Just call me Martha!

After our decadent weekend in the fancy schmancy hotel, THIS weekend was it's polar opposite. The yin to last week's yang, if you like. Actually, now I think about it, polar just about nails the weather - I mean snow, FFS? It's almost Easter!! It's just so wrong AND we're supposed to be caravilla bound in a few days. Although looking outside now I feel quite faint just thinking about it...and not in a good 'Can't wait for the holidays' kinda way, a 'What the hell was I thinking? Is there any way out of it?' sorta way. Yikes!

 Anyway where was I? Ah yes, the weekend. Well, I channeled a smidgen of Martha Stewart with a pinch of Mary Berry, and I before I knew it I was rustling up chicken broccoli bakes (one for dinner, one for the freezer), vegetable soup AND the piece de resistance -my very first lemon drizzle cake. Who's the mammy!? If I'd had The Archers on, the transformation would have been complete.

To be fair though, this time it WASN'T Lady Mary who inspired me to dust off my Kenwood, it was in fact my fellow blogger Sarah Miles, who writes the fabulous blog Hello Wall, and if that wasn't enough, she pens the award winning foodie blog 'What would Nigella do?' as well. (Honestly, some people! If I didn't love her, I'd hate her.)

Despite the fact that it wasn't Lady Mary's recipe for Lemon Drizzle Cake, (it's her Bake Off chum Paul Hollywood's), she made it look so easy and the pictures were so yummy that I was dying to give it a whirl. Also, it just so happens that the Mothership is very partial to a slice of lemon cake, so I made two - one for us, and one for Herself-and they were both hoovered up in no time at all- okay, mostly by my greedy offspring, but even so.

Tah-dah!

Now, before you examine MY less than stellar pictures, and then compare them unfavourably to Sarah's (I KNOW you're going to-don't deny it), I've a couple of disclaimers. First of all, I'd no actual real life lemon, waxed or otherwise, on the premises, and it was so Baltic outside there was NO WAY I was going out specially, so I just used lemon juice instead. And hey, there's lemon curd in there too, so I reasoned, what's a bit of lemon zest between friends?
Secondly, I baked them in too big a tin- which means they look as if they'd been sat on but they hadn't....not on my watch anyway. (Note to self- you clearly CAN'T gauge the tin size just by looking, so just bloody measure it.)

Later on that evening, carried away with all this domestication, and heady with my baking success (yes I AM deeming it that), I cracked open the Villa Maria and my new Cath Kidston knitting set.....but tragically that all ended in  tears.... but there's another story for another day.
Happy Monday peeps and chin up, Lents nearly over, Emma  xxx

PS Final Call!!! Tomorrow is the very last day that you can vote in the MAD Blog Awards 2013- I'm a finalist in the Family Life category and I'm shamelessly hoping you'll consider taking a wee minute and voting for me- I'd be so grateful. (If you have already-thank you so much!)


PPS-I've joined up with Sarah Miles at Hello Wall today-go on over and take a peek at the rest! 

Friday Quicktakes

He hasn't even the decency to be handsome!

1. Now,  I know I'm a bit behind everyone else here- I was playing catch up on the Sky+-but did you see the season finale of 'Mr Selfridge'? What about that dirty dog Groves? Talk about having your cake and eating it! Never has a character gone down in my estimation so much. Poor Miss Mardle-she gave her best years to him and he turned out to be a cad and a bounder! ( See-I'm completely in the zone, insult wise). I'm just so glad she held on to her last shred of dignity and told him to sling his hook in the end. She's well shot of him and I'm just hoping that he gets in comeuppance in season 2. ( There I go again! Comeuppance-a most versatile, yet tragically underused word. )

Mary and her Aga...I just know we'd be besties!

2. Staying on the TV theme for a moment, I seem to have developed a bit of a girl crush on Mary Berry after watching her two part life story. Although in relation to Ms Berry, it seems tote inapproprope to even call it a girl crush- a lady crush just seems much more fitting.
 The elegant way she pops a teeny tiny forkful of something yummy into her mouth, declares it delicious...and then puts that fork down! And you know looking at her that she's won't be sneaking back to fill her Tupperware with the leftovers. No indeed, she's seamlessly moved on, already detached from that plateful and on to the next delicious mini-bite.
No way could I do that in a million years! As soon as that camera was turned off,  I'd be shoveling that Victoria sandwich into me like it was going out of fashion, and then covering the rest with cling for later. Born greedy, I'm afraid, and just one of a whole myriad of reasons why I'd never be asked to do a cooking show.

3. Speaking of which, inspired by Mary Berry, I dug out my Aga book, which was written by the woman herself and shamefully underused. When we moved here, I inherited the Aga but I just didn't 'get it' at all. It seemed temperamental, over rated, and unreliable, but  gradually over the years I've grown to love it...just like everyone said I would. Now we're moving, but sadly the Aga isn't, so better late than never I'm getting stuck into a few of Mary's recipes.
For example, would you believe that I'd never made a lasagne before? Shocking, I know. Someone once told me it was very complicated and that put me right off and anyway, we used to live near a bakery that sold the most gorgeous 'home made' ones at a very reasonable price, so of course I reasoned, 'Why bark when you've got a dog?'
 But I was inspired when I saw Mary B make it, so I used her recipe and made it myself, took a little teeny weeny forkful and pronounced it tote amaze! (I know what you're thinking-self praise is no praise at all, but it WAS delish!) The moral of the story? Don't be scared by lasagne or any other recipe-just go for it. (Except possibly if it has the word 'terrine' or 'roulade' in the title- that IS scary.)

4. Its 'Helping Others Day' in school today- a day entirely focused on the children raising money for Trocaire- a most worthy cause. There's all sorts of activities going on- Cormac made Shreddies buns last night (a little twist on Rice Crispies), to sell in the tuck shop, and the school has called an amnesty on all Lenten promises for the day.
There's the tombola stall, where Cormac was delighted to win a travel iron several years ago, and the jumble sale where the children enjoy buying back not only the old tat that I've donated, but other people's tat as well. For instance, last year Rory was delighted to gift me with a rusty colander, which unbelievably, he'd actually outbid someone else for.
 There's also lots of sponsored activities going on- Rory's class is doing a sponsored hop, skip and score. (No I'm not sure what it is, either.) What I do know,  is that it involves exercise which isn't Rorys bag AT ALL, so when he brought home his sponsorship sheet he announced he wasn't doing it.
'Teacher said you don't have to!', says he. '
Oh indeed you are!' I told him. 'It's your duty to raise as much money as possible for Trocaire..etc etc'.
It turned out he didn't want to miss all the 'fun', which on further investigation translated as 'chocolate'. He actually argued that he could raise more money spending all his pocket money in the tuck shop- essentially doing a sponsored 'eat'. They say that God loves a trier...but he's still hop, skipping and scoring, as well.

5. It was Loverboy's birthday during the week- he got quite a few cards, including a beautiful home made one from Anna and a  regifted Tigger one from Rory, who just rubbed out his best friend Lara's name, and inserted his own.(Simple but effective.) My personal favourite though was this one from our good friends N and P..... Well it made me laugh!

 6. Finally, this weeks boogie in the car seat. Given the hideously awful weather today (snow- WTF???) it had to be something upbeat and happy. So here's a little bit of summer for you-Take it away Katrina! Happy Friday peepsxxx


PS If you haven't already, please take a moment and vote for me in the Family Life Category of the MAD Blog awards before 26th March- Thank you so muchxxx

My Not So Guilty Pleaure

I'm completely and utterly addicted to Desert Island Discs. (Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd write!) In case you don't know, it's that programme on Radio 4 that my Ma listens to. The one where someone outstanding in their field has to choose the 8 records they would take with them if they were to be cast away on a desert island, and the reasons for their choices. Along with Women's Hour and The Archers, she's been urging me to tune in for years.
 Now, I'll be honest with you- I've kinda always resisted, desperately clinging to the fantasy that Radio 4 was too old for me. Oh yes, I may have quietly left Radio 1 years ago, sidestepping seamlessly into Radio 2, but Radio 4? Surely not.
I've been known to turn it on occasionally. Usually in response to a pinging text message from Herself, brusquely ordering me to 'Turn on Women's Hour right now!'. Then afterwards, she inevitably follows up with a phonecall to see what I thought/check that I was listening. Winging it is not an option. Recently she rang me saying 'Put on Desert island Discs, she's that gay one on you like, that one who tells you what to wear naked!' Turns out it was it was Gok Wan. (and I  DO so so love him)
But then recently, my good friend Jennifer, who used to live in Glenavy, but now lives in sunny California (I simply can't understand why!),confided that SHE  loves D I D and downloads the lot as podcasts. Well, I could deny it no longer- she's actually a few years younger than me, terribly smart and generally all round cool- so wasting no more time, I popped onto the Radio 4 website and downloaded my first ever podcasts....and I'm absolutely LOVING them.
Usually on my morning walks, or on the rare occasions I'm in the car alone,  I listen to my iPod playlists (such as the imaginatively named like 'Emma's Music to weep quietly to' and 'PMT Songbook' )whereas now, I'm  hearing all sorts of interesting people talk about their lives and listening to their (much better!) music choices. This week alone I've heard Alfie Boe, Martin Clunes, Craig Brown, Mary Berry, Martina Navratilova, John Bishop, Tim Minchin, Sir David Attenborough, Brian Cox, Bear Grylis, Tom Jones and Cath Kidson. And whether I'm a fan or not, I take something inspirational away from every single one.
And just between you and me, I think I may have developed a bit of a girl crush on the show's presenter Kirsty Young- that deep voice, her calm way of drawing someone out, the way she's clearly done her homework on each and every one, that deep voice....
So it looks like I'm a born again Radio 4 convert, doesn't it? Next thing you know I'll be extolling how the Archers is much more sizzling than the new Dallas. (Erm, on second thoughts, possibly not...) But now I'm afraid it's time to love you and leave you... Martin Sheen and our Kirsty are waiting, you know!