hang of driving it straight away.

- loves to chat, but sometimes gets a bit stuck while he remembers what to say next: "Well... I mean... well... the thing is..."

Theo

- can sing "E-I-E-I-O" at the right time in "Old MacDonald had a farm".

- dances along to "Gangnam Style" (Oh yes!).

- loves aeroplanes.

Favourite book: 1001 Images of Aircraft

- is gradually starting to produce recognisable words, although "haaa" can mean hot, hand, hair or hole, depending on context.

Thankful for:

- a nice walk along the Tissington Trail

- a good place to work for the summer

- "Thanksgiving dinner" in October with all of our parents

Recipe of the Month - Blueberry Cheesecake Pots

I made these for dessert on Toby's birthday. The recipe is slightly adapted from a raspberry version in Feelgood Family Food by Dean Edwards. They're beautifully quick and easy, and because they're so small, you've probably got all the ingredients on hand without having to go and bulk-buy cream cheese.

Base
6 Nice or plain biscuits (1.5 oz)
1/2 oz butter
1/2 oz desiccated coconut

Topping
5 oz cream cheese
3 oz Greek yoghurt
1 1/2 oz honey
blueberries (I used frozen) or other berries

For the base, put the biscuits in a bag and bash them into crumbs. Melt the butter and stir in the coconut and biscuit crumbs. Press into the base of four small containers (mine were tealight holders in another life) and put into the fridge to set.

For the topping, whisk together the cream cheese, yoghurt and honey. Taste to see if it's sweet enough, and add a bit more honey if you want. Put 8 or 9 blueberries on top of each biscuit base - no need to defrost if they're frozen - then spoon the cream cheese mixture on top. Finish off with a few more blueberries, and leave in the fridge until you want to eat them.

Comments

Drought

Two days into Stage One water restrictions, and I looked out of the window to see the guy over the road washing his car. Admittedly, the restrictions don't actually forbid you to wash your car. They limit you to using a hand-held bucket (does it count if you put it down on the driveway?) or hand-held hose "for quick rinses". But they are pretty much "if you don't mind" rules at this stage anyway, with holes large enough to lose whole buckets of water through (hand-held or otherwise). For example, we are now limited to watering our lawn twice a week, but this only applies to sprinkler systems. You can still use a hose as much as you like, presumably on the assumption that you will get bored of standing there holding it very quickly. And besides, everything you read about good watering technique says it's better to water thoroughly just once a week. Our garden would think Christmas had come early if it got watered every three days! So hopefully...

Jesus came to earth... to reflect God to us

Do you remember playing with a magnifying glass on a sunny day? That curved piece of glass you held in your hand captured the scattered rays, narrowing them down to a fluttering patch of brightness. And all the light’s power was held in that one small circle, shrinking and shrinking… until finally you were rewarded with a sudden curl of smoke, and a neat charred hole. Imagine, then, that God, seeking to reveal himself on earth, condensed his essential being through some kind of celestial magnifying glass. That wavering point became smaller and smaller, losing none of its power… until it became the exact size of a human baby, growing in a womb. Jesus is the image of the invisible God, says the verse in Colossians, the perfect reflection of God’s glory. This is the first and greatest reason that Jesus came: to show us what God is really like. Yet sometimes, reflected and refracted through 2000 years of history, the image that Jesus shows...

Making a mess

My friend Ellie writes a blog which I now shamelessly crib ideas from, when I am stuck for something new to do with Toby. Some time ago she wrote about a substance with the poetic moniker of cloud dough . It sounded simple to make and fun to play with, so I tucked it away in the back of my mind. The recipe is childishly simple: 8 cups of plain flour, 1 cup of vegetable oil, and mix. It comes out kind of sandy, although softer and more powdery. Now, Ellie has two gorgeous girls. Her blog entries were full of photos of them adding pretty objects and creating cute little landscapes. I, on the other hand, have a full-on hands-on get-stuck-in-as-far-as-possible boy. This is what happens when you let him loose on a scatterable substance. We make it and it all starts well. Notice I have prepared for mess with a large tarpaulin and lack of shorts. A few minutes in, and the mess is spreading up the T-shirt. It's still mostly in the t...

Martha's Marvellous Munchies

Search This Blog