pancakes :: snow :: a quilt

In an attempt to record and share more of our days (because they are so immensely fascinating, you understand!) I am going to try to post often in the same way as Heather, whose daily posts have been a wonderful source of beauty and out-breaths recently.
We have taken to having pancakes for breakfast every Sunday and that little routine sees me jumping out of bed before the boys to pad downstairs and mix the batter, so it can sit for a while before we start cooking.
We each have our favourite topping.
Frank goes for agave syrup (although having read about it recently I will be removing it from the pantry soon) and Andrew and I go for lemon juice and maple syrup.
We get two pancakes each (big, thin ones like crepes) from a mix of 4floz oat milk, 1 egg, 4oz spelt flour, pinch salt and 1 tbsp oil.
It leaves us rather wanting a little more but that's no bad thing.

And the table always groans under the weight of Lego. Every meal!

We had snow last night.
About five inches and it drifted so in parts of the garden it was quite high.
Straight after pancakes we headed out, all layered up, to throw snowballs at each other and get thoroughly cold.
Today was the day when I realised I have a hole in my wellies and my feet were very cold very quickly.
My lovely blokes longjohns worked a treat though!

And in the late morning I managed to complete my first ever quilt. Here you can see it on the big bed, although it is for Frank and his little bed next to ours.
The fabric was from the V&A stall at a Knit & Stitch Show two years ago and is all based on fabrics from the V&A archives.
They are beautiful and I am so glad to have been able to keep them together.
You can see in this picture how we sleep.
Frank sleeps directly next to me in a little bed (Andrew cannily took a saw to a regular single bed and made a kind of Frankenstein's monster of a bed!).
Frank didn't used to sleep here, except when he was tiny, but I never rested well with him away from me.
This way we all sleep better and I can check on him frequently because, let's face it, the deep sleep we all used to enjoy pre-kids and especially pre-diabetic kids is AWOL for a while.
It works for us, for now.
He learnt to make snowballs today.
And throw them.
His little snow suit is one brought back from a Finnish flea market by a friend.
We rarely get this much snow but this suit is fabulous when we do.

Tomorrow the Wholefood Kitchen starts for Andrew and I.
Will post more on that in the morning.

That Stonking Soup Recipe

Autumn is just wonderful here in England; a time I look forward to when I am shade-hopping in the heat of summer.
It is soup season and I am very grateful this Autumn to have discovered the recipes, both online and in books, of Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks.
The cauliflower soup that follows has become one of my favourites ever. It's up there with the Cranks Armenian Soup that I love so much.
This soup is creamy and comforting and so very yummy with the mustardy croutons, and yes, I do make the croutons every time, they work so well and then I don't feel obliged to inhale lots of bread on the side (I have form on this one!).

Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients:
170g chunk artisan wholemeal bread, torn into chunks, about 3 cups in total
2tbsp butter
2tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp sea salt
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2tbsp butter
2 shallots, chopped(I never have these around & so add another half a white onion)
1 white onion, chopped
sea salt
1 large potato, peeled and cubed
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 1/2 cups veggie broth/stock
340g cauliflower, cut up into florets (I just use a whole small/medium cauli)
2/3 cup grated strong Cheddar for soup plus extra for topping
2 tsp Dijon mustard
Extra-virgin olive oil, to serve

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350F/180C.
First make the croutons by melting the butter in a small pan. Off the heat add the olive oil, salt and mustard.
Tip the chunks of break into the pan and stir to coat.
Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden and crisp, turning them during baking as necessary.

To make the soup melt the butter in a pan and saute the onions with a big pinch of salt for 5 minutes.
Add the spuds and saute another 4 or 5 minutes.
Add the garlic and the veg stock and stir.
Cook for 2 minutes then add the cauliflower.
Cook until the cauliflower is just tender, 5 minutes more.
Off the heat blend with an immersion blender.
Stir in half the Cheddar and the Dijon mustard, taste and add more salt if necessary.

Serve with more grated Cheddar, the croutons and a drizzle of olive oil.


And eat, ideally with a small boy that refuses not to be in the picture and pouts as he says "soup, soup, soup" over and over again!
Enjoy and I hope it's stonking enough for you all.

Peanut Butter Krispy Treats

Thank you to everyone that took time to respond to my call for help. It really, really helped to hear other stories and some great ideas too. You are all fab!

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In an attempt to get the Boy Wonder to consume a variety of grains ... oh, who am I kidding ... in an attempt to get Frank to eat ANY GRAIN OTHER THAN WHITE WHEAT, I stealthily add various things to recipes he might eat.
To his white bread I add whole wheat or rye or rice flour. He used to eat rice but won't now. He will allow pasta on his plate but tends not to eat it!! At someone else's house he will devour a whole bowl of Bolognese and pasta but, alas, not at home.
He is suspicious that I am sneaking contraband into his food.
He has a point ...
I have taken to adding ground linseeds or ground almonds to his porridge, making it also with half oat milk and half cow's milk. I sneak squash and sweet potatoes into Bolognese sauce. He will eat raw carrots and celery and peas from the pod and that's it for veg.
I am sounding so over-controlling here but I am concerned as he won't eat other veggies or rice and with his Type 1 Diabetes I am aware that any days of high BG will result in an extra loss of nutrients.
I think we do OK, all in all.
I am not panicked about this but maintain an awareness of what foods are building his body. He eats ice cream and crisps, I am no purist and am very clear on the idea of never forbidding any foods. Children with this condition need no extra food issues in the mix, ideally.
I am reading "The Healthiest Kid in the Neighbourhood" by William Sears at the moment. Lots of the information in it isn't new to me as I have always been interested in nutrition (thankfully, as I had a head start on getting a grip on the whole carb counting thang) but it is very informative about snacking and phases kids go through. I have also found it really useful for giving me ammunition when shopping with Frank. Saying things like "We don't buy that in our family" has been working wonders. However, I think of people like Meri, with older kids, and know I will only be able to use this for a short while. I'll be shopping on line soon!!
One snack that I have rustled up this week has met with a lukewarm response but hasn't been rejected outright are the Peanut Butter treats above. They are really tasty (Andrew and I love them!) and from this book, which has me inspired to go veggie again very soon.
I bought my ingredients in the Wholefood Store in Manningtree (the store I long to be locked in overnight!) and used puffed quinoa instead of rice. They are gluten free and I like to keep them in the fridge to keep them more solid and chewy.

Peanut Butter Krispy Treats
3/4 cup smooth unsalted peanut butter (I only had salted so I omitted the extra salt)
3/4 cup maple syrup
1 scant teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
2 1/2 teaspoons agar flakes
4 cups unsweetened crisp brown rice cereal

Combine the peanut butter, maple syrup, salt and agar flakes in a large sauce pan over a low heat and stir constantly until smooth, hot, melted and bubbling just a bit. Turn off the heat and add the cereal. Stir until well-coated. Transfer to an 8 by 8-inch baking dish and press into place. Refrigerate until completely coo, then cut into small rectangles with a sharp knife.
Makes around 20 treats.

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In more specifically D-related news we had our first failed site two nights ago and were up until 3am testing and bolusing every hour until we decided to grasp the nettle and change that bastard. Frank moaned a bit but then chatted to us and we all go on with it. the cannula was all bent sideways. His pre-breakfast BG was 5.7, such a relief after 23.8 and similar all night.
In retrospect as I primed the set something felt different in the spring-action thingy, but instead of not using it, I kind of imagined it would all be OK even though it felt a bit wrong.
Next time I won't do that. And from what I read there will be a next time.

Fish Biscuits!

No, it's not more Cockney Rhyming slang!

Nor have I just sneezed!

Or cursed!

It is the recipe for the savoury biscuits I promised you and, relax, they contain NO FISH.

Their true title is Rosemary & Olive Oil Crackers but as Frank is such an Octonauts fan we made them in the shape of fish so we could re-enact Tunip handing them to everyone on the Octopod (anyone without a four year old will think I've gone mad. I haven't).

Whatever floats his boat, eh?

They are very, very moreish and very, very easy to make.

The recipe is from a little book called "cookie magic" by Kate Shirazi that I use all the time and for anyone in the USA it has some great really traditional English biscuit recipes. The kind I grew up on, except the ones I ate back then were mass-produced and not home-made.

It's a reliably good book and fun to look through with Frank when we are looking for cookie inspiration.

:: Makes 1 batch.

115g/4oz/a generous 3/4 cup plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting

pinch of salt

1 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp water

To finish : 2 tsp rock or crystal salt, 2 tbsp olive oil

Method : Pre-heat the oven to 200 C / 400 F / Gas Mark 6 and line two baking sheets. Mix the flour, salt and chopped rosemary together in a bowl. Whisk the olive oil and water together then tip into the flour and mix until you have a smooth dough.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut out shapes. Place the shapes on your lined baking sheets and prick with a fork.

To finish, mix the crystal or rock salt with the olive oil and brush over each cracker.

Keep any leftover oil and salt.

Bake the crackers for 12-15 minutes until golden..

When they come out of the oven, brush again with the leftover oil and salt and leave to cool on a wire rack.
We like these with butter smeared on top or just as they are as a snack with maybe some apple slices.

They definitely need the second coat of oil and salt.

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Tomorrow morning we are off to trial that great new tent of mine at a campsite in the Cotswolds.

There will be 49 other families touched by Type 1 there.

So, lots of pancreases in the naughty corner in the Cotswolds this weekend, hey?

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There will be bacon sarnies!

There will be homemade chai in the evenings!

There will be sun (I hope)!

Back in the middle of next week.

Love to all.

xxxx

Armenian Soup

This recipe is from my oldest and most favourite cookbook : The Cranks Recipe Book by David Canter, Kay Canter and Daphne Swan.

My copy is from 1982!

As I said it's my first cookbook.

Cranks was a wholefood cafe and restaurant in Covent Garden in London for a long time.

It was not fashionable for a long time either.

The food was wholewheat and in most cases brown and a bit of a shock for most people's palates.

But for me, brought up in a family where white flour and processed food are kings it was a revelation.

I spent my pocket money as a teenager buying vegetables and tofu and wholewheat flour. We weren't well off and my parents didn't want to buy food they considered weird and scary.

I was the first to bring an onion into the house!

And a mushroom!

This book revolutionised what food I ate and taught me how to cook.

There are few pictures and so I learnt to not worry about how it was supposed to look and let myself learn from what came out.

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Armenian Soup

Ingredients:

red lentils, rinsed (100g)

dried apricots, unsulphured if poss (100g)

2 large potatoes

vegetable stock (around 2-3 pints) - his needs judging by your own preference of thin or gloopy

lemon, juice of one

ground cumin (2tsp)

parsley, chopped (6tbsp) - I often don't have fresh parsley and so just leave it out, it's still fine

salt & pepper to taste

Method:

Place lentils and apricots in a large pan.

Roughly chop the spud and add to the pan with the remaining ingredients.

Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for around 30 minutes, checking regularly that the lentils aren't soaking up all the stock and making it all burn (I speak from experience! Do not take a bath and leave this soup cooking).

Add more hot water or stock if so.

Allow to cool and blend until smooth.

Reheat to serving temperature and adjust seasoning to taste.

Serves 4-6

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This freezes well and is fine left for a day in the fridge, although you will need to add more water as it thickens too.

I love it.

Mr Muffinmoon loves it.

My Knit & Natter group love it.

Frank falls to the floor clutching his throat and gagging at the mere sight of any soup.

Sigh.