Parkin for when it's parky

Sometimes life just likes to slap you about the face a bit, like a tanked up landlady at the Queen Vic it assumes you need taking down a peg or two when in fact that is the last thing you need. The weather has turned wintry and the park has turned into the last place on earth you want to visit. Beautiful autumn colours on the trees? Well yes they are but it is also freeeeeezing. Call me difficult but I just can't concentrate on the finer points of decaying foliage when my fingers are falling off. Now don't get me wrong I'm quite partial to a bit of the outdoors even when  it has turned a tad nippy in the air, but the play park is something quite different. Toddler boy loves to climb and swing and whizz about without any help from me, Channeling his inner gibbon. Baby girl is swiftly approaching toddler status too and likes nothing more than a clamber up the slide to the tree house where she'll happily sit...ooh for hours if allowed while I stand guard slowly turning into a snow woman. There is no action for the grown up. If I'm going to be outside then at least let's keep moving.

So you'd think it would be quite a relief to have an excuse to stay in for a few days. Alas not. Not when the excuse is two wee ones with nasty buglings oozing out of their noses, spraying forth in coughs and splutters and generally turning them into balls of frothing overtired temper-tots. Ah yes for with the bugs comes sleeplessness. And if they don't sleep, we don't sleep. Housebound, germ-ridden and frazzled; that's us. There is only so much Cbeebies a woman can take, while it seems small ones have an unlimited capacity for the TV twaddle.

Events were ripe for an intervention. In the time honoured tradition of frazzled mothers the world over I sought solace in the kitchen. At the very least it is warm in there. We would bake! It was a cunning plan, keep them busy, cosy warm and produce goodies to bribe them with at a later date. And that is when I found the Parkin recipe. If life was going to administer a few slaps then I'd slap it right back - wallop. Take that evil fictional pub landlady.Armed with only a mixing bowl I defeated the bad mood and ushered in contentment. Ah.Que smiles all round.

Parkin, a great taste of Yorkshire. This recipe came from a Yorkshire man too, James Martin. And as a Brucie Bonus it has hardly any butter and only 1 egg so squeezes into the 'healthy eating' regime too. Okay, I am turning a blind eye to the sugar and syrup but I've had no sleep, for days sugar is essential to my ability to function at any level approaching human...

225g self raising flour
115g caster sugar
2 tsp ground ginger ( I like to add a couple of tsp of mixed spice too)
1 tsp bicarb of soda
55g butter
115g golden syrup
1 egg
200ml milk

Preheat oven to gas mark 2 and grease an 8inch cake tin.
Melt butter and syrup in a pan on a low heat. Add to flour, caster sugar, ginger and bicarb of soda and mix well.
Whisk the egg into the milk and add to mix. Stir all up and put in cake tin.
Bake for 1 hour. Eat!

A ginger taste sensation

Boosted by the success of the parkin we've spent the rest of the week baking flapjacks, peanut butter cookies and lemon drizzle cake. Now as a germ free family we have lots of things to take to the park and nibble to fend off the chill. Of course it would be rude to indulge in cake without a coffee but rather than queue with the yummies for a frothy latte I'm kitted out with a big flask of the hardcore black stuff.

Caffeine, cake and kiddies gone crazy...bring it on.

getting crafty

Home cooking going a treat, spicy lentil soup, slow roasted pork with beans, good warming food and works out as cheap as chips but twice as healthy. Hurrah for toddler boy having easy to please taste buds. I love autumn food, mash potato here we come.

Must remember not to go mash mad, hubby already grumbling when it crops up on the menu - again. But who doesn't like mash? Creamy, smooth, carbtastic and perfect with all those lovely autumn/winter stews, casseroles and stodge fests. Could be I'm connecting with my Irish roots here, but potatoes are just the best staple ever. Thank heavens for supermarket wars as prices are looking good too.

The pork dish was such a winner, £4 for a pork shoulder and the rest of the ingredients couldn't have cost more than £2-3 and it made 6 portions! Six whole meals of rich and tasty protein for around a pound a head. Why would mums need Iceland when they can have this?

All this domestic budget busting going so well desreved a treat. So off for craft and cocktails at Made in Brighton. What fun! A bunch of keen crafters, mostly women I must admit, getting together in a cosy basement bar to indulge in a spot of hobby crafting and a few cheeky cocktails. With happy hour offering 2 glasses of wine for the price of 1 it was even a budget busting drink-up.

Sitting around, knitting, sewing,, embroidering and discussing robot making (yes someone there makes real blinking bleeping robots for the fun of it) was an excellent way to spend an evening. It felt like getting back to the old ways of women, bonding over a needle and thread or the clackety clack of knitting. Not sure where the robots fit it into that throw-back though.

So, baby girl can expect her own custom made stocking with gifts from Santa this year - and if it manages to stay intact, every year after. Lovingly crafted from an old dress it cost nothing to make (if you exclude the couple of glasses of wine) compared to forking out £10 min for a generic shop bought one. Oh I do love this penny-wise life right now.