West London chat winter & beyond

[tillyfernackerpants]

Hadn't realised we were so close to filling up the last thread, hope you all find it!!

excuse typos

dusty holiday plans sound good, nice to have a change
thanks for comments regarding dd, I have done quite a bit to try and sort things out and dd is fairly robust handling such things but she should not have to be bothered enough to get fed up iyswim, hopefully they will do something about it.

so forgot today was Portuguese holiday - Kings day - as in 3 kings no the royal family, this of course entails eating a special cake yum yum oh my girth

I did not remember but neighbour did, I meant to add, she brought a cake from the Christmas trip and her mother mailed her one too, so thoughtful and sharing

Been out again today! Pretty soggy. Wet socks, wet boots, wet tights (red, dusty, for both legs), wet gloves. Luckily coat lives up to expectations and is waterproof.

Am going to try out a gluten-free, nut-free recipe tomorrow. We have been a cake-free household for far too long.

sfx, your post about Kings Day has cleared something up for me! Ds1 came home from school yesterday saying they'd been talking about the 3 Kings, but it was all a bit muddled so didn't really understand what they'd been doing. It all makes sense now

Westwing, the farm holiday sounds great! We're sticking with our cheap Sun holiday's this year.

I found a muffin recipe the other day, basically ice cream & sr flour sounds bonkers but they were really delicious & v quick to make!

Hello all

Tilly - do share muffin recipe, sounds intriguing!

Westwing - hols place sounds good, hope you get it sorted. Haven't decided about skiing, would love to but cost to factor plus I'll have to arrange parents to look after kids Mon & Tues, it might be a bit much

Sfx - Happy Portugese day! Any excuse to eat cake

Copper - bright colours in fashion this Spring so you just need a turquiose dress to go with red tights!

Night out was excellent, bit worse for wear today but lots of laughs. Have hen do tonight and 40th party tom night don't think I'll make it tonight, pity nights out are like buses and end up coming at the same time, gone are the days of consecutive partying

vbus, it's six scoops of ice cream, beat with a wooden spoon until soft & runny, add six tablespoons of sr flour & mix together. Spoon into muffin cases & bake for about 10-15 mins, until risen & golden. I added chocolate chips to mine, the recipe suggested sugar sprinkles on the top!

Just made a 160-piece Ben 10 puzzle. How did that happen?

Muffin sounds yummy. But isn't ice cream just cream and sugar? Marvelous short cut!

hello

muffins short cut

have some frozen shortcut pastry that needs using up I am sure I can come up with some savoury filling for dinner

vbus party girl enjoy

I have three lemons minus zest to use up. What to do? (Apart from homemade lemonade.)

Copper - make some hummus? I like mine quite lemony. Or use juice tomake lemon rice. lemonade good idea too

Tilly - thanks, will try next week

Sfx - we had pasties at wkend with leftover bolognese sauce and leftover chicken casserole, yum

We're having meatballs and rice plus apple crumble, complete comfort food

meant to say we made 2 varieties of pasty, we didn't mix bolognese with chicken!

copper, slice them & freeze them? Good in drinks in the summer!

vbus, pasties sound delicious, will give them a try over the weekend. Good for lunchboxes, I imagine?!

tilly - great idea! I forgot about that, it not being gin-and-tonic weather!

We hardly eat hummus ... Have never done lemon rice! I like plain rice ... But will give it a go. Garlic and lemon pork tonight with (lemon and garlic?) couscous. Cumin and lemon moroccon-style chicken tomorrow.

And three more lemons next week for the lemon and banana gluten-free cake.

vbus it never occurs to me to make pasties I am obviously not British enough
I ended up mixing ricotta with spinach for a filling then cracking an egg on top near end of cooking, not the best with that kind of pastry but tasted fine

I really hope it is dry tomorrow must find time to run

vbus it never occurs to me to make pasties I am obviously not British enough
I ended up mixing ricotta with spinach for a filling then cracking an egg on top near end of cooking, not the best with that kind of pastry but tasted fine

I really hope it is dry tomorrow must find time to run

Ds's went to bed at around 7pm. They're still playing & laughing, I've given up & decided to finish an essay instead. Dh can deal with it

I have just made hummous - a big bowl of it and DS announced today that he doesn't like hummous anymore Anyone want some hummous (or can you freeze it)

Don't know anything about freezing hummus, but have some experience of small children changing their minds radically about their very favourite foods. too.

Been to great birthday party.

Saw Jupiter and its moons through the telescope. Brilliant!

Hello

Such a lovely day!

Copper - space watch. Glad you had a good time at party

KC - no idea about freezing hummus but I'd guess it would be ok to do so

Sfx - how was run?

Tilly - perfect for lunchboxes! Meant to ask what temp for muffins?

Party last night was great, crawled in at 2am after too many drinks lucky I had a little lie in to recover

hello

copper the party with sky watching sounds nice, was just commenting the other day how much I miss watching stars

vbus run ok ish, thanks, 4 miles very slow, must do some interval training otherwise will always be a snail, dh just entered his first half marathon due to run in May round your way

and how is your head? glad you had a nice time

baked some cheesy scones for lunchbox she sneered at it but them tasted it and asked for seconds

will make carrot and pineapple muffins tomorrow I think

Hello!

Party and sky-watching separate occasions! But not a bad idea.

Not had success feeding the hoards savoury muffins. Always the look of outrage when they discover it's not sweet.

Shall devote spare time to planning DS1's birthday things.

Hello! Did anyone see the international space shuttle passing between the moon and jupiter last night? It was amazing!!! We headed into the garden with the dcs at 6.42pm and it came nearly on time - just one minute late. I just wish we had a more powerful telescope, we were just using dd's - but it was easily seen with the naked eye.
Am loving the Stargazing prog on BBC at the moment.

Had a lovely day at the coast today - clear blue skies, flat calm and lots of sea air.

Oh - and holiday booked!

Tonight is party planning time as we are having dd's sixth birthday party at home next weekend - feeling brave!

Vbus - are you going for the ski-ing?

Hope everyone has had a good weekend

Westwing - that was about the time we were looking. I thought I saw an orangy spot moving westward - was that it? I just assumed it was one of the many planes, just a bit higher ... DH got me a telescope last birthday but he has to operate it because I haven't figured it out yet. We can see the 4 moons of Jupiter, but can't really see the stripes on Jupiter.

We always do birthday parties at home. 8 kids with instruction to eat up lunch, go and play and we'll call you when it's time to eat cake, and they disappear. Grown-ups eat and drink. Kids return to eat cake. Done. A piece of cake, really. Hopefully it will work again this year. >

sfx - my potted crocuses are poking their heads out. Are yours still alive?