Sunday 4 November 2007

It's My Birthday and other things

It's my birthday
They come around far too quickly these days
My husband Alan is buying me a tripod for my camera
The long delay on some of the menu settings cause hand shake so I thought this would be a good idea
My son has bought me an external hard drive for my computer
I will now be able to just hook into any computer and have all my own stuff there as well as back up everything on my computer
I do not want to repeat the scenario I had when my last computer crashed
My daughter Jane bought me my favourite Eden Belgium chocolates plus an enormous sized bottle of Origins Spearmint and Lemon Hand Lotion plus Michael Palin's latest book
The New Europe
I have been watching the series on TV and have copied it onto DVD and now I can read about it and enjoy the photographs
I appreciate all of these gifts plus the chocolates from friends
Everybody seems to know that I am a Belgium Chocoholic
Actually these will probably last until Christmas as I limit myself to two per night
Alan also treated me to a delicious speciality ready meal from Marks and Spencers so that I did not have to cook and at the meeting this morning there was a Belgium chocolate and caramel birthday cake
What more could a girl ask for
Yesterday Jane and Chris came over for the day with dear little Oliver
He is 15 months old now
I made some cake that I thought would suit Oliver
It was very moorish if you have a sweet tooth so I will leave you the recipe
It is a children's recipe where the author likes to make sure that her recipes are not just empty calories but nourishing ingredients too

Everyone enjoyed it including me whose hand of course was on the camera
I'm sure you can easily guess whose hand belongs to who



Rice Krispie Squares

100g white chocolate 75g unsalted butter
75g golden syrup 60 g Rice Krispies
60g porridge oats 50g chopped dried apricots
30g pecans, finely chopped

Melt together chocolate, butter and syrup.
In a large bowl mix together rice krispies, oats, apricots and pecans
Stir in melted chocolate mixture

Line a fairly shallow 8 inch square baking tin
Spoon mixture into tin and level surface
Place in fridge to set and cut into squares

Store in fridge. Makes 9 squares
Having been asked by "Midlife Cycler" if I could convert to American Cups, here is the nearest I can manage. Fortunately I do have an American cup measure.
Apricots 8 Pecans 1/2 cup Chocolate 3 3/4ozs Butter 2 3/4ozs
Syrup 1/4 cup Krispies 2 1/2 cups Oats 2/3rds cup
I was so excited last night, I was able to get Page Elements up
Not only that but it uploaded more photos to my sidebar
I have been having problems with this for months
I would be lucky if I could get it to load once in a week
Getting the sidebar picture download was almost impossible
I don't know if this is an issue that blogger has fixed or that being Saturday night it was a quiet time
especially as it was the nearest Saturday to Guy Fawkes
(more of that tomorrow)
Anyhow I was reluctant to close it down in case I could not get it again
So I used it some more and loaded some Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter photos
I was determined to get some use of it!

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Barbara, hope you have a wonderful year.

Maddy
www.madelinedunster.com

Willow said...

Happy Birthday, Barbara! Wishing you many, many more wondeful years.

Philip Sinclair said...

Happy Birthday, Barbara.

P

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday wishes from Switzerland too!
Barbara

Sara at Come Away With Me said...

Happy Birthday to you, Barbara! It is amazing how fast they come around these days, isn't it!

It's good to be alive and have something to celebrate, and family to celebrate it with. You are blessed.

I am looking forward to continuing our blog friendship over the year ahead and wish you all the best!

Paula said...

Happy Birthday! Oliver sure is a cutie.

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday Barbara. It looks like you got lots of nice gifts.

someone else said...

Happy Birthday!

Midlife Cycler said...

Oh...Happy Happy Happy Birthday!

And for those of us who do not have conversion chart in our pocket, can you do the recipe in cups and tablespoons ?? thank you...it looks like a great little recipe!

Jody

Lorrie said...

Lots of birthdays in blogland! Happy birthday to you, dear Barbara from the west coast of Canada. May the year ahead be filled with many rich blessings.

Lorrie

Tina said...

Dear Barbara!
A bit belated but I want to wish you a happy birthday, and also wish you all the happiness and love you deserve. Hope your life is always filled with peace, health and belgium chocolate! :)
Take care. x

a woman who is said...

Happy Birthday Barbara! Was that your grandson? He is adorable. I have just had my first grandchild, 2 months old now. She is a constant wonder to me.

Lovely pictures.

I had good luck using Flicker for my sidebar pictures.

Susan said...

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BARBARA. Sorry I'm late. Life around our house is hectic, hectic and it has been hard for me to read blogs and even my posting is hit and miss.
((hugs))
Susan

Chyrll said...

Happy Birthday!

Thank you for entering in my winter giveaway!

Nonnie said...

Happy Birthday! Sounds like you had a lovely day. The recipe sounds like a good one to try. I think my 2 year old nephew would enjoy it..

Linds said...

I am late, but Happy Birthday! It sounds as if you had a great day, Barbara!

TO BECOME said...

Sorry, I am late wishes you A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I know it was very special because I saw the picutures. Your grandson is so handsome. Happy Birthday, again. connie from Texas

May you have many more.

Vee said...

Skidding in to wish you a belated birthday. It'll just have to be your birthday week. :) It certainly looked as if you had a fun day. Is Oliver a grandson? He is such a handsome little fellow!

Anonymous said...

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Barbara! Your celebrations sounded just lovely and your presents very practical to your modern life with computers.

Linda said...

Happy belated birthday Barbara. I know you will enjoy your tripod. Now, if only I could always remember to take mine with me.