Mousy Brown's House-Creating, crafting and collecting. Enjoying Life.

Sweets for my sweetie.

 Today I have...

:: Woken up with the sun (which was hidden by big clouds and rain again)

:: Waved my little one off on a 3 day adventure (with a big bag of sweets to be swapped with his friends.)

:: Sat through 4 hours of Maths A'levels and tried my best not to make them more confusing.

:: Started another knitting project and looked forward to some time on the sofa with my needles.

:: Come home to a quiet house with only half its family at home.

:: Not yet walked the dog and know I have to do it.

:: Enjoyed the thought of a special evening at home with Jack and am switching off to eat big bowls of pasta in front of a movie!

In Paris...

:: We strolled in the sunshine.

:: We enjoyed beautiful music at every street corner.

:: We were spoilt for amazing buildings to admire.

:: We were also spoilt for amazing food! (especially here!)

:: We giggled and talked, and talked, and talked....

:: We walked until our feet hurt and weren't quite brave enough to try one of the free bikes...

:: I marvelled at how everything sounds so much more romantic in French!

:: I wished I could buy flowers.

:: I loved spending time with my special blogging friend (and her gorgeous and amazing children!)

:: We visited this stunning yarn store  (which wouldn't allow photo's!) and I knitted a bit.

:: Time past so slow and we did so much but the weekend was over too fast....

 

Sweet lemon waffles.

I spent a bit of my Christmas money on a waffle maker...I have wondered about it for a while but wasn't sure if it would get enough use.  The discovery of this delicious combination should ensure it pays it's way!

LEMON WAFFLES.

100g butter creamed with 100g of sugar.  Beat in 2 eggs and the zest from half a lemon.  Stir in 100g of plain flour and Bob's your uncle!  I can't see why it wouldn't work as small pancakes if you don't want the extra equipment...but the heart shapes were perfect for yesterday's breakfast!

Friendship cake.

I read this post by Cheryl back in October and lamented the fact that although I had heard of friendship cakes I had never seen or heard of one anywhere near here.  Then a couple of weeks ago, a friend asked if I would like to try a piece of cake and now I have Herman visiting me too!  Yes it really is called Herman too...he has travelled all the way to Wales, I wonder where else he has gone on his holidays this year?  Today is day 1 and at the moment my kitchen is filled with a gorgeous fruity, yeasty kind of smell and I am very excited to get started.  The weather is dreadful outside, cold, icy and grey so a half term full of baking (with some ideas from the new Alphabet Glue to fill any spare moments) is sounding just about perfect.  Do you have a break coming up?  Any good ideas for cold winter days?

Simple menu planning.

One of the first things I decided to make less complicated this year was planning our family meals.  It shouldn't be so difficult but once I factor in everyones different preferences, a desire to have a good healthy balance in our meals, trying to cook after work/before after school classes, what is in my Riverford box and the fridge, I usually end up with a handfull of old favourites that I know will work BUT bore me to death! 

I have come up with a plan that I hope will give me a structure that makes the planning and buying side easy but will also allow me to experiment with some of the many recipe books I own and hopefully come up with a wider repetoir of meals to call upon from week to week.

Step one was to choose a "type" of meal for each day of the week....Soup night on Monday, Veggie meal on Tuesday, Rice dish on Wednesday, Fish on Thursday, Pasta/Pizza eve on Friday, Stir-fry/curry on Saturday and roast on Sunday...

Within this framework I now plan to try different recipes and I will write the successful ones on index cards to create our own personal family cook book, full of delicious meals we have tried and know we like.

It has been interesting tackling this one, realising how complicated we have managed to make meal planning over time and also realising that a bit of effort is required to make things simpler in the future.  It has also made me think about how this isn't the only area of our lives that has become complicated and just how complicated being simple is going to be...I think Molly summed it up beautifully here and Jackie raised similar issues here.  

So what started as a simple way to plan my meals has turned out just a tiny bit more complex and a great way to use my creativity.  Now I'm off to tread the path to awesomely simple....no rude remarks please!!

Birthday busyness.

It's that time of year again, when everyone else laments the lack of excitement on the horizon and we celebrate two birthdays within one week...

My birthday (a very lucky Friday 13th this year) was quickly left behind to start celebrating with Sam a little early on Saturday.  Three friends joined us for a walk and games in the nearby tree covered hills, skittles with proper wooden balls and a sleepover which resulted in very little sleep (they finally gave in at 6am and we were all up again eating breakfast (see above) by 11am!) 

Today I am baking (a cake and 60 biscuits so far) and preparing for another party after school tomorrow when he officially reaches double digits...my goodness where did that 10 years disappear to?

All is peaceful, all is calm....

...well sort of!  We have reached that lovely place where we have accepted that anything not done, probably won't get done and have let go...so peace has arrived, peace filled with music from ipod and Sam on the piano, laughter from friends and family and fragrance from tree, cooking, candles and decorations.

Our Solstice celebration was enjoyed by all, the fire glowed brightly, lanterns were lit and brightened up our walk in a dark Haroldswood and delicious food disappeared very quickly along with hot mulled wine.  Grandparents are arriving later today and preparations are completed to make their stay warm and cosy.  Presents are all made, bought and wrapped (Jack's blanket may not be ready for Saturday but he is happy to have it whenever it does end up being done) and apart from a delivery from Riverford later today all the goodness we need for the table is safely gathered in.  I will leave you with a mosaic of some of my favourite images of the last few days (click on the mosaic to enlarge) and will disappear for a while to fully enjoy this time with my family.....Thank you all for visiting this space this year, I look forward to your company in 2012!

I wish you all a time of peace in your souls and the sounds of happiness in your ears.  May your table be full and companionable and your hearts be swelled by hugs.  I hope the simple pleasures gift you and your loved ones throughout this holiday season and that traditions old and new enrich your time together.

Christmas Fudge and homemade candles.

Sorry for disappearing like that, I have managed to pull something in my chest coughing (at least that is what has been decided after an ECG yesterday and ruling out all heart related things..) and have been feeling even more pathetic than usual.  In between coughing, doctors visits and work I have managed to slowly carry on with plans for making gifts.  Luckily I started early enough and despite everything, gifts seem to be coming together just in time for when they are needed.  This morning we delivered the presents we had made for Sam's teachers....homemade candles in tea cups and a big bowl of homemade vanilla fudge.  The candles were great fun to make and I can recommend this company to anyone in the UK wanting to have a go...fantastic video tutorials, quick service and loads of helpful advice made it all seem really easy. I added some gingerbread fragrance to my candles and a link to this recipe if they inspired a desire for the real thing.  The fudge was a traditional recipe from a book that I used as a child...a similar one can be found here.

With school finishing tomorrow, things are slowing down a bit and I am hopeful that the things still to be made will probably get done....slow and steady seems to be working so far!

Spooky goings on....

Pumpkins are carved, decorations are up, scary movies have been chosen and sausages and popcorn are on the menu....hope your evening is full of good things and family fun where ever in the world you may be!

Our new favourite breakfast.

Another benefit of having no plans or appointments, nowhere to be at any given time this week, is that I am getting to try a few of the recipes I have copied out and never had a chance to make.  This one is a keeper and even though it says you can freeze them for up to a month, I am not sure I will ever be able to make enough to have some left over...great with maple syrup, chocolate spread, crispy bacon and eggs (not altogether!) or my favourite so far.....

....homemade apricot jam!