Rock On!

The boys and I had a lovely Easter break at my parents' house and experienced the difficult feelings of not wanting to leave, but, at the same time, really wanting to come back. I don't think I'll ever get used to that little tug-of-love between the places that I call home. The subject of last night's W.I. meeting was an added attraction; we had a visit from a lady who showed us how to make a range of filled chocolates at home. I will let you know what kind of results I get...

Today and the next couple of days are an odd sort of no-woman's-land for me. Last week was spent wawy with the children and on Monday, Hubby is taking the boys away to his parent's house in Yorkshire for a few days. It will be the first time I've ever really been away from them and again that tugging feeling comes into play; looking forward to having some real time to myself versus wondering how I will ever manage to fill my days without them all. Sleep comes to mind initially, and long hot baths in the middle of the day. I've already arranged a ladies-who-lunch date with a friend for Monday to start things off with a giggle.

Today, while James was having an afternoon nap, Christopher came to sit on my lap, bringing with him a cookery book (catch 'em young). We looked through it together, talking about the sort of things that we each like to eat, before he decided that he would like to do some baking. Paucity of ingredients was an initial sticking point, but we cobbled together the necessary to make a batch of rock buns, which we began eating more or less straightaway, when James woke up. Anyway (a trifle defensively), they are only really wonderful on the day you bake them, then they stale and begin to resemble real rocks. Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Rock Buns

200g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp ground mixed spice

1/4 tsp grated fresh nutmeg

100g butter

75g caster sugar

75g mixed dried fruit and peel

zest of 1 lemon and half its juice

1 egg, beaten

about 50ml milk

Mix the flour, baking powder and spices, then rub in the butter. Stir in the sugar fruit and lemon zest, then mix with the beaten egg, milk and lemon juice to make a fairly stiff and sticky dough. Drop lumpy spoonfuls onto lightly oiled baking sheets and cook for 15 minutes or so at 200°c until golden. Remove the cooked buns to a cooling rack, but they are at their best with the warmth of the oven still lingering.

For our supper this evening I cooked a good old family favourite; my Frank & Maisy Pasta Bake. As a variation, tonight I added a tin's-worth of drained and rinsed red kidney beans. These are one of the boys' latest fads; put them in anything (perhaps not trifle) and they wolf it down. Always good. They wrapped themselves around some Easter egg for pudding - at least 'afters' are easily dealt with at this time of year.