Now I have a new cooker or in other words a cooker that works, I am wanting to try some new recipes and as I said in my goals for 2016 post, I am going to try a new recipe every week . . . last year my auntie got some of my family to send her some recipes that they thought I would like and put them together into a folder for me, so the first new recipe comes from that folder and last week I tried Ruth's Leek and Bacon Pie.

first you need to make some puff pastry

EASY PUFF PASTRY

125g plain flour (plus extra for rolling)
140g butter
1/4 tsp salt
60ml cold water

1. Place the flour and salt into a mixing bowl.
2. Cut the butter into small pieces and put into the bowl with the flour.
3. With your hands, rub the butter into the flour until the pieces of butter are no bigger than peas (do not be tempted to rub the butter in fully)
4. Add the water and mix with a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a dough.
5. Sprinkle flour onto the work surface and your rolling pin and roll out the pastry into a long rectangle.
6. Fold 1/3 of the rectangle over the middle 1/3 of the pastry and the final 1/3 over the other 2/3rds.
7. Lift the pastry, turn 90 degrees and roll out into a long rectangle and repeat steps 5-7 several times.
8. Place folded pastry square into a bowl, cover with clingfilm and place in the fridge to rest for an hour.
9. Roll pastry into the desired shape.
10. Bake at 220C or Gas Mark 7 unless the recipe tells you otherwise (eg. for a pie, Gas 5/180C)

LEEK AND BACON PIE (serves 4)

250g ready made puff pastry
250g bacon
4 leeks, sliced
75g butter
2 Tbsp plain flour
400ml milk
sprinkle of nutmeg
large handful of grated cheese
black pepper

1. Preheat oven to Gas Mark 5 or 180C
2. Roll puff pastry into the required shape for your pie dish, 0.5cm thick on a lightly floured work surface.
3. Place the bacon into a frying pan and gently fry for 5 mins.
4. Add the sliced leeks and saute for another 5 mins.
5. Make the cheeses sauce - melt the butter on a low heat. Stir in the flour until it makes a thick paste. Add the milk slowly, constantly whisking while gently heating.
6. Eventually the sauce will begin to thicken so add the nutmeg and black pepper. Continue stirring until it is the required consistency.
7. Place the cooked leeks and bacon and grated cheese into the bottom of a pie dish and pour over the white sauce.
8. Place the pastry on top of the dish, tucking in the edges of the pastry.
9. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown. 

This was a really delicious meal. I made it with mashed potatoes and will definitely be making it again. You could half the amount of leeks and add potatoes or other veg instead too. I also made it in a Pyrex casserole dish as didn't have a pie dish and to be honest it needed to be that big to fit it all in.

9 months in me, 9 months outside of me.
today my boy is 9 months old!
I have been meaning to write his birth story for the last 9 months, but like with so much of my blogging since he has been born, it has not got done!!
so much of it feels like it was only yesterday and yet it also feels like a dream. I don’t want to forget it ... so writing it is for me, so I can look back and remember.

I was born at home, so always wanted the same when I had a baby but as I got older I thought it would be less likely that I would be allowed. I thought at 38 I would be too old, but my midwife said I could if I wanted. I had a pretty painful time the 4/5 months before Billy was born. I had PPGP (pregnancy pelvic girdle pain) this meant that pretty much every position was painful apart from being propped up in bed. I couldn’t sit, go in the car, walk or lye on my side. It meant I was pretty house-bound and I just hobbled around the house holding on to the furniture. I went to my anti-natal classes, physio and do a weekly shop but that was about it and I would pay for them for the rest of the day and night. I went to bed at about 5 as it was too painful to be up much longer. Bed wasn’t much better as it was painful on my sides and you are not meant to sleep on your back when pregnant. I’m not writing this to complain, as although it was horrid at the time and I cried with the pain a lot, its to explain why Steve didn’t want me to have a home birth. He had seen the pain I was in and living so far from the hospital, he wanted me to have the best help I could if something went wrong. I was desperate not to go to Hereford hospital, which is about 40 miles away, but was happy to go to Knighton birthing centre, about 14 miles away, a midwife led-unit and had a birthing pool which is meant to be good if you have PPGP.

So that was the plan ... if all went well, to go to Knighton, have him in the birthing pool with a little gas and air and maybe stay there for a few hours after before coming home. My mum and Steve would be with me and although I secretly dreamed of a home birth, I needed Steve to be happy ... he was going to be my rock and the calmer and more relaxed he was, then the easier it would be for me. Steve’s niece booked her wedding 2 days before he was due, and as it would be in Knighton we joked that if I went into labour during the wedding, at least I would be near the birthing centre! I knew I couldn’t worry about the birth, what was going to happen, was going to happen. You can’t really plan a birth. I knew I just had to trust God ... but I think I transferred my worry onto the dogs ... I was quite worried about them ... what if I did have to go to Hereford and was away for a few days ... would the dogs be ok?? Stupid I know, but that's how my mind worked!! I was also worried about not having my midwife ... I know chances of having her were small as she would probably not be on duty or if she was, called out to someone else ... but I really wanted her not some stranger.

The drive over to Knighton for the wedding was painful enough, sitting on a Church pew and a hard chair for the meal killed me and by 6 O’Clock I was ready to come home and go to bed, but it had been a lovely wedding and I was glad I had made it. I knew I would suffer that night but the back ache that started at 4 in the morning was different ... I knew it had started! 

just a warning ... there will be details of a birth next so if you don’t like talk of blood etc, then stop now ;)

at 5.30am ish I went to the loo and passed some blood. It was old blood, brown in colour, not bright red ... I hadn’t expected that so I phoned through to the Brecon Midwives, which is what we were told to do. I was told, that was fine, quite normal. Labour was probably starting, may happen today, may happen the tomorrow, but to try and get as much rest now as possible ... so I went back to bed and managed to doze till about 10am. The back ache had eased a bit by then. I text my mum at some point, warning her that I need to her to be ready!! I went over to my parents-in-law, who live next door and she made me a slice of cheese on toast for lunch as although I wasn’t hungry, she said I needed to eat! we relaxed there for a couple of hours, chatting about the wedding the day before and looking at the photos we had on our phones.

by 3 o’clock the cramps had started up again and by 3.30 I had a strong feeling that I just wanted to go home. I was uncomfortable and knew I just needed to be at home.

at 4, I passed the ‘show’ or what is also known as ‘the mucus plug!’ (lovely term!!) and the contractions started ... 5 minutes apart ... I timed them for about 40 minutes ... just to be sure! and then phoned the Breacon Midwives again! I spoke to Jessica, the midwife on duty who said she would be over to assess me. I asked if I could have a couple of paracetamol and she said yes. I text my mum to let her know what was going on.

Jessica arrived just before 6 and examined me. She was lovely, very chilled and put both me and Steve at ease. I was 5cm dilated. She felt my tummy and asked if I was sure I was due the following day ... I had quite a small bump, but that's because I had carried Billy very low. I had had to go for extra scans because he was small, but it was all ok.
She asked why we wanted to go to Knighton, when we would be much more comfortable here at home. She had everything here with her that we would have at Knighton apart from the birthing pool, and it would only be her at Knighton anyway. Also the half an hour journey to the birthing centre would be very uncomfortable for me and would probably stop the contractions for a while and delay it all. I couldn’t believe it when Steve agreed! it was what I had wanted all along, I couldn’t be happier. I think her saying it, put Steve at ease about it all.

contractions continued every 5-6 minutes, She and Steve rubbed my back, got me water, chatted between contractions about farming and local people they knew ... I breathed, closed my eyes moved around the living house leaning on what ever furniture was near!
at about 7 ish she examined me again, but when I got up from the bed, I threw up ... all over the bed and myself! We don’t have a spare duvet, Steve popped over to his mums but they didn’t either, so he phoned my mum, she was going to come over anyway, so he asked her to bring one. I had a shower and changed into my nightie.

my mum arrived at about 8. my dad bought her, but he didn’t stay long as he didn’t want to get in the way and our house is only little. I was still leaning on furniture when the contractions came, and sipping lots of water. At about 9, I asked if I could have some more paracetamol, which I had. After that I moved into the bedroom so I could rest a bit on the bed. At 10pm I was fully dilated and I had the desire to push ... which I did ... my waters broke. I am still amazed at how little mess there was ... they must have some very absorbent sheet things! She phoned another midwife then, as home births require 2 midwives, one for the mother and one for the baby. She didn’t arrive though for another hour. Sometime in that hour my nighty had come off ... maybe I was hot, but it is funny how you really don’t care! at one point she suggested I went to sit on the loo as a change of position may help ... our tiny little bathroom had me sitting on the loo ... the midwife kneeling in front of me, steve to the side holding my hand and my mum in the door way!

once back in the bedroom, I was pushing with every contraction, this seemed to go on forever. The midwives were really encouraging though, and Steve said after that he had never had 4 women in his bedroom before! ... nothing seemed to be moving or changing, but it must have been, as soon there was ‘I can see his head.’ She held up a mirror for me to see ... he had dark hair! Steve had been sitting on the bed behind me holding my hands and my mum to the side, mopping my forehead with a damp flannel and giving me sips of water between each contraction. Although having had 5 children of her own, she had never seen a birth from that end! Then it came the big one, the big push and his head popped out. the cord was round his neck but she quickly flipped it off and I had a head poking out between my legs ... I saw him, he made the cutest little squeak like noise and she held up the mirror so I could see. It was just before midnight. she told me to wait until the urge to push came again ... it felt ages ... like 5 minutes, but it probably wasn’t ... and I pushed and then there he was, perfect. she placed him on me and I just couldn’t believe that it was all over. He was born on midnight of the morning of his due date. She said we could pick which day was his birthday as they can’t put down 12 midnight, so we picked the 20th, which was the day he was due.


He lay on me, Steve took a couple of photos and popped over to his mum and dad to show them. The midwife was checking the cord and I can’t remember how long it was, about 20 mins I think, and I then pushed out the placenta. Steve cut the cord. The other midwife went into the bathroom to check the placenta, make sure it was all there. I sent mum in to watch as I wanted to know what they do! Everything was ok, so she then took Billy and weighed him and checked him while Jessica sewed me up (I had a 2nd degree tear) Billy was amazingly perfect, babies on TV seem to be born covered with blood, white stuff and very purple, billy came out with surprisingly little blood and no white stuff at all. He hadn’t cried or screamed, just made sweet little squeaking noises :) After they checked and weighed him Steve and probably my mum too had a cuddle while I had a shower. The other midwife left and I settled back in bed fed him. Steve lay beside me while mum chatted to the midwife in the living room. She had lots of paperwork to do and it took her 2 hours. Steve dozed beside me while Billy fed, an hour on each side. I think I text everyone ... sorry if I woke you all up.

Mum asked her why she hadn’t given me gas and air, I hadn’t realised but it was on the pillow next to me the whole time, and she said I was doing so well without it, she didn’t think I needed it. She said having PPGP usually made the birth easier as everything down there is already loosened up ... so the one good side to PPGP is it was a fairly quick labour :) She said that next time it would probably only be 3 hours from start to finish so we had better book it in now!

... and the dogs, well I needn't have worried. they were out on the decking the whole time! Steve took out Dilly’s bed for her so she was warm enough. He said she howled while I was actually pushing, but I don’t remember.


Jessica left at 3am and we settled down for our first night as a family of 3 ... well 5 including the dogs (plus mum in the room next door)

I know I have been totally blessed with a pretty dream like birth and I still can’t believe how lucky I was. I continued to have physio for my PPGP every week or so till Billy was 6 months old and have exercises to do for the rest of my life and will probably have the same in another pregnancy, but it was worth it, Billy is the little one I have waited for my whole life and I can’t believe he is 9 months old

2015 was an amazing year, but I must admit, time seems to fly by when you have a baby and things I planned to get done are not!

so instead of resolutions, I am setting myself some goals for this year ...

we used our Christmas money to go towards a new cooker ... it had been very disheartening trying to cook when the oven only had one temperature and the grill didn't work. its ok for a short while, but after 2 years I was so ready for a working cooker!! ..... so I want to try one new recipe every week! wish me luck!!


finish decorating! last autumn I set myself a challenge to get it done by Christmas ... got a lot done, but there are a few little bits to finish off and I am determined to get them done!

dilly and timber ... they have been sadly neglected of late ... don't get me wrong, they are loved and fed, but this horrid weather and the fact we seem to have been constantly ill over the autumn means that walks have been short or not always every day ... they can have a good run around in the garden, but its not the same so we need to get back into a good routine with them.

do up dora ... back in 2014 Steve bought me an old caravan to do up and use as a work room ... I love her but apart from being pretty much gutted and a work bench being half built in her, she has just been used a storage place since billy-boy was born. this year I want to crack on with her ... I have a carpet, the paint and the fabric for the curtains ... I need to wait for a little less rain, but I can't wait to start!

and there is the one that is always on my list, lose a bit of weight ... the annoying thing was, when I was pregnant I didn't put any weight on apart from a little at the end, but since I've been breast-feeding, its a constant battle to not put on, let alone lose any ... but here's hoping!!

so I know they are late and most people are well into their resolutions/goals but I do feel like I'm am only just getting into 2016 ... so here they are! good luck with any you are setting your self x