October, November, December Summary

Well this is just getting a bit silly now – over 3 months without a new post, I have some serious explaining to do. I hope this summary of those 3 months will shed some light on WHY?

Actually, this first picture will do the job!

At the beginning of October I pee’d on a stick and the world stopped (well mine did). Suddenly I had constant nausea, I became a fussy eater and I had no desire (or ability) to cook. I struggled to watch cookery programmes, read cookbooks and even look at Pinterest! Writing about food was completely off the table. The most annoying part of this was that I couldn’t share what was going on, all I could say was I’d lost my Baking Mojo – which was actually kind of true!

Because I couldn’t cook – Bernie stepped up and has been amazing. I can count the amount of meals I have cooked on 1 hand, he’s cooked the rest. He’s getting pretty mean at a Roast now – but that will have to wait till January’s Summary!

There have been phases…

There was the fish finger sandwich phase, then the cheese & ham toasted bagel phase, the chocolate milk phase, the fake Frazzles phase, the ginger beer phase, the bread & butter phase. 

There was the phase just after the midwife told me to eat lots of red meat, when I couldn’t face any meat at all.

I went off coffee, fish, chocolate, swallowing tablets but never potatoes, bread, biscuits or cheese.

There was sickness but I’ll spare the details, lots of heartburn and boy oh boy there was a bucket of tiredness.

So much tiredness that I didn’t really get up to much, but here is a snippet of what I did manage in those final three months of 2013…

1. I took a trip to Greenwich in October, it really is one of my favourite places in London – I don’t think I need to explain why.

2. In October we went to Birmingham – the new Library had just opened. If you find yourself in Birmingham I strongly recommend a visit – it’s FREE. The exterior is beautiful, the interior is amazing and the rooftop gardens are spectacular.

3. While I was outside of London I got to see my two Cat nieces – Sage & Saffron. LOOK at all the pretty.

4. In early November I baked for the first time in a month: Grapefruit Olive Oil Cake from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook – it was delicious, one of my favourite cakes ever. I took pictures of the cake. I intended to blog about it but whenever I had free time for blogging coincided with times when food was the last thing I could think about. But never fear – the wonderful Nelly from Nellycupcakes has also made this cake too and being brilliant has managed to actually blog it – Grapefruit Olive Oil Loaf Cake.

Back in October Steph from Riverside Baking used the recipe as inspiration for her Orange & Caramel Cake.

5. At the end of November Sainsbury’s were kind enough to send me the ingredients and a recipe for a Classic Christmas Pudding for Stir-Up Sunday. This was the kind of baking I could manage – everything in a bowl, stir it, make a wish and steam it. The recipe was by Dan Lepard and produced a surprisingly lighter pudding than usual.

6. Also in November we went Up West to see the Christmas lights – my favourite were on Carnaby Street.

7. While we are talking Christmas – Look at my tree, it was a beaut this year!

8. We had a friends Christmas Day this year, which was bloody lovely! And after 3 months of not being able to look at, go near or touch raw meat – I did the pigs in blankets.

9. We saw family after Christmas and after a delicious lunch of pork goulash and gratin we went for a lovely late afternoon walk along the Jubilee River. I love London but sometimes it’s lovely to see something different.

10. We rounded off the year with our first trip together to White Hart Lane and we won!

So that was 2013! 2014 is set to be a pretty bumper year for me but I am going to try my hardest to start bringing you more recipes again. Thank you for sticking with me during the silence. (No not the scary Doctor Who kind!)