Back to School!

Well, that's the summer holidays over for another year for me and the kids. I can't believe how quickly the weeks have passed till we're back to 7am wake-ups, grey tights and gingham dresses and - *weary sigh* - packed lunches!

Macaroni salad with cherry plum toms, cukes, red pepper spears, slices of Vegan Dad's homemade sausages made with brown lentils and a tublet of egg-free salad cream.

On her first day back McGonnagle tripped-over during an exuberant game in the playground and broke her fall with her face.

I consoled her with the knowledge that active people get hurt more often - like athletes, runners, judo blackbelts, mountain climbers... she brightened up considerably at this information.

Meanwhile, Ho-Tep and I are on a countdown.

Stinker

Next Thursday he starts nursery for two and a half hours a day, five days a week. My mornings will be free again - Yay! Our Harold and Maude moments will become fewer - Boo. On the bright side, I haven't been swimming in three years - well I have, but only 'with-kids' swimming, not proper adult solo lane swimming - so this is my chance to return to the pool in earnest. My old swimming bag is already packed in anticipation. I used to be a very keen swimmer, I swam most lunchtimes at work and when pregnant with Ho-Tep I was swimming up to and over my due date as I had a sneaking suspicion my window of opportunity would disappear in a puff of smoke once he was born! I found it very calming and relaxing, not to mention a neat way of re-energising myself for the afternoon ahead. I can't wait till I can make it a regular part of my routine again. In the meantime I'm enjoying my time alone with him. The other day we spotted a red admiral which had alighted on his life-jacket.

It was as big as Ho-Tep's hand and very taken with the blue fabric of his swimming aid. We had to go and photograph it. So bright and beautiful.

We've also been amassing a fierce collections of twigs, leaves and dandelions stems on our walks to and from McGonnagle's school. I feel a nature table coming on... (^_^)
My baking life has been basic and founded on necessity. I stewed some home-grown rhubarb in brown sugar the other weekend and once we'd eaten its tart goodness all up with creamy sweet custard, I was left with about three to four tablespoons of rhubarb syrup at the bottom of the pan. As it was Sunday night and I had a lunch to pack for the following morning, I quickly put together some rhubarb buns. I adapted a recipe in 'Eating For Victory' for raspberry buns and replaced the tot of raspberry jam rolled into the bun with rhubarb syrup. These were really nice and made a great lunchtime treat alongside some chopped fruit for McGonnagle.

I also had a couple of funky lemons and a funky orange at the bottom of my fruitbowl that I decided to use-up before they ran off and started up a Funkadelic tribute band. Someone out there in the vegan blogosphere recently made lemon bars - I'm sorry, it escapes my fuzzy memory who - and I couldn't get the idea out of my head. I've never had lemon bars before but the idea just sounded so right to me. So I made lemon-orange variation on the lemon bars from 'The Joy of Vegan Baking'.

Phwoarrr!

I think I slightly overcooked them - as I say I've never eaten these before - but I don't care as the chewy caramel glaze that developed as a result was AMAZING.
I didn't dredge the bars with icing sugar as the recipe suggested as these babies are a fingerlick away from diabetes-inducing anyway, so I figured they were sweet enough. McGonnagle wasn't keen but Ho-Tep and I enjoyed these immensely. So good. So so good.
Well, I hope you all have a good weekend - I'm off to make some roasted summer veg risotto for our tea.