Debonaire Dad

The baby chauffeur

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:07:00 +0000

Where am I now? What is my name? Are these my kids? Have I gone insane?

Yes, as a dad (or a mum), I'm sure we've all felt all of the above at some point - actually, at many points! I stumbled across this viral ad this week (it’s a Fiat 500 car ad) which not only made me chuckle out loud, but took me back to the early days of being a first time dad.

The video in question

Those sleepless days and nights… I remember driving up the local “mountain” at least once a day, partly to get out of the house and away from the in-laws, but more so for those gently winding curves which seemed to lull my daughter to sleep. You know until I watched the video I had forgotten about being relieved that she had finally dozed off, only for me to stop to relax and admire the view – foolish me, every-one told me about taking the baby for a drive but no-one told me about never stopping the car! Yep, screaming child!
Lucky for me though (and unlike the guy in the vid), I never had to do the midnight drive in the car.

“Keep the gear changes light” sings the guy – yep, I remember looking back in the rear-view mirror at the young guy behind me in his souped-up car getting more and more fed up with being stuck behind the guy driving like someone’s granddad. Yes, I was warned about the sleepless nights and dirty nappies, but no-one told me that when I had kids I would learn to drive like an old man...

The Fiat 500 looks like a pretty cool car though, maybe I can convince my wife to swap our lumbering people carrier for one next time we change cars, it’ll be a bit more fun on the windy mountain roads.

The best line of the song though has to come at the end, and it sheds light on what’s in store for our kids in 20 or so years in the future, as the man says, “I’ll get my own back when I’m dancing at your wedding.”

Random picture of the day...

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 06:46:00 +0000

Love coffee? Love the future? Well you can get your future coffee here! I came across this sign whilst out driving today and it made me chuckle...

World Food Day & fat cats

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 10:41:00 +0000

Today is World Food Day, a nominal day to highlight the plight of the estimated 900 million or so people who are classed by the UN as "hungry". But do you know what really annoys me when I read about the millions of hungry, starving and malnourished people out there? Fat Cats.

No, not corporate greed and CEOs earning millions, but actual fat cats. When we live in a world with so many starving, the fact that you can buy diet cat and dog food really gets me angry. If your cat is fat, stop feeding it so much. If your dog is overweight, don't buy it "light" dog biscuits, feed it less and take it for a walk.

Okay, back to World Food Day, which is a worthy cause indeed, especially when you realise that there in this day and age there is absolutely no need for anyone to be hungry at all. In fact the UN estimates that globally we produce enough food to comfortably feed, well, everyone on the planet.

There are numerous reports easily available which highlight not just the huge amount that many of us in developed or affluent countries eat, but the vast amount that we throw away. It is staggering. For example, it is estimated that in total approximately 30% of all the food we produce everywhere in the World is lost or wasted each year. That's 1.3 billion tonnes of food, just rotting away, uneaten. Don't forget, that 30% is a global number, look at the USA and it is an appalling 40%.

When we talk in billions of anything, it just becomes impossible for mere mortals like me to get a grasp of the scale, so here, from the good people at Visual.ly

Browse more infographics.

When ever we talk about poverty or inequality on a global scale, the question is always asked, "That's terrible, but what can I do?" Well, for a start you can stop wasting food yourself, and if you just put half the money you save towards your choice of charitable/aid/NGO be it local or far-away, then you will be helping someone who is worse off than you are, and let's be honest, if you are reading this, there will always be someone worse off than you are.

Homemade pork sausages with fennel & nutmeg

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 11:34:00 +0000

With our daughter's second birthday bbq on the horizon, it seemed the perfect time to try out the mincing and sausage stuffing attachments on my KitchenAid mixer. I've never made sausages before, but I certainly will be doing so again; it's much easier than I thought it would be, and a lot of fun, especially when you have an almost two year-old to help out.

There are a host of host of clever and complex recipes available to find in cookery books and online, but I thought I would just keep it simple the first time out and start experimenting once I had go the basic techniques worked out.

First up, you'll need some sausage casings. I did a fair bit of research in to the merits of different types, and it seems to boil down to this, ease of use and availability. I've no doubts that the natural ones probably give a better mouth feel, but I decided that this first time I would go for the man-made variety, which is made from extruded collagen, the reasons being:

The extruded collagen ones are generally easier to work with as they they are more uniform and are harder to break/tear, and as this was my first time making sausages, with equipment I had never used, I thought this a prudent step.
Availability: Where I live you simple can't get the natural casings. I did however, find this very helpful online provider who were happy to answer questions I had: Sausage Casings Naturally. Even if you aren't going to use them as a supplier, I would suggest having a look at their website as it is very useful in helping you choose what casing and how much you need for a given style and amount of sausages.

Getting hold of the casings was easy enough, I spoke to one of my local quality butchers (Sheehan's Meats) and they were happy to sell me some. I think I paid about $6 for three, which I estimate will make me around 120-150 sausages. The casings will keep for around six months if kept in an air-tight bag in a cupboard (not a fridge).

When it comes to the meat to fat ratio, you will want at least 20% fat. I'm sorry, but I've yet to meet a low-fat sausage that tasted good. If that's an issue, then you are better off eating something else. In this recipe I've given weights for meat/fat that reflect this, however, I didn't buy my meat and fat separately. I told my butcher what I was making at that I wanted a decent proportion of fat. As I cut it up, I estimated the ratio as I went along; I would guess that I probably had nearer 30% fat than the 25% stated in the recipe.

Finally, I know a lot of recipes call for the addition of breadcrumbs. I did a bit of research in to this (plus talked to couple of butchers). It seems that breadcrumbs are generally added to either bulk out the sausage or, commonly to help retain moisture and avoid dry sausages. However, if you have a high enough fat content, you shouldn't have a problem with drying out, therefore, I didn't feel the need to add any.

Okay, an extra point, I've also found that a lot of people suggest that it is vitally important to keep the meat (and equipment) that you are using as cold as possible throughout the process. This is so that the meat and particularly the fat, doesn't "smear" when ground or later stuffed in to the casing and therefore gives a better texture. This seems to make sense to me, particularly keeping the meat/fat cold, but given the amount of time I spent grinding/stuffing, there didn't seem to be much point freezing or chilling the grinder/stuffer as it would soon warm up. I did however, have the air-conditioning on full as it was 32^oC that day.

Ingredients

Sausage casings
1.5kg pork shoulder
500g pork fat
25g sea salt
35g sugar
15g toasted fennel seeds
6g freshly cracked black pepper
5g freshly ground nutmeg
bunch (around 1 cup) of finely chopped fresh parsley
1 head of garlic, peeled and chopped
180ml dry sherry
60ml sherry vinegar

Method
Make sure that the meat and fat are very cold before you start, I put mine in the freezer for a good hour before hand. Some people also suggest putting bowls and grinder in freezer but I chose not to.

Cut the meat and fat into cubes around an inch in size. If possible, cut the fat a little smaller than the meat.
In a large bowl, place the meat and fat cubes then using your hands, mix them with the spices, garlic, sugar, salt and parsley. I reserved a tablespoon of fennel seeds and one of black pepper for adding later. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it into the freezer for at least 30 minutes but no more than an hour (you want it nice and cold but not frozen).

Soak your sausage casing in warm water for around 15-20 minutes. If you are using the man-made variety, remember to unravel them, also, soaking them for longer won't make any real difference to how soft they are. You may also want to run some water through them, this will show you if you have any splits.

Remove the sausage mixture from the freezer and pass it through your grinder, using the coarse setting. I did this in manageable batches, keeping the remainder of the mix in the fridge (not freezer) to keep cool so that it was not all sat out on the bench warming up - remember, cool is king (apparently).

I used the KitchenAid grinder attachment and was advised to use it on speed level 4 which worked well. Once all the meat is ground, put it back in the freezer for 30 minutes to get it good and cold again (but be careful not to freeze it). This is a good time to clean up whatever mess you (or your small child) have made.

Take the cold sausage mixture out and add the remaining spices and the sherry and sherry vinegar. You can use your hands here, or better still, use the paddle attachment on a stand mixer at the slowest speed and mix well. If using a mixer this should only take 1-2 minutes max.
The mixture should be getting a little sticky and begin to bind to itself, but you don't want to over-mix it so that it looses its texture and becomes paste.

At this stage, you can take a small amount and fry it in a pan to get an idea of taste, then adjust seasoning as necessary, but really you will want to avoid over-working the mixture.

Cover the mixture and put it back in the freezer to keep cool, this will give you another chance to clean-up, take small children to the bathroom (take yourself to the bathroom) or phone your wife and ask if she would like sausages for dinner. Set up your sausage stuffer (I again used a Kitchenaid attachment) and get your sausage casing ready.

Slide a casing onto the stuffing tube, feeding on as much as will comfortably fit. Leave four or five inches off the end as you will need to tie it off later. Don't tie it off yet as you will end up with a huge air bubble once you start stuffing.

Remove the sausage mix from the freezer and put it in the stuffer. Again, I found that while it worked well, the Kitchenaid stuffer was a bit on the slow side, so I left the bulk of the mix in the fridge to keep cool and took out usable batches.

As the meat starts to come out, use one hand to regulate how fast the casing slides of the stuffer tube. This was the part that I thought would be the most difficult, but in reality I found it quite easy.
Let the sausage come out in one long coil until you have use up all the mix (you may need to put on additional casings part way through). When you come to the end of a casing, remember to leave another 4-5 inches for tying off. Don't worry if you forget, just squeeze some sausage mix out using your fingers.

When the sausage is all in the casings, tie off the one end in a double knot or use fine butcher’s string.
Using both hands, pinch off what will become two sausages. You want to work the links so that they are quite tight so that you are forcing any air bubbles to the surface and the ends of the sausage. Twist the first sausage away from you several times and repeat this process down the coil, alternating which way you are twisting each sausage, first towards you, then away. Tie off the end of the coil when complete.

Sterilise a small needle which you can then use to prick any air bubbles you can see in the sausages.
Let the sausages dry for an hour or two, then put them in a large container in the fridge overnight. They should keep like this for a week, or freeze them to use later.

Cucumber, orange & fennel salad

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 03:18:00 +0000

A good friend of mine has been asking me for this lovely light salad for a while now. For a change it hasn't taken me ages to post it because I'm being lazy, but because I have been waiting for the cucumbers in the garden to grow; and grow they have. Anyone who grows vegetables themselves will know that they are like buses, you wait ages for one to come along... okay, you get the idea, I have a lot of cucumbers to use up, so here is the first of a series of cucurbitaceae recipes.

helping out with dinner

You can have this salad with a variety of dishes, but my favourite is pan-fried fish. Normally I would serve it with a white fish, something reasonably delicate in flavour so as not to overpower the salad. However, I had a salmon craving which needed fulfilling, which though not the perfect match, was still tasty.

Ingredients:

for the salad

1 cucumber

1 fennel bulb

1tsp olive oil

2 oranges, segmented (blood oranges are good if you can get them, I couldn't this time)

1 sprig fresh dill, leaves only

sea salt

for the vinaigrette

6 oranges juice only (again, blood oranges if you can get them)
1 star anise

6 cloves
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp light olive oil
1/2 lemon, juice only
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

for the vinaigrette
Pour the orange juice into a saucepan on a medium heat and bring to a simmer. Keep simmering until you reduce the juice by half. Add the lemon juice, star anise, cloves and fennel seeds and further reduce the mixture until you reach your desired consistency, I like mine slightly thickened and a little syrup. Remove from the heat and strain.

Once the vinaigrette has cooled, you can either serve it as is, or add the olive oil and use a hand-held blender to completely mix and emulsify it.

for the cucumber and fennel salad
Using a vegetable peeler, slice the cucumber lengthways so that you have long, thin ribbons of cucumber. Place the ribbons in a colander over a bowl and sprinkle with a large teaspoon of salt and use your fingers to make sure the cucumber is evenly coated. Cover and place in a refrigerator for at least one hour. The salt will draw a lot of the water out of the cucumber. You can use any sea salt, but I used some Murray River, "Naturally Pink" salt; this is a very delicate salt with leaves a light almost smoky flavour.

Remove the cucumber and gently squeeze it to further remove the remaining water, but don't crush it! Finely slice the fennel and mix with the orange segments, olive oil and dill. Season to taste.

to serve:

Place the fish or accompaniment of your choice on the plate, add a handful of the salad and drizzle with the vinaigrette.

Blackcurrant sorbet recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 04:23:00 +0000

I've heard it said on more than one occasion that the reason it is so hard to buy blackcurrants in the UK is that Robinson's buy them all to make Ribena with. I don't know whether this is true or not, but Robinson's did used to claim that "nearly all of British blackcurrants are used in Ribena" and that it's rare to see them on the supermarket shelves.

I love blackcurrants and I love sorbet, and on a couple of occasions over the years I've been lucky enough to find some in a decent restaurant (usually overseas) but had pretty much given up hope of ever being able to buy some blackcurrants and make my own.

So imagine my surprise and delight about two years ago when I walked in to my local Tesco and saw a huge display of them! It was 2010 and there must have been a bumper crop that year. Now I don't remember how much they cost but I'm sure I bought about four or five kilos which I thought indulgent at the time, although even now I wish I had bought ten times as much as I've yet to see them since.

Making sorbet is so simple, especially if you have your own sorbet/ice cream maker. You can pick these up pretty cheap these days, I bought mine on ebay for not much more than £40 about four years ago and it is still going strong.

Another tip is to keep the bowl part in the freezer all the time so that you can just take it out and use it whenever you need it. It's pretty frustrating to have to wait twenty-four hours for it to chill down if you keep it in the cupboard.

I also run the ice cream/sorbet maker in the freezer, hang on, there is a good reason! I do this as the quicker the mixture freezes, the smaller the ice crystals that are formed are, thus making the finished product smoother. I run an extension cord to the freezer door then plug the maker in to this (ensuring the extension cable is kept outside of the freezer itself), then simply put the maker in the freezer and close the freezer door/lid. Pretty much any modern day freezer will have a soft enough seal to mould around the cable.

Ingredients

1kg blackcurrants

500g caster sugar

lemon juice to taste

handful of mint to garnish

Method
Carefully remove the stalks of the blackcurrants and wash them thoroughly. Remember that blackcurrants can easily stain clothes/work-surfaces/chopping boards etc., so handle accordingly.

Reserve a handfull of the blackcurrants for serving.

Place the blackcurrants and the sugar in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring constantly until they soften and just start to burst open, then remove them from the heat immediately and place them straight in to a blender to cool. Be careful that you don't overheat them during this first stage as you don't want to cook them.

Blend the mixture and then strain through a fine sieve into a clean bowl. Add a squeeze of lemon juice to taste. You are trying to balance the acidity with the sweetness, remembering that both the taste of the blackcurrants and the sweetness will be dulled the colder the temperature that they are served at.

Pour the mixture into an ice-cream/sorbet maker and churn until frozen. If you don't want to put this is your freezer like I do, put the air-con on if you live in a hot climate, or stick it out the back door if it's the middle of winter and cold outside (I also do this), yes, this does help!

If you don't have a maker, pour the mixture into a small baking tray and place in the freezer, taking it out every 10-15 minutes to give it a good mix with a fork until it is creamy and evenly forzen with small ice crystals.

Scrape the sorbet into a container and gently press some cling film/plastic wrap onto the surface to prevent the top 'burning' and store until you are ready to serve.

Depending on how warm your house is and how frozen/melted you want to serve it, take it out of the freezer 10-20 minutes before you want to plate it up. The warmer it is, the sweeter it will taste and you'll also get a richer, fruitier flavour coming through.

Sorbet can be served as an accompaniment to all sorts of desserts, hot and cold, or you can just serve it with some of the reserved blackcurrants and a couple of mint leaves on top.

Mulberry jam

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 11:17:00 +0000

Until two weeks ago, I don't think I had even seen a mulberry in the flesh before, let alone eaten one, now I am a fully paid up member of the Mulberry Jam Appreciation Society.

What could be better than some home-made jam on some freshly baked bread (that has already been smothered in a generous helping of butter) for breakfast in the morning? Collecting wild fruit and berries seems to be a local past-time around here, and one that I'm completely supportive of. I've been here for eighteen months now and loved all the free mangoes we had last summer. What I didn't know about until recently were the two large mullberry bushes at the end of our street.

The great thing about wild berries (apart from the free of charge aspect) is the fun you have and mess you can make while collecting them. My wife, daughter and I had a great time climbing amongst the branches trying to find the ripest, juciest ones.

Actually, Charlotte spent all of the time cramming as many of them into her mouth, ears and hair as possible. Note to self, next time you go collecting berries with a two year old, don't put them in a white t-shirt.

Oh, and second note to self, don't try and climb a tree in thongs/flip-flops when you've had a knee reconstruction in the last six months...

Ingredients

1kg mulberries

500g sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

Zest of 1 lemon

1 tbsp pectin (if you want the jam to be thicker and reduce cooking time)

Method

Before you get started with the actual jam making, you will want to sterilise the jars that you will be using. There are a number of ways of doing this, some dishwashers have a sterilise function, or you can use boiling water. We used the steriliser that we used to use for our daughters feeding bottles when she was a baby.

Wash the mulberries and remove any stems, then place them, the juice and the zest in a saucepan. I lightly crushed them at this stage, making sure that there were plenty that were still whole to give the jam plenty of texture.

Gently bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes

Add the sugar and continue to simmer, stirring constantly until all of the sugar has dissolved.

Add the pectin and stir until it has dissolved and remove from the heat, the mixture should begin to thicken and will continue to do so as it cools.

Spoon the jam in to the jars, screw on the lids and then leave to cool, then refrigerate.

Home Alone 4: Two's company?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Today I'm taking a few minutes to reflect on whether or not two really is company and three is a crowd. Last week we survived without the amazing dynamo that is my wife, and not only did we survive, we ate well and managed to get all our (my) weekly chores done as per usual. Mog the kitten also got to the end of the week unscathed, despite of Charlotte's best and repetitive efforts to pick her up by the ears and occasionally try and push her sideways through the child safety gate. We also got a potty which Charlotte loves (and sometimes uses) ahead of the big potty training push that I've pencilled in for this week (wish me luck).

The three of us had a fun-packed weekend, but now, sadly, my wife is back down in the big city for one more week and Charlotte and I are back to our double-act, minus Mog who has gone home to her mum. Last week wasn't as difficult as I thought it may have been (I know, it was only a week and that single parents do this all the time), in no small part due to Charlotte dealing with her mum not being around in the mornings and evenings much better than I had feared; not because she didn't miss her, she did, but I think she understood that mum was at work for the week and would be back on Friday.

Still, I was glad when my wife got back for the weekend to take a load of my shoulders, even if it meant I had to shower and shave more often, make the bed and not leave the toilet seat up (actually I don't do that, as I stay at home dad who doesn't get to go to the bathroom on his own during daylight hours, I realised that it would be better for Charlotte's future toilet efforts if she saw me sitting down on the loo).

The big thing I've realised is that whilst having my wife and Charlotte's mum at home is clearly better than not, having her back comes with its own problems. For five days I got to do things just as I wanted to. No needing to discuss, agree (or agree to disagree), no waiting for the other half to do something, no-one to get in the way of my carefully constructed routines that allow me and Charlotte to get through the day, get all the things we need to get on so that the house still functions and have as much fun/learning as possible with the least amount of arguments, stress and fuss. Then all these routines are thrown out of the window and suddenly there is another person to take into consideration.

This may sound selfish and ungrateful on my part, well it's not, just a statement of fact. Of course, I would much rather have my wife here all the time, I count myself fortunate that apart from 8am - 6pm on weekdays, I do, but it doesn't alter the fact that when one partner has gone for a while, and then comes back it temporarily upsets the status-quo, for both me and my daughter.

Where we live, it is quite common for one partner (most usually the husband) to work away in the mines, often working shifts of two weeks on and one week off or similar. When I first started meeting the wives of these guys at Playgroup and asking them about it, I always received the same answer, "Oh, it's not so bad once you get used to it, in fact it's a pain when the come back as it upsets our (them and the kids) routine." Of course, the money is good too.

Never having been in their situation, I could try and understand their point but not emphasise with it, I would never want to be away like that from my wife and child, apart from missing her/them too much, raising a child with the two of us was exhausting enough, how hard would it be with just one on their own for weeks on end?

Now I know, and yes, it's difficult, and I certainly wouldn't want to do it regularly, but it has taught me a couple of things; that I need (and posses) more patience with Charlotte than I ever thought possible, that I need to be more understanding and tolerant when my routines are altered by someone who is actually helping me, and finally that my wife and daughter are both more special than I had previously realised, I don't know what I would do without either of them.

So yes, two is company and three can be a crowd, but sometimes crowds are good and you get a lot more fun out of being in them.

Right, I'm off to play PSY's Gangnam Style as loud as I can while I do my weekly mopping of the floors (which is by no way his best song, just the catchiest by far)

Salmon fishcakes

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:28:00 +0000

We are always told how fish is good for our (and our children's brain development) so how about some tasty fishcakes, easy to cook and cheap as well, especially if you don't have to pay for the fish. The salmon I have used here is the scrapings that the fishmonger often throws away or sells very cheaply after they have filleted the fish. They are just as good as the fillets so why waste them?

Ingredients

750g salmon diced into 1cm/½in pieces

500g potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

80g unsalted butter

10 spring onions, thinly sliced

1 lemon, zest and juice

150g breadcrumbs (I make mine fresh by putting old crusts that I keep in the freezer in to blender - thawed first of course!)

handful chopped fresh flatleaf parsley

4 tbsp olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

small handful watercress, to serve

Method

Boil the potatoes until tender. Drain and pass the potatoes through a potato ricer into a bowl, then set aside to cool slightly. If you don't have a ricer, mash well.

Melt the butter in a frying pan and fry the spring onions for 2-3 minutes, or until just softened, then stir the spring onions, parsley, lemon zest and juice into the potatoes and stir until well combined.

Season with plenty of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste before adding the salmon and gently folding together.

Divide the mixture into fishcakes of whatever size you require and then coat them in breadcrumbs. Place on a plate and cover with cllingfilm. Refrigerate for 30-60mins to firm, then heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the fishcakes for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until cooked through and golden-brown on both sides.

I served mine with salad for me and some steamed peas and cauliflower for my daughter. Home-made tartare sauce also goes down well with it and is equally easy to make.

Home Alone 3: Ladies don't just lunch

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:26:00 +0000

I slept in the spare room last night. No, my wife didn't come home unexpectedly early from her business trip and catch me watching shark porn (don't worry, it's just an episode from Friends), I finally got around to doing something that she has asking me to do for ages, paint our bedroom.

We moved into our current house eighteen months ago, and to be fair to myself, I've now just about painted the entire house. That may not sound like a great deal to have accomplished in that time, but that's not all I've achieved; in that time I've also been a stay at home dad.

Where am I going with this? I'm often asked, "what's it like being a househusband?" I have quite a few stock responses, most of which start with, "it's amazing", or "I feel so fortunate to be able to do this." Both of which are as true as can be. I do however, pretty much always end with, or include the following line, "It's also the most challenging and difficult thing I have ever done."

As I'm sure any full-time, stay-at-home parent will agree, raising kids is hard work, really, properly hard work. I've worked for one of the World's largest companies, responsible for fifty-three countries in my particular field, working with CEOs and politicians in other roles, hopping on and off planes working all-hours, sometimes seven days a week. I've even spent some time training as a chef, working split shifts, on my feet all day and most of the night in a hot and high pressure kitchen, but none of that comes close to the full-on, non-stop demands of looking after a small child. Nowhere near to close.

Maybe the "Ladies Who Lunch" are not a complete myth, those with the full-time nannies and wealthy partners may have the time and the luxury to do so, but the rest of us in the real world don't. I won't bore you with tales of shopping, cooking, cleaning, washing and all the daily and weekly chores we do, or the constant gardening (particularly endless here in the tropics) in hot and humid weather, cleaning cars and all that. Yes, there is the feeding and and cleaning of the children, but there is more than that, it's the constant, never ending demand for your attention, never having a moment to yourself, and that includes going to the bathroom. When they have their (more and more infrequent naps) that's not a chance to relax, but an opportunity to do the things you haven't yet done that day; the paperwork, the dishes... with maybe five minutes to grab a sandwich.

Going to Playgroup twice a week isn't just a great place for the kids, it's an opportunity to share your pressures with others who are going through the same as you (when you aren't dealing with the kids fighting/crying/falling over). This doesn't solve your issues, nothing will apart from your kids growing up, but it does give you a sense of perspective; that your life is no more difficult than anyone elses and that there is usually someone having a worse day than you are (usually the one with the kid screaming there head-off and throwing the mother of all trantrums).

All of the above make me wonder how on Earth single parents cope, well, as people always say, "you cope, because you have to." It also make me thing how I would ever manage if we had another child, but then, I assume the previous statement holds true.

The other thing it makes me realise that as a stay-at-home dad, I'm actually probably better off than most of the mums I meet. I'm fairly sure that I get a lot more help around the home and with our daughter than most of them get. It's not that their husbands are hopeless, far from it, just that my wife, as a mum seems to instinctively "get it", get what is required in raising a child and running a home better than a lot of working dads do. So yes, I'm a lucky man in more ways than one.

Now given that I have such a great wife, I figured that I had better get that final room painted, so it's all but done now and hopefully she'll be pleased when she gets home tomorrow night. The other plus is that whilst getting the room ready I found some things I thought I had lost, plus five dollars in loose change.

In other news, still no sign of Monty (the python) so I think he must have moved on, though the birds that normally wake me up every day were still suspiciously quiet this morning... I've also kept to my vow of (relatively) healthy eating, last night we had salmon fishcakes and very tasty they were, you can find the recipe here.

Want to read more Home Alone?

Home Alone 1: Mummy's gone but we've got a kitten

Home Alone 2: Chicken bums & garden snakes

Home Alone 2: Chicken bums & garden snakes

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 04:02:00 +0000

I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of a nearly two year old toddler calling for me and a hungry kitten’s meow. We had all made it through our first night together, excellent. One of the downsides of my wife being away this and next week, is that it has fallen right in the middle of school holidays which means that a lot of the things that Charlotte and I do throughout the week, such as Gymbaroo aren’t happening and quite a few friends have gone away. So more than ever we have to find ways of entertaining ourselves.

Fortunately Mog, the kitten, seems happy to sit and watch me, or let Charlotte chase her around the house for an hour or two a day which helps the time go buy.

After a handful of phonecalls and text messages, I managed to round up enough mums and children to make holding our regular Monday morning Playgroup session worthwhile. Charlotte always gets excited about going there, not, I think to play with other children and all the toys that are there, but more that she gets to eat loads of food she doesn’t normally have much of at home, namely cake, biscuits and chocolate, plus the occasional mini doughnut. If you ask her on a Monday or Friday morning (the two days we normally go) if she wants to go to Playgroup, she looks excited and says “Playgroup! Yes! Eat food!”

Speaking of food, those of you that visit here regularly will know that cooking is one of my big passions, especially for others. I love entertaining and when we have guests around for dinner I usually banish my wife from the kitchen and try and cook everything myself (although I will admit, if I let her in a bit more to keep an eye on things I probably wouldn’t burn quite as much…).

However, I’m one of those people who are extremely lazy when it comes to cooking for themselves; when I’m on my own I just don’t have the motivation to go and cook, and I’m not talking fancy food here, just simple, easy, healthy food. I just can’t be bothered. Knowing this and also wanting to lose a little bit of weight (the middle-aged spread is on its way), I vowed to avoid ALL take-away food this week and actually cook a proper meal each day, plus avoid eating loads of chocolate and tubs of ice-cream.

With this in mind, Charlotte and I set off to the shops yesterday and returned with, amongst other things, a chicken, the idea being that we would roast it that afternoon so that both her and I could have some for dinner and then have enough for salads, sandwiches and wraps for the next three of four days. I would get at least one proper dinner this week (roast chicken and salad) and a handful of non-McDonald’s lunches.

Charlotte loves cooking with me therefore I get her up on the work-top whenever I can, and involve her with what I’m doing as much as possible. Granted, this means that most things take a bit longer and there is a bit more mess to clean up, but it is more fun for both of us than her running around my ankles, demanding my attention and both of us getting steadily more annoyed. Plus she is also learning.

I won’t bore you with a roast chicken recipe here, as for this I just keep it as quick and as simple as possible. I just shove a load of herbs from the garden up its bum (I get Charlotte to do this as she seems to enjoy it, though she does ask why she can’t find any eggs up there most times), the stick it in the oven at 180^oC for 1½ - 2 hours depending on the size of the chook. Simples.

Okay, so that’s one decent dinner this week, let’s hope I can keep it up.

The only other item of note in our day was after Charlotte had gone to bed and Mog and I were having our ritual evening long distance stare-off (which I won this time). A knock at the door signalled that my Congolese neighbours had come around. Nothing unusual there, but what they had seen was. Apparently they had just spotted a 2m+ python slithering its way up my front lawn and in to the undergrowth of my back garden…

Armed with a very bright torch and a long stick, we ventured out to see if we could track it down, but to no avail, this great big snake had given us the slip. Going back inside I was careful to make sure that all the doors and windows were shut; me paranoid? Well, perhaps just a little.

I’ll get back out there in the morning, with and even longer stick and see if I can move it on. So if you don’t hear from me for a day or two, check for me in the undergrowth!

Want to read more Home Alone?
Home Alone 1: Mummy's gone but we've got a kitten
Home Alone 3: Ladies don't just lunch

Home Alone 1: Mummy's gone but we've got a kitten!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 05:31:00 +0000

Yes, it's just me and Charlotte, at home, on our own for a whole week! No wife will come home at 6pm every weekday evening after work for me to hand-over the little monster to (of course, as soon as she walks in through the door all the tantrums stop and my daughter is an angelic little princess), no-one to share the load with, no-one to share a much needed glass of wine with over dinner, no-one to cuddle up to at night, and in my case, most importantly, no-one to entertain Charlotte first thing in the morning so that I can have an extra ten precious minutes in bed. Oh, and I also have a twelve week old Persian kitten to babysit.

My wife has gone off to the big city for work for two weeks (thankfully she will be back at the weekend), so despite the fact that I've been a full-time househusband for eighteen months or so, this will actually be the first time I've really had to cope on my own (with a child that is, believe it or not I have been capable of looking after myself in the past...).

As I mentioned, I've also "been volunteered" to look after a kitten for the next two weeks. I've never had a cat before so have no idea what to do with it. Fortunately for it, it seems to know what to do with me, which is basically tell me when it wants feeding, so we seem to be getting on just fine. Fine that is apart from its game of "hide under the sofa when I'm sitting on it (like now) and then leaping out and biting the backs of my heels (like now) repeatedly". This will have to stop.

The good thing about having Mog (the kitten) around, is that it has taken Charlotte's mind off her mum being away. I'm not sure if she has quite worked out the concept of her not being here yet, although she got quite confused when we dropped my wife off at the airport on Sunday evening. Charlotte loves flying (she's had eighteen flights in less than two years already), although we're not so keen on flying with her, but that's another story, so when we went to the airport she couldn't understand why we left her mum there and drove home, she seemed to think we had left something behind and had gone back to get it.

I had been telling her all week that her mum was going to be away for a while, though it never really registered, however, by the time we had got home, she was getting a little upset. This is where having Mog was great, she was soon distracted and mum not being here had gone out of her head (sorry darling wife, you're soon replaced by a cute kitten in your child's affections.

Not long after it was time for bed and the promise of "seeing mummy on the computer tomorrow, just like we do with grandma" (Charlotte loves talking to my mum on Skype) was enough to keep her happy. Then it was just a case of me and the kitten, staring at each other for the rest of the evening, both trying to work out who was in charge and what to do next. I gave up trying to get some affection and watched the Singapore Grand Prix instead. Mog just sat there and continued to stare at me - very off-putting when you are trying to relax.

Tune in tomorrow to find out if we all made it through the first night...

Want to read more Home Alone?
Home Alone 2: Chicken bums & garden snakes
Home Alone 3: Ladies don't just lunch

Pistachio and olive oil cake with rhubarb sorbet and roasted strawberries

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:19:00 +0000

For those of you who love cake but for some crazy reason are trying to avoid a few calories, then this if for you. The thing I love about it, is that it's not a normal cake with the "unhealthy" ingredients replaced by artificial or tasteless low fat/calorie ones. Its whole premise is to make a beautiful tasting (and looking) cake with some great ingredients.

I always go for whatever fruit are in season, so you could just as easily replace the strawberries and rhubarb with apricots, peaches or other stone fruit, just experiment. Of course you can also just enjoy the cake on its own.

Re-learning sleep self-settling in a two year old

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 03:06:00 +0000

Last night, for the first time in three weeks I had a good sleep! It was pretty much unbroken, well, as unbroken as anyone has who has young children and a subconscious ear open for them at all times. It also seems that when you are used to your kids normally sleeping through and then they don't for a while, so that you have to teach them to self-settle again (like I had to in this case), it feels like it takes even more out of you than when they were little babies.

All parents testify to lack of sleep with newborns, but no-one seems to tell you that this and the mind-numbing weariness that comes with constant tiredness lasts not for the first six months when you finally get them to sleep the night through, but for much longer, for years and years.

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Time to change doctor?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 02:40:00 +0000

I've written previously about the difficulties I've had in getting an EpiPen prescribed for my daughter who has a severe nut allergy, but that isn't the only time I've had difficulties with my local doctors regarding her health.

Here I'm going to share my experiences regarding her food allergies and how it took eight months and four doctors to diagnose a harmless condition that many children have and because of that we came close to subjecting our then 18 month old daughter to an unnecessary colonoscopy.

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Crab salad with jellied crab essence and lovage vichyssoise

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:19:00 +0000

When I first made this two or three years ago the thing that struck me was that the two of the three main components individually just didn't taste great on their own. The lovage vichyssoise and the jellied crab essence both have such intense and contrasting flavours, but when combined with the freshest of crab salads it all comes together in the most beautiful way.

This is a lovely light summer salad, worth all of the effort it takes to make it. I have to admit that of all the dishes I've made in the last five years, this is my favourite. I hope you'll enjoy it to.

Chocolate ganache with white chocolate mousse

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 12:08:00 +0000

This fancy looking chocolate dessert is surprisingly easy to make and isn't as rich as it looks (believe it or not).

You might also want to try it with different flavoured mousses, something with a hint of citrus perhaps with the dark chocolate ganache, or something a touch of spice like coffee or black pepper with the white chocolate mousse.

Note, that while it is not the most difficult of recipes, it will take some time as some of the components take a while to set. For example, the white chocolate mousse will take at least 4 hours and it is better if you can leave it overnight.

Oh, and excuse the picture of my soggy looking mousse, a very poor example of a quenelle I know, but I think we'd had quite an alcoholic dinner by the time we got to mains.

And I promise that I will post a non-chocolate dessert some time soon!

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Sausage rolls

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 01:35:00 +0000

I love a good sausage roll, well who doesn't? It's great to have a load in the freezer for when you have people around for a beer or bottle of wine in the garden and bite size ones are great for kids.

Now the supermarket ones aren't too bad, but nothing beats the taste of home-made ones and you know exactly what has gone in to them. I've also found that they are incredibly expensive here in Australia when compared to the UK and US, don't ask me why.

This recipe is quick and easy to make and have a great texture, not just a bland mush like the shop bought ones.

Makes 50 normal sized, or 100+ bite sized ones!

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Making crowns and tiaras for Playgroup

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 04:01:00 +0000

Twice a week Charlotte and I head off down the road to our local Playgroup which we've been going to for over a year. For my sins I have now become the de-facto organiser of the Friday morning session, which apart from opening up the toy shed and the toilets means I've found myself responsible for providing weekly craft ideas for us and the kids to make. Fortunately I get to steal
some of the ideas from the Monday session that I also attend...

This week I decided that we should make some tiaras and crowns. As you'll see, this required a little prep work on my part (no more than 25 minutes whilst watching TV) and then lots of fun finishing them off and wearing them for the kids.

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Peanut allergy: to EpiPen or not to EpiPen?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 02:26:00 +0000

The following is a story about our quest to get Charlotte's allergies properly diagnosed and our seven month quest to get a prescription for a potentially life saving EpiPen via four Doctors.

I'm not a doctor, and can only speak from experience, but after going through what we did, and learning what I have about nut allergies, I would strongly suggest that you push for an EpiPen even if you or your child's reaction was mild...

When Charlotte first had an allergic reaction to peanuts (peanut butter) it was a pretty frightening experience; seeing her face swell-up, having difficulty breathing and rushing to hospital, all in all, not something that I would want her, or us to have to go through again.

Of course, that episode had a happy ending, she received prompt treatment and was back to her usual self within a couple of days. We were advised at the hospital to see her GP and get an EpiPen as soon as possible.

For those of you not in the know, an EpiPen is a basically an emergency adrenaline shot that can be used to keep someone alive who is having an anaphylactic reaction to something (a severe reaction to an allergen that can quickly lead to death).

Discovering Charlotte has a peanut allergy

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 09:36:00 +0000

Last December, two days before Christmas I discovered Charlotte has a peanut allergy. Charlotte was about sixteen months old and up until now we had avoided nuts as was generally advised by just about everyone.

Inadvertently Charlotte had eaten some chicken that been cooked in peanut oil that we had at a cookery demonstration at the local supermarket. Once I realised this, and there being no reaction, I was quite relieved, talking about it with my wife that evening. Now we both love peanut butter (and nuts in general) so decided to try some peanut butter sandwiches with Charlotte later in the week to see if she liked them.

I'm sure I must be like other parents who didn't realise that it's not the first time that they are exposed to peanuts that the allergy manifests itself, but the second time. The first exposure "primes" the system so to speak, and so it's the second time they have them that leads to the sometimes extreme allergic reaction.

As soon as I realised what was happening; swollen faces and lips and a LOT of screaming and crying gave the game away, I had to make a decision, find the phone wherever I had left it, call the ambulance, explain where we lived and wait for it to turn up, or, throw Charlotte the back of the car and drive to the hospital. Fortunately we live no more than two minutes from the hospital and it wasn't rush hour, plus given Charlotte could breathe (she was still screaming), so I made the choice to drive.

In this case, it was the right choice, we were soon there, rushed in, saw some great doctors and nurses and soon had Charlotte treated.

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Roast fillet of hare with pickeled pears and glazed turnips

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 07:56:00 +0000

I last made this main a couple of years ago when we still lived in London. I haven't made it since as hare is hard to find here in Townsville, but I'll keep looking.

If you can't find hare, you could replace it with rabbit, pheasant, or for a different take on it, what about duck?

I think that anything "gamey" with a strong flavour would work well with this dish, I'd be interested to know if any of you try different variations.

I also think that cabbage is a much underused ingredient these days, perhaps it harks back to the days when we were force fed overcooked soggy cabbage when we were kids, however, properly handled it can be crunchy, tasty and bring a splash of colour to a dish.

Other times I've made this dish I've not had any pears, so I've replaced them with something else, sautéed baby shallots, or baby carrots are good.

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Coping with the terrible two's - waking up sunny!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 01:29:00 +0000

Those of you who know me well will testify to the fact that I'm definitely not a morning person. I'm more like the one-eyed monster that wants to hide under the duvet for as long as possible and not face the world.

Now, having a daughter who is fast approaching two years of age (and all that goes with it) and a wife who leaves for work at 7:30am, means that a slow start to the day is no longer possible.

The current routine of my wife getting Charlotte out of her cot when she wakes and bringing her in to me for some morning cuddles while she gets ready for work is simply not working for me or Charlotte any more and it is becoming a bit of a daily argument.

What I finally realised this week is that it's not just Charlotte arguing with me, sometimes it's me arguing with her.

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Spiced fish soup with scallops, fennel and olive tapenade

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 01:47:00 +0000

This was a starter I served up as part of our light-hearted "My Kitchen Rules" (think "Come Dine With Me" for those of you not in Australia) competition amongst some good friends here in Townsville - okay, we ended up taking it pretty seriously but it was great fun, if very alcoholic, but more of that another day.

This is a recipe adapted from one by Jason Atherton, Jason used to run the Michelin starred kitchen at Maze in London until he set out on his own a couple of years ago.

It's a great way to start a dinner party and the majority of it can be made a day or two in advance so you spend more time with your guests and less in the kitchen.

Chocolate Brioche

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Bazen) — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 00:08:00 +0000

Plain or chocolate brioche should be a staple in the kitchen as it has so many uses. It's also simple to make and even better, keeps well in the freezer so you'll always have some to hand when you need it.

Ingredients

230g (1 3/4 cups) plain flour

4.5g (1 3/4 tsp) active dry yeast

80g (1/3 cup) milk

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

170g (12 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened and cut in to pieces

20g (5 tsp) sugar

40g (1/3 cup) unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Valrhona)

8g (2 tsp) coarse salt