Candied Orange Slices in Chocolate

Happy Christmas everyone! I hope you had a lovely time with your family, with plenty of delicious food and quality time! Our Christmas was definitely different this year. It was our first Christmas with our daughter! This year we decided that, for various reasons, we wouldn't really do presents for each other - for the little one only, of course! We decided we would MAKE presents! This way it is more personal and, yes, much cheaper! So what is fairly Christmassy and yet delicious and easy to make? Chocolate? Flavoured, maybe? With oranges? hmmm. How about some candied oranges dipped in chocolate? Genius!

Makes between 70-90 (depending on thickness of slices)

5 oranges (good quality)
2 cups of water
31/2 cups of granulated sugar (we used demerara and it worked fine too)
150g of good quality dark chocolate (not too bitter, as you need a bit of sweetness to counteract the bitter orange)

Cut the oranges in half (we found cutting across the navel worked better). Then take each half and place it on its flat side down. Cut slices lengthwise - along the direction of the orange segments (use a very sharp knife so you don't squeeze all the juice out). The thickness of the slices should be between 2-4 mm.Discard the ends that don't have any orange in them.Continue until all oranges are sliced.

Add the water and the sugar to a pan and bring to the boil, making sure you stir to dilute the sugar. Add the orange slices and lower the heat to a gentle simmer. Leave them to simmer for an hour, stirring carefully every now and then, to make sure all slices are in the syrup.

Remove the slices after an hour and lay on greaseproof paper, making sure they are separated and don't stick to each other. You can use the syrup for another dish if you like, or discard. Leave the oranges slices to dry out for 24hours, or place them in the oven on a very low temperature (30 degrees) for a few hours to help them dry out faster.

Once dried (they are still a little sticky and not hard, but there is no liquid running off them), melt the chocolate in a bowl over some simmering water. Dip each orange slice half way in the chocolate and lay on another piece of greaseproof paper to harden - this takes about 2-3 hours in a cool kitchen. Now they are ready to eat or package for your loved ones. Keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Chickpea Soup with Chorizo

It has been a busy few weeks again. We are moving house soon and organising packing, moving and everything becomes quite hard with a baby. In fact, everything becomes harder with a baby. But I assume it gets easier again, eventually. In some ways at least! I must say, though, however much people 'warn' you before you have a child about how different your life will be, I don't think you can really comprehend it all until it actually happens!

Something that has been very affected by having a child is cooking. I no longer have hours available to cook. So all my recipes at the moment seem to be fairly quick and easy things. Still, I think there is a demand for quick and easy recipes (and cheap in some occasions). So chickpeas it is, again!

I do like them as an ingredient, they are filling, flavoursome and go with a load of different things. And they are cheap, especially in this economic climate and all!

Serves 2 plus a little extra

2 tins of chickpeas
1 onion, chopped
2 tomatoes (skinned - put in boiling water for 30seconds and peel)
300-500ml of water or vegetable stock
handfull of chopped parsley
100g of chorizo, chopped
Salt and pepper

Fry off the chopped onion. Once softened, add the chickpeas and the chopped tomatoes. Add 300ml of water or vegetable stock. Cover and simmer over a low heat for 15-20 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once softened, blitz it to a soup (add more liquid if you want it less thick). In the meantime fry off the chorizo pieces. Serve in bowls and top with the chopped parsley and the the fried chorizo. Drizzle with the chorizo oil.

Part-time Jobs for Mums...Please!

I am sat here, with my bowl of yoghurt and blueberries (I got jealous of Missy's breakfast), feeling a little disappointed and angry. Time for a mini rant, I think... I am only now having my breakfast, despite the fact that I have been up since 7.30, because I turned my computer on pretty much the moment Missy left for the childminder, trying to find a job.

Looking for jobs, is a job in its self. It is stressful, time consuming and very frustrating. Looking for a part-time job, as a new mum is pretty much impossible; I should know, I have been doing it for almost two months now. Well, it seems to be impossible in my area of work; Architecture and Urban Design. Please let me know if I am wrong and I will happily accept it (if you do so, please tell me the company you are thinking of, so that I can apply!). And before you think or say it, yes I am looking in other areas of work as well. Admin, Marketing, Business Development etc. There seem to be no part time jobs for professionals!

The only luck I have had, has been through applying for full time positions. On the few interviews I have managed to get, the moment my '4 day a week' issue crops up I am out of the run again. I attended an interesting group interview last week. There were 25 of us in the run for 2 marketing positions. After the process, 7 of us were shortlisted for the next stage of interviews. I was extremely proud to be one of those 7! What recognition! After the next interview I was told that I did not make it to the next (yes there was another stage) stage of interviews. I was extremely upset. I knew I could do this job and after asking for feedback, the only reason I was given was that I would only be able to do the 4 days. I can appreciate that this can put people off - a working week is 5 days, hence if you can't work the 5 days, you can't do the job, right?

But how many people actually work the full 5 days. You check your emails a few too many times, your lunchbreak runs over by 10 minutes every now and then, someone wrote something on twitter that you have to check, you started some on-line shopping and get a little engrossed by it for, well, 30 minutes or so. What I am trying to say - and what I tried to explain to them - is that I am working the 4 days, so that I can focus 100% on the job for those days, and spend the rest of the time with my daughter and doing all the other things I feel need to be done, without any resentment either way.

I am not sure if I am convincing you now, either and I would really appreciate some feedback on this. I feel completely stuck in this situation, where I know there are so many jobs out there I am perfectly capable of doing, but the fact that I want to dedicate an extra day to my family seems to be a stumbling block. I guess I am mainly writing this, so that I can vent, feel a little better and hopefully convince one or two of you that flexibility in the workplace is an extremely important issue that we, as a society, are still behind on. If a better work-life balance were offered by the employer, then the employee would be much more open to committing to their job wholeheartedly.

Now can I have a job? Please? OK, I 'll go back to my blueberries then...