Apple Boreks

When we lived in Greece we used to head to our secret hideaway beach in Lhourdata at about four in the afternoon to escape the heat. After a tough day of snorkelling and chasing fish we would eat spinach and feta boreks for our lunch.

I used to look at all the many many tourists on the bigger beach further up to us and think aren't we lucky we know how to get here and that they don't!

So I decided to make the apple version and think about secret greek beaches. This one above is ours!

Ingredients:
Cooking Apples - I used about 6 and freezed some of the leftovers
Caster Sugar - roughly 1 oz per apple
Any mixed spices such as cinammon, nutmegMelted butter
Filo pastry (you get 6 sheets in the ones I found in the supermarket)
Warm water and sugar mixed together (this is your glaze)
Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 or 180. Peel and chop the apples and put in a big pan with the sugar, spices and a few tablespoons of water.Stir until it looks like a chunky puree sort of thing.

Take your filo pastry and you have to handle this really carefully or it disintegrates I found out. Take one piece and lay it flat on your board/worktop then fold it in half (so you start with a square and you are folding this in half) so it's doubled up. Brush with melted butter.

Take a tablespoon (or little more than that if you feel greedy) of apple and put it in the left hand bottom corner of the pastry and start to fold in triangles like this...

Keep going until you get to the end and place the pastry on a baking sheet lined with greased greaseproof.

Sprinkle with your sugar water glaze and repeat x 6.

Bake in the oven for about 35ish minutes or until golden brown.
Serve with ice cream!

Princess Diana memorial playground

Possibly the best park we have ever been to which is free.The Princess Diana memorial park is in Kensington Gardens a short walk from Kensington Palace and I think the most wonderful tribute to Princess Diana. Inspired by Peter Pan there are so many different areas to discover and explore. Little pathways lead you to water, wood, grass and sand play areas.

The Wooden playground has miniature houses for different ages, rocking horses and cars. The indian Garden holds lots of teepees for grown ups to collapse in with coffees and totem poles for the littlies to run around. Grass Land has life sized wooden sheep and tunnels through the ground which Oliver took over as his own fort. There is also a second wood land adventure playground which has children charging over raised wobbly bridges and throwing themselves down slides.

The main features are a water world rock land with fountains for splashing and a huge pirate ship sunk into a beach/sandpit where children swing from ropes and climb the mast.

The sensory garden has a tuning fork, musical instruments for little hands and piano steps in the floor. Oliver was really taken with a throne which had "Once Upon a Time..." carved into it and sat for ages just looking at the other children running about. There are beautiful trees and plants everywhere and you can see that every little bit of the garden has been thoughtfully planned out. The stonehenge pillars, pretty little wooden benches with ladybirds and beetles carved into them, scented plants, willows and bamboo make for an amazing discovery land.

We had the best day and didn't even explore the whole place. There is a cafe which is slightly overpriced but not when you consider you are in London and the park is free to get into.

You are only allowed entry if you have a child and the park is secure so you can be worry free the monsters can't escape.

I can't wait to go back!

My week in Instagrams x

Princess Diana Memorial Playground

Painting Fun

Speak and Spell at the Science Museum

A Bubblegum wall

Special fried rice (for mrs ally x)

This one is for mrs ally - a lovely lunch or dinner for all the family it makes 2 big!! portions.

Ingredients:

115g Basmati rice
2 carrots
50g frozen peas
1 pepper - I used orange
Sesame oil
Vegetable oil
2 eggs
Garlic
2 small red onions
1 Spring onion
Soy sauce

Wash the rice and cook according to packet.

Meanwhile chop the carrots and pepper add the peas and steam along with the rice.

If you don't have a steamer pan then fry all the veg start with onion and crushed garlic in a mix of vegetable and sesame oil then add the rest of the veg (not the spring onion) until soft.

Beat the eggs and add seasoning then heat a frying pan with a mix of oils and pour the egg in it should be a thin layer. Give it a few mins and then start mixing it with a wooden spoon so you get a sort of scrambled egg.

If you steamed you now need to fry the onion and garlic in a mix of the oils. Add the steamed veggies, rice, finely chopped spring onion and cook for a few mins then add the rice and egg pour in some soy sauce and keep mixing till it looks yummy.

Eat it all up x

Tip for the person cooking - if you have a bored toddler whilst you are cooking put a towel down in the kitchen give them a plastic mixing bowl and spoons and pour some flour into the bowl. They will take over from here!

Mini Muffin Pizzas

My first cooking blog is ridiculously easy but something I wouldn't have thought of without the help of Annabel Karmel. It might be too simple to post but someone somewhere might use it.

When you are pushed for time this is a real life saver.

You will need:
1 english muffin (white or wholemeal)
ketchup or tomato puree
handful of sweetcorn
1 tin of tuna
few spoons of mayo
some grated cheese

Mix together in a bowl the drained tuna, sweetcorn, mayo and cheese. Cut the muffin in half and grill until the tops go a golden brown, cover the tops in a little ketchup/tomato puree or a combination of the two. Then add your sweetcorn, tuna, mayo and cheese mix and place back under the grill for a couple of minutes until the cheese looks melted.
Cut into 4 and serve to the little monkey!

My week in Instagrams x

Special Fried Rice

The chair rescued from a skip which I decorated (and cleaned!) for Oliver before he was born

Tuna & Sweetcorn Muffin Pizzas

My Olympic week at work

A Sky Ride in Pyjamas

On Thursday evening we took the baby bear to the Heath to go on the big wheel. It was quite expensive but the lovely husband paid and it was so worth it.

We went round about ten times and could see forever to the Olympic park behind greenwich, canary wharf skyline and the shard lit up by sunset.

It was very pretty and I could happily have gone round another ten times. An amazing opportunity to see where we live from up high.

Oliver wears his pyjamas - dinosaur Trousers from primark and top from next.

My week in Instagrams x

Elephant love

Big wheel on the Heath

A big Ben strop after visiting the children's hospital

Olympic flag fun at asda with grandad

A walk in pyjamas

Christmas tree farm with my little bear

We have done quite a bit of farming recently so I thought I would add to my blog this rather fantastic little find (thank you auntie Nicky)!

Christmas tree farm is in Downe in Kent and who knew there was masses of green fields and cows if you drive about 15 minutes towards Kent from our house.

It cost £4 for adults and was free for the under 2's and £2 for over. There are lots of animals here and the layout is brilliantly thought out. As you first reach the farm chickens and ducks run (away from children mainly!) and around you in a little garden where you can buy plants and fresh herbs.

When you get into the main farm you can walk amongst turkeys, chickens and peahens. Whilst behind fences but still at arms reach are emus, llamas, alpacas, mini ponies, jersey cows with huge long tongues (Betty & Daisy) pygmy goats and horses.

When you pay to go in you can buy a bucket of feed which you can offer every animal in the whole place which is a fab idea and a large red bucket lasted us for the whole farm.

Oliver loved carrying his bucket but wasn't that keen on sharing it with anyone else. He cuddled goats and stuck his fingers in horses eyes and up their noses. At one point I thought his hand had been bitten off by a horse but everything was fine. Mat the calmer downer in the family was there to stop horses eating children.

This is a lovely place to spend a day or afternoon as those with kids know it can take forever to walk a very short space with them. The enclosed spaces mean you can all wander about at your own pace and you just have to keep an eye that they don't try and get in with the animals like mine did. The cafe for coffee is dire don't do it whilst starbucks still exists just buy a can of drink. For children though there is a brilliantly valued meal of hot dog, crisps and juice for £2.60.

As usual Oliver is wearing his h&m lion tshirt with h&m shorts and Clarks dinosaur shoes.

www.xmastreefarm.co.uk/

A Lark in the park at Sidcup

Last Saturday we headed to Sidcup to Lark in the Park's Fun Day which is a community event run by the local churches. We were joined by Helen, Libby, Danielle and a bump.There were different sections set up for different ages so we headed to the under 5's area past the puppet show which was busy entertaining those with longer attention spans than my adorable baby.There were 2 mini enclosed bouncy castles for under 2's which were fantastic (I want to buy one for my front room now)

giant bouncy castles for the over 2's, a ton of ride on toys including Thomas the tank who caused a lot of toddler strops. Mini trampolines, lots of sandpits with spades, buckets, trowels (which one little boy used to throw sand all over my little boy's head!)

small houses to go in and out of (kid's love doors) and climbing frames and rocking see saw toys which Oli went on with Libby. We also headed to the animal tent run by a Community Interest Company where children could see and pet snakes, hamsters, guinea pigs and iguanas. I didn't trust my little one to not squash them dead so we just looked on until his attention span snapped. Finally we collapsed on the floor with free orange squash and cookies before heading back home on the bus. Some of us had sand in our hair others had cookie rubbed all over their leggings but it was a brilliant day out. http://larkinthepark.com/

My attempt at a cinemagram x

http://cinemagr.am/show/13315835

My Week in Instagrams

Soft Play Time

Canary Wharf

A goat cuddle

Our substitute garden

Feeding time at Christmas Tree Farm

Mud Mud Everywhere - Mudchute Farm

We have been to Mudchute Farm twice in two weeks now so I thought it would make a good first blog post. The first trip last Sunday was super muddy due to all the rain we have been getting but super fun. We went mud trekking with Lee & Elsie and drove to Asda next to Mudchute DLR. From here you walk about 5 minutes to get to the farm through a little pathway which is hidden away in the far right corner.

Mudchute Farm is a 32 acre site which is free (in London - free!) and has 1 very energetic noisy pig who runs up and down (how often do you see enormous pigs running), some horses (who turned their noses up at us but were happy to pose for pictures with every other person there), greedy grass munching sheep, toothy alpacas and some little animals (ferrets, chipmunks, rabbits, chickens...) for the littlies.

There is an education project attached to the farm which works with local schools in topics such as environment, farming and science and also a nursery. If I had known I would have applied!

Oliver loved feeding grass to the sheep best and trying to stroke the horses. He also enjoyed running around the almost enclosed area in the cafe which looks on to the equestrian center. The little animal enclosure is through a tunnel where you can see a cow, sheep and chicken on the wall (I spent quite a lot of time here saying "cow..sheep..chicken" in case anyone wasn't sure what they were looking at and it kept Oliver entertained once all the chocolate buttons were gone.) Elsie who is 3, carried her chocolate milkshake around with her all day and kept throwing it over herself, the pram, the floor, other kids - it was adorable. She looked even cuter covered in chocolate milkshake than she did when she left the house in the morning.

All in all a lovely day out with the kids and it's free so you can buy yourself an enormous slice of cake at the cafe. Remember the wellies!!

Oliver is wearing an h&m grey cardigan, h&m truck vest, h&m shoes with stripy primark socks and primark shorts. Elise is wearing chocolate milkshake!