Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

I think this is the first time I’ve blogged about a book that I’ve just re-read, that’s because as I rule, I don’t re-read books (unless you count the books that the kids’ like, in which case I re-read those again and again for them). I always think there’s too many new books out there to devote time to something I’ve already read, but I had run out of Audible credits the other week and didn’t have anything to listen to (and didn’t fancy listening again to one of my growing pile of audiobooks, I’ve had an Audible account for a frighteningly long time now, 2o09 I think!), so I raided Girl Lacer’s audiobooks again and started listening to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Since then my Audible credits have been topped up and I have two good audiobooks waiting for me, plus a third I bought the other day whilst it was on special offer, but I haven’t listened to any of them because once I started The Philosopher’s Stone, I surprised myself (a little bit anyway), I didn’t want to stop. Now of course the Harry Potter series is one of those aforementioned books my kids’ get me to read over and over again, Girl Lacer is a true fan and is old enough to read them herself now comfortably (something she does with a regular occurrence, I’ve just asked her how many times she reckoned she’d read each book in the series and she said at least three times each, can well believe that) and now it’s Boy Lacer’s turn to discover them afresh. Not that it’s that fresh for poor Boy Lacer, whereas we had a rule when Girl Lacer was reading the books for the first time, that she wasn’t aloud to watch the particular movie until she’d read the book, of course Boy Lacer has seen at least glimpses of all the movies, but not that much seems to have sunk in, so every night when we read the books to him, we’re met with cries of “Don’t stop! It’s exciting!”, he’s lucky to have a Potter fan for a sister because Girl Lacer then goes on to read more to him after they’ve gone to bed. It’s interesting seeing the difference between reading the books to Girl Lacer and Boy Lacer for the first time, Boy Lacer is obsessed with knowing what the meanings of any long words are, so he regularly stops us asking us to explain, Girl Lacer never did that but as JK Rowling doesn’t exactly dumb down her language there must have presumably been words that Girl Lacer didn’t understand back when she was 7 but she must have let them skim over her.

But back to me ‘re-reading’ The Philosopher’s Stone, what surprised me a little was how listening to it for myself was such an unbridled pleasure, it’s been a long time since I first read the book for myself (in 2001, on a plane back from New York) and what’s great this time is reading it, after knowing how the series ends, how much of what happens in later books is set up or hinted in the first book, I am even more in awe of Rowling’s abilities at plotting and world creation. And of course, back in 2001 I wasn’t a mother, there are some bits of those books which I ‘get’ far more now that I am. To me the Harry Potter world is a world that you can sink into, as comforting as a hot bath, where the characters feel like old friends, I will be raiding Girl Lacer’s audiobook collection again, she doesn’t have all of them yet, the later books are very expensive and they’re not on Audible (if they were I’d have sacrificed my credits to get them all a long time ago) but maybe with me listening to them to, Girl Lacer will complete her collection just a little bit quicker.

***** (out of 5 – of course)

Military sandbox pants

Boy Lacer is going to be a soldier in his choir’s performance, he needed some green, khaki or camouflaged trousers, he didn’t have any, so I thought I’d make some. The pattern is from Oliver & S, the Sandbox Pants pattern (minus the back pockets as I didn’t have time) which I’ve had in my pattern collection for far too long and the fabric is from a seller on Ebay. I’ve had all week to make this and of course I left it to the last minute, it took me all yesterday afternoon to trace the pattern and cut out the fabric (tracing the pattern was a nightmare, I haven’t done any serious big sewing since moving back to our flat, I still miss our old temporary flat’s lovely large (compared to ours) table, I had to trace the pattern on our floor, even then the tracing paper was still shifting and I was making mistakes) and most of the day today to sew it. My actual craft space is in my bedroom but I deliberately moved into the living to do this, this is what I had to work with.

Space is getting to be the big hampering thing in my progress as a seamstress, being able to cut out pattern pieces accurately is crucial and I’m struggling to do that. However, having said all that, I’ve certainly been less accurate in other projects and at least my living room floor is now (thanks to the reorganisation that was part of the refurbishment) pretty much consistently clear. The actual trousers came together pretty well, watching them make trousers on The Great British Sewing Bee the other week certainly helped (these are only the second pair of trousers I’ve made).

I struggled with the waistband though, I needed to make a pair of button holes for the tie cord, this was the first time I’ve needed to make button holes since I got my new machine. Now my old machine used to be a nightmare for buttonholes, so I was very excited to get a machine that did automatic button holes, hmmm, I tried some on a piece of scrap fabric, would get half way through each button hole, then I’d get an error message, BL and the machine wouldn’t do anymore. Googling, I think BL stands for button lever and I found a couple of threads about having to pull it down but I couldn’t find anything about where exactly the button lever is and my instruction manual wasn’t exactly helpful. So if anyone knows anything about the BL error code when doing button holes using a Janome CXL301, I would love to hear from you because right now it’s putting me off making anything else with button holes (although Mr. Lacer the love says he’s going to have a look at my machine for me to). Anyway, back to the trousers, in the end I bodged the buttons holes, they don’t look great and are a bit too small but they do the job.

Oh and *slap wrist me* I should have double checked Boy Lacer’s height against the size as size 7 (he’s 7) is way too big for him. In fairness to me though, I noticed that size charts listed total height, not leg height and as total height goes, Boy Lacer is pretty average for a 7 year old, but it is all in his torso, his legs are a little on the short side, I’m not sure I could have judged the correct trouser size for him then on total height. Anyway, as long as they don’t fall down in the concert!

(Boy Lacer is now sitting next to me, questioning whether me giving his age and that he’s average size is good internet safety, I have him well trained – he’s just made me remove the name of the concert he’s in)

The Alchemyst

I’ll admit the main reason why I read The Alchemyst was because I was looking for a new series to some how tear Girl Lacer away from Harry Potter, so although I normally love reading kids’ books, I preface this review with what I normally write when I’m about to give a kids’ book a not particularly complimentary review, I am possibly too old to ‘get’ this book.

As well as trying to find new reading material for Girl Lacer, I was attracted to The Alchemyst as it had John Dee and Nicholas Flamel in it, two real life historical characters who’ve I’ve encountered in other books I’ve read over the last few years which I’ve really enjoyed. I did not particularly enjoy their appearance in The Alchemyst, I thought John Dee, the villain of the piece, was pretty two dimensional.

So what’s The Alchemyst about? The Alchemyst opens in a fight scene in a book shop in San Francisco, between the book shop owner and John Dee. Josh is working there over the summer and gets drawn into the fight. Over the road in a coffee shop is Josh’s twin sister Sophie and the book shop owner’s wife Perenelle, who rush over to the book shop when they realise something is happening. An important book gets stolen during the fight, well most of the book gets stolen and when Dee realises he doesn’t have all of the book, the bookshop owner and the children have to flee. Cue warrior maidens, sinister crows and rats, ancient goddess’ and Shadowrealms. There are a few good absorbing scenes in the book, particularly towards the end and I liked how it was set up for the rest of the series but most of the time something about the book made me almost painfully conscious about the writing and you know what they say, if you’re aware of the author’s writing, they’re not doing a great job. I think also because not only do I like stories with Dee and Flamel in but I also like stories where, as in The Alychemyst, myths and legends turn out to be true, I had a lot of my favourite stories to compare this to and it didn’t hold up well. But I think my reading background (as well as my age) is possibly making me a harsh critic, my opinion of the book is certainly not going to stop me recommending it to Girl Lacer, she may very well like it (although then again me recommending a book to Girl Lacer is normally the kiss of death).

** (out of 5)

The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

I am not doing too well in my efforts to get rid of some cookbooks, I’ve only got rid of one so far and now I’ve gone and bought another cookbook, so sum change = 0. In my defence the kids owed me some Waterstones vouchers, so pah, what was I gonna do? Anyway, The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook attracted me because I’d read in reviews how small Deb Perelman’s kitchen was and I thought “I’ve got a small kitchen to, this might just be the book for me!”, so I bought it. I don’t follow the Smitten Kitchen blog, although I feel I perhaps ought to now because I really liked the book.

This is what I made

Ratatouille sub

This was a semi regular attempt of ‘I’m going to get vegetables into my family even if it kills me’, the result? Boy Lacer devoured all of it (good boy), Girl Lacer picked out the bits she didn’t like (about half of it) and Mr. Lacer ate his to. Me? I really liked it but even though the ratatouille method was meant to be easier (and more small kitchen appropriate), I found it a bit of a faff and will be resorting to my normal ratatouille method next time. As for a ‘next time’, I’m not sure I would go and make ratatouille specifically for a sandwich again but it’d be a great way of using up left overs.

Toastie with emmental and red onions with green slaw

Pretty much the only thing that wasn’t burnt about the toastie was the emmental. I thought the red onions cooked in brown sugar and balsamic vinegar was a really nice idea but I felt that the cooking time was too long and I should have trusted my instinct more than the book. The burnt bread, entirely my fault. Still, it was nice and it’s tempting to do again because who doesn’t love a cheese toastie? And I love anything to do with red onions.

The green slaw was ok to but despite the claims in the book I thought it didn’t keep very well and I ended up throwing out the left overs the next day.

Apricot breakfast crumble

This was delicious, not sure it was particularly breakfasty mind you. It took a while to make as well, which resulted in Boy Lacer throwing a hissy fit, me having to make him a normal breakfast and then him having a second breakfast when this came out of the oven.

Butternut squash and caramelised onion galette

Making this felt like a Great British Bake Off moment, one where the contestant is about to go home, as the butter from the made from scratch pastry completely leaked out all over the oven. I think that the instructions to make the pastry were a bit iffy but I went along with it because I haven’t made that much pastry before, so I’m no expert, hmm should have trusted instinct again, as I later went and consulted how to make pastry in Paul Hollywood’s book and the method was pretty different. However thankfully, even with the butter all leaking out, the result was still absolutely delicious. I had been kicking myself whilst it was still in the oven, that I didn’t cheat like I normally did and bought ready made, however even with the butter leaking out, the pastry was still gorgeous and as nice as ready made pastry is, (badly made) homemade is nicer. The filling was gorgeous to (basically just cheese, butternut squash and onion) and would make a great topping to the Nigel Slater inspired tarts I usually make (with ready bought pastry). And the left overs were great cold to.

You can find a similar recipe here, interestingly the pastry recipe is different and is more how I’d expect to make pastry.

Leek fritters

(Made with a mix of the remains of my allotment leeks and shop bought ones). These were nice, particularly the creamy lemon dressing. They also freeze and defrost well.

Margherita pizza

OMG best homemade pizza ever, so simple and quick (relatively) to. I used the Rushed pizza dough method, which involves adding more yeast and letting your dough sit in a previously warmed for 5 minutes oven, I’ll admit I’m not sure the dough even raised (I think it was meant to) but still the resulting dough made the thinnest most authentic you’re ever going to get out of my kitchen, pizza base. The toppings were really simple to, which is what it should be.

The pizza above was for the kids’ tea, I just had to make it again a few days later for me and Mr. Lacer, I wasn’t convinced the pizza size above would be enough so I doubled the recipe. I consequently (for some reason) couldn’t roll the dough out as thin as before, although it was still pretty thin and doubling it for two adult was probably a bit too much. Will try it at 1 1/2 x the amount next time and there will be a next time.

Butter popcorn cookies

Oh just typing those words made me drool, these were, although a bit odd, absolutely gorgeous, they just had that perfect combination of textures, the crunch of the popcorn and the cookie itself, oh the cookie, the cookie itself was the closest I’ve ever seen to the sort of soft and chewy cookies you get at Millie’s, I will definitely be experimenting with that dough to see what other cookies I can make.

The kids, when they came home from school and I announced I’d been making popcorn cookies were all a little sceptical “Did you get that from a book mummy? Or did you just decide to put popcorn in?”, I think they were more siding on the mummy’s gone loco viewpoint. But even they liked the cookies once they tried them (sort of reluctantly).

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So, in summary I wouldn’t get rid of this book anyway, I’ve only just bought it but I wouldn’t anyway, admittedly there are a few recipes in here I’d do a little different if/when I make them again but the book is fantastic inspiration and to be honest worth the price alone for that pizza and the popcorn cookies recipe. There is still quite a lot I’d still like to make from the book, the baking sections in particular I feel I’ve only just touched the surface of. So I’d recommend this book.

Proto-blogger goes to France

Photos by Girl Lacer

It seems like yesterday I was on here writing about how Girl Lacer’s playgroup had closed unexpectedly and what on earth was I going to  do with her, for what turned out to be a very long summer and now she’s jetting off to France, without us! Even paid for most of the trip herself to. She was away from early Friday morning to Sunday evening and the first thing we did when she got back was look at her photos and I was a bit surprised at what she’d taken photos of or maybe I should be not that surprised, considering she’s grown up with a mum with a habit of taking photos of her food and concentrates on taking photos of odd details when we’re out.

Girl Lacer went to a reproduction oldy – worldy French village, Avingcourt, a French market, a chocolate factory and an aquarium, I particularly liked her market photos, she took the photo of the fabric (top right) apparently as she thought I’d like it, awwwww.

The Rosie Project

I took a chance on The Rosie Project, it looked a little bit (and sorry, I know this can be a derogatory term) ‘chick-lit’, even though it was written by a bloke, but I am so glad I took that chance because I fell head over heels in book love within about a minute of starting the audiobook and it did not disappoint (other than a minor niggle) throughout the whole story.

The Rosie Project is about Don, an Australian genetics professor who has undiagnosed Aspergers, he doesn’t see that he has Aspergers, despite giving a lecture on it early on in the story, but he does admit that ‘he’s wired differently’. He has trouble relating to women, so he decides to start The Wife Project, to find a partner, he does this by creating a lengthy questionnaire so that he can eliminate any potential partners who have traits that annoy him; such a smoking or being fussy about ice cream. Whilst in the middle of his wife project, Rosie walks into Don’s office, at first he thinks she’s a candiate for The Wife Project and they go out to dinner with hilarious consequences and despite Don realising pretty quickly that Rosie is totally unsuitable, he has the time of his life. It turns out though that Rosie is there to find out who her real father is, Don agrees to help and so begins The Father Project.

The Rosie Project is sweetly (but not sickly) romantic, it’s uplifting, poignant and a little sad, everybody deserves to find love, but for some it is trickier than for others. People with ASD vary as widely as ‘normal’ people but I saw a little of Boy Lacer in Don, particularly with both being the class clown, it is obviously a long time before Boy Lacer starts on a wife project of his own but I hope that this book will still be around by then, even though Boy Lacer may find it a little ‘girly’, it may give him some hints!

***** (out of 5)

(And the niggle? Due to my background I guessed the plot twist pretty much straight away and I would have thought Don would have also have seen this pretty early on in the book due to his background to but you know how it goes, if he had, it’d have been a pretty short book!)

Flour-free chocolate and beetroot cake (Love, Bake, Nourish)

I’m in the middle of having a bit of a thing about beetroot, which is unfortunate for the rest of the family, as no one else likes it. Today it was flour-free chocolate and beetroot cake from Love, Bake, Nourish by Amber Rose. Love, Bake, Nourish is a bit like Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache, in that it’s ‘healthy’ cakes, except this time as well as getting rid of the butter (in most of the cakes), Rose has also (in most of her cakes) got rid of the sugar to, well the processed sugar, there is honey, but not that much. But unlike Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache, where there you have various vegetables hidden in the cakes (to make up for no butter and to reduce the amount of sugar that is needed), the flour free chocolate and beetroot cake in Love, Bake, Nourish, is one of only a small handful of cakes in the book with vegetables in, I’m not quite sure how Rose does it, it’ll be interesting to see what her Victoria Sponge type cakes (of which there are quite a few variations), taste like with no sugar. So far though I’ve been talking about what’s not in the cakes (and puddings and tarts to), what is in them is quite a lot of fruit, hence the ‘nourish’ bit of the title I guess and of course that makes up for the lack of sugar.

So, the flour free chocolate and beetroot cake, it was fun making, which is a big part of the point of baking I think, it smelt gorgeous and was fairly simple to do. I was surprised when the cake came out of the oven, there’s still definitely a purple tint, I had thought the brown of the chocolate would overwhelm and upon tasting the cake, you could still taste it as well, but in a nice way (I suspect that the rest of my family aren’t going to think that). It’s very rich, more out of curiosity and less to do with me supposedly being on a diet, I worked out the Weight Watcher’s points value, 7, for those lucky enough to avoid Weight Watchers, a can of coke is 4, a bar of chocolate 5 – 6, no idea what a slice of normal chocolate cake would be, I suspect a lot more than 7. The richness is probably a good thing, makes it so that one slice is definitely enough, I will see if the rest of Lacers will eat it when they get home from work and school today but I suspect I’m going to have to try and freeze slices or something because there’s no way I could eat all that cake myself before it went off. There was one thing I didn’t really like about the cake to, although it was bearable (that’d be the chocolate for you), the ground almonds that allowed the cake to be flour free, I don’t ‘mind’ almonds, specially ground almonds, I can’t normally taste them if a cake recipe calls for them to be included but here I can and it’s a bit off putting. It’s a very strong flavoured cake thinking about it, with three things; the chocolate, the beetroot and the nuts assaulting your taste buds, no bland shop bought thing this cake!