Malaysian beef rendang

I cooked beef rendang on Sunday and we ate it for dinner the next night. Like all curries, the rendang really benefited from having "rested" for a day before eating as the flavours were particularly intense.

Serves 2-4 (depending on appetite and number of other courses!)

Process the following ingredients in a food processor:

• 1 red onion, coarsely chopped
• 6 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
• 2.5 inches ginger, coarsely chopped
• 1 stick of lemongrass, coarsely chopped
• 8 kaffir lime leaves, shredded
• 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 1 heaped teaspoon of turmeric
• 0.5 teaspoon coriander powder
• 0.5 teaspoon cumin powder
• 2 teaspoons of red chilli flakes or 3 red chillies, diced

Then add this spice mixture to a heavy bottomed saucepan and fry. After a few minutes add:
1.5lb diced stewing steak

Fry until the meat is lightly browned and coated with the spice mixture then stir in the following:

• Grated flesh of half a coconut
• 165ml coconut milk
• A little water so mixture does not dry during simmering
• Salt to taste

Bring the mixture to the boil then simmer for 1.5-2 hours on low. Serve with rice.

Sorry, no photos. I need to get back into taking photos of anything other than my daughter ;-)

Busy doing nothing

This is perhaps the shortest weekend post I've ever written, for all we did this weekend was buy fruit, vegetables, fish and meat from our local grocer, butcher and fishmonger; make bread; visit the park; roast a chicken; bake some sea bream; make a chocolate raspberry clafoutis; cook beef rendang; and spend alot of time reading and playing in the garden. We didn't even clean the house! The weather here in London was superb and we simply wanted to enjoy a chilled two days at home. Wonderful.

Delicious

It's been a long time since I've recorded a recipe on this blog. Last night, I cooked two dishes for our dinner. One was a sour aubergine and tomato curry and the other was a simple lightly-spiced cauliflower dish.

For the cauliflower curry, I gently fried half an onion with 1 inch of fresh ginger (finely diced) and 3 cloves of garlic (diced). When the onions were golden, I added 1 teaspoon of black onion seeds, 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds, a pinch of red chilli flakes and half a teaspoon of ground turmeric. I gently fried the mixture on a low heat for a few minutes and then added the florets of a whole cauliflower. I ensured all the ingredients were well mixed, then added half a cup of water. I brought the dish to a boil then turned down the heat to a simmer, with lid on, for 15-20 minutes. Salt to taste, of course.

For the soured aubergines and tomatoes, I had already roasted the vegetables on Sunday and left in the fridge - five aubergines and three large tomatoes. Tonight, I roughly chopped the mixture and left to drain in a colander. Then I fried half an onion with an inch of finely chopped ginger and 4 diced cloves of garlic. Once the onion mixture had turned golden, I added a teaspoon each of fennel seeds, ground ginger, whole cumin, turmeric and red chilli flakes, plus a generous pinch of asafoetida. I stirred the mixture well and fried for a few minutes. Then I added the aubergines and tomatoes and cooked the mixture for a good 15 minutes, letting all the flavours infuse. I added a little water so the mixture did not stick. Finally, I added 2 teaspoons of tamarind paste and left to cook for a further. Salt to taste.

It was all very tasty (as a Leo, modesty is not my strong point!).

Eating, teething and pruning

Since she was born, we've settled Little Planet into a conventional 7am-7pm routine because it suits us. M and I are both early birds. Even before our daughter was born, morning lie ins rarely went beyond 9am, no matter how late we went to bed. We also have to get up at 6.30am every week day for work, so 7pm bedtimes are a must for Little Planet if she is to get a good quota of night time sleep for her age.

People often remark on how much M and I manage to pack into a day, but aside from personality, much of it is to do with the fact that we start our day so early! So making a hair appointment for 9am on a Saturday morning isn't unusual for me, especially now I am a mother. To Aveda in Holborn I went and spent two hours being pampered whilst M and Little Planet relaxed at home.

Afterwards, I picked up two bags of whole beans - Indonesian and Indian - from the Monmouth Coffee Company in Covent Garden, and soap and a black top from Muji. Then I caught a bite of lunch at the Portuguese-Brazilian cafe Canela off the Seven Dials. I had an oven-baked dish of salt cod cooked with potatoes, onions, herbs and cream and accompanied by a leaf salad with a simple citrus dressing. My drink was a freshly squeezed lemonade and my dessert, of course, was a Brazilian creme caramel.

Then I detoured north to John Lewis on Oxford Street to pick up a plastic dinner set for Little Planet decorated with pirates and pirate ships (a plate, a bowl and a cup) then walked south down Regent's Street to Piccadilly where I bought Gourmet, New Yorker and Time Out New York magazines from Waterstone's. This is forward planning for our holiday to NYC in the Autumn - just getting a feel for the things we want to do and the places we want to see.

Back at home, I played with M and Little Planet in the garden. After her bed time, M and I ate roast chicken and steamed broccoli for dinner.

On Sunday, my mum came early to our house to play with Little Planet. Then I took my mum out for the day into Central London. It was my parents' wedding anniversary on Saturday. My father is ill and has been in a care home back in East Anglia for the last year. I've not really written about this on my blog because it has been a painful experience for all, but we are all getting used to it now. Now that my mother has moved to London to be nearer her granddaughter, she is in the process of transferring my father down to a care home near her new house. It means that we should be able to celebrate Christmas together as a complete family again. It means my parents will be able to celebrate their wedding anniversary next year together. But this year, my mum was alone in London and so I wanted to make sure she wasn't too sad and lonely.

I treated her to a cab ride into town where we spent a few hours wandering around the Indian garden, the South-east Asian room and the Garden And Cosmos exhibition at the British Museum (photo above). Then we went for lunch at South Indian restaurant Malabar Junction. My favourite South Indian restaurant is any of the Rasa restaurants, but I like the laid back, genteel, old-fashioned atmosphere of Malabar. It's not trying to be trendy and it suits my mother's personality perfectly.

We started with parippu vada (split Bengal gram mashed with red chilli, curry leaves, ginger and onions and made into patties) and aubergine slice fry (with chickpea batter). Then we had mains of Kerala mutton curry (lamb pieces cooked with turmeric, coriander, chillies and black pepper), meen manga puli (white fish with green mango cooked with fenugreek, onions, tamarind, curry leaves and coconut milk), and Malabar kichadi (beetroot with curry leaves and grated coconut).

Back at home, my mum enjoyed playing with Little Planet for the rest of the afternoon in the garden. After Little Planet had gone to bed and my mother had returned home, M cooked us macaroni cheese with bacon and spinach. Dessert was homemade apple flan. No, I did not refuse dinner; yes, I am a glutton.

Poor Little Planet had an incredibly restless night last night due to intense nappy rash brought on by teething her molars. She woke up every two hours. She's always been such a good sleeper since her 12th week... we can count on one hand, in fact, the number of restless nights she has had in her 14 months. So last night was difficult for her and for us. We didn't really know what to do but we finally managed to settle her at 2am with lots of cuddles and a little bit of Calpol. She fell fast asleep eventually, but of course, M and I slept fitfully until morning as we kept waiting for her to wake up again. I hope tonight is a better night for her.

Today, M had the day off to oversee some tree pruning work. We have two very tall and overgrown trees at the back of our garden which, apparently, are obstructing one of our neighbour's satellite reception. We chortled when we heard this, but in fairness it must be annoying for them and the trees are too big. So today the tree surgeons were very busy. M was busy also: we have four bookshelves in our living room but more books mean we needed more shelf space. So we ordered two more bookshelves and M put them up today while the tree surgeons were at work: one more in our living room and another on our upstairs landing. My favourite form of interior decoration is books, books and more books, so I love the way our home looks and feels now.

Random notes from the week

• For Monday night's dinner, I made a cauliflower dish spiced with onion seeds, red chilli flakes, cumin seeds, garlic, ginger, onions and turmeric. I also made a lamb curry with sweet potatoes, peas (leftover from Little Planet's dinner!), chickpeas, onion, garlic, ginger, red chilli flakes, ground cumin, ground coriander and turmeric.
  
  
• Little Planet is flat out refusing to be spoon fed now. She also resists us handing her food. All her food is now finger food that she can pick up by herself from her high-chair tray or plate - little sandwiches, cheese sticks, toast, pitta bread with hummus, pasta shells with a coating of sauce such as pesto, broccoli florets, slices of peaches, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, dry cereal, peas, sweetcorn, omelette strips or scrambled eggs - anything she can pick up herself, basically. She is our independent little girl; but it could also be related to teething. Who knows? I've been a mum for 14 months and I've finally learned that there is little point in analysing her behaviour too much as everything is a phase.
  
  
• Little Planet is also adamant that walking on her knees is infinitely preferable to walking on her two feet. She doesn't seem to mind that she looks a "right Charlie" swinging her arms and stomping around on her knees. She even prefers it to crawling now. And she is forever climbing onto and over things, over and over again. She loves our bed - particularly clambering over the pillows so she is standing up against the headboard and then diving face first flat onto the bed again... over and over and over again.
  
  
• Little Planet is so dexterous with her hands. She can screw open and close plastic bottles of water, she will eat rice grain by grain, she will pick up the tiniest thread or speck off the floor, she will put the lids back on her bottles of milk when she's finished drinking, she can place wooden sticks precisely into narrow holes... endless things she can do with her tiny fingers and hands.
  
  
• On Tuesday morning, M and I breakfasted at Carluccio's in the Brunswick in Bloomsbury before work - M had toast and croissants with butter and jam and I had the eggs Benedict.
  
  
• On Tuesday night, M left work much earlier than his usual time to put Little Planet to bed so that I could go out and entertain my clients. I took them to the Mortimer's Grill just off Oxford Street in "Noho" - good food (handcut chips and sausages), good beer (Italian) and good conversation (travel, religion, psychology, art... not the type of conversations I usually have with clients; these are very interesting people and I enjoy doing business with them).
  
  
• On the bus home, at around 9pm, there was a Chinese baby screaming his head off. Several people on the bus didn't hide their displeasure at this (as a mum, I just tuned it out). But then his parents started to play him some Chinese pop music on their mobile phone. The baby instantly fell silent. Very few people on the bus could keep a straight face. It was just too cute.
  
  
• On Wednesday, I had lunch with a few other new(-ish) mums at work. Our babies are all over 12 months now and it's funny how the topic of conversation has shifted away from baby sleeping patterns to baby feeding habits. Soon it will be all about tantrums and toilet training, I suspect.
  
  
• Other key topics of conversation amongst us new mums at my work were how we manage our daily routines (working, spending time with our babies, looking after our homes) and how we can be promoted whilst working part-time (not a key issue for me as I work full-time, but a real concern for the other mums I work with who all work part-time).
  
  
• On Thursday, my mother-in-law put Little Planet to bed so M and I could meet up after work. The two of us walked down to the National Portrait Gallery to see two excellent exhibitions: the BP Portrait Award and Francis Alys' Fabiola (photo above). Then we took a cab to Mayfair and had cocktails in Claridges and then a top notch (though a tad salty for me) dinner at Indian restaurant Benares where the fish dishes in particular were superlative . This was a belated celebratory meal to mark my birthday on the 3rd August. The cocktails were strong, the food very nice and the cab ride home much needed. Thank you M for the lovely evening.
  
  
• And now it's Friday - yippee! Despite all the socialising and going out I've been doing this week, I've been very busy at work with endless meetings and project kick-offs. Tonight I have quite bad indigestion because I was rushing around so much today and bolting down my food. But it's 7.20pm now, I've put Little Planet to bed and M is on his way home with some nice food goodies for our dinner no doubt.

Lazing around

We did little this weekend, apart from lazing around all day long. On Saturday, we breakfasted at Carluccio's at the Brunswick and then played with Little Planet in the children's park near Russell Square Coram's Fields. We shopped at Waitrose and then spent the afternoon at home, playing in the house and the garden with Little Planet. Her Gran also arrived. Dinner was rib eye steak and salad.

On Sunday, M, Little Planet and her Gran went off to the park for the morning leaving me blissfully home alone for a few hours: I sat in the garden and read the papers from cover to cover. It was so quiet; it was wonderful. My mum arrived in the afternoon and the two Grans played with their granddaughter in the garden while M and I pottered around doing things around the house. We also booked our holilday to New York in October - hurrah! Dinner was oven-baked sea bream and salad.

And that was it. Today, M and I returned to work, and tried to ease back into our familiar routine, though it is terribly hard having to get up at 6.30am again.

A week off, part 2

M spent Wednesday shopping in central London. He went to Liberty, Jil Sander, Foyles, House of Fraser and the Sony Centre on Tottenham Court Road where he bought me a small Sony Bravia TV for our bedroom as a birthday gift. He lunched at So Sushi in Soho.

Meanwhile, Little Planet and I spent the day with my mum - first at her house and then at mine. For dinner that evening, I made Goan king prawn curry with cumin and coriander powders, turmeric, garlic, ginger, shallots, green cardamoms, red chillies, coconut milk and tamarind paste. It was tangy, sharp and hot - just as I like it.

Thursday began with bacon butties and then we went to the local council offices to replenish our stash of parking permits. We went to the park where Little Planet played in the swings and the sandpit. Then I went alone into central London while M looked after Little Planet for the day.

After the park, M took her to the local shops and then home for lunch. He spent the afternoon playing with her, sorting out the study, made sourdough bread and New York-style mini cheesecakes, plus beef stew with potatoes and green beans for Little Planet.

I went to the Brunswick at Russell Square, where I sat outside at Carluccio's and lunched on pork escalope wrapped in Parma ham and sage and served with sauteed potatoes and garlicky spinach, plus freshly-squeezed lemonade. I was in no hurry and my lunch was long as I also enjoyed people-watching - lots of parents (mainly mums) and their babies, toddlers and children at the Brunswick.

I popped into Gap Kids for red, grey, navy and dark brown little socks for Little P, then headed down into the Renoir Cinema to watch Claire Denis' latest 35 Shots Of Rum (photo above). The film depicts the close bond between a train-driving widower and his adolescent daughter living in a rundown suburb of Paris - a bond that is complicated by the affection and attraction of two neighbours: a young man for the girl and a middle aged woman for the father. The movie is beautiful and subtle and I'd love to see it again.

I walked over to Oxford Street to buy footwear from Office (Havaianas flip flops, Converse sneakers and Keds sneakers) and blouses and wool cardigans from Gap. Then it started to pour down with rain. I returned home in time for Little Planet's bath and bedtime. For dinner, M made Maryland crab cakes with spring onions from our garden. He also made some tartare sauce to go with the crab cakes. Dessert was his delicious cheesecakes.

And today, Friday, is technically the last day of our week off. We spent the morning getting Little Planet's hair cut - her third. The first two times she had her hair cut, she was perfectly calm. But this time, she was a little more nervous and had to be distracted a lot more. It's definitely her age: she's a lot more aware and can anticipate things now, and she's also a lot more assertive.

Her assertiveness and growing independence is now showing itself in her eating. The past two days she has resolutely refused to be spoon fed - clamping her teeth shut tightly, shaking her head, and raging "Na! Na! Na!" Poor M made her beef stew yesterday but because it is a little sloppy, it can only be eaten with a spoon - which Little Planet cannot do for herself yet and so can only be spoon fed. Ditto her cauliflower and cheese dinner tonight. But as soon as we gave her plates of toast with Philadelphia cheese, sliced peaches and little chunks of cheese that she could feed entirely by herself... well, then she ate everything. It's frustrating for us as parents, but on the other hand this is terrific in terms of her development.

Anyway, we did a bit of shopping after her haircut while she napped in her buggy and then came home. We spent the rest of the afternoon thoroughly cleaning the bathroom and kitchen, hoovering and dusting the entire house, and M changed some of our curtain rails and re-hung the curtains. I also had a work conference call with my French client for an hour.

Little Planet is asleep now (it's 7.30pm) and there's sea bream in the oven which M will serve with a samphire and asparagus salad. Then fresh papaya, blueberries, peaches and oranges for dessert.

I am sad our week at home is over - it's been very relaxing. Never, in our entire adult lives, have we ever taken holiday and stayed at home - a "stay-cation". M and I are going to New York later this year, but this time we wanted to chill out with our daughter and enjoy home and enjoy London a) because we both work long hours and needed full-on quality time as a family and b) because we've both travelled quite a bit for work this year and simply didn't fancy it.

By the way, Little Planet turned 14 months today xxx

A week off, part 1

Both M and I have taken a week off this week to do nothing but chill out together as a family at or close to home. Our week began on Saturday with a trip to the Jeff Koons exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery. From his paintings of Popeye and Olive Oyl, to his inflatable toy sculptures cast in aluminium (photo above) - I found the work banal, kitsch, fun and interesting.

Afterwards, we let Little Planet loose in the ethereal, mirrored Pavilion, where she enjoyed watching the other children and looking at her own reflection. She chats to and laughs at her reflection in the mirror at home and the other night when she was crying out in anger over something or the other, she crawled around M to look at herself in the mirror as she was howling! Nowadays, she loves flicking through our album of her photos and also laughs when she recognises her two Grans in the photos.

The three of us relaxed in Hyde Park for a while and then we wandered over to the Whole Foods Market in Kensington to stock up on cheeses, wine, steak and cold meats. We spent the afternoon in our garden at home, then after Little Planet had gone to bed, we sat down to a meal of aged fillet steaks and a salad with sesame seed dressing.

Sunday morning was spent outside in our garden, where Little Planet played, I read and played, and M planted beds and pruned shrubs. Little Planet enjoyed helping her daddy weed, particularly putting the weeds into the bucket. She will be her daddy's good little helper as she gets older, just as I always loved helping my dad in the garden when I was a child.

Sunday afternoon was spent playing with Little Planet in the sandpit of our local park. Dinner for M and I was boiled chicken with leeks and homemade aioli plus lightly stir-fried endives with blue cheese shavings.

Monday was my birthday and so, for me, began with a long lie in! Later, my mum arrived and took us all out for a big Turkish lunch. Little Planet ate pitta dipped with hummus and was completely preoccupied watching all the waiters whizz by, while the adults tucked into pizza-like pide, hearty minced lamb kebabs and three varieties of salad.

We spent the rest of the day at home, playing with Little Planet and laughing at her antics: she can't stop walking, or more correctly marching, around the house just on her two little knees - it's hilarious! And she chatters non-stop to us and to herself. In the evening, after her bedtime, we ate risotto with peas and mint fresh from our own garden. Dessert was the birthday cake my mum had bought for me.

Today we went into central London again. We visited the Korean Cultural Centre near Charing Cross, which we have always been meaning to visit. Our daughter looks like a little Manga doll and predictably she caused a little stir there among the staff. Lots of Asians from the Far East find her cartoonishly cute with her short dark fringe, her big eyes, her long lashes, her rosebud lips and her pale skin.

Then we crossed the river to the Hayward Gallery where we wandered through the Walking in My Mind exhibition that explores the inner workings of artists' imaginations through dramatic, large-scale installation art. We peered into Yoshimoto Nara's art hut and gazed, voyeuristically, at his Dylan music collection, his reference books, his Polaroids and his sketches (Little Planet went "Quack quack" when she spied a toy duck on one of his shelves); we wandered through Thomas Hirschhorn's womb-like cave and tunnels made of parcel tape; we let Little Planet loose into the hallucinogenic pink and white polka dot room of Yayoi Kusama (photo above); and we meandered dreamily through the spectral tunnels of stretched black threads by Chiharu Shiota (photo below). The whole exhibition was hypnotic and we will return very soon no doubt.

We relaxed with coffees and cakes at the BFI's Benugo bar and cafe. I've always loved this place because it has so many comfy, soft sofas and armchairs and never seems too busy. To begin with, Little Planet got very excited clambering across the sofa we were sat on and staring and babbling at the other people there, but then she sank back into it like us and settled in to happily munch away at her blueberry and raspberry rice cake.

Little Planet fell asleep in her buggy as we headed back towards Leicester Square and M took her home for her lunch. I stayed on in town and lunched alone at Mitsukoshi on Regent's Street. I had the Mitsukoshi bento box, which consisted of tuna and salmon sashimi, a simmered vegetable dish, mixed tempura, rice, miso soup, pickles and mixed fruit. The place was packed entirely with Japanese people. This is fast becoming my favourite Japanese place to lunch at. As I was eating I was also working my way through work emails on my iPhone. Then I bought two Japanese movies from the basement JP Books - Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers and Memories Of Matsuko.

Afterwards, I watched the funny and cringe-worthy Bruno movie at the Apollo, then headed to Covent Garden to pick up some wine from Oddbins and some coffee beans from the Monmouth Coffee Company. Then back to home, where M and Little Planet had spent a nice afternoon together pottering (M sorting out the study and cooking berry clafoutis; Little Planet doing what she does best - playing and clambering all over her dad).

And now she is in bed and M is making pies with chicken, porcini mushrooms, bacon and sage and thyme leaves from our garden.

Tomorrow M will spend the day generally pottering around the house and then, perhaps, seeing some exhibitions and doing some shopping in central London. I will spend the day with my daughter and my mum. But I'll leave the next portion of our week off for another post (and my Twitter feed).

Alone and silent

I've just returned from a business trip to Paris. The last time I was on a business trip - a four-day whirlwind a few weeks ago in Frankfurt, Madrid and Paris - I was accompanied by a colleague. This time I was alone.

My colleague in our Paris office apologised for not being able to join me for dinner on my first night because she had to get home to her two year old and five year old children. I laughed and said, "Of course, I do not mind. I'm a mother and wife also and I cherish my time alone." She responded with a knowing chuckle and said, "Oh yes, I know exactly what you mean," and she instantly felt less guilty.

You see, wandering the Paris streets alone last night and this afternoon after my meeting with a French client, I felt so at peace. All day long I am engaged in conversation - with my colleagues at work, with my daughter (mutual babbling!) before her bedtime and then with my husband when he returns home. It is bliss having many hours ahead of me being silent, eating alone, getting lost in city streets, thinking many thoughts or none.

Simply being silent. Every working woman, mother and wife should do this regularly.

The one and only

The other day, a colleague of mine, who has two children of his own and another on the way, asked me when I was planning my second child. He was shocked when I replied, “I am not planning any more children. This is it for me.” I did not express surprise at his shock because I know both his question and his reaction are common. Instead, I simply responded to his “Why?!" with “Because I am happy with the way things are.” M would not mind a second child, but he is so content with the daughter he has that he is happy for our family to remain three. Of course, there are several reasons for my decision to have just one child, and these are them:

• I have never been and am still not a maternal person
• I have never been broody and would have been content without children. I decided to have a child because I could see how wonderful it would be for M and also because I wanted a “little M”!
• If I ever saw myself with a child when I was growing up it was always with a daughter - I have a daughter now and I am not bothered about having a son
• My daughter is so perfect and lovely that I am 100% content just having her in my life
• I am not a patient person and do not do well in chaotic circumstances - my baby was a very easy baby who napped well and slept through the night from 12 weeks and yet I still struggled on maternity leave
• I am a loner by nature and need a lot of time on my own - I would be run ragged with two little people demanding my time and attention
• Life hasn't changed much with one - I can still go out, I can still work at a career I love, I still have money to do things
• I can't imagine loving another child as much as I love my daughter - I know, objectively, that I would be able to, but I simply don't want to
• Ultimately, I am an only child and had a wonderful childhood, even with two fulltime working parents. I was never lonely as I had several close friends, I have wonderful memories of weekends with my parents, they took me on lovely holidays abroad, I was incredibly independent, I talked and read early, I was very sociable with other adults, I wasn’t spoiled, I have always been close to my parents. I know from experience that being an only can be a terrific experience

The comments for this post are closed.

All about Little P

Little Planet experienced her first ever train ride this weekend when we journeyed up to Loughborough on Saturday to visit relatives. She enjoyed the journey up because the only other people in the First Class coach was a mum and her 22 month old son, so of course the adults chatted while the babies played. And she spent the journey back sleeping while M and I read the papers. In between, she had good fun playing with her cousins aged 20 months, 3 years and 11 years, plus her Gran and assorted uncles and aunts who came from England, Romania, Germany and Australia.

Despite being just 13 months, Little Planet plays pretty well with other children - not simply alongside them, but actually with them: handing them things, babbling away with them, getting in the midst of them all and joining in. But she's also very good at playing by herself (I think this is the result of having a mum who is not very good at playing with children, unlike her dad): whilst her 20 month old twin cousins napped, she spent a happy hour endlessly crawling in and out of a play tunnel. Of course, she plays best on her own when other people are in the same space as her - she is still not old enough to play on her own alone.

The whole of Sunday was spent at home in London playing with Little Planet, doing laundry, cooking (roast belly pork and fennel seeds for us, dal and rice for Little P), reading, and rolling around on our divine brand new Vi-Spring bed.

Little Planet is now saying "Thank you", "No", "Woof woof", "Fish", "Rice", "Good girl", "Hi ya", "Ta Ta", "Mama" and "Daddy" and a few others - or at least close approximations thereof, eg "Na" for "No", "Gun-ga" for "Good girl", "Feeeesh" for "Fish" and "Tanku" for "Thank you"!

She can get away with a single nap a day of around 1-2 hours, but usually drops off in her buggy around 10.30am whilst we're out and about for 30-45 minutes and in her cot at home around 1.30pm for an hour or 1.5 hours. She still sleeps through the night from 7pm. We're much more relaxed about her day time napping now that she is 1 year old and will continue to be relaxed so long as her solid night time sleep continues.

She is now completely off formula and entirely on whole milk - still three bottles of milk a day. Now she is on whole milk, she drinks far more as she loves the taste. We need to persuade her to drink milk from a beaker, though. She drinks water really well from a beaker. We also, this weekend, packed away her steriliser and stopped boiling water for her drinks. She ate her solids really well. She hates being spoon fed now and really fights us, preferring to eat her dal and rice with her hands, just like a good little Indian girl. She loves eating chunks of peaches and bananas, rice cakes, croissant, toast and cheese by herself. We really need to encourage her to eat with a spoon by herself. Meal times and snack times are now very messy affairs!

Play, play, play

Saturday began with the three of us piled into our bed... M and I drinking coffee, playing with Little Planet and watching CBeebies on TV with her. We particularly enjoyed Animalia. Then we headed into town on the Tube - 13 month old Little Planet beaming at everyone as she sat like a big girl on her seat. In Regent's Park, Little Planet went on the swings and on the rocking horse. Then we took her down Marylebone High Street to buy meat from The Ginger Pig, assorted cheeses and salad leaves from La Fromagerie and children's books from Daunt's.

M took Little Planet back home in a cab because he had a number of heavy bags. Little Planet is not good in cars - she hates being strapped in and she may not like the movement either - so she cried alot on the way home. But as soon as she reached our house, M said, she was absolutely fine. The cab driver was chilled about his upset little passenger, telling M that he has young children of his own and has "been there, done that"!

Meanwhile, I stayed on in town and saw the movie The Private Lives of Pippa Lee at a cinema in Piccadilly. I loved this film. It made me cry throughout - it is an intensely emotional movie about a marriage in decline and a ravaged mother-daughter relationship. It featured an amazing cast - including Robin Wright Penn, Alan Arkin, Maria Bello, Keanu Reeves, Blake Lively, Julianne Moore and Monica Bellucci. I even liked Winona Ryder's performance, who I usually find such a wet blanket both in real life and on film.

Afterwards, I picked up desserts from Princi in Soho - passionfruit cheesecake and strawberry millefeuille - then headed back home to spend time with Little Planet before her bedtime. For dinner, M grilled two beef fillet steaks and dressed them in a light yuzu and soya sauce. He prepared a salad of mixed leaves, blue cheese, grilled peach slices and a sherry vinegar and olive oil dressing. Desserts were from Princi.

We topped of the night with a viewing of an episode of Californication and then the hilarious movie The 40 Year Old Virgin, which neither one of us has ever seen. But could only watch half, as we were so tired.

We spent most of Sunday at home. We did some local shopping but overall we spent the entire day playing with Little Planet, reading the papers and cooking. I cooked up a batch of dal for Little Planet to put into the freezer and another batch of dal (a spicier version) for tomorrow's dinner for M and I. My mum spent the afternoon at our house, playing with her Granddaughter. It's only been a week since my mum has last seen Little Planet but she was amazed at what a little chatterbox she is, how well she is feeding herself solid food, and how well she walks.

And now Sunday evening has rolled round again. I have a glass of Amaretto and ice by my side as I type this. M is basting the roast chicken and finishing off crispy potatoes with the porcini which had been roasted inside the chicken. We'll finish off watching last night's movie and then have an early night.

Another busy week commences.

Weekend gorging

Friday

• The morning began with both M and I dropping Little Planet off at daycare, then getting off a few underground stops early and walking through Russell Square together before going off to our separate offices.
• My mother-in-law arrived on Friday to pick Little Planet up from daycare, take her home, give her some bedtime milk and put her to bed. I stayed later in the office then went out for drinks with colleagues on Wardour Street (the street next to the big Dean Street fire that same day).
• M met me at the pub and we went to Yauatcha to buy cakes and chocolate. Then we went to the John Lewis Food Hall to buy dinner.
• Back at home, M cooked pan-fried hake with a hazelnut and caper crust and served it with sauteed potatoes and steamed vegetables.
  

Saturday

• My mother-in-law looked after Little Planet all day so, despite the rain, M and I headed into town to basically gorge ourselves on food and art.
  
• At the Whitechapel Gallery, we saw Elizabeth Peyton's intimate, colourful and childlike portraits of friends and acquaintances (1st photo above).
  
• At the same gallery, I discovered some new painters whose work captivated me: Emily Wolf, Lara Viana and Zara Matthews (2nd photo above).
• We walked to Brick Lane to eat lunch at our favourite cafe on that street Sweet & Spicy. We had vegetable samosas, chickpea curry, boal fish curry, pilau rice and chapati. Delicious.
• Afterwards, we stopped off at a Bengali bookshop to buy some Bengali children's books for Little Planet that her Bengali Grandma (my mum) can read to her. We also bought Little Planet some wooden toys from the fabulous Wood 'n' Things in Shoreditch.
• We crossed the river and rested our weary feet at the Tate Modern members room before catching the comprehensive Futurism and Per Kirkeby exhibitions. I particularly liked the latter's mixed media collages, but found the rest of his work a little flat.
• We took a cab to the White Cube in Mason's Yard to catch Gilbert & George's new show. I am not a big G&G fan, but these new works made me smile: bold, brash, beautiful!
• Another respite stop to rest our weary feet - this time at Automat on Dover Street where we drank coffee and demolished a Mississippi mud pie and New York cheesecake each.
• Then to the Sadie Coles gallery to see the brilliant Wilhelm Sasnal show (photo below).
• Then to the latest Artangel show in Marylebone: Charles LeDray's humorous Mens Suits show. As with all Artangel projects, it was all about "location, location, location" (to quote Mr Planet) - this time in a disused fire station. Other memorable Artangel locations we've been to have been a house in Portman Square and an amazing derelict Post Office sorting office on New Oxford Street.
• We supped beers at Swedish bar The Harcourt Arms then ate some very sublime and refined Japanese food - well, Japanese food with a twist - at tiny, basement Japanese tapas restaurant Dinings in Marylebone. We savoured wagyu beef toppan yaki, various sashimi (salmon, chu-toro, yellow tail, sea bass) with different incredibly light sauces made with such ingredients as sweet miso sauce, jalapeno sauce, yuzu, plus a black cod dish with garlic and chilli.
  

Sunday

• After a busy Saturday, today has been much more physically relaxed. Basically, we haven't left home except to shop for a few things and take Little Planet to the park. In fact, Little Planet has had both her Grandmothers here all day and we've spent most of the day in the garden.
• Now she's watching In The Night Garden and playing in the living room with her two Grans, M is ironing his work shirts and I am blogging. Soon we'll put her to bed.
  
• For her dinner, M cooked Little Planet a sweet potato and lamb stew.
• Later tonight, the adults will also eat lamb: roast lamb with chickpea mash and broad beans and peas. Homemade (M-made!) pavlova for dessert.
  
• As you can see, the gorging isn't yet over.
  

Play, play, play

The working week had been a hectic one, spent in three different cities in three days - Madrid, Paris and Frankfurt. The trip had been for business and was quite successful though draining and so it was nice to lie in bed on Friday morning until Little Planet woke up bang on 7am (usually on a work day we all have to be out of bed at 6.30am). Usually I leave for work at 7.30am, but today M and I dropped Little P off at the childminders together at 8.30am then walked into work together through Russell Square.

Work was tiring, but when I collected Little Planet at the end of my day (5.45pm), I had an hour with her in the garden before her 7pm bedtime. It was bliss. M came home around 8pm and we ate beef ragu and pappardelle in front of the TV - a rare event now that the weather is so good that we usually eat outside in the garden at night.

Saturday began at 7am again. Breakfast was flat peaches and Turkish cheese in the garden. Then the three of us headed into town. We picked up coffee, apple juice and cake in Carluccio's near Russell Square then spent a leisurely few hours in Coram's Fields. We spread out a picnic blanket, we read the papers, we let Little P climb all over us, we pushed her on the swings, we took her to see the goats, we sat in the sandpit with her and we fed her some of our cake.

We walked back through Russell Square to show her the fountains, but by the time we made it past the British Museum, she had fallen asleep in her buggy - zonked out on all the fresh air. We stocked up on provisions in Covent Garden and Soho: Monmouth coffee, bread from Paul, tofu, ponzu and umeboshi paste from Arigato, and sweets (cinnamon balls, clove sweets, Love Hearts, Dip Dabs and Sherbet Fountain) from Mrs Kibble's Olde Sweet Shoppe. On the Tube, pretty Little Planet enjoyed the attention from her fellow travellers!

Back at home, we lunched on some cured meats I'd brought back from Madrid and then spent the entire afternoon lazing around and playing with Little Planet in the garden. M made some chicken and tomato ragu for Little Planet's dinner. We bathed her then M gave her her bedtime milk and put her to bed. After this, he made yakitori and mixed salad dressed in a sesame paste for our dinner, which we ate in the garden. When the air got cool, we went inside and watched Kiyoshi Kurosowa's hypnotic Tokyo Sonata about the slow implosion of a family when the father loses his job and loses face.

Sunday morning began with both plain and chocolate croissants then a play for Little Planet in our local park where she enjoyed the sandpit, the swings and, particularly, the dancing fountains. We went shopping for more provisions plus geraniums, then ate the cured meats plus Manchego cheese from Madrid. My mum popped by so the rest of the afternoon was spent playing with Little Planet in the garden while M worked upstairs. When he finished work, he made cauliflower and broccoli cheese for Little Planet's dinner, then bathed her, gave her her milk and put her to bed. In the midst of all this, we managed to do three loads of laundry and clean the house (we are super quick at cleaning. Life is too short!).

My mum left and now it's 8pm and M and I are both in the study: M is ironing his work shirts while I blog and then I will iron my blouses for work. We will eat filet mignon with salad in the garden and try not to think too much about work tomorrow.

I wish the weekends could be three days long.

Pottering and eating

We did nothing but potter around the house and sit in the garden all weekend, so this round up is all about the food we ate.

After work on Friday, M marinated some chicken pieces with soy sauce then grilled them and served them with a finely chopped umeboshi plum paste. He also tossed mixed salad leaves with a sesame seed dressing he made with tahini, dashi, rice vinegar, soy sauce, caster sugar, toasted white sesame seeds and chilli powder. We drank buck's fizz with homemade freshly-squeezed orange juice.

On Saturday, M marinated beef in finely chopped lemongrass, black pepper, brown sugar and fish sauce then skewered them and grilled them (they were originally destined for the BBQ but thunderstorms and torrential rain put paid to that plan). He served the grilled beef skewers with rice noodles that he lightly stir-fried with ginger, dried shrimp, oyster mushrooms, spring onions and soy sauce.

Tonight's dinner will be Maryland crab cakes and salad, most likely followed by Alfonso mangoes.

Little Planet dined well too this weekend - beef ragu and cauliflower cheese, both made by Daddy. Her childminders are Indian and they feed her such delights as lentil dal, khichuri, pilau rice and spaghetti bolognaise.

Aren't we lucky girls!

And now I am off for a few days to Frankfurt, Paris and Madrid on business. Back to London on Thursday. Hopefully will be able to Twitter through the trip though.

Three day weekend

Saturday began with a leisurely hair appointment for me at the Aveda Institute in Holborn. Meanwhile, M also took Little Planet into town. He got takeout coffee from Carluccio's in the Brunswick Centre, then took Little P to play on the swings in the delightful Coram's Fields. He strolled over to Russell Square to show her the fountains, but she had fallen asleep so, while she napped in the buggy, M wandered through the Indian garden at the British Museum. By 11am, it was time for them both to meet me at Aveda. Together, we popped into Pages on Shaftesbury Avenue where we bought a mouli and some ceramic oven dishes. We stopped off at the newsagents on Old Compton Street for the FT and International Herald Tribune, then bought strawberry millefeuille, passionfruit cheesecake, olive bread and walnut bread from Princi on Wardour Street. We stocked up on macaroni and mozzarella from Lina Store and on Japanese rice, tofu and yuzu concentrate from Arigato on Brewer Street.

Back at home, we lunched on sandwiches stuffed with Red Leicester and Stilton cheeses M had bought during the week from Covent Garden's Neal's Yard Dairy. Both the Princi breads we used disappointed - too lightweight and bland for my tastes. While M worked, Little Planet napped then played all afternoon and I gave her cauliflower cheese for her dinner. Our Ocado order was delivered and Little Planet played with things as I put them away.

After Little Planet's bedtime, M cooked macaroni cheese with spinach and bacon, inspired by my favourite dish at Automat. Our Princi desserts were sublime, which was a relief after the disappointing bread. The millefeuille was flaky and the strawberries were sweet; the passionfruit was refreshingly tart. We ended the evening watching Scorcese's surreal but dated and stilted After Hours. Even the terrific shots of late night 80s Manhattan couldn't hold my attention and I fell asleep on the sofa.

Most of Sunday was spent at my mother's house. Little Planet was particularly whingy: she whined in the car seat, she cried whenever we turned our back on her, and she was particularly hysterical when we washed her hair before her bedtime - so much so that she threw up. This incident was traumatic for me, but within minutes she was happily playing on our bedroom floor as if nothing had happened. Thank goodness babies have short memories. But for the most part today, our happy girl played contentedly all day long. She crawled all over my mum's house and played with the new toys my mum had bought her.

After Little Planet went to bed, M roasted a chicken he had marinated in soy sauce, garlic, sugar and pepper. He dressed a salad with olive oil and yuzu concentrate. And we dipped the chicken pieces in two types of dips he made: one made with red chillies and fish sauce, the other made with grated ginger, lime and fish sauce. Then we re-watched Hirokazu Koreeda's Maborosi - perhaps not the most appropriate movie to watch on Father's Day as it features the life of a young woman raising her son alone when her husband dies.

M and I took Monday off as annual leave. We dropped Little Planet off with her childminders and then headed into town. We breakfasted at the Scandinavian Kitchen on Great Titchfield Street. M had a ham and cheese rye sandwich and I had a salmon and egg rye sandwich - both delicious. We shared a cinnamon bun with our coffees. It was nice sitting outside in the early morning sunshine watching people go to work. If we stay in London, then we would love to retire to an apartment on one of the roads off this street. It's low-key yet still in the heart of it all. I would also like to retire to Manhattan. Fortunately M would like this too. It's still a long, long way off, I know, but I like to dream. We're both city diehards, despite having grown up in the country (M in Shropshire and me in Kent).

Afterwards, we bought a nice bed in Selfridges (as you do!) - the kind of bed that will definitely last us for a long time. Then we went to the British Museum to view the Garden And Cosmos: The Royal Paintings Of Jodpur exhibition. It was tranquil, serene, meditative... I felt supremely rested strolling through this beautiful collection of paintings. We also meandered through the South and South-east Asian room at the museum looking at the Buddhist sculptures.

We decided to have Korean food for lunch so we went to Koba behind Charlotte Street. We've been here several times and the food is very good. We ordered an assorted BBQ, fried rice with kimchi and pork, assorted namool (beansprouts, spinach and sliced radish seasoned with chilli and vinegar), pamoochim (sliced spring onion with chilli and vinegar), and sangchoo (fresh lettuce to wrap our BBQ meats in, and seasoned soybean paste). We were stuffed, but as it was our day off, we headed back to Wardour Street and Princi for desserts and coffee: M had a lemon meringue tart and I had my favourite strawberry millefeuille. We bought some Kiehl's products from Space NK and magazines from Borders, then headed back home.

We relaxed at home for an hour or so, then headed out to pick up Little Planet. We played with her and we've just put her to bed. Now we're about to have vodka and freshly squeezed orange juice. We'll make homemade pizzas later on and watch a movie.

I am back at work tomorrow, but lucky M has another day off. He will be sorting out arranging builders and painters to come give quotations for various pieces of work we want doing on the house this year (fixing up the loft so we can use it for storage, re-doing the bathroom, painting the interior and exterior of the house) and generally pottering. He may come into town, he may not. He is a man of leisure.

It's nice taking odd days off on annual leave. I should do it more often.

Twitter

I'm now on Twitter. Follow me from this blog in the sidebar, or on my Twitter site direct:

Planethalder @ Twitter

If you have a Twitter feed, please let me know so I can take a look.

Fast, slow

The title characterises my weekend perfectly. Saturday was spent in a busy whirl of activity, accompanying my mother up to East Anglia to check on her house one last time, collect her car, hand over the keys to the estate agent and then drive four hours back down to London where she now lives permanently. We were both exhausted.

M, meanwhile, had spent the day at home in London with Little Planet.

Sunday epitomised just how lovely it is to have my mother now live not four hours away, but thirty minutes away: she was able to pop over to our house and spend the day with her grandchild. After the frenetic Saturday, Sunday was altogether extremely tranquil. M did bits and pieces around the house, while my mother, my daughter and I relaxed the entire day in the garden. And that was all we did. Bliiiissssss...

Happy 1st birthday

I feel so guilty. I have been in pitch mode at work (we are pitching for a new account) and have not had time to document on here a far more important event in my life: my baby daughter turned 1 on Sunday. She was surrounded by family and friends and had her first ever taste of chocolate cake. I was (pleasantly) surprised that the small piece of chocolate cake we gave her did not impress her much, and that she was far more eager for a bite of the less sugary Victoria sponge cake we had also baked. She was, of course, very happy with all her new toys. Happy birthday, my darling! You have made our life complete xxx

Chilled interruptions

As every parent knows, the concept of a "chilled weekend" takes on a new dimension once you have a baby. Before having a baby, M and I would spend uninterrupted time doing anything we wanted during the weekend. If we wanted to read the paper all morning, we could; if we wanted to lie in bed until late, we could; if we wanted to go into town and spend all day long drifting from one art exhibition to another, we could; if we wanted to watch a movie all afternoon, we could.

Now that Little Planet has graced our lives, we can still have such chilled moments but, unless she is sleeping, then they are just that - "moments". For example, we can still read the paper, but we read it in bursts; we can visit shop after shop, or exhibition after exhibition, but only if Little Planet does not become tired, cranky and bored; we can watch a movie from beginning to end, but only after she has gone to bed at night; we can have a lie in... but really only until 7 or 7.30am and even then only if we are lucky.

In short, we can do many of the things we used to do but in short bursts of time. With babies, you are always being interrupted. Sometimes these are glorious interruptions; other times, not so wonderful ;-).

This weekend, we spent a leisurely Saturday morning in Islington. Little Planet had her first taste of panettone at Carluccio's. Her response? "Hmmmm yum!" She is also beginning to say "Tanku" (Thank you) when you pass her something and has also begun to say "Na" (No) repeatedly while shaking her head furiously (the toddler years have begun!).

We also took her to the delightful After Noah toy shop where we bought some presents for her 1st birthday next week - a wooden shape sorter, plus a basket full of miniature play food (similar to the photo above) such as canned plum tomatoes, milk cartons, mineral water, baked beans and butter. She fell asleep in the pushchair, so M and I browsed the magazines and books in Borders and in Waterstone's.

We spent the afternoon at home. While Little Planet napped, M and I sat out in the garden and lunched on pitta sandwiches stuffed with hummus and tomatoes. Then we played with Little Planet when she woke up. We gave her a long bath and then spent a good hour before her dinner rolling around our bed with her - we chatted with each other and with her, while she clambered all over us or tried to bite us with her five sharp teeth... ouch.

After she went to bed, at 7pm, M and I had a barbecue in our garden of lamb chops, chorizo and tabbouleh. We stayed outside eating, drinking and chatting until 10.30pm.

On Sunday morning, we took Little Planet to have her hair cut (her third in her short life!) in Crouch End. She was fine and enjoyed playing with the toy cars the hairdresser provided to distract her. Afterwards, we bought some oranges and raspberries and visited M's sister nearby. There, we made fruit smoothies.

We returned home to give Little Planet her lunch and to put her down for her afternoon nap. While she slept, M and I sat in the garden again and lunched on grilled sardines and capers on toast. We then spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the garden with Little Planet in her Wendy house and reading the weekend papers when she was content to play on her own. M had made refreshing ginger and lemon drinks which we sipped.

Later on, before her bath, I took Little Planet out around our neighbourhood on her smart trike while M pruned the front garden. After putting Little Planet to bed at 7pm, M and I ate roast chicken with homemade potato salad and broad bean salad. I don't think we had the TV on at all this weekend, so lovely was the weather.

I wish the weekend could have lasted at least another day...