If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I jumped on the slow cooker bandwagon fairly recently: why take eight hours to cook something that only takes two (or less)? It’s only when you try to juggle school runs, doctor’s appointments, builders, laundry and dog walking that shoving everything in the pot for the day and forgetting about it starts to appeal.
Then I saw on Pinterest that you could roast a chicken in your slow cooker. Roast a chicken? A chicken?
So I tried. And you can. If you are the person who snaffles all the crispy skin from the top of the bird then it might not be for you, but neither DH nor I eat the skin. And we had a busy day planned, making the most of the National Trust Free Weekend. So I took my chicken and gave it the once over. I rammed the two halves of a lime up it’s bottom, together with a handful of coriander. Then I smeared mango chutney all over the top of my chicken.
And we went out. 6 hours later, and a little chilled though, miraculously, not wet, we came home to the smells of cooking chicken. And when we sat down to eat two hours after that, we were so carried away with the tender, delicious, fragrant chicken in it’s fruity, juicy gravy that I quite forgot to take any photographs. Next time, I’ll take some. Because there will be a next time. In fact if I had a larger slow cooker, I’d have put all my root vegetables in first with the chicken on top, but there wasn’t space.
LBG got an invitation recently for a birthday party two months hence. Whilst this is not uncommon in our parts-the soft-play facilities are booked up years in advance in the same way that wedding venues are- it still put the fear of God into me.
I couldn’t help feeling, as I stood at the school gates that first day, that everyone was part of The Club except me, you see. They all knew what they were doing, what kit was needed when, what the form was for collection and drop-off, and where the best parking spots, and I, as the new girl, did not.
Of course, time has marched on since then, and now that LBG has been at her school for a year, the party invitations have started to trickle in. Flooded is probably nearer the mark: her weekend schedule for January was filled even before December had really begun. I guess in the world of children’s parties, you need to plan ahead.
Admittedly I am fine with presents: I tend to go with crafty/educational present, since that is where our interests lie, and since it is always a neutral enough gift that, should the recipient get two, or dislike it entirely, it can be re-gifted. But how much to spend? Having heard from another mother the kind of gifts that her daughter received, I wonder whether I have been too stingy. But even at £10 per head, that’s over £40 in gifts every month, based on the current invitation rate.
A far trickier issue, for me, has been the birthday card. LBG’s class list, as with most classes in this fine multi-cultural land, reads like that of a UN summit. I have to ask her how to pronounce some of the names for fear of embarrassing myself and the person in question. This is not a bad thing at all, since she has far greater exposure to ethnic diversity than I ever did as a child. And yet, when trying to buy cards, I see only white children smiling back at me.
I am a person who plans to avoid branding for as long as possible where small people are concerned. I would inevitably choose the character that the child in question liked least, or worse, was afraid of. Leaving aside, then, all branded birthday cards, and therefore most cards with numbers on, you have a choice of fairly generic Happy Birthday cards. The boys ones all seem to feature football. And a smiley white British boy with brown hair. Likewise the female cards have a lot of pink and a blonde-haired smiley child. Maybe a cat. At the very least a flower.
So what if you are buying for one of the class whose actual invitation is of a coloured girl in a pink princess dress? Or a boy whose family originate from India? I have no doubt offended a great number of people, in writing this, by using the wrong ‘politically correct’ terminology, but I hope that my point is clear. If the little girl has a coloured child on her invitation, shouldn’t I make the effort to get her a card with a similar girl on it? Where do I find them?
We made these painted plant pots for Easter, but they would also make great gifts for Mother’s Day, her birthday or a Teacher Appreciation Gift.
I work very hard to come up with hand-made items for my Little Misses to give to their grandparents on high days and holidays. I like to think that they appreciate the thought and are happy to show off these items to friends. I am buried daily by a flurry of ‘art’ that they bring home from school so don’t necessarily have the perspective to appreciate these mementos, but I know that grandparents do.
That’s the carpet stains, not the kids, in case you were planning on reporting me to the NSPCC. I love and adore my children. I love and adore my dog. I also love and adore the DH. But between us all- between the muddy shoes and the spilled beer and the potty training and the dog’s protest poos- our carpets get awfully stained. Once upon a time we had a Bissell Carpet Cleaner, which did an awesome job until someone broke it because he couldn’t wait for me to finish breastfeeding our baby.
So now I try and keep the inherited gold-coloured carpet in our sitting room as clean as possible before calling in our local carpet cleaning firm once every few months. And it was clearly an expensive carpet because it looks so spotless, people always think it’s new. In the interim, I have taken to laying down a large double quilted bedspread to cover the bulk of the floor whilst the children are around. It’s like a giant rug, but at least I can put it in the wash.
That’s not always enough, sadly, since the dog is very good at exploiting even the smallest patch of floor and wiping her muddy paws on it. And you can never control where the spills are going to go. Nor can you control small children. Which is how I found myself cleaning pink highlighter pen from the (also) gold wallpaper a few days ago. Whilst my back was turned dealing with this issue, the Dimpled Assassin did what she does very well and created a second child-mess on the sitting room carpet. The unprotected bit.
Naturally, after some under-breath-cursing, a change of clothes and a polite reminder that wees go in the loo, I soaked up the excess fluid from the carpet but, with one things and another, didn’t get around to dealing with the stain properly until it had dried. I have a vague recollection of the Carpet Man telling me that if I got a mark on the carpet, I should dilute some laundry detergent in a bowl of lukewarm water and use that to clean the stain. But all it gave me was a wet carpet.
So next I trusted pink. We are fans of pink in this house, which is not the real reason we buy Vanish, but for moments such as this. Dilute it in warm water, much the same as the detergent, scrub the stain and leave to dry. Vacuum thoroughly and can you see anything? I couldn’t. They have a host of stain removal tips on their website if you have a tricky stain issue.
I subsequently found some super carpet cleaning tips on Pinterest that I plan on trying out too, like this Magic Carpet Cleaner technique that Lizzie recommends:
1. Scrape up the liquid.
2. Sprinkle baking soda or cornstarch on stain to let absorb for 10 minutes and then vacuum.
3. Mix one tablespoon clear dishwashing liquid and one tablespoon white vinegar with two cups of warm water.
4. Using a cloth, sponge the stain with the detergent/vinegar solution and blot until all the liquid is absorbed.
5. Sponge off with cold water and blot dry.
Have you seen my Domestic Goddessery Board on Pinterest? It’s choc-full of ideas and solutions for home and garden.
*disclosure: I own the Vanish cleaner and did not receive remuneration for writing this post. Just in case you were wondering.*
Lets see what’s happened this week, shall we? We met with family on Sunday, managing to sneak a picnic and a walk around the grounds of Sheffield Hall between some fairly epic rain storms. Big thanks go to the Weather Gods who let us enjoy a really lovely few hours playing hide and seek in the undergrowth, jumping off gargantuan logs and chasing swans.
The rain continued unabated on Monday morning and we girls were in no rush to leave the house, but ran a few errands to give Daddy a break whilst he worked from home, then made our way over to see Granny. The Girls slept so well on the way over that they were reluctant to wake, even when the Princeton Branch called on Skype. Eventually, though, the cousins waved at each other, spotting Hello Kitty in the background and blowing kisses to Uncle Neal.
Before we knew it, it was Tuesday morning and time for the school run once again. LBG was delighted and desperately sad for the holidays to be over, but she was so pleased to see her friends and her teachers once more. Dimples and I headed off to cooking where we made an absolutely delicious potato salad that Dimples refused to touch, but which I enjoyed for lunch with some leftover poached salmon.
And before we knew it, we were back at the school gates to witness the sheer joy on LBG’s face as she told us about what a wonderful day she had. On Wednesday I collected her early and, leaving Granny in charge of Dimples, we skipped into London for the premiere of Disney Nature’s African Cats, which was attended by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. It was a simply brilliant experience for us both: red carpet, cameras, other bloggers and sleeping in the cab all the way home.
All of which meant that the Thursday school run was tough. Although once the Little Misses were installed they had an absolute ball, as they always do. I meanwhile had a chance to catch up with several friends by fitting in three different coffee meetings. The coffee obviously perked me up because by the time I put the Girls to bed, I had written fifty birthday invitations, made a dozen medal biscuits and transformed an old nappy caddy into a hairdressing station. I congratulated myself with a retro evening of Ginger Beer, Chicken Kiev and Hot Fudge Sundaes whilst watching Glee, as DH was out.
Friday morning was not good. I woke with a headache and spent the entire day struggling with it, despite plenty of strong painkillers. The highlight for us all was a ballet class. LBG tried a class about 9 months ago but a combination of factors meant that it really didn’t work out for us. This time was a different story- it was at her school, with some of her friends from Kindergarten and she had a fabulous time. Dimples is furious that she will have to wait until at least September to start.
After a very early night, I felt much brighter on Saturday morning and we were on the road first thing heading for the Beach House. We stopped on the way for breakfast, after which The Girls fell asleep (a late night?), giving DH and I an unexpected couple of hours to be incredibly productive. By the time friends arrived we had, between us, made a dozen chocolate chip cookies, meatballs in the slow cooker, a dozen cherry and marzipan scones, Thai Peanut Chicken and a Victoria Sponge complete with sprinkles.The Wonder Hound got off to a rocky start by frightening baby Poppy, but they were good friends by bedtime.
Did you know that London is hosting the Olympics, and in just a few short weeks?
OK, so you’d have to live in North Korea to not know that. Even The Little Misses have special events planned at Nursery and Kindergarten, and I shall be making good use of my awesome Olympic Torch at the end of term when our playgroup will be having their very own Olympic Torch Relay. In keeping with the insanely sporty nature of the coming months, LBG is having a birthday party at a local sports club in June and the theme, unsurprisingly, will be ‘Sport, Stage and Dance’. Her entire class is being invited, so a venue far from home was required, which brings a new set of challenges for me since I usually have total ownership on Kids’ Parties. Sitting and watching whilst other people run the show will be a challenge. But then I do have to make a cake for fifty children and various adults and friends so that should exhaust me in advance of the party.
Now that I have written- that’s hand-written- all fifty invitations (yes, 50), I have turned my mind to the only other area of planning required: the party favours. In the past I have put together bags of bits and pieces that are age appropriate and in keeping with the theme of the event (I suspect I was a party planner in a former life. I just love co-ordinating everything.) The sporty nature, not just of the party, but of the country at large at that stage, with mere weeks to go until the opening ceremony, lends itself to a theme for the gifts. I don’t know that I have the stamina for fifty party bags, so am thinking of getting one item per child, which still requires some investigation and, indeed, price negotiation. But I have decided to make them all medal biscuits to take home: everyone will be a winner that way. To get an idea, I did a dry-run a couple of days ago with some leftover biscuit dough I had.
Method:
1. Roll your chosen biscuit dough (mine is from The Biscuiteers Book) to about 5mm thick then cut into rounds- mine were made using a 68mm cutter.
2. This step I forgot to do, but if you wish to thread ribbon onto your biscuit you should do it before the biscuits cook. Taking a straw, poke two holes in one edge of the biscuit, approximately 2cm apart. Once you have removed the small circles of dough, cut away the gap between the two holes so that you create a lozenge-shaped hole with rounded edges which you can use once the biscuits are finished to thread your ribbon through. Bear in mind that you should not make this lozenge shape too close to the edge of your biscuit because you will risk it breaking.
3. Bake until golden brown then leave to cool. Make up a batch of white royal icing.
4. Once cool, pipe royal icing around the edge of the biscuits (go underneath and around the ribbon hole).
5. Thin down the rest of the icing and use to ‘flood’ the area inside the piped edge. Leave to dry, or pop back into your cooling oven and allow to harden.
6. Once the icing has dried, spray the cookies gold. I used Dr Oetker Gold Spray that has been used with great success before. One can should do about 125 cupcakes so that should be plenty for the sixty-or-so biscuits I’ll be making. They also make a silver version.
7. Finally embellish using an black edible felt pen. I’ll confess that I was in a rush when I did this bit. I’ll probably pipe the details for the actual party, but you get the idea.
And that’s it: Gold Medal Winning Biscuits for Olympics, birthday parties, or just because you can.
You know when you watch a trailer for an upcoming film and, in a deep, booming tones, the voice-over insists that “if you see one movie this year, make it this one”? That’s what I would have told the paparazzi last night had they stuck around long enough after the departure of Prince William and Catherine to ask me.
I’m Kelly, the face behind the vintage silhouette. She has a much better figure than me: I eat too much cookie dough. I’m a thirty-something Mother, Blogger and Girl Friday, married to my beloved DH.
Domestic Goddesque shares ideas for simple recipes, house-keeping and crafts for every age, along with a few shortcuts so that you can appear to be the Domestic Goddess you want to be.
