Busy week!

Spring is definitely in the air.  The sun is shining, the snow banks are receding fairly quickly now, although for the locals who are used to it, probably not fast enough!  Lovely Man has found work to keep him busy until he takes his exam on 1st June, or he's granted temporary registration allowing him to nurse until that date, whichever comes quicker.  Life at last looks like things are beginning to settle and we can start to enjoy our new life without the overhanging shadow of uncertainty of whether or not we could stay.  

So this week we have both been 'doing bizzies' as Lovely Man likes to call it!  For my part I have been keeping house, writing for the paper, working at the library and making purses and bags for the upcoming craft fair in Wawa at the end of the month.  With the help of my friend, Jeanette, I now have two very professional looking, and pretty, blogs.  I even managed to make a nice banner for myself - given that I struggle to understand/remember how photoshop works this is especially gratifying!

Today we have friends for supper - hop over to the recipe page for scrummy dessert - I am going to work at the ski club for a couple of hours and then maybe later when all the washing up is done I'll get another purse cut out (if I don't then it's going to float around in my head all night!).

O the five bags this week, I think this is my favorite...and I have plans for a matching ring cushion!

Ketchup & Cake!

Well! What a weekend!  Last night we were taken out to dinner by, we now know, our future son-in-law.  And very nice it was too, both the meal and the fact that he chose to do things the old fashioned way and ask her dad first.  I guess chivalry isn't dead after all.  Lovely Man was delighted and to the dismay of his daughter actually offered the lad a £1 plus an extra 50p if he took me away too!  All joking aside we are both really glad John is going to officially be one of the family, even tho he did blow the Kenwood mixer up!
Today we decided to take a day off from car boot sales where I have been trying to get rid of some of our treasures.  But we got lured into a walk around a local market by said daughter and future son-in-law and ended up buying a lampshade, carpet cleaner and a purple umbrella with diamante studs! 

All was well in our household until I realised it was 3pm and John was due to leave at six to catch a flight back to Scotland to join ship again.  I had promised to make a Great Canadian Heinz Ketchup Cake so I had to work fast.  Lovely Man decided to help... he managed to eject the beaters from the hand mixer (John blew up the Kenwood remember) across the kitchen.  He also managed to get egg shell in the mix along with the egg but we got there in the end!

Thank you to the guys at work for introducing me to the ketchup cake, feel free to click on the link I really don't have the energy to write the recipe out now!  If you make it don't worry it's meant to be VERY red!

To Bec & John congratulations and John keep your chin up mate only a week and you'll be home, miss you heaps.

Counting down, but a girl's still gotta eat!

Well! We may well have started on the last leg of our journey but I'm sorry we have to draw the line somewhere!  Lovely Man decreed that thou shalt eat up all the things in the store cupboard.  However, it seems that whilst I have cupboards positively brimming with all manner of tins and bottles there was still nothing of any real substance to eat!  So tonight friends I have sinned!  Forgive me but I could not endure another night of baked beans, tinned tomatoes and pilchards! So I took four wee little pieces of Neck of Lamb and pan fried them just to seal the sides.  Then I took half a pack of flaky pastry, rolled it thinly and sprinkled with chopped sage.  Next I lay the lamb on the pastry and wrapped up like a sausage roll.  Baked for 20 mins in the oven and served with veggies and gravy!  MMMmmmmm

Of course had I anything of any use, like redcurrant jelly and port, in the damn cupboard we could have had a lovely Jus instead of Bisto!  But hey ho!

Raspberry Pie!

4 cups of Raspberries
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoon Cornstarch (Cornflour to you and me!)
2 tablespoons butter
pinch of salt

1 pack shortcrust pastry ( cheated again!)
As before roll out to about 5mm and line a well greased 8 inch pie dish.
Mix together sugar, cornstarch and salt.  Sprinkle about a 1/4 of this mixture over the bottom of the pie.  Spread the raspberries in the pie and sprinkle on the remaining sugar mix.  Dot with butter.  knead left over pastry and re-roll cut into strips to make a lattice for the top of the pie.  Bake at 220C for 15 mins then reduce heat to 180C for approx 30 mins or until pastry cooked and golden.

Butter Tarts

I seem to be on a bit of a Canadian theme at the moment so thought I'd share our Canadian cousin's recipe for Butter Tarts.  Not at all good for the waistline but they do have nuts and fruit so they're  semi healthy!!!!


Take 1 pack of shortcrust pastry (I cheat here).  Roll out to about 5mm thick cut out circles to line 24 well greased tart tins.  Whisk 2 eggs and add 1/3 cup butter, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup cream, whisk together and heat until it comes to the boil, then remove from the heat.  Add 1 tspn Vanilla extract. cool a little.  Take 1/2 cup of chopped nuts (I use half nuts half sultanas) divide between the tart cases.  Pour the liquid mixture into tarts just covering the fruit & nuts.  Bake at 200 degrees C until pastry golden and cooked thru.  Leave to cool completely then remove from tins.   MMMmmmmm!

I also have a fantastic raspberry pie recipe which is every bit as good as the ones sold at St Jacobs Market, which is a Mennonite market.  Check out my blog over the weekend for this one!

Everyone's talking about Lamb Shanks!

Now I don't know whether it's the cold climate that prevails at the moment but the topic of conversation in our staffroom seems to be comfort food!  More precisely casseroles and slow cookers.  So before I throw myself into the usual Saturday morning chaos that is teenagers, D.I.Y.er's, shopping and cooking I thought I'd share our favorite Slow cooked Lamb Shanks in Red Wine recipe.  I love this not only for it's tenderness and rich gravy, but because it can be quickly prepared early on and then left to it's own devices until you want to eat it!

Before you go to bed take 1  red onion, chopped.  1 large garlic clove, crushed.  Mix with 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tspn each  ground paprika, rosemary and thyme.  Take 2 Lamb Shanks and stab them all over (very therapeutic if you've had a bad day!) then put them in the bowl with oil/vinegar mix. Massage well, cover with cling film, put in the fridge and go to bed!

On waking flick on the slow cooker to heat up.  Sear the lamb shanks in a hot pan on all sides and put in the slow cooker.  Saute the rest of the marinade for a minute then add a good size glass of red wine.  Next add a pint of lamb stock made with 1 stock cube and boiling water.  Pour this over the shanks, add more water if necessary to cover them. Put the lid on and leave for six hours or longer.

Now go enjoy your day knowing that later on when you're hungry you only have to throw some veg in a pan for 15-20 minutes.  If, like me, you like a thicker gravy remove the lamb from the pot and put in a warm oven, pour the gravy into a pan and thicken with a little cornflour.  Be sure to bring to the boil for two minutes to ensure the cornflour is cooked off.  Serve up pouring gravy all over !

Recipe for a night in

I love cooking.  I love eating too! I found this recipe, it's from Weightwatchers so you can have a glass of wine to go with it and not feel guilty!  You could have a pudding too!  If you speak fluent Points it's worth 3 and half points per serving.  Whatever!  Just enjoy it.  This recipe serves 2 so perfect for a romantic Valentines Day Dinner.

2 Garlic Cloves
15g piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
pinch of salt
1 small red onion finely diced
1/2 tspn each cumin seeds & ground coriander
1/4 tspn each ground tumeric, cayenne pepper and freshly ground black pepper.
6 tomatoes, skinned de-seeded and chopped
200g cooked, peeled king prawns
100g 0% greek yogurt
1/2 mild green chilli de-seeded and diced
1 tbspn chopped fresh coriander


75g (dry weight) basmati rice


 Pound the garlic, ginger & salt in a pestle and mortar.
Put rice on to boil according to packet instructions
Heat wok saute onion gently for 5 minutes
Add garlic and ginger paste and all the spices cook for a few seconds but don't burn the spices
Add tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes.  Turn down the heat to low and stir in prawns.  Heat through then add the yogurt and chopped coriander stirring until all heated through.
Serve with the Rice

The original recipe used a whole chilli. I'm wary of chilli because I don't like hot curries.  Using half a chilli still gave it quite a kick.  I would recommend starting with half and increasing the heat next time if you can cope with it!

Welcome to my new Blog!

Life’s simple pleasures is a blog that is focussed on just that. I get a great deal of enjoyment just exploring and experiencing everything life has to offer. From a few minutes at sunrise when the light is so perfect to a whole hour of soothing piano music playing softly whilst I’m baking. My second source of pleasure is recording and sharing those moments with others.

I created this blog, with the help of a dear friend, in an attempt to share these pleasures with a wider audience in the hope of spreading a little joy. I hope that you find something here that you will enjoy. If you find something that helps lighten your load, solves a problem or simply makes you laugh out loud then it has all been worthwhile.

My thanks to Lorrie, who got this blog up and running for me.