Marie's Sunday Six . . .

Here it is the first Sunday of July, 2009! I have lots of smile makers this week, so best get started!




Hooray for the "Dog Days" of summer. Yes, we've had a really hot and humid week this week, which might be cause for complaint as I don't do humidity really well. But . . . it's been dry and the sun has shone, and the garden has grown by leaps and bounds! Our two fans have been working overtime, but that's ok. It will be back to rain and cold soon enough!



Yay for Facebook! I was able to get back in touch with a couple of friends from High School this week, which was great! It's been real fun catching up on all that has happened in their lives and sharing with them all the news of my life. I don't really spend a lot of time on facebook actually. I mostly just swoop in and then out. Mostly I just use it to scoop pictures of my grandsons and to see what my kids are up to, so it was really nice to find these two gals on there! I also ended up doing a "How Mormon Are You" Quiz on there, which came out that I am 100% Mormon. No surprise there!!



Yay, too, for losing weight this week and getting in more exercise. It's no secret that I have a rather rotund figure and I have been working hard these past few weeks on taking some of it off. I know, the food I post on here doesn't look like the food a slimmer would be eating and the simple answer is, I'm not eating it! Oh, I taste a lot, but Todd is the main eater, and my friends. I like to bring something special up to them at work for their elevenses, and Todd, well . . . he's the original stick man. He could eat for England and never gain an ounce, lucky man! Anyhow, I'm down about a stone now and have been taking nice long walks every day. It's a good thing . . . as Martha would say!



Yay, for the monthly Scripture Study group that I belong to. We had our monthly meeting on Friday last and, as usual, we had a wonderful evening together. It's so much fun getting together with like-minded people that you love and sharing thoughts and ideas together. We've been doing this with the same crowd for about 2 years now and Todd and I both really enjoy it. It's the highlight of our month, or at least one of them at any rate! Todd really loves to study scripture and bible prophecy anyways, and he really enjoys getting together and sharing the things he's discovered in the past month. I am not so great at studying scripture, probably because I don't have as much free time, but I do love to read scripture and I like to talk about it with people, so, really . . . it's a win/win situation!



We're all going on a summer holiday, summer holiday . . . lalala . . . (Darn . . . now I'll be singing that song all day in my head!) Yes, I'm going on my summer holidays, TOMMORROW! Yay!! I'm really looking forward to them. No surprise there either! I think when you happen to live where you work, well . . . it's really important to get away. If you try to take holidays and stay home, you only end up being called upon to do stuff anyways, so going away is the best thing really. As I have said we are off to Austria tommorrow and then when we get back from there, we are off to Broadstairs to stay with some friends for a week. It will be really nice to just relax and not have to worry about anything at all. Jess is going to her holiday camp as well. She always stays with some people from our church. They have six kids and so she will get lots of attention and activity for the next fortnight, and then, it's home to boring old us again!!



I finally got another piece of art done! That really made me smile. My fingers have been itching for weeks to get at some and I was so happy to finally get one done. If you want to see the whole piece you'll have to go to my page at Blossom Time Creations. I think she will make a really sweet Christmas Card, what do you think? I added word verification to the comments on that page and so far this morning I have not had any porn links dropped on it. So far, so good, fingers crossed. I think it's despicable that people go around doing things like that. How small minded and warped can you be? Anyways, this little gal really made me smile and I hope she makes you smile too!!!



I made these lovely little Madeleines the other day to serve with a lucious Lemon Mousse. It was the first time I had made Madeleines and I was so surprised at how easy they were to make! I don't know why I waited so long!!! The hardest part was having to wash the madeleine pan so often in between baking each batch. It's probably a lot better if you have two pans. Oh, and any batter that you can't use as madeleines bakes up great as cupcakes. (Yes, I got tired after about 3 batches. This recipe makes rather a lot!)




*Lemon Madeleines*
Makes quite a lot
Printable Recipe

These are like tiny baby lemon sponges, each one a heavenly bite just for you!

5 large eggs
200g (7 ounces) caster sugar
finely grated zest of one lemon
200g (7 ounces) plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
185g (6 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Icing sugar to dust



Pre-heat the oven to 200*C/400*F. Whisk the eggs and sugar together with an electric whisk until they are pale yellow in colour and fluffy. Stir in the lemon zest. Fold in the flour, baking powder and melted butter. Leave to rest for 5 minutes. Spoon the mixture into well buttered madeleine trays and bake for 8 to 9 minutes, or a little bit longer until they test done. Repeat as necessary. Cool on wire rack and dust with icing sugar before serving.



You can find the recipe for the Lemon Mousse, over here, on The English Kitchen. It really was fabulous! Nice and light . . . the perfect recipe for a hot summer's day!