How To Survive The Summer Holidays without resorting to G&Ts at 10am

When you have two small children, the Argh-Factor can be rather high. Especially during the summer holidays. I will admit to being a bit spoilt, during term-time I have a lot of freedom to do what I want. This does mean that I sometimes find it a bit hard-going when they are home for the summer. We have almost 8 weeks school holidays and the children just never stop. Constant noise, bickering, yelling, singing, dancing, show-rehearsing, dog-annoying, yogurt-on-the-floor-spilling.

The only thing that helps is keeping them occupied and I am very grateful that the weather has been great so far and we can get out of the house. Even just going to the beach down in the village is enough to tire them out. We are lucky that we have a stony beach very nearby and a sandy beach just 15 mins away.

We cannot spend all day everyday out and about though, the pesky house-elves are on holiday too so I have to do something at home occasionally. Recently we did a child swap with another family. Their children are similar ages and so often our daughter has a playdate with their daughter while the sons play together. It works very well together.

I save up some tasks as "Special Treats" - things that are everyday normal occurances but if presented well make the children's eyes light up. One of these treats is Sprinkler Play. The lawn needs to be watered anyway so I wait until the children get home and then say, "As a Special Treat, I thought we would put the the sprinkler on today" and then bask in the adoration and delight.

Recently my son invited his friend to the house. It was one of those early summer days when the garden is beginning to bloom, everyone has dug out their summer clothes and is walking with an extra spring in their step. Before we all start complaining about the heat and that it has not rained for days and soon we will have a hosepipe ban and it is impossible to sleep at night.

The boys had such a fab time playing in the garden, jumping over the sprinklers, dodging the water and squealing with delight when they were caught. Whenever I am a bit grumpy, I have a look at the pictures as they are guaranteed to bring a smile to my face.

Jamie's French Green Bean Salad

I follow Jamie Oliver on Twitter so was amused to see that his recipe of the day yesterday was French Green Bean Salad, exactly what I had been planning on making to go with the pork steaks that I intended chucking on the BBQ.  That saved me the bother of looking for a recipe, as I find his recipes generally work out great.

The kids don't really help a lot at the moment, and since PetitMonsieur is a bit of a fussy eater, I thought it would be good to get them cooking with me. They pretty much made the salad, with only a little help from me. Petit Monsieur did not eat any, although he nibbled the end of a bean, only to state emphatically, "I hate green beans". C'est la vie.

At least his sister liked it. As did his parents, it was delicious.

So they can make French Green Bean Salad. I reckon within a year or so I can transfer all cooking duties to the kids, while I sit on the terrace and drink wine.

She insisted on chopping the ends off rather than breaking them off.

Yummy French mustard

Not sure if shaking the salad dressing was in the recipe but he felt it was needed

We added tomatoes to bulk it out a bit, did not have a lot of green beans

The Herb Garden

  

This spring I decided to do something about our rather tired flower beds and, taking the advice of  the charming and very knowledgable garden expert Hester MacDonald, we planted a mediteranean herb garden. Looking back at the photos I took back then makes me realise how well everything has grown. I am not a particularly fussy gardener and enjoy the fact that the garden is pretty without being a lot of work. Some of the plants were grown from seed, and to begin with that caused me some headaches when trying to work out which were weeds and which were deliberately planted. Not that I do an awful lot of weeding.

We also bought a hose from Gardena that can be buried under the soil and seeps water into the flower border. Combined with a timer, it will keep the border alive when we are on holiday, so that our neighbour does not have too much work. If the weather stays as hot as it has been these past weeks, then it will be necessary.

I love having fresh herbs constantly available, and the combination of herbs and flowers and some vegetables is perfect for us. I planted some spinach in the front of the border, and there are some courgettes in there too, although they don't seem to have done so well. We shall see.

The rhubarb suffered from several direct hits by a football but has recovered a bit

The pretty purple Ysop adds a dash of colour

Even the Basil is doing well, I planted it in the shade of the Rosemary

I have forgotten the name of the little white flowering plant, but it is pretty.

Tour de France - In Photos

Picnic next to Dutch fans

Morzine was decked in yellow

Son was rather excited

The "caravane" arrived first

The friendly Haribo girls chucked some sweets to the kids

The first woman to ride in the Tour de France

Vittel offered a cool shower

at last the bikes came whizzing down the hill

These American fans raised a smile and a cheer

A last look back on a fun filled day

How to make friends and bake fabulous Fairy Cakes

The good thing about blogging (and twitter, not to mention Mumsnet) is that you can ask any question and you generally receive an answer. Whether you are looking for relationship advice, ideas for a birthday party, wondering where to apply for a passport or recipe advice, there is generally someone somewhere willing to help.

Added to that, I have met so many people online who I am truly blessed to count as my friends. Whether the friendship stays online, or we manage to meet up in Real Life, these are people I can count on to help when times are tough or I need a new recipe.

Cooking was always more of my thing than baking but since moving to Switzerland I have slowly started to attempt more and more cake and biscuit recipes, not to mention the bread baking that I have been doing.

Recently I asked my friend Kitschnbake for assistance on baking fairy cakes - or cup cakes as my American friends called them, sniggering a bit at me offering a "fairy cake".

As always, Kitschnbake did not let me down and gave me some help (and online baking assistance when the cakes turned out different to her instructions - our very own Online Baking Webchat).

We invited friends for a WC2010 Football party and I made Hummingbird Cakes - a delicious concoction that used pinapple and banana which I was a bit unsure of but tasted divine. A close rival on the Divine Bakery scales were the Sticky Toffee and Lime with Salted Caramel Icing.

I love caramel and salt, it is such a wonderful combination. There is an ice cream shop in a town not to far from us that sells Caramel Fleur de Sel ice cream. Which reminds me now of a joke that a friend told recently, that I have adapted to suit my homeland.

What is the difference between Glasgow and Edinburgh? When it snows in Glasgow the local council spread grit on the roads while in Edinburgh they scatter Fleur de Sel.

Birthday Cake for Football Fan

My daughter helps to sieve the sugar - still in PJs

This week my son reached the grand old age of 6 years old. For the past few weeks he has been avidly following the World Cup so I decided to make a football themed cake. He is Scottish/German so has obviously been supporting Germany (as Scotland did not qualify, no surprise there). Thankfully Germany stayed in the tournament long enough for us to celebrate his birthday. I would have felt a bit daft making a German Flag cake now.

My lovely friend at Kitschnbake provided a recipe for Vanilla Yoghurt Cake that is good for birthday cakes. It is a bit firmer than a normal sponge cake and easier to ice. Not to mention simply delicious. As ever, finding some ingredients was a bit challenging here in Switzerland, I will definitely be stocking up when we get to Scotland later in the summer.

Adding an egg

Mixing with a metal spoon, gently does it.

Chocolate - Cherries - Nougat coloured with yellow food dye

Schwarz - Rot - Gold