Stressed Mum

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I recently began selling Jamie at Home products as a self-employed consultant. The concept is not unlike the old favourite Tupperware party. Get a few friends round for a drink and a chat and to hopefully buy some of the products on sale and the host gets commission to buy goods on the night, or bank the points to save up for something special.

The difference is you get to watch an exclusive DVD of Jamie Oliver cooking up a lovely recipe using all those must have products. So far I love it. Some friends have had parties for me and the home, kitchen and garden products are such good quality they practically sell themselves. The hosts are happy with their free stuff; I have an enjoyable evening, am kitting my kitchen out and earn commission too. I still have a couple of parties booked in but need to find a few new circles of people to hold parties for me. I think that will be the hardest part but worth the effort as I love all my new kitchen equipment and look forward to earning some money for a night out.  If you have any great ideas for getting new hosts then let me know.

I especially love the new outdoor products and I am getting some of these items together in anticipation of a lovely summer!

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. For Christians this is a time of self-denial and preparation for Easter. It lasts 40 days and represents the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for his public ministry.
As a child I gave up various things during Lent; sweets, biscuits or sugar in my tea. In my teens we all wanted to sit at lunch with the girl who gave up puddings for Lent so we could eat hers!
In past years I have given up wine (difficult!), cakes, chocolates etc. This year I want to do something which might make a difference to other people as well as to me so I looked at Christian Aid’s Count Your Blessings ideas for Lent http://www.christianaid.org.uk/images/count-your-blessings-2010.pdf
This involves thinking about how we live and how others live and contributing money for all the blessings we enjoy. For me it won’t just be about putting the money on one side to help others but I hope it will encourage me to appreciate what I have. I have printed off the calendar and made a start, maybe you will too.

I saw this on A Mothers Ramblings and loved it so thought I would share it with you. It originally came from American Mom in England.

I have only managed 37 so far and am unlikely to do most of the others so maybe I will have a go at my own list. I’ll share that too when I’ve done it.

1. Started your own blog (You’re reading it!)

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped (Never!!)

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child (or 4!!)

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt (No but seen a couple of good ones in Iceland)

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant (They don’t come much stranger than my family!!)

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance (why would I wish for that?)

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkelling (Snorkelling on The Great Barrier Reef – I’m so lucky!)

52. Kissed in the rain (A long time ago!!)

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theatre

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favourite childhood toy (My Barbie dolls)

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar (not very veggi!)

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone (No thanks)

78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book 

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve (Does been kissed by a stranger count?!)

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club                                  

93. Got a tattoo

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

 

I don’t actually think I want to do all 99 anyway! Most of the American ones are a no-no for me as I have never been to America and have no particular desire to go (sorry to all my American readers – nothing personal you understand!) I’m sure The Blue Lagoon in Iceland, where I have swum, is better than The Great Salt Lake!

Do let me know if you put this on your blog or have any great ideas for my list (be sensible, I’m not as young as I was!)

It has been a while since my last post. Life has been busy, and stressful. I have been ill and one of my daughters involved in a car accident, fortunately she is ok just a broken ankle.
I decided it was time to get back to my blog and back to baking so this post combines the two!
Latest fun thing for me to make is bagels. I have to follow a low fat diet at the moment and they are great for that. I have tried out different types of flour and different toppings and decided that I like fennel seeds as a topping and 75% white, 25% wholemeal mix for the flour (although all white is good too!).
I use 450g flour, 1tsp quick yeast, 1Tabsp sugar, 2 tsp salt and 300ml warm water to make the dough. My trusty Kenwood Chef makes short work of the kneading and then I leave the dough to rise for an hour.
The fun aspect is dropping the bagels into boiling water with three tablespoons of sugar dissolved in it. After the dough has risen and the bagels shaped (twirling them round the handle of a wooden spoon is quite fun too!) they are dropped, 3 or 4 at a time into the water. They rise up to the top and you turn them over. After a couple of minutes you lift them out, drain off any water, sprinkle them with yummy seeds if you like and then bake them for 25 minutes. Delicious!
Check out my photo and give them a try, they really are easy. Let me know how you get on

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Do you dread that question? I do. The answer is often “I have no idea, what do you want?” The problem with this is that often what they want involves a trip to the supermarket. No longer. I have decided to revolutionise mealtimes. (Slight exaggeration but it makes me feel good!) I have worked out a 3 step strategy.

Step 1 – Plan a menu in advance. This advice has been thrown at me over the years and I have chosen to ignore it but now I’ve tried it and, guess what? It works! I tried planning for a month at a time but this was too much. A week is ideal but even a few days ahead makes life simpler.

Step 2 – Write a shopping list. I have returned to online grocery shopping after a long break and it really does save time. It saves arguments too. ”Sorry we can’t have that, I’ll order the ingredients for next week” puts paid to long discussions and extra shopping trips. This strategy saves money too as you can’t pick up extras as you walk around the supermarket.

Step 3 – Be flexible. Sometimes I don’t have time to make what was planned or I put the shopping order off for a couple of days and improvise from the cupboard, sometimes the family bring extras for feeding and you use up ingredients planned for another day. I have discovered that this doesn’t matter. So long as everyone is fed and happy it is easy to get back on track.

Ok. Lasagne and dough balls on the menu for tonight so I’d better get to work.

This week has been particularly hectic. My daughter has been frantically trying to complete her course work and I have been staying up until 1 and 2 in the morning offering support, collecting printouts from the study and generally being blamed for anything not going according to plan. This means that I have got even further behind with my A level English course and with the exams looming I have been spurred into action by an email from my tutor. I am not sure I can remember why I embarked on this particular journey. I enjoy reading and writing but writing about reading is such hard work! Never mind! I have an AS Level and am determined to get the A2 in English Language and Literature. Never saw this on any list of things to do before you’re 50!

It’s been a busy few days. Manchester City beat Blackburn Rovers 3-1 on Saturday with goals from Caicedo, Robinho and Elano, a very enjoyable afternoon out in the sun. I always enjoy going to see City but, obviously, it’s so much better when we win. Luckily our home record this season has been excellent so many more good days than bad!
I have also been doing menu planning for May. I find it so much easier if I have a plan for meals, both for shopping and cooking. I have usually planned for a week at a time but thought I would try planning for the month this time. I can’t think of enough meals! I have cooked almost every day for the past 25 years and still need inspiration. The problem is everyone likes different things. The list of favourites that everyone will eat is short and doesn’t include many veggie options (for me). Anyway I am eating out tonight and there is a chicken casserole in the oven for everyone else so I will have another think tomorrow. Any ideas will be welcome!

The bread making has been going well. I made Tiger bread this week. My children love Tiger bread but I did not think I could make it at home. It has taken quite a bit of research and trial and error but I have finally come up with a recipe that works. The trick is in the paste made with rice flour, yeast and sesame oil which you coat the bread with before the final rising. Rice flour does not contain gluten so the paste does not rise with the bread but cracks to give the characteristic appearance of Tiger bread; the paste also browns more than the loaf when cooked.
I used a basic recipe for a white loaf, using sesame oil in place of the olive oil I normally use when making bread. During the first rising I made a paste with 100g rice flour, ¼ tsp salt, 1tsp sugar, ½ tsp quick yeast, 1 Tab sp sesame oil and 150ml warm water. When the loaves and rolls were shaped I spread the paste over them and put them to rise again then baked as normal. The results were very tasty but short-lived!
If you try this yourself please let me know how you get on.

When I decided to join the 21st century and write a blog I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to write about. I still have no idea. I do know that I like to write. I also like to cook, read, garden, watch Manchester City and sew. I do not like to clean, tidy, wash, iron…. you get the picture. I may write about cleaning, tidying etc. as I do those (almost) every day. I am more likely to write about the things I love.
The things I love do, of course, include my husband and four children so I may write about them too, but only if they do something interesting!
Currently the thing I love best is my new Kenwood Chef. My Mum had one of these when I was growing up but I was never initiated into its mysteries. I recently did some research (Google and talking to friends!) and decided to buy one with the proceeds of a few days teaching in March. I am a convert. I have chopped, sliced and mixed. I have made bread (lots), pasta, soup and cakes. I think I may be addicted to bread making. Looking for and trying new bread recipes takes time but the end result is very satisfying so I am trying to collect together a good selection of recipes. I will post on here any good ones I find.