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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