Yummy Chocolate Brownies.....

We have tried endless recipes for chocolate brownies, which are always a favourite in our house, but recently we came across this one in a christmas magazine that one of the kids had, it is easy, quick and not expensive to make, the kids loved it and they never last long! Sometimes I add in chocolate chips before cooking and also top it with a chocolate topping, sometimes I just leave it plain and dust it with icing sugar or cocoa powder, anyway you like it it's good!
Here we go then:

Ingredients:
175g (6oz) margarine or butter
350g (12oz) caster sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla essecnce (or extract)
3 eggs
125g (5 oz) plain flour
1 level teaspoon of baking powder
50 g (2oz) cocoa
A rectangular tin 22 x 30 x 2.5 cm lined with greaseproof paper (or  sprayed well with cake release spray)

1   Heat oven to 180C (350f) Put margarine or butter in a saucepan and melt on a low heat (or you could just melt it in a bowl in the microwave) Pour into a large bowl and add in the sugar and vanilla, mix together well.

2   Break the eggs into a small bowl or a mug and stir together with a fork to mix, add to the sugar and butter mix a little at a time, beating well between each addition.

3   Sift the flour through a sieve into the bowl with the other ingredients, add the baking powder and cocoa powder and mix all together well.

4   Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth the top a little then bake in the oven for approx 40 mins, when cooked the mixture should have risen and have a crust on the top but still be soft in the middle. cut the cooked mixture into squares and cool on a wire rack, this recipe makes about 15 large brownies or 25 small ones which are plenty big enough for kiddies!!!

5   Enjoy!

If Life gives you Lemons......

If life gives you lemons then you want to make this!


Lemon Curd......

Ingredients:

4 large lemons

1 lb (450 g) caster sugar

6 eggs

4 ozs (112 g) butter

Method:

Wash the lemons and remove very thin strips of rind from two of them.

Cut in half and squeeze out the juice, removing any pips.

Put the juice and rind, beaten eggs and other ingredients into a double saucepan (or heatproof-bowl over a hot pan of water) on low heat and heat gently until all the sugar has dissolved.

Continue cooking until the mixture thickens.

Remove the rind.

Turn into hot clean jars and seal at once.

Makes about 2 lbs (900 g) of Lemon Curd.

But what I also Love to make with lemon's is this: 

(Donal Skeehan's Lemon Drizzle Cake)

Makes approx 30 slices

Ingredients:

225g caster sugar,

250g self-raising flour,

1 tsp baking powder,

4 large free-range eggs

225g butter, at room temperature

3 tbsps milk

Zest of 3 lemons

For the lemon drizzle:

200g icing sugar,

Juice of 1 lemon,

Zest of 1 lemon

Method-

heat the oven to 160°C. Line a rectangular baking tin (30cm x 23cm) with parchment paper. Place all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and make a well with the back of a spoon. Add the eggs, butter, milk and zest and beat with a hand mixer until well combined for about two minutes. *I use my food processor for this bit and I find it works fine.*

Pour the mixture into the lined tin, place in the oven on the middle rack and cook for 35 minutes until golden brown on top and risen. Turn out on to a wire rack and allow to cool completely before icing.

Whisk together the ingredients for the drizzle and spread over the top of the cooled lemon cake. Slice into 30 pieces.

Jam Roly Poly and Elmo Cupcakes......

I came across this recipe on another blog a while ago. I can't recall whose blog it was so if it was yours, thank you, it brought me straight back to my childhood, my mum used to make this for us along with jam puddings real childhood 'nursery food'! I don't have a picture of this as I have not made it yet but do have pics of the elmo cupcakes that I made with the kids this week......Hope you like the recipe and that it will bring you fond childhood memories also......

Jam Roly Poly

Ingredients:

8 ounces self raising flour
2 ounces Demerara sugar
3 ounces suet (I use vegetable suet)
1 ounce butter, melted (on defrost in the microwave for a minute or so)
5 fluid ounces milk
Quarter teaspoon salt
Half teaspoon baking powder
Beaten egg and 2 teaspoons Demerara sugar for brushing on top before cooking.
Approx. half a jar of jam – your choice of flavour. I have to have raspberry!

Method:

Preheat the oven, 200C, Gas 6

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, suet, sugar, salt and baking powder.

Gently melt the butter and add to the dry ingredients with the milk.

Stir the mixture with a plastic spatula until it binds together (this takes very little effort, don’t overwork it)

Sprinkle a little flour on your work surface and rolling pin (or wine bottle if you don’t have a rolling pin)

Place your pastry dough on the floured surface ready to roll out.

Cut a piece of baking paper to lie on top of a baking sheet.

And now roll the pastry dough into as near a rectangle shape as you can … don’t worry too much about the shape but you are aiming for the same sort of shape as your baking tray.

Now spread your choice of jam over the pastry, leaving a one inch border all the way round – this helps to stop the jam squidging out when you roll it up.

Now the slightly messy part …. roll the pastry up, not tightly and very gently, almost lifting each time you roll to prevent major leakage of jam! I roll the long side, some people roll the short side, it depends on how think you want your slice of pudding!

Transfer the roll carefully to the lined baking tray.

Beat the egg and brush over the top of the roll, then sprinkle with the two teaspoons of Demerara sugar – this will give the roly poly a lovely crunchy top when it’s cooked.

And now to bake it … cook for 10 minutes at 200C, Gas 6 and then turn your oven down to 180C, Gas 4 for a further 20 minutes until the roly poly is lovely and brown and crunchy on the top.

Nearly time to enjoy your delicious old fashioned pud, just the matter of custard to sort now. If you are a purist, you will make custard with a double boiler and egg yolks, if you are a half purist, you will make custard with Birds Custard Powder and boiling milk, but if you don’t have the time or inclination for that, ready made will suffice …..!

*original source: http://daisycupcakes.wordpress.com/

Lemon Curd Muffins.....

Lemon Curd Muffins - Makes 12 Muffins
Ingredients:
200g/7oz self-raising flour
100g/3 ½ oz golden caster sugar
1 large egg
75ml/3fl oz sunflower oil
150ml/5fl oz milk
½ tsp vanilla extract
60ml/12 tsp lemon curd
For the sugar coating:
60ml/4 tbsp lemon curd
50g/2oz golden caster sugar
Heat the oven to 190oC/375oF/gas 5.
Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases. Sieve the flour into a bowl and stir in the sugar. In a large jug mix together the egg, sunflower oil, milk and vanilla extract using a fork. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir gently together until just combined. Put a teaspoon of mixture in the base of each paper case. Top with 1 tsp lemon curd. Top with the rest of the muffin mixture. Bake for 10-15 minutes until risen and firm.
For the sugar coating, microwave the lemon curd on high for 1 minute until melted. Put the sugar into a shallow bowl. Brush on top of each muffin and dip the tops of each one in sugar to coat the tops.
Yummy......

Seáns Birthday

Happy new year everyone! 2012! Can u believe it? I have just made it one of my new year's resolutions to start blogging again, as I had reason to look at my blog the other day and it made me smile to look back at the picture's of my kid's and see how much they have grown, the time flies by so past and in this digital age I for one find that I don't print my pictures but instead leave them sitting forlornly on a disc which is just so sad, so it is nice to look back and see how much they have grown. I also have to admit that I was shocked to notice that my last post was WAY back then in 2010! alot has happened since then, My Dad passed away in May 2010 and that made me feel very depressed and not in the mood to share my thoughts with anyone, also with the recession the past couple of year's have been tough, not so much money around, little or no work to be found and living on a very tight budget, so I am going to also use my blog as a tool to plan my weekly menus and add some new recipes, it's always a handy place to keep things!
My son Seán was 5 on the 8th of Jan this year but his best friend was also 5 the day before and held his party that weekend, so I decided then that we would have ours the following weekend and so we did, Seán was in his element and had a great time, he was so happy to have all of his friends at his house and delighted with all of his pressies! My sister also brought us this great drinks fountain at Christmas as an extra present and it was a great addition, the kids loved it, we also dug out our chocolate fountain which we got a few years ago but it is always a great success! They all had a great time anyway so that's what counts!

St Patricks Day Miltown Malbay 2010!

The Gravel Poets

A friend of mine is in this band,they have just produced their first album, I'm loving this song, if you like it please check them out on you tube as every impression made on their video counts for them!
Maureen

Groundhog day no more!

You know that you live in a farming community when your children make snow 'bales' instead of snowmen! Although they did also make snowmen!

It has been a touch of groundhog day here since about the week before Christmas as we keep getting more and more snow and it seems like christmas is ongoing which is not good for the waistline! Schools have been cancelled and so we have not resumed our usual routine and no work is getting done! However this morning we felt a return to normality as we woke to rain and gale force winds! Its amazing the difference that one day makes, I took the top three pics yesterday and the bottom one today! However I'm not in any hurry to go driving on those roads today they look like glass! So it will be another evening in beside the fire doing crochet or knitting! Hope its good wherever you are!
Maureen

Happy New Year!

Here's hoping that 2010 is the best yet!

Hope you all had a great Christmas!

One of my new years resolutions is that from now on I will make the time to come and blog more often! I know I seriously neglected my blogging buddies in the later part of this year and I am truly sorry, but things just got on top of me, life and business got in my way as they do and I did int seem to ever have enough hours in the day, and although 2009 wasn't a bad year for me, /I won't be sorry to see it gone and look forward to the blank page that is 2010, a new year and a new decade. We had a good Christmas, as I hope you all did and much excitement to see Snow, which we don't often see here by the sea, although it made travelling hard and so I still haven't got to see my family for Christmas as they live a couple of hours drive away but have been on the telephone so not too bad. I am trying to upload some pictures for this post but blogger is having none of it so I may try and add some Christmas pictures tomorrow, before the new year arrives, so will chat to you again then,
Moe
xxx

Halloween

Our Crew
We had a Witch..........
a bat!.................
and a devil!
The whole crew!

Hi There,
Hope you are all well, just thought I would post some Halloween pics. The kids had a great time at a halloween party at their cousins house, after going trick or treating to the neighbours they bobbed for apples and stuffed their faces with sweets for the night! A great time was had by all. Hope you enjoyed your Halloween too!

I am a bad bad blogger!

Hi Everyone, sorry I havent been around so much I know that I am a bad bad blogger! I have just been so busy with work, which I suppose is a good thing and have been expanding my flower shop to include room decor, chair covers and centerpieces, so I am really excited about that, I have got beautiful chair covers with hoods in fabulous fabrics and sashes. So I just want to work now!If you want to have a look take a peek on my website and click on the blog for pics. I came across this video on facebook last night one of my freinds had it so I thought I would share it with you because it gave me a good laugh! I am back to stay this time I promise!
Moe!
xxxx

Sorry I have been gone so Long!!

Hi there! Sorry I have been gone so long! Did you miss me? I was just busy with Summer and Work and Kids and life in general!! Anyway I am back now and the kids are back at school so we have a bit of routine again so hopefully I will have a bit of time to blog again! but for now i will Leave you with this:

Bad Hair Day!

Happy Birthday Decie!

My Niece Denise turns 17 today, she has been waiting for this birthday for quite a while. It means that she is now legally allowed to drive. She has already sat her Theory test and passed with full marks. So I would just like to say a very Happy Birthday to you Denise...................

And to everyone else..................................
get indoors quick there is a mad driver on the loose!!!!!!

Work In Progress

Thought I would show you something that I have been working on for a while now, well actually quite a long time as I started this project a couple of years ago and then lost heart as sewing is not really my strong point and so those projects always seem to fall behind with me and inevitably end up being stashed away for a rainy day!

I really loved doing the redwork embroidery though which is what spurred me on into putting some of them together as I did not want to waste them, I came across them the other day and decided I should go back again and have another go!! I have always loved Sunbonnet Sue and Sams since I was very small and also Holly Hobbie so I really do want to finish this quilt one day but for now I will just content myself with trying to put together another few squares, I would Love to finish it with a blanket stitch all the way round and a couple of rows of crochet onto that.

Love to hear what you all think of this!

Moe xxx

Wonderland Update!

You can See the Official Trailer for the new Alice in wonderland Movie By Clicking Here
Oooooooh Can't Wait!!

A Martha Stewart Craft Day!!

Aisling with her finished Card
Denise's lovely Card

Aoife's Finished Card, she is so creative, she decides that she would paint a Tree Branch under her bird and glitter it, for someone so young I think she did a great job!

Some of the finished balloons

Denise and Aisling hard at work!

Aisling's finished Card

Aoife with one of her creations!

We had a relative home from America last week and she gave the kids lots of lovely pressies, Including some Martha Stewart Craft Sets, which they had really great fun with and it thankfully kept them occupied for a good couple of hours which is always good! They espically loved the ballon making kit that had lots of balloons and sticky bits that you stuck on to make the balloons into birds. And in Keeping with the bird theme there was also a lovely kit for making glittered cards with birds on. My niece Denise is here with us this week and is a little shy but she also enjoyed making both the ballons and the cards. One of the Cards Aisling put Thank you on with glue and is sending this one as a Thank You to the Lovely Auntie Margaret who kindly got them for us. We have all decided that We Love Martha Stewart too!

Aisling making her balloon