General | TheBoyandMe

Country Kid: Autumn Leaves

October 20, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 22 Comments

I am sat here trying to recover from a gargantuam walk. "Let's nip up to town?" says I.

Problem is that once you've got to town (which is only a ten minute walk away), it's incredibly easy to nip to the park because it's only a few hundred yards from the town centre. It's a lovely, meandering, Victorian park. And it meanders down to the beach. Which is absolutely brilliant and we all love walking along the pier and plopping pebbles in the sea. There's just one problem with walking down to the beach…

…you have to come back up again!

However, as it is a beautiful day with an azure sky, wispy clouds and a warming Autumn sun, it was a really enjoyable walk along some of the very affluent areas of our seaside, Victorian town. One of the best bits about our town is the plethora of tree-lined avenues, giving an abundance of leaves. After the dry weather this week they were fantastically crunchy and inviting for a three year old little boy.

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Bara Brith

October 16, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 16 Comments

Bara Brith is a popular spiced tea loaf in Wales and means 'speckled bread'. The speckled part comes from the raisins which are scattered throughout the bread, which would have been made traditionally from leftover bread dough. To make the dough more of a sweet than a savoury, mixed spice is added, and the raisins are soaked in tea to plump them up and make the bread moist. Modern day Bara Brith recipes don't use yeast, making the loaf a lot quicker to make.

The first thing to do when making Bara Brith is to put the kettle on and make a strong cup of tea, but not for yourself!

Ingredients:

225g mixed dried fruit
225ml hot strong tea, strained
225g self-raising flour
1tbsp mixed spice
25g butter
100g brown sugar
1 egg

1. Soak the fruit in the hot strong tea for at least an hour to plump up the raisins (this process can be sped up by microwaving it for 2 minutes). I added the mixed spice at this point to infuse it into the tea, traditionally it is added in with the flour.

tea loaf

2. Preheat the oven to 180degreesC/350degreesC/gas mark 4. Grease and line a loaf tin, or use a silicon baking 'tin' instead, far easier.
3. Sift the flour (and the mixed spice) into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and mix into a breadcrumb consistency.
4. Stir in the sugar, then add the fruit and its liquid along with the beaten egg. Stir well to make a mixture with a soft consistency.

tea loaf

5. Transfer to the baking tin and put into the preheated oven for about an hour or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
6. Turn onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
7. Serve the Bara Brith sliced and buttered.

fruit tea loaf

Country Kids: Practise Makes Perfect

October 14, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 12 Comments

One of our favourite jaunts is across the Cardiff Bay Barrage to Pizza Express. Today was no exception, and so with The Boy's bike and scooter accompanying us we trotted off in search of dough balls and coffee ice-cream.

It's a beautiful walk on a sunny day and today was just that; the air was crisp and the gloves were on. I love this time of year because the sunsets are beautiful and the light for photography is amazing. And can I just point out that while he's cycling and scooting on a road, no cars are allowed on it so it's safe!

Two thirds of the way across the barrage is a skate park, and I knew that The Boy would find it fascinating as he'd been watching the teenage boys skateboarding past us and he was trying to position his feet in the same way as them.

Pretty soon it was time to continue our journey, but he couldn't quite take his eyes off the stunts they were pulling.

One day my boy, one day.

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"Get The Funniest Looks From…"

October 9, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 12 Comments

I love this boy!

Slow-Cooker Sunday: Paxos Fish Stew

October 7, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 6 Comments

I may be a vegetarian but I’m the only one in the house who is, and because I’m a good wife/mother and like to give a balanced diet, the ‘boys’ regularly have fish (it’s also easier for me to prepare and cook than meat).

We were invited to try out the September recipe for the Sunvil Supper Club, which was Paxos Fish Stew. I saw this as an easy recipe to prepare, and have adapted it slightly for use in our family and with a slow cooker.

Ingredients:

30ml olive oil
2 medium onions, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, chopped or pressed
4 lengths of celery (we left these out as none of us like them)
4 large tomatoes, skin removed (I have to use tinned because The Boy has an intolerance to raw tomatoes, I believe it’s something in the heating process which destroys the enzymes which cause the reaction)
1tbsp paprika
2 bay leaves
300g potatoes, peeled and chopped
100ml red wine (left out as a child was eating it)
200ml vegetable stock
Salt and pepper to taste
Small bunch of chopped parsley
2 fillets of white fish (traditionally grey mullet or sea bream)
Prawns, clams or other sea-food may also be added (not added)

In a heavy saucepan heat the olive oil gently before adding the onion, garlic and chopped celery. Saute these until they have softened.
Once soft, add the chopped skinless tomatoes, paprika, bay leaves and the chopped potatoes. Combine with the onion mixture and pour the vegetable stock and wine into the pan. Ensure that all the potatoes are covered by the liquid, adding a little extra water if necessary. Allow to cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through. Remove the bay leaves, taste the stew and season. (I did this step in the slow cooker, using half the amount of liquid and cooking it on high for an hour).
Chop the fish fillets into 2 inch sections and add to the stew. Turn the heat down to low (or medium on the slow cooker) and allow the fish to cook until it is opaque all the way through beginning to flake for around eight minutes (approximately three-quarters of an hour in the slow cooker. If adding other seafood, add it at the same time as the fish to ensure it is cooked thoroughly).
Serve with crusty bread and a fresh salad.

Paxos is part of the Greek coastline and is home to a number of different fish and seaafoods.

Both The Boy and Mr. TBaM really like this stew. It's not something that I'd normally cook for them, but both are big fans of fish and really enjoyed it. We enjoy trying out recipes from different countries and cultures, but tend to get stuck in a rut. The Sunvil Supper Club features a recipe each month on its website to celebrate a dish that is linked to a particular destination. I look forward to seeing the recipe for October

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I was sent a voucher to purchase the items to make this recipe.

Country Kids: Porthkerry Park

October 6, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 9 Comments

The azure sky and white-hot sun beckoned us out to play today, so we popped our welly-boots on and hot-tailed it down to Porthkerry Park for some fun and games. We'd tried to have fun with The Boy there last year when the new playpark has opened, but he was a little too young for it at the time. Now he's more physically confident, he adored the challenge.

After doing a fantastic impression of Spiderman on the climbing frame, we had a bear hunt through the woods looking for interesting shaped leaves for some art work, and ended up on the beach making pebble towers, plopping and skimming stones and riding fallen trees before squelching our way back through the mud to wrestle our boots off.

porthkerry park

Please excuse the rubbish quality on these images. Taken with my fantabulous dSLR but uploaded via wireless tethering on my phone due to Sky not getting their arses in gear and delivering our new router to us. I miss ADSL.

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£20.46!

September 29, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 16 Comments

One vodka and coke, one kahlua and coke.

In a hotel in London.

£17.90!

In a well-known supermarket anywhere else in Britain.

And at that rate, MammyWoo and I had one drink.

Just as well that the rather fantastic Sally Whittle (Evil Overlord extraordinaire) had arranged free wine on each table in the MAD Blog Awards to help us enjoy the celebrations of the blogging world. Seventy bloggers, all female bar one, in pretty, bejewelled dresses with swit-swoo hair and make-up at a three course meal in a London hotel. Lots of high heels, squealing, underwear adjustments, photographs, hugs and a lot of blog love.

I had a great time meeting up with some of my real-life blogging friends (The Five Fs, Not My Year Off, The Crazy Kitchen and Coombe Mill) while having a brilliant time with the one and only inimitable MammyWoo.

I didn't win, she did. And I screamed because she did.

(To be fair I also screamed when Coombe Mill won).

This is my 24 hours in Londinium.

Thank you to every single person who felt that I was a good role-model for photography in the blogging world and nominated me, and then went on to vote for me. I'd be lying if I said I am disappointed that I didn't win, of course I wanted to! However, I'm not lying or being insincere when I say that being there as one of the top five has made my year when it comes to blogging. Thank you.