Sorry for the long, long, delay in writing, but we’ve made absolutely no progress! We are both feeling under the weather at the moment, so got nothing done last weekend, and our hands are basically tied until payday (tomorrow!).
I’m planning on baking Sonny’s birthday cake tomorrow and icing it Friday or Saturday (it’s his birthday today – happy birthday! – and his party on Saturday), so I’ll post the results when it’s done. Fingers crossed it looks remotely like the picture!
Nothing like sticking with a theme, but superheroes seem to be in at our house. I’ve promised my brother that I’ll have a go at making a Spiderman cake for my nephew Sonny’s 5th birthday in a couple of weeks’ time. Sonny absolutely loves Spiderman and dresses in his little Spiderman outfit whenever he can.
I had a search online and found a few different Spiderman cakes with various designs. I found one I liked, and even though I’ll be seriously stretching my icing skills, if I can pull it off, it will look brilliant! I think I’ve been bolstered by the boot tops – I’ve somehow got the impression that enthusiasm and will can overcome lack of skill or knowledge.
At least this one has a step-by-step on YouTube. I’ve already bought the icing and the food colouring, just need to get a paintbrush and some toothpicks (seriously).
His birthday’s in a couple of weeks, so I’ll put up a photo of the result, whether it’s worthy or not.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baxoe8KYwcw]
Hope everyone’s stuffed themselves silly over the Easter weekend, I know we have!
Not much DIY done this weekend, only a bit of painting.
We had one of Barry’s brothers and his girlfriend over on Friday, and Barry cooked a lovely meal. On Saturday I baked (evidence on the right). No evidence is left at our house, as my mum came over on Sunday with her friend. Yesterday we had a Sunday dinner and my friend Louise came over and we finally met her boyfriend. Phew!
Somewhere in the middle there, we went to Ikea, only to find, shock horror, it’s actually closed on Easter Sunday! We consoled ourselves with TGI Fridays and went home.
Well, the new flooring arrives tomorrow, and I’m very excited! We are also going to Nando’s tomorrow, so Barry’s very excited! This is our kitchen floor as is – a bit industrial for my taste.
We’ve got the table and chairs I wanted from Argos; they’re winging their little way to us now (well, in the next 35 days). There’s a bit of a story behind this.
My mum came round for tea the other night and I had a fantastic menu planned: to start, grilled flat mushrooms filled with dolcelatte, with a balsamic glaze and small side salad. For the main event, a lamb tagine with La Kama spices, honey and fresh ginger, with a variety of fresh vegetables and a side of spiced couscous. For dessert, buns fresh from the oven, baked by my own fair hand.
Mum was supposed to arrive after 7pm, when she’d had her hair done and driven over to Bradford. In the meantime, I was going to get my skates on after work – jump on the bus, nip to Morrisons, dash round the shop and get home. Unpack the shopping, stick the tagine in, get changed, clean the bathroom, and start preparing the starter and dessert.
Instead, this is what happened: Mum text me at 4.30pm with the following:
Hi love i am in asda bradford do u need owt ? Hair cancelled x x
My heart rate immediately tripled and my work colleagues had to tell me to calm down. I replied:
Oh bugger, I’ve got to go to morrisons to get some shopping because I thought I had time!xx
I will get it here darl if u would like me to x x
My colleague Michelle T told me to just tell her what I wanted from the shop (thereby skipping the trip to Morrisons myself). I text the list back:
Would you please get: big flat mushrooms, dolcelatte, bag of baby spinach, lamb, courgettes, 1% (or semi skimmed) milk and a cauliflower? Oh, and a bottle of asti.xx
This is when it started falling apart, because the shop didn’t have everything I needed for my careful plans. She thought dolcelatte was a type of mushroom, and picked up cauliflower and broccoli pieces because they didn’t have a whole one. Trying to direct your mother to a very specific blue-veined cheese in a shop you don’t frequent, while trying to get home in time to beat her (be quicker than her, not hit her) is quite difficult to do.
In the end, she suggested that we just get a curry. We both agreed that a curry was, indeed, the best course of action, would be cheaper, and that she definitely still needed to bring two bottles of Asti back with her. I beat her back to mine, did a rush cleaning job, got changed and spoke to my brother before she got back to my house with the vino. Phew!
Anyway, she had been trying to buy us a kitchen table for three-and-a-half years as a housewarming gift, but we’d never had the space before. She’s taken pity on us, and is finally buying us the table and chairs. I realise now that this has nothing to do with the meal story, but I’ve kept it in anyway as an idea of what my life is actually like. I live on a knife edge. Hurray for future breakfasts in the kitchen!