A Friday Ritual

Two photos without explanation. A moment captured- a time to be still, to breathe and remember.

Happy Friday!



 
 

Hot Cross Buns!

Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One ha' penny, two ha' penny,
Hot cross buns!
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons
One ha' penny,
Two ha' penny,
Hot Cross Buns!
 
Or in our home: Hot Cross Buns-RUN to the kitchen!!!!! : ) 

Every Good Friday after mass in the afternoon, we return home and devour hot cross buns. All day long we wait for this moment. Our mom ices them and tells us: "Remember the sweetness of the cross." 

Apparently hot cross buns have been made and eaten on Good Friday for centuries. Elizabeth 1 of England issued a decree that Hot Cross Buns can only be made and eaten on: Christmas, burials and Good Friday. 

We love hot cross buns, and are giving this recipe early, so you too can share in the sweetness of Good Friday. 

 Hot Cross Buns
(adapted from Canada's Best Bread Machine Recipes) 

Preheat oven to 400'

Ingredients

1 cup of Soya Milk
1 egg
11/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup of coconut oil or butter or vegan margarine
4 cups of Spelt Flour
1tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg(we ground our own)
11/4 tsp bread machine yeast
3/4 cup maple syrup sweetened cranberries or raisons

Glaze
1 Egg White
1 tbsp of water
























































































































Measure all ingredients and place in order in bread machine pan. Select dough cycle and add cranberries at "add ingredients" signal.

Remove dough on a floured surface and knead for a minute or two cover with a large bowl  and let dough rest for 15 minutes.



































Divide dough into 12 portions  and roll into balls. Place on a prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly. Cover and let rise for 30 to 45 minutes in a warm area.



































































Prepare Glaze. Take a knife and cut about 1/4 deep into buns, making a cross. Brush with egg glaze and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. 




































You can always make a glaze, we like this one that we also use for our cinnamon rolls: Lazy Glaze                                                                                       

Easter Favourite List

During our homeschooling years, the week before Easter was a special time. As we are Catholic, it meant the start of Holy Week, a time to prepare and enter into the Passion of Christ. In our home Holy Week meant the stop of regular school work, the turning off of computers, radio, game boys etc, and the beginning of activities to help us children enter in and prepare for Easter. On the Monday of Holy Week, our mom would bring out the black construction paper, the tissue paper, the glue and we would start making our very own stain glass windows. If you have young children and are looking for an easy project check out: Construction Paper Stain Glass Windows. We loved it, and the older we got, the more intricate and complicated the windows became.

Holy Week also meant a time to brush off the Jesus of Nazareth movie and together with another home schooled family, we would all hunker down and watch the Passion of Christ.
We have put together a little list of some favourite Easter/ Holy Week links, if you have time and are looking for a few projects to work on during this week, check them out. : )

Our Easter Favourite List 

Easy Egg Dyeing Idea

Springtime table inspiration

Egg Glossary

Sprinkle Eggs!

Down the Bunny Hole- super cute

Vintage Beatrix Potter Easter Cards

Holy Week Reflections with Matt Maher

Madonna House Restoration Lent and Easter

this has nothing to do with Easter: but we LOVE it SoulPancake Love Song. : )

Homemade (dairy free) Cadbury Creme Eggs!!

The Cadbury Bunny's appearance on t.v. was an exciting moment for us Timinski's and our French Canadian sweet tooths. We loved Cadbury Creme Eggs and were so sad when they were cut out of our Easter treats, as their buttery goodness ached in our tummies. 

 

Traditional Cadbury Creme Eggs are a chocolate -covered- icing- filled-creamy -sweet -chocolate -treat. 
 

This year, Charlotte has come to the rescue of our Cadbury Creme Egg deprivation and has created her own version. These babies are the bomb, and are worth making! Our dad (who is our home’s top chef judge), ate these Creme Eggs to his heart’s content, and gave them five stars. 

Warning: may cause smiles, energy and extra Easter Joy. 

Cadbury Creme Egg Bunny commercial from 1987 :)

Charlotte’s Creme Eggs

Ingredients 
1/2 cup of corn syrup
3/4 cup of vegan margarine 
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of vanilla
3 cups of icing sugar
1/2 tsp of yellow food colour
12 oz of dark chocolate 

Step 1: Place the margarine in a mixing bowl. Add the corn syrup, salt, vanilla. Mix on medium low speed to combine. Scrap down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. 

Step 2: Turn the mixer to low and slowly add the icing sugar. Mix until smooth. 

Step 3: Place 1/3 of the mixture into a small bowl and add enough food colour to obtain desired colour. Cover both bowls with plastic wrap and place in freezer for 15 minutes.

Step 4: Place 1 tsp of the yellow mixture (this is the yolk) in the palms of your hands,  roll into a small ball. Place back in the freezer for ten minutes. 

Step 5: Take 1 tbsp of the white mixture and flatten in the palm of our hands. Place a yolk in the center, and form the white around it, to make an oval egg. Place back into the freezer for 20 more
min. 

Step 6: Melt chocolate either in the microwave on 25 second intervals, or on a double broiler. Dip eggs into the chocolate to cover. Place in the fridge to harden. 

Enjoy! Eat or hide them far into the fridge, away from everyone else! 

Muffins Mmm Muffins

In our home  these days we know that when our Mom is off from work, she makes muffins. Every Wednesday we can count on homemade muffins made with love by our Mom. Sometimes she even brings little love gifts to us at work: delicious, home made, chocolate chip muffins. Our taste buds and bellies sing her praises : )

Here is our Mom's second favourite muffin recipe:

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups of spelt flour-or gluten free flour of your choice. 

1/2 cup of white sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup of dark chocolate chips (we get ours from our favourite health food store: 

1 egg

1 cup of soya milk 

1/3 cup of coconut oil. 

Step 1: Preheat oven to 375'F. Line a muffin tin.
 

Step 2: Combine all dry ingredients together with a whisk, including chocolate chips.
 

Step 3: In a mixing bowl, stir together wet ingredients.

Step 4: Add the dry to the wet, and gently stir. Do not overmix .
 

Step 5: Bake for 18-20 minutes.

 

ENJOY!
 

Do you have a favourite muffin recipe? Share with us! 

A Friday Ritual

A single photo without explanation. A moment captured- a time to be still, to breathe and remember.

Happy Friday!

 

Do you know the muffin man?

In our home it is not the man but the mom : ) She is our prized muffin chef.

Ever since we were little, our beloved mom has been baking for us. When we started switching flours, oils etc. she was the leader of the pack, confidently changing recipes to accommodate our sensitive tummies.



























A few years ago we discovered Coconut Oil and love how good it is in these muffins.

What is it? 

Coconut oil is an edible oil that has been around in tropical areas for many years. It has many health benefits such as: helping boost your metabolism, keeps your thyroid healthy, helps keep your energy levels balances, aids skin conditions, and is even helped improve and reverse Alzheimer's.
You can substitute it for any oil or fat in your recipe. It does have a slight coconut taste, but it is faint and barely detectable.

The following is one of our favourite muffin recipes that our mom makes often. We love those muffins and we love our mom.

Muffins that Taste Like Donuts- Wheat Free-
Note: These aren't vegan, but if you want to omit the egg and use an egg replacer, they work too. 

Ingredients

Muffins:
2 cups of light spelt flour
1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/3 cup of melted coconut oil
1 organic egg or  use egg replacer
3/4 cup of soya milk

Topping:
1/2 cup of melted vegan margarine - coconut oil can also be used, but it does taste more coconuty : )
1/2 cup of white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Step 1: Preheat oven to 375'F. Line muffin tin.





























Step 2: Combine in a mixing bowl: spelt flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, white sugar.

Step 3: In a separate mixing bowl combine wet: 1/2 cup of white sugar, 1/3 cup of melted coconut oil, egg and soya milk





























Step 4: Add dry ingredients to wet and lightly stir-just until combined.





























Step 5: Bake for 18-20 min.

Step 6: While muffins are baking, mix white sugar and cinnamon together. When muffins come out of the oven, dip hot muffin in melted margarine and then cinnamon/sugar mix.

Enjoy! Yield 10-12 large muffins.

From our closet..

It's a busy, normal weekday and you have commitments, jobs, tasks, appointments and now you are asked out for dinner and drinks with only a few moments to spare. Inwardly you panic and scream a tiny shout. You would rather shower, redress, and redo your makeup, but WAIT no time! Your adventurous side shouts a confident yes. You can do it.

Dinner date in fifteen minutes. The pressure is on.

How do you morph from day time working girl, to queen of the night?

 

Easy Peasy and can be done in minutes. 

Step one: Leave on your daytime make up, but quickly apply a smoky eye.


 

 
Step two: Shed the jacket, and let your hair down.

 

 

 

Step three: Throw on any sparkly necklaces, bracelets and rings.

 

Step four: Grab your phone, lipstick, ID and debit card/ credit cards and throw it all in a shimmery clutch. 

 
 
Voila! There you go, four easy steps to transforming from day to night.

Go out dear Queens of the Night and have fun! 

For our men..

Happy Feast of St. Joseph! 

Today we celebrate the feast day of St Joseph, a day of solemnity in the Catholic Church. It is also the inauguration of our new Holy Father:  Pope Francis. Two very special men celebrated on a very holy day. 

St. Joseph is the patron Saint of Canada, and the largest church dedicated to him in the world is: St. Joseph's Oratory in Montreal. St. Joseph is the beloved earthly father of Jesus, and the devoted spouse to Our Lady. He is also the patron saint of labourers as he was a carpenter. 

In honour of him, this post is dedicated to the special men in our lives. We love when our guys look sharp and put together. We also love shopping for them, and get a big thrill of buying the right shirt that just looks oh so good.

Where do we go?

Guys: Some of the best shirts can be found at Costco! I have found a few great Calvin Klein ones, and Tommy Hilfger numbers for under $25.00. Don't be afraid to wear pattern on pattern- like Shaun has on with the checker shirt, and anchor print tie. It is different, creative and looks like he stepped out of J.Crew. The secret is to keep it in the same tones, and to match a smaller print (like the tie) with a larger one (like the shirt).  

The vest Shaun is sporting is from Goodwill : ) 

The ties are from Mex and were a seasonal sale. 

Where do the guys go to keep up that great shape? 

Lately our dad, Shaun and John love to go indoor rock climbing. John took lessons and is now a certified belayer. They find it a great work out for the whole body. We girls haven’t had the courage to try it yet, but you never know. : )

Here is a prayer we love and have by our desks. 

Daily Blessing of a Work Place

Lord God Almighty, Bless this place of work, that it may be a place of health, purity, and self control. May there prevail here a spirit of humility, goodness, gentleness with one another, obedience to your commandments and great thanksgiving to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

God our Father, pour out your blessings on us. Be pleased to bless this place as you once blessed the homes of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with your visitation. Within these walls let your powerful angels of light preside and stand watch. 

Lord Jesus Christ, guard us from every evil influence. Send your holy angels to protect us. Be with us. Give us comfort, encouragement and peace. 

Amen. ~From Madonna House Apostolate 

St Joseph pray for us!