Photo diary: Project 365, week 14 2026

Easter holidays have come to an end, it's back to school and early mornings from tomorrow.

We had a very quiet celebration, just the four of us. I cooked salmon with blood oranges among other dishes (Canadian lobster was pre-cooked and not particularly good). 

For dessert we had an Italian cake Colomba from M&S (top marks) and, of course, chocolate eggs.

 

All the weekend I was listening to Classic FM Hall of Fame, an annual tradition of mine. I forgot to cast my votes this year, doh. They kept remiding regularly on the show, and I thought I still had time, until there wasn't, well, that will teach me to be more organised. There was a bit of a reshuffle among the top three.

My husband left early in the morning to fly to Italy to give a talk and see his parents.

Sasha went out with his PAs, and I had a quick run to the bakery to buy some fresh bread. On the way, I saw some lovely clouds and patterns in the sky.

These squiggles made me think of the music notes.

And this one made me think of a Phoenix or a fire bird, with a long beak and the wings spread widely.

The only photo I snapped on Tuesday was of a Dexter collection at the local Oxfam shop. I actually was looking for any Dick Francis books that I haven't read yet. Eddie read a couple of Dexter books last year, and I sent him this photo, asking if he wanted any of those.

We had a few warm days, and I tried to weed as much as I could in the garden. The blasted ground elder is out again, it is totally indestructible, and a bain of my life. It's a yearly battle which I am always losing.

I've been also clearing the ivy and climbing plants from the stone walls. Last year we hired someone to clear the lot, and it's back. 

I didn't do any sketches the week before, and decided to join in with the Penandinkchallenge this week. This is my illustration of the nursery rhyme to the Moon prompt.

The latest My Waitrose Little Treat is a voucher for a Gü dessert. I fancied trying a new pistachio cheesecake. It is just OK, nothing special, pistachio tastes rather artificial, and I wouldn't be buying it again. I should have got a Gü Zillionaire cheesecake instead, which Eddie likes a lot.

I'm a big fan of Sophie Anderson's books, ever since her first book came out in 2018. I was lucky to meet her in person at one of the book events in Oxford in the pre-Covid days. 

Sophie is a talented author, a wise woman, and a very very lovely person. We keep in touch online. 

I was thrilled to find out that there was a new book going to be published in April. I read the proofs, downloaded from NetGalley, and absolutely loved The House with Chicken Legs Runs Away. It is such a beautiful book. The tale explores themes of death and profound grief, and also acceptance of one's foibles and forgiveness of one's mistakes.

If you enjoy middle grade books, and also stories based on folk tales, I believe you will love it. It's now in the book shops.

Yesterday night Eddie and I had dinner with our friends, while my husband looked after Sasha at home. 

It was a Mexican-themed dinner, with a tortilla made of blue corn, and lots of spices. It was the first time I tried a blue corn product, and hominy too.

A bit too hot for my unsophisticated palate. It was tasty, but oh boy, I needed plenty of sour cream and water. And some Rennies, when I came home. 

What else did I do? I read Proof by Dick Francis. This is the sixth book by Francis that I've read this year, and it's probably one of the two that I enjoyed the most. An original start, albeit on the gruesome side, a great plot and an excellent protagonist. 

I also started reading one of the historical fiction books for reviewing, and I'm slightly regretting it. The book is great, if you enjoy a lot of historical battles, and testosterone-filled atmosphere. It's just I am struggling with it. 

There were too many sweet treats in the last couple of weeks, and I feel I need to go on a diet. 

How was your week?

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Photo diary: week 17, project 365

The Easter weekend was sunny and busy. We didn't have any guests, so it was less stressful, cooking just for us and not worrying about the state of the house.

Easter Sunday passed in a blur of too much chocolate. Eddie went to the church service in the morning with his Dad, while I stayed at home, cooking our Easter lunch. The weather was very warm, in fact it was so hot for several days that I had to water all my potted flowers.

We have two very old apple trees in the garden. While one is covered in blossom this week, the other one is pretty much keeping the buds unopened.

Back to school for Eddie, while Sasha's school had the inset day, so he stayed at home. We didn't have to hurry home after school, and Eddie and I popped into the Shake shop for the first milkshake of the season. We were sitting in the courtyard in the back.

The garden is full of forget-me-nots and bluebells. And the hated ground elder is getting on my nerves again.

The weather has changed for a much cooler one, with the rain going on and off.
Last autumn my Mum planted several bulbs of Ice Cream tulips in my garden, and I'm waiting for them to open up properly. They have creamy white insides and peony pink outside petals.

I picked a big bunch of lilac in the garden, and put it in the vase in the hall. Now our hall smells like a perfume shop.

While Sasha prefers to go to Cafe Nero on Saturdays, Eddie and I are more of the Costa people. Eddie likes to sit by the window, and keep an eye on Sasha, whenever possible, as Sasha likes to sit by the window at Nero, which is just opposite and across the road. And that's how we rock.

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Photo diary: week 16, project 365

Wishing you all a happy Easter!
I've been ticking off days to this weekend, waiting for the Hall of Fame 2019 countdown. The three days I have been spending as much time as possible in the kitchen, listening to the radio. Tomorrow is the final day, when the overall winner will be revealed. I hope the voting won't bring back The Lark Ascending. Last year it was Tchakovsky's 1812 Overture, and while picking my three choices, I considered for a moment voting strategically to keep it up, but this is not my favourite work by Tchaikovsky.
This year my personal choices didn't do very well - Masquerade Suite went down 40 places to no.224; The Gadfly flew to no.129 (45 down) and even Romeo & Juliet descended from their balcony to no.116 (11 down). Oh well.
As usual, I wonder at some of the ridiculous choices. How could Mario and Rabbids reach no.258, defeating, for example, Die Fledermaus (263) and Vespers (264)? Or Game of Thrones (218) be a higher achiever than Aida (227) or The Thieving Magpie (276)?
Sorry for my rant, but I have noone here to talk to about it, as my guys don't listen to Classic FM.

Back to our week.
Our garden is a riot of colour this week, with parrot tulips revealing their striking colours.

On Sunday my husband came back from his trip to Geneva, and brought us a box of chocolates. We opened the box the next day to see these beauties.

Eddie's trainers got totally broken, and he also needed new PE shoes. We got him the red trainers, and when we went out on Tuesday, I laughed at how his trainers matched his red coat, dark hat and light joggers.

We also bought the latest Tom Gates book, under the condition that he reads it to himself, as I don't want to be involved. We already read every evening together (just started the Greek myths, since Eddie's been enjoying Atlantis series on DVD).

The full Moon...

I love cheese, and will happily eat it for lunch or dinner, with fresh fruit and oatcakes or crispbreads. Peter's Yard crispbreads are the best for cheese. I bought these charcoal and rye crispbreads in Waitrose, as I was curious to try them. I'd say the charcoal is more of a colour than the flavour.

Yesterday we went to Oxford. We didn't do much, just went to McDonalds and to Blackwells, as they promised an Easter egg hunt. The hunt was rather disappointing, as all you had to do was to find a little plastic egg on a shelf. No clues or trail.
While Sash and I returned home earlier, Eddie went with his Dad to Christ Church college, and finally was able to see the hall where they filmed Harry Potter.

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Choc chip cashew oat cookies, and what to do with leftover chocolate Easter eggs.

With me going slightly overboard buying chocolate Easter eggs for my sons and friends, and our friends bringing more and more treats for us, we ended up with too much chocolate. My sons ate most of the little treats which come in big boxed sets (creme eggs, mini eggs), but don't fancy the actual chocolate shells. And I refuse to be a human bin and finish off all the leftovers.

Today we've had an incessant rain since the early hours, and as we're staying indoors, I decided we'd do some baking to cheer us up.

There are a few things which need using in the pantry, not just chocolate eggs. There was recently a ShowYourOats competiton run by Quaker Oats, which I've been entering most of the weeks. I've eaten so much porridge for that comp, that I think I can't stand the sight of it for a while.
Recently I bought a Meridian smooth peanut butter instead of the usual peanut butter, and according to my spoilt family, it is not smooth enough, argghh. And I don't even eat it neat, unless it's used in sweet or savoury dishes.
So, all this could be used in cookies.
And we have at least three Cadbury's chocolate eggs to deal with.

Choc chip cashew oat cookies
Ingredients:
100g caster sugar
100g margarine (Stork)
50g peanut butter
45g cashew nuts, blitzed into small crumbs
150g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
1 medium egg
40g oats (1 sachet of Original Quaker Oats)
100g Cadbury's chocolate (half of the bigger sized egg)

Cream the sugar with margarine in a deep mixing bowl, add the peanut butter and mix together. In a separate bowl blitz the cashew nuts into small crumbs (or just chop finely). Add the cashews, flour, baking powder, 1 egg, oats and chopped chocolate egg to the big bowl.
Mix well together.

Pinch a big walnut-sized piece of dough and roll it into a ball, then flatten and place the cookies on trays lined with parchment paper. Bake for about 12-15 minutes until golden at 180C. Don't overcook, they are still soft when you take them out.

My sons love cookies when they are still warm. I often bake different variations on the theme, with oats, different nuts etc.
That's only a half of one chocolate egg used. For inspiration I asked foodie bloggers what they do with the leftover Easter chocolate.
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If you have had enough of Easter chocolate eggs, and don't quite know what to do with all those Easter chocolate leftovers, here is a whole bunch of recipes for your delectation:

If you have leftover Creme Eggs, how about...

Cadbury Creme Egg Cheesecake at Dragons and Fairy Dust

Creme Eggs Monuts at Madhouse Family Reviews

Easter Chocolate Bark with Creme Eggs at Chez Maximka

Creme Egg Chocolate Brownies at FabFood4All

Mini S'More Brownie Cupcakes with Creme Eggs at Chez Maximka

Marshmallow Rocky Road with Mini Creme Eggs at Chez Maximka

Easter Fudge at Cooking With My Kids

Mini Eggs

Chocolate and marshmallow traybake with mini eggs at Chez Maximka

Mini Egg Rice Crispy Squares at Curly's Cooking

Mini Egg Chocolate Rice Crispy Cake at FabFood4All

Easter (Very Rocky) Rocky Road at Mrs H's Favourite Things

Any other chocolate Easter eggs

Salted Caramel Egg Brownies at The Baking Explorer

Galaxy Golden Egg Millionaire's Shortbread at The Baking Explorer

Leftover Easter Egg Chocolate Ice Cream at Tin and Thyme

Easy Chocolate Fudge Sauce at Charlotte's Lively Kitchen

and there's 7 Recipes to use leftover Easter chocolate at Free From Farmhouse

Well, that's a great lot of deliciousness, and I am tempted now to search the supermarkets for any more leftover Creme Eggs and Mini Eggs, just to try some of the recipes above.

Since I've used a few leftovers in the recipe, I'm adding this post to #KitchenClearout linky run by Cheryl at Madhouse Family Reviews.

Chocolate & marshmallow traybake with mini eggs

With Easter approaching super fast this weekend, you might already have a visual overload of seasonal cakes and bakes posted on social medis, and might groan "Not another Easter bake!"
I have more or less decided what I'm going to cook for Easter lunch, though our dessert would depend on the fact if our friends could come over or not.
One of the possible options is a lemon ricotta cheesecake, which I will bake with gluten free digestive biscuits (one of our friends is a coeliac).
I'll probably make some easy chocolate cornflake nests with Eddie, or cupcakes which he would decorate wildly in multi-coloured sprinkles or mini eggs.

Over a week ago I baked a chocolate and marshmallow traybake with mini eggs. The original recipe could be found in March issue of Delicious magazine. The recipe has been developed by Chetna Makan. I didn't watch the GBBO when she was one of the contestants, but I've seen her cook books in shops. I couldn't find this recipe online, so if you fancy following Chetna's recipe, you'll have to buy the magazine.

I have adapted Chetna's recipe, first of all by reducing the amount of sugar and butter, then removing the layer of chocolate ganache altogether. And even then my husband said it was way too sweet. And that comes from a man who has a very sweet tooth. My children enjoyed the cake, and I think it would most likely appeal to children more than to the grown-ups.
But it looked very pretty, decorated with mini eggs.

Chocolate and marshmallow traybake with mini eggs
Ingredients:

3 medium eggs
180g caster sugar
30g cocoa powder
100ml boiling water
175g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
175g unsalted butter
40g mini eggs, chopped

for the marshmallow icing:
2 egg whites
80g caster sugar
20ml orange juice
65g marshmallows
mini eggs for decoration

To make the cake batter, beat the eggs with the sugar in a big mixing bowl. Mix the cocoa and hot water in a pan to combine, then pour into the egg mixture. Sift in the flour and baking powder, and add the melted butter. Chop the mini eggs and add to the cake dough, mix well.
Pour the cake mixture into a well-oiled brownie tin, lined with parchment paper.
Place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for 30+ minutes, until the wooden toothpick comes clean.
Leave to cool in the tray before carefully taking it out.

For the marshmallow icing, whisk the egg whites with sugar and orange juice in a small pan. Place the pan over another pan with simmering water (the top pan should not touch the water). Keep whisking till the egg mixture gets glossy and shiny for about 5+ minutes. Take off the heat and add the marshmallows, stir well until all the marshmallows have melted.

I used big marshmallows, which I chopped into pieces. Small sized ones would melt faster.

You will have a beautiful glossy white frosting. Spread it over the cake while still warm, and decorate with mini eggs. Let the frosting set before slicing the cake.

Serve with tea or coffee. I loved the frosting, it is thick and glossy and looks very attractive, but it is very-very sweet. I think even less sugar in the cake batter would work better.

What dessert are you having for Easter? Home baked or bought?

Visiting Burford garden centre

Easter break is now a memory. Back to school. And our house is again "invaded" by the decorators. You might remember me telling about how the ceiling in the entrance hall has collapsed with a mighty crash after the pipes leaked (thank you, British Gas people, for putting nails through the pipes!). The saga still continues.
The old plaster has been removed, and the ceiling has been re-plastered and painted, but the walls got so splashed and stained that we had to strip the wallpaper (and good riddance too, I didn't like it).
Now we need to smooth the walls with more plasterwork and then paint over.
Pleasures of living in a very old house is that there's always another job to do.
We didn't go to Italy for Easter, and stayed at home. We were quite lucky with the weather and had several sunny days. Not like today, when I'm feeling cold at home. I sit by my laptop, wrapped in the blanket, and sip the tenth cup of tea to keep me warm.

Our friend Jen took our boys and me to Burford Garden Centre twice in the last two weeks. My sons love visiting it, as there is a lot to do and see. We always go to the cafe first. I do begrudge their prices. You can buy a decent supermarket cake for the same amount of money you have to pay for a slice of cake at the cafe, but then you can say - stay at home then.

There is a toy shop where you can imagine yourself time-travelling with Dr Who.

I love browsing in the food and drink section...

 ...as well as looking at the seeds and beautiful potted plants - shrubs, flowers, herbs.

This photo was taken back in February

And my boys just love the playground with a wooden tractor, train, two sets of swings and climbing frames.

Swings make everyone happy. They are such a joy, aren't they?!

When I see my kids  going up and down, I often think of an old song which I loved as a child. It originally appeared in one of the Soviet films for children. And the song was called Winged Swings:

Childhood will end one day,
It won't last forever.
Children will grow up,
And fly away...
But right now we are still children,
There's still time to grow up -
It's just the sky,
just the wind,
just the joy ahead.
... And the winged swings are flying..

Easter lamb with juniper and rosemary in damson and sloe gin sauce

Classic FM channel has been on most of this weekend, as I'm trying to catch most of the Hall of Fame 2017. While I was making a cup of mint tea for myself after a late-ish Easter lunch, Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet was announced as moving 32 places down to no.101.
This is one of my Hall of Fame votes. Every year I change two other votes, but Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights holds a special place in my heart.
It reminds me of seeing Romeo and Juliet ballet in my home town. It was and still is one of my most favourite ballets. I think I saw it first when I was in high school, and I promptly fell in love with the ballet dancer who performed the part of Tybalt. He was a very good dancer, and was soon poached by one of Moscow theatres. That was a long time ago, and his name now escapes me.
In case you are curious, the other two votes from me were for Masquerade Suite by Aram Khachaturian (no.218 this year), and The Gadfly by Shostakovich, which appeared this evening at no.81 933 places up). I was quite torn whether to choose The Gadfly or The Jazz Suite no.2.

Our Easter started very early, as Sasha got up at some ungodly hour, when it was still dark. I fell back into an uneasy slumber, and in the meantime he wandered downstairs and raided the locked cupboard with sweets.
Eddie wanted to go to the Easter service, and came back loaded with more chocolate eggs and Easter books.
I dyed a few token eggs to put on a table as a centrepiece.
When Eddie came home from the church, he asked me: Mummy, are you cooking your tights? - It's true, I was wrapping up eggs with herbs inside the pieces of old (washed) tights. I cooked them in the boiling water with the food colouring. The pattern is not very clear, as the eggs were brown to start with.
I'm not sure why most of the eggs that you see in the shops are brown (or blue, if you buy local breed eggs), and never white. When we were kids, most eggs were white, and easy to decorate for Easter.

This is a pattern from mint leaves.

While Eddie went to the church with his Dad, I started cooking lamb. I have bookmarked recipe on Waitrose site. I don't often cook lamb, but the recipe for Juniper and rosemary lamb with damson and sloe gin sauce sounded very tasty. I'm glad I tried it, it was delicious, and I'm definitely going to cook it again, when we have guests for dinner.
I have slightly adapted it, but mostly followed the Waitrose recipe. Since I cooked just for our family, I used half a leg at 1.1kg weight.

Easter lamb with juniper and rosemary in damson and sloe gin sauce
Ingredients:
2 rosemary sprigs
2tsp sea salt
2tsp demerara sugar
2 cloves of garlic
1tsp butter spread like Lurpak
2tbsp olive oil + more
10 juniper berries
lamb, half leg (1.1kg)
1 red onion, thinly sliced
for the gravy:
2tbsp damson jam
sloe gin, about 100ml ( I used more than Waitrose's suggestion of 2tbsp)

Remove the leaves from the rosemary stalks, put into a bowl with garlic, salt, sugar, juniper berries, butter spread and olive oil. They suggest crushing the rosemary with a pestle. I used a handblender to blitz it all together. Definitely add some olive oil to make a spreadable consistency.
Rub the marinade all over the lamb and sit it on the thinly sliced onion in a roasting dish. Drizzle some olive oil over the onion too. Let it sit for half an hour.
Preheat the oven to 200C. Place the roasting dish in the oven for 10 minutes, then cook the lamb as you like it - 8 minutes per 100g of weight if you like it well done, or 6 minutes per 100g if you like it pink. Turn it once over, and occasionally baste with the lamb juice.
Once cooked, take the lamb out of the oven, wrap in foil and let it rest for half an hour. To keep it warm, put a clean towel over the foil.
For the damson sauce, tip the roasting tin to collect all the juices in a small pan, add the damson jam and sloe gin. Using a little whisk, break the jam, to achieve the right consistency. Reduce the sauce.
Serve the lamb with the damson gravy, and roast potatoes and carrots.

I also put a jar of mint jelly and redcurrant jelly on the table. I did buy fresh mint to make my own mint sauce, but was running out of time, and The Bay Tree mint jelly is lovely.
If you want to cook the same dish, I used Tiptree Damson jam and Gordon's Sloe Gin.

The Hall of Fame continues tomorrow, and do I dare to hope that the Lark Ascending will topple over. I would be pleased with any other piece of music getting to no.1 just to make it descend.