Tuesday 9 November 2010

Really Random Tuesday


Really Random Tuesday is a meme created by Suko at Suko's Notebook which is a way to post odds and ends--announcements, musings, quotes, photos--any blogging and book-related things you can think of.

I meant to show these pictures last week, but NaNoWriMo took over and I didn't get time. Speaking of NaNoWriMo, you will see that I now have a word count widget on the left hand side of my blog. As of last night, I had written 17,306 words, if it has more on it now whilst reading this post, then I am probably having a good day.

The pictures below were taken during Half Term which ended with Halloween. The weather was rather dismal, so we decided that we would have a bit of a cooking and crafting week. Now I don't usually like to cook with the girls as they tend to argue over who does what, but I think I have finally cracked it by giving them each a recipe to cook. I let them pick what they wanted to do, then got them make their own shopping list and then when we reached Sainsbury's I sent them off to find the items they needed.


 One of my girls decided she wanted to make Rocky Road and we followed a rather simple recipe from Nigella Lawson. I love Nigella Lawson's cookbooks, but she is destined to make me rather fat. 
 We enjoyed the Rocky Road a bit too much and had to make a second batch.
 My other daughter decided she wanted to make Cheese Twists. This is a picture before they were cooked. We then made a second batch of these and added some crispy bacon. They were rather yummy.
 We discovered that both girls had a huge pile of kits in their cupboards to make things, so we decided it was time to be creative.
 Here they are making named door tags.

I haven't done a lot of reading this week, due to NaNoWriMo, but the novellas have definitely been the ideal thing to read this month. 

I have begun Christmas planning already. I am hoping to do my Christmas scrap album again this year. I have already bought the album and hope to prepare a few pages in advance.  I have also made a list of Christmas books I hope to read, which I will share with you later in the month.

I know I am blogging a lot less recently, but it really should only be like this for this month, once NaNoWriMo is over I hope to be around a lot more regularly. So thank you to all you lovely bloggers who are sticking by me through this busy month.

20 comments:

  1. It looks like you have two Nigella's in the making. If only my mam had done this with us perhaps I wouldn't be the disaster that I am in the kitchen - then again!

    I'm looking forward to reading your Christmas book list as I've signed up for a holiday reading challenge and need some more inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can't believe how much you've written - that/'s more than the dissertation for my masters!!

    Christmas scrapbook sounds interesting - hope you will tell us more about it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love the cooking pics, makes me hungry just looking at them :)
    Can't wait to see your christmas scrapping. Sounds like you're getting organised, wish I could say the same LOL

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh, this post brought back so many memories! I kept all kinds of creative supplies in a cupboard when the kids were younger. Painting was the favorite activity, by far!

    I have started thinking about all things Christmas and LOVE your idea of a scrapbook to document the days. I plan to go to Archiver's today ("research" for NaNo project) and perhaps I will become inspired to start my own holiday album.

    ReplyDelete
  5. We did a lot of crafting when the girls were younger, and still do a lot of baking. What a great idea to have them make their own list and gather the ingredients from the store - wish I'd thought of that one!

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a fun way to spend the girls' break!

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a fun idea to have your girls cook their own recipes!! We have a massive bake day every year in December (last year baked 12 recipes), so there's a lot of delegating that goes on.

    Glad you're doing so well with NaNo! Sounds like you're having a fantastic month!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Laurence absolutely adores cooking. Since he was 3 or 4, he's wanted to be a chef when he grows up, and he's always in the kitchen helping Jason with dinner. Every year we try to buy him some stuff to make his own recipes. Most recently, this past Saturday, he and Jason made some sort of Jewish cookies and some potato hash and roast.

    The other boys help cook sometimes too, though not as often.

    I just gave up my personal blog, so I might start doing Really Random Tuesday on The Zen Leaf from time to time...

    ReplyDelete
  9. We're fans of Nigella at my house too. She just makes everything seem so relaxed and easy. Your girls will be very comfortable in a kitchen when they're older. That's wonderful.
    Good luck with your Nanowrimo word count. Looks like you have a good pace going :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I am a Nigella fan too - so I totally agree with her plan to make us all super fat! I adore rocky road, your pictures are making me rather hungry right now :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nigella Lawson is wonderful, and I can see your twins having a cooking show of their own together in the future as they are so photogenic and talented! Thanks for sharing these photos. Good luck with your NaNo writing. And thanks for making my Tuesday! :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Ooh, all that baking looks lovely! And I see you've had a good day with NaNoWriMo :) Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  13. This is so good! Great work with NaNoWriMo too! :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. I love how your twins combined cover all the bases: sweet, salty, and BREAD. :)

    Those cheese twists sound yum. Send them to the States please.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I may have to pinch that idea - my two eldest are the same so at the mo it's a case of 'I'll cook with you today and cook with the other next time' which of course leads to the one not cooking while the one who is cooking makes over the top enjoyment of cooking noises so that her sister will definitely hear and be jealous. Grr. Never thought to get them making two different things! Genius!

    Have to say those cheese straws with bacon sound lush!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Petty Witter - I don't know about two Nigella's but definitely two drama queens. Just for you, I will try and get my Christmas book list up for next week. I actuall.y scrolled through all the Christmas library books available.

    Verity - it really is scary how much I have written. By the end of November I will have written 100,000 words.

    Teddyree - I wish my Christmas shopping was as organised.LOL.

    Diane - oh god help my future waistline!

    Molly - I think I might do a post about last year's scrapbook, so that everyone can see what I do, as I seem to have a lot of new readers this year.

    JoAnn - I am trying to help them find their independence at the moment. Secondary school next year, so they need to start branching out on their own a bit.

    Bermudaonion - thankyou.

    Trish - I like the sound of your bake day. 12 recipes is good going.

    Amanda - Laurence sounds like a chef I might need to look out for in the future. I am sorry to read that you are finishing your other blog, but as I mentioned to you, I don't know how you manage two in the first place.

    Mary - I do hope that they will become comfortable in the kitchen. I am hoping to offload the cooking as they get older, as I am rubbish at it.LOL.

    Lucy - Weightwatchers will not be happy with me!

    Suko - chefs by day, ballet dancers by night. Thanks, you know I love your Random Tuesdays.

    Clover - thankyou

    Alice -thankyou.

    Christina - they might not make the post, in fact they didn't survive the next day. Yum!

    Carmen - the only trouble is they are reluctant to share the things they have made. I can't win.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Great post Viv. It looks like you and the girls had fun cooking and baking, the food looks delish.
    http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  18. I should thank you for doing this meme, Vivienne. I am honored. :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Congrats on all of your writing! I'm not a big fan of rocky road, but bacon cheese twists sound fabulous. Everything tastes better with bacon. :)

    ReplyDelete

Hiya, thanks for stopping by, it is always nice to hear what you have to say, so do leave a comment if you have time.