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Jamie Oliver’s carrot cake

I have had a soft spot for Jamie Oliver(the cook!) ever since he ran his TV series on healthy eating. I used to watch him when he had his 30 minute-meal series, back in the day of no kids and plenty of time on my hands…Oh, those were the days…

Anyway, to get back to reality, recently I have gone back to his recipes since I know they are always tasty and foolproof, especially the dessert ones, for a non-gifted baker like moi…

A few weeks back we had dear friends over for dinner and I decided to go for a homemade sweet. I almost always buy my desserts as I have no confidence when it comes to presenting people with my own disasters creations but this time, I felt I could take on Jamie’s carrot cake as it looked simple enough to make and beautiful to present to guests.

I actually managed to make a mess of the instructions and mix things in at the wrong time but, surprise, surprise, the cake turned out moist and fluffy and exactly what a carrot cake should be like! Take a look and judge for yourselves:

1168423_298510813666054_1745956484_nI decided to leave out the almonds and walnuts that Jamie had as an option in his recipe and added only a light sprinkle of Lidl’s ground milled linseed over the beautiful lime and Philadelphia icing.

The cake was rich, filling and full of flavour and satisfied our taste buds, refreshing the palate with its gentle lime hint. Bliss!

Over-confident after my success, I decided to repeat the performance last Saturday but used Flora instead of butter and soft brown sugar instead of the regular I had used the first time. Let’s just say the success didn’t repeat itself and I ended up with an oily, soggy-bottomed cake but tasty, nevertheless. I will definitely use butter next time I make it and the right kind of sugar!

10735039_557090204392527_1899581111_nI am linking my recipe to Vicki’s Tasty Tuesdays linky, step by and have a look at the culinary efforts other mummy bloggers have made this past week.

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Magic Moments: Our Halloween break in Greece

We were away for our Halloween break to Greece. Emma’s birthday is on the 6th of November and her grandparents and auntie were desperate to see her, especially since last summer they didn’t get the chance, and make memories with her.

The trip was dedicated to Emma. I knew that it would be very taxing on me, emotionally and physically. As a bereaved parent, and so early on in the grieving process, I knew I would not enjoy much as the pain does follow, wherever we are. But I needed Emma to know she is loved and her life is celebrated and brings us joy, even more so after the loss of our precious baby boy.

The relatives went to great lengths to make the trip magical for Emma. Especially her auntie, who lives on a small pension and has known grief as a child herself, having lost her father at a very young age.

So Emma got to:

– meet princess Maria and spend an hour of laughter and fun and magic tricks in her presence

DSC_0636– have her birthday celebrated in style with her grandparents and her auntie and uncle

DSC_0681 – spend quality time with the Greek side of her family and get to know them a little better

DSC_0697– learn about “the Greek history and civilisation” (remember Voula’s dad’s pathos and accent in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding“? That :-)!)

DSC_0723– Learn about and savour fresh fruit, straight from the tree!

DSC_0756DSC_0785– gain a new friend

DSC_0925It was good seeing her so happy. It made us understand that life goes on and in a child’s eyes, as parents we are her life.

And it made the whole week’s experience beautiful, if not raw and painful in so many other ways.

I am linking with Jaime’s Magic Moments, as I have not done it in almost a year!

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On the first day of Christmas…

“On the first day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
A Partridge in a Pear Tree.”

45 days to Christmas, hard to believe, isn’t it, where has this year flown?

Today marks the beginning  of my blog’s Christmas advent calendar of posts and my invitation to share in the anticipation: the next month and a half will delight my readers with a variety of reviews of beautiful products and Christmas gift inspiration.

Of course, for us as a bereaved family, this Christmas will be very difficult as it will be the first one without our Georgie. But I am trying very hard and making a conscious effort to see the beauty in this season, despite the anticipated pain. For Emma’s sake, most importantly. And for us, as a couple, as this could be a time to recharge and grow closer if we prepare wisely for it.

Preparation, per definition, is “the action or process of making ready or being made ready for use or consideration”, “something done to get ready for an event or undertaking.” It is the conscious mental and/or physical effort to anticipate and await readily for the future to unfold.

And I do not want to anticipate only pain, although pain will definitely be part of the season. I want to prepare for Christmas with joy, I want to, as the L’Occitane en Province video below puts it so well, “dance my way into the holiday season.”

A dance of celebration for the life that still is in me. A dance of celebration of the good things that can still happen to us as a family. A dance of hope for the future, the short and the long-term future.
So if, like me, you will be intently and consciously be making an effort to enjoy this year’s Christmas celebrations, why not try a little something different this year? Instead of spoiling everybody else around you, and putting yourself last like always, why don’t you head to the magical L’Occitane online Christmas store and choose a gift for yourself?
This is my challenge for you and for myself.
I picked the Relaxing Lavender Collection because I love lavender and I do feel it would do me a world of good, taking some time to myself to soak and relax. And if you love a bargain like me, you would be delighted to learn it has been reduced to £45.50 from £66.50!
What would you choose from their beautiful collection and why, please do let me know.
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Questions and Answers(Meme)

Jen, the lovely mummy behind the Smiles and Trials blog tagged me last night for this meme.

I have been dragging my feet,blogging wise, and I decided taking part in this challenge would be a nice way to shake some dust off my writing tools.

QAHere are the questions the meme challenged us to answer. Please show grace as you read through my answers.

1. What was the last thing that made you cry?

For a long time, I kept putting off sorting out the picture frames I have for the living room for Georgie’s pictures. Last night I managed to start the job but came across a picture of Georgie days before he died. I cried. Silently. With my back to Emma, who remained blissfully unaware of my struggle and continued to watch Frozen. The living room has been her den and her retreat during the very hard months before Georgie’s diagnosis and I didn’t want her to come to associate it with pain. So I cried silently for my boy while my girl carried on with her life. What else could I do?

DSC_02502. Finish this sentence…”Never have I ever…”

…taken drugs. I couldn’t come up with anything else, mental block, I am sure there is tons of other things I haven’t done yet but can’t think of any.

3. Would you rather fight one elephant sized gerbil, or 1000 gerbil sized elephants? Why?

Oooh, I think I would take the thousand small ones and come up with a plan to contain them, in smaller numbers(traps, boxes, nets…etc). With a big one, I would struggle to come up with a plan to keep it at bay. Although the thought of a giant mouse makes me smile as I try to imagine myself fighting it 🙂

4. If you had £50 to spend on something JUST for you, on what would you spend it?

I would probably buy something nice in Cath Kidston. Or a meal and a pavlova in Avoca. Or save it to buy a Nutribullet for Christmas.

5. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen somebody do?

Oh, I don’t want to make fun of my father in law but we went on a cruise a few years ago. An all inclusive cruise. He had been through the war and was left with the “saving” mentality. You would have always found a slice or something in his pockets at any point during the day and he would have made you finish your breakfast before you left the table, so food didn’t go to waste. And he harassed the waiters with the “where does all this food go?” at the end of a meal. It took some adjusting :-).

6. If you could have one superhero’s powers, what would you choose?

I would choose Jesus’ powers.

Maybe Jesus is not the typical choice of a hero but He had some super-envied powers by a mummy who has lost her baby son.

I would choose bringing people back from the dead, healing or going back in the past.

For obvious reasons.

So that I can make my son better, spare him the agony he had to suffer or bring him back to a healthy life.

If only I could have…

7. What would be the first sentence of a book about your life?

“I am a normal, usual human being who has seen and lived some serious shit in her life.”

That means, as you can tell, that pain has come to define me and my life. I hope one day the pain will give it sense as well but for now, I can’t see very far…

This is me finished.

I nominate Ally from Messed Up Mum, Debs from Super Busy Mum and Melanie from A Bit of Mel Time.

Get writing, girls!