The Things They Say!

Yesterday I tweeted out something Bonus Boy said which had made the whole family fall about laughing and prompted quite a response from my Twitter friends. His wonderful, philosophical, child’s eye view of life is a precious thing and every week he comes out with some absolute corkers. All my children have and many, many of them have disappeared in the mists of time. One or two have stayed as family sayings and words but I regret enormously not keeping a consistent record of the funnies and the wise words.

So, I’m going to do it here and I’m hoping a few of you would like to join me. I am going to consciously listen out for the week’s best BBism and I’m going to make a note of it so I can blog it on a Friday and have a running record of them. If you’d like to do this too I am going to be running a linky so you can add your posts every week (or whenever you remember!)

Here’s mine for this week:

Bonus Boy to his teenage brother who was being particularly annoying ‘Stop it T, you’re tickling my mind’

I love this on so many levels, it’s funny, it’s descriptive, it’s clever and it is absolutely spot on!

To join in, write a mini blog post recording a funny/clever/eye opening sentence, word or sound that your child has made and you want to keep a record of. Come back here and pop your blog link on the linky widgit below this blurb. Please link back to me in your post and go and visit other people’s posts for a giggle/sob/eureka moment. Most of all, use it as a weekly prompt to remind you to keep a record of these precious moments before they slip out of your mind and drift off forever.

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When God Was A Rabbit – A Book Review for the Tots 100 Book Club

When God Was A Rabbit by Sarah Winman is a well crafted tale of the love between a brother and sister, spanning the years from narrator Elly’s birth in 1968 to the terrible events of  September 1995.

It is about all the things which hold people together even when they are falling apart and it is told with humour and warmth.  It encompasses the light and dark of relationships, the ups and downs as people grow into who they are affected by who they were. It is about losing people and about finding them again.

The cast of characters which surround Elly and her brother Joe are all deliciously quirky and one step off track. Elly’s friendship with wild haired Jenny Penny who smells of chips and has a very different home life and Joe’s relationship with fellow rugby player Charlie both weave their way through the story. Add into this mix loving but unreliable parents, a lesbian actor aunt, Arthur, an elderly lodger who knows when and how he is going to die and of course god, the rabbit and you have the makings of a jolly good read.

I love the first half of the book when Ellie is a child and although many of the events are tragic, I also laughed out loud. The nativity scene is hilarious (if ultimately tragic) and the Silver Jubilee street party made me envy all those who had them all over again (all I got from the Jubilee was a plastic flag and a bump on the head from walking into a lamppost on my way to see the Queen!).

The second half of the book required a bit more suspension of belief on my part than I would normally allow in a novel but I was hooked on the characters so I let it pass. The plot is a little thin and I did feel bounced from pillar ro post on occasion but it is a book which had me laughing and crying in equal measure and which I galloped through at speed. It is an easy, satisfying read and sometimes that is exactly what I need!

I am recommending this book to Liz at Me And My Shadow because I think she, like me, will enjoy an engrossing easy read of an evening. I hope she enjoys it as much as I did!

The Tots 100 Book Club is where bloggers share their favourite stories. Every month, the Tots100 invites 10 bloggers to tell us about stories that have moved and inspired them – and to share their favourite books with another blogger. Each month, we’ll be publishing a round-up of the Book Club’s recommendations over on the Tots100 site, meaning you need never be short of great reading inspiration again!

Rhubarb Crumble Muffins and a Buttery Giveaway!

Anchor butter are bringing back Elevenses! Of course, as a person who identifies readily with hobbits Merry and Pippin in The Lord of the Rings, Elevenses never really left:
Aragorn: Gentlemen, we do not stop ’til nightfall.
Pippin: What about breakfast?
Aragorn: You’ve already had it.
Pippin: We’ve had one, yes. What about second breakfast?
[Aragorn turns and walks off in disgust]
Merry: I don’t think he knows about second breakfast, Pip.
Pippin: What about elevenses? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper? He knows about them, doesn’t he?
Merry: I wouldn’t count on it.

However, Anchor’s campaign has made me stop and think. Elevenses for me since Bonus Boy started school has been a cup of tea and a biscuit from the bottom of the tin sitting at  my desk. The tea goes cold more often than not and it is hardly a satisfying moment in my day, I am refuelling but not recharging.

So, yesterday, I reinstated proper Elevenses, an Elevenses which Merry and Pip would have been proud of. Bonus Boy and I sat at the table with our cups of tea and a rhubarb crumble muffin each and caught up with each other. Next week I am going to schedule Elevenses into my working day and I am going to move away from the desk for a full fifteen minutes. I have a feeling my productivity levels will rise and that I will feel a lot better for it.

Here is my recipe for Rhubarb Crumble Muffins, making the most of the early UK forced rhubarb. Go on, treat yourself!

Makes 12

Ingredients

375g Self Raising Flour

125g Soft Light Brown Sugar

100g Anchor butter, melted and cooled

250ml milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

200g rhubarb, sliced lengthways and then chopped

50g caster sugar

2tbsps water

For the crumble topping

50g plain flour

25g porridge oats

50g cold Anchor butter, diced

50g Demerara sugar

½ tsp ground cinnamon

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200°C
• Line a 12 hole muffin pan with paper cases
• Sift the flour into a bowl
• Add the soft brown sugar
• Whisk the egg, milk and butter together
• In a small bowl, mix the rhubarb, caster sugar and water together
• Make the crumble topping by putting all the ingredients, except the Demerara sugar, into a bowl and rub the butter in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles rough breadcrumbs. Add the sugar.
• Add the egg mixture and the rhubarb mixture to the flour and fold it all together. Don’t over mix, it is supposed to be lumpy
• Divide the muffin mixture equally between the paper cases
• Top each muffin with a generous amount of crumble topping and press it on very gently
• Bake for about 20 minutes, leave the muffins in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

To encourage me to take a bit of time out and recharge (I have been on the go at full speed for four hours by the time Elevenses comes around after all) Anchor have sent me a full set of their memorabilia and I have two more sets to give away!

It includes a butter dish, a pair of egg cups, a cake stand, a cake tin, a tea towel, an apron and a toy van! Perfect!

To be in with a chance to win one of these sets, leave me a comment below telling me your favourite Elevenses snack.

For an extra entry tweet ‘I am entering @christinemosler’ s #AnchorElevenses giveaway with @Anchor_dairy http://wp.me/pPrLb-1d2′

Closing date is Elevenses on Thursday 26th January 2012. Winner will be chosen by an online random number generator. My decision is final. Hurry up, it’s not long!

Pop over to Facebook and Twitter for Elevenses chat with Anchor.

I am running this giveaway concurrently with my foodie blog so if you want to enter over there too pop along to FabFood!

Eyes

She reads insatiably with these eyes. They flash when she’s angry and turn green when she cries. When she grins they sparkle with warmth and joy. I could stare into them forever but I am trying to celebrate that they now look out on things other than me.

My girl for this week’s Gallery. Click on the lens cup to see more.

The Bare Bones – Gardening With Kids

Last Sunday Bonus Boy and I had a stroll around the estate (it didn’t take long, it’s about the size of a postcard) and made a few plans for our gardening year. I always get very excited about seed planting when I see bare earth so we will be poring over seed catalogues when the sun goes down this week and he will be trying to persuade me once again to have a go at sunflowers. I will probably give in even though I know the ninja slugs will get them again and we will plan our campaign to defeat them – saving coffee grinds and egg shells and pondering the efficacy of various sharp or gritty options. All this because, every now and then, we are successful!

At this time of year the bare bones structure of the garden is plain to see.

It is messy and battered by wind and rain, it needs clearing and hacking back but I can see where there are possibilities. I can spot an area which could benefit from some new planting or a change of direction and I start sketching stuff out on large pieces of paper. I’m not very good at proportion and I get carried away planning to squeeze in far more than I have room for but it is a lovely way to pass the time and it gives me an opportunity to talk about plans and map making with my Bonus Boy.

We take photos all year round and he now tells me which plants need their pictures taking. This means we have a record of how the garden looks throughout the year and we can see what worked and what didn’t. It also means we don’t dig where a precious plant is hiding over winter – or at least we try not to, sometimes muddy soil is just too good to resist!

There is still food out there for the picking

And several very welcome hints of spring!

This week we will be topping up the bird feeders, sowing broad beans in pots with plastic bottle cloches, planning for Spring and having a bit of a tidy up.

 

The Resolution Tree

New Year’s Resolutions can be more trouble than they are worth and you can be setting yourself up for failure before you’ve even set foot onto that crisp clean new page. We have taken many approaches to New Year’s resolutions over the past 15 years of parenting; long lists of ‘I resolve to’s were soon crumpled and forgotten and were more about the idea than the meaning so last year we came up with the Resolution Tree.

The Resolution Tree is an ongoing project and allows us to declare our plans, wishes and dreams as well as any worthy resolutions we may come up with throughout the year without overloading us with pressure just as we are finding our feet in January and emerging blinking from Christmas. Last year the children put leaves on for the things they were going to save up their pocket and birthday money to  buy as well as places they wanted to go and things they would like to do.

We cut a tree shape out of a piece of brown paper and leaf shapes out of green. The trunk and branches are then stuck onto a wall in the dining room and a pile of leaves is stacked in a tin on a table in front of it. Each family member can take a leaf whenever they want and pop it onto the tree throughout the year; equally when a goal has been reached or a wish fulfilled a leaf comes off the tree.

As this year passes we are going to add  flowers in spring, fruit in summer and the leaves will change colour in autumn.

My older children, of course, have very different hopes and dreams than my Bonus Boy who can be very ambitious in his plans but, because it is a tree of hopes and dreams rather than promises, it matters not one jot if he wants to build a rocket ship and fly to the moon. As the year wears on we may well construct a rocket in the garden and go on that adventure in our imaginations!

Every year my daughter declares that she is going to tidy her room and keep it tidy and, until we had the tree with its adaptable leaves, she failed at the first hurdle. With the tree we can add small steps towards a goal so, this year, we have started with ‘I am going to put my washing out every evening so I don’t end up with a massive unmanageable pile and Mum isn’t faced with the Everest of all washing mountains.’ When she has stuck to that for a while we are going to add ‘I am going to make my bed every morning and make sure there is a path between the door and the window so the curtains can be opened easily’!

The tree can include things we intend to do to help others so my promises include ‘Support my eldest son as he revises for his GCSEs by gently persuading, not nagging, offering frequent snacks and encouraging sensible breaks.’

The beauty of a resolution tree is its flexibility, it worked really well for us last year and we were very surprised to reach December with very few leaves from January still up there.

Much to my surprise, in Christmas week, this one was achieved!

I now have a brand new door to the downstairs loo and laundry which has, frankly, changed my life!

We still haven’t managed to go to London as a whole family which we promised ourselves in 2011 but we have left that one on there for 2012!

What are your hopes and dreams for 2012 and have you got any tips for making resolutions with children?

Happily Shared With

Still Light at 5pm!

I took this photo on my phone as Bonus Boy and I arrived at his tennis lesson this evening. It was five o’clock – the light is returning! This makes my heart soar.

For more fantastic phoneography pop over to this week’s Gallery at Sticky Fingers.

I am taking part in this year’s 366 Project -  taking a photo a day all year – you can see the rest of my photos here

January Comfort Food for Meat Free Monday!

With the first Monday of January which isn’t a bank holiday comes my first meat free Monday post of the year! I know we are all supposed to be eating salad and fruit and de-toxing like mad but it always strikes me as lunacy to do this in January! I am cold, the evenings are dark and dreary without the Christmas lights, I am engulfed in thick jumpers and woolly tights – I need comfort food, warm and filling and tasty to boot not an abstemiousness bowl of leaves!

This ticks all those boxes beautifully

Wild Mushroom Risotto with Roasted Squash

Serves 2

Ingredients

For the risotto you will need:

10g (½oz) dried porcini mushrooms

225g (8oz) fresh chestnut mushrooms sliced

1 medium onion peeled and finely sliced

60g (2½oz) butter

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 tsp marigold bouillon powder

4 tbsps white wine

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2tbps freshly grated vegetarian parmesan plus extra for shaving into flakes

175g (6oz) carnaroli or arborio risotto rice

For the roasted squash you will need:

1 small butternut squash de-seeded and chopped into chunks (I leave the skin on because I love the texture it adds, but if you don’t want it it is far easier to remove once it is roasted than before!)

1 teaspoon dried sage or 1tbsp chopped fresh sage

salt and freshly ground black pepper

A glug of rapeseed or sunflower oil (you can use olive oil but I find it takes over a bit here)

 

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6
• Soak the dried mushrooms in 1 pint (570ml) of boiling water for half an hour
• Meanwhile melt the butter in a medium to large heavy based frying pan and fry the onion over a gentle heat for about 5 minutes, add the fresh mushrooms and fry gently for a further ten minutes or so until the mushrooms start to release their juices,  add the garlic, fry for one minute then remove from the pan from the heat.
• Heat the rapeseed oil in the oven in oven proof baking dish for a minute or two and then pop in the squash, turning it in the hot oil until it is gleaming. Sprinkle on salt, black pepper and the sage and return to the oven for about half an hour until soft and well roasted.
• Drain the porcini mushrooms through a sieve lined with muslin or kitchen paper (to catch any grit) but KEEP THE LIQUID!
• Chop the porcini and add to the mushroom mixture in the pan
• Pop the mushroom mixture back onto the heat
• Add the bouillon and white wine to the mushroom liquid
• Add the rice to the mushroom mix and fry for a couple of minutes, stirring
• Increase the heat a little and add a ladle full of the mushroom stock to the rice mixture, stir
• Add another ladle full of stock each time the last one has been absorbed and keep stirring so the rice can reach its full potential and make that lovely creamy risotto.
• The rice will take about 20 minutes to cook, if you find you run out of stock just make up a little more with boiling water and bouillon and keep adding and stirring until you get a delicious creamy risotto
• Add salt and black pepper to taste
• Stir in the grated parmesan
• Serve, topped with the roasted squash and some shaved parmesan

Twiddly Bits

This is delicious as it is, served with a plain rocket salad or on a bed of wilted spinach leaves. You can jazz it up a bit by stirring through some butter fried cashew nuts, use madeira or sherry instead of white wine for a deeper, sweeter taste or by topping with a handful of grilled balsamic tomatoes. I sometimes make twice the amount and then use the leftovers to make deep-fried rice balls stuffed with garlicky cream cheese.

Yum. Proper food for January!

If you haven’t been here before I am a vegetarian Mum to 4 veggie children and wife to a veggie man. I decided to run this meat free slot after requests from followers here and on Twitter and as a showcase for some of my veggie and vegan recipes. It seemed to make sense to run it on a Monday as part of the Meatless Monday campaign! You can find more of my recipes over on my other blog Fab Food!

Happy New Year!

2011 was an incredible year in the Thinly Spread household, we crashed into Christmas and indulged ourselves with eleven days of uninterrupted family time. I can’t remember the last time we had that long together and it has restored and rejuvenated us like nothing else can.

We lounged about unashamedly.

All of us!

We chattered

We walked and we talked and we caught up with each other.

He had time with all of them

And they had time to run

I have tried so many times to write a post which does justice to my adventures last year but, frankly, I can’t…there was too much, it was too amazing. Last January I was making New Year’s Resolutions which revolved almost entirely around my family; this year those resolutions are still there but so is a burning desire to keep on fighting  for justice for those whose voices are not so readily heard.

I hope I can count on you, lovely readers, to help me as you did so remarkably last year.

Thank you, each and every one of you, from the bottom of my heart.

Happy New Year!

 

It’s Starting to Look a Lot Like Christmas

This is a self indulgent photo post. The build up to Christmas 2o11 at Thinly Spread. Choosing these photos has made me smile!

My Angel

Letter to Father Christmas

His own little tree

Getting out our favourite decorations

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, How Lovely Are Your Branches! (For Jenny at Mummy Mishaps)

My Beautiful Birthday Boy and His Brownies

Decoration Inspiration

Hansel and Gretel Gingerbread House

Carol Concert

Happy Cat

Christmas at Longleat

First Time on the Ice

Catching the Santa Special

Walking to Santa

Santa's Grotto

Meeting the Big Man!

Father Christmas Bread

And on we go. I am sipping wine, eating chocolate and listening to the silence before tomorrow’s storm. Happy Christmas to you and yours from me and all of mine.