My very own SITS day!

Wednesday, 20th January

The wonderful girls at SITS have made me today's  featured blogger.  Woohoo! Better tidy up....where's that duster...?  Thank you sitstas!   I'm one happy lass.

SITS is a wonderful online community; it's all about sharing the bloggy love and giving support to each other in the form of reading and commenting on each other's blogs.   I've met some amazing and downright funny, crazy, all over inspirational people through SITS and made some great bloggy friends; if you haven't already, please go check it out...you won't be sorry!

I'm a mum of three lovely children and live in a suburb of Glasgow in Scotland.   Och aye!   I started this blog after waxing lyrical in the pub one day this is what we do in Scotland: think Women's Institute but with cocktails; my friends remember it differently but  we agree we were all talking about my plan to see if I could live off £50 per week having at times spent three times that amount....hey, everyone needs a hobby...and gin...I was managing quite well, much to their very supportive but incredulous surprise.   They asked for proof, they wanted recipes...I gladly obliged.   And a blog was born.   Now as every blogger knows, blog topics tend to wander, growing arms and legs in the process so don't be surprised if you come across the odd scary story or pointless tune.  You have been warned.

Thank you for taking the time to come visit me, I really do appreciate it and can't wait to return the favour.   Now...anyone for afternoon tea?   Or hearthbread?

Monday Memories and Baking Bread

And then there were two...

Soups and Shopping 

Guest Blogging and Sunshine

I slept like the proverbial baby last night couldn't have been MY babies they were talking about and woke up to the sun shining from the sky. Hurrah! It's still minus 20 but the young lassies will be out in flip flops, shorts and fake tan, ignoring the goosebumps, the blue toes and tsk, tsk tsking from the grannies passing by.

Lucy and Fraser woke me up with a cup of tea and a plate of ginger nuts...can you believe that. I was so amazed at having slept, so chuffed with my kind children that my head started to get around the fact that today, today I could merrily skip to the shops, stop off for coffee and possibly even go up a hill. I even rode the banister down the stairs with a merry 'weeeeeeeeeeeee' to find a forlorn looking lass pouting up at me, clutching her tummy.

Crash and burn, thoughts, crash and burn. So Kelly stayed at home. I questioned her for a moment but Kelly always goes to school, hating to miss anything and once we'd established that nothing was wrong at school, I looked at her pale face and tucked her into a blanket, resigning myself to the house.

It gave me a chance to package up these lovely little gifts from Snapdragon's Garden for my bloggy peeps; the last batch of Scottish lovelies went missing in transit, apparently some little bint somewhere is rubbing my tartan all over her house and 2 months later, I received my double surance: insurance and an assurance from the mailing company that the next batch would be safe. Nuh uh. These little beauties are being posted by my very own hands. Keep your eyes peeled.

I was asked to guest host a blog today by the lovely Charlotte at noteasilyoffendedmoms. As you can guess by the title, it isn't a blog for the faint hearted but definitely worth a look if you can stand the pace. She gave me three subjects to consider: sex, religion and/or politics. Hmmmm. Subjects that normally leave me in palpitations. Of course, having the opportunity to spew my diatribe all over someone elses page with permission didn't leave me thinking for too long. But I warn you now.

I plan to make some pakora and paratha bread for Lyn as she is having a weekend curry feast. I'll also be making some Parmesan crusted mini quiche tonight and will let you know how it turns out. Amazing what you can do with cheese, eggs and flour. Illness always spawns requests for chicken noodle soup and macaroni cheese so that is what is on the menu for the children; if they like the quiche, then supper is sorted.

Back to normal soon as Brian returns tomorrow night from his wanderings and I finally have Time returned to me.

The party's over.

It has been a wonderful weekend. Really. Even with yesterday's hangover. The hair of the dog at Ricky and Irene's was totally unexpected but actually seemed to help. Worrying.

The tea party today turned into a brunch as everyone was arriving at 12.30. It seemed appropriate, being a Sunday and having a fridge full of bacon and a cupboard full of eggs and tomatoes. I served bacon, sausages, potato scones, potato frittata, (the potatoes first cooked in olive oil, thyme, rosemary and garlic, all removed before adding the eggs), a cheese omelette cooked in oil and an omelette with spring onions and Parmesan cooked in butter.

I cut large tomatoes in half and roasted them with olive oil, a large handful of chopped basil, a sprinkling of thyme, a grating of Parmesan and a drizzle of balsamic. I added a great big pinch of Maldon sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and popped them in the oven at 150 degrees Celsius. I slow roasted them for an hour and they really were delicious; the tomatoes were soft and sweet, the basil crunchy...I really recommend these. We served rolls, bread and butter and great steaming mugs of tea, what else?

After brunch, we had birthday cake and coffee. It was a calm, chatty, lovely birthday brunch. When everyone left, I knew I had to move and move fast. I realised if I didn't keep moving that I might fall down in a little heap and not move for a few hours, bar some twitching. So, I went upstairs to repair the damage 10 or 12 kids can amazingly inflict in such a short time.

By then, I wasn't fit for cooking even though Frank my wonderful father in law was here. I suggested pizza at Massimo's as a birthday treat and everyone thought it was a grand idea. Hallelujah! We bumped into the lovely Jo and family who, amongst almost all of Bearsden, had had the same idea as us: they were seating them out the door! The sfiziosa pizza was lovely although not as spicy as normal and I ate only a few slices. The kids hardly ate anything before running outdoors to play. Sigh. Thank goodness for take out boxes.

I laughed heartily when Brian 'suggested' making snickerdoodle cake. Instead, we went to Asda where the kids got to spend some of their birthday money and mini chocolate muffins were bought for those who wanted to partake in a sweet. I know, I hear you all cry...but they didn't even eat their dinner! Look, it was their birthday, we're all allowed a day off from the norm. So yes, I let them have muffins and sweets too. Thrrp.

After all this and feeling slightly faint, I stumbled inside, grasping about in the haze for coffee. But I had a revelation last night. More on that later. The revelation came back to me and I crawled up the stairs at 8pm, shouting instructions for baths (for the children) and went for a 30 minute walk in the sun. The day still isn't over as uniforms need to be found but you know, I'm alive, I'm well and I have three happy children, a smug husband and a reasonably contented father in law. Life is grand.