Experimentation has its limits. This is the lesson I learnt last weekend while I was pretending to be a super chef plotting the preparation of a recipe which would revolutionary modern cuisine as we know it. Oblivious to all reason, I wanted to innovate in a field in which I am not particularly adept, experiencing consistent and resounding failure: biscuit making.

Things were as follows.

Pate, Potato and Mushrooms Stuffed Aubergines

My other half and I have been wondering about buying a house for quite a long time now. We would like to have our very own space, our refuge. We would like to have that special place to build up family memories, to see our children grow, to grow older together. We dream of each room in it: which colour the walls will be, which kind of handles the kitchen units will have, whether or not blue is a good colour for the boys’ bedroom. Decisions, decisions.

We have been visiting some properties. Masses of properties actually. Some nice, some not really, and some that should have made the estate agents feel embarrassed of showing. Over the last couple of years we haven’t found that house that has made us think "that´s the one". Until a couple of weeks ago, when we visited one that ticked all the boxes, including maybe the most tricky one: the budget.

So we started the ball rolling and have come across the most painful, tedious, bureaucratic and long-winded process ever.

Life Changing Pancakes

Next week is Shrove Tuesday, or most commonly known as Pancake Day. This is something completely new to us that has been, however, rapidly incorporated into our family save-the-date calendar.

Before living in the UK not only had we never celebrated pancake day, but also I can´t remember preparing pancakes myself ever. Not that I don´t like them, but blame the pan, blame the recipe, I have only managed to prepare lumpy, chewy, bland and shapeless pancakes. So last year, to celebrate our first Pancake Day I bought one of those already made mixes (shame on me) that did the job but that´s it.

Valentine´s Heart Throbs

Thank you. I have so many things to be grateful for. Before meeting you I always laughed about love at first sight. And then it happened to me, with the most unexpected individual in the most mysterious way. Love is a strange thing, isn’t it? And there I was. Disoriented. Stunned. Bewildered. Like a fool, trying to make you realise I was there. We were really good friends. We laughed and shared our problem-free lives. We drank and danced and talked and walked through every single street of the city. We shared coconut wafers. We discovered the most amazing songs and went to every concert. We played board games. We discussed every single subject and we put the world to rights time and time again. And at some points I felt so scared of how perfect life was that I wanted to spoil it just to check I was still alive. I must admit I did it, trying to lessen the dizziness.