Butternut Soup

I wrote a guest recipe blog post last year, for My Love Bumps. I made our family favourite - Yummy Butternut Soup.

With the rain, last night, I decided that I was going to make butternut soup, but didn't have all of my normal ingredients. So I did a bit of an improvised Butternut Soup. And it was actually really yummy.

Olive Oil
Quarter Cup of Onions (Approximately 63g)
Two Garlic Cloves
A whole Butternut Squash (cleaned and diced)
Two cups of Vegetable Stock
A Handful of Pancetta/ Bacon/ Ham (can be added after you have puréed the soup, if you like)
Crème Fraiche (Or Thick Cream)
Salt and Pepper
Chilli, optional
Spices, optional

1. Fry your onions and garlic in olive oil. 
2. When it is translucent, add butternut, vegetable stock, spices and chilli, and the bacon. 
3. Bring to boil, and then simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the butternut is soft. 
4. Use a handheld blender, in the pot. Or allow the soup to cool, and purée the soup in an upright blender.
5. Add salt and pepper, to taste
6. Add crème fraiche or cream. You can either mix it into the soup, or use it as a garnish.

We ate it with garlic bread, which was delicious. Good thing we are having a cleaning day at home today, after all that garlic! :)

Have a good day, x

Mayfield Lavender

Today, a friend and I had the pleasure of visiting the Mayfield Lavender in Surrey. If you haven't been, GO NOW, before the end of September! I had heard a lot about the fields, from friends, and I am so glad that we finally made a trip to go and see what the hype was all about. 

There is nothing more lovely than driving along, and smelling lavender a mile before arriving at the farm. And then driving through the gates and being welcomed by never-ending fields of purple. I couldn't help thinking how much my great-gran would have loved being there - she LOVED lavender.

After taking loads of photos, I had to buy some lavender products to take home with me... Ooooooh, and some delicious lavender short bread biscuits! I can still smell the lavender, and I'm pretty sure I will sleep very peacefully tonight! 

Goodnight! x

Hello there!

So I am terribly sorry for being so absent lately! I feel like I have been trapped in a whirlwind for the last few months. After being in South Africa, for my mom's operation (and having a LOVELY holiday with my family) we arrived back in London on my son's 4th birthday! While we were unwrapping presents, I received a phone call from my parents to alert me that my great uncle had passed away the night before (while we were flying)!

Fortunately I had a birthday party to organise, which kept me distracted for the most part and kept my mind far from focused on the sadness that I was feeling. We had an aeroplane party this year, complete with aeroplane meals and suitcases for party favours. It was really great fun...

                     

Then the strangest thing happened, I think I knew it, but didn't want to believe it... We did a pregnancy test. AND.......

IT WAS POSITIVE!!!! I was absolutely shocked to my core, but very excited too. We were finally going to have a new addition to our family.

So I had to go for scans and tests to work out my due date, which is the 11th December. We have also been settling our son into school, he starts reception in September and his mommy is devastated (love having my little cherub at home with me) but think he'll absolutely love it.

We also did something quite exciting, to announce the gender of our new arrival - we had a GENDER PARTY! We had a gender scan, and asked that the gender of our baby not be revealed to us, on the day of the scan, but had the sonographer write the gender on a piece of paper. We then sent the page to our baker, a baker in South Africa and a baker in Italy. They made cakes/ cupcakes with either blue or pink on the inside. On the day of the party, our friends joined us, and we had both families on Skype, as we cut our cake.

                       

During all this craziness, we have also had my in-laws visiting, and my son has had chickenpox. A really severe strain, which was not pleasant at all. These are my recommendations for chickenpox.

1. Keep your child cool, and comfortable and hydrated.
2. Get some poxcillin (BRILLIANT stuff) and calamine aqueous cream. I was also giving him calpol for the fever, and piriton for the itching.
3. Oats baths - put cooking oats in a stocking or muslin cloth, seal and attach to your tap, or let it float in the bath, allowing the oats to soak into your water. Add some bicarbonate of soda, and you have a perfect anti-itch bath.
4. Post chickenpox; I used Aveeno cream and Bio-oil (which I have used on the bump too!). ;) His scars have cleared up nicely, even though they were very deep .

Have also been very involved in organising activities for a mums page that I run in South West London. We had an awesome day at the Science Museum today, followed by a picnic (in the glorious London sunshine) in the Natural History Museum garden.

So all in all, life has been crazy beautiful! Hoping to be very proactive in my blog again... 

Have a lovely evening,

Kalli x

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Sofa Diaries

Sorry for this rather random blog post today - my son and I are really ill and have been inside our house for THREE DAYS NOW! For someone who gets serious cabin fever, it is rather problematic. We are living on the sofa, in our pj's - it's a good thing that not many people know where I live. #messalert 

We got such fantastic news on Friday - we got our passports back from UKBA, and so we are now official UK residents, plus I have the right to work in the country. AND we can travel relatively freely now - I am going to South Africa on Sunday night (my mom is having an operation on Tuesday). Wahoooooo...

Also plane related, my 3 year old has decided that he would like an aeroplane party this year. After much hesitation, I have realised that it is an awesome idea. We have made boarding pass invitations, and have started ordering 'plane' accessories. Watch out for more updates soon...

I am quite relieved to be visiting home, before the party in three weeks, as I have the most 'crafty' family ever. My mom has such great ideas for parties - I love getting her advice on my ideas. 

Hope everyone has a really lovely Easter weekend (for those of you who celebrate it) and Happy Holidays to everyone else...

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Ciao x

Book Review: The Secret Mandarin by Sara Sheridan

My husband, my son and I absolutely love reading. We have more books in our house than I think most normal people do, but we just cannot stop ourselves from buying more. I have so many favourite books that I thought it would be nice to add a new element to my blog - a monthly book review.

One of my absolute favourite books of all times is The Secret Mandarin by Sara Sheridan. I spotted this book in our local supermarket a year ago, and was instantly drawn in by the beautiful cover. I had to know what it was about - and I am so glad that I did. 

The Secret Mandarin is an exquisitely written 'faction' story of actress Mary Penney and her botanist brother-in-law Robert Fortune's journey to collect tea plants from China. A journey thwarted with social and cultural boundaries, and some very gruelling challenges. 

From the beginning of the book, I was captivated. I have always had a love of history, but was not very good with dates, so my escape to the beauty of the old world has always come in the form of historical based novels. I really appreciated the botanical aspect of the book and I found myself constantly desperate for more information. Sheridan's writing kept my craving well satiated, and it sometimes felt like we were in constant 'conversation'. I have since followed her on Facebook and Twitter, and am now very aware of just how important extensive research is for her, when she is writing a book.

From the sad cold beginning in England to the beautiful picturesque descriptions of the Chinese countryside - I was transported through the book with excitement, anxiety and exhilaration  I longed for their safety and wished for their happiness. I enjoyed every page of the journey, and was devastated when I reached the final line of the book. 

The Secret Mandarin has a very special place on my bookshelf - and has been recommended to many of my friends. I look forward to reading more books by this exceptional writer.

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NEW Move Guides Blog Post

Here is my latest blog post for Move Guides about schooling in the UK.

When your child starts school, it is scary enough, but as an expat parent who has a completely different schooling experience, it is even more difficult to understand the in's and out's of a new system.

Have a look at my article - Expat Parenting London: Schooling for Expat Children in the UK, which briefly explains the primary school application process.

Please feel free to ask any further questions you have about schooling, and I will try to help as much as I can. I think I have a pretty good understanding of it now.

Have a great day,
Kalli x

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For any US expats, living in the UK - Move Guides has a rather important blog post U.S.A Tax Return For Expats: Who Needs to File? - Infographic - make sure you check it out! :)

Little Man (Moustache) Baby Shower

I absolutely love planning parties - from the invites to the party favours and thank you notes. So I was very excited to recently plan a friend's baby shower. She is having a little boy in May, and so I wanted to do something special to prepare for his arrival

I decided on a Little Man (Moustache) party - and a blue and green colour theme, and decided that it would be a sort of afternoon tea party. Our lounge and dining room, where the party took place, was covered in balloons and other baby shower paraphernalia. Moustaches adorned mugs and glasses, and little pots with different teas in; and we had a washing line, with dolly pegs, to hang the clothing gifts.




I absolutely love my mom's lemon meringue pie, and think it is always a hit, and looks really pretty. So it was on the baking list from the beginning. I wanted all the food things to be small/individual portions, so instead of doing a lemon meringue pie, I made individual lemon meringue 'cupcakes'. Here's the recipe:

Mini Lemon Meringues (with biscuit base) - makes 9

200g Nice Biscuits

125g butter

1 tin of condensed milk

3 eggs

125 ml lemon juice

125ml castor sugar

15ml cornflour

BASE: Put muffin cases into a cupcake tray and preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Crush the biscuits into fine pieces - a rolling pin works well! Melt the butter, and mix with the biscuits. Press biscuit mix into the bottom of the muffin cases.

FILLING: Mix egg yolks, lemon juice and condensed milk together. Spoon onto the biscuit base.

TOPPING: Beat egg whites until stiff, then slowly add castor sugar. Lastly add cornflour, to stiffen the meringue. Spoon onto the lemon filling. 

Bake in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the meringue is a lovely toasty brown colour.

We also ate vanilla cupcakes with green and blue icing and moustache toothpicks; mozzarella  tomato and basil vol au vents; caramel cream puffs; and delicious brownies that were made by our friend 'The Sweetie Queen' Susan - hmmmmm HEAVEN!


The mommy-to-be was very spoilt. Guests disguised themselves with moustaches (some were attached to sticks and some were stick-on) and when everyone left, they received a little candle to light when the baby was born.

Haha, I know... It's terrible, but I just had to do it! :)

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**If you would like assistance in planning your party, please contact me**

Pancake Day

Hahaha, the last blog post I wrote was all about diets and healthy eating (which is still going very well), and this post is about the most indulgent thing I think I have ever made.

Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day (as it is commonly known in the UK), is always a firm favourite in our house. Last year, we had sweet and savoury pancakes all day, and I was sick of them by lunch time. So I thought that this year I would try something different.

My husband and son are confessed Nutella addicts, and so after seeing the idea of a pancake cake on pinterest, I decided to attempt a cream and Nutella pancake cake.

Here is the recipe:

• Pancakes - you can find my recipe from last year HERE. I used about 8-10 pancakes, and they were about the size of a side plate.
• Nutella (A medium sized bottle)
• Double Cream (FRESH!) - whipped until it is stiff
• Hot Chocolate Powder, Chocolate and Berries to garnish

Once the pancakes are cooked. You need to put cream under the first one, and 'stick' it to the plate. You then put Nutella on the base pancake; and then alternate chocolate and cream layers, piling the pancakes on top of each other. Mine ended with cream, so I put an extra layer of Nutella, then covered the whole 'cake' with cream, sieved hot chocolate powder on top, and grated chocolate over that. You might as well go all out. :)

You can use jam and berries, or cinnamon and sugar, if you prefer. I had friends over yesterday and they couldn't believe how light this pancake cake was, and they really raved about it.

Enjoy! x

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Battling the Bulge

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/helga/3249036871/

I have always been pretty average, in terms of my weight. I have had some very skinny phases and some slightly chubbier phases. I have always been quite sporty - at school I played hockey, tennis, girls cricket, girls soccer, did swimming, surfed with my sister, played squash and went to gym a few times a week; and then did dancing three times a week and went to gym at University.

After having my son, I lost my pregnancy weight rather quickly, as I got married when my son was 9 months old (we wanted to wait). Every girl wants to look her absolute BEST on her wedding day - and so I had loads of motivation to lose all the weight. A few months later, we moved to Malta - where our diet consisted of mainly breads and pastas; and while we were walking a lot more than in South Africa, I still put on a lot of weight. I have tried dieting on and off for the past two years, but just wasn't motivated enough.

That was until December 2012. I saw a photo of myself, and was shocked at how much weight I had put on. I was always tired, had a short temper, was sad and would indulge in junk food more often than is healthy. I was also the heaviest I have ever been.

On New Years, I decided that I WOULD cut down my portion sizes, eat less carbs, drink more water, eat healthier, eat more fruit and vegetables, and exercise. I know that I do not do well with diets - as the restrictive nature of the makes me feel like I am starving myself. I eat in moderation now - so if I want to eat something; I have a taste, instead of eating it all.

On the 7th January (I was seriously sick until then) - I actively started 'changing my lifestyle' (not dieting). :) I am now down 5.5kgs (12.12lbs), have dropped a dress size and I am feeling much more energetic and happy. I have been exercising every other day, for two weeks now. I do 15 minutes jogging on the treadmill, followed by 20 minutes yoga or 20 minutes pilates/yoga/abs/weights routine.

I cannot believe how little changes and a different mindset have changed so much in my life, and that I am now actively on my way to my goal weight.

WOOHOOO...

If Music be the Food of Love...

I have an iPod (it's really old, but it's fantastic, and has all my old music on it) that I use for running and yoga - and that's about it. When you have a child, you can't really listen to music on the train/ bus, etc. It's not often that I get to listen to grown up music - my life has a nursery rhyme soundtrack, most days, punctuated by a million and one toddler questions and stories (not that I am complaining, I love it that he talks a lot).

My husband bought me an iPad for my birthday last year, because I am a Facebook addict and I am permanently watching movies, downloading apps to make my life easier, downloading games to entertain my son on the bus/ train and I love looking up recipes and craft ideas. I have always loved music, but don't actually have any music on my iPad (I know, the HORROR!!), because iTunes wouldn't download onto my PC.

However, yesterday (by some bizarre twist of fate) I managed to download iTunes, update my iPad to iOS6, etc etc etc... While I was updating everything I was listening to all the music on my PC, but somehow forgot to sync music onto the iPad.

So while I was getting ready to exercise yesterday, I downloaded a music app, and last night I was compiling my 'exercise playlist'. I was playing some of my favourite modern dance music, and getting quite involved. My husband turned to look at me, with a rather shocked look on his face.

I know my singing voice isn't fantastic; and when I am dancing, I probably look more like an injured animal; but I didn't think it warranted SUCH a look. Turns out, we have been together for over 5 years, that he didn't know I liked dance music. He likes it, but thought I only liked indie-type bands.

I had to reassure him that my taste in music hadn't changed... Not that he is a huge fan of my 'gypsy music' - as he calls it - anyway. :)

Love Kalli x

Superhero Surprise Party

On Saturday, it was my husband's 30th birthday - so I decided, as he was being a party grinch, that I would throw him a surprise party (throwing a surprise party for your partner is the hardest thing in the world).

I had so many fantastic ideas - but alas, could not pull them all off, what with me having to hide everything around the house, so that he was not suspicious. I decided a 'snacks and cake' party was the best idea, as I wouldn't need to prepare too much food before the party started.

So here was what I did...

My husband is a comic man - he loves his superheroes. So I decided on a vintage 'pop art' comic book party. And was really lucky when I found all the bits and pieces on the Party Pieces website. 

I got napkins, popcorn boxes and photo booth signs (which were a huge hit with our friends). I cut out buildings from black card, and cut little windows out of double sided tape. 

I used red felt and cut mini capes, for the beer bottles. And had ordered test tube shooter glasses from Amazon. I wanted to do signs for the snacks, and just do everything better, but was very restricted for time. (I had 30mins to put all the food and decorations out, between my husband going out to the shop, and everyone arriving). 

I am lucky that my son will no doubt have a superhero party at some stage, and I will be able to pull out all my superhero inspiration for that party. 

I got inspiration for my Batman cake from Rose Bakes. She made a stunning Superman Explosion Cake - that I attempted. Thankfully - it was just close friends and family, who were not too judgemental of my horrible fondant skills. :) 

It tasted good though, so I was not too perturbed. I made a moist chocolate sponge, and chocolate butter cream. And to be fair, I don't even like the taste of fondant, so ended up just eating the chocolate cake and butter cream.

The last thing I wanted to do was to make superhero capes (likes the ones at Sew Scrumptious) and masks for all the kids, who came with their parents. Unfortunately, my sewing machine was not playing nice - so I hand-sewed one cape, and decided that the other fabric will have to be used for the next superhero party. 

All in all, even though I am quite devastated that I had so many great ideas and not enough time or sneakiness to achieve them all, the party was a huge success. The birthday boy was surprised and he had a very special 30th!

Cheers, Kalli x

Move Guides Blog Post: Keeping Positive in a New Environment

So, I have meant to blog all of December, and have a great number of blog posts in my head. But unfortunately December, and the festive season proved to be WAY more hectic than I had expected. Hope everyone had a lovely holiday season. We had a fantastic Christmas day, with just the three of us (which was surprisingly rather nice, and not as stressful as a normal Christmas day). We did have guests from the 27th - 8th January though. And just after the first guests left, I got so sick, and am still not 100%. The joys of Winter.

I have however written a blog post for Move Guides, that was published at the beginning of January, about being positive in a new environment. Hope you enjoy it.

http://blog.moveguides.com/keeping-positive-in-a-new-environment-after-a-move-abroad/

On another note - I have just applied for our residence cards, got the final documents from South Africa in December. And we have applied for our son to start school - eeek! Fingers crossed that we get our documents back soon, and that our son gets into our first choice school.

I hope that everyone has a fantastic 2013!

Love Kalli x