1.3kg butter, 1.5kg sugar and 24 eggs later...

Well I did make it to Jeanne's birthday party and pretty much cooked everything I intended to (well super husband did his fair share!). My main challenge was the pink butterfly shaped cake I had decided to bake, thanks to my friend Alex who lended me a really nice book called Birthday Cakes for Kids by Annie Rigg.

It was my first attempt at cake decorating and it did not go as bad as I was dreading :

The birthday girl was really hapy but then it was pink so I was not taking much risks there! Does not matter how sickly that pink shade is!

Of course it wasn't perfect, as in the previous days I had tried to really take it easy to make sure the baby wouldn't be born before the party... So we had ugly plastic glasses and no decorations to speak of, the music wouldn't work but the kids were being so loud that we would not have heard it anyway. But again who needs decorations when you have a whole dance studio to yourself and nice big piles of steps to pull down :

And built up again :

The kids went back home knackered and I suspect the grown-ups with a nice big headache, success all round then!

I didn't really have time to eat much during the party and decided, against all good judgement to make up for it in the evening. I settled nicely in front of the TV watching the new ITV Drama Lowndon Abbey, which I thought was pretty good, my sort of show (can't give birth on a Sunday evening now or I'll miss it...), some hommous and crakers, feta and sundried tomatoes savory cake and 2 pieces of the butterfly... A bit ambitious or down right stupid... Do you think unborn babies can have sugar rushes lasting all night keeping their mothers awake thinking they are about to give birth? Well I think they do... So a sleepless night it was, a long sleepless night...
Super husband came to the rescue again and stayed home today!

The to do list? down to 41 entries but nothing happening fast now as I turned into a real turtle...

Where have you been?!

I know, it has been over a month... Well I have been busy with Jeanne's christening, sewing her a dress, sewing matching little bags for the dragees and then I got REALLY tired and stayed in bed for two days, and never really recovered...

And yes, this is the best picture I have of that dress, isn't it bad? For me, yaking pictures is the biggest challenge in having a blog, I am just useless... Well, anyway it was pretty enough for her cousin to tell her she was a princess, which obviously is the nicest compliment you can pay Jeanne at the moment! It was a lovely day on the Ile the Batz, one of my favourite place in the world, surrounded by friends and family.

We are now back in London where a giant courgette awaited us...

It weights over 3 kgs! I already made 2 zucchini pineapple breads with it, thanks to my friend Barb's recipe and intend to make so more for Jeanne's birthday party on Sunday.

Here is the recipe :

- 3 eggs

- 2 cups shredded zucchini

- 3 cups flour

- 1 tea spoon cinnamon

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1 teaspoon soda

- 1 cup sugar

- 1 cup oil

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 1 6oz shredded pineapple tin

Just mix everything together, put in a greased and floured bread pan and cook at 180 celsius until browned, I would say an hour.

I think next time I might add the zest of one orange to give it more zing.

Jeanne turned 3 on the day we were back and had some ... Christmas cake to celebrate... It is what happens when you don't have neither the time nor the energy to bake one and that you send your husband to buy one... Well as long as there is a candle on top it is a birthday cake isn't it? She didn't seem to mind...

And we will try to do better for the party. I am supposed to make a butterfly shaped one covered in lots of pink and sparkles... The itch being that even though I am only due in a month time I was told yesterday that the baby had started coming down and could arrive anytime now... So fingers crossed I make it to the party! And if so I'll try to take pictures...

But the big even was that being 3 years old she started nursery 3 hours a day!

I always said I didn't like uniform but I have to confess that she is awfully cute, if I say so myself... She really likes it so far and I enjoy every minute of it!

Waited for me on the fridge was also the To Do List... We are down to 43 items... Progress might come to an halt any minute though...

Let's pretend...

In my quest to become the perfect housewife (bar the tidiness which is just so not going to happen!) I decided that my family needed, and deserved more desserts. So yesterday I made some really yummy banana sandwiches, they are the sweet version of the croque-monsieur, but instead of ham and cheese you use caramelised bananas and put them in bread soaked in a mixture of eggs. milk, sugar and cinnamon and cook them in a pan with a fair amount of butter. Might sound dubious, but frankly it hits the spot! You can even turn it into a somewhat posh dessert by swaping the bread for brioche and serving it with vanilla ice-cream and toffee sauce.
It turned out to be a real success, so I told Francois that tonight I would make a blueberry and peaches cobbler I had a first try at last week, to which he answered that it was a good idea because he had not been convinced last week (everybody had seconds but him, I had put it down on the large amount of alcohol in his system)... So, as I am only pretending to be a perfect housewife I decided he would not get any dessert today as he does not appreciate them anyway, I'll just get him a beer out of the fridge, a lot less work, and that I would serve this dessert to a much more deserving and decerning crowd, aka the girls :

And the verdict was? Well out of 5 persons, 3 small, 2 big, 3 had seconds! The other two had better things to do apparently! Oh, and I would highly recommend the use of bibs for this one! And here it is :

I chose a picture with a bit of mess around the dish, just to remind everyone I am just pretending!

And now I am off to try to tick something off my list, I have been trying all day but the god of to-do lists is not on my side today...

The list, still the same... I did tick things off but then had to add a bunch... Still working on clearing the 3rd bedroom, will get there though...

Urban courgettes

I have been thinking about writting a blog for about 3 years now... Put it down my To-Do list a few days ago and as I was really eager to tick a few entries today decided on that one! But obviously , despite having thought about it for 3 years, wasn't too sure what to write my first post on... Crochet? That would have been the obvious one as this would be my number one interest, well after my little girl obviously, but she probably does not fall in the interests category! Why I chose to write in english even though I am a french speaker? Well, not too sure myself, I guess I do think in english part of the time and it just feel right, but then, that might change when I realise that thinking in english is way easier than writting in english. So what was the exciting event of the day? Cooking my first home grown vegs! 3 beautiful courgettes grown in our tiny garden thanks to the well know London's sunshine! Turned them into delicious (if I say so myself...) rice, tomatoes and sausage stuffed courgettes, which seems to be going down really well with Jeanne who is eating one, supervised by super Dad, as I speak! Well... I guess I should go and join them!

Oh, should I give you a little update on the To Do list? 7 down, 2 up, 62 to go!