This week I feel in a huge need of  cake. Specifically cheese cake. I really cant get enough of the stuff.

I've been sampling cheesecake from every single bakery I've found. No kidding!

Oh my gosh, I really need to stop!!

On Wednesday, I woke up at 2.30am after being tossing and turning as if I were trying to heave a sack of potatoes from side to side of the bed for hours. I finally decided to get up for a wee which ended up being a major pillow moving event.

Spiced Apple Bundt Cake

Dear Quique,

You are five.

It sounds like such a big boy age.  This year you´ve started school.  I don’t understand how time went by so quickly. It seems like yesterday when we found out that I was pregnant, and I cried, and dad cried, because we were so happy that you chosen us as your family.

Since that day, I love you in this almost painful, indescribable way. I love to kiss your soft cheeks and smell your head. I love the way you talk to me. I love your crazy games that can take for hours to finish. They are absolutely amazing and I would like to play them every single day of my life.

Apple, Capers & Anchovies Potato Salad

I am and have always been an eager reader. I think I learned to read before I could walk, and I have been swallowing book after book since I can remember.

I enjoy reading pretty much anything with pages. But if I had to choose a literary genre I would choose children's literature without a doubt.

Over the years, I´ve put together a huge collection of children´s books. And I must admit that most of times I pretend I´m buying them for the boys (although then I write "Paloma" in the "this book belongs to...." page).

Kale, Quinoa & Mango Salad

Why do kids who have hard time waking up during school days, wake up early during weekends?

We live quite close to my son's school, so I normally wake them up by around 7.45 am which is not bad. It is really hard for the, to wake up at 7.45 even though they go to bed around 8pm. That is almost 12 hours' sleep!! I can't even remember the last time I slept more than 7 hours in a row...

It’s a different story over the weekends though. They wake up and get up at 6:30 like an atomic clock, every Saturday and Sunday. No matter how late they go the bed. It’s a futile effort to try to convince them, by saying ‘they can sleep as much as they want on weekends’ at bedtime. On the other hand, I am programmed to wake up when I hear them and really have hard time going back to sleep.

Apple & Frankfurters Muffins

We've been back from holidays for over a week now. Our luggage is still sitting in the living room. Next to a mountain of washing, a few empty sun cream bottles and some beach toys.

I wonder whether we want to keep the holiday dream alive or we are just lazy.

Salmon, Leek and Apple Fish Cakes

A couple of days ago I discussed with my sister how people tend to have one sense more developed than the others. For example, her hearing sense is a lot more sensible than  her sight, touch, smell and taste. She told me that she can experience strong and deep feelings by listening to a song.

And then I realised that my smell and taste sense are my most developed senses. I presume they are quite interconnected. 

It is not uncommon for me to walk into a bakery and take a deep breath. It is also not unusual – although some people do find it more than a little strange and disconcerting – to find me walking out of the place with bag of freshly baked bread in front of my face as I sniff it.

Tufahija, Bosnian Poached Apples

I love travelling. I have always been passionate about discovering new places, meeting new people and getting lost in the world. I used to travel with no much organisation, apart from a round-trip ticket (sometimes not even that!), a backpack and a Lonely Planet.

One of the best things about travelling is discovering new foods. I'm the kind of person that looks for the less touristy looking place, and asks for the most bizarre stuff in the menu.

This has ended up with me eating bats with spaghetti, venison tongue, beef brains or crispy intestines. I must admit they were all quite nice. The trick is not to ask what you are actually eating until you've finished your plate.

Mini Apple Rose Tarts

Hi. I’m still here. Feeling a bit rubbish, to be perfectly honest. Last week I missed a recipe. Technically I really didn't. I cooked it, I took really nice pictures for you. It was indeed a very nice and easy one I specially baked for you all. But then, life happened, and I couldn’t publish it.

I was left without internet. 

I must admit it was quite tough at the beginning. I was not sure I could cope without internet. I spent the first day asking constantly: how has the human being survived so many years without internet? I went desperately from hotspot to hotspot, fighting with endless registration process in exchange for just a weak signal not even able to download a humble picture.

So I threw the towel. No mobile, no Facebook, no Twitter, no Pinterest… no blog. And only when I was starting to recover from the shock, I got six of one and half a dozen of the other.

Frankfurters & Apple Muffins

Lunch time in an office is one of the most interesting moments to take part in from an anthropological point of view. You can learn a lot from people by looking at their eating habits.

From my experience over quite a few years in different office environments, I would say that there are 6 types of people:

Custard Apple Cake

During my “pre-children” life I had a perfectly formed Idea of the kind of mum I was going to be, the kind of things I was going to do and it was crystal clear how confused and wrong the other parents were with their children. It seemed so easy to bring up the other people’s kids.

 

When my big son was born, I spent the first three months of his life debating whether or not I should put him in his crib. I had heard so many scary things about co-sleeping and I was so pushed not to do it by everyone that I felt I was doing something really horrible to my baby. And it was such a shock to realize that it was me who was confused and wrong.

Apple & Cinnamon Straws

This week I have been feeling a bit crummy. This is something I am not really used to.

And I must confess I cannot stand it. Feeling sick, looking sick, not being able to do what you want to do or even what you need to do is something that overwhelms me. 

I try to use all sort of strategies to let my body know that it must get well as fast as it can. I try to carry on trying not to be bothered by the faintness. I try to convince myself: you are not ill. You are definitely not ill. Like a mantra.