Family Breakfast & DIY Sunday

After the many disturbances I had last night, I was so pleased to have a little time to myself this morning as The Bavarian and Number 3 slept and the boys played. At 8.07am I turned on the oven and at 9.15am we sat down to breakfast together - homemade jams, sweet bread and butter.  

After breaksfast, we began our DIY Sunday. The Bavarian finished off the bathroom (photos of this large project will follow) and I put the finishing touches to our shoe closet.

Before - Tattered and shabby but with potential

 

I spotted this tattered old closet at the beginning of December. Someone was dumping it in the annual Sperrmuell collection and I couldn't resist it. Despite the rain and no-one to help me load it into the car, I managed to get it home. Over the past two weeks I have been sanding, painting, polishing and stapling and today I finally finished it off. I am delighted with how it turned out and even more delighted that our cluttered little cloakroom has now been relieved of some of its contents. 

Inside  - a sensor light
and lots of room  for shoes

After - looking pretty in
smokey blue, with new fabric
and polished handles

Saturday Night Supper & Sunday's Breakfast

Obviously, I knew life would change with children and, like many people, I underestimated it a bit. I realised that going out on a Saturday night would not be the regular occurreance it once was. But six and a half years in I find myself perched on the top step of the stairs with my laptop and a hot whiskey for company. Now THIS is definitely not how I imagined things.

The evening began normally enough and I had planned, as the title suggests, on blogging a little about tonight's supper and tomorrow's breakfast. The Bavarian put the boys to bed while I fed Number Three then put him to bed. The Bavarian wanted a bath and I wanted to write, so that's what we agreed to do. He hopped into the water, I made a hot whiskey and promptly Number Three woke screaming. It seems he wasn't too pleased with not being included in the evening's activities. So here I am attempting not too successfully to get the soother back into his little mouth before he really wakes, whisper soothing words into his ear and then return to the laptop at top of the stairs. 
Cue crying (his).
So now it is a cold whiskey and one-handed typing with a relatively content baby on my arm. But let's get back on topic...Saturday Night Supper. We spent most of this week galavanting with our visitors from home and ended up with loads of food that needed using up. In an effort to use up as much as possible, I cobbled together French bread pizzas and salad. To make the pizzas, I sliced two par-baked baguettes lengthways and spread them with creme fraiche. This I topped with freshly ground black pepper, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, grilled red peppers (recipe here)and slices of a goats cheese log. I baked them for 12 minutes at 220°C and served them with a salad I threw together while they were in the oven.
The salad consisted of lamb's lettuce tossed with the grated zest of 1/3 of a lemon, walnuts,finely sliced pear and very finely sliced fennel. Dressed with salt, pepper, sherry vinegar and my good olive oil no one else is allowed to touch, it was the highlight of the meal for me.

Considering the turn the evening took, I am very glad that I took ten minutes to get a headstart on tomorrow's breakfast. Germans love a type of sweet yeast bread plait (Hefezopf) for breakfast on Sundays  and I love making it. It is so simple but looks and tastes fantastic. Basically you throw the ingredients into the mixer with the dough hook on and give it a good old knead, then leave it to prove overnight in the fridge.

As I waited for the kettle to boil for the boys' hot water bottles, I weighed the ingredients into the mixing bowl and while I brought the hot water bottles upstairs, the dough got 6 or 7 minutes kneading. Then all I had to do was lift out the dough, oil the bowl, pop the dough back in, cover it with clingfilm and place it in the fridge. 

When I get up in the morning I just have to divide the dough in three, plait it, brush it with egg and 45 minutes later I will be sitting down to breakfast. 

P.S. The recipe will follow soon on My Kitchen Notebook 

My last yeast plait