Today is the 33rd birthday of my first born, my daughter, Heather Ann.  This day forever changed my life.

I think becoming a parent is the most precious honor that could be bestowed on a human being.  In the olden days people might have had children as it was simply the thing to do.  No questions asked, everyone did it etc., etc.  I CHOSE to become a mommy.  It was my calling, my vocation, and also my healing.  It has brought me joy and yes at times pain.  But it is the single most rewarding thing I have accomplished in my fifty years on this earth!

As I have shared a bit before, I was abused and neglected as a child.  Being a parent didn’t bring joy to my mother, I don’t even know if she loved us kids.  But once she and my father got divorced things went from bad to worse.  She moved us to California, as far away from him as possible.  She became a drug addict who also dealt drugs to support her habit.  And though she didn’t want me, she needed me.  One of the ways was that (unbeknownst to me at the time) the money I made acting in TV commercials went into her pocket.  As well, even as a small child, I looked after the family, the cleaning, the cooking.  That is why becoming a mom at a young age wasn’t the least bit daunting for me.  I had been doing it already.  The irony, she was actually quite intelligent believe it or not.  And from what I was told, she won a scholarship to college.  But she didn’t go because in those days, most women got married and had children.  Even if they weren’t suited for it, as she wasn’t.

When I decided to become a mother at the tender young age of seventeen,  it was a natural and conscious desire, but also a subconscious need.  I realize now looking back that in a way I was able to heal through being a young mom by pouring my love and attention into my children.  I wasn’t what current pop culture seems to glorify of the  “Sixteen and Pregnant” variety.  I finished school, was married and had a career.  So starting a family filled that next and most crucial chapter.  But I didn’t want to repeat the sins of the mother, and the opposite of dysfunctional can also be dysfunctional.  So I read every book I could get my hands on that had to do with pregnancy, child development, and parenting.  I took classes and attended lectures on the topic.  I knew I wanted to break the proverbial cycle of abuse.  And I did prove to myself and others that it is possible to make a new way!  A good, happy and healthy way.

Of course, it wasn’t always easy.  My then husband was gone a lot.   In essence I was a single mom before the divorce.  And there were some that didn’t always have the most respect for a young mom.  In fact many thought I was the nanny, not the mommy.  Some wrongly assumed I was pregnant when I got married but in fact I wasn’t.  It was actually six months after the wedding that I got pregnant.

But because I was so young, I guess you could say I was able to relive my childhood.  I was growing up with my kids.   Even now I have the best memories of those times that my kids and I would literally go everywhere and do everything together.  People called us the “Three Musketeers”.  And though we are now living spread out around the globe, the times when we are able to be together are amazing and precious.  These days I love seeing the two of them navigate their adult sibling relationship and helping each other out when needed, it is very touching.

This past mother’s day Heather posted this pic of us (taken when we lived in New York) on her Instagram and wrote the most beautiful note.  “Happy Mother’s Day to the best mom in the whole entire world!  Thank you for everything you are and for everything you have done.  I am beyond blessed to have you in my life.”

Wow, okay, throat burning, tears in the eyes response for sure!  The thing is, I am blessed to have her in my life.  I have learned as much from her as she has from me.  My guess is most parents actually learn loads from their kids.  But they don’t like to admit it because of a fear of showing weakness.  Like “I’m the parent, I’m supposed to know it all” mentality.

I am grateful for all she is and all she has done.   In my daughter’s 33 years she has indeed made the world a better place.  She has worked as a social worker serving the most difficult communities with various disabilities.  She is currently getting her masters at U.S.C. (my son’s and my alma mater, yeah).  She is unbelievably smart, talented, hard working, creative, funny and beautiful.  She has a wonderful husband and together they have given me truly the best gift I have ever received, which is the gift of being a grandma (or “Amma” as they call me).  Since both my grandmas passed away before I was born, I didn’t know what to expect.  But I am blown away by of the amount of love I have for them.  And I am awe at what a wonderful mommy she is!  This photo (by Paper Tiger)  was taken this summer just after Hope was born joining big sister Harper…now I have three H’s to love!

So to honor Heather on her birthday, here is a recipe of a fav of hers,  a Cookies and Cream Cake.  I baked a multiplied version of the recipe for my daughter and son in law’s wedding (a mini three tier cake and 150 cupcakes).  As you can see from the pic at the top of the page,  it is laden with Oreo Cookies!  The color scheme for their wedding was black and white so it was perf.  And this pic of her as a seven year old in the black and white dress reminds me of this cake too!  All black and white and fluffy!  It was taken at the Miss Universe Pageant in Los Angeles where she was in a group of “little sisters” to the contestants.  And funny enough, she was paired with Miss Ireland!  So she was one of the original Yankee Doodle Paddy Peeps!

Ingredients:

½ cup (4 oz) unsalted butter, room temp

1 cup (8oz) whole milk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 2/3 cups granulated sugar

3 large egg whites, room temp

1 cup OREO chocolate sandwich cookies (about 10) lightly crushed

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C degrees. Prepare baking tins by greasing/flouring 2 round cake tins  or if making cupcakes, insert paper liners into cupcake pan.
2. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.
3. In a separate bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Slowly add egg whites to butter mixture, mixing well between each addition. Stop the bowl and scrape down the sides from time to time. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the milk to the butter mixture, beginning and ending with the dry. Mix until only a few streaks of flour remain. Stir in the crushed cookies until batter is evenly blended.
5. Fill the baking tins or cupcake liners. Bake for about 15 min for cupcakes and 25 mins for cake or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. For the cupcakes let cool in the pan for 5 minutes then remove to wire rack

 

For the frosting: This is enough for the cupcakes but you will need more to ice a whole cake

Ingredients:

2 sticks (226 g) unsalted butter, firm but not cold

1/8 tsp salt

3 ½ cups (350g) confectioners sugar, sifted

½ tsp vanilla

½ tsp milk

finely crushed Oreo cookie crumbs

In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat paddle attachment, beat the butter and salt on medium until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to low, gradually add the confectioners sugar and beat until incorporated. Add the vanilla and milk and beat until smooth and creamy. Do not overmix or the frosting will incorporate too much air. It should be creamy and dense, like ice cream. Add additional milk, 1 tsp at a time if frosting does not have a spreadable consistency.  Spread frosting on top of cupcakes and then sprinkle with crushed cookie crumbs.**To have enough frosting to ice a whole cake, double the batch (for a 2 layer cake, and  spread frosting in middle and outside)

 

In keeping with the black and white/cookies and cream cake theme, I’ll let a line from the Michael Jackson song “Black or White” sum this whole thing up in a nutshell..

“…Now I Believe In Miracles
And A Miracle
Has Happened Tonight…”

…well at 10:45 at night, on that night of 29th of September, 1982, the miracle of a 9 pound baby Heather being welcomed into my grateful arms!

I love you Hun!

Mom (aka YDP)

Is it just me or does it seem like this Monday in particular everyone has the blues?  Maybe it was the Red Moon last night?  Or depending on your allegiance,  too much celebrating the Irish Rugby win or moaning over the U.S. and  English losses ? Or folks just getting back to work after being away on holidays?  Or it could simply be that some had a few ‘tee many martoonies’!  Well, I have the for sure cure!  And even if you awakened bright as a bunny this morning, you will still love this miracle mixture.

I call it Lemon-Aid.  It is my special lemonade made with tea.  Irish brand Barry’s Tea.  Most Irish don’t even like to use the words iced and tea together.  So I won’t say it is iced tea okay?  It is a variation of what some people call an “Arnold Palmer” after the famous golfer.  Only this is better. You get a hit of vitamin C from all the freshly squeezed fruit juice in it and a jolt of caffeine from the tea.  Hence the name Lemon-Aid!  This can be enjoyed on its own, or you can use it as a cordial and add some sparkling water if it is too strong, which is what I like to do.  My hubby likes it straight up!

I make it in a pitcher but then decant it into a big glass bottle. This makes it handy to shake before you pour (as there are nice pulpy bits in it).  As well, it makes a super hostess gift!  If you are going on a night out but will be driving home, this is a fun drink to have in your glass as you will still feel festive.  Even if you aren’t planning to use this non alcoholic drink as a  go-to substitute, like some people I know, you could actually add a bit of vodka or other spirits to it just the same!

As a little touch, I make homemade gift tags as well.

Ingredients:

 

2 bags (they come stuck together as you can see) of Barry’s Irish Tea (or other black tea) steeped in 500 ml (16 oz) hot water (plus more water added after the tea has steeped to equal  1 and 1/4 pints)

225 ml (8 oz) Stock Syrup (see instructions at bottom if you don’t have on hand)

Juiced 1 lime, 3 lemons, 1 orange

Mix all together in a pitcher. Voila!  Decant to a bottle if you desire. This will last a couple days in the fridge but best on the first day it is made.

To make the stock syrup, slowly bring to the boil 450 g of sugar and 600 ml water in a saucepan on the stove top (hob).  Let it slowly boil for a few minutes then take it off the heat to cool.  There will be loads more than you need for one batch. So place the rest into an airtight jug and pop it into the fridge to have on hand when you need to make more LemonAID!

Here’s hoping you have a better Monday once you taste this miracle mixture!  Hey, when life gives you lemons there are lots of possibilities! And I think LemonAID is a great one!

Calming Caring Love,

YDP

P. S. I did a tutorial of this on Snapchat today (user name blissbakery) if you want to see.  But it is a pretty straight forward recipe to follow. I refrained from my usual singing and carrying on in light of some people’s hurting heads!  Instead I spoke in just a whisper, I didn’t dance or make any quick moves, and I  played some peaceful and relaxing music…..aaaahhh…Monday is almost over folks!

 

 

 

And on the seventh day, YDP rested!  It was actually more than the seventh day however.  Research says it takes 30 days to make something a habit.  Well I have written for this blog everyday for 33 days, and then I paused….to catch my breath!  And maybe give your eyes a break too!  Hence no post yesterday.  I just have so many stories and so many recipes to share with all of you!  But.. Whew…..it is okay to pace myself,  don’t you think?

Nevertheless I did play a bit more on Snapchat.  I got to see some of the footage of Pope Francis’ visit to America on the Live Snapchat feed. That was especially nice because though we own a tv we still haven’t gotten it connected.  I loved seeing all the clips of the Americans welcoming him and the different celebrations.  It was pretty cool to watch a group of nuns dancing to Sister Sledge who were performing their song ‘We Are Family”.  At one event the MC was the actor Mark Wahlberg (yeah the Marky Mark one), the queen of Soul Aretha Franklin sang some gospel and the Irish band The Fray performed their song “How to Save a Life”.  I literally had tears in my eyes!

I also did a another food demo for Snapchat.  I made some awesome “paleo pancakes” and my luck I think it might have actually been National Pancake Day?  They are super easy to make and really all you need is an egg and a very ripe banana.  But I added a drop of vanilla extract and a teensy weensy bit of baking powder.

But then I realized I had no maple syrup!  Oh dear!  The good news was I still had some peanut butter and a bit of dark chocolate left over from the gorgeous bars I made the other day.  So I threw together some homemade peanutella!  So yummy!  I made two large pancakes (they are the consistency of a crepe) in my biggest skillet using hot coconut oil (so then they are dairy free too) and rolled them up with the peanutella.  Of course, then put more on top!  Goodness gracious me oh my!  This pic is from the Snapchat feed, and I was rocking out to “Don’t Stop Believing” from Journey.  It was during the part of the song where the lyric goes, “Working hard to get my fill.”  So of course I had to belt that out while trying to stuff my face with this amazing brekkie!  Ah, the things I do for entertainment.  This is why I say, I am truly never bored!

 Suddenly I noticed the peanut butter jar was nearly empty.  But for me, that means possibilities!  So I actually did a quick snapchat tutorial on how to make some overnight oats in the almost empty peanut butter jar.  Mine happened to be the famous American brand Jif Peanut butter.  And I used the  wonderful Irish brand Flahavan’s Organic Oats.  How perfect is that for YDP?  America + Ireland = Love ( and a healthy brekkie the next day).

There are endless variations, using chia seeds, or various fruits.  You can use any nut butter jar too.  For my version I simply used 1 cup of milk (I like almond milk), 1/3 cup oats (of course, I like to use Irish oats),  one ripe banana mashed, and a drop of vanilla extract and a sprinkle of cinnamon.  Put them all together in the jar and give a nice stir, making sure to scrape up the bits of peanut butter from around the sides.  Put back on the top.  Give a little shake for luck.  And do a little sing song and dance to Taylor Swift or Florence and the Machine (funny, they both have songs with the name `’shake”in the title) and pop it into the fridge until morning.  Some people eat it the next morning straight up cold. Yuck, not me!  I like my porridge just the way Baby Bear’s tastes (from the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears).  Not too hot, not too cold,  but just right!

Today was a super duper Rugby World Cup day!!!  As I said here before, I love rugby.  The first match was USA against Scotland.  Stella and I wore all our Yankee Doodle red, white and blue patriotic garb and headed to our local pub.

Honestly, my food focused dog was just excited because she knew I was going to share my Sunday roast dinner with her! Which of course I did!

Sadly the U.S. lost, but they gave it their best effort!  So we regrouped, changed clothes and got ready for the Ireland vs. Romania match.  While there were no American fans apart from us, there were tons of people cheering on the Irish!  And they all loved Stella’s Irish flag cape!

All the kids thought Stella was “Super Paddy Dog” which actually is kind of a cool moniker.

And lucky for all of us, Ireland won the match handily!  It was a practically perfect Yankee Doodle Paddy, America + Ireland = Love,  kinda weekend.  But hubby coming back home tonight will really make it complete!

As the back of my shirt say, “peace is the lucky charm”.  I hope you all have a wonderful and peaceful week ahead.  Thanks for the love!

God bless,

YDP

 

Dear Peanut Butter,

We have a storied past.  A love/love relationship.   My mom would use you to remove chewing gum from my hair.  An old wive’s tale (now called a hack).  Let’s just say, I would regularly get gum in my hair just to smell your fragrant sweetness.

As an adult, playing a “Choosy Mom” in the wildly successful Jif Peanut Butter commercial was a glorious day indeed.  And I’m not talking about the paycheck.  Or even the ground breaking interracial friendship between my TV daughter and her African American pal on a pretend sleepover.  No, it was the unlimited, all day long supply of peanut butter on the film set.

Even now, living in London, I search you out on a weekly basis.  Though the epitome of an American diet, you have only just begun to make a significant presence over in this part of the world.  So I go looking.  High street, and low.  And when I find you, I do a touchdown victory dance in the grocery store aisle.  Then, I race home to make you into something beautiful.  I honor you in such as way as to say, thank you for being you!  In all your gyrations, nutty or smooth.

When I go back to America for visits I stock up like a bear getting ready for the winter hibernation never knowing when spring will come.  You are my contraband.  On one occasion,  my checked luggage was over weight, so I ‘chanced my arm’ and popped one of your Super Sized Jif Jars into my carry on bag.  Aw, my eyes twinkled thinking I might tuck into you whilst the rest of the plane was forced to eat a ‘mystery meat’ meal.   But then it happened.   Like a baby being ripped from its mother’s arms they took you away from me.   Those mean TSA people called you a “liquid, gel or paste”.   I said, NOOOO and tried to cover your invisible ears.  I know you’re more than that!  I shouted, “Well I hope you meanies have some nice peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, cut down the middle, not the side!”  I finally calmed myself down as I didn’t want to get arrested.  I almost did once before because of my love for you!

It happened when I was a child of six years old.  I was walking home from school and passed by a Circle K store.  A little corner shop that would catch my eye every day.  From time to time I would poke my head in and maybe walk around a bit.  But because we were so poor, I was relegated to the old “window shopping” experience.   One day in particular however, my desire for your peanutty goodness, was turned into badness.  I came up with a plan, yet, allowed for a bit of improvising in case things went awry.   I happened to be wearing a dress that had a huge pocket in the front.  So I went inside and wasting no time strode straight to the candy and sweets aisle.  No joke, it was literally in front of the check out counter.  I proceeded to stuff every peanut butter flavored candy into my pocket until it looked like I was practically  pregnant.  Now I know I was a young mommy, but not that young!

Then I boldly and brazenly walked right past the counter avoiding eye contact with the man at the cash register.  As I neared the door and felt the cool autumn breeze hit my face I thought, YES!  I’VE MADE IT!  Until I heard the man say, quite sternly,  “Excuse me little lady, come back here!”   I may be bold,  but I am obedient.  So I turned around like a little army soldier and marched back to the counter.  He asked me what I thought I was doing and I told him straight up, “I’m gonna have a peanut butter party.”  He clearly wasn’t in a celebratory mood and ordered me to hand over the goods.

So I started, slowly, and sadly, removing each item from my pocket.  First the Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup (sniff), then the Chick o Stick (whaa), next the Butterfinger (ouch), and so on and so on.  “There,” I said “that’s it.”   This guy clearly had been around the block, because he knew there was one last love in there. “What’s that in there?” he said. “Oh, that? That was in there before. That’s MY Abba Zabba.”  OMG I can’t even believe it myself when I retell it.  I was such a liar!  But at that juncture, he must have thought, this girl clearly has a problem, but I’ll let her off simply because she is darn persistent and quite pathetic.  Well, guess what? I had my little peanut butter party with you all the way home and truth be told, it was the last Abba Zabba I ever ate.

To this day, I suffer from guilt over that incident.  I have gone to confession over it and even a priestly absolution hasn’t wiped away that oily stain left behind from my naughtiness.  A few years ago I had an idea that if I went back to the scene of the crime I might be able to expunge myself of this cruel criminality hanging over my head.   I thought if I went back and offered to reimburse the cost of the Abba Zabba, with interest,  it might assuage the gnawing remorse.  But the Circle K had changed hands and was now called,  7-11.

So, I honor you my beloved friend, by creating treats from your deliciousness.  I do penance with peanut butter pastries.  And someday when I write my cookbook of all peanut butter recipes I promise to pay homage to you in the prestigious way you so deserve.  Yes, I am a converted thief, but forever a fan.

Until then, here is just a tasty sampling of my offer to you!   Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars! And when cut small enough, they can even fit into a pocket!

I demoed them on snapchat yesterday and from some of the snaps back, I think they liked the look of them. But wait until they taste them!  Well, let’s say that it just might get a bit easier to find your precious self over here on this side of the pond.   Because stores will just have to cater to the eminent demand!  In fact,  I might have to open a Peanut Butter Pub!

Ingredients

Crust:

8 medium sized butter cookies (you can use gluten free like I did)

¼ cup (2 oz) Irish Kerrygold Butter, melted

Chocolate Layers:

2 ½ cups (15 oz.) milk chocolate

Peanut Butter Filling:

1 ½ cups (12 oz/354 g) Jif Peanut Butter (chunky or smooth)

½ cup (4 oz/115 g) Irish Kerrygold Butter, softened

3 cups (15 oz/427 g) Icing/Powdered Sugar

2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

 

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F/170 C then line 8×8 square baking tray with parchment paper
2. In a food processor blend cookies until finely ground (or you can put in a Ziploc bag and bash with a rolling pin). Then mix with melted butter and press crumb mixture into pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool to room temperature.
3. Melt chocolate in a double boiler over slow simmer. Or you can microwave gently. Pour half of the melted chocolate over the cooled base. Place in the refrigerator for a bit until the chocolate sets (or for quicker results put in freezer). Make sure to keep the remaining chocolate warmed.
4. Make the filling by putting peanut butter and softened butter into an electric mixer or food processer. Blend together and stop to scrape down the sides. Slowly add the sugar a little at a time. When mixed, add the vanilla and beat until completely combined. It will be a bit like playdough consistency. Spread filling over the chilled chocolate layer base.
5. Finish by pouring the remaining half of melted chocolate over top of the filling/choco/base. Spread smoothly and evenly. Chill in the refrigerator approximately one hour until firm. Cut into squares or bars and serve!

Since I don’t want my pretty Pit Stella to feel left out, I share.  Dogs aren’t supposed to eat chocolate, but they can have peanut butter!  But being a “Choosy Dog Mom” I only let her have Jif!

Smooth and Extra Crunchy Love,

YDP

 

 

 

 

 

“If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans”.  While credit for that quote has been taken by numerous people, I honestly don’t care who said it.  ‘Cuz yesterday I felt like I could have come up with it myself!  This indeed was the theme for my day!

I had every intention of geting numerous things accomplished.  One of which was to work on some “food styling” (that is a joke you’d only understand if you read the ABC of YDP). Even though my pretty Pit Stella woke me early (uh, it was still dark), I was actually happy because it meant I could get a head start on my to do list.  But all that changed after a visit to the gym.

I’m a danger to myself at the best of times.  I  am literally the clumsiest person you’d ever meet.  But put, say, a glass door in front of me, and a phone in my hand….well let’s say I did some awesome head banging yesterday.  And I’m not talking about the heavy metal music dance move.  While leaving the gym, looking at my phone to check my new “imaginary friends” on snapchat, I walked, head first, into the glass door.  My fault, and a well deserved result.  But what a way to learn a lesson.  I kinda want to go back and ask if they have the cctv video of it ‘cuz I might laugh at it now.  But I gave myself a good old wack!  No blood thank God, but a big giant nugget on my head.

So what else does a new snapchat user do?  Why make it a story!  I chronicled the rest of the day while I had to rejigger my schedule to deal with this painful affliction.  But first I had to ice it.  With no icepacks in the house, I went for the old stand by…

I was a bit light headed and wobbly.  Hmmm was it the bonk,  exhaustion from the gym or maybe low blood sugar?  I went for the later since I am so food focused and decided to have lunch and then a treat of the healthy lime bars I made on Monday.  Okay, now I’m thinking some one is out to get me because when I went to the freezer to get them I was welcomed to this:

Upside down lime bars, not in the recipe description.  Okay, whatever, I had things to do so I resorted to chanting the phrase the helped me climb Yosemite Falls Mountain, “must keep moving, must keep moving”.

I know from being a mommy and dealing with my kids’ bumps through the years that anything to the forehead always looks worse, but that if you keep an ice pack firmly in place the bump will subside.  But as I said,  no icepacks in the house and secondly, I wasn’t gonna walk around London city center whilst doing errands holding a pack of peas to “me head”.  Think solution not problem…right!

I like being crafty, but I must admit I’ve never done a DIY icepack like this before!  But I was really under the gun time wise because I had to do these errands and get home before  5pm because that is D-day in my house. That is when our DOGGIE has to eat her DINNER on the DOT!  No joke, she’s my food focused twin.

Again, all this snapchatting, and typing commentary, etc. was taking precious time, so no I didn’t let Stella help!  I managed to get the DIY ice pack securely in place with the help of my fav hat and though I ruined my mascara from all the crying (and laughing) I was set to go!

It was a race against the clock!!  But  I called my hubby to give him a “heads up” about what happened in case he saw it on snapchat and worried that he might have to call an ambulance.  He said I looked like a Unicorn!  And he warned me that I could be leaking water all over myself as it melted.  But I wasn’t worried, because everyone likes unicorns and I used half a roll of duct tape to keep the water in tight!

I took one last look at the WebMD site just in case I could have a concussion and two symptoms jumped out at me.  One was ‘blank expression’.  I didn’t think I should be concerned about that as I’m usually pretty animated.  But just for confirmation I sent a snap (a pic for those of you who have read this far and don’t know what I am talking about) to ask my “imaginary friends”.  I was more troubled about the disorientation that could happen so I made myself a human luggage tag, and made sure to bring my Irish Passport!

I took pics along the way just to prove this wasn’t some sort of hoax.  I was actually hurt and had to wear this headgear!

Thanks be to God I made it home by 5 pm ON THE DOT!  Whew! Gotta keep her happy!

And much to my hubby’s surprise,  the integrity of the DIY Ice Pack was superb!  I felt a few liquid-y drips graze my brow, but I honestly think it was from sweating!  I was running like mad, and on top of that the Tube was jammers with people.  Whom by the way were so polite and I had no issues at all with taunts or teases.  I guess Londoners are so accepting these days because of having such a diverse culture.   Therefore,  a lady with a DIY Ice Pack on her head, no bother.  I did get one comment from a man that literally had me in stitches!  He said he thought I was balancing a Christmas Cake on my head and he felt it was a bit early for “Tis the season” !

 Later, I got to thinking that maybe this whole incident was a sign.  Like maybe I shouldn’t be doing snapchat after all.  I just thought joining this form of social media would be another way to stay connected to my American and Irish families that I miss so desperately!   But maybe, just maybe,  I had taken on too much with doing the blog as well.  Thinking, mulling, deciding…I felt like my head was melting, and with a new bulbous head at that, melting didn’t sound like such a bad solution.

I decided I would put it out there to the snapchat community and ask them.  You see growing up I never had an imaginary friend like some children have.  But I liken snapchat to it because you interact with something that can feel at times non existent.  You put all this stuff out there and you don’t really get much feedback.  At least with Instagram or Twitter, you might be lucky enough to get a “Like” or a “Favorite”.

So I asked for some advice or encouraging words about whether I should end my short stint on snapchat.  I wanted to hear from them if this door debacle was a sign, or not.  And I would choose the best response and award them this gift of a London themed box of Nespresso coffee pods (which by the way are green and orange, two of the colors of my muse, tee hee).

We shall see, as I will go back on tonight at 11pm for the announcement.  Though Stella isn’t gonna win any prizes with her attitude about it!  It may be a dark pic, but basically it’s her sleeping and dreaming about her fav thing…

Now that I have totally deconstructed this head banging incident, here is a recipe for a deconstructed tiramisu. ‘Cuz if you had a day like mine, you might not have time for the longer, full on version.  But having made this before with my cookery students it is actually a fab recipe and one of the main ingredients is funny enough, espresso!  So you too have a chance to win a pack to make a few batches of this recipe.  Just give me your honest advice and/or encouragement about my snapchat verdict in the comments section!

 

Deconstructed Tiramisu

Serves 8

4 Tbsp strong espresso coffee

2 Tbsp Coffee Liquor

85 g (3 oz) dark chocolate, roughly grated

2 Tbsp caster sugar

½ cup (4 oz) mascarpone cheese

½ cup cream

4 Tbsp icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

24 Boudoir Biscuits

1. Mix the coffee with the sugar in a saucepan. Over a low, heat stir constantly until the sugar dissolves. Simmer over very low heat for one minute. Remove from the heat and add the coffee liquor. Then let it cool, placing it in the fridge when the pan is no longer hot to the touch.

 

2. Next place the mascarpone in a bowl, along with cream, icing sugar and the vanilla extract. Whisk until soft peaks just begin to form.

 

3. To serve, place the coffee mixture in a small cup, the mascarpone mixture in a small cup and the chocolate shavings in a small cup. Place them on a plate along with three Boudoir Biscuits. The diner can then dip away at their heart’s content with a personal deconstructed tiramisu!

Thanks for listening (rather reading)…I love you guys so much that my head is spinning!

YDP