Cosiness

I'm so happy mu mum is here. With parents around I feel that everything is in place.
Hopefully tomorrow I will manage to take mum and Nataniel to the city center as the weather for the last few days has been miserable and we have to stay at home almost all the time. It can't possibly rain any longer, can it?

Did I tell you that we decorated a Christmas tree on Saturday? The place is so much cosier than before...with the twinkling lights and sparkling bubbles... I have to ask Nik to take a picture of that.

Now I really need to go to bed. Goodnight.

Time- most luxurious gift ever!

Hello again! I would like to apologise to all my dear followers (especially Kasia-the best reader ever!) for not writing for so long. Last week I was a little bit homesick and I wanted so much to go to Wroclaw, meet my friends, parents, spend some time in my favorite places and see the Christmas decorations on Market Square. Hopeless. I wanted to go so much so I checked the flights, called my parents...and than I had a quick reality check as I'm terrified of flying with a crawling toddler( he wants to move around practically all the time )than there is this stupid swine flue and unexpected weather conditions. So for some time I decided to put off the trip and ...I begged my mum to come over for two weeks. So she came here on Sunday. It's so good to have her in the house. It's like the perfect gift for us. It's her third day here and we already have been to the lovely pub Stag's head jus off the Temple Bar.Oh what a glorious feeling to drink a pint in a pub together again without worrying about a baby. It's so important to have someone trusted to babysit Nataniel even just for few hours...even just to stay sane. Yesterday we went to see a movie in IFI "Serious man" directed by Coen brothers. Oh, it was a good craic, especially after a lovely pint:). The film was about a Jewish man who after his wife said she wanted to leave him starts to have doubts and goes from one Rabbi to another for advice. It was such a good comedy. Jewish traditions are so interesting and their way of life is a bit like from another world. Definitely worth seeing.

Today I was supposed to bake Nigella's Christmas ginger cake but there was some misunderstanding about the amount of ginger in the house...I thought that there wasn't enough but then I found a lot...really complicated...so I baked the beetroot cake again. My mum fell in love with the taste and said she never tasted anything like that before...I wonder what will she say after tasting the incredibly easy Christmas cake ...which tastes like a peace of heaven...So Nigella, thank you again. You are my hero.

For now I have to finish as my dear husband has come back from work and I want to give him a hug.I promise to talk to you tomorrow.

Superwoman

I would never believe the amount of work mother does. Tomorrow we have a party for 8 people (including us). Good way to put my new cooking skills to the test. Today I've made Christmas rocky road and Red-speckled loaf cake. The last one is still in the oven and smells incredible. It's really weird but cooking has relaxed me big time in the evening. Nataniel didn't have a best day and was a bit cranky. Nik went to a goodbye party of some of his work colleagues so I'm all alone. I did the cooking, polished the floor, had a shower and I feel relaxed.Not stressed at all...not all credit goes to the beautiful ruby port I'm drinking:).

I'm so excited because next week I'm starting to teach Dutch to Nik. It will be so good for me. My Dutch desperately needs some refreshment.

And, if you excuse me, I'm going back to my port. I will talk to You soon.

Book Eight: Tracy Hogg, Melinda Blau "Secrets of the baby whisperer for toddlers"

Pages:328

Hello again!I started a new book about toddlers. That's actually the second part of "Baby whisperer" which was for infants. The book as the previous one is excellent. It emphasizes that you have a (not so) new little person at home that should be treated with kindness and respect.It helps to build a good relationship with a baby and teaches how to be the best guide you can be.

I haven't finished listening to the Cd's yet. Strangely enough it's taking me the longest. During the last week I had the weirdest foot injury ever and I can't go for walks with Nataniel now. It all happened last Friday. I was watching a comedy "The ugly truth" with my husband and when I got up my foot started to hurt. Apparently it was a sign that I shouldn't watch lousy movies anymore. Nik and I thought that the movie was like a slap in the face and a total waste of time. Next time I will have to apply a better screening process so there will be no injuries anymore.

Oh, I can't wait to read my new book. We picked it up yesterday with Nataniel in the library. It looks really promising.

As for the beetroot cake (Scarlet-speckled loaf cake) update it turned out really really good. No beetroot aftertaste. A delicious way to add up to your afternoon cup of tea.



Two days ago I baked the easiest cake ever: Spruced up vanilla cake. You simply put all the ingredients into the food processor to mix and ...that's it, really!. I didn't use the mountain shaped cake tin so it looked pretty ordinary...and to be honest the taste wasn't really ...well...my thing. I know I know I read the instructions it was supposed to be just simple cake like Polish Easter "Babka Wielkanocna". Don't get me wrong the cake was still very good...I'm just more into more moisture and more flavour.



PS. I enclose a picture of the Red salad as promised. You can find it in the previous post.

PS 2. Nik is taking all these amazing pictures and all credit for lightening up my blog goes to him.

Book Seven: Marian Keyes "Anybody out there"

13 CDs-audiobook

Omg this week was hectic. We have moved in to a new apartment. Nataniel seems to be getting used to his new space. He already has his favourite spots. I'm exhausted after cleaning, unpacking the boxes and I need some sleep desperately.

For the past two weeks I've been listening to the "Anybody out there" audiobook. I wanted to use the walking with Nataniel time to catch up with my reading. The story is about an Irish woman who lives in New York and lost her husband in a car accident. The woman that reads the book is amazing, she has a vary clear and dramatic voice. I still have 5 cds to listen to so I really need to hurry up if I want to read 20 books till the end of the year. Well, now I will have plenty of time because we decided to try out living without the TV. We weren't really watching it that much. My favourite programmes are available on Internet anyway so there is no biggie -well I was already watching them online as there are no commercials haha.

I'm sitting in my new living room. It's getting cosy alright. The building is situated on the hill so there is an amazing view over Dublin - especially looks cool at night, with all the twinkling lights.

As for Christmas preparation I made Nigella's Red salad for supper yesterday. Unfortunately we ate it too quickly and forgot to take a picture. I will try to prepare that again during the weekend. It was a combination of red kidney beans, macerated in red wine vinegar red onion, cherry tomatoes and fresh parsley. I served that with baguette with chorizo sausage on top. Very different as my dear husband commented. I was a bit cautious about the strong flavour of red wine vinegar but it wasn't very overwhelming. Today I'm baking a pie: Scarlet-speckled loaf cake. One of the ingredients is beetroot so it will be interesting.