RIP Sweet Ellie

 

Ellie on the deck

RIP Sweet Ellie-   

Lived 6 + years, laid tons of great eggs, tended the garden for bugs and weeds. What a sweetie, died peacefully, out in the coop, no trauma thankfully. She'd been limping around for over a year, otherwise  very healthy. Her pal Rosie will still have her three newer hens to keep her company. This is why I added to the flock, knowing this day would come. Part of the wheel of life....

Thrifting/ Sales Scores, Currant-Orange Irish Soda Bread, Low Cost Bathroom Update!

 

Wreath, $15.00

Thrifting/ Sales Scores-

As usual I sorted thru existing holiday/Winter decor for donations. I keep gleaning things down for storage. Next I got some new fun things locally, many 80% or more, here's a peek, most of the thrift stores had all the holiday items already gone, bummer-

Wreath (see above) from Craft Warehouse, loved the details! 

Love the boots!!!

$3.00, love the wood beads for hanging

Tall about 12" tall, felt and wood, $4.00

Swag for the front entry, 24" long $7.00

From Hobby Lobby $4.00 French-style ornament table topper, may be a gift, still pondering-

Sparkles! 

Also found a gorgeous tree skirt, ours was toast. Already packed away, red velvet and green plaid, $5.00

Thrifted, from Goodwill, $1.50 says spoons in German

Perfect for my corner

From Amazon, $10.00, 22" tall and the bells work! Reminds me of Scandinavian sweaters! 

Our old Keurig is dying, so Dave and I decided to get an electric tea kettle instead. About 1/3 less than a Keurig and no waste. I make tea only and he already has a French press he can use for coffee. Great for a quick bowl of noodles too! I did some research on Consumerreports.org. with their free review of kettles and their list of best buys had this-

Ovente Electric Hot Water Kettle 1.7 Liter, $22.00 on Amazon, couldn't find locally

After Christmas (of course) I found the Trader Joe's Amaryllis bulb garden, bargain at $14.00! 

Four large blooms already! Last year's bloomed for a couple months! 

Dave bought me a nice big Amaryllis bulb several weeks ago, I dressed it up with moss and some fabric-

A little early Valentine Day item (or Christmas)  $7.00

My lovely daughter gave us a cedar-lined pine blanket chest! Perfect for storage. I might do a paint treatment, maybe. I may give away/donate my old wicker one-

Free, from the Library! Will post some recipes soon! 

Currant-Orange Irish Soda Bread-

Time for another round of baking! I made this to go with dinner or a cupt of tea! Next time I would do a larger batch, moist and delish!!!  Recipe here Currant Orange Irish Soda Bread and I used WW pastry flour, hence the darker color.

Before

Low Cost Bathroom Update!

When we remodeled our bathroom several years ago I found the really nice Ikea folk art style shower curtain above, loved it!  After browsing online on Ikea last year I found one I really like! Sadly it was gone, sigh. Then Eureka, I checked eBay! There it was just waiting for me!!! Really brightens up the whole bathroom, almost like an early spring!  Behold the new-

After

Still goes with our apple green towels and rug. Loved the floral and color scheme, easy peasy! 

Making British Christmas Chelsea Buns, A Bowl Of Christmas Joy, Happy New Year!!!

 

My Chelsea Bun "tree"

Making British Christmas Chelsea Buns-

I  saw this a few years ago-

From Everythinglooksrosie.com

Rosie, the Scottish blogger I follow, make some amazing recipes! I decided to make this and see how it went. First I had to convert the measurements to American ones. Then I had to find certain ingredients. I had never worked with Marzipan before and unsalted Pistachios were a bit tricky to find. I will say this was the trickiest dough I've worked with, VERY sticky! It was hard to tell from the photo how big they'd be. I was thinking Danishes, but really more normal bun/biscuit-sized. It was a toss up to use American bread flour or American unbleached. I went with bread flour. I liked the combo of fresh and dried Cranberries, and orange. Here are my calculations on the measurements, feel free to do your own research for conversions. Detailed directions and photos on Rosie's blog- 

1.4 cups full-fat milk

3.48 TBL butter, chopped into cubes

1 and 8/10th cups  bread flour- NOT ENOUGH

7g sachet fast-action dried yeast

3.5 TBL white and brown sugar mixed,  plus 3 TBL 

1 Tsp ground cinnamon

Spray oil 

7 Oz.  Marzipan, chilled- 1 tube (this is hard to grate!) 

1 orange, zested and juiced

0.43 cup fresh cranberries

0.43 cup dried cranberries, plus 1 tbsp

1/3 cup pistachios, chopped

3 TBL apricot jam, sieved (I subbed Orange Marmalade) 

2/3 cup powdered sugar

I think if I made these again I would use quite a bit more flour. I did find several generic sweet dough recipes (see my Pinterest food folder) that might work better. Rosie's photos make the raw dough look thicker and mine rose plenty. It was pretty hard to handle, use LOTS of flour on your board and roller!!! 

Flavor-wise, excellent and a very different flavor profile.

A Bowl Of Christmas Joy-

I wanted something different for Christmas Eve dinner so I made beef stew. I used a basic (Martha Stewart) beef stew recipe with red wine. Simpler than the Beef  Bourguignon I had made in the past. I also added mushrooms, the last 15 minutes. It was warm, comforting and a bowl of joy! I served with hot French bread. I doubled the recipe so we had plenty for two dinners and some lunches. I made Molten Chocolate Baby Cakes for dessert, simple, fast and delicious! I used Nigella Lawson's recipe and it's great that you can make the batter ahead of time and chill until you need them  

Happy New Year!!!

Thanks for all your kind comments this last year, they really helped me feel connected! My family and I have much to be grateful for. Looking forward to this next year and all the exciting projects and adventures!!!