Hello everyone! I hope you had a great weekend! 🙂
As some of you are already aware, I’ve been justifying this year’s sabbatical with the excuse that I’m writing a recipe book. Last year, a number of friends asked whether I could give them some of my family-friendly veggie recipes. Since my recipes tend to be written on scraps of paper, scattered around the kitchen and my office, I thought it would be a great opportunity to collate our favourite recipes and get them bound in book format. I also wanted to collate the recipes for M so that he’ll be able to carry on making his and Lil’ L’s favourite meals should anything happen to me. This is important stuff don’t you know! 😉
Anyway, I originally said that the book would be ready by the summer… then I said late September… then I said, DEFINITELY by Christmas. For someone that used to be a project manager, I’ve proven that I’m pretty poor at project managing myself 🙁
Last week, my mum, M and a couple of friends all had words with me, asking me where the book was, and hinting that maybe I’m spending a bit too much time in blogging world and not enough time on the book. Hmmm, they may have a point :/ On Friday, I made a list of all the photos I’ve still got to take and the total was 30. I’ve got 2 weeks until Lil’ L breaks up from school, so that means I’ve got to cook/bake/photograph 3 meals per day for 10 days. Is it doable? I’ll say yes, but I really have got get my skates on!
On Saturday, I managed to take a photograph of our family’s favourite tomato and lentil soup. M and Lil’ L had nearly passed out with hunger by the time they got round to eating it! It was worth the wait though, as the soup was delicious! I’ve posted the recipe here.
After planning my workload for the next two weeks, I was looking forward to taking a break and popping into Bath for a coffee.
Bath is looking so beautiful with all its twinkly Christmas lights 🙂
Lil’ L tried to take a close-up of a Christmas light and it came out all swirly. I think it looks pretty cool.
Whilst wandering about Bath, we even managed to buy a couple of Christmas presents. I also discovered this photo on the camera:
Not sure whether it’s Lil’ L or M hinting that they’d like this for Christmas. 😉
While we were in Bath, we went to the Holburne Museum to check out Bruce Munro’s ‘Field of Light’ installation. I was totally mesmerized by it!
My first two photos came out all blurry, but I love the effect!
I then propped the camera on a fence post and got a couple of shots that are slightly more in focus. Check out how the lights change colour…
First pink…
then yellow…
now green 🙂
Cool eh? The installation is running until Jan 12, from 4-7pm daily. And it’s FREE! If you’re in Bath in December/January, you must go and see it!
Before I go, I just want to mention an unusual thing that happened to me last week. I’d recently left a comment on a friend’s blog, telling her that I’d never won anything in my life… not even a raffle prize. Lo and behold, what happens the following week… I go and win not one, but two prizes!! You can’t imagine how excited I was! 🙂
The first prize was a meal for two at Demuths Vegetarian Restaurant in Bath. Back in October, I joined the world of Twitter. The first Tweet I attempted to send was an entry into VisitBath‘s ‘Freebie Friday’ competition. Last week I was fiddling around with Twitter (trying to work out how to use it) when I came across a message dated 25 October saying that I’d WON that week’s Freebie Friday. (It only took me a MONTH to find this message durgh!)
The message said “DM us your email address”. Eh? I then have to google ‘what does DM mean in Twitter’? (I’m so rubbish lol!)
M and I went to Demuth’s last Wednesday and we had such a great night out!
The food was so different to anything that we’ve experienced before.
For starters we had:
Me: Eade’s Winter Beets: winter beetroot, herbs and crushed coriander with horseradish granita & sour dough croutons (vg)
M: Kohlrabi glazed with orange & ginger, served with tamari reduction, spring onion and crispy cabbage (vg/gf)
Followed by the mains:
Me: Miso Roast Aubergine with a sesame rice fritter, tofu, carrot & star anise purée, tamari mushrooms, spring onion oil & pickled radish (vg/gf)
M: Nut Roast: special hazelnut roast with local squash, roasted field mushrooms, pickled onions, thyme pesto and cider gravy (vg/n)
Dessert:
Me & M: Rich Chocolate Mousse on a chocolate sponge with chestnut and orange puree and a fennel seed tuille (vg)
This dessert was divine! With a dairy allergy/intolerance, I don’t normally get to eat desserts at restaurants but, tonight, I was in dessert heaven! 🙂
Thank you Demuths and VisitBath for giving us such a wonderful night out. And a huge ‘thank you’ to our wonderful friend Joni for offering to look after Lil’ L 🙂
To finish off my ‘lucky’ week, on Friday I discovered that I’d won Rachel’s giveaway. To celebrate her 100th post on her blog ‘My Naturally Frugal Family’, Rachel was giving away a copy of Sarah Matheny’s (aka Mama Pea) ‘Peas and Thank You: Simple Meatless Meals the Whole Family Will Love’). This book was on my Christmas list, so you can imagine my delight when I found out that I was the winner. Thank you so much Rachel!
What was the highlight of your weekend? For me, it was our evening stroll round the sparkly city, finishing up at the Field of Light. Beautiful!