The last few weeks have been absolutely crazy around here. We had our eldest child’s confirmation, a nephew’s confirmation and now the next few weeks are jam packed with holy communion celebrations for friends and family.
The nice thing about these events, aside from celebrating the special day for each child, is that it forces us to get stuck in to spring cleaning. We have been cleaning up inside and outside the house for the last six weeks and now are ready for the summer; And wouldn’t you know, as soon as this happens, the rain returns.
The patio umbrella is left covered and raindrops slide down like tears, and the deck chairs are left upside down on the grass, waiting for a dry spell. The ducks, admittedly, are delighted to have the rain.
The garden, both flowers and vegetables, are well and truly thriving in this nice environment but I have my fingers and toes crossed that the sun will be back and we will have a lovely long summer. We have a lot of friends and family lined up to visit during the summer and have a wedding to look forward to too!
We are now entering into our 18th month of being TV-free at the house. The kids don’t even think or ask about it anymore, and while they do enjoy watching a few movies at the weekend, I can’t tell you how nice it is to not have that constant changing of channels and fights over the remote going on in the background of my life.
In addition to this, we have very limited internet access here, having to use satellite, but this is kind of a blessing in disguise I never saw coming. It means the iPads and iPods don’t always work. So they ditch them for, a book, or a board game or a jigsaw puzzle. The one phrase we never hear is I’m bored because that just lands them into a never-ending pile of laundry that is waiting to be folded and put away!
They have become quite handy at building and creating projects outside, and are putting the finishing touches, under the watchful eye of their Dad, to a clubhouse made almost entirely from pallets.
If you are thinking about cutting back on the amount of telly watching in your house, then summer time is a great time to reduce the hours they spend glued to their screens. You might find it easier to move the telly into a spare room, and then reintroduce it for movie night at the weekend.
Ok. Thanks for reading along and let me know how your bread rolls turn out if you try the recipe (below).
Móna Wise
Soft Yeast Rolls
Not so difficult to make! Yield—20 small soft rolls.
What you will need
For cheese batter
- 270g cottage cheese
- 25g sugar
- 1 small onion, grated
- 20g softened butter
- 6g salt
- Pinch baking soda
- 2 eggs (hold one back for egg wash)
- 1 tsp (fresh) horseradish (optional)
Dry ingredients
- 110g warm water
- 25g fresh yeast
- 450g bread (strong) flour
- 16g fresh dill, chopped to add last
- Butter and coarse sea salt (like Maldon) to garnish with
Method
Mix all the cheese batter ingredients, with the exception of the extra egg, together in a bowl and set aside until needed.
Pour the water into a mixing bowl and crumble in the fresh yeast, breaking it up. Add in the flour and mix well until the yeast is mixed throughout.
Add all the cheese batter to the flour mixture, and lightly knead for four or five minutes with your hand. Make sure the dough is not too wet or too dry. Then add the dill and mix for one minute. Be sure to not over-mix the dough as this can make the bread rolls dense and chewy.
Leave to rise in a warm place for 45 minutes. It should double in size.
Portion out the dough into four sections. Roll very gently into long pieces then cut each piece into small squares. You should get 20 rolls—so five pieces per section.
Place each roll on a greaseproof lined baking pan. Whisk remaining egg with a fork and drop of water then gently brush over top of the bread rolls.
Cover with a damp tea towel or cling film. Leave to dough to rise again for another 25 minutes.
Pre-heat the oven to 170°C.
Once you are ready to go, place the oven pan in a pre-heated oven and bake for 25–32 minutes until golden brown. Melt a little butter to brush over the top of them when they come out of the oven. Sprinkle with coarse salt.
