Christmas

It is hard to believe after a big build up to Christmas it is now over for another year. This year all I could think about was it being the last Christmas as Anne and Gareth. In about a month from now we will be Mummy and Daddy. We are so excited and can't wait to meet baby Howell.

We had a lovely Christmas Day spent at Gareth's parents house. Gareth's sister and her husband joined us. She is also pregnant so it was special for the two pregnant girls to be together. We talked baby chat the whole time!

I was worried I wouldn't manage a big dinner as I struggle now with meals. Baby takes up a lot of room in the tummy so there is less room for food. I think because the food was so good I managed it without any problems.

This was me on Christmas Day in my maternity dress. This is the only time I wore it. I bought it months ago in the sale thinking it would do for Christmas events but then it turned out I didn't have any events to go to or I didn't feel up to them.

Mummy and Daddy to be before the meal

Gareth's Mum gave both her daughter and me a lovely box filled with Sanctuary mum to be toiletries. We were told to open them together while the others took photos of us opening them. It was so exciting as we knew both were getting the same item.

I was really well looked after. Everyone fussed over me that day and many of my gifts this year were for pampering myself until baby arrives and some items for going into hospital. One present from Gareth was particularly thoughtful. He gave me a heat pad as he knows I have suffered on and off with sore hips and the odd time pain in my lower back. He also got me a Wii game which is a personal trainer. He knows how keen on keeping fit I am but this will be hard with a new baby. He thought this game will be ideal for me to do at home before I can get start  leaving the baby at home with Daddy while I swim or run. He is so thoughtful. We have a Christmas book that each person on Christmas Day writes a message in and then I add photos to it. Gareth's message made me cry as it was so lovely. He is so caring and will do his best to be an amazing Dad.

This is the card I made a batch of this year. The stamps used were by Stampin' Up.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and I wish you all the best for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011.

Baby Toys

In the last week Gareth and I have spent quite a bit of time organising all the baby equipment we have bought over the last few months. It was all mainly in the spare bedroom. It was getting to the point it was difficult to get in the door of this bedroom so we thought we better sort things out. Gareth spent a long time on Sunday taking bay items to the loft. We have a designated baby area in there now. Some items that we know we will need from birth such as nappies, toiletries, changing mat, and most of the clothes stayed in the bedroom ready to put in baby's wardrobe when we get it built in the nursery.

Here are some of the toys baby has to look forward to playing with in his or her first year or so.

The CD is a mix of classical music suitable for babies. It is meant to have a calming effect on them. I got it at a NCT sale for 50p.

Again these were bought a NCT sale. This is the National Childbirth Trust which is a charity to working to raise issues with family funding from the Government, rights for pregnant women and promoting good practice in childcare such as breastfeeding. I paid £2 for the whole set. It's great value as I have seen the 'That's not my' range of books for sale at £5 each.

I got this musical pull down toy at a market one lunchtime. It was £2. I then realised it was ex stock from Adams the baby clothes shop which went out of business last year. It should have been £10.

This is baby's bouncy chair. It is brand new but I bought it second hand from a lady on netmums.com. She  had used it once as a demonstration event. It is Fisher Price brand, is musical and has a vibration mode to calm baby. I love the bright colours and think this is perfect for either boy or girl.

This is top part of the seat. The animals make it really fun.

This is baby's walker which he or she won't need for about a year. It plays tunes and lights up when baby walks. Again this was a second hand purchase.

I hope this has given you an idea of the items stored in our house just now waiting for the big arrival of baby Howell.

I am keeping well and have no problems so far. I had my regular midwife appointment yesterday and everything was normal. Baby is lying in the right position and has a good regular heart beat. We went to our first ante natal class last week and it covered giving birth and knowing when labour has started. Today we have our next class which is all about pain relief in labour. These are very informative sessions and a great way to get to know other Mums and Dads to be in the area.

Sticky Toffee Pudding and scrapbooking

I am finally back to share the recipe for Sticky Toffee Pudding I promised you. I guarantee this is nicer than any version you order in a restaurant. We were out for dinner last night and it was on the menu. I dismissed it as I knew I could make better at home.

This recipe is from James Martins's book, 'Desserts'

Serves 6-8

75g butter
175 dark brown demorara sugar
200g self raising flour, plus extra for dusting
1tbsp golden syrup
2tbsp black treacle
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
200g pitted dried dates
1tbsp bicarbonate of soda

For the toffee sauce
100g sugar
100 butter
200ml double cream

Preheat the oven to 200 C/400F/gas mark 6. Grease a 23cm tin thoroughly with 25g of the butter, then dust the inside of the tin with flour.

Blend the remaining butter and sugar together. Add the golden syrup, treacle, eggs and vanilla extract to the butter mixture and continue mixing.

Add the flour. Combine all the ingredients.

Place the dates in a saucepan with 300ml water and bring to the boil. Puree the water and date mixture and add the bicarbonate of soda. While it is still hot, quickly add this mixture to the egg mix. Once the mix is combined, pour into the prepared tin.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until the top is just firm to touch.

Remove the pudding from the oven and allow to cool, then turn out of the tin and cut into squares.

To make the sauce, melt the butter and sugar together in a small pan, add the cream and bring to the boil. Simmer for a few minutes until the sauce reaches the desired consistency.

To serve, reheat the sponge in the microwave for 5 minutes or in the oven at 180 C/350F/Gas mark 4. Place onto a plate with lots of the sauce on top and a scoop of vanilla icecream if you wish.

The sponge and sauce can be made in advance. The sponge can even be frozen and both be plated and reheated in the microwave.


I also have some scrapbook layouts to share with you.

I am trying hard to get as many wedding and other subjects covered in my scrapbooks before baby arrives. I know from the day of baby's birth baby will be my main area of scrapbooking.

I have done two layouts of our wedding. This is Gareth before the ceremony.

Miranda kindly gave me this lovely paper. It is Vintage Valentine by Fancy Pants. Thanks Miranda.

This layout is of Gareth and I standing outside the hotel where we had our reception. It was very windy on the day and it was hard to get a decent photo without my hair, dress and veil flying around but this was a lovely shot I thought.

I used Blonde Moments pearl pigments mixed with water to paint the flowers down the side. The camera doesn't pick up the sparkle of this well.

This next layout is connected to my sister, Jane's, wedding. Jane's Birthday was 2 days before her wedding. We went to her mother in law to be's house for a Birthday dinner and I used this opportunity to hand my wedding gifts to the bride and groom. Thanks again to Miranda for the lovely paper that went so well with our clothes in the photo.

Now for a winter layout. Last Christmas our cousin Heather stayed with us. There had been a lot of snow around that time. The picture is of her and me as she was leaving to drive back to Edinburgh.

And finally a layout I did at a recent crop. It is of the team I went to India with on a Rotary cultural exchange. This was the first time I wore my saree which was made for me while in Delhi.

My pregnancy is going well. I will be 29 weeks tomorrow. It is going really fast. In about 11 weeks time baby Howell may have arrived! How exciting. We have done most of the shopping for baby clothes and equipment. We just need to get a car seat and cot mattress. All the clothes have been washed, dried, ironed and stored in the wardrobe. I sorted them into piles such as newborn, tiny baby and 0-3 months.We have just got our Health in Pregnancy grant through from the Government so that will pay for the seat and mattress.

I am finally wearing some maternity clothes. My midwife was amazed at the 25 week appointment to see me looking small in normal clothes. This week I moved into maternity leggings at home and maternity trousers and skirt at work. The tops are still too big for me. I had my 28 week visit to the midwife this week. All was normal and the bump was 1cm bigger than 3 weeks ago. I have joined an aquanatal class on a Monday night. It is so lovely to chat to pregnant girls and share our experiences. Most live locally and are about my stage so I hope we will continue to meet up at other local events. This week we are going to a workshop at the maternity hospital. It is called 'Save a baby's life'. It will teach us useful first aid skills for babies.

I can now feel baby kicking and moving about. It makes everything so real to feel a little living thing in my tummy.

I have 7 weeks to work before I finish up for maternity leave. I have a break at Christmas and then go back on 4th January for 4 days. I will then take a week's holiday and then start maternity leave for 12 months. I can't wait.

 

Let's Eat Blog Hop

I came across a blog by Amy in Australia who was organising a blog hop for 24th October. This was for bloggers with a love of food to share a recipe internationally. I thought this suited me so well. I am always looking out for new recipes and am keen to try new ideas.

I love cooking. I have been cooking since I was a child. In particular I have always loved baking and making puddings. I have a sweet tooth and this is reflected in my cooking. I made the family's Christmas cake for the first time when I was seven. My after school hobby was baking. I would be most happy to get the oven on and get baking. My sister and I set up a cafe in a shed outside and pretended it was for paying customers. Only Mum and Dad came but we loved it.

In my adult life I continue to bake a lot. I am famous at work for baking. I often hold baking sales for charity. Last year for Children in Need I baked cupcake orders. People thought I was mad and at moments I did too but it was good fun and it worked out really well, making lots of money for the charity. In recent years I started making cupcakes. I have so many cupcakes books, sprinkles, colourings, piping sets and pretty paper cases. When I set up my blog just over a year ago it had to have cupcake mentioned in the title.

I also love making desserts. In summer I love making cheesecakes. Our traditional family cheesecake is creme de menthe. I am pregnant just now so can't have it. Now that in the UK the weather is turning colder I love to make a warm pudding. There is something comforting about the oven being on in the kitchen and the smell of the baking. To me that's how I best love my house. All of a sudden I am searching recipe books for seasonal pudding recipes. Last weekend I had bought some lovely plums and decided on a plum and maple syrup crumble. This is a recipe I would love to share with you. It's very easy to make, it contains fresh fruit and is really yummy.

Maple Plum Crumble

Serves 4

8 ripe plums, halved, stones removed

4 tbsp maple syrup
50g butter, cut into pieces
50 g plain flour
50g rolled oats
25g caster sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
25g flaked almonds

Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Place the plum halves skin side down, in the base of a large heatproof dish. Drizzle over half the maple syrup and roast for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the butter, flour, oats, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and rub together until you have rough crumbs. Stir in the almonds. Sprinkle the crumble over the plums and drizzle with the remaining maple syrup.

Bake for 15 minutes more until the top is golden.

 Serve with custard or vanilla icecream.

This is a very simple pudding. It won't take you long to prepare or even bake but it is lovely on a colder evening.

Today I am making sticky toffee pudding so please hop back on here soon and you will see my recipe for it.

So as part of this blog hop, hop onto http://curlyscrapbooker.blogspot.com/. After looking at this blog I realised I went to Scrap a Mia with this lady earlier this year. It's amazing how small the scrapping world is and so may of us have cooking as a common interest too.

Thanks to Amy for arranging this fun foodie event.

My exciting news

It is really time I shared my big news with you. I had been waiting until I had told people personally. That took longer than I had hoped. Well, I'm going to be a Mummy. Our first baby is due on 31st January 2011. I am now about 5 and a half months pregnant. I am so excited about having a baby.

This was the test that confirmed the thoughts we had. I was about 5 weeks pregnant on 5th June. It was a warm Saturday evening and we were having a BBQ. I had thought for a few weeks that I must be pregnant. Gareth told me to buy a test so I did and it told us the most wonderful news.

I am loving pregnancy at the moment. I am so full of excitement and am feeling really well. In the beginning I felt sick and was sick when I tried to eat meals but that was very short term. Now I eat well and don't have any unusual food needs.

We had scans at 13 and 20 weeks and all was normal at both. We didn't want to know if baby is boy or girl. What could be nicer than a surprise we thought. On the day of the 20 week scan I made these cupcakes to celebrate the fact all was okay with baby and we were expecting a surprise.

 I am now at week 25 and the pregnancy is going very fast. I don't have a bump yet and people find it hard to believe I am so far into the pregnancy. Baby was small at the 20 week scan so that is one reason I am still small. I still wear all my usual clothes luckily. I do have some maternity clothes for when bump appears.

We have picked up so many items second hand. There have been three great sales in this area in the last month. They are run by the National Childbirth Trust. We got baby clothes, bath, changing mats, maternity clothes, bedding, toy, books, DVDs and lots more. Also there is a website netmums.com which I love. It has a nearly new board where local sellers advertise clothes and equipment. Today I am picking up a huge bag of reusable nappies.

Last weekend I washed all the baby clothes we have bought. It was good drying day so I thought it was best to get them washed and dried outside before the colder days make drying harder. This was all the cute little outfits on the washing line.

We have decided to go for a neutral coloured look to the nursery. We have bought the bedding, nappy stacker, cot mobile and curtains. It is the 'I love my bear' range from Toys r us.
http://www.toysrus.co.uk/Babies-R-Us/Nursery/Coordinated-Bedding-Ranges/I-Love-My-Bear-Cot-Mobile(0022616)
This shows the range we have gone for. It is cream, beige and mint green. We thought his would be nice for either girl or boy. We are going to paint the room mint green. The theme is teddy bears. This is the bedding.

Meghann, I thought these photos may give you a better idea about our nursery theme.

I love all the baby talk I have with people. At work people fuss over me and at home I am treated like a queen by Gareth. My family are really caring and would do anything for me. It's all so lovely.

I'll be back soon to show you some of our recent purchases.

Caribbean chicken and pumpkin curry

We are really getting into Autumn cooking in our house. Autumn officially started this week so I decided to make an Autumn dish to welcome the new season. I intend to cook something from the season ahead at the start of each season.I believe in eating seasonal food and not expecting food to be flown in from all across the world all year round. I love the foods we grow in Britain and think they should be celebrated. I buy my vegetables from a local farm shop and try to grow some myself.


Today I made my Autumn dish, a caribbean chicken and pumpkin curry. The recipe comes from my slow cooker book. I am a big fan of my slow cooker. It is used during the week when we are at work so we have piping hot ready to eat meals when we arrive home but today I thought it would be nice to put the effort in this morning and then as the recipe serves 4 and there are just 2 of us we can have the rest on Sunday and I don't have to prepare anything else. It frees up time tomorrow.

Serves 4 and recipe is for a slow cooker. I am sure you could adapt it to normal oven casserole cooking.

60ml sunflower oil
700g pumpkin cut into bite sized chunks
1 bunch spring onions
1 garlic clove crushed
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp curry powder
1tsp crushed dried chillies
90ml water
4 skinless chicken breasts ( I use thighs)
400g can coconut milk
Salt and pepper
1 green pepper cut into chunks ( red or yellow)

Optional
30ml toasted sesame seeds

To serve
Flat breads (but I use rice)

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the pumpkin and fry, stirring, for about 5 minutes until golden all over and almost tender. Remove with a draining spoon and drain onto kitchen paper. Set aside.

Reserve a few chopped green ends of spring onions for garnish. Add the remainder to the pan and stir fry for 1 minute. Add the garlic, spices and water to the pan and stir for 30 seconds. Add the chicken and toss in the spice mixture, then tip into the slow cooker.

Pour the coconut milk into the pan and heat, stirring, until bubbling. Add to the chicken, season with salt and pepper and mix well. Add the pumpkin and pepper, cover and cook on high for 2 hours or on low for 4 hours until the chicken and pumpkin are really tender.

Sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds and the reserved chopped green spring onions. Serve with flat breads as suggested in the recipe, rice, noodles or potatoes.

I often just add all the ingredients to the slow cooker, stir and switch it on. It comes out perfectly. These were my steps today:

Spring onions, pepper, garlic, water, coconut milk added

Spices added

The small pumpkin I used. It was the perfect size without having any leftovers

The chopped pumpkin added

The end result

I hope this inspires you to try cooking with pumpkin.

Baking time

I have had a busy time in the kitchen this weekend. We entertained Gareth's Mum and Dad and his cousin David last night. We don't see David more than once a year as he lives in Wales so we wanted to make it special for him. For their arrival I had made these raspberry and white chocolate cupcakes. They contain fresh raspberries in the cakes and in the icing. They were so delicious and very summery tasting.

The ingredients can be found here:

http://countryheartandhome.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-36-raspberry-white-chocolate.html

 and the method here:
http://countryheartandhome.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-36-raspberry-white-chocolate_15.html

The dessert was Anglo Italian trifle which is a Nigella Lawson recipe. Amaretto biscuits are used and it is topped with mascarpone cheese. These ingredients give the trifle its Italian flavours.

Today I baked a gluten free lemon cake as a baking order for a colleague's girlfriend Birthday. I used special gluten and wheat free flour.This is more absorbent than regular flour so I added some milk and plenty lemon juice. I just hope it tastes okay. Her favourite colour is yellow so I added flowers and 'Happy Birthday' in yellow and highlighted some of them with silver glitter.

Well Autumn officially starts on Thursday so I will be cooking casseroles, stews, pies and crumbles in the coming weeks and months.

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend.