Wishing you joy, health, warmth and happiness at Christmas, especially if for some reason or another, it doesn't come easy to you. And make sure you don't forget the cookies, milk, carrots and magic reindeer dust.
Mummy do that!
Thursday, 24 December 2009
A Christmas Postcard
Wishing you joy, health, warmth and happiness at Christmas, especially if for some reason or another, it doesn't come easy to you. And make sure you don't forget the cookies, milk, carrots and magic reindeer dust.
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
A Reverse Competition of Christmas Spending?
I came across a blog post today that tickled me in so many ways that I decided, rather than comment, to continue the discussion here. MrsW over at Clinically Fed Up elaborated on the middle class malaise of a competition of minimalism when it comes to Christmas spend on the kids, and a competition for the handmade which may or may not link in with this minimalism. Of course, I'm summarising here and I do encourage you to read her post before you continue to read mine.
Well, as you can imagine, as someone who has blogged about the senseless consumerism which seems to gnaw at our very existence (though it wasn't meant as a criticism of purely Christmas spending), as someone who tries to include as many handmade items as I can, and as someone who's been rather struggling financially this year, you can imagine that MrsW's post whirled up a bit of sand in my slightly scattered head. It really got me thinking. Am I contributing to the pressure on parents to be picture perfect and have a handmade home? Is my attempt to cut down on spending decidedly middle class (a question I ask myself almost daily)? Can I afford to spend but decide not to because I'm stingy?
To be clear: I find the £50 limit on spend per child artificial. This year, we spent more. In spite of being broke. Last year and the year before it was less, but that was because Cubling was too young and had more toys than she could play with anyway and I truly didn't see the point. The £20 limit is just daft. I spend more than that on other people's kids. The inverse competition isn't something that I've come across, in fact, I've never discussed with even my best friends how much they spend on their child. However, I can relate to so many examples linked to the minimalism of spending.
This year in particular, I've been found to complain about the abundance of presents. Not just for the kids, but for us big kids too. We (Mr and Mrs Cartside) are in our late 30s, yet we are given presents by relatives and friends, who now also give an additional present to our daughter. I know that for some, this is a significant expense, and I'm not comfortable with this. On the other hand, being given presents undoubtably creates a pressure to give presents in return and it does get rather difficult finding a present for people who actually have all they need (or don't disclose what they do need and have not). It's no secret that I hate waste, and the thought of any present, regardless of value, not being used, makes me question what all this present giving is about.
I only need to take my father as a glowing example. Every single present I've given him since time immemorial has been unused. He's my dad and I can't seem to be able to come up with a single thing that he may appreciate. I've tried. Rarely, I've been successful. His own approach is that of monetary gifts, one that I don't particularly like but at least he's (brutally) honest and tells me he can't be bothered imagining what people may want and he really doesn't want any more tat even from other people.
On the other hand, there's the financial pressure that I am under at the moment. It's temporary, so it doesn't worry me the way it worries others. But I know plenty of people who've recently lost their jobs and who still may give presents. It isn't right. I don't want them to give presents, I do appreciate the gesture very much, but really, it's not necessary. We have all we've got and a visit, a phone call, some time together is the best gift there can be. There is also the sad fact that those who struggle the most will still spend to make Christmas special, and end up in debt. Serious debt I may add.
Add to that my very real concern about the temptation of quick buys in cheap shops, the consumer society we live in which produces stuff that is not needed on the expense of natural resources that are limited, I have come to the conclusion that I can only try and address this in some way. So, yes, my way has been to try and increase the proportion of handmade items. Handmade in the broadest sense. Of course MrsW is very right in saying that a) handmade is actually not necessarily cheaper, especially if you look at my favourite sport, knitting; that b) it takes a lot of time and it's not realistic to make a handmade only Christmas; and that c) most of us aren't talented enough to make it anything that someone may appreciate. I struggle with c), really, I love making things, but the only thing I'm reasonably good at is knitting. Which takes ages. I could never ever knit enough to make even the smallest of presents for those closest to me.
As to b) the time involved in making things - that is a very important point. As much as I do like to increase the proportion of handmade items, it doesn't work because I work. Simple as that. I work 4 days a week, sometimes evenings and weekends, I'm the cook in our family, I keep the house tidy (barely let me tell you) and I also help out at another household. There is only so much time in the day and more often than not, my energy just about suffices for a quickly scribbled blog post.
So why do I try? Well, it is about trying to somehow break the endless consumerism I'm surrounded by. If I knit a baby hat, I know that I gave it 2 full evenings of mine. But evenings where I was able to relax. It does make me appreciate the real value of things. Because, even though you can buy a knitted hat/cardigan etc in the shop for a fraction of the cost of yarn, nevermind the time, I also know that the shop hat is cheap because of exploitation, cheap labour, pollution, consumption of natural resources (yes it takes oil to make a baby hat). And I try to opt, where I can, not to buy, not to consume, not to create more stuff. And yes, I'm acutely aware that this attitude is decidedly middle class which makes me very uneasy a lot of the time.
I also want to make sure as of the year to come that anyone who wants to give us a present knows that we are happy if they chose not to. That we appreciate a very small token and are open to agree not to give presents. And as to the kids, well, it's a hard one. I love giving to kids, and so do others. But truth be told, my daughter plays little at home - she's either at the childminder or at her cousin's house, or we are out and about. She already has more toys than time to play with them, and when she plays she actually prefers to help me cook, to play with empty kitchen rolls and other random items. She is great at imagination - e. g. she'll play hairdresser without any toys, she just imagines soap, hair dryer and scissors. I really feel, as much as I hate to say it, that the £30 (I'm guessing) play house that she played with a few times and doesn't now touch, was money wasted.
Therefore, for birthdays and Christmasses to come, I hope our friends and relatives do not feel obliged to buy the latest pink toy for our daughter, or anything at all for us, the parents. And, radical as it may be, second hand is just fine when it comes to presents. The bottom line is that it's hard to tell what will be played with. I'm very happy to spend a lot of money on one item if this is something that will be cherished (which is why we bought a large item for this Christmas) but would rather do without the stuff that won't get played with. And for us - well, do we really need anything? Have we not got more than enough? This year, I've made some handmade presents, some knits, lots of biscuits. They will come in lieu of gifts to relatives who we feel have been burdened with our badly selected gifts in the past.
Surely, food is always appreciated. And if it's homemade, it doesn't have the "I didn't know what to get you so I bought you a box of biscuits" feel to it. I do pledge to do more of this next year. Not as a reverse competition (we will always be happy to spend a lot if it's an item that is appreciated and will be used lots), but as a way of getting the balance right. And not making people thank us for another useless item that we randomly selected for them.
Well, as you can imagine, as someone who has blogged about the senseless consumerism which seems to gnaw at our very existence (though it wasn't meant as a criticism of purely Christmas spending), as someone who tries to include as many handmade items as I can, and as someone who's been rather struggling financially this year, you can imagine that MrsW's post whirled up a bit of sand in my slightly scattered head. It really got me thinking. Am I contributing to the pressure on parents to be picture perfect and have a handmade home? Is my attempt to cut down on spending decidedly middle class (a question I ask myself almost daily)? Can I afford to spend but decide not to because I'm stingy?
To be clear: I find the £50 limit on spend per child artificial. This year, we spent more. In spite of being broke. Last year and the year before it was less, but that was because Cubling was too young and had more toys than she could play with anyway and I truly didn't see the point. The £20 limit is just daft. I spend more than that on other people's kids. The inverse competition isn't something that I've come across, in fact, I've never discussed with even my best friends how much they spend on their child. However, I can relate to so many examples linked to the minimalism of spending.
This year in particular, I've been found to complain about the abundance of presents. Not just for the kids, but for us big kids too. We (Mr and Mrs Cartside) are in our late 30s, yet we are given presents by relatives and friends, who now also give an additional present to our daughter. I know that for some, this is a significant expense, and I'm not comfortable with this. On the other hand, being given presents undoubtably creates a pressure to give presents in return and it does get rather difficult finding a present for people who actually have all they need (or don't disclose what they do need and have not). It's no secret that I hate waste, and the thought of any present, regardless of value, not being used, makes me question what all this present giving is about.
I only need to take my father as a glowing example. Every single present I've given him since time immemorial has been unused. He's my dad and I can't seem to be able to come up with a single thing that he may appreciate. I've tried. Rarely, I've been successful. His own approach is that of monetary gifts, one that I don't particularly like but at least he's (brutally) honest and tells me he can't be bothered imagining what people may want and he really doesn't want any more tat even from other people.
On the other hand, there's the financial pressure that I am under at the moment. It's temporary, so it doesn't worry me the way it worries others. But I know plenty of people who've recently lost their jobs and who still may give presents. It isn't right. I don't want them to give presents, I do appreciate the gesture very much, but really, it's not necessary. We have all we've got and a visit, a phone call, some time together is the best gift there can be. There is also the sad fact that those who struggle the most will still spend to make Christmas special, and end up in debt. Serious debt I may add.
Add to that my very real concern about the temptation of quick buys in cheap shops, the consumer society we live in which produces stuff that is not needed on the expense of natural resources that are limited, I have come to the conclusion that I can only try and address this in some way. So, yes, my way has been to try and increase the proportion of handmade items. Handmade in the broadest sense. Of course MrsW is very right in saying that a) handmade is actually not necessarily cheaper, especially if you look at my favourite sport, knitting; that b) it takes a lot of time and it's not realistic to make a handmade only Christmas; and that c) most of us aren't talented enough to make it anything that someone may appreciate. I struggle with c), really, I love making things, but the only thing I'm reasonably good at is knitting. Which takes ages. I could never ever knit enough to make even the smallest of presents for those closest to me.
As to b) the time involved in making things - that is a very important point. As much as I do like to increase the proportion of handmade items, it doesn't work because I work. Simple as that. I work 4 days a week, sometimes evenings and weekends, I'm the cook in our family, I keep the house tidy (barely let me tell you) and I also help out at another household. There is only so much time in the day and more often than not, my energy just about suffices for a quickly scribbled blog post.
So why do I try? Well, it is about trying to somehow break the endless consumerism I'm surrounded by. If I knit a baby hat, I know that I gave it 2 full evenings of mine. But evenings where I was able to relax. It does make me appreciate the real value of things. Because, even though you can buy a knitted hat/cardigan etc in the shop for a fraction of the cost of yarn, nevermind the time, I also know that the shop hat is cheap because of exploitation, cheap labour, pollution, consumption of natural resources (yes it takes oil to make a baby hat). And I try to opt, where I can, not to buy, not to consume, not to create more stuff. And yes, I'm acutely aware that this attitude is decidedly middle class which makes me very uneasy a lot of the time.
I also want to make sure as of the year to come that anyone who wants to give us a present knows that we are happy if they chose not to. That we appreciate a very small token and are open to agree not to give presents. And as to the kids, well, it's a hard one. I love giving to kids, and so do others. But truth be told, my daughter plays little at home - she's either at the childminder or at her cousin's house, or we are out and about. She already has more toys than time to play with them, and when she plays she actually prefers to help me cook, to play with empty kitchen rolls and other random items. She is great at imagination - e. g. she'll play hairdresser without any toys, she just imagines soap, hair dryer and scissors. I really feel, as much as I hate to say it, that the £30 (I'm guessing) play house that she played with a few times and doesn't now touch, was money wasted.
Therefore, for birthdays and Christmasses to come, I hope our friends and relatives do not feel obliged to buy the latest pink toy for our daughter, or anything at all for us, the parents. And, radical as it may be, second hand is just fine when it comes to presents. The bottom line is that it's hard to tell what will be played with. I'm very happy to spend a lot of money on one item if this is something that will be cherished (which is why we bought a large item for this Christmas) but would rather do without the stuff that won't get played with. And for us - well, do we really need anything? Have we not got more than enough? This year, I've made some handmade presents, some knits, lots of biscuits. They will come in lieu of gifts to relatives who we feel have been burdened with our badly selected gifts in the past.
Surely, food is always appreciated. And if it's homemade, it doesn't have the "I didn't know what to get you so I bought you a box of biscuits" feel to it. I do pledge to do more of this next year. Not as a reverse competition (we will always be happy to spend a lot if it's an item that is appreciated and will be used lots), but as a way of getting the balance right. And not making people thank us for another useless item that we randomly selected for them.
Monday, 21 December 2009
This Winter's Knits
It can only be getting closer to Christmas, if I have four knitting projects going at the same time. And to give them the real winter feel, I took them out to explore the winter wonderland of the weekend (not such a wonderland if you subsequently get stranded on the M80 for 4 hours but I did try to focus on the beautiful winterscape that wasn't exactly passing by on our way back. Thankfully I had some knitting on me to pass the time). Where was I? Knitting. In winter. For Christmas. See those snowflake falling on the almost finished tea cosy? Knitted with Rowan Cocoon (oh I love that yarn) with a splash of mohairy red courtesy of Rowan Kidsilk Haze. It only needs sewn together to be ready as a present for a very special person.
Next up are a pair of socks knit with another favourite yarn of mine - Mirasol Hacho. They are simple socks and will surely keep my beloved's feet very warm and cosy this winter.
You may remember this hat, I just can't get enough of it. I think I knit about 3 of it in the last 2 weeks, for all my friend's recent babies. Here's the latest installment (and after that, it'll be 3 weeks until I'll be knitting this again, as the next baby is due then) for a Scottish German little girl, just before it'll be posted all the way to Erfurt. The pattern is by Woolly Wormhead and you can find it in A Hat in Time. It's the first pattern which I know by heart - such an amazing feeling not having to consult any pattern, just being able to pick up yarn whereever you are and get going. Suddenly I realise that knitting may not have to be about knitting a pattern only once, but that you can pick and choose your piece which will get a new and different encarnation every time it's knit. I'm sure many knit like this, yet it's a new approach for me.
Lastly, a summer dress in the middle of winter. I aim to finish it over the holiday, ready for our trip to warmer shores on New Years Day, so that Cubling can be the star of the beach. It's a f.pea pattern which I'm adjusting to make the vest into a longer dress. I'm a bit nervous about this - usually I just follow patterns to the word, so I hope it'll fit and look as lovely as the original.
Next up are a pair of socks knit with another favourite yarn of mine - Mirasol Hacho. They are simple socks and will surely keep my beloved's feet very warm and cosy this winter.
You may remember this hat, I just can't get enough of it. I think I knit about 3 of it in the last 2 weeks, for all my friend's recent babies. Here's the latest installment (and after that, it'll be 3 weeks until I'll be knitting this again, as the next baby is due then) for a Scottish German little girl, just before it'll be posted all the way to Erfurt. The pattern is by Woolly Wormhead and you can find it in A Hat in Time. It's the first pattern which I know by heart - such an amazing feeling not having to consult any pattern, just being able to pick up yarn whereever you are and get going. Suddenly I realise that knitting may not have to be about knitting a pattern only once, but that you can pick and choose your piece which will get a new and different encarnation every time it's knit. I'm sure many knit like this, yet it's a new approach for me.
Lastly, a summer dress in the middle of winter. I aim to finish it over the holiday, ready for our trip to warmer shores on New Years Day, so that Cubling can be the star of the beach. It's a f.pea pattern which I'm adjusting to make the vest into a longer dress. I'm a bit nervous about this - usually I just follow patterns to the word, so I hope it'll fit and look as lovely as the original.
Saturday, 19 December 2009
Going potty over the potty
How do working parents potty train?This is not meant to be an odd question. I have a real conundrum. And I'm sure I'm not the first, A Mums Survival guide has a few tips in the potty training for working parents' department. Now, I've never fretted much about potty training, it's not something I've ever looked forward to, while I always thought it would be easy peasy. Cubling is now 33 months, and ticks all the boxes for readiness.
Apart from the one that has something to do with actually wanting to use the potty/toilet.
She's funny with that. She knows what potty and toilet are for. She saw her cousin being potty trained about 4 months ago. She sometimes wants to sit on the toilet and really wants to do a wee in there, but nothing ever comes out of it, and I have to drag her off the toilet. However, whenever I try to use those magic 3 days at the weekend to use the potty or toilet, she initially likes to sit on it, usually on day one we have one success and the rest accidents, and from day 2 she becomes very.reluctant.indeed. She begs not to go to the toilet, but also doesn't want nappies. Also on day 2 and 3 there are no more successes, only accidents.
While I'm not particularly pushy with potty training, I've tried three time so far to reach some degree of potty training in my 3 days off work, because I believe she's ready. You see, if I'm lucky, I don't work Fri-Sun. Recently though, I had to do a considerable amount of weekend work, which meant that I hardly ever even got 3 days in a row. Now, I can't exactly potty train for three days with maybe one success and then hand Cubling over to the childminder. That's cheeky. Even so, I'd reached the point of considering cheekiness, but asked her first to have a guilt free conscience. She said no sorry. I don't blame her.
Her tip was to do it when I'm off work for a week. That didn't really happen this year as I took individual days off before and after my niece was born. So I left it a while. Now I'm off work for 3 weeks, and this has to be the time. Because, to be fair, I won't get any week off work until Cubling starts at nursery and I really want her out of nappies by then. Another motivator is the fact that she now regularly gets a very sore bum in cloth nappies (something that never had been a problem until she turned 2) and we're using many more disposables than I'm happy with.
So then, round 4 of potty training has been called. It's not been going well. While at home, in the evening, she'll happily sit on the toilet for 30 minutes until I drag her into bed, at my SIL's house she had no inclination to cooperate. Yes, I'm bribing her with chocolates. Anything at this point to get her to be cooperative, I don't care. Yes, she does want chocolates. Oh and she does understand that she'll get them if she manages to do a wee or poo on the potty or toilet. Yet her interest in doing so wanes with every hour. We've done the potty dvd, role play and books. One (German) book, Der Klokoenig (loo king) has a great example of how to unroll a toilet roll into a heap of paper. So she does that bit on the toilet with great joy and says she's a loo king now.
Two days in and she hadn't pooed at all. I got rather worried. Her all day complaint about a sore tummy didn't make me feel any better. We had curry in the evening, surely curry would yield some BM? With plenty of cajoling, cuddling, singing, story reading and even feeding while sat on the potty we got her to at least sit for a long time. It was clear that she needed to poo. I even got the chocolate out, unwrapped it and held it in front of her like a carrot to cajole a donkey. Jee. This was getting a bit much. She alternated between big grins (I very happy! - at the prospect of getting chocolate) to a very worried face caused by fear that it might be sore.
Then finally, and please avert your eyes if this is too much information, that was what got her not one, nonono, but TWO pieces of chocolate:
Needless to say we had a big cheer and a little girl who was jumping for joy and proudly presented her turd to her auntie and cousin (the latter even shared her enthusiasm at the sight).
I very happy now. I know it's only a start. But it's a start, right?
Making a Recycled Tealight Holder
As today's entry for my craft advent calendar is still waiting for a contribution, and there are still another 5 entries available to bring us up to Christmas, I thought I'd share a very simple idea, suitable for crafting with young children (that means roughly 2 1/2 years plus). It also enables you to recycle food jars. It's about time I came up with something really, admittedly I hadn't yet made a proper contribution to it myself. You may consider it a late contribution to the fabulous Recycled Christmas Carnival over at The Rubbish Diet.
You will need:
-A wide jar, big enough to place a tea light in
-transparent craft paper in different colours. I think decopatch paper (which is semi transparent) should also look nice
-pvc glue
-a paintbrush to apply glue with
-a tealight
-scissors (not essential)
Cut or rip the transparent or semi transparent paper into small pieces.
Using a paint brush, cover part or the full outside of the jar with glue (it may help to thin the glue down a bit). Stick the paper pieces on the jar, brush them smooth. You can add layers by simply applying glue to the paper already attached and sticking more paper on. Finish off covering all the paper with a thin layer of glue. Feel free to add some glitter for sparkle.
You may create shapes with this, like a night time sky, a flower, Santa - or keep it simple (as we did) for just some colour and a project which a 33 month old can complete from start to finish. Let dry overnight. Light your tealight and enjoy.
(Well, you may need to also unglue your toddler from the table, and gather the sprinkling of paper bits that will have made their way into every single room of your home. But other than that...)
You will need:
-A wide jar, big enough to place a tea light in
-transparent craft paper in different colours. I think decopatch paper (which is semi transparent) should also look nice
-pvc glue
-a paintbrush to apply glue with
-a tealight
-scissors (not essential)
Cut or rip the transparent or semi transparent paper into small pieces.
Using a paint brush, cover part or the full outside of the jar with glue (it may help to thin the glue down a bit). Stick the paper pieces on the jar, brush them smooth. You can add layers by simply applying glue to the paper already attached and sticking more paper on. Finish off covering all the paper with a thin layer of glue. Feel free to add some glitter for sparkle.
You may create shapes with this, like a night time sky, a flower, Santa - or keep it simple (as we did) for just some colour and a project which a 33 month old can complete from start to finish. Let dry overnight. Light your tealight and enjoy.
(Well, you may need to also unglue your toddler from the table, and gather the sprinkling of paper bits that will have made their way into every single room of your home. But other than that...)
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
Backe Backe Plaetzchen - another baking instalment
I think by now all my clothes are smelling of biscuits. Cubling now asks every evening to do Backe Backe Kuchen (the German version of Pat a Cake, did I ever ponder on the strange similarities of German and English children's songs and rhymes?), so there will be even more.
Honeywaffles:
75 gr sugar
5 tablespoon runny honey
1 satchet of vanilla sugar (or vanilla essence)
6 eggs
750 gr plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
550ml milk
*************************************
Now for the the next Christmas biscuit recipe. Today it's a "plain" shaped biscuit recipe. There's nothing plain about it, they are simple to make that's true, but oh so delicious. And they have endless options for the more creatively inclined amongst you. I wanted to make lots, to give as presents as well as stock up our own Christmas indulgence, so my recipe is for rather a lot of biscuits. Feel free to halve amounts if it's just for your own family. If you, like Amanda at Kitschy Coo, struggle with toddlers wanting to help you (or not for that matter), I usually let Cubling help with mixing things together and do the rest after her bedtime. The dough needs to rest, which is exactly the amount of time needed for bedtime routine.
At the weekend we invited friends over for a waffle brunch and we also indulged in Christmas biscuit baking episode 3. So, today, you'll get two recipes for the price of one blog post.
Waffles are, methinks, a Belgian speciality, but hailing not far from the Belgian border, to me, the smell of waffles, the taste of fresh waffles coming out of the waffle iron (maker), with hot cherries and whipped cream, is the taste of home. They are ideal for making when you have people over, because there is a certain effort involved which is hardly worthwhile for just your average nuclear family. Waffles are to be shared, they go well with children getting off chairs to play, and their parents to chat between waffles. For an image of waffles, look at Slugs in the Refrigerator's post on the Edinburgh German Christmas market - they look just the ticket!
Honeywaffles:
Ingredients (for 4-6 adults and 2 toddlers):
375 gr soft butter75 gr sugar
5 tablespoon runny honey
1 satchet of vanilla sugar (or vanilla essence)
6 eggs
750 gr plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
550ml milk
Method:
with a whisk or hand mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Slowly add sugar, honey, vanilla sugar and eggs and beat until fluffy. Alternately add flour with baking powder and milk - you want the dough to be creamy and without bits. The dough should be runny and expand of its own accord in the waffle maker. Adjust consistency by either adding more milk or more flour.Preheat the waffle iron/maker. I use a medium to low setting - it's up to your preference, the higher the setting the quicker they bake. For a low setting, you may get carried away chatting without burning the kitchen. With a cooking brush, apply a bit of oil to the iron (top and bottom) so that the waffles don't stick. Put a half ladle of dough into each waffle compartment and close. Check regularly and take them out when they are golden brown. They don't take long! Sprinkle with icing sugar.
Eat with hot morello cherries (can be bought at Lidl - being a German chain they tend to stock typically German food) topped with whipped cream. Alternatively: ice cream or yoghurt.
*************************************
Now for the the next Christmas biscuit recipe. Today it's a "plain" shaped biscuit recipe. There's nothing plain about it, they are simple to make that's true, but oh so delicious. And they have endless options for the more creatively inclined amongst you. I wanted to make lots, to give as presents as well as stock up our own Christmas indulgence, so my recipe is for rather a lot of biscuits. Feel free to halve amounts if it's just for your own family. If you, like Amanda at Kitschy Coo, struggle with toddlers wanting to help you (or not for that matter), I usually let Cubling help with mixing things together and do the rest after her bedtime. The dough needs to rest, which is exactly the amount of time needed for bedtime routine.Ingredients:
400gr soft butter (preferably unsalted)180gr sugar
2 satchets of vanilla sugar (if you don't have those, you can just use vanilla essence)2 eggs
400 gr plain flour1 teaspoon baking powder
Method:
put flour with baking powder, sugar, vanilla sugar and eggs into a bowl. Add chunks of butter and flake them to crumbly consistency. Then knead briefly into a dough, make into a ball, cover the ball of dough in the bowl and put into the fridge for about 2 hours.Preheat the oven to 180 degree C. Grease a baking tray (or two) or line with baking paper. Put some flower on your work surface and take about one sixth of the dough and roll out to approximately 3mm thickness with a rolling pin. Cut out shapes, place them on a baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown (in my fan assisted oven, the larger shapes were done after 8 mins).
Now, for simple shaped biscuits, just let them cool a bit and put them into an airtight container. However, you can decorate them with icing sugar. You can also make sandwhich biscuits, such as a big circle and a smaller on top, and jam in the middle. You can dunk them into molten chocolate. Anything goes, there are no limits to your imagination!
I found the baking, especially the second half on my own, very therapeutic, calming, with a lovely rhythm to it. Considering how many tasty biscuits I have, it didn't really take that long to make them. Plus they are so much tastier than anything you can buy in the supermarket.
I found the baking, especially the second half on my own, very therapeutic, calming, with a lovely rhythm to it. Considering how many tasty biscuits I have, it didn't really take that long to make them. Plus they are so much tastier than anything you can buy in the supermarket.
Monday, 14 December 2009
The bigger picture?
Occasionally, connections can make so much sense. Over 20 years ago, I embarked on a distant learning course on Human Ecology. Just for the fun of it, I was that kind of kid. The other day, I watched Sir David Attenborough (sorry, forgot the title of his feature) ponder on population growth, the education of girls, food and oil shortage. The surprising thing was that all it did was reiterate what I learned over 20 years ago.
So here are the issues:
1. There are 7 billion people on this planet (when I took the course it was 4 billion) and we are struggling to feed them. If everyone on the world had the life style of the average Indian, we could feed 9 billion. If everyone had the lifestyle of the US, we could feed barely over 1 billion.
2. Carbon based energy will be used up in the not so distant future. Our agriculture (i.e. feeding those 7 billion) and consumer culture depend on oil.
3. World population continues to grow very fast. We will go beyond 9 billion. It's only started expanding like this in the past 150 years due to mortality rates going down. We don't want people to die of diseases, so we have to find another avenue to get back to population levels that the world can sustain.
Solutions must include as outcomes: food production to feed the growing population, severe reduction of dependency on oil, and levelling of world population.
To me, that seems to be the simplest summary of our task ahead. Now I'm looking for local solutions for this task. The documentary argued that the education of girls and young women was the biggest factor in a soft approach to population control. The higher educated girls are, the smaller their families. Education brings choice, empowerment, control over their own fertililty. Heaps better than the Chinese model.
Then look at what's happening in education to young people in the UK: disengagement, keeping head down in school, detention, exclusion. Young people for whom textbook education just doesn't cut it. Why? I don't have the answers, but I can see alternatives to education that are meaningful for young people.
A barrier to all of this is of course the way our society distributes wealth through wages. And here's where my main connection of today comes in: A Bit Rich is a report by New Economics Foundation which unveils the real value of professions for societies and compares it with the renumeration. You may argue with the nitty gritty of how they come to the "real value" but there's no doubt that the bottom line is that: We've created a society where the private and financial sector get high salaries but don't actually contribute an awful lot towards society, whereas those professions that do are paid a pittance. Often, women are to be found those in the more valuable professions (think cleaners and childcare workers) and it's also no news that maternal income is crucial in getting rid of child poverty. The cycle thus closes.
So then, we need to connect meaningful educational options with reducing reliance on fossil fuels and and increase in food production. As a step towards encouraging such sollutions, we need wages and salaries to reflect the actual contribution towards the things that matter. This is our challenge. This is not about climate change, whatever your position on this one may be. It's more about, as much as I hate to say it, survival.
It's a high task, but fear not, local changes is what we need and what we can do. Solutions can be found and I've just heard of a really exciting one so if you some clever people get their thinking hats on (there are after all 7 billion brains going about), surely there must be some great ideas floating about.
Ideas to save the world in comment box below please (I'm serious by the way!)
So here are the issues:
1. There are 7 billion people on this planet (when I took the course it was 4 billion) and we are struggling to feed them. If everyone on the world had the life style of the average Indian, we could feed 9 billion. If everyone had the lifestyle of the US, we could feed barely over 1 billion.
2. Carbon based energy will be used up in the not so distant future. Our agriculture (i.e. feeding those 7 billion) and consumer culture depend on oil.
3. World population continues to grow very fast. We will go beyond 9 billion. It's only started expanding like this in the past 150 years due to mortality rates going down. We don't want people to die of diseases, so we have to find another avenue to get back to population levels that the world can sustain.
Solutions must include as outcomes: food production to feed the growing population, severe reduction of dependency on oil, and levelling of world population.
To me, that seems to be the simplest summary of our task ahead. Now I'm looking for local solutions for this task. The documentary argued that the education of girls and young women was the biggest factor in a soft approach to population control. The higher educated girls are, the smaller their families. Education brings choice, empowerment, control over their own fertililty. Heaps better than the Chinese model.
Then look at what's happening in education to young people in the UK: disengagement, keeping head down in school, detention, exclusion. Young people for whom textbook education just doesn't cut it. Why? I don't have the answers, but I can see alternatives to education that are meaningful for young people.
A barrier to all of this is of course the way our society distributes wealth through wages. And here's where my main connection of today comes in: A Bit Rich is a report by New Economics Foundation which unveils the real value of professions for societies and compares it with the renumeration. You may argue with the nitty gritty of how they come to the "real value" but there's no doubt that the bottom line is that: We've created a society where the private and financial sector get high salaries but don't actually contribute an awful lot towards society, whereas those professions that do are paid a pittance. Often, women are to be found those in the more valuable professions (think cleaners and childcare workers) and it's also no news that maternal income is crucial in getting rid of child poverty. The cycle thus closes.
So then, we need to connect meaningful educational options with reducing reliance on fossil fuels and and increase in food production. As a step towards encouraging such sollutions, we need wages and salaries to reflect the actual contribution towards the things that matter. This is our challenge. This is not about climate change, whatever your position on this one may be. It's more about, as much as I hate to say it, survival.
It's a high task, but fear not, local changes is what we need and what we can do. Solutions can be found and I've just heard of a really exciting one so if you some clever people get their thinking hats on (there are after all 7 billion brains going about), surely there must be some great ideas floating about.
Ideas to save the world in comment box below please (I'm serious by the way!)
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