Holiday Makings via some majestic birds!

Well, after me raving about the beautiful weather, today took a definite autumnal twist!

 

Firstly we visited an old country house, parts of which, like those in the photo below, date from the 1400s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It didn't seem too chilly as the boys ran around the grounds and we were constantly on the move.

 

But after a picnic lunch we went to a Birds of Prey place, which included a 2 hour demonstration of various birds of prey flying around and over us, as well as the chance for the boys to get up close with the birds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a great display of the birds but sitting down outdoors for 2 hours was more than a little chilly! So, if you are still with me, I was quite happy that I had finished off my latest make a couple of days earlier.

 

 

I saw these wrist warmers on the lovely My Rose Valley's Instagram account and just had to make them as soon as she released the pattern.

 

I've had my eye on her Nordic Shawl pattern for some time now but I can't justify buying any more crochet patterns just now with my rather long crochet to-do list, although the temptation is very great!

 

The wrist warmers are in a similar style to the shawl and looked nice and quick to make. Something that wouldn't take up too much of my Christmas present making time.

 

And they were very practical on a day like today too!

 

 

 

 

As a little foot note, does anyone else think that the falconer (or whatever you call a person who works with birds of prey) looks like Bernard Cribbens?!

 

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Half Term holidays so far

It's half term for our school boys this week and so we are away in a lovely wee place for the holiday.

 

We have come to a tiny village in Cumbria, in the north west of England, where we have rented a beautiful holiday cottage along with my parents in law and sister in law.

 

The holiday is really part of the celebrations of the the birthday year, with my mother in law turning 70 in the summer and my father in law turning 80 last month.

 

The holiday kick started on Saturday with a trip to see an old steam train in action at a nearby station.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's so very British of me to talk about the weather yet again, but, yet again, it is continuing to be so beautiful! Usually by this stage of October the winter coats are out but on Sunday we headed out to the hills in tshirts and still found ourselves a little too warm!

 

Rather than our usual Sunday afternoon stroll around our woods and the duck pond, yesterday we headed out on the Pennine Way. The older three boys and Auntie Anna did the full 3 1/2 miles to the top of the hill and then back again. Hubs, Ally, myself and Fraser (in the sling) accompanied them for about 1 1/2 miles before turning back. I should say that we had no intention of doing the full seven mile walk and that we didn't just give up!

 

 

 

 

 

The sky was a beautiful blue colour and the countryside rich in its autumn colours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My parents in law joined us for about the first 1/4 of a mile. My mother in law had a knee replacement at the beginning of the year so hill climbing isn't really her thing just yet!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you see David (8) below? And the kicking action? He doesn't need a football, just anything kickable!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today we headed across to the Lake District and had a picnic, by a lake of course. Isn't this a beautiful spot for lunch?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lake District boasts many beautiful lakes, mountains and outdoor shops! Calum (12) was delighted to spend some of his birthday money on some proper walking boots and plans to head up a hill early tomorrow morning with Auntie Anna to try them out.

 

 

 

 

The Lake District is also where Beatrix Potter, creator of Peter Rabbit, lived and so of course no trip to the Lakes can be complete without a wee visit to a Peter Rabbit shop and a new cuddly toy for a Peter Rabbit fan.

 

The weather forecast (there I go again) is for yet another dry couple of days ahead of us, so I foresee plenty more outdoorsy things ahead of us too!

 

Got to cram them in while we can before the season hits us properly!

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Family Dinners - Sweet & Sour Battered Chicken {Dairy & Gluten Free}

Although we hardly ever eat takeaway, and didn't before we had allergies to deal with either, on those rare occasions when we do have a Chinese Takeaway I always, always plump for the battered sweet & sour chicken. I just love it! 

As well as the fact that it is so expensive, it just doesn't seem fair to eat it when some of the boys aren't able to enjoy it

 

I have been making a sweet and sour sauce that they can eat for a while but it was when I discovered the lovely gluten free batter for my lemon chicken  recipe that I realised I could finally make the full version of my favourite takeaway dish that all the boys could enjoy too.


I'm happy to say that they loved it just as much as I do.


Now, while I am including this in my Family Dinners series, I should point out that it's not the sort of dinner you can rustle up in 20 minutes when you are just in the door and everyone is starving. Having said that, it isn't labour intensive either. The reason it takes a little while to cook is that you need to deep fry the battered chicken in batches. When I made this last week, to serve 8, I timed myself and it took around 45 minutes. I don't know how long you like to spend cooking but to me that isn't too long.


Don't be afraid of the deep frying. I do ours in the wok, with the lid on. I suppose ideally you would use a deep fryer, but I think as long as you are sensible then the risks are minimal!


Oh, and if you are catering for allergies, do make sure you buy gluten free soy sauce! Most normal brands contain wheat but it is quite easy to find gluten free versions in the supermarkets.


So, on with the recipe.


To serve 6 - 8 you will need:

6 chicken breasts or around 2lbs of chicken breast, chopped

{For the batter}
3 eggs, beaten
6-8 tablespoons cornflour

{For the sauce}
6 tablespoons rice or cider vinegar
4 tablespoons wheat free soy sauce
8 tablespoons orange juice (from a carton is fine but if you are using freshly squeezed this is about 3 oranges)
4 tablespoons water
2 limes, the juice of them
2 teaspoons cornflour
4 tablespoons tomato puree
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 garlic gloves, chopped
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
1 bunch spring onions, chopped

~Start by filling your pan for deep frying with oil and heating it up. It needs to be really hot before you start frying.
~Whisk the eggs in a large bowl and then whisk in the cornflour. How much cornflour you need will depend on the size of your eggs but you are aiming for a thickish batter. Not too thick, but thick enough to coat the chicken.
~Drop handfuls of the chicken into the batter mix and then carefully add them to the oil. Even if you think the pan is big enough to cook a large batch of chicken, it is best not to do too much at a time or you will cool the oil down too much, causing your chicken to take longer to cook and risking a soggy batter!
~Turn each batch of chicken half way through. It probably takes about 5 minutes on each side. You want it to look nice and golden on both sides.
~When each batch is cooked, drain on some kitchen towel and put in a dish in the oven to keep warm.

~While your chicken is cooking you can get on with the sauce.

~Add the vinegar, soy sauce, orange juice, water, lime juice, cornflour, tomato puree & brown sugar to a bowl and whisk it all together.
~Put a little oil in a pan, add the garlic & spring onions then lightly brown them.
~Add the rest of the sauce ingredients and heat up gently.
~When all of the chicken is cooked pour the sauce over the chicken.

~Serve with rice and prawn crackers.

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A spot of music

It's been a while since I shared some music on here so let's put that right.

 

Calum, now thoroughly settled in at high school, started trumpet lessons two weeks ago. With James still playing the trombone and one of my nephews learning a baritone horn I've been telling them that I'm going to get them together as a mini brass band to go out and play Christmas carols in December. I'm only half joking too!

 

Anyway, don't worry, tonight's clip isn't of Calum's trumpet playing after only two weeks of lessons. It is, rather, his old favourite the accordion. He hasn't been playing it much over the summer and since he's never had lessons for it there isn't the same incentive to practise. He loves to learn new tunes on it though and so when he decides he wants to learn a new one, out it comes.

 

Last night he asked if I would teach him the Skye Boat Song, and here he is playing it 24 hours later, accompanied by yours truly.

 

Now before you watch it I should apologise for the strange camera angle! Dad was out, James was busy keeping Fraser quiet and David & Alasdair were playing in another room so we didn't have anyone to hold it! I just placed my phone on the piano and hoped for the best! It's the music you are listening to anyway!

 

 

 

 

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Make it Monday - Camo Cupcakes {Dairy & Gluten Free}

I promised I would share the method for making Calum's birthday Camo Cupcakes and so here we are. 

They are really straightforward to make, not too time consuming at all, but don't tell that to whoever you are baking these for!

For the food colouring it is best to use the pastes rather than the liquids as this won't affect the consistency of your cake mix.

You will need:

{for the cupcakes}

10oz dairy free margarine

10oz Doves Farm Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

10oz sugar

4 eggs

1-2tbsp soya milk

green & black food colouring

a few tablespoons cocoa

{for the icing}

1lb icing sugar

5oz dairy free margarine

a little splash of soya milk

green & black food colouring

a tablespoon of cocoa

~ Put the margarine, flour, sugar and eggs into your mixer and beat well until everything has mixed together and looks creamy. Then add the soya milk and beat a little more.

~Divide the mixture as evenly as you can into three bowls.

~Colour one bowl green, another black and add enough cocoa to the third to get a nice brown colour. 

I must admit to having a slight 'blonde' moment when I was looking out my food colourings to make these. I looked through the colours I had and thought to myself, if only I had brown colouring to make the third colour. Thankfully it didn't take too long to dawn on me that all chocolate cakes have the perfect colour that I needed and without any food colouring!

~Now all you need to do is put a splodge of each colour into your cupcake cases. There is no fancy way of doing this and no need to mix the colours together at all. Just try not to have the colours right on top of each other or you will end up with just layers rather than the swirl of camo.

~Bake at 180C for around 20 minutes. Timing is a little more important for these as normally I would just go by the colour on the top of a cupcake to see if they are ready. Not so easy when the cakes are black on top! James (14) came through when I took them out of the oven and thought that I had burnt them!

~While they cool you can crack on with the icing.

~Put the icing sugar and margarine into your mixer and beat until they come together. You might need to add a splash or two of soya milk to help them come together. Once it looks nice and smooth, again separate into three bowls and colour each one as before.

~Using disposable piping bags, fill three separate bags with each colour. Then take a fourth bag, with a nozzle attached and slot the three different coloured bags into this one. To help with this, try and get your coloured bags nice and thin by squeezing the icing evenly as far to the top as you can, while still leaving squeezing room at the top for when it's time to ice.

~Swirl the triple coloured icing onto your cooled cupcakes.

~Bask in the admiration of the cakes' recipients who now think that you have spent far longer concocting these than you really did and that you are something of a culinary genius!

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