Not a recipe post...

...but I had to share what I found in the sales a few weeks ago.

I don't speak much of the passion in this house for penguins. It started probably two years ago when we had a brilliant kid's book out from the library which outlined the life story of the Emperor penguin. At the zoo we always check out the little penguins, and the number of soft toy penguins continue to grow. Hannah is currently very taken with wearing a dress-up wedding dress, but not without her baby penguin stuffed down the front.

When I chanced upon a penguin waffle maker in the end of financial year sales (discontinued I believe and it was the last in the shop) want else could I do? More waffle recipes to come....

Hannah is now four

This year Hannah's birthday cake was much simpler, and gave no less pleasure. She's been long taken with making and drawing things with the 'rainbow' colours, and the few real rainbows that we've seen have been very exciting. So a chocolate cake, (recipe doubled) baked in a roasting dish before being carved, was the substrate, butter cream the icing and jelly beans the decoration. It accompanied tiny cup-cakes with rainbow 100's and 1000's, star biscuits and fairy bread.

For me there was a bit of a cloud over the proceedings as earlier in the week we had our annual allergy review. Counter to last years results, all the tests showed an increased response the allergens. My earlier optimism looks a little misplaced. For the first time we had all the tree nuts tested as well and it was bizarre seeing how some were as dangerous as peanut (cashew and pistachio) and others nuts produced no reaction (walnut, pine nut and macadamia). Sadly my favourite nut, the almond turns out to be one that does cause a response. The specialist suggested we continue as before - avoiding all nuts, particularly when going out as it can as otherwise it will be confusing, and we want to minimise risk. However if I wish I can introduce pine nuts, as long as I do it very cautiously (starting by touching the inside of her lip with a piece of pine nut). We asked about if or when they might be able to challenge Hannah with egg or nuts, to be told that with results lower than hers challenging can still lead to anaphylaxis, that we'd just need to wait and see.

On the positive side Hannah told me after we'd been to the local library recently, that a lady there had offered her a biscuit and Hannah had refused it saying she had allergies. Yes, I feel I was negligent not watching her every minute of our visit, (I was hunting for a book for her, so had my back to her). But she appears to now have a good enough grasp of her situation that she can act appropriately. And for that I'm grateful, and very proud of her.