Miscellaneous Monday

~Way back in May, our dishwasher packed in. We called in the appliance repair man who said it wasn't worth fixing as the repair would cost almost as much as a new machine. So we thought we'd survive without it and get a new machine after the summer. Then, when we were about ready to fork out for it, the oven broke and that was a much bigger priority to get fixed!  I did feel very virtuous washing all those dishes by hand, but I must say, I am delighted that our new machine was fitted last week! Hooray!!!! My dishes are gleaming. I'd forgotten how clean they get in the dishwasher!

~Today is the first day of the school half-term holidays. The best bit is that my beloved has taken the week off work too. 

~The boys and I spent the morning today at my brother's house. The boys played with their cousins while my sister-in-law and I sat and had tea, scones and cake with our old flat-mate who is on holiday down here for a few days. When I first came to the city I moved into her flat. She was a year ahead of me at University and was studying English Literature and Scottish Ethnology (Scottish cultural studies!). I stayed in the same flat until I got married three years later, and we had become such good friends that I asked her to be my bridesmaid.

When I moved out, my brother's then girlfriend (and my future sister-in-law), needed somewhere to stay and so moved into my space. These are the tight-knit circles of our Scottish churches! 

A year later my flat-mate was married, some other girls moved in with my sister-in-law and then 18 months later she was married too. We used to joke that there was something special about the flat which meant that all girls who stayed in it would soon be wed! 

It was lovely to see her again. Although we keep in touch by Facebook, as she and her family (2 boys and a girl) stay up north, we don't get to meet up very often.

~Today was a really, really autumnal day. Cold and very, very wet!

~Tomorrow the boys are going for a sleepover at their cousins' house. Excited doesn't even begin to cover it! :0)

Gaelic word of the day:

caraid (car-adj) - friend

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A lovely package

Last week, when I had finished my Recipe of the Week, I emailed the company who make the baguette I used in that recipe. I mentioned about my blog and the boys with allergies. I received a lovely email back from their marketing department asking if they could mention my blog on their social networking sites! They also offered to send is a few samples of their products. Alasdair is already a big fan of their Sweet Breakfast Rolls.

The parcel arrived this afternoon.

Alasdair's little face was a picture when we opened the box and the first thing at the top of the box was a packet of Sweet Breakfast Rolls! He kept handing them to me while we were looking at everything else, like he was trying to say, 'Come on then mummy, open these!'

Gaelic word of the day:

bracaist (brac-asht) - breakfast

Now that it's written,  I've got a funny feeling this may already have been a word of the day. Oh well, if so, repetition helps with remembering!

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Recipe of the Week - Custard Creams

It's back to a sweet recipe again this week. I know most of my recipes so far have been sweet ones, but it's sweet things that are much harder to find when you are on a special diet and so they are much more appreciated.

These little biscuits are not like the Custard Cream biscuits you buy in the shops. The name comes from the fact that there is custard powder in the mix and butter-cream sandwiching them together. This is one of the many cakes/biscuits my mum used to make when we were growing up. I have adapted it to make it suitable for the boys' allergies. If you are wanting to make these with wheat-flour then the quantities are slightly different, so I have added these at the bottom.

Although there are three different stages to making these, don't let that put you off, as they are not time-consuming stages!

Firstly you will need:

8oz dairy-free margarine

3oz icing sugar

6oz Dove's Farm Wheat-Free Self Raising Flour

3tbsp Custard Powder*

-Beat the margarine and icing sugar well together with a mixer.

-Add the flour and custard powder and continue to mix until it is smooth, like a very soft dough consistency.

-Flour you hands well and make little balls of dough, placing them on a greased baking tray.

-Press down each ball gently with a fork. You don't want them to be too flat because they don't really rise when cooking. Don't squash them down on the tray too much either, or they will stick there after cooking.

-Bake in the oven at 170C for around 20 minutes, until they are lightly golden.

-Let the biscuits cool on the tray for about 10 minutes before gently lifting them onto a cooling rack.

Now you need:

 3oz dairy free chocolate

-Melt the chocolate.

-Once the biscuits are cool enough, usually only about 10 minutes after transferring them to the rack, dip the end of each biscuit into the chocolate.

-Place the biscuits onto a sheet of foil for the chocolate to set.

For the final stage I recommend Betty Crocker's Ready-Made Butter-Cream! 

The recipe for this butter-cream has recently changed and is now dairy-free. It's great to have on standby for things like this. You won't obviously need a whole tub for this, probably only a quarter. Keep the rest in the fridge for when you make a Victoria Sponge.

Back to the biscuits,

-Sandwich two biscuits together with about a teaspoon of butter-icing.

(If you would rather make your own icing then use about 2oz margarine and 6oz icing sugar.)

Footnotes:

*Make sure you use Custard Powder and not Instant Custard, which will have milk in it. I'm not sure if all brands of Custard Powder will be wheat & dairy free either, but I know that at the moment I am using Bird's Custard Powder which is suitable.

If you want to make this with wheat flour then use only:

6oz margarine

2oz icing sugar

6oz plain flour

2tbsp custard powder.

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Wordless Wednesday (kind-of, well not really at all!)

I have been putting the news channel on the tv every hour or so today, to see the amazing rescue of the trapped Chilean miners. 

Wow. 

Every time another one was winched up and reunited with family was just so special.

I miss my husband when he is away working up north for five days. I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like for those people having their loved ones buried alive for 69 days!

The really special thing was seeing so many of them giving thanks to God for keeping them.

Now, after all that, I feel slightly shallow moving onto some party pictures, but I'm sure the first things those miners want to do is return to normal family life, so here we go.

Just a few wee snaps of Calum's party last Friday.

First we had a little bit of Wii Sports Resort

This was followed by a treasure hunt where they each had the instructions to build a wee Lego model. With each clue they found some of the pieces for their own model. At the end they all sat down to build their models.

Then there was Pass the Parcel - 'Let me see, let me see!'

The next Lego challenge was to build a little racer that we would race in the kitchen to see whose was the fastest.

Here they all are lined up at the start of the race. 

In keeping with both the Lego theme and the Star Wars theme from his actual birthday, I made some Lego Star Wars cupcakes. 

At bedtime, Calum & his friend (and David) got to sleep in James' room because he was on a sleepover too, and watched a DVD on the portable DVD player. 

There's little Alasdair at the bottom going in to see what they are all up to!

Oh yes, and don't forget the party bags. An assortment of Lego stuff and Star Wars stuff. 

(The little sticks at the bottom are those snap and glow ones. They are kind of like light sabres when they glow!)

Gaelic word(s) of the day:

co-là-breith (coe-laa-bre) - birthday

co-là-breith sona (coe-laa-bre sona) - happy birthday

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New Slippers

The other day David was choosing some new slippers. He's a big Buzz Lightyear fan just now so these were the perfect ones for him!

Then, just below them in the shop, we saw these little ones for Alasdair. 

It's Rex from Toy Story.

They were just too cute to resist!

Gaelic word(s) of the day:

sliopairean ùr (slup-ar-an oor) - new slippers

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Miscellaneous Monday

Firstly, thank you so much to Denise at Light, Liberty and Learning for giving me this award. How exciting!

We've all been fighting a bit of a bug in our house this weekend. First to go down was little Alasdair, who started with a high temperature and miserable night on Wednesday night/Thursday. Well, I suppose David had a nasty cough the week before that was keeping him up through the night, but David being David kept on going and didn't stop! 

Friday afternoon was Calum's wee party and his best friend was here for a sleepover. Like I said before, there was lots of Lego fun! James was also on a sleepover at one of his own friend's.

Saturday afternoon we took Calum and his friend to another friend of their's birthday party. When they came out they were both totally washed out looking and Calum was complaining of a sore head. We picked James up and he too was white as a sheet and feeling unwell. When we got back home James and Calum slept from then until Sunday lunchtime!

They are on the mend now and I've got a bit of a sore throat, ear and head. It's not so bad really. I'm just taking things easy today. Monday is my busy sort the house out day and I've only done about half of my Monday chores but that's all I can face today. There is always the rest of the week to catch up.

 Now, I'm supposed to reveal seven facts about myself before passing the above award on.

Hmmmm..... 

(1) Ok, my favourite colour is purple but my favourite colours to wear are black and red, because I think they suit me best.

(2) When I was little my friends all had girl baby dolls but I only wanted a boy one. A sign of things to come, I think!

(3) This month it is 15 years since I fell for my husband and knew he was the man for me. 

(4) Apparently he fell for me the exact same weekend but it took him another 3 months to pluck up the courage to do anything about it!

(5) I love autumn, the way the trees look just now and autumn walks.

(6) I also love winter time, winter walks and coming home to a cosy house. In fact, I love every season at the start of it. I am thankful that we live somewhere with distinct seasons for us to enjoy. Still, I think autumn is my favourite because it promises so much.

(7) I have two brothers (no sisters); three nephews (no nieces); four sons (no daughters). See a pattern here?!

And to pass the award on to some blogs that I love.

Homemaker's Heart

No Place Like Home

Where Your Treasure Is

A Sailing Journey

I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls

These are blogs by ladies who have the same sort of outlook on life that I do!

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Recipe of the Week - Vegetable & Bean Bake

This week, I think it is time for a slightly healthier offering than last week's recipe! We have had several weeks of cake, so now it's the turn of a savoury dish.

We hardly ever have meat-free meals in this house. When we have pasta for dinner it is usually the type stuffed with ham. When we have pizza there will be some form of meat in the topping. This is largely due to my traditional man. He's not a fan of meat-free dinners, and now, neither are his boys!

None-the-less, I was inspired to create this dish by a similar dish on offer at the congregational lunch at church on Sunday. Being the vegetarian option at a church full of traditional men, there was plenty left over, and that was when I was offered a portion. It was lovely. So this week I thought I'd try it out while my man was away working up north! Ha ha, cunning plan. 

It went down a treat with my boys too. When I placed it on the table James said, 'Mmm, that looks lovely.' Even Calum, not known for his love of vegetables, cleared his plate. I think this was due to my clever addition of beans, which he loves. 

I was also able to try out this new gluten free baguette that I found in the supermarket last week. It is by Dietary Specials and was lovely. It had a really nice texture, just like a 'normal' baguette. 

So, onto the recipe.

Although I'm specifying the vegetables we used, these were simply what I had in and you could easily substitute whatever other vegetables you fancy.

6oz dried beans, or tinned beans

(I used 3oz haricot beans and 3oz black eyed beans, again add what beans you prefer)

1 red onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

4 large carrots, cut into batons

150g pack green beans

150g pack baby corn

1 medium head of broccoli, chopped into quite small florets

1 tin chopped tomatoes

3tbsp tomato puree

2tbsp sugar

2tsp ground coriander

2tsp paprika

good handful of chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

2 gluten-free baguettes

olive oil

- If you are using dried beans you need to either (a) soak them overnight, or (b) boil them in water for about 20 minutes and then soak for a couple of hours in the same water. Drain, put fresh water over them and boil for another 10 minutes or so. I go for (b), then your beans are warm and ready to add.

-Put your carrots in a steamer to cook them slightly, for about 10 minutes.

-If you have a multi-level steamer then add the layer with the broccoli for the last 5 minutes and give the baby corn and green beans an even shorter steam. You don't want the veg too soft but you want to take the crunch out of them because this won't be too long in the oven.

-If you only have one level in your steamer, like me, then just keep the carrots warm somewhere while doing the rest. Or I suppose you could use your microwave, but I don't have one so can't advise on timings!

-Right. While your veg is steaming, soften the onion and garlic in a little oil in a large pan.

-Add your drained beans to this, heating them through if you have gone for option (a) or tinned beans.

-Now add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, sugar, coriander and paprika and heat through.

-Add all of your vegetables, chopped parsley and about 4 tablespoons of the water from under the steamed vegetables (or plain boiled water).

-Transfer all this to an oven-proof dish.

-Slice up the baguettes and arrange round the top of the mixture.

-Drizzle some olive oil over the baguettes and place in an oven at 180c for about 10-15 minutes, until the bread is starting to brown. Not too long or it will go too hard.

-Serve with lots of lovely fresh rocket or a green salad.

I also thought this would be lovely with thinly sliced potatoes on the top instead of the bread, kind of like a hotpot. Or you could add some scones, like a cobbler. I'm now thinking I might add some chopped bacon to it when I make it for my beloved aswell!

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Bringing up boys

Anyone who has ever scrolled down to the very bottom of my blog will have noticed my little bookshelf down there. These are books that I have either recently read or am currently reading. I plan, one day, to give a wee review of what I've liked about these books, and any others I read. Today though, I thought I'd just mention one of them as it deals with stuff I face every day in my houseful of boys!

That book is, Bringing up Boys by Dr James Dobson.

I'm not going to review the whole book in this post, just mention a couple of things that have stuck with me.

For example, I have noticed with each of my boys that they seem to take longer to begin talking than girls the same age. I'd kind of thought this might be partly due to the fact that they are learning two languages. I speak Gaelic to them all the time and my husband speaks English. Because I am with them all day, they obviously begin speaking Gaelic before their English comes on. Interestingly enough, from the time they start trying to talk, they know the difference between the two languages and which is being spoken to them. They rarely mix up the words of each and they have already made the language association between people. They would, from the beginning, speak Gaelic to my parents and English to my in-laws.

Anyway, I seem to be digressing here slightly! In his book, Dobson claims that there is a biological reason for boys speaking later than girls. It's connected to which part of the brain controls speech. In females it is on both sides, in males only on the one. This is also why, apparently, men often take longer to regain speech after a stroke.

Here's another thing. In our house, if I leave a basket of ironing on the stairs to be taken up later, you can guarantee that each and every boy in this house will walk right past that basket without picking it up. The same goes for if the ironing has been placed in the boy's room. It won't make it into the drawers until that boy is asked to do so. I've spoken to my brother's wife about this (a mum of 3 boys) and the same rings true in her house. Dobson says that this is not because the boy is lazy but simply because that is just not the way a boy thinks. It's not a priority to him (this goes for big fully grown boys too!) the same way it is for a woman. I found this quite reassuring!

And girls are so much more emotional!! My goodness! David (4) had a friend here playing with him the other day and I heard her crying from the kitchen. I came through, expecting some harm to have befallen her, and it turned out David had put some blocks on Alasdair's lorry that she had wanted to do! If David had been in that position with one of his brothers he would probably just have jumped on him (which I know is not the way to solve anything, but is an example of how differently they react to things!)

One final thing to mention just now, and I had a prime example of this last night, is that when a boy is engrossed in something and you are asking him to do something, it might seem like he is acknowledging you, but it's just not going in there. Last night as Calum was building some Lego creation, I asked him to put some stuff in the bin when he was done. Later when he was done with his Lego, the stuff was still on the floor. Dobson says that what I should have done was touch him on the shoulder and get his full attention first, then give the directions.

These are just a couple of little things, but I found them really interesting. We hear so much about how boys and girls are the same when they are so obviously not! I want to let my boys be boys and grow up to be strong men. Not the weak men that feminists would have them be.

I'm not saying that I'll bring them up to think that women are only here to look after them, far from it. I'll make sure they know how to pull their weight, iron their own shirts, cook dinner for their wives when needed etc. I'm just saying that boys and girls were created quite differently and we shouldn't expect them both to be the same.

Gaelic word of the day:

balach (as it looks, just remember the ch!) - boy

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Miscellaneous Monday

-Birthday boy is now counting down the days until this Friday when his best friend is coming round for their very first sleep-over! He is sooo excited. We were going to have him round this past weekend but we had a dentist appointment in the afternoon. It means his birthday treats are spread out longer! Not only is his best friend coming round but so are his cousins, who are pretty much on a par with being best friends. We are planning an afternoon of Lego, games and cupcakes. I am sure there will also be some Lego games on the Wii, followed, perhaps, by a quiet showing of the new Lego movie, Clutch Powers. Can you see a common thread here?!

-We have more viewers coming to see the house tomorrow lunchtime, so I foresee a morning of frantic cleaning. Everything is tidy just now but I need to wash the floors, hoover round and clean the bathroom. There is absolutely NO point in cleaning the bathroom tonight because, no matter how much you tell them, little boys and bathrooms are NOT a good combination. I shall spare you the details!

-Oh yes, and I finally sat down and started reading my new Nigella book at the weekend. When I have a new cookbook I like to sit with a notebook and note down recipes I want to try, with their page numbers marked down too. Then when I'm done I don't think, 'now what was I going to try from this book?' My notebook is filling up fast!

Gaelic word of the day:

glan (glun) - clean

salach (sal-ach) - dirty

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Calum's Birthday

Saturday 2nd October 2010 was our sweet-natured, Lego-loving Calum's 8th birthday.

I've got quite a few photos of the day to get through, so I'll (mostly) let the photos tell the story!

His first present was opened on his 'birthday eve' as the boys call it. He chose to open this one from his cousins. Lego = happy boy.

These are some more of his presents on the birthday morning. 

I found this cute Dennis the Menace costume on sale in TKMax. This was given to him by James and David. 

Korky took part in the celebrations with his new friend, Sliggy, given to Calum by little Alasdair. (This was my half finished project I shared last week!) 

Calum wanted a Star Wars night, so we all dressed up as Star Wars characters for dinner.

Here are Anakin and Yoda. 

And joined by Darth Sidious (I'm not too up on my Star Wars spelling! I can't confess to being the biggest Star Wars fan but what choice do I have in this house but to join in!?)

 A hungry Darth whats-his-name.

And a hungry Anakin, before going completely over to the Dark side (he was purposefully not smiling!) 

And little Yoda. 

Now, I bet you can't wait to see who I was. 

True, female characters are few and far between,

so I was,

Princess Leah of course! 

My beloved chose to be Hans Solo, because Hans loves Leah, but he couldn't think of a costume so we just pretended he was Hans.

Calum wanted a flying saucer cake. 

Made with last week's Victoria Sponge recipe, baked in a bowl.

Lego sets already built. 

From Auntie Anna 

From granny and grandad 

From his cousins 

From mam and dad 

As well as Lego, Calum loves Land Rovers and would love to have one when he is older. 

What's that?

You want to see Princess Leah again?

Oh, Ok.

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