However, my kitchen counter and storage space will increase threefold when we move back to Nottingham so I’m looking forward to getting stuck back into my cooking, and I will certainly have no excuse with the welcome return of a dishwasher. I decided to ease myself back into the kitchen this weekend, my parents came to visit to help us with some packing and I thought a pavlova for pudding would be a nice treat after a good old Pizza Express take-away.

I forget how utterly easy pavlovas are to make; only 6 ingredients and I was able to leave the meringue to cool in the oven whilst I took a nap.

Easy Pavlova

5 medium egg whites
250g caster sugar
1 teaspoon white wine or malt vinegar
1 teaspoon cornflour

400g fruit (I used 300g hulled and chopped strawberries and 100g frozen raspberries)
350ml double cream

1. Set the oven to 160 C (fan), mix together the vinegar and flour to form a paste. Lightly oil baking parchment on top of a baking tray and set to one side (I use vegetable oil).

2. Whisk the egg whites in a very clean bone-dry bowl until they form stiff peaks. Add the sugar 2 tbsp at a time, whisking all the while. Use an electric whisk, it’s not worth the hand cramp otherwise.

3. When the mixture is lovely and stiff and shiny, whisk in the flour and vinegar paste until combined. Spread the mixture onto the baking sheet into a circle approx 20cm in diameter. Make a shallow well in the centre and use a tablespoon to make peaks around the outside.

4. Put in the oven and turn down to 140 degrees. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour.

5. Turn the oven off and open the door a crack. Leave to cool completely while you nap (not necessary but it’s my preferred method!).

6. When the meringue is completely cool, whisk the cream until stiff and spread in the shallow well. Scatter the fruit on top.

Tastes really good for breakfast the next day!

I’m just going to my office’s local pub to request another pint. I can’t crunch enough of the stuff…

You buy one and gut it of course. But not before kissing it, duh:

(I would love to be a fly-on-the-wall inside his brain for even just a day).

Before I was pregnant, and therefore sober, we had a lot of hangovers. And hangovers require take-away food – like our no-fail recipes we also have a couple of no-fail take-away restaurants for those times when you can’t peel yourself off the sofa. There is a spectacular indian restaurant round the corner from us, but an old family favourite (and in fact it was our Valentine’s take-away this year) is Domino’s. I love it because you can order pizza online; there is something really decadent about getting food delivered to your house without even having to pick up the phone, and I just LOVE dipping my crusts.

Domino’s have recently launched a new widget to promote online ordering which means that anyone with a Social Networking site or blog will be able to cash in on the popularity of Domino’s, earning you a slice (hahah geddit?!) of every sale you prompt (you can see mine in my sidebar right now!). You can download the Domino’s widget here and start earning straight away.

I think I know what I’m having for dinner tonight…

Although this post was sponsored, it is 100% true. I want pizza!

Naturally, eating out is one of our favourite hobbies and one we indulged in a couple of times a week B.C. (before conception). These days not so much – for one thing I’m knackered in the evenings and would rather slump in front of the TV with a plate of home made grub and for another, we stay away from restaurants in the name of money saving. However, I’ve been advised by goodness knows how many mums to eat out as much as possible before baby comes as it won’t be so easy to do afterwards.

One massively memorable meal that will stay with me for a long time is when we went to L’atelier de Joel Robuchon, I was 8 weeks pregnant. It was a Friday night, my fatigue and sickness was unreal, but we had a friend over from Denmark who wanted to treat us and hello – 3 Michelin Stars! I would have crawled there if necessary (thankfully, it wasn’t, but it was a close call at times). I’m glad I went as I got to sample some truly marvellous food; quail with the tiniest taste of fois gras, pig trotter on parmesan toast, lamb cutlets and Robuchon’s famed truffle creamed potatoes. However, my stomach did not enjoy the experience having been fed nothing richer than plain pasta for the previous three weeks, and MAN was I jealous of the boys’ wine.

Then there was Nobu on New Year’s Eve where again I had to make an effort to keep my eyes open at the dinner table (I was home and in bed by 12.30am) and spent the day Googling ‘can pregnant women eat sushi’. Yes they can! But only a very small amount of tuna (mercury can be a risk).

When I got my appetite back it was the biggest relief – not being able to enjoy food was really one of the worst things that could have happened to me. I still get a bit sore that I don’t get to sip more than one small glass of wine, but that won’t be forever. For now, I’m happy to try and sample some more restaurants.

Last week I had the big treat of dining out with the wonderfully hilarious NotesToSelf . I realised shortly before meeting her that I barely visit restaurants without Will, so I really enjoyed some girl time and pregnancy gossip.

This Saturday I visited Jamie’s Italian at Canary Wharf with my three sister-in-laws and Will. I would recommend it to anyone; I was worried it might not compare favourably to Pizza East (which I love), but the food was surprisingly very different. Rustic, as Pizza East is, but in a different way. The pasta is all made on-site (I had wild mushroom, delicious) and their crispy squid flavoured with fennel seeds is to die for. I thought their Italian meat selection was really good value (though I couldn’t eat much of it, or the lovely looking buffalo mozarella) and their risotta balls… mmmmm.

When Baby H arrives I think it’ll be a challenge for us to dine anywhere other than home (or maybe Pizza Express) for a while so we really need to make the most of London’s restaurants in the next couple of months. I’d like to try:

- Caravan, Exmouth Market – this place had had such a great reception from the food blogging community, I really need to try it.
- Saf – I want to take some veggie friends of ours to this botanical restaurant.
- Centrepoint Sushi – I LOVE this place. Love love love.
- Hix Oyster and Chop House- I’ve never eaten here but always wanted to, it’s right next door to Will’s office.
- 32 Great Queen Street – we met friends here for drinks here a couple of weeks ago and the food looks awesome. This great review from London Eater clinched it.

My mouth is watering already….

Nigella’s Chocolate Fudge Cake – delicious. Not recommended for diabetics, dieters or chocolate haters. Definitely recommended for pregnant women!

As I am a clumsy elephant-footed type of person, I was very careful throughout the cold winter and slowly and carefully tiptoed in the ice and snow – no accidents. Goodness knows how I managed to fall over my own feet on Tuesday night and spectacularly hit the decks in front of a group of city boys by Old Street station. Ouch.

I went home for a remedial bath and some comfort eating, after an early night I thought I’d be fine. But the next morning I was having a few stomach twinges and I was convinced baby’s movements had slowed down. I went to my local GP where the not-so-kind receptionist made me cry, and with no appointments I hopped to the Maternity unit at the hospital.

One gruelling 2 and a half hour wait later (they lost my notes. Twice.) I saw a midwife and everything was deemed OK. I was sent home for bed rest (not before treating myself to a naughty McDonalds, shhhh I’d had a hard day) and felt very sorry for myself for the rest of the afternoon.

It was such a relief to hear that baby is OK – I really went through the mill emotions-wise at the time and felt so drained afterwards. This mothering stuff is hard!

Will came home with a lovely M&S meal of fishcakes, green beans and potatoes – yum. He totally surprised me with pudding and presented me with this:

For the last week I have been craving a banana split like my Dad used to make me when I was younger, but could not for the life of me find the ‘correct’ chocolate sauce (has to be dark chocolate!). Lovely lovely Will found the ingredients for me and surprised me with that masterpiece. It was delicious, I spilled it over my lap and didn’t care.

I don’t remember a great deal of last New Years Eve. I know it began with my gorgeous friend Abi coming over to the Studio flat Will and I called home in Shoreditch, and we spent the first part of the evening putting out make-up on and drinking the local newsagent’s best sparkling wine. I remember being amazed and jealous that Abi’s thighs didn’t touch at the top and vowing then to go on a diet in 2009 (I went on to lose 35lb, however my damn thighs still touch at the top). We ate pizza, listened to music and got a cab at 10 to my husband’s club for a night of electro and dancing.

Once there I recall parts of 2ManyDJs at midnight, but mostly my memory fails… I think we spent the night flitting between the dressing room and backstage areas and not listening to much more music, before crawling home at around 7am. I believe a lot of  champagne was involved.

This year was totally different. I spent the whole day preparing by sleeping, as I knew it would be a late night (and these days anything after 9pm counts as a late night). I’ve been feeling really pale the last few weeks so I gave myself a fake tan along with a hair treatment and facemask. I blowdried my hair and picked out an outfit that I hoped would make it obvious I was pregnant rather than fat.

We left the house at 6pm for dinner at Nobu with my husband’s german work colleagues and had an amazing dinner of yellowfin tuna, rock shrimp tempura, black cod miso and wagyu beef (this was following some intense googling of ‘is sushi safe for pregnant women’. Short answer, due to UK food safety regs: YES, thank goodness). I even allowed myself to have a small glass of wine and a non-alcoholic Mojito. I was really looking forward to seeing some famous faces at the restaurant, but the most famous people there were the DJs we were eating with. I would rather have seen a Sugababe or Girl Aloud, techno DJs mean nothing to me and I have been known to offend them with my ignorance of their trade.

We shot off to the club for opening, and I had a nice long sit down before the midnight count down. Midnight came and went with just enough champagne to wet my lips, a smooch with Will and I was in a cab by 12.10 and home by 12.30 where I actually crawled into bed with a hot water bottle and some cocoa.

I’m still slightly terrified that next New Year’s Eve I will almost certainly be at home with baby… though I don’t think I’ll miss the busy clubs and 7am bedtimes this is what I have been doing for the last 7 years. Saying that, I think I’ll be happy as long as there is champagne at some point in the evening.