Oct/Nov 08 chat

[mellow2]

Mellow - Pools in the Park start lessons from about 6 months!!

Still haven't left or Wiltshire. Doing lauch with a Minister tomorrow (John Denham) and had to stay home to sign off a press release (really, really, tries hard to sound important!! LOL)

Might snow in London tonight!!!!!!!!!!

Winter has arrived

Steppy my Ebay bargain coat arived (the purple one) its is scrumptious

QC- many thanks BTW for all the shoes and togs you gave me the ther day for Chubs

Right, we are awwwff now, to the country-side

half term chaos, and ds's birthday.

where has the time gone? one minute I'm not panicking (in fact, still in denial), the next my pelvis is hitting the floor and I feel like I'm going to pop out a baby twenty times a day.

oh, was that too much information

have now realised that yes, I am indeed pregnant.

Oh bugger.

xoxo pregnant bet you can't wait to have baby in arms

SBS very impressed but alas not Alan Johnson I like him

I like this kind of winter not so keen on wet grey miserable one

Agree with enjoying this type of winter, love it as long as you wrap up warm

Xoxo - I really thought baby was coming on Sunday night as had lots of mild contractions for a few hrs I kept thinking I'm not ready yet! Strangely since then I feel like baby is head down now as I feel like I'm carrying exactly as I was with DS who didn't go head down til 38wks either

I thought DS had got his back molars already earlier in the year, so out of curiosity I just looked on teething chart and I think DS is getting his 1st permanent molar which the average child gets when they're 6yrs , no wonder he's so wiped out. He's been sleeping since 11am...

my friend gave birth 5 weeks early (tranverse breach so emergency c section) apparetnly was wheeled into theatre shouting "but I haven't read this chapter in the book yet!"

lol Kew

Definitely prefer this weather. Kew was lovely yesterday though I'd avoid C&C. Thanks to Bunyan's warnings we stayed clear. Apparently it was so packed they weren't letting anyone else in

Sj, poor ds, sounds like he's really suffering.

lol Kew

Definitely prefer this weather. Kew was lovely yesterday though I'd avoid C&C. Thanks to Bunyan's warnings we stayed clear. Apparently it was so packed they weren't letting anyone else in

Sj, poor ds, sounds like he's really suffering.

oops!

DS just woke up with dried blood on his lips and mouth He won't let me look inside his mouth and got v.upset when I asked to do so. His temp seems to have gone down so I wonder if the blood is from the tooth breaking through the gums?
He's calmed down now but clearly in a lot of pain. Will call NHS direct later if he doesn't improve...

teeth don;t break through gums - they send out a hormone which separates the gum, pain form teething is tooth/jaw shiftng not the actual breaking through (COV can correct if I'm wrong) sounds more like he bit his lip/cheek to me.

Platelet wacth 104 (105 last week) so reducimg steriods more agressively over next two weeks as need to balance side effects of steriods with possibilty of platelets sulking. Still, good news so far.

Hello all!

We are on shift duty here for half term. DH off to work now that I'm back from office.

DS1 has two canine(?) teeth missing. It's odd. Have to admit they never suffered much with teething. We are lucky!

mellow/sj - am impressed with paratha-making! I've only managed to try making roti and it turned out nice, but crispy! I'm sure it's supposed to be soft. What has gone wrong? My most infamous culinary disaster is crispy noodles. I still remember how chewy it was...

Must now go and eat my instant noodles!

Sj, hope ds is ok

Kew, good news on the platelets, fingers crossed it continues! How's ds now?

Ds is certain he doesn't want a nap so he's just watching Monsters Inc for chill out time and then we're going to do some baking.

Slng,
I'm actually trying to make roti canai. I'll let you know when I succeed.

KC fingers crossed things improve

took dd to shops and she mentioned Kew but really want to make sure she rests and feels better, got easy stir fry stuff for dinner but will try and marinate the meat first, maybe should stick to tofu

must do rot sometime probably for the weekend with some sort of lentil/ bean curry

i'd like to have a chef on staff and only cook recreationally, this feeding all everyday lark is a bit demanding

Sfx - If you are making a Chinese stir fry, a soy sauce and sugar marinade really makes the meat tender and tasty.

We went to Kew for about an hour and so. It was really cold and sunny. Lovely!

My mom used to say life would be so much easier if we ate once every 3 days instead of thrice a day!

Kew - Good to hear that they're decreasing steroids to reduce side effects.

Mellow, that marinade sounds lovely. Is there a particular ratio of soy to sugar?

thanks mellow meat now marinating
for tofu I make it sticky with balsamic vinegar

Ros,
It depends on how salty the soy sauce is. If you use Kikkoman which is quite salty then a ratio of 3/4 tbsp soy sauce to 1 tbsp of sugar would be about right.

Sorry, I learnt to cook Chinese food from my mom so it's "enough soy sauce to cover the meat and sugar to taste" sort of measurement which is not very helpful.

thanks mellow. I'm one of those people who needs exact recipes to follow, especially if its the first time I'm trying something!

oh I like soy+sugar sauce (alwasy think of it as cheats teriyake! Didn't know I was actually doing proper cooking like Mama used to make!)

I find brown or muscovado sugar gives nice flavour. Just pour some soy sauce into a teas cup and add a teaspoon of sugar, stir and taste. Crushed garlic is nice added to

I sometimes reduce sugar and add sweet chili sauce instead (which is afterall just sugar and garlic with some peppers I think)

OK here is my ma's secret sauce recipe; for beef/chicken - soy, sake (or sherry), grated garlic, thinly sliced spring onion, sugar and sesami oil. For pork/fish, swap garlic with grated ginger.

I put some sesame oil soy and sugar added garlic (because I have to be stopped from using it) and spring onions

my mother used to marinate steak in tons of garlic with some sort oh herbs and wine
it was very tasty

dh best be coming home early am making myself hungry now

Sushi - your ma's sauce is very similar to Chinese sauce if you substitute Chinese rice wine for sake.

Hmm, all this talk of sauces is making me hungry.

[hungry emoticon]

I mean Chinese style sauces.

Sushi - do you use sake or mirin in your teriyaki marinade or a mixture of the 2?