A Modern Mother

Apologies in advance

My Jerusalem artichokes are ready. Apologies in advance to anyone who is near me in the next couple of days!

Surprise, surprise

 Sponsored post

The green online supermarket Ocado brightened up my day. The sent me some goodies from The Ocado Range, their new range of weekly supermarket must-haves.

What really floored me what the VALUE! I've always equated Ocado with Waitrose/expensive. Not so. Look what we got for £53.20!

The Christmas Cake - Part 2

Here's the finished cake. Yes, it's my first. I feel like I should christen her, she weighs nearly the same as a newborn. Thanks Delia, you've allowed me to find a new level of Englishness.

PS - I took this photo and posted using my iPhone!

PSS - You can download the star templates

My first Christmas cake! (thanks #delia)

A big thanks to Waitrose and Delia! I used her Classic Christmas Cake prepared ingredient pack. Had long Twitter discussions with @englishmum and @homemademum regarding cooking times. Yes, my first one really did take four hours!

A Modern Mother makes jam (and by some freak miracle it sets!)

Forget about being a yummy mummy, now it's all about being a jammy mummy. Yes, jam making is now officially cool; even Kate Moss is dipping her fingers into the pot.

I love eating jam, but am not so good at making it; it rarely sets properly and ends up a gooey (but tasty!) mess. The WI and Stoves put on Jam Making Master Class last week in London, in advance of the Real Jam Festival in November. Expert Kath Mepham and her hubby were on hand to help us novices perfect our jam making skills. Kath, who has been making jam for 40 years, was full of inside tips on how to make that award-winning pot. You could see my smile from Hawaii at the end of the session when she said my jam had a good set and real potential. Ace!

Well this should be fun

Remember when I said I should have been a food blogger? And remember my ongoing quest to find meals the whole family will enjoy?

Well, get this, Annabel Karmel has just challenged me to try some of her recipes each week ... Julie and Julia style. They are from her upcoming "Top 100 Pasta Dishes - 100 easy everyday recipes for the whole family." BTW -- did you know that Annabel is the UK's 4th best selling cookery author?

So, Annabel, YES! I'll do it! I'm always on the lookout for new recipes and I secretly want to be a food blogger. I have to warn you that my girls are big Masterchef fans ... and now every meal I make is ranked 1 out of 10, with intimate details of what worked and what didn't.

My first post will be out on 10th May.

Disclosure: I get a free book.

Serious mum envy

OK, I'm a sucker for cute edible food, especially when chocolate is involved. I made these Chocolate Nest Cupcakes for my daughters 8th birthday party. They are from Annabel Karmel's Princess Party Cookbook. Shhhhh! Don't tell Annabel I cheated -- I used a cake mix and pre-made icing. Try it for Easter: you make nests out of Cadbury flakes, and then finish with three pretty eggs and a chick. I got the Cadbury eggs and chicks from HobbyCraft.

Some of the mums' noses were pressed up against the glass as they dropped off. Serious mum envy.

My cute little bun buns

I made these shortbread bunnies for my daughter's birthday party this weekend! Pretty cute, huh?

On making Buzzy Bees with Annabel Karmel

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So .... I went to this blogger event in London. Traffic was bad and I arrived about an hour late. As I walked up to the Georgian House, I reached into the caverns of my bag in search of a mint. Rummaging around I found, oh, what's that? A gumi bear? Ouch! What the blank is that? I pulled out the name badge from the last blogger event.

Thank God some nice person handed me a steaming cup of coffee as soon as I arrived. I was just getting my barrings (spotting fellow bloggers NixdMinx, Are We Nearly There Yet Mummy, Who's the Mummy, A Mother's Rambling and Suburban Mummy) when I turned round to stare straight down at a waif of a woman with a big smile and equally big blond tresses. She said hello. This woman looked way too finished to be a mum blogger. Then the light went off.

OMG, you're Annabel Karmel! I blurted out. I remembered something about her in the email from the PR agency, and wished I had actually read the brief. It must be her, she looked exactly like the little photo in the back of all those cook books. Only smaller. Tiny. Like Minnie Mouse, with blond hair. My mouth felt dry.

More healthy meals the kids love...

Hubby gave me Jamie's America for Christmas, and I have spent a few evenings browsing his recipes on my quest to find more meals the whole family will enjoy...

To my delight I stumbled upon Southern Red Bean and Pork. This is real comfort food.  It's lovely and chunky and full of hidden veggies. You could even make it in a slow cooker. You'll need to buy the book for the official recipe, but here's my take on it:

I should have been a food blogger

I got it all wrong; instead of whinging blogging about kids all day, I should be a FOOD BLOGGER. Then I could try out cool new accessories and cook and eat -- all in the name of my readers! If I had known about blogging 20 years ago when I was foot loose and fancy free and not forced to produce meals of fish fingers and baked beans, I KNOW I would have been a food blogger. At least I would have aspired to be one.

 

Meet my new friends ... Bronwyn of Feast with Bron, Anne from Anne's Kitchen, the lovely Carla who Can Be Bribed With Food, Jennifer of Chocolate Ecstasy, Robin who blogs at Source Cook Eat, and Mimi  from MeeMalee's Kitchen.  We spent the day at Miele's Experience Centre in Abingdonmaking some very delicious coffee in high end machines and trying out some of Miele's cool appliances. We melted chocolate in the steam ovens and then dipped in crispy amaretti biscuits. We made an asparagus and sunblush tomato quiche and creamy mushroom penne. Did I mention there were no kids anywhere in site?

Continuing on the easy dinner theme...

This year I was on a mission to get my girls eating more than just chicken nuggets and sausage, beans and chips. Guess what? We did it!!

We now eat five out of seven meals together, and I only cook one dish. Who would have known?!

This is one of our favourites, and it's super easy to make. I wouldn't exactly call it low cal, but it is delish. You can get all the ingredients from the international section of Tesco.

Do you have what it takes ... to be a dinner lady?

So, picture this scene: Four mums at my house having coffee. It's a blustery morning, leaves falling, and we are in my garden room, which is the only room I will receive anyone, as the rest of the house is a complete tip. One mum has a PhD and lectures at the local business school. One is a self-employed barrister, another an ex-Andersen consultant. I have the least impressive credentials as an ex-Marketing director. Our mission? To discuss the lunch time supervisor rota (aka dinner lady) and to induct a new mum. You see, the more mums on the rota, the FEWER TIMES you have to do it yourself.

School dinners ... PLEASE

After a rocky start, HM (4) is settling in school. Thirty four-year-olds is a lot and our school is handling the larger credit crunched intake very, ahem, creatively. The first week HM went mornings (9 - 12). The following week afternoons (1 - 3). This week she goes mornings, and gets to stay for lunch.

Therein lies the next hurdle. She doesn't want school dinners, she wants a packed lunch.

School dinners are healthy, good and affordable (thank you Jamie Oliver). I really don't want to be buttering ham sarnies and washing grapes in between the brushhairgetdressedeatbreakfast out-the-door palava. More importantly, I most likely don't have anything in the fridge suitable for a packed lunch (parmesean cheese and limp carrots?) I pleaded with her to try school dinners.

The standards are slipping...

I could feel the murmur making its way down the reception queue this morning, the more keen mums reminding the late comers.

"Don't forget, cake sale day today."

Ah, cake sale day. The day we all dash down to Waitrose and spend at least £6 on essentials like cake mix, butter, icing sugar, smarties, and other decorations. Then we go home and spend half the morning slaving in the kitchen baking fairy cakes. We spend the other half of the morning washing up. The afternoon is filled with the task of decorating the 24 fairy cakes that will sell for 25p each, bringing in a grand total of £6 to the PTA coffers...

I decided this morning I really didn't have time for all that, and went to Tesco and bought 16 donuts (on sale).

As I said, the standards are slipping...

He is rubbish

I don't remember actually defining our domestic roles, they just sort of evolved; I do everything related to food, and hubby is responsible for rubbish.

My first clue that food would fall under my realm was early on in our relationship when I asked him to make coffee. Keen to impress, he said yes without hesitation and shuffled off to the kitchen.

Ten minutes later and there was still no sign of coffee, just a slightly warm plastic odour. Getting antsy for my morning dose of caffeine, I peeked at the machine and noticed that it was on, but there was no water. Hhhmm, either this was calculated or he was really trying to navigate un-chartered waters.

How to annoy a modern mother

It is only now that I am sitting down with a giant Kath Kidston mug of fresh ground Lavazza coffee with lots of steaming milk can I write about this. I can feel the stress levels lower with each sip.

Big picture, think picture.

About ten minutes ago I could have torn apart anything that was in my path, including my poor husband, who was going about his own business quietly.

It was a particularly hectic morning, the girls were still suffering from PNPS (Post Nativity Play Syndrome) -- similar to PMS, but for kids, and only during Christmas.