Breakfast in Bed

At about seven this morning I opened my eyes to find Angus standing by my side of the bed, hair sticking up in all directions, staring at me, clutching his bunny. I smiled (it was after seven, after all) and moved over to make room for him. I tried for a sleepy cuddle but he was chatty and wide awake and demanded the light be switched on. Then Bella came wandering through, remembering that it was Mother's Day and that there were cards and presents hidden under the bed for me. A new cookery book was duly unwrapped and admired then John took the kids downstairs. There followed loud whispering and clanking and then they all appeared with a breakfast tray for me. Toast and marmalade, a cup of tea, flowers in a little vase (stolen straight off the mantle piece in the living room), and some paper flowers Bella had made. I had about ten minutes to myself before the kids got bored and got into bed with me. Bella wanted help with her story writing (she starts a new one each day and they usually involve mermaids, dragons and princesses and end with a wedding) and Angus wanted my phone so that he could to watch the Gangnam Style video, his current obsession. 

It was lovely. I can't remember the last time that John wasn't working on Mother's Day, or when I ever had breakfast in bed in the last six years. It made up for the last few years when I had to put up with everyone else's facebook updates of their own fabulous Mother's Day activities while I was home alone with two small kids and no help. So yes, I did enjoy it, and yes, I think I earned it too. I'm sure next year John will be working again and it will be just the three of us.

Then there was a trip to B&Q for plumbing bits and bobs (no idea - some kind of pipe, maybe?), monolithic BLTs for lunch, baking, a birthday party, some DIY, just your normal stay-at-home Sunday activites. Also, it's freezing! We've had a little snow and an icy wind has been blowing all day.

Also, something else occurred to me today... I have been watching Bella grow up ever so fast since she started school and sometimes it alarms me and other times I could not be more proud of her. But this year, this year Bella owned Mother's Day. I don't know if they'd been prepping her at school or what, but she was full of helpful suggestions; flowers, breakfast in bed, handmade gifts, a card, a drawing. And I did think that this growing up lark could work out quite well after all.

Weekend Breakfasts - Breakfast Burrito

I've resurrected my weekend breakfast posts, partly to continue the holiday feeling (after all, John doesn't go back to work until tomorrow) and partly because I'm fed up with toast and jam. Again. I intended to publish this post this morning but the pesky internet connection has not been cooperative so I am doing it now. A bit late for breakfast I know, but technically it's still the weekend.

This breakfast was John's idea, and without wanting to stereotype too much, I think this is quite a "male" breakfast. Meat? Check. Eggs? Checks. Potatoes and tortilla? Check. Total absence of fresh vegetables? Check. According to my research, it is New Mexico dish, intended to be portable so that hungry ranchers, truckers, ski bums and snowboarders could grab one and eat it, wrapped in foil, on the go. And it is apparently the chillies that set it apart and make it a true breakfast burrito rather than just a lot of bacon and eggs wrapped in some bread.


You need (for two people):


4 rashers of bacon
4 eggs
1 small potato
1 small chilli
2 flour tortillas
oil/butter for frying
ketchup or avocado optional

• Grate the potato, making sure you've squeezed all the water out of it.
• Chop and fry the bacon until it's crispy then set to one side.
• In the bacon pan, spread the grated potato into an even layer and fry for five minutes of so until it's brown. You may need to add a little more oil. Flip it (mine broke) and cook the other side for another five minutes.
• Beat the eggs, adding your chopped chilli, and scramble them in another pan.
• Put the cooked potato on a plate and heat the tortillas in the bacon/potato pan, turning them a few times.
• Make a little assembly line of all your ingredients.
• Put the tortilla on a plate and load up with half the cooked bacon, potato and egg. Tuck each end into the middle and roll so you have a little parcel.

I ate mine with avocado on the side as I thought the whole concoction needed something resembling a fresh vegetable. John ate his with ketchup.

The verdict? It is filling. Boy is it filling. Definitely a brunch not a breakfast. I was still stuffed about six hours after eating it. I skipped lunch. I don't think it's for me, this one. This may be the perfect teenage breakfast, full of delicious, salty protein and carbohydrates but it was too much for me, weakling that I am.

It's just occurred to me that this would make an excellent breakfast if you have a hangover. I always want huge portions of salty, greasy, starchy food when I am feeling worse for wear (which is never, Mum) with a bottomless cup of tea. 

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One last holiday photo...Bella's hair when I tied it up for her bath last night. Look at those sun-kissed blonde streaks in her light brown hair. I wish my hair looked like that. I used to pay a fortune for those kind of natural-looking highlights.

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend. We are settling into life at home, cooking, doing chores, inspecting the garden in between rain showers, and the children are happy to be back amongst their toys. Have a great week and thanks for reading. x

Weekend Breakfast 9 - "Clean and Lean" Pancakes

Ok, bear with me today. I know my weekend breakfasts so far have had a slightly calorific and indulgent leaning (surely that is the point of a weekend breakfast?) but today I am being healthy.

My parents are staying this weekend and my lovely Mum is currently very interested in the Clean & Lean Diet and suggested these pancakes for breakfast. I feel I should just say that I am not particularly into the Clean & Lean philosophy, or any diet that bans certain foods or says that they are "wrong", and that my attitude is everything is moderation. I eat reasonably healthily, enjoy cake, wine, coffee etc, try to exercise some portion control, I run two or three times a week and I walk to school and back twice a day - that works really well for me.

Anyway, these pancakes are very low in fat but contain the kind of things that keep you full for a long time, so if anyone is trying to cut out fat or eat healthily then I recommend these and you can find the full recipe here. This makes around 8 pancakes, enough for two to four people, depending on your appetite. Put all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and blitz to combine. 

Using a quarter cup measure, or a large spoon, dollop the mixture in a hot frying pan (we used a little butter to stop them sticking) and cook for a couple of minutes on each side.

The colour from the cinnamon makes them look wheaty and heavy, but they are very light and delicious with maple syrup and berries. We took the kids swimming first thing this morning, an exhausting activity at the best of times. My parents came too and so I was able to leave the kids with them in the baby pool and do some Actual Swimming! I managed twenty lengths with only a cup of tea inside me, so by the time we got back and ate a very late breakfast I was extremely hungry (shaky leg hungry) for these. 

Happy Sunday everyone! What did you have for breakfast?

Weekend Breakfast 8 - Orange French Toast

My day began before 7am when I woke to find Angus's face inches from mine. He was standing there, clutching his bunny, saying "My got out of bed Mummy!" and looking ever so pleased with himself. I'm still amazed at how small people can go from sound asleep to wide awake in seconds. I needed a bit more help this morning so I made Orange French Toast from Nigella Express. I fancied something springlike and zingy but still comforting and this was both. Also, I had all the ingredients in the fridge. You can find the full recipe here on Nigella's website, but I will summarise it. In fact, it is so easy, you don't really need a recipe.

You will need eggs, oranges, milk, bread, marmalade, sugar and butter. All store cupboard staples. You could probably manage without an orange and use some orange juice but the zest really does add flavour.

Mix together the eggs, milk and orange zest and soak the bread in it for a couple of minutes on each side.

Bring the orange juice, sugar and marmalade to the boil and simmer for a few minutes until you have a runny syrup. 

Fry the bread in a little butter for a couple of minutes on each side until golden. Pour the orange syrup into a jug ready to be poured over the french toast when you are ready to eat.

I think that most of my recent posts have been food related. I am sorry - it is the rain! It just makes me want to cook and eat and hide in the kitchen. I have also been busy trying to complete some sewing projects - hopefully I will have some Actual Finished Projects to show you soon. 


The weather is so cold and wet and windy here today, a day to hide indoors. John is working so I will take the children to a nearby soft play centre and let them run around on slides and climbing frames and wear themselves out. Have a lovely Sunday everyone.

Weekend Breakfast 7 - American Style Pancakes

This recipe comes from Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess, one of the first cookery books I bought myself when John and I moved into our first house, more than ten years ago. It's still one of my favourites and I turn to it time and time again both for inspiration, and for fail safe recipes like this one.

The full recipe can be found here although I omitted the bacon and added fresh strawberries and blueberries instead. I have never tried pancakes and syrup with bacon - I know that's how it's usually served in America but I can't get my head around eating sweet and savoury flavours together. 

I mixed all the ingredients together in a food processor and left them to stand in a jug for twenty minutes, then fried them until the top bubbled, then flipped them over. 

Then we poured maple syrup all over them and ate them straight away. The children liked them a lot more than the English style pancakes I made them on Pancake Day - maybe that was something to do with the strawberries and maple syrup!

It is pouring with rain here (again) and we are trying to decide what to do with the day, even though it's ten o clock already and by the time we are ready to leave the house it will be lunchtime. Have a lovely Sunday everyone and thank you so very much for visiting and reading, it makes my day.

Weekend Breakfast 6 - Croque Madam Muffins

Another recipe from my new favourite recipe book - Croque Madam muffins. Very, very tasty. And quite possibly fattening.

First you make a Mornay (cheese) sauce. Then, cut the crusts of slices of white bread and roll them flat with a rolling pin - I found this strangely satisfying. Brush both sides of the bread with melted butter then gently push into a muffin tin. Add some sliced ham, a small egg, then two tablespoons of the cheese sauce. Sprinkle on some grated cheese and pepper, then bake in a hot-ish oven for around 15 minutes. 

The butter coated white bread tastes just like fried bread, crunchy and greasy at the same time in the best possible way. All the flavours - ham, egg, cheese - all good. Unfortunately there is no money shot of the runny egg yolk as the egg was softly set. I left these in the tin for five minutes to cool slightly as I thought they would be tricky to prise out, and the egg carried on cooking. Next time I will reduce the cooking time by a couple of minutes.

Have a great Sunday everyone. 

Weekend Breakfast 5 - Hot Cross Buns

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you have a wonderful day wherever you are, whatever you are doing.

I was really looking forward to making hot cross buns this Easter. For anyone who has never eaten one, they are a sweet, spiced bun decorated with a cross on the top and traditionally eaten on Good Friday, although they are widely available in supermarkets and bakeries here throughout Spring. They can be eaten at any time of day but, like muffins, are especially good at breakfast time or with a cup of tea in the afternoon. But, sadly, this particular baking experience did not meet my expectations. This never happens!

I don't know why, but I just didn't get on very well with this recipe, which was from my new and otherwise excellent Peyton and Byrne baking book. I was not in the baking zone when I made them. I was grumpy and tired and distracted but I wanted to make them over the Easter weekend, because, well that's sort of the point of them, isn't it. The stop start nature of the recipe was annoying, rather than relaxing. Make dough, leave for one hour. Roll out dough, add butter, fold, roll, repeat, leave for another hour. Roll and fold again, leave for thirty minutes. Divide the dough into twelve and leave for another thirty minutes, egg wash, pipe cross, bake, coat with sugar wash.

All of this was not helped by the fact that the recipe is split between two parts of the book, with the dough recipe in one section and the hot cross bun bit in another. All the flipping between pages, losing my page, losing my place in the recipe and covering the book in flour and butter just added to my general irritation.

Luckily, LUCKILY, they taste heavenly. They have so much butter in them I wasn't sure if they needed any more on eating, but I put a bit on anyway. They have a chewier crust than the shop bought ones, and a fluffier inside. The flavour of the spices came through really well. They have a certain rustic "charm" and don't look as uniform as the ones I buy, but who cares, they taste good. 

Weekend Breakfast 4 - Huevos Rancheros

Today we ate Huevos Rancheros for breakfast. Suggested, prepared and cooked for me by John. It was completely, totally, wonderfully delicious. It was filling, but I did not feel bloated after eating it. It felt like quite a healthy breakfast  (if you forget the butter the vegetables were cooked in) and I liked the balance of protein to carbohydrate. Bread and bready things usually feature quite heavily in our breakfasts so this made a nice change.

John used the recipe from Rachel Allen's Easy Meals. (The book was a freebie and we have used it often - very good value!) You fry some red onions, red peppers and garlic together in some butter then add chopped tomatoes and cayenne pepper and leave it to cook for a while. Crack in the eggs, leave them to cook in the tomato sauce, then sprinkle cheese on top so that it melts. Easy! But not quick - John was pottering at the stove for half an hour while I lazed around in my dressing gown drinking tea.

I ate mine with sliced avocado and a tortilla. Like so many breakfasts, they would make equally delicious lunches or suppers. 

Weekend Breakfast 3 - Poached Eggs on Portobello Mushrooms

Today's breakfast - Poached Eggs on Portobello Mushrooms with Goat's Cheese from Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights by Sophie Dahl. 

First, a word on Ms Dahl's kitchen. I fell in love with that kitchen when her show was on air a couple of years ago. While I liked the TV series, the cookery book and her wardrobe, that kitchen was the star of the show for me. The tiles against the Neisha Crossland wallpaper, that white AGA, her yellow KitchenAid Artisan mixer...all those vintage coffee pots and those "what, these flowers I just threw in a jug?" flower arrangements... Oh, I do love it when food and interior design meet in such a splendidly vintage way.

Sophie, I love you, but I would suggest that that dress is inappropriate cooking attire. 

But then, shock horror, the papers revealed that her kitchen was not really hers, but belonged to a someone else, a fan of white if the photo below is anything to go by, who rents his house out as a location to TV production companies.

I don't care. I still love the make believe kitchen.

It's a really simple meal - just grill a mushroom and top with goat's cheese and a poached egg. Pretty self explanatory really! It's more filling than it looks and quite rich so one is probably enough. It is quite delicious - the runny egg yolk and goats cheese are heaven on top of the mushroom.

And, as it's Mothering Sunday here in the UK today, I wish a very happy Mother's Day to any Mums out there. My day started rather earlier than I would have liked as Bella was very excited about giving me the card she'd made at school. But what a nice way to start the day.

Weekend Breakfast 2 - French Toast

This weekend I made french toast. The recipe is based on one I saw in Leon: Baking and Puddings. Book 3 but I altered the recipe to make enough for one (large) portion.

Now, I am confused because the recipe in the book was called "Eggy Bread". For me, Eggy Bread is the savoury version of this - you soak the bread in egg and milk and a little seasoning, fry and eat with bacon and tomato ketchup. That's how we always ate Eggy Bread when I was a child, and how I make it now. I call it French Toast if it's the sweet version. But according to my Leon book, it's Eggy Bread in England and French Toast in America. How confusing! What do you call it?

Beat some eggs,  milk, vanilla and sugar together and soak a couple of slices of bread in this mixture. Heat a knob of butter in a frying pan until it's sizzling. Fry the bread gently for a couple of minutes on each side in the butter until it's golden. Put it on a plate and spread each cooked slice with butter (yes, that's what the Leon book told me to do...more butter) then dust with icing sugar and pour maple syrup over the top.

It was divine. Soft and eggy - almost custardy - inside, and crunchy on the outside.  My friend Rachel told me about Baked French Toast recently. I definitely need to look into that, purely for research purposes you understand. And something called a Dutch Baby Pancake which I keep reading about on other blogs and want to try.

Weekend Breakfast 1 - Granola

Lately, I have been stuck in a rut. A breakfast rut. My exciting and extensive breakfast menu looks like this:

Weekdays - porridge. Weekends - (wait for it) toast and marmalade.

Now, I like porridge and toast, but I am growing bored with my breakfast choices. I've recently noticed some very inspiring recipes on blogs (like fourfourten) and in magazines and cookery books, and I am branching out. I'm aiming for a mix of healthy and not-so-healthy, seasonal cooking and store cupboard staples. I don't exactly have time to potter in the kitchen on a weekday morning so this is a weekend project.

Today I tried the Our Favourite Granola recipe from from Leon:Baking and Puddings: Book 3. I started making it yesterday as there is some baking involved.

I do wonder if my oven was a bit hot though, as the baked oats looked a bit like charred rubble when I first took them out of the oven. But it tasted good - the maple syrup and sesame seeds give it a dark, almost smoky flavour. I ate it with milk this morning, and I think that works better than yogurt as you want the granola to soften slightly in the milk. But, I have to say, that now it's made (and the recipe makes a LOT) it is a weekday breakfast, albeit a quick and tasty one. Next weekend I think I will try something a bit more indulgent .