Marie's Sunday Six

Have you all gotten turned on to Pinterest yet? I think I am quite addicted. I could spend hours on it each day, so I have to limit myself. You create virtual bulletin boards for yourself and you can pin pictures of whatever you want to them. It's a way of collecting things without them taking up any space in your house. I have about, oh gosh!!!! I have 53 boards on there! (I didn't know!) Oh well, that is me . . . I always take everything I do to the nth degree! Anyways, my boards are all filled with pictures of things I enjoy and that I find beautiful or that make me smile. I thought it would be fun to show some of them here this morning so you can see what kind of things I find fascinating. I'll show you my six favourite ones and perhaps they will make you smile like they do me!

Source: adorablelife.tumblr.com via Marie on Pinterest

One of my boards is called Amazing Cutness. On it you will find pictures that I have found, well . . . amazingly cute! There are babies and kittens . . . puppies and hamsters . . . squirrels and guinea pigs . . . there are even a few hedgehogs, bunnies and the sweetest baby giraff you will ever see! Looking at these pictures always makes me smile and I am always finding new cuteness to add to the mix!

Source: zsazsabellagio.blogspot.com via Marie on Pinterest

Another one of my favourite boards is entitled It's All Country. I love anything country style. You know what I mean . . . chickens and roosters, red barns, fields of wheat . . . rustic kitchens and outhouses, cowboy boots and egg baskets. That is what you will find on that board. Everything that makes this little country gal's heart go twang! That makes me smile.

Source: google.com via Marie on Pinterest

Then there is my All Things Barbie board. I have been in love with Barbie since I saved my allowance up and bought myself my first one back in the early 1960's. She was one with a black bubble do and I had enough money to buy her and a couple of outfits for her to wear. My mother made me some more and then through the years I collected even more of them. My sister had the one with the blonde ponytail. We used to spend hours playing Barbie and at one time I was even President of the local Barbie Fan Club. (I got to be President because I started it . . . not fair I know, but I was only 8!) Anyways on my Barbie board I get to collect all the Barbies that I could ever want and beautiful outfits too. There are movie star Barbies and Foreign Barbies and antique Barbies. It makes me smile big time.

Source: flickr.com via Marie on Pinterest

Another favourite board of mine is entitled Here's My Heart. You guessed it! It's filled with hearts of all kinds! There's felt hearts and flower hearts, window hearts, glass hearts, paper hearts, finger hearts, knitted hearts, cookie hearts and well, just every kind of heart you can imagine! All pretty, all inspiring and all smile creating! I just love them!

Source: community.tes.co.uk via Marie on Pinterest

Another one of my favourites is called Eye Candy for Mama. You guessed it . . . it's filled with male hunka hunka burnin loves! It's all in good fun. These are pictures of male persons that I find attractive. As you will see Rufus Sewell figures big in it. I can't get enough of him. But there is probably a bit of eye candy there to suit every taste imaginable!!!

Source: Uploaded by user via Marie on Pinterest

Then there is my Whimsies board, which is filled with things that I couldn't quite fit anywhere else, but that caught my eye and looked like things I might like to try to make one day, or whatever . . . little whimsies that I found pretty, or cute, or just interesting. I stick it all on that board and hopefully one day when I decided I want to make something I will be able to find something on there!

I have all sorts of boards . . . with buttons . . . or toadstools . . . polka dots . . . or gingham . . . or quotes and sayings . . . clocks . . . They are all things that I enjoy looking at and collecting. Todd does not mind me collecting things this way because it doesn't cost him any money. It is a big time waster though . . . not sure I needed another one of those . . . but oh well!! It's too late now, I am well and truly hooked!! (I have a HUGE scrumminess board too! But then again . . . you probably took that for granted!)

I hope you all remembered to put your clocks back last night! (I wish they would just leave the time alone, but then again, what do I know!) I also hope you all have a very blessed and wonderful Sabbath!

I've never been very good at making yeast breads from scratch. I am so glad that someone invented the breadmaker. It's the only way we get decent homemade bread around here. My ex husband used to make fabulous homemade bread. He used to make our kitchen table dance across the kitchen floor. The kitchen was always a mess when he was done, but we would have some pretty delicious loaves of bread as a result and so it didn't matter too much. I think the secret to a good loaf of bread or rolls is in the kneading of the dough . . . I just don't have enough oomph when it comes to that. These little batter rolls don't need any oomph. They come out perfect every time. You just drop the batter into some muffin cups and away you go. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy and they taste pretty darned good too!



*Easy Peasy White Batter Rolls*
Makes 18
Printable Recipe

These truly are a no fail recipe. They always turn out light and fluffy for me. If you have bad luck with baking bread as I do, you really must give these a try. They turn up trumps every time. Baking these will help you to restore faith in your culinary abilities and boy oh boy, they sure go well with a big pot of homemade baked beans!

1 1/2 cups warm water
2 packages active dry yeast
4 cups bread flour
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup vegetable shortening (Crisco, Fluffo, White Flora or Trex)
1 large egg

Pour the water into a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast, give it a stir and then let it sit for a few minutes or until it starts to work. Stir it again to totally dissolve.

Add half of the flour, the sugar, salt, softened shortening and the egg. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes, or until completely smooth. Stir in the remaining two cups of flour by hand with a wooden spoon.

Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and set aside in a warm place to rise, until doubled in size, about 3o minutes.

Grease 18 large muffin cups with shortening. Stir the batter down and then spoon it into the greased muffin cups, filling them 1/2 full.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place once again, until the batter reaches the top of the muffin cups. This should take 20 to 30 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 205*C/425*F. Place the muffin pans in the oven and bake the rolls until done, about 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm or cold. They are delicious either way!



Baking in The English Kitchen today, some delicious Jam Drops. Oh so scrummy!