Just when I come out of the closet as a lousy housewife ...

... I discover the joy of baking. I never got why anyone in their right mind would spend time and effort making something you could just go and buy in a bakery. Especially here in Belgium - bakeries are all over the place and so good. Now I get it.

The only reason I started was because I've been trying to throw out less food. I've been making soups and stews with leftover vegetables and meat. This time, I had some stale bread.

The ingredients looked unpromising at best: stale baguette left over from Sunday's barbecue, some eggs, some milk, raisins and cinnamon. However, mashed together they took on this beautiful consistency and smell (probably helped by the cinnamon).

After chucking it in the oven, the whole house smelled wonderful, and the cake started to rise. I went to check on it every five minutes or so, and every time the cake had risen, and looked slightly more golden brown. It was too exciting.

It's not so good for the diet, though. So far, bread pudding is all I have eaten since last night. Even Babes and Marie like it. Jack is refusing to eat it, because he watched me crumble the old baguette into the bowl last night. His loss.

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This afternoon marks the start of Jack's annual birthday season. His birthday is always in the last week of the school year, so his party always gets moved up a week or so because otherwise too many of his friends can't come to it. Also, the family have trouble making it to his actual birthday because they are all so busy wrapping up the school or work year.

So this year, just like the previous years, he's going to end up with three birthday parties - one for school, one for the family, and then one for the grandparents who can't make it to the family party. I think on top of that they celebrate the actual day in his class. It's all too much, of course.

I just wish I was having a good hair day for this first party, and that Marie hadn't wiped her spaghetti hands on my favourite jeans last night.