St David’s Day crafts

This Saturday sees us celebrate the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, which falls on 1 March each year. I don’t think you have to be Welsh to enjoy everything that is great about Welsh history and culture 🙂

My Pinterest stream has been full of colourful daffodils and leeks, both of which are national emblems of Wales. According to Wikipedia the flower is a generic Welsh symbol and is in season in March. The leek is Saint David’s personal symbol. Both can be worn by those celebrating St David’s Day.

We’ve had fun trying out some of the crafts we’ve saved to our St David’s Day Pinterest board. Our favourite was a fun handprint daffodil which has really brightened up our craft space. On previous occasions we’ve also had fun making pretty daffodil biscuits and paper daffodil bunting.

This year for the first time we made our own Welsh cakes together. They were really simple to make and easy enough for my children to get involved too. You can find the recipe and method over on my blog.

I also found felt leek badges, recipes for Bara brith and adorable Welsh lady bunting. What will you be making this year?

30 minute Dinner Rolls – No rise time!

I’m on the 30 Day Shred workout programme. Me. Who NEVER exercises and whimpers at the thought of flexing a muscle.

I’m on Day 17, and I freaking LOVE it! I’ve totally shocked myself at my commitment to it. I have 2 stone to lose to get back to ‘pre-child’ weight and although my progress is slow, I’m losing steadily every week.

So, to the point.

Last night I whipped up Jillian’s vegetable soup but was CRAVING a little bit of dough in my life. So I pinsearched ‘Quick no mix dinner rolls’ and came up with these beauties to have with our soup.

They literally took 30 mins from Start to Finish. No rise time. No faffing around with dough hooks. Just chuck the ingredients in a bowl and mix for 2 minutes with a wooden spoon.

I found the original recipe here over on the Chocolate & Chilli’s blog – pure yummyness here people!

I omitted the extra pinch of salt because I found that the mayo makes them salty enough 🙂

Quick Dinner Rolls:

2 cups all-purpose flour plus a pinch of salt (You could use wholeweat flour too)
3 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp light mayonnaise
1 cup milk
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Grease a muffin tin.

In a large bowl add all the ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon for about 2 minutes.  Fill the prepared muffin tin 2/3 full.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Srsly. They’re THAT easy. And so yummy with a big ol’ pot of soup.

If this has taught me one thing. It’s that I need a new muffin pan. No amount of cropping or PicMonkey is going to hide that cretin of a pan!

If you try these out,  post a pic on our Facebook page so we can have a nosey!

One of my most popular Pinterest boards is my Ginger board. Its a bit of a surprise as I cobbled it together one night in a rush to keep track of a couple of recipe ideas. I do love a …

Things to do with Scrabble sets!

I haven’t played Scrabble for years but that hasn’t stopped me collecting Scrabble sets. You can pick up sets of all ages in charity shops and the Scrabble tiles look great displayed in glass jars, both the plastic and card tiles, and I’ve even kept the letter holders too!

As usual there’s tons of inspiration on Pinterest for upcycling Scrabble sets. Each part can be used to make something new.

You can re-use scrabble tiles to make door signs, for a place setting, a drinks coaster or decoration.

The letter holders can be recycled into fun little shelves, just the right size for to display a photograph or book.

I’ve even see the game board turned into the cover of a blank notebook.

I keep seeing scrabble tiles everywhere, from cushion covers to fridge magnets. How about making some edible Scrabble tile biscuits? I tried making them for Father’s Day and although they were fiddly they were fun.

I love giving old things new purpose. How about you?

Some delicious treats….

So it has been a LONG week for my family. My son is sick, my daughter seems to have been taken over by a witch with a capital B and my husband had surgery on his elbow. So I have …

Peach Mango Pie

These ladies are going to kill me because yet again I am late. Next week I will be on time because I already have the post scheduled!!!

So this week I am going to show you my Mango Berry Pie. You actually make it the same way as the Berry Berry Pie, with a few differences

Use 2 large Mangos {Cut into small pieces}1 cup of raspberries
and 3 peaches

You are going to cook the fruit the same way as the above pie but keep in mind the Mango’s take longer to break down. It isn’t as sweet so make sure you taste your mixture before you place it into the oven. You may need to add a bit more sugar to make it sweet enough for you.

Lemon Moscato Cake

I am very excited about this… I cheated a little but you will wonder why we didn’t think of it before! My favorite wine is a Moscato. Its nice and sweet and goes especially good with a NY summer night. …

Queen cakes

I thought I would share a really simple recipe for Queen cakes with you today. I love baking and fell in love with these little cakes. They could be the perfect treat to help you celebrate the Queen’s birthday this weekend.

You will need the following ingredients:

110g  unsalted butter
110g caster sugar
2 eggs
110g self raising flour
60g glacé cherries (you can you sultanas if you prefer)

Cream the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl, add in the eggs, then fold in the flour. Add a little milk if necessary. Wash and chop the glacé cherries and add them too.

Grease a heart-shaped tin if you have one, or bun tin, then spoon the mixture being careful not to overfill each shape. Bake at 180° for 15-20 minutes until golden brown, then leave to cool and transfer to a wire rack. Lightly dust with caster sugar before eating.

I love baking and you’ll find lots more cakes and recipes over on my blog the gingerbread house. I also have a fun Pinterest board full of mouth-watering cakes I want to make if you would like to follow it.

Pinterest Round Up No.1 {Scrumdiddlyumptious Things ….. to bake}

Ahoy there! I am sooo chuffed to be posting my first post here as part of the Pinaddicts Challenge Team. I blog here if you’ve not ‘met’ me before.

I’ve been involved with the Pinaddicts Challenge from back in the day and am throwing myself into it more now and hope to post regularly on this very site!

Obviously I am seriously addicted to Pinterest and have a vast array of boards spanning many areas from #pinaddicts to Home Loveliness to tattoos to beards. I’m pretty eclectic. {You can find me here ;)}

Anyway, I hope to post a regular round up of pins with a Pinaddicts Challenge theme – so don’t panic I won’t force my love of beards on you – thereby maybe giving you some inspiration for your next challenge?

This week I am going to focus on………… BAKING! *drools at the thought and frowns at the realisation the diet starts again tomorrow – dammit*

Here are my favourite 5 pins, some of which have been tried and tested, a lot, by myself hence the need for the aforementioned diet. All pins can be found here and each image is linked to its original source.

So, have I tempted you to enter a baking based challenge?

Happy Pinning!