incredible monster cake by Edie's mama Hannah, complete with lollipop eyeballs galore
Two little parties for Pablo's best best best friend Edie, one after school cupcakes in the park and the other a superhero pizza party at the Vestry House Museum. Supermen everywhere, and a rare opportunity for Pablo to scamper about with his lovely Montessori pals. Happy 4 beautiful Edes!
It's my birthday tomorrow!! Obviously the best gift going is another year with my scrumptious fam, and an obligatory waffle & strawberries breakfast tower. But here, for kicks, are the presents I'll be opening in my dreams...
1. Love Coconut by Honore des Pres so I can smell like an actual coconut. Essential.
2. Karen Walker sunglasses because her site is awesome, and I am lusting after about six different pairs. Go have a look-see if you dare...
3. War Is Over! poster You can download this poster for free in a zillion languages from the Imagine Peace site. Now if someone could just print it for me...and frame it...
Summer was teasing us for a couple of weeks, but now it has bid us farewell autumn is easing us in gently. Lots of sparkly, mild afternoons to run around in the leaves and get to grips with wearing jumpers again. We had a lovely last weekend with Nanna & Quinto before their return to Spain for the winter. After a morning at Coram's Fields we stumbled across an incredible French bakery, run by two enthusiastic and charming brothers, who showed us how they make raisin buns and gave us bags of free beignets whilst regaling us with tales of their family baking business in Cannes. Incredibly delicious and such a rare warm atmosphere. Highly recommended: Aux Pains de Papy. For god's sake buy some sacristans, like a hundred, and try not to eat them all at once. HEAVEN.
I basically only dress them in dungarees now. Can't help myself.
As we ambled back up to King's Cross, stuffed with croissants and brioche and with a french stick under each arm, we discovered the King's Cross Square Carnival in full swing. It would have been rude not to stay and brave the Helter Skelter, after which we headed up to Granary Square where the festival continued, celebrating the history of King's Cross with singing chimney sweeps, Victorian fairground attractions & some busty, dusty wenches.
I think I'm a little bit in love with Granary Square now, and the whole regeneration of King's Cross. The perfect juxtaposition of old and new makes living in this big stinky city feel a bit exciting.
And so, with back to school comes a return of the dreaded lunchbox. Another chore to add to the evening - or worse yet, morning - routine. In order to make the experience more of a challenge I tend towards obsessive health freakishness and insist on making life a thousand times more difficult by ensuring all snacks are home baked, no sugar allowed...and so on, until my head explodes. I so resent the overpriced, palm-oil filled, totally un-nutritious snacks so aggressively marketed to us mas, pas and kiddos, (and yes, this includes all the attractive organic carrot puffs and rice cakes) that I mostly refuse to buy them. The inevitable outcome is that I'm constantly caught short on the snack front, and there's only so many grapes, raisins and satsumas you can shovel down them. SO, on the off-chance I'm not alone in my predicament, I thought I'd have a stab at some easy, nutritious and lunchbox-friendly recipes.
leftover risotto (of any flavour, though I used Beetroot - and the best beetroot risotto recipe in town is this one)
an egg
breadcrumbs (you can buy these or stick some vaguely stale bread in the food processor)
Rapeseed oil, 500ml - 1 litre
So you've made a delicious risotto, yippee! But if you're anything like me you have made a bit too much to be eaten at one sitting, but too little to feed the whole family another meal. We always end up with one small tupperware full, languishing in the fridge. Not any more...
Arancini, which means "little oranges" in Italian, have got to be one of the least time consuming, most enjoyable ways to use up leftovers. Proper, traditional arancini back on their home shores tend to be stuffed with ragu or mozzarella, and you are very welcome to do so too, but regular old balls of any kind of risotto are just fab. The risotto is best if it's been left in the fridge overnight to get really stodgy. Heat oil to 170-190 degrees (best if you have a thermometer to check, but if not then give it about 5 mins and then chuck a breadcrumb in and make sure it sizzles instantly.) Then you simply roll the risotto into little balls, dip them to coat with beaten egg, roll them in breadcrumbs and deep fry. The whole process takes no longer than ten minutes, and is nice and quick to tidy up.
Considering they are filled with parmesan-smothered rice, these are understandably bloody delicious hot, but they are fantastic cold in a lunchbox too. Nice and filling, nutritious and reliably devoured. Even Indiana polished them off, and she likes to attempt survival on milk and bananas alone. And apart from the bit in direct contact with sizzling hot oil, they are a great one to make with kids, who love smooshing the rice into balls...or any shape they like!
fiercely independent but very affectionate, always bestowing unrequested kisses and cuddles...loves to play with dolls and coo over babies...loves to play "the screamy game" which involves a post-bath nude rampage around the flat with Pablo...still not many words but she is impeccable at making her will known regardless!
It's fair to say Ive been neglecting this blog the past month, but that's because it suddenly occurred to me that I was down to my last days with Pablo before he entered the school system and was no longer *mine*. Once school began he would see them more than me, which breaks my heart a little. So we've been making the most of the blissfully hot last summer days and traipsing to parks and museums and farms, trying to fill these final days with adventures together, generally leaving me too exhausted to string a sentence together. But it looks like I'm back in the blogging saddle, because yesterday this happened...
Sure, there will be nobody here nagging me to stop checking Instagram on my phone and play cars instead for the trillionth time, or whining that they absolutely must watch TV immediately or they won't be my friend anymore. But what about all the nonchalant "love you, mum!"s he throws my way, the cheeky remarks and chuckles and heart-melting dance routines to Singing in the Rain? I'm not sure I can handle the sudden cutback from seven full days a week of that to two. And thanks to slightly terrifying new laws I no longer have jurisdiction over his schedule, really, as the school expects him there every single day on pain of financial penalty. So no sneaky long weekends or extra days together. Well, I'll see what I can do...
I've been feeling pretty smug of late about not really wanting to buy anything. This is what an excess of sunshine can do for a girl - not that there is any such thing as an excess of sunshine. But then this happened, and it coincided with the sudden season change to rainy cold, and here I am again after things. Prepare yourself. These are so awesome. Having just invested in vile practical school boots for Pablo, instead of the lovely suede ones that Konch deemed completely impractical (ok, he was right, but I haven't recovered), I am keeping all eyes out for the "off-duty" shoes I now have an excuse to buy. French label Feiyue have come to the rescue with these badass tiger sneaks, in collaboration with Milk On The Rocks. £60 (eek!) from the divine Scandinavian Minimall. A must for any rad 4 year old boy...right?
London in the hot hot hot is infinitely preferable to London in a drizzle, but the seaside is even better. We took a spontaneous trip to Nanna & Quinto's for some impressive Sussex seaside time - too much ice cream, traditional funfair and giant fish & chips galore. Lots of fun and lots of sun. Nothing makes a kid (well, my kids) happier than an excuse for some public nudity, so the beach is always a winner, but we really hit the jackpot with the little old funfair - cheap and full of rides they loved, with not a single queue to kill our vibe. Shame on Legoland. Indy went on her first real funfair ride, and then insisted on going again...and again...and again. I've never seen her grin for so long, and watching her turn the corner and wave like royalty (again...and again...) strangely never got boring. What a difference a long, sunny summer makes! We are all brown as berries and feeling good, and haven't hopped on a plane once...
with nanna & quinto
Magical Epping Forest. The smalls were on another planet of joy just exploring, running through the undergrowth, picking blackberries and discovering dens. Pablo threw himself into tree climbing and scaling, and Indy pottered across logs and tottered down hills grinning. So amazing what a bit of freedom in the wild can do, even the not-so-wilds of Essex...so lucky to have this on our doorstep.
