Hiatis Over

Boy does the time fly. After planning on spending 6 months in the US, starting in July 09, we ended up staying for another 5 months. Kole finished primary school in one school and one country. It was a good year for both the kids.
Although the crafting front was minimal (for me), I did manage to do things that I normally wouldn't or couldn't. Here's a little review of some things I was doing.



















Canning was a jolt from my past. Although I completely enjoyed it at this time in my life. Prompted by dear friend Calla, who would drop by large bags of extra food from her garden, I was lured into making pickles and applesauce. Yum! Easy enough to do since supplies are in every store. Since returning to Ireland, I have found it impossible to find canning jars. Biggish ones, not preserve jars. Did find 2 on EBay for 6 euro. No thanks.















Resign rings for all the girls in the family for Christmas. Started that early enough to send a few to Ireland as well. Ample supply of supplies at every craft store. So I stocked up.



















September birthday for Daughter. Ten is big and so was the Cupcake Cake. Easily feeds 10.















Johnny Appleseed Festival in Fort Wayne, IN. My favorite festival of all. Piles of vendors, food, period costumes and beautiful stuff to buy. I found my all time favorite slippers there again.




















Off to Chicago in October for a long weekend. Went to the Legoland Discovery Center. Miniature city scape of Chicago waterfront. Very small, but worth the $6.00 for the commemorative stamped Lego.















First snow of the year. Very exciting. I love snow.




















Small apartments call for small trees. Our lovely neighbors loaned us theirs. Our first fake tree! I don't really like them, although it doesn't shed.















Snowman casualty. Yikes!
















Family Christmas with EVERYONE this year. Really Amazing!! 20+

Doud's Orchard

The Roann Covered bridge. It was a bit shaky. The field trip, not the bridge. Kole came home from school on Tuesday with a 102 degree temp. We were planning on traveling to Chicago the next morning for Fall break. Nope! Poor guy, but within 24 hours, the fever was gone an the son was ravenous. Ok, we'll go on a short trip to the orchard and pick pumpkins too.



















I'd been to Doud's orchard the previous week with my friend Calla. She's an amazing cook and is very self sustaining when it comes to seasonal food, so we bought apples. I bought 1 small bag of beautiful Honey Crisp apples. They're similar to the Asian Pears. Juicy, crisp, sweet and a little grainy like pears are. Yum! Calla bought bags for sauce, pies, deserts and all sorts of things. I had the bug.















Just because it's so beautiful. Here is one of the trees across the lane from our apartment.















This is our haul. U-Pick pumpkins were 3 for $10. Good deal, plus I had to have my white pumpkin. They're like aliens, very cool and the insides are pale green. With every $12 you spend you get 1/2 a Peck of apples free. Ok, I can't pass up free food and still having most of the delicious apples at home from 4 days ago, I think I may be crazy.















This is inside. They have dozens of varieties that they grow and sort on the premises. Plus little knives around that you can taste the apples before buying. I also bought beautiful apple blossom honey that is produced there as well.















Here are some of the aliens. I bought the one in the center. It's very pretty. I wonder how it will taste when I roast it tomorrow?? We did end up going to Chicago later that day.

Elderflower Cordial

It may be a bit late in the season, but I have just finished a batch of Elderflower Cordial. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's something like a lemon-aid concentrate. With a touch of floral to it. It's really lovely. We just happen to have a huge bush dangling over our fence. My theory is, if it's over the fence, it's free game.



















We hoisted DH up on the ladder with the grass clippers and got to it. The night before there was a lot of rain and wind. Little white flowers all over the garden. What was left was the ones that were still good.












Make sure you properly identify the flowers. There are a lot of tiny white flowers in bloom at the moment. The internet shows close up shots of them.













Here is the recipe:

*3 liters of water
*65 grams of Citric Acid
*25-30 Elderflower Blossoms
*900 grams of Sugar
*Zest of 1 large lemon and orange - save the fruit













*Combine water and sugar
*Heat to dissolve and cool until just warm
*Add zest and citric acid
*Cut fruit into chunks and add
*Add blossoms and push down to cover













*Cover and let sit for 24-48 hours.
*Strain through muslin or cheesecloth to remove bugs and bits.
*Pour into sterilized bottles. Since it is a concentrate, dilute 1/4 cordial to 3/4 water or club soda. Adjust the citrus to your taste.

















Enjoy, it doesn't have a long shelf life, but can easily be frozen.

Baking, Cooking, IKEA, Oh My!

It's been really busy most days. We've been off with the kids on their extended mid-term sort of break. They really just took the days from the February break and added them onto the May break, thinking that the weather would be nicer and so it has been.

We've had gloriously warm, sunny days for May. Upper 50's and low 60's. Some how, it just seems and feels a lot warmer than that. Maybe I'm getting use to the cooler weather.

Anyway, DH had a birthday and the cake requested was the traditional Coconut Creme Pie. The "Queen of Pies" is what my father has called it and so the name has come to live at our house as well.


Coconut custard with piped creme and toasted coconut pieces on top. There was a bit left over, so I fulled the the little cups as well.










Tamales. In honor of Cinco De Mayo on the 5th of May, I made sweet corn tamales. I make them every so often. Not as hard as I remember. Of course I didn't tie the ends into cute little tassels like last time. Just folded all the sides in and there you have it.

Great for our Gluten Free kiddies. Corn meal, sweet corn, cheddar cheese and some sweet red pepper. Blend, heat and put into corn husks and steam.

Yes, that's right. Recycled corn husks. Of course, mine were lovingly brought for the local Hispanic grocery store to Ireland on the last visit of my parents. I'm really surprised they weren't confiscated, but happy they weren't.




Here is a close up of the bundles after they've come out of the steamer.















OH YEAH!!!













Went up to Belfast to take the kids to the W5 Children's Museum. Had a great time. We were nearly the only ones there. Occasionally there was a small creche worth of school children that would arrive in uniform and then leave shortly there after. We managed to ditch them most of the time. Whew!

Pulling into the parking lot, we notice the fuel tank was beyond low. We had just put in some petrol in the last town. Not to freak out, we were optimistic that there wasn't a hole in the tank. We went on the hunt for the closest petrol station. Following the directions given by the guy at the museum, we promptly got lost and ended up going in the wrong direction. By the time we found the next station and could actually get off the motorway, the was IKEA glowing in the distance. It was like a mirage. STUFF MART, here we come!! After the petrol, of course. We had a good time as well. The children loved all the rooms and shortcuts. We loved the prices and brought a few things home. I do mean a few!! Nothing crazy, like a new kitchen for the rental house. Anyway. We would love to go back.

Funny thing was, we were going to ask for directions at the petrol station on how to get there. Ha! No need!