The Wrong One

My eldest daughter had been asking me for ages to get her ears pierced.  I told her that if she wanted them done she would have to convince me that she really did and it wasn't just a passing phase.  When she was a bit younger she had them pierced and it was clearly too much for her.  She cried about them a lot, refused to clean them and so on, when we went on holiday one came out and she wouldn't let me near her to put it back in again, so the hole closed up.  Anyway, three years on here we are revisiting this.  After two weeks of begging me I took her to the shop to have them done.  Just as I thought Toni bowed out and didn't go through with it.   Meanwhile our youngest son had asked about getting his done 'just like big brother', this morning I suggested that he might ask dad, just to see how serious he was.  He asked dad and daddy agreed too so Seb got his left ear pierced.   Its funny now that the boys have their ears done and the girls don't, it almost felt like the wrong child was getting his ears done today.

RIP Dillan

R.I.P. DILLAN

Well, I hate to report this sad news but the children have been so upset I felt I have to share.

Our neighbours two dogs broke into one of our rabbit hutches and murdered one of our pet rabbits. Now you have to understand that these are no ordinary rabbits, they are real pets. The rabbits come in the house and are really tame. Since this happened the children have been terribly tearful, its traumatic for them to have their pet destroyed like this. I was surprised at the depth of the children's feelings as we have experience natural causes deaths before and they had been really accepting of that. I am only glad I was there as I caught the dogs when I did as they were starting on another hutch, it doesn't bear thinking about what would have happened if I was away from the house. The hutch they started on second had our pregnant lion head bunny in, a Dutch rabbit and two young girls, the devastation would have been awful. On a lighter note the lion head bunny is due her litter on the 14th April so we are looking forward to that. We have decided, (if its okay with the person who is taking the babies) we are going to keep one if there are any male offspring.

Chocolate Orange Pavlova

Okay shoot me, the photo isn't the best in the world but it is all I have because the pavlova is long gone.  I made this one because I was off to visit my friend and between us we were making a lunch for us and the children.

I used the Nigella Lawson recipe as inspiration for this, its pretty much tried and tested in our house so I can say hand on heart it works.

for the base
8 egg whites
500g caster sugar
4 teas spoons cornflour
2 tea spoons white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

topping
2 tubs of cream for whipping
tin of mandarin segments
some chocolate to grate

method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Line a baking sheet with parchment and draw a 25cm circle on it.

Whisk the egg whites till they have peaks.
whisk in the sugar a spoonful at a time,
the meringue should be soft and shiny.

Sprinkle the cornflour, vinegar and vanilla over the egg white mix and gently fold in with a spoon.
spread the mix onto your parchment to the edge of your circle, smooth over the surface.

Put the meringue in the oven and immediately turn the heat down to 120 degrees.
Cook for an hour then switch the oven off.  Do not be tempted to open the oven and look as you will spoil it. 


When the meringue is cooled, whip the cream and pile it on top.  Decorate with the orange segments and some grated chocolate.