Courgettes, chocolate and dumpling.

Not altogether though!

I always like to have some baking done for the weekend in case we have any visitors in. Thursday is often when I do most of it but if we don't have too much on on a Saturday, I'll often make some more.

Todays baking was a mixture of the new and the old. I found a recipe in the latest BBC Good Food Magazine for Courgette & Lemon Cake so thought I'd try it out. I also made the chocolate cake from my very first post and a good old, traditional dumpling.

Now, my husband is a traditional kind of guy, and being a traditional kind of girl, that is the way I love him. We often joke that we were born in the wrong decade. We should have been living in the forties or fifties. I love all the elegant clothes the women wore then and love the whole emphasis on mums staying at home to cook, clean and, most importantly, look after the children. He too is a big fan of the feminine way of dress, the looking good for your husband and the looking after him after he has spent a hard day at the office.

When I first got married, one of my friends from University sent me an e-mail that has been doing the rounds on the internet, about rules for new wives, supposedly taken from a 1950s book. I wish I still had a copy of this, though I haven't searched online for it so it will be out there somewhere. It was meant as a joke and contained all the usual things like warming his slippers by the fire for him coming home and putting on a clean apron and a fresh slick of lipstick to meet him at the door. I found it amusing at the time too, but as time has gone on I have realised that so much of that IS helpful!

Too many women slip into bad habits. It's so easy to make excuses, especially with little ones to look after, about not having time to do your hair nice, put on a bit of make-up, or why bother with a nice outfit if the baby is going to be sick on it etc. I think there is a difference between vanity and simply wanting to look your best for the man you love. I'm not suggesting that I wear beautiful clothes every day but what I am saying is that I don't spend every day in baggy t-shirts and tracksuit bottoms. And yes, I do find myself putting on that fresh slick of lipstick when I know he is due in the door soon. And yes, I really do find that it makes a difference in our relationship.

And, going back to today's baking, my traditional man was not at all keen on the courgette cake, although I loved it. The good old fashioned dumpling was much more to his taste. And before anyone gets too witty, there are no similarities between me and the dumpling except for us both being traditional!!

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