It’s been 7 months today, since our last post, while I worked on a great big work project. But we are back now, ready to really rock and roll again! And with a whole new brand design look, too! What do you think? Do you love our [Read more…]
St. Michael’s Bannock – Recipe
If you’re looking for the perfect, traditional St. Michael’s Bannock recipe, you just found it!
We enjoy this recipe so much, and we are sure you and your family will as well.
St. Michael’s Bannock
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Mix together:
- 2 cups of flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Cut in 2 tablespoons butter (not margarine)
- 1 cup buttermilk or yogurt
- handful of raisins or currants
On a floured surface, knead the dough until smooth, then pat into an 8 inch round loaf, and bake on a greased cookie sheet for 40 minutes.
For a more festive look, score the dough with crosses.
Cool on a cookie rack.
May be served with butter or jam. But honestly….we ate it plain, and it was so delicious!
It also makes awesome toast in the morning. I had some this morning, with my very necessary cup of coffee, in my House of Joyful Noise mug, that I still love so much!
Now, just because it is called St. Michael’s Bannock, doesn’t mean you have to wait until next Michaelmas to make and eat it. Because if you think we’ll be doing that, you’re crazy!! We’ll just re-name it if we have to! Thanksgiving Bannock, Christmas Bannock, St. Patrick’s Day….., Easter…….
The Triplets’ Birthday Cake Choices
After 7 years, it finally happened! The triplets wanted different kinds of birthday cake.
As I’ve mentioned before, we all choose what we want for our birthday cakes in our family. Up until this year, we’ve really lucked out in that, {J, O & S} have always just agreed on the same kind of cake. So this year was a ‘first’. They had all spent their own bouts of time flipping through their big sister’s cook books, and it seems 2 of them had seen something they wanted, and they knew exactly on which page, in which book, it was.
So this post isn’t directional recipes, per say, but a few cute ideas you may like to use for your kids, or yourself, sometime! Good news: Birthdays are not a requirement! An ordinary Sunday, the kickoff of a school vacation, or house cleaning being all done, are all good enough reasons for a treat! Feel free to come up with your own reasons. It’s really not hard to do when you’re in the mood for a treat!
Look how happy they are! This makes the extra hours in the kitchen, worth it.
{J} chose to have a ‘Mice Cream’.
In a graham cracker mini-pie crust, add a big scoop of your favorite ice cream. (In other words, choose your mouse color. : )
Eyes & Nose = Chocolate Chips
Whiskers = Large sprinkles
Ears = Keebler Grasshopper Cookies
Tail = We wanted red licorice string rope. But we could not find any. So, we picked up some of this Extreme Sweetly-Sour Belts, that we cut for a thin tail. It was wicked gross, and we threw it out as soon as the tail served it’s purpose. : )
Cute, huh?
~~~
{O} chose a Cupcake Cone
With some yellow cake batter from {S}’s, we filled the cone up more than 2/3 full, and baked in 350 degree oven for 25-28 minutes. Cool, frost, sprinkle, eat. : ) We made 7.
~~~
{S} wanted a 7 Cake!
Oh yeah, he’s sharin’!
We just baked an ordinary marble cake in a square cake pan, and cool. Remove from the pan, cut into a 7, frost and sprinkle.
We used to rarely have sweets around here. But since {A} loves baking so much, and with so many birthdays, holidays and blessings, we’re finding more reasons to celebrate with a treat than we used to! Thankfully, they are generously spaced with many healthy balanced diet meals around the table together.
Music to the Triplets’ Ears – Birthday Surprises
There are things our kids / triplets can always count on for their birthday: birthday number pancakes, a whole day or few together, just spent having major family quality time, cake of their choice, lots of love and stories about their birth, and the flying of time.
But they don’t often ask for anything, or expect gifts that we can tell. While we’ve always told them you should never EXPECT gifts from anyone, we’ve always given them something for their birthday! So if they are expecting anything, they are good at hiding it! lol.
So they seemed excitedly surprised when we told them we had a little something for them before lunch, their cake choices, and heading out for an overnight surprise trip.
I love the expressions!
{S} guessed out loud, “A BlackBerry?”, to which I laughed out loud and spontaneously replied with,
…..”YEAH RIGHT!!”
Then {O} said, “They’re I-Pods!”
Well, MP3 players of another brand. Close enough. ; )
Then their big sister had a surprise of her own for them….
$5.00 each to I-Tunes! Cool!
We did think ahead though, to load some music on to the players, the night before, and put their initials on them as well. Because we knew they would have been persistent in asking us to do so, if they couldn’t use them right away.
I just knew these little doo-dads were going to prove to be a BRILLIANT little idea.
They were THRILLED to have one of their own. Even with the strict volume rules. ; )
And I’m telling you, it was the QUIETEST…..
….LUNCH…..
EVER!!!
There is quite a bit more on their birthday celebrations coming up here, there, and who knows when.
We feel so blessed and full of thanks, and that’s always worth celebrating. A LOT!
P.S. Do you have any song suggestions for 7 year olds? So far we’ve uploaded their VBS CD, and a few other choice songs. I’ve started a list of appropriate and positive/happy songs as I hear them. (Singles by Martina McBride, Bob Marley, and anything Christian/worship music…). Stuff with good messages, etc. If you have ANY song suggestions for them we can load on these, we’d love to hear them! When I get a longer list of ideas and suggestions, I’d be happy to share it here if everyone would like that. After all, appropriate/positive/happy songs are great for ALL ages! : )