Easter Monday

It’s not felt like Easter this year as we don’t seem to have had the same work/play divide. I worked Saturday and Sunday so had to make do with yesterday and tried to push as much as I could in to my only day off.

We decided to go for a lovely long walk to Lartington via the local woods and then walked back dropping in to Deerbolt wood on the way home. I even saw a lamb born in one of the fields which was the highlight of my day.

Once home I did a little bit of crafting. I crocheted these sweet little blossoms from a pattern on
Attic 24 and stuck them to a branch I took from the woods. I was so pleased with the result. It’s just so pretty and reminds me of Spring.
I hope you were able to make your Easter special xx

Easter Lemon Pavlova

I watched the Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood Easter baking programme the other evening and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I love the way they interact and the great respect they hold for each other without being too formal.  Paul is so cheeky and she always remains such a lady.
One of the recipes that caught my eye was the Easter Lemon Pavlova

It was fairly easy to make although it did take a long time to prepare.  The meringue base was in the oven for an hour and a half and then had to stay there to cool.  There were several stages to the recipe too which included making the lemon curd.  This then had to cool before it could be stirred in to the fresh cream and the lemon rind which had to be boiled in syrup to crystallise then had to be left to dry for two hours.  Hence why the photos were taken with artificial light late last night making them a little yellow. 

None of the stages/steps were difficult though and I would definitely make this again.
What I liked about the recipe was that nothing went to waste.  The egg whites went in to the meringue.  The egg yolks went in to the lemon curd and the lemon zest went in to the decoration on top.
The finished Pavlova was a real show stopper and tasted amazing. It actually looked like Mary's too which was an added bonus. The meringue was soft in the middle and lovely and chewy  I halved all the ingredients and made a five inch circle instead of ten and as you can see it turned out plenty big enough to feed six greedy people. There were only two of us so plenty left over for an afternoon blow out later.

Happy Easter

I hope you are all enjoying your Easter holiday.  I certainly am.

I don't know about you but Easter doesn't seem to be made all that much of nowadays.  I can remember when I was little, looking forward to Easter almost as much as Christmas.  All my Easter eggs were lined up on top of the piano in the front room and I couldn't wait to eat them.  Family used to come and spend the day with us and we had a lovely time.
I noticed whilst stood on my stall on Saturday that no one seemed to be at all bothered.  They all seem happy to take the holiday but no one remembers what Easter is all about.  I don't go to church very often but I still believe that we should think why we celebrate Easter.

Isn't it great to get the light nights back again.  It was lovely last night to be looking out at nearly eight o'clock and still be able to see the garden.
We had a such a nice day yesterday. 

Painted polystyrene eggs covered with flowers cut from paper napkins

I got up early once Steve had gone to work and collected branches to make my Easter egg tree.  I also decorated some spring bulbs with ribbon and shredded paper.

It took a couple of hours but it was a sheer pleasure to spend time totally immersed in creating something beautiful.

There was an Antique and Collectors Fair at the Doncaster Race Course and me and Mum spent a few hours down there buying little bits and bobs. We then came home and had a cake decorating master class.  It was funny for me to teach my Mum rather than the other way round.
Our old car was leaking coolant by the time Steve got to work yesterday so we had to pick him up later.  That meant that my big Easter tea didn't get eaten until after eight but it was worth the wait. Mum didn't go home until very late but she had really enjoyed herself.
Thank you for dropping by and enjoy the rest of your day.

My New Market Stall

Hi there and a Happy Easter to each and everyone of you.

I hope you are all well. My apologies for not blogging sooner but as you will see from my photograph we have been busy bees this week.

Yesterday was the first day of trading at the Worksop market and Steve and I had a wonderful time meeting our new customers and having a good old chin wag.

It has taken a lot of planning to get things just right but it was all worth it. We had a very successful day and I think everyone who stopped by were happy with what was on offer.

Over the next weeks I hope to expand my range. I can't wait until next Saturday and plan to bring a few extra colours with me. The baby wool was popular and at one stage I was worried that I hadn't brought enough but everything was fine.

Over the next couple of days I hope to get the tidy bag pattern on. It's finished now so I have no excuse.

Well I better go. So many Easter eggs, so little time! xx