It's cold

We took a walk this afternoon to road test the new push-chair - which met with a resounding seal of approval from all.  Easy to push, fold, etc (me - with the boring requirements), can see each other and sit smiling away with their own 'in jokes' (the boys).  The down side was it's been a cold day and the eldest wasn't wrapped up quite as well as he probably should have been, my scarf was hastily used to keep his hands warm (yep, forgot his hat and gloves).  

This evening we had a culinary fest thanks to the inspiration (and directions) of Julia Childs.  I've had her book for years, and never had the courage to cook anything from it, so after a few weeks of deciding what to make, I kicked off with Coq au Vin followed by Clafoutis.  Scrummy.  I spent the precious afternoon children's nap time getting it all ready - and I already have guilt of not having quite done things correctly - the onions were only sautéed, not brown braised, the chicken wasn't flambeed before going into the casserole and to make matters worse, I got confused when measuring out my wine and stock, resorting to topping up the wine with mulled wine left over from Christmas.  My husband asked if I should be cooking, he had a point... I did make sure I followed the sub-recipe about how to sauté mushrooms, and yes, I learnt something from that - if you have too many mushrooms in the pan, they steam rather than sauté, but I didn't use the enamel frying pan as instructed. I feel a little as if I've let the book and recipe down. However, the waist lines are a little bit larger this evening, aided by the sheer amount of butter used, but my it was a lovely dinner.