Flashback

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This was the worst moment of my life, bar none.

So when I struggled to wake The Boy up from his afternoon nap today, I tried to tell myself not to panic. I failed. After a further ten minutes of failing to get him to wake up sufficiently enough to convince me that he was still just tired, I looked at my mum. She phoned the doctor back straight away and demanded that we saw the same doctor that we'd seen this morning.

He was lifeless; his arms hanging and me having to hold him upright. His lips were white, his skin deathly pale with huge purple shadows.

Carrying him into the surgery, the doctor was visibly surprised to see such a decline in the boisterous, polite, chatty toddler who he'd seen just six hours previously. The Boy was limp, clammy, pale, dazed with no energy. He looked over him, doing the checks (which thanks to reading various blog-posts over the past fortnight) I recognised as meningitus checks. He turned to me and said, "I'm seeing the same thing as you and I'd like you to go into the Children's Assessment Unit."

I almost crumbled to my knees there and then.

Coming back into the room two minutes later, he prepared and adminstered a shot of penicillin for The Boy and then made the phonecall warning them that we were on our way. We walked out, me carrying a floppy child and my husband rushing to get us into the car.

When we arrived at the CAU they were expecting us and assessed him quickly. The Boy had started to perk up a little, but looked so tiny sat in the middle of that adult bed clutching Oliver Monkey tightly. Big, hollow eyes with purple shadows stared at the nurse practitioner as she did the necessary checks and found he had gastritis and dehydration, hardly surprising as I'd been unable to get him to drink properly and he hadn't passed urine since 11am.

He was given some sandwiches to eat, which he wolfed down, and managed to drink 75ml of water. We were then discharged once he'd shown he could keep it down and had some colour back in his cheeks.

The Boy's sleeping in his cot now, and I have all my sense heightened to his needs. Will I sleep? Probably not. Have I cried? Slightly. The thought of my precious child limp and lifeless is too much to bear.

The Gallery: The Letter T

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This week's theme is: The Letter T.

Oooo, toughie!
It can be a 'thing' (tomatoes, tent, tarantula, tongue), a person, a feeling, a place, a time.
It's time to get those little grey cells flexing again!

Of course, the obvious one is the drink (but I don't like it), or my favourite 'tea' (as in dinner). However, having had three and a half seconds sleep last night due to a vomiting child, my imagination and inspiration has buggered off and left me floundering.

I wandered around the kitchen looking for ideas. Why doesn't Cadbury's Dairy Milk have a 't' in it? Or Haagen-Daaz Vanilla ice-cream. It's a conspiracy I tell you. I was just beginning to give up hope when a cheeky little swirl caught my eye.

Ah old faithful, you never let me down.

—

Press this button to see more entries into The Gallery

Apple Preserves

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Several months ago, my mum put a condiment on the dinner table which was gorgeous. It was an apple and mint jelly. Was it for pork, was it for lamb? Did it matter? I'm vegetarian so whatever it was originally meant for was never going to be something that I would consume. Nonetheless it was delicious with salads and baby boiled new potatoes smothered in butter and black pepper.

I've tried to find it, to no avail. Then when the 'chutney chums' (i.e. The Crazy Kitchen, me and Mummy Mishaps) started talking about all things preserving a few weeks ago, I thought I'd give it a go.

Apple and Mint Jelly

Makes: 2 jam jars

Ingredients:

  • 1kg apples, peeled and cored
  • 1 litre water
  • 30g fresh mint, chopped
  • 500g caster sugar
  1. Add the apples and 2 tablespoons of water to a large saucepan, cook for twenty minutes over low to medium heat. Spoon the mixture into a large sieve with a sterilised muslin (I used one of The Boy's unused muslins sterilised with a steaming hot iron) and let the juice drain into a bowl. (Try to leave for 3 hours, I didn't have that amount of time so I left it for 2 hours).
  2. Add the mint and 1 litre of water to a saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and set aside for 10 minutes.
  3. Pour in the strained apple juice and add sugar. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and and simmer gently for 1 hour+, stirring constantly. (The original recipe said 40 minutes, I ended up simmering it away for an hour and a half before it reached setting point).
  4. Pour into sterilized jars, cover with damp cellophane covers (which will tighten as they dry, creating an air-tight seal) and leave to cool. Store in a dark, cool cupboard. They should have a best before of a year from sealing.

My recipe has been adapted from one on AllRecipes.co.uk. I also found this site most helpful when I was trying to work out if it had reached setting point.

The big question of what to do with all that left over apple arose. So I made some Spiced Apple Chutney!

Ingredients:

Makes 2 jam jars

  • 225g onions (chopped)
  • 900g apples (cored & chopped)
  • 110g sultanas or raisins
  • 15g ground coriander
  • 15g paprika
  • 15g salt
  • 15g each of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger
  • 340 granulated sugar
  • 425ml white wine vinegar
  1. Put all the ingredients into a heavy pan.
  2. Slowly bring to the boil until all the sugar has dissolved.
  3. Simmer for 1½-2 hours, stirring from time-time to stop the chutney from sticking.
  4. Take the lid off to reduce down for further thirty minutes or so.
  5. When it is very thick and a spoon drawn across it leaves a channel which doesn't immediately fill with liquid, the chutney is ready to transfer to the jars.
  6. While still hot, turn into sterilised jars, use wax discs and damp cellophane to seal. Allow to cool.
  7. Store in a cool, dark cupboard for two-three months before eating. Can be kept for up to twelve months sealed.
 
 

I adapted this recipe from one on the BBC Good Food Guide.

Tips:

  • Sterilise jars and utensils in the dishwasher.
  • Use wax discs and cellophane film lids as lids from jars can corrode effecting the chutney. Also it has to be put in piping hot for the dimple on the lid to suction down or it's not sterile.
  • Sterilise the muslin with a hot iron.
  • When fastening the fabric cover, hold it in place with an elastic band first. If you are one of those genetically-modified humans who have four hands, and can therefore hold the fabric in place and wrap the raffia around, don't bother, you'll be fine. Once the raffia is wrapped around, remove the elastic band.

Our Haven

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At the end of the Summer, I posted how I had been invited to take part in the Bosch Garden Makeover Challenge. As a keen gardener who has been feeling a little distraught for the past year about two areas in my otherwise idyllic (for me anyway) garden, I was very eager to transform these, making them work for us at the stage that we are: young family with a little one who needs a safe place space.

I posted here, highlighting the two areas that needed attention in my otherwise perfect paradise:

The two vegetable patches hadn't been used in ages and I was lacking inspiration; my seedlings kept dying and the weeds kept growing. In the picture on the right, is what was my herb garden. It was because a gale-force wind saw the fence panel behind it being blown halfway across the garden; it crushed most of my rosemary, and all of the thyme and coriander. Then when my dad fixed the fence (thanks dad) he did in the remainder of my rosemary with a spade and his size tens! All that was left was an overgrown lavender. In addition this 'herb garden' (pah!) was edged with sharp stones and I just had visions of a nasty accident.

During the past two months we've received a lawn treatment from Green Thumb which highlighted that my lush, green lawn was in fact 85% full of weeds. The very lovely gentleman who explained about keeping the lawn healthy also kindly explained that I really needed to keep The Boy's toys off the grass when they're not being used. This set my mind whirring, one of the main culprits was the Little Tikes Playhouse which was crushing the grass underneath. I therefore decided to remove the left vegetable patch, pave that creating a base for the playhouse, and use the railway sleepers to edge the now-defunct herb garden. During the Winter months, the other vegetable patch (on the right) is going to be used as a digging plot for The Boy, before we plant seeds together next Spring.

When it came to the completely pointless herb garden (which, if I'm entirely honest, was never used anyway because I couldn't be bothered to be that creative with my cooking!) I decided to turn it into another flower bed, but this time full of vibrant plants to give colour from my kitchen window during the forthcoming grey season. With the lavender bush long-gone, and now edged in railway sleeper, I chose shrubs and Winter flowering plants. In this flower bed we now have a beautiful mix of plants including a dogwood,  berberis, a new lavender (which I shall keep controlled!), a globe thistle and a nice selection of Lenten and Christmas roses.

Here's some other gratuitous shots of my garden to give you an overall feel.

Our garden is now a much more user-friendly environment, the specific user being a two year old tiddler by the name of The Boy. It also has a finished feel to it and I'm very grateful to Bosch, Coblands and GreenThumb for providing us with the resources to make this happen.

If you'd like to vote for us to win this competition, you can do so below.

We were provided with Bosch tools, a lawn treatment and plants in order to complete this challenge. My opinions and actions are independent.