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!!

~~~~~~~

Memorial Weekend Project.....

For any of you who have visited with us since we moved house, you would know that our back yard had a lot to be desired. It was a preverbial jungle of weeds, left over 'rubbish and generally untidy.

I am bad at remembering to take the before pictures but I do have some after ones.....

We have tackled different areas over the past year and are getting closer to the end. Last year we set up our pool and put stones around it, but the other part lay as waste ground. Two weeks ago a friend, who is a gardener, came over, prepared the ground and helped us lay the turf.

It hasn't been cut yet, but is looking good. Not quite Wembly or Wimbledon but we are thankful.

Then this week I decided to build a little wall on the opposite side. Nothing very intricate or difficult but efficient and pretty (I think!) So with the help of Jen, who is staying with us at the minute and more than one trip to Home Depot, we put it together. Here it is......I have so enjoyed building, planting, watering and generally enjoying God's wonderful creation. The dirt you can still see is going to have more stones put on it, but that's for another day.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a Happy Memorial Day, whatever you found to do.

This is our last week of school...YEAH!! I have plenty more projects up my sleeve for the days ahead. In the meantime I can sit in my back garden and enjoy the ones already completed.

New Camera...

Well about a month ago my camera decided it didn't want to take any more photos. I was really miffed as it had cost us a lot and would have cost a lot more to send it away to get fixed. So I had resigned myself to the fact that I would not have a camera for a long time again. Lois was very kind to lend hers to me for a few occasions. However today Rob was off and had taken me to lunch ( very nice indeed) and on the way home I suggested we go see the Ritz Camera Shop that was closing down. I never manage to get any bargains at these kind of things but I thought we'd go and see what kind of cost would be involved. Long story short it paid off!! We got a little Olympus camera for 1/2 price!!!YEAH!! So it did not take me long to go and shoot a few pictures to try it out. Here are a few of my amateur shots....
This little bird lives in the eaves of the house next door. The zoom is pretty good!!

One of the beautiful roses in the front yard...strange how it looks even more pretty after a rain shower....

OK "Why did she take a picture of the number of her house?" I hear you ask. Well here is a little tip for all you DIY ladies who also want to save a little bit of cash. We moved to our house a year ago and the lamps and numbers outside were a terrible brass colour ( sorry if yours are brass its just not my taste.) I priced some new ones and they were too expensive for us at the minute to change so I went to Walmart and bought a can of black satin spray paint $3.47. I took as much of the light down as I could and taped newspaper behind it. I removed the numbers completely. I then proceeded to spray all that was brass. I have to say I was so pleased with the finish the kids were fed up with me admiring it every time we left the house. It really only took me about 1 1/2 hrs to finish the whole job. My next project is the brass light fitting inside the house.

It also takes video...enjoy!

Pampered Chef

Elaine Wallace is my good friend in Ireland, (you can read her blog here)and she had mentioned Pampered chef to me several times but I had never seen any of their things and had never been to a party.

So I put that right last night
I had my first Pampered Chef Party. I invited some ladies from the church and we had a great night of fellowship and fun together. I had never seen any of their items before, so it was good to see good kitchen tools and little gadgets to help our lives in the kitchen. I had heard a lot about the stoneware they sell and so I purchased one of their cookie trays. Have a look at their website and its worth it.

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.

Works-for-me-Wednesday

Hi everyone, This is a blog carnival that has oodles and oodles of quick tips and info. You can leave your tip for meal planning here.

Here is mine....

I find it really helpful to always have a bag of cubed hash browns in the freezer. I use it at lunch time for a quick Potato Soup
or saute it off with some cubed ham and onions for a quick side dish with dinner. You can even just boil them and mash them..no need to stand and peel. Yeah!!

Go check it out...