It's a playdress, it's a daydress, it's an okay-to-spit-up-on dress

I love buying playdresses for Miss L, and boy does she love wearing them. She picks out her own clothes each morning, and she always selects a playdress and leggings. What's not to love about the concept? They are comfortable, look nice and hold up to all her playing and running around. The dress in the photo above was a recent gift from her grandparents.

I have been wanting to add a few new pieces to my own wardrobe and it's been hard to find the right ones to fit my stay-at-home lifestyle. I most want to find dresses that I can wear while doing my daily activities, and more importantly that can hold up during my daily activities. I recently visited Antrhopologie hoping to find something feminine and stylish, but the dresses looked too delicate to withstand carrying an infant in an Ergo and being a target for spit-up. I am hoping you all might have some suggestions for where I can go dress shopping. I would like to add some color to my wardrobe, something I can pair with leggings and a nice cardigan for those foggy days and something that is a little durable for all the messes that come along with having little ones. I also wouldn't mind finding a few nice skirts to go with all those Steven Alan shirts sitting in my closet. Any suggestions for this fashion-challenged mama?

Food revolution!

I love Mama J's post about sharing simple, quick and healthy recipes. I've been making an effort to try new recipes to expand my repertoire. Mister T is getting tired of my roasted chicken with vegetables.

I purchased the Jamie Oliver app for my iPhone and I really love the recipes. He claims they are 20 minute meals, but they are definitely more like 40 to 60 minute meals (I guess if you weren't cooking in your own kitchen and did everything really fast not caring about how big a mess you made because you weren't going to be the one cleaning up then it would take you 20 minutes). The app comes with a ton of recipes and he does provide app updates you can download for new recipes.

Miss L's favorite Jamie Oliver recipe is the chicken tikka masala. I've also tried his vegetarian curry with paneer, potato and peas. He has a wonderful potato leek soup and the sausage and zucchini carbonara is out of this world. A really simple one is sausages with baked cannellini beans.

I love the range of cuisine and the recipes are really easy to follow. The meals look so nice when they are plated and most of all they taste delicious! Sometimes you need to make little adjustments because he is writing the recipes from a British perspective, like always skip step 1 which is to put your kettle on (electric kettles aren't as popular here to boil water). One recipe called for chipolata sausages which are very hard to find here so I substituted toulouse sausages.

I also have also made the Mexican family dinner from goop a couple of times. It is really easy and a fun family dinner. Essentially you make shrimp tacos with homemade guacamole and pico de gallo with a side of black beans that have been seasoned nicely to add more flavor. I thought Mama J may like this recipe since Mister R makes such a great guacamole.

Sorry I didn't include the actual recipes, but I don't want to get in trouble with Steve Jobs for not using my iPhone correctly, nor do I want to get in trouble with Gwyneth's people.

Easy Recipes- Whole Wheat Pasta & Swiss Chard

I seem to be in a dinner rut so I thought I'd see if any of you have any favorites that are:

1. Quick to make

2. Healthy

3. Don't require a million items you don't have

3. You can prep in advance during the day when your kids are napping or playing

I'm finding by the time I get home from the park/playgroup at 6:30- the last thing I want to do is cook.

So- to start this off here is one of my favorites:

Whole-Wheat Spaghetti with Swiss Chard and Pecorino Cheese

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion diced

1 bunch of Swiss chard/kale

3 cloves of garlic minced

1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juices (or fresh)

dry white wine to taste (original recipe calls for 1/4 cup but I do less b/c I like it less liquidy)
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper
8 ounces whole-wheat spaghetti
Pecorino or Parmesan cheese to garnish

Handful of pine nuts to garnish

EARLY PREP:

Chop the garlic, onion and cut the swiss chard into small pieces.

AT DINNERTIME:

Saute onions until tender, about 8 minutes. Add the chard and saute until it wilts, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the tomatoes with their juices, wine, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a simmer. Add chard and cover and simmer until the tomatoes begin to break down and the chard is very tender, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Season the chard mixture, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring frequently, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain the spaghetti. Add the spaghetti to the chard mixture and toss to combine.

Transfer the pasta to serving bowls. Sprinkle the cheese and pine nuts and serve.

**You can also add olives too.

Please share more- especially Mama L with her great fish taco recipe!

My new blog

Hello Mamas! It's been a while since any of us have blogged. I know we're all so busy living life that it's often hard to write about it too.

As part of my new and exciting career path I have set up a new blog Not Just Another Cupcake. It is still very much a work in progress. It's a bit of a tongue in cheek wink toward all those mums who start cupcake businesses. As a "home creator" I'll be writing about crafts, food, style, parenting, health and gardening. Additionally, with the purchase of our new house I'll share the transformation as we renovate and make it our family home.

I have transferred a number of the posts I have written on this blog only to fill it out a little. I'll also post on this blog too as it's a nice open letter to my friends across the pond.

Mama N xx

Holy Sheep!

I finally finished this blanket for Master L. I had hoped to have it finished before he was born, but it took as long as having a baby- an additional nine months. Although Mama N sent me the yarn for the sheep and a book to try to encourage me to start crocheting, I was quite intimidated. Before Mama H had moved away, we had talked about trying to take a crochet class but it never happened. It wasn't until just before Master L was born that I became inspired. I signed up for a class at Lion Brand Studio in Union Square. It was not as much fun as laughing with over my weak attempts at crochet but I gave it a try. I thought I had about a month to work on the blanket but as you know Master L arrived three weeks early and all thoughts of crochet vanished in those foggy months.

In March, I decided to pick it up again. I went for some help again at Lion Brand and ripped the blanket out and started anew. When Mama N announced she was coming over for a trip, it was the perfect inspiration. I furiously worked to finish the blanket so she could help me with the trim and the crazy sheep. I would have never figured it out without her help here. If only she was still across the street!

I finally sewed the sheep on last week and with one sheep to go, I showed it to Aidan. He thought with one sheep in my hand, it meant the sheep came off and started pulling at the other sheep I had carefully sewn on there! Will need to put away for a little while. I am very happy with the results and it will be perfect for Liam in the fall. Just don't look too closely at the edges as they are completely uneven.

I'm also a crochet convert. As usual, Mama N was right, crochet is easy and fast.

My new toy

In a quest to make perfectly decorated cupcakes I purchased a squeezy bag type cake icing kit. The very first time I used it the bag split and I was in the middle of making cupcakes for Master R's birthday party at nursery. I was very peeved to say the least. I kept researching and found this cake and biscuit (cookie) gun type decorator. I'd read mixed reviews on Amazon but decided to give it a try.

These mini cupcakes were the first attempt. These are bite sized cupcake wrappers and a bit of a pain to spoon all the mix into them. Problem solved - add the mixture into the gun with the largest nozzle and squeeze it in. Icing them took a bit of practise and most of these were done one handed with squirmy Master T on my hip. But the decorator is really easy to use and user friendly.

Included in the set is a set of biscuit molds. I couldn't quite get the concept of them until I actually used them. They are little metal plates with cutouts which create different shapes as you squeeze the biscuit mix through creating "press cookies". I used this recipe but I didn't put the egg white on top.

It was so much fun! The cookies are really small and thin. I overcooked the first lot as you can see in the picture. They're a bit brown for my liking. They only need 6 minutes in the oven.

They are a lovely little biscuit and very elegant looking for gifts. Next time I make them I'll halve the recipe (it yields 8 dozen! I was sick of the sight of them and so were our neighbours) and make little hearts which I'll half dip in chocolate.

Baby clothes quilt

Source: www.ticcheandbea.com

In a recent newsletter for my local mothers' group an article featured crafts that capture and preserve memories of your child. There were many good ideas, such as turning your child's artwork into a poster or notecards, but the one I liked the most was turning your favorite baby clothes into a quilt. Now Mama N and Mama G could probably make such a quilt on their own, but for the rest of us there is a website that offers a baby clothes quilt kit. It offers two levels of DIY. You can cut squares from your favorite pieces that your child wore as a baby and mail them to be sewn for you into a quilt. Or if you are feeling a little adventurous you can buy the kit with instructions on how to sew the quilt yourself.

I have started setting aside clothes as Master Q and Miss V grow out of them. Some of the hand-me-downs will be used for Miss L's quilt because they bring back such vivid memories of when Miss L was a baby. I love the thought of having a quilt for each of them that holds so many memories from their first year of life. I picture having the quilts on their beds as they grow up (until they hit those rebellious teenage years when I will box them up for safe keeping until they will appreciate them again as young responsible adults!).

I am tempted to try to make one myself. My great auntie has a sewing machine that she would like to give me. And I did notice a listing of beginner sewing classes at the end of the newsletter article which definitely caught my interest.