If you go down to the woods today.....



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Turkish Delight will get you a long way

It's roasting today, 30 degrees plus, and I've been up to Argos to buy the boys a cheap two man tent so they can go out later, build a fire at the back of the garden and camp out for the night. We've got frankfurters and rolls, bananas to roast in foil and Nutella to go with them. But no marshmallows. As we all know, no camp is complete without toasting marshmallows, so with the dual purpose of finding some, and collecting Pokemon, the boys set off on their scooters on a search for marshmallows. They had no luck at Brummell Road or the Co-Op, and a tomato-faced William came home empty handed while James continued on to Waitrose for a last try. He finally came home twenty minutes later, bright red and clutching a packet of heart-shaped marshmallows. Stomping past Dolly and I he announced "Got them on the house. They couldn't find the ones I wanted, so they gave these to me on the house." A pause as he rummaged in his pocket and I digested this incredible ...
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Lunch breaks and baking cakes

It's James' birthday on Monday, but he's got his mates round tomorrow and he wants to have his birthday cake then, so they can all sing Happy Birthday and take a slice home. All well and good. Apart from the fact that I have back-to-back calls pretty much all day, and friends round for dinner. AND, I refuse to buy one. With an hour between calls it has just been possible to wolf down a fish finger sandwich (using the thinnest of slices, Eddie having eaten the rest of the loaf while I was on my previous call), mix up a chocolate Victoria sponge and get it in the oven. Icing I can sort out later. Then I wondered, as I often do, whether it would ever occur to a man to take his lunch break to bake a birthday cake. And whether high-achieving women would just go and buy one because they were focused on work and couldn't spare the time. And whether it is career limiting to spend time baking cakes when you could be working through your lunch hour. Yesterday on a call we w...
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Sourdough-off

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Time to teach the boys to make sourdough. This is going to be an excellent project - from start(er) to finish. They have to write down the instructions each step of the considerable way and I hope at the end when they bake their loaves they'll have the same sense of achievement that I feel whenever I manage to bake a sourdough successfully (which to be honest, isn't often, but still...). Today is bake day. Will's first out of the traps as James is away on a sleepover and not back until after lunch. We were a bit worried William's starter had died yesterday as it developed an ominous layer of fluid on the top, but after school drop off I drained the fluid and gave it a stir and by this morning it had recovered so much it had actually bowed the top of its tupperware up. We poured in into lukewarm water and it floated beautifully. Mine NEVER does that. #sourdoughenvy.  This is the recipe we're using - so far it hasn't failed me.  https://www.rivercottag...
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