One.

It's hard to believe that the new addition is already one!
We celebrated her birthday last weekend and it was quite possibly one of Traveller's favourite children's birthday parties and T narrowed this down to two reasons: free flowing bubbly and lovely company.

The fact that I have family around me while I am 'travelling' might be confusing to you - the thing is, my lovely brother moved here first. He's been here for years and has since married a lovely English lass. They live very close to Traveller and it's lovely having them on this side of the hemisphere...
Anyway, T was asked if she would bake the birthday cake for the party and she was really excited. And a trifle nervous.
Luckily, both T and her sis-in-law are very partial to chocolate cake and they both agreed on this recipe
{which, by the way, is amazing}
English lass came up with the decorating ideas and they decorated it together, whilst trying to fend off T's brother, who kept on eating all the chocolate sticks! Cute, huh?



The cling film was to keep it together overnight as we decorated it the night before...

Unfortunately, there are no photos of anyone actually eating the cake but T promises you it was good.
The proof? Whilst demolishing her slice of cake, T was asked by another mum to make her child's birthday cake in a couple of weeks...
Success!

Lavender.

Traveller has a thing for lavender:

It's purple. It's beautiful. It smells heavenly.

And...it tastes divine!

Today, Traveller made lavender cupcakes from this cookbook. Now, lavender cupcakes may sound a little strange, but T assures you that they are delicious!

Lavender has such a delicate and beautiful flavour.

Now, she could have used purple colouring, or even placed a sprig of lavender on top which would have looked pretty, but sometimes these things are difficult to find.

When in doubt, the answer is always pink.

Sweet things.

Traveller cooked breakfast for her brother, sis-in-law and the new addition this morning.

Ain't she cute?

T just loves her cons.

Breakfast was french toast with caramelised bananas, maple syrup and creme fraiche.

Yum!

Another Lazy Sunday..

Traveller can scarcely believe that it has been a whole week since she last blogged.

March has revealed itself to be a busy month with musical rehearsals, parental visits and a myriad of other things going on...

Saturdays have been spent at work {musical rehearsals} and Sundays are spent typically reading the paper and enjoying yummy food.

Today, Traveller made these scones because husband has a penchant for devonshire teas and husband's parents bought us some delicious strawberry jam from a chateau in France {nice, eh?} and some lovely clotted cream from our French deli downstairs...

So yummy.

We enjoyed them while they were still warm, in our favourite little park.

And lo and behold, for the second week running, the sun was shining!

{commence happy dance}

What did you get up to this weekend?

Pie love you.

This Christmas, Traveller received a new cookbook to add to her collection, 'The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook'. And, boy oh boy, it is full of delicious recipes!

The Hummingbird Bakery is an institution in London. It is has two stores; one in Notting Hill and one in South Kensington. If you love cupcakes, then this is the bakery for you; it is choc-a-block full of cupcakes {red velvet, banana, pumpkin, etc} and every delicious full-sized cake that you have ever imagined.

To thank the gift givers, Traveller decided to bake them a treat from the book. After flicking through and considering her limited baking supplies,

{small London flat = small kitchen}

T decided to make an all-time-favourite - Lemon Meringue Pie!

Surprisingly, it wasn't too difficult to make, although T must confess that she did make the more simple recipe and saved the Italian meringue for a more confident day.

The verdict - a triumph!

{verdict according to gift-giver}

Celebrating on Primrose Hill.

This year Traveller and hubbie celebrated New Year's Eve with friends at their little London flat.

They furthered celebrated by walking up to Primrose Hill to cheer in 2010 and watch the fireworks.

The yummiest part?

T made some s'more cookies.

The most lovely part?

It snowed just after the countdown.

{magical}

It's all about pie.

Traveller was busy baking last night.

These are the pictures of her efforts - a delicious Apple and Blackberry Pie.

It's from a Jamie Oliver recipe that can be found here; T left out the ginger though and replaced it with cinnamon.

Yum!

The Bulge.

Traveller recently had a very truthful conversation (via skype) with her father.

It went something like this:

Dad: What is that your eating? Cereal?
Traveller: No, icecream. It's 10pm.
Dad: (pause) Oh, it's winter over there isn't it?
Traveller: Yes.
Dad: Mmm. You're looking a little fuller in the face.
Traveller: (gasp!)

As cruel as that may have seemed at the time, it's perfectly correct that 'the truth hurts'. Traveller simply can not help herself at this time of the year. And hey, a trip to France with bottomless wine, cheese and bread didn't really help!

The worst (or best) part is that school really pulls out all the stops this time of year. Most of you know that T eats a free lunch at school, and at this time of year, the options to increase your calorie intake are substantial!

Let's look at today's lunch for example:
Roast chicken with all the trimmings (and gravy! oooh gravy!), followed by a delectable apple crumble with warm custard. Let's face it - nothing warms you up like hot custard!

Oh dear.

T really needs to face the cold, hard truth.

Nothing warms you up like a muffin-top, saddle-bags and bat-wing arms - but that doesn't mean it's appealing.

It's time to say, 'No!' to all {upbeat euphemism for 'some'} things fatty!

Now, just before the afore-mentioned lock-down on fatty food kicks in, T would like to introduce you to the Churro.

A churro is a Spanish donut, usually served with hot chocolate sauce.

If you have never had the distinct pleasure of eating one of these scrumptious little morsels - get thee to a supermarket!

One of T's favourite food blogs, cannelle et vanille, just posted a delicious recipe for cooking the little darlings and T suggests you get cooking!

Traveller and 'best gal' at the Portobello Road Markets, indulging in Churros.

The churros on Cannelle et Vanille

photo courtesy and copyright of Aran Goyoaga

Traveller's Kitchen Disasters.

How did this....

turn into this?!

Now, T knows that you can't really see it very well for all the steam, but consider yourself lucky!

T had an absolute shocker in the kitchen on Sunday night.

So bad that she kept apologising to hubbie for hours;
Even though he'll eat anything.

It all started with a yummy, autumnal, Jamie Oliver recipe of Tomato and Bread Soup and turned into something you would see on Ramsay's Kitchen Disasters.

It was red. Looked like sludge. Tasted like sludge. Had a faint hint of tomato and basil. Traveller almost wants to puke just thinking of the texture in her mouth.

Boo.

The worst thing was that Traveller has had this soup cooked for her before, and it was delicious.

Is she that incompetent in the kitchen?

She followed the recipe religiously.

So sad.

Nothing worse than seeing an hour's work go down the drain. Literally.

The upside?

Ice-cream for dinner!

photos courtesy of one very depressed cook.