On the Seventh Day of Parenting - Mini Gifts Made Simple

Hello and thank you for hopping over from Bumps Babies Tots and Teens Mummy Diaries and welcome to the 7th day of #12DaysOfParenting. Today's sponsor is Bertie Blue Crafts who are offering a magnetic photo frame for a door and the theme is Mini Gifts Made Simple. My keyword to enter today’s giveaway is in this post below, good luck! Full details of the #12DaysOfParenting terms and conditions can be found on the #12DaysOfParenting page and all entries are to be completed via the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.


This year the children and I have been making fudge to give as mini gifts to friends and family, and also to have on hand in case of visitors with unexpected presents!

It's hugely simple - I can't even remember where I found the basic recipe, but it's used a lot on this Fudge group on Facebook. We use the basic recipe and then mix it up a bit with different additions and flavours.

Basic Fudge Recipe
Ingredients:

Pop your ingredients in the slow cooker

2 x cans Condensed Milk - I buy mine from Lidl, because it's cheaper and not made by Nestlé!
800g Chocolate - the cheaper the better

21 Weeks - Low Carb Recipe Round Up

It is a truth universally acknowledged (to steal a quote from Jane Austen) that your children will always find a way to make you look like a liar!

Baby's on the move

Last week I was bemoaning the fact that I had felt very little movement, but within an hour of publishing the post, baby no. 3 was jumping around like a lunatic. 

Typical! But reassuring. 

I saw my midwife this week. We discussed the letter I had received from the consultant, and she read my response as she hadn't received hers yet. She and her student midwife were quite shocked by the contents of the letter. 

I am yet to receive a reply from the consultant. If it takes too long, I'll be contacting Birthrights again for further advice. I'll keep you updated.

Twelfth Night Sausage Rolls: Using Up Christmas Leftovers

It's Twelfth Night; tomorrow we celebrate Epiphany - the visit of the Magi to the Baby Jesus - and the end of the Christmas season. Tradition has it that all Christmas decorations must come down tonight, though our Nativity set will remain until we've had our Epiphany party tomorrow. And I've heard people say that today is the day to finish off all Christmas food in the house. I'm fairly certain we won't manage that, having four selection boxes, a stollen, a massive panettone, oodles of chocolate coins, pandoro, a Christmas pudding, and a tub of Celebrations still left to consume! However, if you're looking for a way to use up the remnants of the mincemeat, and can't face another mince pie, you've come to the right place.

Here is my recipe for Twelfth Night Sausage Rolls, though they can be quite happily enjoyed at any time over the Christmas period. We munched our way through them on New Year's Day, so quickly, in fact, that we only had two and a half left when I remembered that I wanted to photograph them! They are moist, and lightly spiced, with gentle Christmas flavours on the inside, and crisp, golden pastry on the outside. Perfect for a snack or light meal whilst catching up on the Christmas telly you missed.

Oops - forgot to do a fancy photo, because they just smelled so inviting!

Rationing Challenge - Day 11

I woke this morning with a real hankering for something spicy and flavoursome. Lunch wasn't a wartime recipe, but then this challenge is also about trying to make rationing work in this day and age. I couldn't sustain this diet if we had to exist only on wartime recipes, as they are - in the main - quite bland. I don't know where all my spices come from, which is something I need to look into, but as my spice rack is well stocked, I wasn't having to buy any new ingredients.

Mayonnaise wasn't available during the war, unless you made it yourself, and the lack of eggs made that difficult. However, I read an article - in the Daily Mail, so I refuse to link to it! - that said Salad Cream became quite popular, so I used some today to make a coleslaw.

Breakfast 

Porridge & honey

Coffee; milk

Lunch

Spicy Beef Hash:

Parboil diced potatoes

Pop some lard in a roasting tin in the oven to melt

Put potatoes into roasting tin.

Add paprika, salt, pepper, garlic, tomato puree, tomatoes, leftover brisket, and mix together

Top with lardons.

Cook in hot oven (200c) until the potatoes and bacon are crispy.

Add chopped spring onions and grated cheese, and pop back in the oven until the cheese is melted

Coleslaw - grated carrot, cabbage & radish with a little salad cream

Watercress

Nectarines

Tea

Eggy Bread

Milk

Remaining Rations

Sugar - 2lb 31.5oz 30.6oz

Margarine - 1lb 14oz 11oz

Bacon/Ham - 12oz 9.1oz

Cheese - 11oz 7.5oz 6.5oz 5.5oz 4oz

Lard - 6oz 5.7oz 5.3oz 4.3oz
Vegetable suet - 2oz 

Tea - 4oz 3.5oz 3.1oz 2.7oz 2.5oz

Meat - 24oz ALL COOKED

Butter - 8oz 7.7oz 7.4oz 7oz 6.5oz

Milk - 20pints 17.65pints 15.6pints 13.6pints 11.75pints

Sweets/Chocolate - 12oz 10.7oz 10.1oz 8.6oz

Marmalade - 1lb 15oz

Jam - 8oz 6.5oz

Eggs - 8 6

Check out My Thoughts on Things on Facebook.

Rationing Challenge - Day 4

I've found myself becoming obsessive about leftovers. Uneaten crusts, tops of vegetables, bacon fat, vegetable cooking water - everything goes in the fridge to be used later. We've eaten mince and gravy for 3 days in a row and there is still some left, so I have pasties planned for tomorrow, to be made with potato pastry, which will use up some of the leftover mash. I'm torn when the girls don't finish their plates. I have never once in their lives insisted that either of them finish everything, not wanting them to ignore their bodies. But this week, I'm so aware that if something isn't eaten, we can't just replace it. How much worse it was for those during wartime when there were posters everywhere telling them that wasting food was as good as feeding Hitler! And people were fined for giving stale breadcrumbs to birds. Necessity really is the mother of invention. When you can't let anything go to waste, it is amazing what you can come up with. We are fortunate in that I have a fairly well stocked store cupboard and haven't had to buy in extra ingredients. I've been working on the premise that most housewives would have had staples in their cupboards when rationing began, so I haven't had to go off-ration for anything yet. Flour, oats, semolina would have cost points, but I have them in already. But it would have been so much harder when those staples ran out and they were low on stock at the grocer's; then alternatives to standard recipes had to be found. Potatoes in pastry, carrots in cakes, tomatoes and cheese masquerading as crab. The ingenuity and creativity of the wartime cooks knew no bounds.

Breakfast 

Porridge and a slice of bacon each. 

Tea; milk

Mid-Morning 

Cup of tea and a honey biscuit 

Lunch

Mince Slices made using some of the leftover mince & gravy; mashed potato with chives; leek sauce; grated raw carrot; lettuce, rocket and cress from our vegetable patch. 

Recipes from We'll Eat Again by Marguerite Patten

The girls shared an apple, and we all had 1/2oz chocolate.

52 Weeks of Memories | 22: Yum

 

Oh, we had the most delicious meal I have tasted in a very long time. The recipe card in our Abel & Cole box this week was for Cauli Coconut Curry. I made it (without the lime, because we just didn't have one) and served it with the paleo favourite, and new to me, cauliflower rice. I could have eaten it a second time. And the kids and the Hubby enjoyed it too. This yummy recipe is going into our family favourites.

Here it is, in all its delicious glory.

And the recipe, so you can enjoy it too.

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

M's first birthday party was at the weekend. We had fireworks and soup and hot dogs and glow stick games. It was such a fantastic party. I gave cupcakes as the adult favours - Toffee Apple and Pumpkin Pie. I searched all over for a pumpkin cupcake recipe and couldn't find one I liked, so I had to make one up. Here it is, in case you are in the same predicament.

This recipe made 12 beautifully fluffy cupcakes, and oh, they were delicious!

For the cakes:

• Melt 125g butter over a low heat. Once melted, turn up the heat a bit and cook until the butter turns golden. Strain into a bowl and discard the burnt bits. Set aside.

NOTE: Use a metal sieve or tea strainer - plastic ones will melt, as I learned the hard way!