Friday 6 January 2012

A Flop, a party and a faint

We had a wonderful full nights sleep.  The sump worked beautifully and noiselessly.  Ahhhhhhhhh.

However, baking.  PAH - What a nightmare.  In the UK I bake alot.  I bake cakes for family and friends.  I even used to bake for money.  But here my Flapjack is hard and chewy and uneatable.  It's the oats I thought!  I'll find some better oats and all will be well.  
The boys helping me to mix

We have been invited to party this afternoon for 12th night, to get to know some of the neighbours.  So because of this I decided to make some cupcakes.  Easy peasy.  I do them all the time.  Not a problem.  Except here in Canada it is a problem.  They looked awful.  They tasted awful.  And the aftertaste is like soap.

Adding the mixture to the cases (my special union jack cases too!)
I used an English recipe, one I have used many times.  The flour here is all purpose flour.  And then you use baking powder or soda or bicarb.  Whatever it is that's wrong, I know I can't cook here.  The cakes went in the bin.  Even the buttercream - how can that be wrong - was awful.  

At least they licked the spoons!!
We had broccoli and Stilton soup (which I have made many many times but today it tasted lifeless and bland) - I may have forgotten the stock cube.)  MMmmmmmaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnn.  I think I need to learn how to cook and bake all over again.

Smallest has decided he likes washing up

We had a visit today from a friend and her son.  Lovely lady and polite boy.  The boys all played really well together.  They bought me Stilton Cheese (as she knew I was having trouble finding it) and a nice plant and lots of snacks for the boys to share.  We talked a lot while the boys played, got some good ideas on where to get ice skates, where to ski and snowboard etc.

The temperature was 3* .  We went out without gloves.  Hey it's positively balmy!  

Later we went for a quick shop to buy something for the party cos my cakes are in the bin!!  While we were in the shop Small saw a sign that said "Cookery School", and said there you go Mummy, you can do that!  I stopped a woman who was buying flour and asked her advice on flours and cakes and baking soda etc.  she was so lovely, she gave me her phone number and told me to ring anytime I had any questions on baking or ingredients.  She thought I was Scottish!!

We came home, got changed quickly and went to the party.  The hosts were fabulous and funny.  Small and Smallest were wonderful (they were put in front of the TV with some yummy snacks) everyone thought they were adorable.  They didn't let me down and they didn't show me up - phew.

We met lots of neighbours who live around us.  All very nice. Lots of funny stories.  Lots of history about our house and houses close by.

Had an invite to tea from a lovely girl who lives across the road to us.  Moo met lots of lovely people who told her she could join them in their retirees club.

Moo had a little incident there.  She took Smallest to the toilet.  Minutes later Smallest came out of the bathroom and grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the bathroom (not saying anything).  There was Moo on the floor, looking a bit pale, saying she wasn't feeling well.  Then she lay on the floor .  The bathroom was tiny.  She lay diagonally across and only just fit.  I sent Smallest to get Huffle who got her some water.  We're not sure if she fainted or not.  Silly thing.  Got up 5 minutes later like nothing had happened.  This is not unusual, though i haven't  seen it for a few years.  She normally saves it for the theatre.  It was warm there!! Anyway she is fine now.

Glad we went.  It was fun.



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