Recipe of the Week - 'Blood' Soup

Ah, now, don't worry. There is no blood whatsoever in this recipe! The name is just a result of the joys of living with boys, and the delight they take in the yuckiest things! 

The soup is actually made with sweet potato and beetroot, but thanks to it's vibrant colour, the first time my boys tried this they said it looked like blood. Far from putting them off trying it, it made them more eager to do so! And ever since then it has been known as Blood Soup in this house.

You will need:

3 large sweet potatoes

a similar amount of uncooked beetroot as sweet potato. (Sizes of the beetroot vary so much so it's hard to say how many you will need)

1 onion

1 clove garlic

about 1 pint vegetable stock

~Chop the onion and garlic and soften in a pan with a little oil.

~Peel and roughly chop the sweet potato and beetroot into cubes, and add to the pan.

~You might want to put some rubber gloves on to chop the beetroot, unless you want to end up with what I read Nigella describe once as 'Lady Macbeth hands'!

I don't tend to bother though. It does wash off - eventually!

~Soften the veg for about five minutes and then pour over the stock.

~You may need more than a pint, depending on how big your sweet potatoes and beetroot were, but you want to have enough to cover the veg, as below.

~Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes, until the veg is nice and soft.

~Season to taste and blend until smooth with a hand held blender.

This soup is so bold you don't need any fancy garnishes on it.

And it's really more of a purpley colour than a blood-red colour!

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W.I.P. Wednesday

I don't really want to show too much of my current Work in Progress because it's part of my mum's Christmas present, but it's such a lovely colour I wanted to share it. It reminds me of a sort of 1940s vintage pinky purple. I promise to share the finished project after Christmas, but my mum does keep up to date with my blog so I don't want to spoil the surprise!

This is another part to it.

Here, though, is my finished all-in-one-wrap-around scarf, my WIP from a couple of weeks ago. Photos taken by my biggest boy and, of course, including my littlest boy.

(I realise now that you can't even see the scarf here but hey-ho!) 

My main WIP this week is planning for my handsome four year old's pirate party on Saturday, when he will become my handsome five year old. I seem to spend my life planning for parties these days! Still, I love every minute of it.

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Respect, Responsibility and Obedience Reward Chart

Firstly, can I say how chuffed I am with my blog's autumn makeover! I wasn't sure if I would bother at first, because in the summer, I spent hours agonising over the different backgrounds before I decided which one I wanted. No such troubles this time. I knew straight away which one I wanted. The boys all love it too. Every time I open the blog with Alasdair on my knee he points at the little scarecrow and smiles! 

Moving on, I received an email this morning from Christian Stay at Home Mums (sorry, Moms) telling me about their new reward chart for Respect, Responsibility and Obedience. I thought it sounded like a really good idea.

We don't have reward charts in our house any more. The boys have various chores to do, and I am thankful that they do them without any form of bribery, although please don't imagine that they do them with a spring in their step and a cheerful demeanour every time! That is certainly not the case, and there is often some amount of sighing to be heard when it is time for someone to set the table or tidy something away when they would much rather be playing Lego! Still, the chores get done, without much fuss, and that's what matters to me.

I thought this reward chart sounded good because it deals with attitude as well as just the things that need to be done. I like the idea of the boys using their own initiative and not having to be nagged into doing something. I like the idea of them showing respect, especially for each other (my middle two boys could be known as the sandpaper brothers sometimes, the way they rub each other up the wrong way!) I also like the idea of having a  basket of rewards with little things like pencils, stickers, silly bands, football cards etc in it. They can then choose their own reward from this.

The reward chart can be found here. I'll keep you all posted as to how it is going in a few weeks!

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Miscellaneous Monday

The church that a friend of my husband goes to has a Model Railway Day twice a year, and that's where we headed on Saturday afternoon.

 They set up a big circuit of electric train track in one room and some Thomas train sets in the other room for the younger children. The older children all get turns at controlling a train on the electric track and you can bring your own train along to run on it too. There were lots of excited boys around. There were also lots of excited dads around too, pretending that they were really only there for their boy's sake!

David and Calum helped Alasdair play with one of the Thomas tracks while they waited their turn on the electric trains. (James was at a friend's birthday party at Lazerquest - he had a super time!)

Finally David get's to control a train.

It was this little puffer here.

Calum was controlling this one.

For their second go later on, Calum had this train, and David had the Flying Scotsman. 

After the train fun, we headed home, had a quick dinner then my brother, sister-in-law and their three boys came round and we all walked up to the cricket pitch along the back from our house to watch the Bonfire Night fireworks display.

I quickly realised how futile it is to try and take good pictures of fireworks, so only took the one!

Thankfully, after a wet day, the rain stayed away long enough for us to stay dry whilst at the fireworks.

Back at the house the boys and their cousins had some sparklers.

They were very patient. Every time we almost had a sparkler lit, the wind would blow out the match on us! We got there in the end.

Little Alasdair is clutching his glow-sticks here instead of sparklers. I was amazed at how good he was at the fireworks. He wasn't scared of them at all.

Then it was indoors for some hot-chocolate and warm mince pies.

I always feel that Bonfire Night signals the start of the Festive Season and we can start looking forward to Christmas now!

Gaelic word of the day:

teine (chen-ye) - fire

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Recipe of the Week - Meatballs in a Tomato Sauce

The boys in this house would have something made with mince for dinner almost every night of the week if they could! I would say this is one of their favourite ways to have mince, but then they love it equally as much just with tatties, as a bolognese, as chilli, as meatloaf, lasagna................

Because wheat-free bread is so expensive, I like to make sure I use up every last bit. When the heels are all that is left, I blitz them in the blender to make breadcrumbs and then freeze them. You can just keep adding to the bag in the freezer each time you make a wee bit more. Then just add them to whatever recipe you need them in. No need to defrost.

The picture isn't the clearest, but you get the idea. I took it in such a rush as the hungry hordes were desperate to be fed!

For the meatballs:

1 onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1lb mince

2oz wheat-free breadcrumbs

1 egg

1 tbsp tomato puree

2tsp dried mixed herbs

For the sauce:

1 onion, sliced

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1-2 tbsp sugar, to taste

 handful fresh basil

~Preheat your oven to about 180C

~Put all of the meatball ingredients into a large bowl and get mixing together with your hands.

~Once everything is well mixed together, start rolling into meatballs and place on a plate.

~Heat a little oil in a frying pan and shallow fry the meatballs in batches until they are browned all over. I use a lid on the frying pan to help speed this up and stop the meatballs drying up.

~When one batch is browned, transfer them to a large ovenproof dish and put in the oven to keep warm while you get on with the next batch.

~Once all the meatballs are browned, keep them in the oven and add a little more oil to your frying pan.

~Add the second onion and garlic and soften.

~Add the chopped tomatoes, sugar and a handful of chopped fresh basil.

~Bring to the boil.

~Pour the sauce over the meatballs and cook it all in the oven for another 20-30 minutes or so, depending on how fast your oven is.

~Serve with wheat-free pasta and an extra sprinkling of fresh basil for decoration. 

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The Great Apron Swap

Well, I finally got round to posting my apron for The Great Apron Swap today. I had been meaning to mention it on here before now but there was always so much other stuff going on to blog about instead.

The apron swap was suggested by Pam, back in September. It sounded like a great idea to me so I signed up, hoping she would allow those of us outwith the US to do so - she did.

I didn't realise then quite how lovely it would be. I've really, really enjoyed getting to know my apron buddy, Danielle, these last few weeks. Thanks so much for pairing us up, Pam! It kind of reminds me of having a pen-friend back at school. Only now we use computers and e-mail, not letters and stamps.

I can't wait to see what apron Danielle has chosen for me. I'll post a photo as soon as it arrives!

I'd love to share what the one I chose for Danielle was like but I don't want to spoil the surprise for her! I do have a photo of it, though, and will share it once Danielle has received her parcel. What I will say, is that I had originally thought I would send a pretty, retro kind of apron. Then I thought, since it is coming all the way from  Scotland to Colorado, I would choose one that reflected where it came from. My Scottish readers will understand that a lot of our touristy shops are dreadfully tacky and twee, so I avoided them, but I did manage to find the perfect apron in another shop. It's quite patriotic. That's all I'm saying.

Once again, great idea Pam. I think we should do something similar in the New Year to brighten up those winter months!

Come next week, I shall be eagerly awaiting the postman every morning!

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Miscellaneous Monday

The 1st of November really seems to have brought with it the winter tonight! With the clocks going back an hour at the weekend, it was dark here by about 4.30 and that's only going to get worse in the next few weeks. There is a strong wind and on top of that, it's raining quite heavily. It really took all my enthusiasm to take the boys out to Monday club at church tonight after dinner! This weather just makes me want to hibernate in a cosy house! Thankfully my brother usually takes the boys home from club, so I didn't have to brave the elements a second time!

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Saturday's coffee morning seemed to go well. The children all loved the second-hand toy stall and the washable tattoos (which were cute little Bible themed tattoos). I sold a few cards and there was a lovely selection of cakes.

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Christmas stuff comes into the shops so early these days that I do my best to completely ignore it until November, so now I am allowing myself to think about it a bit more. I didn't quite make it to November before making my first batch of these little beauties though:

I made them on Saturday night, which was almost November. I have been known to make up my own mincemeat for them (a Nigella recipe, of course) but I'm not sure if I will this year or not. 

I don't tend to make these wheat-free, as Calum doesn't like raisins, although I did last year as I was on a wheat-free diet to see if it helped Alasdair's skin. I'm still working on perfecting my wheat-free pastry.

Traditionally, I try and make my Christmas cake on one of the first couple of weeks in November, to give it time to mature. I made two last year, one wheat-free and one normal. My wheat-free one was far too crumbly though, so it needs a bit of fine tuning. Calum won't eat it, but Alasdair might - he loves raisins!

Out of those little pies above, there are not too many left!

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Finally, here's a wee clip to show what Alasdair has been perfecting over the last week:

Gaelic word(s) [three of them!] of the day: 

coisich (cosh-eech) - walk

fliuch (fl-yooch) - wet

gaothach (gi-hach) - windy

All ending with the Scottish ch sound, and the i sound in gi-hach is as in is.

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Fancy Dress Costumes

Another quick post tonight, to share the final costumes with you all before I fall into bed.

What did I say in my last post that I really didn't want to happen this week?

Yup, viewers.

After a month with none, I got a text message from my hubby this morning saying, 'Viewers tomorrow 10.30'

Groan.

I'm sure you can imagine the state of the house. Paper-mache heads in the dining room. Costumes in the living room. Half made cards all over the table , piano and any other surface Alasdair can't reach.

Double groan!

Still, somehow, the costumes were finished, the cards are almost finished, three batches of cupcakes were made and the house is almost tidy. The floors need hoovered and washed, but that can wait till morning.

Even better, David won first prize at the fancy dress party and James won second. Calum won first last year so wasn't too bothered about not getting anything this year.

Here is my cute little Yoda. His cloak is made from an old sheet.

A slightly less cute General Grievous. His spare arms are stuffed with socks from the odd-sock drawer!

And C3PO. Notice how he has the authentic C3PO stand?

To finish with, these are my cupcakes for tomorrow's Coffee Morning.

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W.I.P. Wednesday

I saw this on a crochet blog I recently discovered and thought it was a good idea - Work In Progress Wednesday.

As I mentioned yesterday, I have more than one work in progress at the moment, so here are the main ones.

This is a pile of cards, mostly with Christmas texts on them, I printed out last night and now need to embellish.

I am working on a scarf to go with the hat I crocheted last week. I'm not sure what they are technically called, but it's one of those circular scarves, all joined up, that you wrap round your neck twice and then the bitter East coast wind can't blow it off! Nice and cosy.

And let's not forget the boys' costumes. This is Calum's C3PO so far. He is going to wear a brown boiler suit underneath, then we'll stick this over it, with bits on his arms too (the legs are on the right) and we're working on a papier-mache head. 

David's Yoda ears are drying at the top of the picture.

Tomorrow I need to chop the arms off a black top and sew them onto another one for James' General Grievous. And finish Yoda's cloak.

Gaelic word of the day:

trang (as it looks) - busy

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Costume Making

We have been busy today with costume making for the Boy's Brigade Fancy Dress party on Friday night. The boys are wanting to stick with the Star Wars theme but have much grander plans than those costumes from Calum's birthday tea!

As a result tonight's post is short and sweet, but here is a peek at the boys working on their costumes.

Why, oh why, oh why did I put my sewing machine into storage??

I'm also busy making cards for a stall at a coffee morning at church this Saturday. I haven't made any cards since the summer so I need to build my stock up again.

 Plus, I've been roped into making cupcakes for the same coffee morning.

(The proceeds of the morning are going to the charity my husband works for so I couldn't say no!)

Now I'm really hoping nobody phones up tomorrow and asks to look round the house any time this week!!!!

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