Poetry Friday

Teddy Bear Poem

Judith Viorst

I threw away my Teddy Bear,

The one that lost his eye.

I threw him in the garbage pail

(I thought I heard him cry.)

I've had that little Teddy Bear

Since I was only two.

But I'm much bigger now and

I've better things to do

Then play with silly Teddy Bears

And so I said good-bye

And threw him in the garbage pail

(Who's crying~ he or I?)

For my next trick....(Wordless Wednesday)

a mouse turns one

Happy Birthday, Miss Mousie!

Gluten Free Granola Bars

This is based on the recipe I found here.

Ingredients:
Group One:
1 cup liquid sweetener (maple syrup would be good but you can use anything from honey to agave nectar to rice syrup...)
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar

Group Two:
3 cups gluten free granola (recipe to follow)
2 1/2 cup puffed rice cereal
1 cup almonds (or any nut)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Bring group one ingredients to a slow boil. While you do wait mix group two ingredients.
After the first group boils, mix together and place in buttered casserole dish. Bake until crispy.
Cut into bars and enjoy.

As soon as I get another free moment, I'll post the gluten free crock pot granola recipe.

Happy Summer Solstice!

Now, what I really wanted to do was stay up all night in order to arrive here at sunrise. Now the sun currently rises around 4:30 am here in Wales, and you will remember our four children (including two under age three). Plus it's like a 3 to 4 hour drive from here. Next year maybe.

Instead we are hanging around the house and relaxing. I have done some solstice-y things, though.

I finished a second batch of elderflower cordial (this time it was a double batch) and made a couple of pitchers up for the family. (That pitcher is half full not half empty by the way.)

The Artist and I also made a cake. I found the recipe on the back of a bag of Dove's Farm Gluten and Wheat Free White Self-Raising Flour Blend. I'll work on translating the recipe back into American (sorry sis!). I did replace the eggs with 2 tablespoons corn flour (aka corn starch) and 2 tablespoons water. But then I made 2 cakes and put lemon curd and clotted cream in the middle of them. Kind of defeated the purpose of an egg and dairy free cake. (I ended up using goat butter in it, too since that was all we had in the house. But margarine would be a simple substitute.)

So, with that disclaimer, here is the recipe:

Lemon and Poppy Seed Sponge

Ingredients:

10 ounces Self Raising Flour

8 ounces Butter

10 ounces sugar

4 eggs (or 8 tbsp water and 8 tbsp corn flour/corn starch)

6 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp grated lemon rind

2 tbsp poppy seeds

icing sugar (aka powdered sugar)

lemon curd

clotted cream

Mix dry ingredients in one bowl and wet in another. Mix dry with wet and put into 2 greased and floured circular pans. Bake at 190 degrees Celsius or 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 - 45 minutes.

When cool, pop the cakes out of the pans and put them into the refrigerator. When completely cool, spread lemon curd and then clotted cream on top of one of them and place the other one on top of it. Sprinkle with icing/ powdered sugar.

Now I'm off as we are fixing to go either to the beach or some ancient burial site. Depends on what the rest of the family wants to do.

Oh, and Happy Father's Day!

Elderflower Cordial

(My lovely neighbor gave me the recipe as well as a container of tartaric acid.)

Ingredients:
24 elderflower heads
4 oranges
1 lemon
2 ounces tartaric acid
3 pints cold water
3 lbs sugar

Place flowers in a bowl, slice fruit and add with all other ingredients. Stir until sugar has dissolved. Leave for 48 hours. Sieve and strain through a muslin. Store in bottles or in plastic tubs in the freezer. Dilute to taste.

See, it all started when my neighbor had American guests at her house over the holidays. One of the Americans was very excited to meet my spouse "the Lord of Sound" since he (my spouse) is basically a loudspeaker genius. So, on Christmas eve, we came over, ate various British treats and goodies including elderflower cordial. She said she'd tell me how to make it when the time came to make it and now is the time.

Funny Thing Thursday

I know it's dated. I know I've shown a bunch of people this.

Check out this guy's other stuff, too. He is funny.

"..and there's nothing young people think is as cool as Star Trek."

Wordless Wednesday (from almost a year ago)

yarn

Last night's yarn is the blue with green. It was first dyed green (easter egg dye) and then half of it was dyed blue (again easter egg dye).
Here is the yellow/orange after I added the orange. Actually the Artist did a lot of this. We used food coloring this time. First we dyed it yellow and then red over that.

Funny Thing Thursday

Considering that our carseat got left in Amsterdam both the trip over to America and the trip back, this is timely. The fact that the guy is Welsh is just a coincidence.

Up at all hours....

Dyeing yarn with easter egg dye! Pictures and results to follow. Keep your fingers crossed that I don't felt it!

Back in Wales: Wordy Wednesday

And the jet lag is minimal. Thank goodness for that. No wordless Wednesday with this post, though I may post a photo or two (or more) later.

Today's plans:

Laugh a lot
Watch a lot of The Office season four (American not British)
Play Star Wars
Fold Laundry
Unpack
yoga
Wash Clothes and hang them outside (only because it is so beautiful today!)
Go outside (hopefully search for nettles that haven't flowered yet. I really should take a photo of the nettles drying on my kitchen table for y'all. I think I am due to post about nettles soon. I do love them and have missed them. There is nettle tea infusing in my kitchen as we speak.)
Recieve all the daisies the Tiny Goddess will inevitably pick for me (technically buttercups now)
Photograph the rose that is busting out in our garden
smell the lavender in the garden
Clean out part of the Fridge
Knit
Play guitar and sing
clean up after ourselves

Oh, and I have a short math page for the Artist and will work with the Explorer on reading. If I can convince the Tiny Goddess, we will go for a walk but she wants to "Stay Here with Mama."

Yesterday when we arrived, we had to wake her up to get her out of the taxi. She ran around the yard and picked flowers and was so happy to be home. I asked her if she wanted to get on the plane again tomorrow and she laughed and said, "NO!" and started squeezing my arm and kissing it.

It's nice to be back.