Cooking 9/10ths of the time

I added the exclamation mark, it's fair to say that it wasn't in the recipe as I think it would have placed too much of a burden on the surprise to be really fabulous. It's not really, it's mildly interesting. The first part of the this recipe extravaganza starts in K-Mart - just me and a four year old. We were both recovering from an almighty tantrum back at home, his, not mine, and so things were a bit delicate. His little face was still a bit wet from tears and I still had tufts of hair knotted through my fingers, mine, not his. K-Mart - I was there to find some bulbs for the garden, globes for the lighting fixtures and an art folio for Gabe's collected works. Gabriel has passed through his "yellow period" and we are now entering a more Escher-like technical phase. Subject matter is generally ladders and guns. Holy flaming castles Batman! We left K-Mart with bulbs (yay), globes (yay), three cake tins (triple yay) and a phone (what the?). I tho...

Normally I don't try brand new recipes on book club. Normally I test them on unsuspecting victims like my family and other friends. Yesterday, however, was an exception. Betchya can't wait to find out what this was.. perfect, that's what.  Book club is one of my highlights each month. Twelve funny, clever women meet and eat cake and talk about books, and TV, and often politics and usually children and sometimes gastro. Gastro came up yesterday anyway. Spot the child. Digression :  Right now, this exact second, my son is sneaking up on me. It is adorable. He loves to do this. And he would be aces at it if each door in this house didn't make a massive cracking noise when you opened them. This is because whoever has painted this house before decided that removing the previous layer of paint was prosaic and stupid. Therefore none of the doors fit the frames. "CRACK". Ok, now I can hear him breathing around the corner.  This will finish with h...

That is the bin. Those are muffins. They are the result of not following my inner cook. My inner cook said that the mixture was too wet, and she was right. She is insufferable right now. Insufferable. Anyway. No muffins.

I am making a gluten free cake today. I am doing that for three reasons. Ahem, hrrm, huh-hrm, ahem. Throat officially cleared, and listing will now commence:    1. I found a really awe inspiring recipe with plums in it and I am a complete sucker for anything with plums in it. Plum trees included. 2. I have lunch with my family tomorrow, two members of which are gluten intolerant. This means that should gluten be walking down the street towards them, they wouldn't just merely look the other way, they would cross the road and give it the stink eye. 3. I am trying to avoid more searingly cogent questions about the Easter Bunny from my son. Last night I popped some eggs on Gabe's bed, hoping to delight him in the morning. He was absolutely thrilled and when he said "How did they get here?" I should have answered "Daddy and I bought them for you". But I did not. Instead I said "The Easter Bunny brought them!" At that point he was still so heady wi...