bumblingalong.co.uk

and we’d love it if you’d join us there!

In particular, if you subscribe to bumblingalong’s RSS feed, I think you’ll have to sign up again. I’m just not clever enough to work that out.

Thank you very much – we’d love to have you over for some tea and cake. Virtual, of course.

The lovely @laythetable on twitter was asking for a chocolate brownie recipe with which she could grace some marvellous 90% cocoa solids chocolate.

Now you don’t want to waste that. And whilst I can’t profess to have such a wonderful food blog as she does, I do know a bit about baking. And these brownies, after some initial tweaking to the recipe, have never failed to impress.

Please forgive the mixture between European measurements and American measurements. I often take inspiration from US recipes (particularly for American classics such as Brownies!), and whilst my US based sister has provided me with a set of cup measures, I always have to convert things like “sticks” of butter…

So here goes:

* 75 grams butter (I normally used slightly salted, but original recipe called for unsalted)
* 200 grams plain chocolate, coarsely chopped
* 1/4 cup good cocoa powder
* 3/4 cup plain flour
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup sugar
* 2 large eggs
* 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (if you like vanilla. I don’t. I always leave this out, and I’ve never had any complaints).

Preheat oven to 180°.

Grease an 8″square baking tin and line with baking parchment.

In a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt together butter, chocolate, and cocoa powder. Resist the urge to lick. It doesn’t taste too good yet.

Cream together sugar and eggs (and vanilla if you are using it) until the mixture is pale. Add melted chocolate mixture and mix until combined. Add flour, baking powder and salt, and fold in until combined. You can sieve the flour if you want. I’m a bit lazy. It doesn’t seem to matter. Don’t overmix. This will make the brownies crumbly, but not in a good way.

Pour batter (or rather push batter – it’s pretty thick!) into the tin. Spread evenly with spatula. Make patterns on the top if you like – they will stay, and you get crunchy little peaks, which I like.

Bake for maximum 35 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out with a few crumbs but is not wet. Leave to cool in the tin for about 15 minutes.

*Here’s the caveat! Check the brownies at 20 minutes. You really don’t want them to overcook. 35 minutes is really a maximum! You want them still to be squidgy.

Take brownies out of tin and cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into squares. If you can wait that long. I’m not sure I ever have…

(Makes approx 9 large or 16 small brownies)

Anyway, this honour left me with two dilemmas.

Firstly, what do you buy for the baby who has everything? My friend has exquisite taste, is always perfectly turned out, and generally is in a league above my own! How could I do her beautiful daughter justice.

Simple. I put out a call to twitter.

I got loads of really useful suggestions, but none which seemed to quite hit the mark.  Then I realised that one of my twitter buddies who had the perfect answer up her sleeve was being remarkably quiet.

The lovely Charis, of Name Art, produces beautiful, personalised, art work, for children and adults alike. My god daughter has a common name, spelt in an unusual way. I thought that a personalised print, in wood and acrylic frame, was the perfect solution. And Charis came through with sugar on top!

The second dilemma was how to entertain a 1.5 year old in a church for an hour whilst the service took place. Luckily, the church my friend had chosen was a child-friendly church. Children were welcomed, toys provided, and no-one batted an eyelid to them running up and down the aisles. Moo, however, seemed particularly keen on making an assault on the altar. Not a great move.

However, in came the snail. The snail in question belonged to the big brother of the star of the show, who is about 4 months older than Moo. It was a really cute, wooden, pull along snail which held the attention of a good handful of the toddlers in attendance. Moo was really quite taken with it, much to the chagrin of big brother!

So when Hello Baby asked me if I would like to review any of their toys, and I noticed this particular wooden snail was available on their website, I jumped at the chance! A snail of Moo’s own *

I have to say I’m really impressed. I love the cute movement of the snail as his body undulates (love that word!) as he is pulled along. I also love that he “self-rights”, as Moo rarely has him sitting properly upright when she starts to pull him.

Finally, I love that he is well made, with a great deal of thought given to the environment in his manufacture.

(And I am assuming he is a he…)

Hello Baby certainly seem responsive – our snail was with us in double quick time, despite using snail mail, and the website suggests that this is the case in standard service, with most orders being dispatched same day. And the website covers a whole range of needs, with an eye to the eco-friendly. I’ll certainly be taking a gander – and in particular checking out the rest of the Plan Toys – a brand I wasn’t aware of, but which has really caught my eye.

Oh, and that panic attack? The Teddy print also came complete with a personalised message at the bottom, with little Lucie’s full name. Imagine my horror when I looked at the order of service in the church to find that Lucie had an additional middle name I hadn’t included.

I sweated it out through the whole service, and on the way to having photos taken cornered my friend. “I have a confession to make”, I said. “The christening present, well, it gets Lucie’s name wrong…”

Luckily I was reassured. The additional middle name was just a formal name, to honour my friend’s maiden name. It wasn’t going to be used. It didn’t matter.

Thank the Lord!

Disclosure: I purchased the name art at full price as I just loved it, and I chose to blog about it because Charis’ customer service is second to none. We were give the Plan Toy Pull along Snail by Hello Baby to keep.

* photos to follow, when my camera decides to work!

Oh well.

If you are a visitor to the blog, you might have seen the pretty badge in the sidebar (you can pick a badge of your own up here), or noticed the extra page on the tab at the top.

But just in case that had all passed you by, I thought I’d tell you some more. And tell you why.

In my mind, this all stemmed from Josie’s Writing Workshop. The prompts that it gives really inspire you to think deeply, to think creatively. And for those of us that write light hearted blogs about our kids, that doesn’t always sit well.

A quick chat on twitter, and a seed was sown. Blognonymous was born.

We knew that there were places to post anonymous content. You could create your own blog if you wanted. You can post to sites like Parent Confidential, one of the Blognonymous sites.

But sometimes all you want is a friendly, non-threatening and familiar place to lay your hat and hide your name. And so here we are. A number of blogs, with a number of different styles and readerships, open for you to post on. To ask for advice on. To vent on. Or to explore your creative side on.

Anything you don’t want to do in your own name.

Obviously, and this is the lawyer in me, we reserve the right not to post your content if we think it will get us into trouble. But if this offer is accepted in the same way as we are offering it, we don’t think that will happen.

There are so many stories to tell. We are trying to remove any barriers which are stopping them being told.

We’ve had a great start, with three great posts, and great support for the posters. I know that those that have taken the opportunity to write in a safe place have benefited from that support. And I know that people who have read these stories have benefited from realising that others have similar experiences to them.

We’re overwhelmed by the support. And we want to keep it going.

If you would like to post on BumblingAlong, please just contact me using the “Contact Me” widget on the website in the right hand column. Or DM me on twitter.

Or contact any of the other bloggers participating in Blognonymous.

Sandy, from Parent Confidential
Nickie, from Typecast
Paula, from Battling On
Jay, from Mocha Beanie Mummy
Emily, from MummyLimited

Or you can even DM Blognonymous itself, a twitter account manned by me or one of the other bloggers named above.

But don’t let your voice be silenced. Let it sing out. We can’t wait to hear from you.

But it was her first holiday holiday. On the beach. In the sea. Eating ice cream on the boardwalk. On the beach again – whenever she could (boy, she loved that sand and that sea – I think we have a beach babe in the making!).

I think she enjoyed herself. What do you think?

This was a post in response to Tara’s brilliant Gallery, with this week’s prompt of “Holidays”.  Please visit all the other brilliant photos from around the Internets.

These photos were taken at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, over a few years. Yes, I am posting yet another photo from my trips to California. I guess this is showing me how much I enjoyed my time over there. And the Aquarium is a standing appointment any time we visit. The sea otters are as cute as anything, the giant tuna are awe inspiring (I never knew they were that big!), but it’s the smaller creatures that fascinate me.

And in particular the jellies. Not the jelly fish I feared in the sea when I was young, but beautiful and intriguing creatures. The natural world is an amazing place.

This was a post in response to Tara’s brilliant Gallery, with this week’s prompt of “creatures”.  Please click over here to see the other entries from around the Internets.

But how could I pass up on the topic of “motherhood”? It’s what has brought me to blogging, what has redefined who I am and made me question my life priorities.

To sum this all up in a photo though? Impossible, I thought. Particularly as I would only have 24 hours in which to do so.

I scanned through the hundreds of photos I’ve taken since Moo was born 18 months ago. I looked at scans, pictures of pregnancy tests, photos of a newborn, photos of a very tired new mum, and photos of a blossoming toddler. I can’t picture motherhood – I haven’t experienced the half of it yet. 18 months is no time at all. Moo will show me all of what is to come.

But then my eye was caught by this photo.

It seemed to sum up so much to me. The reliance of a child on her mother, the trust, the bond. Also the love-driven obsession of a mother with her child, recording every last detail of this precious creature. Moo will rely on me less and less as years go by, but that trust, that bond? I hope that remains. And that love, that obsession? I can’t see that diminishing anytime soon.

And I know that to be true. Because I have the evidence in front of me. This is also motherhood. The link between my mother and my daughter. The unending love my mother has for Moo, and vice versa.

I can only hope that my journey in motherhood will bring me such joy, so many years down the line.

It’s certainly off to a good start.

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This was a post in response to Tara’s brilliant Gallery, with this week’s prompt of “motherhood”.  Once the McLinky is up, I’ll add a link so you can visit the other entries from around the Internets.

Flowers.

Life. But still.

This was a post in response to Tara’s brilliant Gallery, with this week’s prompt of “still life”.  Please click over here to see the other entries from around the Internets.