MN Little Italy 19

[Francasaysrelax]

Hello, welcome, benvenuti

ok will try. not sure it is the right cut but hey.

Buon compleanno Franca! Very envious about you being able to pop into Peck- just the thought makes me peckish...

Minerva: do you have a good recipe for mince pies, please? Ours so far have been more of a Lego job, using ready-made shortcrust pastry and mincemeat from Waitrose, but this year I would quite like to surprise DH, who loves mincepies, with something a bit better...

Re MILs: not very interested still, I think. I offered to show her the baby's things, but she said no, only to be happy to look at them when DH re-offered the following day. But then seemed to disapprove that we have mostly blue or neutral clothes (we do not know what we are having, but we both like pale blue, so we thought a girl could wear blue anyway). Also apparently she complained to DH she could not face pasta two days in a row and that she had grown up eating "a very healthy diet of meat and two veg" every day, following the old-fashioned English approach of roast on Sunday, shepherds' pie on Monday etc. Note that weekend menu had been specifically devised around her taste and included chicken, fish, salad, legumes, couscous, cheese and pasta only once...

Thanks Minerva

Mince pies! I love mince pies! What else are you having???

Thank you SG (do you think the word peckish comes from "Peck" ????)

Gosh your MIL really sounds like a very difficult woman . Sorry you had to entertain her for a weekend!

I think pale blue is lovely for a girl too.

Buon compleanno Franca!

re: your dinner as I love both tonnato e insalata russa... Although I am eating at my mum's tonight as she is doing a trial for some of the Xmas food we will be making. I am bringing mince pies!!!

Rosa, I really would not worry too much about the food, particularly if she is breastfed. My DD goes through patches when she hardly eats anything, but then starts again...

Apologies for the technology failure and posting twice.

mmmm curious about Peck... never heard of it before... Will check it out next time I am in Milan. Franca I am not sure what we are having tonight so will update you tmrw!

Anyway. SG, sorry you find the MIL difficult - mine seem to slightly frown whenever we say sth re: childrearing which is different from what she did... Which is basically everything!
Pale blue (or dark blue, IMO) looks equally good on girls, but be prepared to be asked "what's his name then?". Mind you, I get that all the time, despite the bright pink stroller...

Now, mince pies. Waitrose mincemeat is very good, but if you want to make your own I suggest this, which has no suet so is a bit lighter:

www.aspoonfulofsugar.net/wp/2007/12/hettie-potters-suet-free-mincemeat/

As for the pastry, I tried both types of pastry here:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3036/cranberry-mince-pies

OR

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/69612/orange-cranberry-and-almond-mince-pies

First type is a good fail-safe method, the second one tastes nicer BUT it was soo crumbly that took ages to make the pies... Let me know how you get on!

Minerva, lol. When ds was a baby I used to dress him in bright oranges and greens and got asked whether he was a girl or a boy, despite being very masculine (IMHO)

Peck. It's an institution. Lots of "sciure" and cumenda...(oh and today there was a bunch of brits tasting the parmigiano!!!) . The food is really delicious. But awfully expensive, this is why I rarely go (well, actually this has been the first time I buy something for myself!)

Franca's arrosto is cooking away .

Love vitello tonnato!! yummi.

oh I am so sick of the 'meat and two veg' combo!!!

BUON COMPLEANNO FRANCA!!! you don't look a day older

all this yummy food... we're having boring burgers I had in the freezer....

Rosa, hope you'll now have a long sick-free time...

sputnik, that's so sweet! DS's home from school today, so to keep him busy I told him to write his letter to santa...he wants, amongst other things, a "crayn" (toy crane), "buz limee" (buzz lightning) and "limee the cween" (lightning McQueen - though I really don't know what he's missing from his vast Cars collection )

re presents for MIL - thinking of doing photobox mug, depending on how the school photos come out. she's very difficult as she's got everything and more, plus she's never appreciative (sp?), well, never shows any emotion really, but never mind. but as she's a true yorkshirewoman, and has a cup of tea every 5 minutes, she might like it. SG, all my sympathy, maybe once baby's here she'll be different (FIL was very detached when I was pg with DS, not now, though they're both not the "typical" GPs).
your MIL reminded me of my granma (who lived with us) - she used to ring her dds asking them to bring them food as the "french" cooked weird food (my mum worked in a macelleria/rosticceria so sometimes she'd bring home involtini, vitello tonnato, etc [HMM]).

and yes, doesn't really matter what babies wear, DS would be in blue head to toe and "what's her name?", DD (rarely) head to toe in pink and we get "what's HIS name" (she wears a lot of her brother's stuff)

off to get dinner ready, back later

Pippi, I hope it turns out nicely .
Yes, meat and 2 veggies is a bit boring. Though here it's either pasta/risotto or meat/fish + veggies. Boh. I'm bored of cooking always the same things.

I need inspiration!

We are watching a lovely Charlie and Lola episode: "I really really need actual skates"

I always press the button too early.

GRAZIE CAMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Actually, I love hamburgers, but the children are not keen

Oh, I love Charlie and Lola!

Mince pies are probably my all time favourite food.
Interesting the suet free recipie, I made it here once with veggie suet my mum brought, but never since. Was wondering if I can get hold of cider here, or what I could substitute it with.....

I am allergic to baby pink so DD was always neutral, everyone assumed she was a boy as they all go really overboard on the pink and frilly here.

Overboard with pink and frilly here too spuntik and mine have always been mistook for boys. bigpippi even a month ago !

Franca 'rostbif' was DEEELICIOUS and brought back memories of childhood so will become a staple of the pippi's household!!! I've done it with special pippi's potatoes and cavolo nero! even Dh was impressed. Thanks!

By the way what are you doing at home on your birthday?!!! Should you not be out and about!?

Hello Camo?! Of course you can join us btw! Next week though. Have been busy with meet-ups with A&E this week !

Bought Dh's Xmas present and MIL's. Almost all done. Only my mum's left. What a professional Stepfort I have become !

Sorry for million of emoticon. Don;t know what happened there.

DD's got a few pink bits (mainly presents) but yewwwwwww (never thought I'd dislike pink so much actually), when you get in mothercare it's all marshamellow world (actually, I think they're toning it down, but maybe it's because of winter)... and if it's not pink, it has stupid writing all over (I had a nightmare finding plain tops for dd which didn't have some 'shopaolic in training' or s.thing on it)

burgers eaten, pure' crusted all over the kitchen, but DD's in the i-can-do-it-myself mode, but done the scrubbing, washing machine loaded, dishwasher left for DP to unload tomorrwo, though, I hate doing that for some reason, aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh, I need a holiday.......

lovely presents pippi! actually, might propose BF a night out at the MIL's present. what happened? have I miss something in my dopey state?

oh, DS gets "what a pretty girl" all the time because of his hair (really, need to get him a haircut as his fringe is in his eyes... might get DP to take him tomorrow). he now says in a very assertive manner "I AM A BOY" .

happy 18th birthday Franca!!!!!

and hello everyone. been a bit absent but determined to catch up tonight... actually i am supposed to prepare for an interview first thing tomorrow morning... but can't be arsed...

i haaaaaaate mince pies (note the emoticon is green not because i am envious but because i am nauseous at the thought)

i mean seriously, they rank really poorly against "our" christmas sweets, panettone, pandoro, torrone, struffoli (only for the very terrone among us)...mmmhh i am getting a sugar rush just thinking about it.

franca (this time proper envy) at peck. did you also pop into Luini for a greasy runny panzerotto?

SG your mil sounds like a harpy. i suggest next time you don't bother cooking for her but serve her some cold cuts with salad. oh and re the baby colours may i suggest turquoise, my all time favourite baby colour which goes well with both

[masseuse boastful anecdote: when i gave birth to dd2 in the very posh and glamorous north london private hospital favoured by slebs (please don't judge me) the mws were all melting at the gorgeous beautfiul hand-knitted turquoise sweater on dd2... knitted my mum's very own Zia Franca. I (and she) are so proud that despite seeing the likes of baby Lila Moss and baby Beatrice McCartney they still thought mini-masseuse was the best dressed... TIE' emoticon!]

i adore charlie and lola, they are my role models (together with Daddy Pig)

and don't forget Apple and Moses, and Princess Tiiamii or whatever she is called .

did you really???? why? How is it? Is it worth all that dosh? do they treat you like an old time sleb? [very curious emoticon].

it was worth every hard-earned penny. not flashy at all, and they just made me feel really cared for and loved. at the end i really thought i loved those midwives more than my own mother! you know what the (champagne)socialist in me used to feel really ashamed about it but it really was wonderful- exorcised all the bad memories of first birth. and not as expensive as other private places, either...

of course, forgot about apple and moses being born there too. didn't know about princess Tiaami... really???

only sleb i saw was minnie driver at antenatal visit. her skin was so perfect i wanted to touch her...

didn't know minnie driver had a child !!! with whom????

so you are the perfect yummy muumy, then, MM . sounds nice, though, maybe that would have helped exorcise first delivery and avoid making my fear worse with second delivery! at the TIE' emoticon, do you think MN'd understand if you asked for one?

(and don't like mince pies either, had a boring mtg after lunch yesterday, so was looking forward to some bics and coffee to keep me awake, but no, mince pies only...

she kept the father secret, didn't she?

I think her baby (can't remember if boy or girl) was born same day as DD