If you go out to the beach today.....

If you go out to the beach today....

You're sure of a big surprise!

If you go out to the beach today

You'd better go in disguise.

For every bear that ever there was

Will gather there for certain, because

Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

Picnic time for teddy bears,

The little teddy bears are having a lovely time today.

Watch them, catch them unawares,

And see them picnic on their holiday.

See them gaily dance about

They love to play and shout.

And never have any cares.

At six o'clock their mommies and daddies

Will take them home to bed

Because they're tired little teddy bears.

~~~~~~~

We were having some fun today making cupcakes for fellowship night at the church tomorrow. The girls had a great time making these little teddy bear decorations.

You simply make whatever flavour of cupcakes you like. Ice them with vanilla flavoured frosting coloured blue. Sprinkle them with blue sugar. Make little beds/mats/towels out of fruit foot long candy. You can also use fruit flavoured lifesavers as floaty rings to put the teddys into. We also put some brown sugar on some as sand. Then place on little teddy Graham crackers and some umbrellas.

Have fun and use your imagination!!

~~~~~~~

First Day at Work.....

Big day today in the Briggs Household......

Our oldest daughter, Lois started her job at 'Chick-fil-a'..... She works from 11am to 2pm......
I can't believe I have a daughter going out to work already.....
even though I also worked part-time at the same age....

God bless you Lois, we love you and are proud of you achievements....

~~~~~

I also thought this morning I haven't put many recipes on recently so I decided to make some blueberry muffins....

and would you believe I even remembered to take pictures!

My egg/yogurt mixture turned out pink as I only had a cherry/vanilla yogurt, it didn't affect the flavour and they turned out fine.....

This mixture is very thick and lumpy, do not worry it is supposed to be like that.

If you like blueberries, these muffins are bursting full of them.

Let me know if you give them a try and how they turn out.

Mini Meatloaves

This is a great little recipe for a number of reasons. It is quicker to cook than 1 big loaf. My daughter is allergic to eggs, which are in nearly every meatloaf recipe, so this allows me to make the same recipe that suits the whole family. It is really moist and tasty with the little bit of sauce added to it. You have 3 recipes for the price of one, so with the different add-ins and sauces it allows you to change it up. It is economical and goes a long way. Try it and let me know how you get on.

Mini Meatloaves

Ingredients:

1lb extra lean beef

1 pkg (6oz) Stove Top Stuffing Mix

1 cup water

3/4 cup shredded cheese

Method:

1.Heat oven to 375degrees

2.Mix meat, stuffing mix, mix and add in (see below).

3. Press into 12 muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray.

4. Make an indentation in center of each meatloaf: fill with sauce(see options below)

5. Bake for 30minutes or until cooked.

6. Top with cheese; continue baking for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Option 1. American style: add-in 1tsp garlic powder

sauce, 3/4 cup barbecue sauce

Option 2. Italian Style: add-in 1tsp Italian seasoning

sauce, 3/4 cup spaghetti sauce

Option 3. Mexican Style: add-in 2tsp chili powder

sauce, 3/4 cup thick 'n chunky salsa

I serve it with mash and simple steamed peas, but you could serve them with salad, fries, green beans or your favorite veg.

Fadge?

Sorry folks yesterday seem to pass and I never got to my blog once. To tell the truth Esther(13) was given a family history project to do for school and I got caught up in the Scottish records trying to trace Rob's mother's side of his family. We managed to get back to 1762!! but that's for another post.

However getting back to the post at hand....

The first ingredient that comes to mind when most people think of Irish cuisine is the potato. The potato was brought back to Ireland from the western world. It immediately became a staple of the Irish diet. It is safe to say that no meal is complete without the inclusion of the potato in some shape or form.

'Fadge' - Potato Bread.

INGREDIENTS
4 medium potatoes, peeled and halved
1 pinch salt
1/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tablespoon melted butter


DIRECTIONS
1.In a pot, cover potatoes with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Simmer on medium-high heat until the center of the potatoes are tender when pricked with a fork, about 20 minutes.

2.Turn off heat. Drain, return potatoes to pot and allow to completely dry out over remaining heat. Mash with a potato masher until smooth.

3.Place warm mashed potato in medium bowl. Stir in flour, salt and melted butter. Mix lightly until dough forms.

4.On a well floured surface, knead the dough lightly. The dough will be sticky. Use a floured rolling pin to flatten into a 9 inch circle about 1/4 inch thick. I would encourage you to use the back of your hand before you use the rolling pin to flatten it until it is near the required thickness.Cut into quarters using a floured knife.

5.Sprinkle a little flour into the base of the skillet and cook the farls for 3 minutes on each side or until evenly browned. Season with a little salt and serve straight away.

Again this bread is traditionally served as part of an Ulster Fry(see yesterday's post).

Have a good weekend,

Oh and happy belated first day of Spring.

A Flavour of Home....

If you went to visit Ireland and were told you were going to have Soda Bread you might think you were going to have a piece of this...

We would call this a 'Fruit Farl'

The word 'farl' is derived from the Gaelic word 'fardel' which literally means 'four part' and this refers to the way that these griddle breads are typically cut and served in quarters.

This is what would actually be served to you...

Irish Soda Bread

3.5 cup flour

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 to 2 1/2 (see note below) cup buttermilk

1. Lightly grease a heavy skillet.

2. Sift the dry ingredients together into a large bowl; make sure the soda is evenly distributed.

3. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and add about half the buttermilk. Stir until you have a raggy dough that is very squashy but which looks more or less dry. Add more liquid sparingly until you achieve this texture.

4. Blend until all the flour has achieved this consistency; then turn out immediately onto a lightly floured board and knead for no more than a minute or a minute and a half. Overkneading makes this bread very tough, and it's very easy to overdo it.

5. Shape the dough into a circle about 9 inches by one inch thick and cut into four wedges or "farls." Place in the preheated skillet, with cut edges about half an inch apart. Cook slowly on the stovetop over low-to-medium heat; it should take about 20 minutes for the farls to puff up and turn a light brown on the pan side. Turn them and cook for another 20 minutes.

6. For a softer crust, wrap in a dishtowel after baking.

7. Notes: You will need somewhere between 1 1/4 and 2 1/2 cups of buttermilk, depending on how much liquid your flour tends to absorb. Try to avoid using regular milk. If you must, use baking powder instead of baking soda. Serves 8.

This can be served 2 different ways -

1. You can split them and spread with butter and your favourite flavour of jam, along with a good cup of hot tea this goes over a treat.

2. You can split it and fry it along with 'Fadge'(recipe will be posted tomorrow) bacon, sausage, mushrooms, black pudding, eggs, tomato, and you will have for yourself an 'Ulster Fry'. Typically eaten for breakfast but many also have it traditionally on a Saturday night for 'tea', again you need a big mug of hot tea to swill it all down!

If you would like more history on the Irish Soda Bread you can take time to read all about it here.

Potato Soup

Potato Soup

Ingredients:

2ozs butter

2 onions, chopped finely

1 leek, chopped finely

2lbs potato, diced

1.5pts stock

15 fl.ozs milk

5 fl ozs cream

S&P

Method:

Saute onions, leeks an potatoes in melted butter.

Stir in the stock and season.

Cover and simmer until potatoes are cooked.

Cool slightly and liquidize.

Add milk and cream.

Taste and adjust seasoning.

N.B. Youcan use cubed hash browns instead if real potatoes, use pound for pound.

This can be made a day ahead. Follow the recipe up to No.4 then refrigerate and finish off the next day.

Maple Twist Rolls

This recipe looked so good....I am going to try it with ready made bread dough, as yeast and I do not seem to get on very well. You can find this and many other mouth - watering recipes at the blog called 'What Matters Most', see my blog list on the side.

Heat . . .3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter

until very warm.

Blend with ...

1 cup flour,
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon instant dry yeast
1 teaspoon maple extract
1 egg

Beat this with an electric beater on low for 2 minutes.
Add remaining 1 3/4 cups to 2 cups of flour and knead to a soft dough.
It will become smooth and elastic in about 5 minutes...

Let rise for about 45 minutes in a bowl covered in plastic wrap.

In the meantime, make your maple streusel
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup chopped nuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon maple extract
Combine this together and let sit...

Divide the dough into 3 balls.
Take out a pizza pan, and butter it.(I used parchment paper but I still buttered it)
Roll out the 3 balls of dough to about 12 inches.
Put 1/3 of the streusel on the first layer of dough, put another layer of dough on top of this and put the second amount of streusel on.

Finish with the third layer of dough and again the 1/3 amount of streusel.
Put a 2 inch cup on the center of the dough and cut 16 wedges with scissors. (use the glass as a guide as to how far to cut. They'll stay even all around . .in the picture below you can see the faint outline of the glass rim in the center...

Twist each wedge 5 times. Remove the glass.
Cover with a light Tea Towel and let rise for 30 - 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. I used a convection oven at 350 degrees.
Bake the twists until golden brown about 18 - 22 minutes
Cool for about 5 minutes on the pan and remove to a cooling rack.

Make a glaze of
1 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons of melted butter
1 -2 tablespoons of milk
1/2 teaspoon of maple extract
Drizzle this over the warm rolls.

Doesn't this look yummy!

Amish Baked Oatmeal

Here is a recipe I found on another blog. The blog on the whole was not great but this recipe was.

There are a few reasons why I think you should try it:-

1. You can prepare it the night before. Pop it in the oven the next morning and have your devotions, go for a walk, get the kids dressed....
2. It tastes like a warm cookie for breakfast...yeah I know if you're watching your wasteline its not the best, but good for a wee treat.
3. You can double or triple the recipe easily. The original said you got 9 portions out of it. I found that we only got about 3-4. Maybe we ate too much!!! It really is that good. I doubled it for the six of us.

It really does taste good with the yogurt. I used a cherry yoghurt instead of plain, yummy!!

Pork and Apricot Casserole

Pork and Apricot Casserole
1lb of pork pieces
2 tablepns flour (plain-UK, all purpose - USA )
oil
1 can of apricots with juice
2 tablspns worcester sauce
2 tablespns demerara sugar ( light brown - USA)
2 teaspns vinegar
2 teaspns lemon juice
8 tablespns water
Method:
1. Toss meat in seasoned flour and fry off in small batches. You watch it to fry not boil!
2. Place meat into the dish you have chosen ( This can also be made in a regular casserole dish.)
3. Mix together all other ingredients except the apricots. Add to the meat.
4. Slow cooker 4-6 hours. Casserole 1hr @ 350 degrees.
I realise that USA measures are slightly different from UK but this is the kind of dish that it doesn’t make a lot of difference. You can make as much gravy as you wish.
Have a go and let m know what how you get on what you think.

A little recipe from my daughter Deborah...

Here is a simple yet delicious recipe that my daughter Deborah (aged 10 )has mastered.

1 1/2 lbs storebought pizza dough
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
1-2 tablespoons salt
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and spray a 13x18" baking tray. Add the store bought dough and push, strech or roll it in to a rectangle shape about 10x15 " .
2. Brush generously with olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary.
3. Bake in the center of the oven for 15 mins, or until lightly brown on both top and bottom.
4. Remove from the oven and brush on more olive oile and sprinkle with salt. Cool on a rack for at least 15 minutes.
Eat and enjoy! We like it with a little dish of olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixed to dip it into.
PS. We don't use pizza dough, we get bread dough in our supermarket ready made.