Fresh Homemade English Muffins

Nothing better on a weekend than lovely, hot off the griddle, English muffins.
I originally got a recipe from an old cookbook that my sister had dated about 1932. Since then I have adapted it for the breadmaker (plus some other modifications). Always works.

Gorgeous to eat with homemade jam and cream, chutney and cheese or whatever you want.

The griddle was bequeathed to me by my Nana when she died. My Auntie was required to give everyone what had been listed and I still remember her telling me that I did not have to keep what Nana had put aside for me. She did not think that they were a very good heirloom. I was given this griddle and two cast iron gem irons. I was so thrilled!!! My Nana certainly knew me well, though my Auntie remained mystified that I did not put them in the Salvation Army box!!!

My Recipe

Into breadmaker put;
250ml tepid trim milk
1T butter
1tsp salt
2tsp sugar
3tsp dried yeast (i don't use the breadmaker yeast just normal - but either works)
1 cup flour
1 egg

put the breadmaker onto dough cycle and let it mix for about 5-7 minutes. Stop the breadmaker and add 2.5 more cups flour. Allow the breadmaker to do a full dough cycle.

Take the mixture out and put onto a floured surface. Flatten it to about 2 - 2.5cm high. Cut out rounds with a cookie cutter. Put the rounds onto a preheated griddle - must have a very thick bottom. This should be hot and even temperature but not frying heat. I put my griddle onto a gas ring at about 1/2 heat - anymore and the bottoms will burn but the dough will not cook.
You could use an electric frying pan.

Once they are cooked on the bottom - It should be brown on the bottom and looking cooked to about 1/2 way up the side of the muffin (takes 5-10 minutes), turn them over till cooked on the other side. The edges of the muffins do NOT get browned. They should be soft to touch but not uncooked.

Use hands only to pull the muffin apart and put your topping on. Yum Yum

Tidying the vege garden for winter

Trying to use my panorama option on my camera. Have to get a bit better at the matching up bits!!

We have been having better weather for autumn than we did in summer. The winter growth on the brassica's is a bit stringy because of it. Today I acknowledged that winter is on the way and started getting into the vege garden to compost and feed the winter over plants, finish doing my cover crops and punnet up seedlings etc for my sisters new 20 acre property.

The garden is a bit daunting at this time when there is so much to do but small bites of 1 1/2 hours makes a significant difference. Soon I will have to look at the flower garden and trees but at the moment I am just thinking of food!!!!

ANZAC day lunch

The boys and Aaron went to the Kaiapoi ANZAC day representing Kaiapoi North School. I stayed and home and had the TV on channel one following the various services around NZ and prepared a family roast.

So we have Paul, Susannah, the girls, Colleen and maybe Caleb coming.

We are having:

• Roast Lamb (with garlic and rosemary)
• Mint sauce
• Roast Beef (with a spice covering)\
• Gravy - lots of it
• Glazed carrots - Jamie Oliver 30 min meals version with thyme, honey and oil
• Braised red cabbage - Annabel Langbein from her first TV series - with currants
• Fresh cherry tomatoes from the garden
• Roast potatoes with salt and garlic - lots of them!!!

On such a lovely day - all outside and relaxing.

Another finished quilt

Well this quilt has been through the "I love it" then "no not me" then "it's OK" then "yep it is good". So I hope the the orphan at Hope Homes who receives this will like it.
Spencer and Eli this morning loved it. Before school they put it on the floor and lay on it to watch TV. (they normally do not get TV before school but they had done all their jobs, had a hot chocolate and were being good).
I am really pleased that some of these quilts are getting finished. We had done a few tops but not batted and quilted them.

Back to school baking

Well tomorrow it is back to school. Eli has been talking quite a lot about his school trip to Ferrymead where they went "back to the sixties". It is on his classroom blog - here. As part of the day they looked at food and made lolly cake. He saw some at a cafe and that reminded him. So off we went to the supermarket to get all the things we needed. Apparently it is his favourite food.
So we then also had to make Jakob's favourite food - chocolate brownies. The recipe I use is just melt it all in a pot and bake. I am so into recipes like this. I made it at 9.30pm last night but it only takes 5 minutes at the most. Fantastic.

Homemade skate park

The boys have spent the last few days cutting a big box apart and making a skate park for their miniature skate boards. The big argument when making it was on the amount of graffiti. Eli was drawing graffiti all over it as he said that is what skate parks are like. Jakob was not happy at all - he saw it as defacing his park. Anyway a myriad of jumps and lots of drawing later. (they even have a car parking area)
They have been playing on it  heaps and have found that if they put glue on their fingers the the boards stick better to do the jumps and ramps.

Awesome Mount Cook

We had such an amazing time at Mt Cook last year that we went for longer this time. On the way we stayed at the Lake Tekapo camping ground in a standard cabin. I have to say that it was a very expensive standard cabin! Poor tourists.
Then we went on to Mt Cook on Saturday and had two nights at the fabulous Hermitage. We stayed in the motels where the boys had their own room (yeah - some relief from their noise!) and we had the amazing complimentary buffet breakfast looking down the valley to Mt Cook itself.

The boys on the deck outside our backpacker room

The weather was amazing and so we completed or semi completed some walks. The boys love walking on the Moraine's - they look like adventurers against the skyline. Unfortunately I did not manage so well. I am noticing my deteriorating heart a lot more when in the outdoors. But this did not detract from our fabulous few days.
On Monday Aaron tramped up to the Mueller Hut and then on to Mt Olliver. He stayed the night at the hut. His photos are amazing.

The view from the deck off our room

The cool thing was that the boys and I walked with him to the track turnoff (where it goes uphill for 3 hours solid!!!) and we could see him climbing most of the way to the Sealy tarns. We found that really exciting and everytime we saw him appear we screamed and shouted. Eventually we had to contain ourselves as others high on the track thought there was something wrong when we were yelling.
We had awesome weather most of the time but Monday night the rain started. The boys and I stayed in a room at the backpackers (it use to be the old THC hotel when I worked for SPHC chain) and the picked up a drenched Aaron the next morning after he tramped down the hill.

A very wet but very fast Aaron at the end of his Mueller Hut tramp

Skate Jam - Kaiapoi School Holidays

What a huge turnout.

Yesterday was another rise up Kaiapoi event. This time for the kids in the school holidays. Due to earthquakes Kaiapoi has lost both it's BMX track and skate park area. We used to use both of those quite a lot.
So yesterday Cheapskates put on the free event in the New World Kaiapoi car park.
Thank you New World and Cheapskates, it was awesome.
It was heaving with people from 2 - 19 years old. They had a trick competition in the middle that was fun to watch. I don't know how the kids didn't all crash into each other - but they all enjoyed it.

Jakob (on left) watching people jump the ramp

Eli giving the ramp a go. He was the first person to do a full faceplant off  the ramp. An impressive sight!!! He did not cry but said that he really wanted to.

Breakfast time is very quiet

I never thought I would see the day when breakfast with two boys was quiet!! But it is the only meal at which they are allowed to read and so they make the most of it. But the concentration goes on the book and not on eating breakfast. I love it when kids suddenly "get" what the joy of reading is about, how to use it for quiet time, for escape, for expanding the imagination. Eli has just been getting confident to actually read and understand by himself and it is GREAT!!

Don't make foolish statements

Last Thursday my patchwork and quilting buddies Sheryl, Paula, Kylie and Steff meet for our weekly sewing night. During the night I was started my series on how to use pre cut packs. I have started focusing on Jelly Rolls. I demonstrated how to make fast and easy double hourglass squares. I then said that it was so good and so easy that I might have a quilt top completed by this week. Oh foolish me!!! I have NEVER EVER made a patchwork top in a week. It is starting to look like I never will!!! I still have washing to do, bathroom to clean etc etc and our get together is tomorrow.

Morris insisted on staying on my sewing 

Here is a quick peek at what I am doing.
The pattern is taken from Cluck Cluck Sew (a blog that I follow). I do tackle the cutting a bit differently from her as I have worked out how to use my 6.5" square ruler instead of using the template she describes as needing. Makes it to be nice and fast for cutting. I am always on the lookout for faster, easier ways to do things.

This has a little bit of my upcycling, recycling ethos - the white fabric is a 100% cotton sheet bought from the Op Shop. It is one in very good condition and so easy to use.

Beginners quilt lesson - finally finished

Last year I taught a beginners patchwork class. I had made random sample blocks for each lesson. As the lessons went on we all realised that it would have been helpful to see the various patterns in the setting of a quilt. It has taken me a year to get the little cot quilt finished. All my students are now on at least their third or fourth quilts and we now have an evening a week that we get together. I have now starting looking at quilting techniques and patterns with them. You will see that later.

So the colours and highly patterned material are not what I would have put together if I had intended to make a quilt from scratch but this quilt will end up being given to an orphan at Hope Homes. 

www.hopehomesinternational.com/

Hope Homes International - Children's home in Eldoret, Kenya.