Lemon syrup loaf cake

The lemon cooking continues, actually sob, this is the last lemon, there were two more but they were starting to look a little manky, anyway continuing to consult the Domestic Goddess on what to do with my lemons, I made Lemon Syrup Loaf cake from Nigella Lawson’s How to be a Domestic Goddess and yum it’s fantastic, a really simple recipe and although it takes a while in the oven (20 minutes longer than the recipe stated for me, but that’s my oven for you), it is really quick to put together and the lemon syrup bit you pour over as the cake (eventually) comes out of the oven is a lovely trick which turns what I suspect would have been a gorgeous cake anyway into a really gorgeous cake. I think this cake would be great as a sort of casual dinner party dessert, a slice alongside some fresh raspberries, ummm I seem to have a thing developing for the lemon and raspberry combination.

Easy Jambalaya with Chipolatas and Chorizo (pepperoni)

In the never ending effort to try and gently introduce new things to my kids diet, I tried this jambalaya recipe (goes to Waitrose website), although I substituted chorizo for pepperoni as I could only find extra hot chorizo and although my kids will willingly sneak chilli crisps off my plate when I’m not looking, I wasn’t overly keen tonight on the prospect of the nappies tomorrow. The recipe was reasonably easy to make, although if you make this recipe with the full quantities involved I strongly suggest a very large pan, I used my largest saucepan and had trouble browning the chipolatas.

Anyway the result? Mr. Lacer polished it all off, I’m not too keen on meat generally but enjoyed the rice, specially the peppers and it made me wish for a nice vegetarian pilaf, although I think I would have preferred this recipe if I had substituted the chipolatas for diced chicken and kept the chorizo, the spicier the better, Girl Lacer enjoyed the rice only she said (i.e. in her mind not those dodgy looking peppers) and Boy Lacer had a great exercise in his cutlery skills as he carefully extracted all pieces of sausage and nothing else. So, I don’t think I’ll be making this exact recipe again, although it’s given me the inspiration to try some variations.

I hate diets, says she eating her third packet of Monster Munch today

Yes, I admit it, I could possibly do with loosing some weight and my diet recently has been appalling, which forgetting the weight issue isn’t exactly healthy but when I try dieting I instantly start to obsess about food in general and in particular cheese sandwiches, which I know from past experience are the point equivalent of hell, making cans of full-fat coke (my other vice) look positively angelic in comparison. I’m trying Tesco Healthy Living Tracker which is a bit like Weight Watchers Points online except all importantly – free, it’s not quite the same though, they don’t have as many products on their database (but unsurprisingly a lot of Tesco ones) and you can’t just add in the nutritional information if the product isn’t on the database (unlike Weight Watchers), however they do have some natty statistics so you can see how well you’ve done against the recommended intake guidelines for fat and fibre etc., take today for example, I haven’t had my tea yet I should point out but I’ve had 70% of my recommended calorie intake of 1660 calories (I’m trying to lose weight I should remind you) but have already had 116% of my recommended daily intake of saturated fat (that’s those cheese sandwiches then I had for lunch) but I’ve yet to have over half of my recommended intake of fibre, sugar and protein, so the scientist in me is having a ball.

So obsessing about food or the lack of it always makes me grumpy so I took myself off into town to escape. The weather here is gorgeous again (as far as February goes) and my winter coat is now getting far too warm, everyone in town today were walking around in jumpers etc., so as my only other coat is a rain coat which also on the virtue of it’s waterproofness can also be stiflingly hot, I thought I needed a new coat. Budget for said new coat was not great so I went for M&S, sadly walked past the Per Una section by the door and straight for the cheaper ‘almost granny’ section (the ‘actual granny’ section i.e. the ‘classic’ clothes are upstairs in M&S where no one goes, that section always makes me wonder, when I’m 70 odd will the granny section in M&S be full of low rise jeans and sweat tops whilst the new generation goes round in Buck Rogers jumpsuits?). Anyway I now know where Nina of the Neurons shops, yes the ‘almost granny’ section of M&S, as I have brought her coat. Now nobody, unless they’re British and have children under the age of about 6, will have a clue what I’m on about, so a quick summary Nina and the Neurons, it’s a ‘perky’ science show on CBeebies where the aforementioned Nina talks to the neurons inside her head, anyway I now have her coat.

No, I haven’t got myself a rather trendy lab coat, I couldn’t find a picture of her when she’s out of the lab but she wears this short buckled green type trench coat thing and I’ve got that. As my hair is also reddish and of a similar length and I’m a scientist by training, I better watch I don’t start putting my hair in pigtales and start talking to the neurons in my head, hopefully then no little one at the school gate is going to be confusing me for any CBeebies character then. Even if it happened it wouldn’t be half as funny as what happened to the writer of this post when she got mistaken for Iggle Piggle.