the pretty walrus

Emily's Favourite Dinner

My mum made a delicious tuna noodle bake when we were young. I never inherited the recipe (and have since heard it was very calorific!) and then one day, years ago, I decided I wanted to make it so I looked online for something similar. I found a recipe which I have since tweaked to a point where it looks almost nothing like that original recipe.

David and I love this dish. It's quick, easy and a satisfying favourite. Emily, ever since she begun eating what we eat, has also had a soft spot for this dinner - she likes it enough to inform me that it is "ummy". It's easy for her to eat, and tasty too. When she starts to be fussy about eating dinner, I cook this and it's problem solved.

So, if you want to try it, here is the recipe for this Tuna-Cheese Bake:

You will need (for 3-4 persons):
1 large can of tuna, drained
2 cups of shredded cheddar
1 pot of Elmlea single cream (or any brand, approx 280ml)
a handful of frozen sweetcorn
(I sometimes also add a handful of frozen peas)
6-8 mushrooms, roughly chopped
a stick of celery, chopped
400g conchiglie (this is my favourite pasta for this recipe, but anything will work)
any other chopped veg you want to include

1. Cook the pasta and pre-heat the oven to 175 degrees C / 350 degrees F.

2. In a large saucepan, cook the celery for a few minutes until soft. Combine the mushrooms, sweetcorn, cream and tuna (medium heat). Add half the cheddar and mix.

3. Fold the pasta into the cream mixture and pour into a baking dish. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top.

4. Bake for approx 25 minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Ta-da!

And to quote my Mum, "U ara x'inti tiekol!" ;)

Pushing Boundaries

I have a recent history of nasty anxiety attacks, which got bad enough a few months ago for me to decide something had to be done. Amongst other things, I've made the decision to try and think myself through them instead of letting myself simply fall victim to the insanity. I'm happy to say things have been going very well so far, and I think I can even say it now gets easier to overcome every time.

David was in Germany over the weekend. A boys' football tournament organised by work. His usual trips are business trips and weekdays, so I'd normally book a taxi to meet him at the airport. But since he was landing at a decent time and at the weekend, I thought that maybe I could go and meet him at Gatwick myself.

I'd never driven to Gatwick before. And big, new things like this (well, big to me) will usually set off an anxiety attack, and I'd then chicken out. But it's all about pushing boundaries now, forcing myself out of my restrictive comfort zone.

So I drove to Gatwick.

10 minutes in, Emily started moaning.
Then the rain picked up.
And there was fog.
The wipers were going so fast they looked like they might fly off.
Traffic was going 20mph on the motorway.
I couldn't see the car in front of me, or the one behind me.
I couldn't see lanes, I couldn't see exits.
And on top of it all, my eyes were itching because of my blasted hayfever.

More than enough to trigger an anxiety attack, you'd think. True - but it didn't. Emily finally fell asleep. And it may simply have been that most of my energy was going into not rubbing my eyes, but I didn't panic at any point.

I got to Gatwick half an hour before David's plane landed, which gave Emily about 20 minutes to melt the hearts of an entire group of Irish teenagers and then have a little wander around the terminal.

I didn't want to push my luck, I asked David to drive on the way back and of course there wasn't a drop of rain all the way. It certainly was a baptism by fire for me and my next drive to the airport won't be anything as scary as this one was, which made me all the more proud to have done it - and to have calmly survived!

[image cred: Viv King]

Last Week in Pictures

Running a bit late with this one, but here goes :)

Discovered sharon fruit. The jury is still out on them -
I think they might actually be too sweet for my taste!

I found the Laugh & Learn Teapot set in the second hand shop for £3.50 and bought it for Emily.
Everyone and everything has pretty much had to drink imaginary tea ever since.
Yes, even the monkey.

We discovered she can correctly point out all these animals when asked where each one is.
She is also trying to say koala and giraffe, and can say bear and hippo clearly.

I discovered this little gem!

We watched her clothes get washed. Fascinating stuff.

And we watched rain fall.

New specs... at last!

Toddler-Teenager (The Wonder Weeks)

I'm not big on parenting books. I initially owned a Gina Ford book as well as the Baby Whisperer. Both were donated to the local library pretty early on. My instinct, along with genuine advice from friends who have been there, has never let me down.

However when Emily was four or five months old, someone mentioned The Wonder Weeks to me. This isn't a book about how to bring up a child. It merely outlines the typical mental development of a child (based on 30 years of research) and helps you understand why, at certain times, children are unpredictably clingy, grumpy, and all those other fine qualities mothers dread waking up to.

The book spans the first 20 months of a child's life and Emily is nearing the end of that. We are currently going through the final wonder week. Thus my bloggy silence.

I could sit here and moan (oh boy could I moan) about the nightmare child that Emily has suddenly turned into. Not to mention that our blissful full night's sleep has turned into patchy "catch an hour of sleep if you can" and has both David and myself feeling like homicidal zombies by morning.

Today - day two of Nightmare Emily this time round - it occurred to me that it might be a wonder week, so I checked my book. Sure enough, outlined in almost eery detail, was a description of Emily, and how a child's behaviour will probably change around week 74 of their life.

It didn't make today any easier. I shouted at Emily, I shut my ears to the endless moaning, I may even have turned off the baby monitor for the latter few hours of last night. I'm not proud of any of it, but she wasn't going to come to any harm and you do what you have to to cope.

But reading about the mental development that's ongoing at the moment helps. It helps to look out for new abilities and sometimes even helps patience last a little bit longer. Not much, but it does.

She's just gone to bed, and despite the pretty awful day, it ended with cuddles and - finally - a laugh or two from her. Most beautiful sound I heard all day.

It'll be an early night for me and David tonight!

(This post is not sponsored, but if you'd like to buy a copy of the book it'd be really nice if you used the link I provided *wink*)