October 08 - New Year, New Thread.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

10th Sept (Due 1st Oct) - loulou33 - Boy - Joe Louis David - 6lbs 12oz
16th Sept (Due 8th Oct) - Ksal - Girl - Emma Rae - 6lbs
21st Sept (Due 5th Oct) - myjobismum - Girl - Naomi Caitlin - 5lbs 10oz
2nd Oct (Due 12th Oct) - star6 - Boy - Quinlan - 5lbs 15oz
4th Oct (Due 30th Sept) - Aubergenie - Boy - Stanley - 7lbs 12oz
8th Oct (Due 6th Oct) - ronshar - Boy - William Dexter - 7lbs 11oz
9th Oct (Due 17th) - 50ft - Girl - Martha - 7lbs 10oz - Elective c-sec
10th Oct (Due 1st Oct) - CantSleepWontSleep - Boy - Duncan Elliot - 8lbs 4oz
12th Oct (Due 4th Oct) - pistachio - Boy - Thomas Fraser - 10lbs 2oz
16th Oct (Due 11th Oct) - heather1980 - Boy - Alexander James - 9lbs 5oz
17th Oct (Due 10th Oct) - pepperrabbit - Girl - Jessica Rose - 7lbs 15.5oz
24th Oct (Due 29th Oct) - Ekka - Boy - Matthew - 7lbs 15oz
26th Oct (Due 20th Oct) - jenwa - Girl - Phoebe Jasmine - 9lbs 2.5oz
28th Oct (Due 23rd Oct) - RachieW - Boy - Jack - 7lbs 4oz
31st Oct (Due 20th Oct) - KnickersOnMaHead - Boy - Samuel Paul - 9lbs 11oz
5th Nov (Due 29th Oct) - Honeymoonmummy - Girl - Poppy Grace - 6lbs 15oz
5th Nov (Due 30th Oct) - MamaG - Boy - Harry James - 10lbs 9oz

Currently kohl rabi, black salsify and fennel, Star. And normal things like onions and potatoes too.

Actually I found a large carrot, so Stan and I had a little baking session and made the chocolate chip cookie things. They've just come out of the oven and look and smell lovely. I'm glad actually, as the couple of other things I made from The Book were ok but nothing special and I was beginning to wonder if I wasn't getting it.

Our school hosted the LISA conference day today (london international schools association). it was lovely. Great workshops, lovely people, fun to talk to and collaborate with teachers from other schools even though curriculum differs. I really enjoyed it. And saw some old friends from the other international school in london at which I taught 5 years ago. Feeling so intellectually stimulated and socially satisfied.
DH is off to a poker night

What did you make that was only ok aubergenie?

We made the choc heartache today. I'm not actually keen on most choc cakes, so it was just ok to me, but friend who tried it thought it was delicious. Dd as normal didn't actually eat hers .

Yay for tooth. Ds has bit of 3rd molar through now, and pinky cheeks with it .

C&P the menu 50ft so that we can all drool.

Sounds like you had a lovely day star .

oh csws I'm laughing about your fb status the other day still by the way. That was so funny!

I did have a lovely day. I think, although money will be tight, it will be much better all around for our friendship as well as I did, even though I was paying her, always feel like asking her to do anything would be too much, always worried about everything and with a cm, it's her job and I think it will work out better. Friend and I are already getting along better.
Although, driving her kids to and from school... they hear everything that is said at home and I don't think she realizes this to this extent because they've repeated some pretty hurtful things (especially the 7 year old).

Aubergenie -I am hoping there will be something else. DH is going to take part in the Dad's drag race, it's drag as in DRAG! I will be sure to take LOTS of pictures for FB. The thing I like about the cakes from the book is that they aren't as sweet as normal cakes. There seems to be a lightness to them too. Hope the cookies are as good as they look.

CSWS - Will do, I might be able to link it instead.

Star - Good news about your relationship with your friend. Thanks for your food avoidance tips! I shall store them in my head for another occasion. I'm going to bow out this time though as I think it would be a bit rubbish of me to come along and be a pain "Oh I can't eat or dairy...." at me!

Myjob - Glad your babies are feeling better. Hope you had a good time this afternoon.

M seems to racing ahead with teeth! She has 8 now after being one of the last to get one. She appears to be growing at a fast rate too. Her legs have grown an inch or so in the past 6 weeks!

FRIDAY & SATURDAY EVENING PARTY MENU

STARTERS
Potted hot-smoked salmon, beetroot and red onion remoulade,
horseradish crème fraiche
Potato, Shropshire blue and conference pear tart, pecans and wild rocket (v)
Pressed ham hock terrine, poached egg rarebit, tomato tapenade, sultana bread
Forest cappuccino, wild mushroom and pumpkin brioche
Smoked haddock and brown shrimp fish ball, wilted spinach,
cumin-scented cauliflower soup

MAIN COURSES
Six-hour cooked shoulder of lamb, roast lamb rump,
buttered root vegetables, herb dumpling
Vegetable hot pot, olive creamed potato, collard greens (v)
Pan-fried haddock, salsify, pea, lettuce and bacon fricassee
Venison pie, creamed mushrooms, butternut squash puree
brussel tops
Maize-fed chicken, parsnip puree, pot-roasted leg chasseur

SIDES (£3 each)
Hand-cut chunky chips/ Spinach and potato gratin/ Lyonnaise potato/ Purple sprouting broccoli, ginger and sesame oil/ Orange and honey caramelised brussels

DESSERTS
Apple tatin, clotted Cornish cream
Crème brulee
Bitter chocolate brownie, Amaretto ice cream
British cheese board, fruit chutney, crackers
Walnut, hazelnut and pine nut syrup tart, mascarpone

eight schmeight - ds has 7 at the front plus 3 molars!

Fishball, lamb and creme brulee for me please!

I didn't say she had the most teeth. That prize goes to Pistachio's T doesn't it?

Cheese and pear tart, venison pie (yum!) and bitter chocolate brownie for me. Damn now I'm hungry..... Ryvita and humous anyone?

I'll have the pear and cheese tart, the chicken chasseur and the tart tatin please!

CSWS - I can't for the life of me remember what the first thing I made was. I've looked through the book and nothing's coming back to me. Then I made the ginger sticky toffee pudding, which was lovely and gingery but more like a parkin than sticky toffee. To be fair I didn't have treacle, so substited blackstrap molasses which is very dense and probably contributed to it being quite heavy. I'll try some more as I like the fact that they're not too sweet and reasonably healthy.

When I was little I didn't like cakes at all. My parents used to have to get me an ice cream cake for my birthday as I wouldn't eat normal one.

why hasn't Q gotten his molars?? Is he an odd duck?

pistachio - no, it was a teacher inservice day. We had speakers come from America and from different places in the UK to lead workshops. It was a typical teacher conference, just hosted at our school, so was nice for us as we were "home"

It was so lovely to see people from other schools - and they were all in awe of how beautiful our school is it really reminded me of how lucky I am to work there. The campus is truly gorgeous and well looked after by the groundsmen. I'm going to send a box of chocolates (or maybe a cake from "the book"!) to their office on Monday

Poor N! SHe never gets a break, does she??

I'm so happy happy happy on my own at home with MN and TV and food.... all by myself tonight! Well, Q's here (just putting to bed soon in hope that he'll have a lie in for me tomorrow), but it's nice to have some alone time iyswim! I like having DH here, just like some time alone, too. You probably all like having dhs around all the time... I'm an odd duck, too

Oh and I'll have those roasted veg I guess - none of the other starters or mains sound good to me. And all of the desserts please

Star, don't worry about teeth! i know a couple of babies who had no teeth at all when they were one. Its one of those things that varies hugely

I am so tempted to buy that book now... CSWS i wonder how many sales you are responsible for?!

50ft... see what you mean about the menu. Yikes

Buy the book, ksal! Thanks for teeth reassurance.

I wish it was organized in some way that I could understand... it's all weird.
I wish they'd organized it by vegetable used or by flavour or something logical. I'm not liking the scattered nature....
I'm a BIT type-A (if you hadn't guessed) and can't deal with disorder very well....

Pistachio... 15 and 16 are on their way through at the moment, so Emma will soon be even stevens with your DS

Poor N. It's funny how come children seem to sail through the whole teething process and others really suffer. S really struggles too, but finally had a decent dinner tonight.

Star - I love being in on my own sometimes too. It's no reflection on dp, I just love having time alone.

Well, the chocolate chip cupcakes (not cookies, as I said earlier) go the thumbs up from both me and dp. He couldn't guess the secret ingredient either.

Star - Now that you're going to be using a registered CM, you know you should be able to use Childcare Vouchers don't you? It should save you a couple of thousand pounds a year, I would think. Your employer takes a certain amount out of your pay before you pay tax and NI and then pays it directly to the CM. You probably know all this but if you don't I'll send you the link.

I know many wil think this is a stupid question, but if it says cupcakes, can you just pour the whole thing into a cake tin and make it as a cake? Or does it need to be split up and cooked in small portions? I assumed cupcakes could be made as a cake, but then I thought maybe there's a reason they say cupcakes!

Thanks aubergenie - my employer does busy bees. They take 243 out of my pay before tax - I'm not sure what that means for my take home pay? But I'm hoping it all works out! Still wiating for the info from HR about what I need to register (payroll number, NI number, employer reference number). Frustrating as they haven't replied!! Strange because HR always replies straight away....

Star... make sure your DH gets the vouchers too. You can double the tax break that way

oh that sounds really nice - but is that allowed? I won't do anything illegal even loosely illegal. Not saying you'd suggest it, but even if it's frowned upon, I don't want to suggest it... if everyone does it and gov't is ok with it then we'll do it, too!