Tea and travels...

This week I've been a bit quieter on the blogging front than I had intended as I decided it was time to go for a little holiday.  So I ended up spending much of Tuesday planning my trip and doing a little bit of novel writing and tea drinking. This was followed by mad packing on Wednesday and heading to the north west to visit relatives before heading onwards to the wilds of Wales. (Well Flintshire at any rate!) On Thursday we decided to sample the delights of Llandudno and enjoyed ice cream on the beach.

Once we had done playing on the beach and strolling along the promanade (whilst avoiding thieving seagulls) we headed back to our travelodge before visiting more family members on the way back east on the Friday.

I also failed to blog yesterday as I was busy trying to stop sheep attacking eating the picnic me and my friends were having at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, going for a walk then returning home before enjoying yet more tea with Paul's family and my son.  It's a hard life being social isn't it! Now it's time to drink a tad more tea and get cracking on my novel again whilst the baby slumbers... adios for now!

Monday Movie: Arthur and Mike.

Arthur and Mike was another film shown as part of Kino Bambino which I went to see with my son this morning.

I missed the start of this film due to struggling after a fractured nights sleep... so when I got there the main characters Arthur and Mike had already met. The story is about middle aged Wallace who takes on the name Arthur and skips out on his mundane life to go on a road trip to take up a job as a golf teacher. He's accompanied by Mike also known as Charlotte who is trying to escape her worries as well.

They end up getting to know each other as they travel around and imitate others.  Yet while this is happening Wallace's loved ones try to come to terms with his disappearance and possibly death.

I found this film quite uncomfortable when I think it's supposed to be a comedy. I just thought Arthur and Mike were really selfish. Then again I think I'm not the target audience,  this is like a coming of age film for people going through mid-life crises. Maybe it's a gaining perspective sort of film? I think I enjoyed chasing my son around the cinema more... but at least it was short and followed by coffee!

This & that.

Today I've enjoyed a cuppa coffee in peace at the Steam Yard, a cafe in what used to be Jacks records. Then I had a meeting, browsed some shops, returned a book to the library, did tetrapack recycling, had lunch, fed & bathed the baby and went to my friend's wedding celebration.

So after all that I think I need a snooze! Night!

Bit of baking.

I've tried out a few new recipes recently but most of them have been from my Ella's Kitchen cookbook, as I try to introduce my son to real non pureed foods.  Unfortunately by the time I've cooked these meals I remember that it would be a good idea to blog about them but by this time the baby wants his tea and so do I!  Every so often recently I've had the chance to do a bit of baking when people have graciously watched my little boy for me.  The most recent thing I baked was some polenta and cranberry biscuits this evening.

I'd been thinking about making this recipe from my Homemade Baking cookbook for a while as I had the ingredients but not the time. Thankfully today my boyfriend finished work early so I got chance to relax and do some baking, just what I need!

The recipe was a bit fiddlier than what I would normally like but I actually found it quite therapeutic tonight to follow all most of the steps properly.

To make these you need:

80g cold unsalted butter cut into smallish pieces
100g fine polenta (as well as a bit extra for dusting)
115g plain flour
50g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
Finely grated zest of 1 orange 2 teaspoons of orange juice with bits
100g sweetened cranberries

So can you tell what I changed? To start I turned on the oven to pre-heat then measured out my dry ingredients into my measuring bowl before adding the butter and rubbing them together into what I seem to remember breadcrumbs should look like.

Then I beat my egg, got the orange juice out of the fridge and added that as well as the egg to the dry ingredients before measuring out & popping the cranberries in. Then I got a wooden spoon out and started stirring only to realise that the recipe said to mix together well with your hands... so I scooped the mix off the spoon and kneaded it all together.

Once I'd got the mixture into a ball shape I put some polenta on my work top, tore bits off the ball of mixture and rolled/formed them into little mini cigar shapes before putting them onto lined baking trays.

When that was done I popped the trays in the oven and turned my oven down to 190c/375f/gas mark 5 and put a 10 minute timer on.  I checked on them after ten minutes but they seemed anaemic so I waited a few more  minutes and got the first batch out.  As I did this I then switched the tray that was in the centre of the oven to the top so that they would get browner faster then took those out a couple of minutes later.

After what seemed like forever the biscuits had become cool enough to not feel like molten lava in my mouth and I tried them. (It's not right to just try one...) They were nice but the polenta gave them a crunch texture which takes a little getting used to, the boyfriend isn't as sure. More for me then! Hehehe!

Local love.

I thought it might be nice to write a bit about local businesses that I am glad reside in this fine city with me and I've decided to start with Birds Yard Sheffield.

It is a business that I've mentioned before but one which I still think is great because it provides a home to a number of independent businesses like Handpicked Books and Poco Nido. Because of this Bird's Yard is a great place to pop in for gifts, clothes, books, jewellery and even baby clothes! Although you can't quite get everything there, it is the perfect place to get something a bit different and it seems there is a sale on at the moment before they move to new premises.

So I wish them all the best in the future and hope that they remain as varied and interesting in their new shop.

Tuesday thoughts.

This Tuesday has been a very lazy one for me as I was up half the night feeding my teething son I was allowed a lie in by my lovely boyfriend. However, as a consequence of these things we missed my the opportunity to take our little one to swimming and ended up staying in for the day.So today I have been thinking about how good tea is when you have the opportunity to drink it and don't have to guard it from curious small people.

I have also been thinking about travelling beyond these four walls and reminiscing about my travels to Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and New York. (If only in my head...)

Chocolate obsessed me for a short while... until I procured some anyhow!

After that I let myself look forward to my friends upcoming wedding celebrations and my sister's extended 30th celebrations. As well as the return of the Great British Bake off and Doctor Who next month. Those are few things which I have been thinking about today as well as: books, how to stop my son destroying our Nintendo Wii/my Ukulele, food, mess, projects and the cats.

Monday movie: Cloudy with a chance of meatballs.

This is another Netflix offering as I haven't been to the cinema as much as I'd like in recent years and this sounded fun after the Europa Report.

This film if you haven't already seen it  is about the trials and tribulations of wannabie scientist Flint Lockwood.  Flint has a creative mind which he sets to solving problems, often with a modicum of success but which tend to create as many problems as they solve. Despite his many set backs he doesn't give up and eventually stumbles upon an invention that people love, a way of making food rain from the sky. Unfortunately even this invention has it's problems...

In many ways it's a standard children's film complete with talking animals and wish fulfilment but in other ways it's great because it reminds adults of the insecure children many of us were. I also enjoyed the reverse make over of the weather girl from socially acceptable to nerd as the obsession with princesses and looking pretty is not one that does not sit well with me. 

This is a very silly film but I enjoyed it because the main character is not muscle bound or popular but a scientist and they are normally sidelined in place of action heros in most films.  Definitely one for the geeks and nerds.