Martha's Marvellous Munchies

This week, I have mostly been creating enormous piles of washing up. I thought you'd prefer to see the clean stuff. Occasionally something edible escaped from the mounds of mess and made it to the table. I don't know why it turned into such a cooking week; we haven't been entertaining, and I didn't think I'd added too many new dishes to my weekly menu.  The main problem was that I made several things in advance, which spread out the cooking - and hence the washing up - across a much greater time and area. The star of the menu was undoubtedly the barbeque ribs.  I don't believe I've ever cooked ribs before, but I followed the recipe from Jamie Oliver's Save with Jamie , and they turned out - well, just like ribs should!  Soft and tender, and coated generously with a sweet and tangy glaze.  It's not in any way a difficult recipe - but like I said, it kind of spreeeaaads, until you feel like you've been dealing with these ribs for a very

I don't usually do politics.  Occasionally I have felt like I should take an interest, as an intelligent citizen of a democratic country, but I get rapidly disheartened by all the name-calling, and my resolve quickly dissipates.  So I try to get enough information to make a reasonably informed vote, and that's that. But on a day like today, politics is hard to ignore.  The EU referendum campaign involved at least as much name-calling and twisting of the truth as any other, and I felt even less qualified to make this decision than usual (how am I supposed to know anything about international trade agreements?  Does anyone know anything about international trade agreements?)  Being naturally inclined towards the status quo, I started off tending towards staying in, and didn't find any arguments compelling enough for me to switch sides. So I am still slightly disbelieving that we actually decided to take the leap.  About the only thing I can think of to say is, Hopefully

Did you know you could drive an Intercity train through the centre of Derby?  Or eat breakfast under a giant chandelier?  Or even get chocolate direct from Willie Wonka's factory? Recently I've been discovering some new aspects of Derby, and it seemed like a good time to let you know all about them.  First up was #DerbyBloggersBrunch, a new initiative organised by the enterprising Monet Brooks of Munching with Monet .  She did an excellent job, gathering fifteen local bloggers at the newly opened and gorgeously opulent Cosy Club for a Saturday morning brunch.  The group was exclusively female and many, I guessed, were in their early twenties, which suddenly made me feel extremely old!  It was energising to meet so many new people and find out a little about their interests and experiences of the strange online world that is blogging. A few weekends later, we were back in town as a family.  Our friend Kath was running a pottery taster class at Derby Museum.  She instructed T

The month of two bank holidays, May is the time when everything starts happening.  The garden leaps into life, events come crowding onto the calendar, and our walk to school becomes green and flowery after months of brown.  We've seen friends old and new, cars fast and slow, motorbikes, model trains, ferret racing and art displays.  In between all that, Graham has been doing some work at a local horticultural company, and I've been ploughing on with  Cafes with Kids and meeting other local writers at a Derby Bloggers' Brunch.   Toby - can now get cereal and juice for himself and Theo for breakfast.  Yay!  More time in bed! - asked, "If I do 3 jobs for you can we go to Barnardo's [charity shop] as a reward?"  So I got him sorting laundry and tidying up, and next day he got £2 to spend at Barnardo's. Being signalmen at The Old Silk Mill - had a mud fight at Forest School and came home plastered in mud.  (Did I really miss getting a photo o