St. Patrick's Day hairbands

 

St. Patrick's Day is nearly here with all parades and celebrations! Little girls (and big ones too ;) ) can be very wearing this lovely hairband with a shamrock. Made of polka dot/ small print flower or re-used denim fabric it is very stylish.

 

 

I made a few in my little girls' sizes and they loved them :)

 

Which one is your favourite? Polka dot, flowers or denim?

A twist on the pancake mix

If you like pancakes but hate the standing in front of the hob for endless hours and flipping pancakes this recipe is for you. It uses a basic pancake mix with added yeast but is ready so much faster!

First of all you have to make a thick pancake mixture. I suppose you can use pretty much any recipe, I used my usual one, only adding more fluor and less milk.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
appr. 250 gr flour
400 ml milk
1 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt
7 gr dried yeast
oil for greasing the tin
for the topping: coarsly ground walnuts, caster sugar

In a little warm milk dissolve the yeast and leave it stand until frothy. Meanwhile mix the rest of the ingredients well. Add the yeasty mixture, mix again. Leave to stand for about half an hour or so.
Pre-heat the oven on the highest temperature. Grease a tin well with the oil and put in the oven. When it's hot pour in the mixture and sprinkle with the walnuts and caster sugar. Bake for 15 mins or until the top is golden and the cake leaves the side of the tin.

 And you can cut it up and serve hot! With some home made apricot jam, yumm!

Oh, yes. Yours will be probably higher than this as I had two hungry little girls eagerly waiting for this so I didn't leave the yeast long enough to dissolve properly...

GAA headband

Today my little girl's school are sporting the local GAA club's colours to celebrate their success. So I quickly made her a headband in their colours last night :)

Isn't she stylish? :D

5 minute draught excluder

There was terrible draught coming in under the front door in our cottage. Especially now, that is so windy. So I quickly cut up some old thorn jeans stitched on some fabric scraps to put colour on it, sew it closed and stuffed it.

It took only a few minutes and now the little cottage is warmer :)

 

Carrot & oat bread

We were getting a bit bored with just the usual bread so I tried to experiment a bit with different ingredients. This one came up as a winner so far. :)

 Ingredients:
900 g flour
1 tsp salt
7 g dried yeast
1 tsp caster sugar
700 ml water
2 handfuls of porridge oats
half cup sunflower seeds plus extra for sprinkling
1 large carrot, grated
2 tbsp wheat germ
1 egg, beaten mixed  with a tsp salt

Mix the yeast with appr. half cup of warm water and the sugar. When frothy mix with the rest of the ingredients. Knead on a floured surface until firm smooth and elastic. Put in a gresed bowl, cover and leave in a warm place until doubled in size.
Grease a baking tray, shape your bread and cover. Leave it for half an hour. Then brush with the egg, sprinkle with seeds and bake in a pre-heated (200 C) oven for 45 mins or until sounds hollow when tapped on the base.

 

Birthday quilt

When my little one's birthday was approaching I was trying to come up with some ideas what would be the best present. She has a lot of toys. Enough dolls. I can make only summer clothes but summer is pretty much non-existent here. And then the idea came - a quilt! She loves all sort of blankets to play or to snuggle up.
So  I made a colourful patchwork quilt for her, my first ever patchwork attempt.

 There are plenty of little details on it to keep her attention :)

 And while it's not perfect she is very happy with it!

 

Mediterranean chicken

If you have stuck for dinner ideas for today you still have time to get the ingredients for this simple and delicious dish! It's ready in about an hour and you just have to throw the ingredients into a large tray, pop into the oven then sit back and relax until it's done.

I have seen a few versions of this kind of dish (chicken + spicy sausage + some other ingredients), this is the way I make it :)

Ingredients (feeds 4 people):
1 kg chicken drumsticks
1 kg baby potatoes, washed
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
250 - 400 g baby tomatoes
2 red onions, thickly sliced
about 15 cm ( :D ) chorizo or other spicy sausage, sliced
50 ml olive oil
1 tsp red paprika
salt, pepper

Wash all the ingredients and pop them into a large baking tray. Mix the oil, paprika, salt and ppaprika and mix well with the meat and veg using your hands. Bake in a pre-heated oven (200 C) for abot 45-60 mins, until brown all over on the top.
Serve with a green salad and enjoy!

 

Hootie library tote

A lovely little tote with flowery fabric on the inside, stripes outside - and a felt appliqued owl. He will keep your books safe on the way to the library!

Hoo-hoo! :)

My first try with liver - a success

When I was a kid my Mum used to make a lovely liver dish with potatoes. I just simply loved it! However, after getting married and starting to cook myself I never had the courage to make something with liver. It seemed difficult to prepare and I never saw nice looking liver in the shops. Then a few weeks ago I went into a local butchers. And there it was. The nicest liver I've ever seen. Already cleaned and sliced. So I dug out that old recipe and gave it a go. The result? It disappeared in a few minutes.

So here is the secret recipe for you all:
Ingredients:
1 large omion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp oil
1 heaped tsp red paprika
1-2 peppers, sliced
1-2 tomatoes, chopped
250 gr calf liver, sliced into long strips
salt, pepper
For the potatoes:
2 large onions, finely chopped
1 kg potatoes, diced
2 tbsp olive oil or some lard
salt

Heat the olive oil in a large fying pan or saucepan. Add the onions and sautee until starts to brown. Add the potatoes and the salt, reduce the heat and cover with the lid. You can add a little water so the spuds wont burn. Simmer with the lid on until the potatoes are soft. If you can use an iron pan you can sear the potatoes, it will be most delicious!
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the onion and sautee until they soften. Take off the heat and stir in the paprika. Add the peppers and tomatoes and put back on the heat. Cook, stirring frequently until they are almost soft, then stir in the liver. Cook for about 8 minutes, until done. Do not overcook, as the liver will be very tough then. Take off the heat and season with salt and pepper. Serve with the onion potatoes.
It's really yummy with some pickles like gherkins or sauerkraut :P

Elyssa and Eliah, the elephants

These two cute elephants were made to order, and will be the best friends of two little ones.

 Elyssa has lovely green dungarees.

 Eliah choose a spotty fabric.

 And both of them really liked orange pockets :)