Lauren knows exactly what she wants to be when she grows up. Sometimes it's a vet, sometimes a teacher, sometimes an actor. And, do you know, I could see her in any of those roles. As a vet, the caring and nurturing side of Lauren comes to the fore. The teacher indulges her tendency to bossiness (wonder who she gets that from?). And, as anyone who knows Lauren will tell you, she is the ultimate drama queen.
This week it's the turn of famous chef. As I think about it, this role brings all three of these traits together albeit somewhat tenuously. Here she aspires to delight patrons with her culinary genius (the caring side). She has already devised the format of her own cookery show (drama queen) and when we are in kitchen - as we often are - she patiently explains what we are doing as we go along. She the expert (teacher), I the captivated audience.
Friday evening found her pouring over a selection of recipe books, looking for recipies she wants to try. Tongue set between teeth in concentration, she painstakingly copied the recipies into a note book.
Finally, after much deliberation, she settled on these mini banana muffins. They are absolutely delicious, transforming a couple of old bananas that would have been thrown away into the squidgiest, moistest muffins you can imagine.
Here is the recipe, inspired by Nigella, lovingly recreated by Lauren.
2 over ripe bananas
65ml vegetable oil
1 egg
125g plain flour
50g caster sugar
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
75g white chocolate chunks
Oven 200c/gas 6
Combine the flour, sugar, bicarbonate and baking power in a bowl
Beat the egg into the oil, and then mix into the dry ingredients
Mash the bananas and add them into the mix
Finally, fold in the chocolate chunks
Divide the mixture between 12 cake cases and bake for 20 minutes
It feels like spring has arrived in our corner of Bedfordshire. The evenings are surely lengthening and the temperature has risen - even if only by a degree or two. Finally, after what seems an interminable winter, we have seen the sun.
And so, a regular vistor to our garden has returned. The intrepid squirrel has emerged from the cozy drey where he has sheltered from the worst of the winter weather. Day after day he launches his raids upon the bird feeder, plundering the nuts it contains. But no easy lunch, this. Encased in an impenetrable wire mesh, I had thought the nuts safe from his clutches. How patient, how persistent this wily looter who has prized apart the mesh wires to create an opening just wide enough to emit the peanuts one by one.
I know the grey squirrel is considered a pest and notorious for displacing the native red. But we love to watch the antics of our high wire marauder. He leaps from tree bough to tree bough, scampers across the shed roof, sprints with breathtaking balance along the fence top, before performing his finale. Like a trapeze artist this hungry (or greedy) acrobat anchors himself by the tail and enjoys his lunch.
My daughter, Lauren, is a confirmed tomboy. Nothing pink, nothing girly in our house. At age three I was ordered to put all the dolls up in the loft, never to see the light of day again. I got them out of the loft a couple of months ago ready to sell them off at a car-boot sale. She played with one or two of them for about half an hour. Did she want to keep them, I wondered? "Oh no, please sell them, I don't want them, they're too girly for me" was the determined reply. So off they went to the car-boot sale.
Last week Lauren received an invitation to a friend's birthday party - with a Pirates and Princesses theme. Knowing full well what the answer would be, I asked innocently whether she would like to go as a Pirate or a Princess. Imagine my surprise when "I'd like to think about it" came back after a moment or two of intense consideration. Intrigued, I posed the same question again a few days later "I'm still thinking about it...." was her immediate response.
On Sunday, while out shopping for new school shoes, Lauren suddenly leaned over towards me, rather conspiratorially, looked around to make sure no one could overhear. "I've made a decision.....I'd like to go as (looking around again)...a princess..." And she looked at me, as if to see if that would be ok.
Is my little girl finally turning into a little girl? I'm not entirely convinced. Let's wait and see.
