Caraway Soda Bread

Homemade soup is on the menu for dinner tonight and as always I'm digging through a stack of recipes for something to cook with it. Usually I go for my trustee baking powder biscuit recipe but tonight I was wanting something different.

This is a recipe my mom found a while ago, and nobody knows exactly where it came from so I can't give credit where it's needed.

I can say however that it's delicious and so easy to make!

Caraway Soda Bread Recipe:

• 2 cups flour, all purpose or bread flour + a little extra for kneading
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1tbsp caraway seeds
• 1 cup buttermilk 
• 2 tbsp melted butter

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and either line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease it. 

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and caraway seeds. Using a rubber spatula add the buttermilk and melted butter to flour mixture, stir until just combined. 

The dough will be sticky and ragged looking. 

On a lightly floured surface knead the dough 6 times. Form into a round ball and put on prepared baking sheet. Cut an X in the top of dough. 

If desired you can dust the top of dough with flour. 

Cook at 375 for 30-35 minutes. 

Minion clay pot tutorial

Lately I've been seeing so much clay pot folk art from friends and different gardening sites that I thought I would give my hand at making some as well.

It is a great way to add a splash of color to your garden or entry way without breaking the bank.

Most of the clay pot crafts I've seen are pot people or lighthouses, both of which I love. I wanted to get my boys involved though, which meant finding something that would interest them as well. One of their favorite movies just happens to be despicable me so I thought it would be fitting to have some minions roaming our garden.


What You'll Need:

• 3 clay pots per minion. I used 6" pots for mine but you can use bigger or smaller. 
• Glue of some sort. I used PL Premium but gorilla glue or anything along that line should work. 
• A variety of paint to suit your minions. 
• Paint brushes.
• Scotch guard spray on waterproofing. 
• Minion hair ( I used a Petunia wave plant for the purple minion and a grass variety for the normal minion). 

First step is to glue your pots together! Take two pots and glue them together at the openings, this will create the body. Next take the third pot and glue it end to end to the body, this pot serves as the head. 

Let the glue set overnight or for a couple hours. 

Once the glue is set it's time for painting! I had to do two coats of each of the base colors. 

Let the paint dry overnight or until it is no longer tacky. 

Spray with scotch guard water proofing, you will need to do two coats of waterproofing.

The final step is to plant the hair! This was my oldest sons favorite part, he had a lot of fun walking around the garden centre searching for the perfect hair. 

Add a few rocks in the base of the head before adding dirt and the plant. This will help keep the dirt from falling through the draining hole. 

For the purple minion we used a six pack of petunia wave plants and for the yellow minion we used a grass variety. 

Knit slouch hat tutorial from old sleepers and onsies

Knit Slouch Hat Tutorial From Old Sleepers and Onsies!

Every parent I know has at least one box of clothes that don't fit their kids laying around. Or if you're like me, you have a couple diaper boxes stashed in the closet just because.

I always love being able to repurpose old clothes, and have been toying with the idea of making the boys some light weight slouch hats for a while now. Our fabric store doesn't carry a large amount of knit fabrics and I haven't wanted to order any in so using their old sleepers seemed like the perfect solution.

What you will need:

• A tape measure 
• scissors
• pins
• sewing machine
• several onsies/ sleepers/ t-shirts/ or knit material

The first step is measuring your child's head, or using the generic sizing for children's hats. To measure wrap the tape measure around the widest part of the head, just above the eyebrows and over the back ridge.  My 3 year old has a 21.5" circumference while my 16 month old has a 20.5" circumference. 

Once you know how wide your fabric has to be you can figure out how many pieces of clothing you need. I used two 2T sleepers for my youngest hat and 2 t-shirts for my oldest hat. 

Cut out the back panels of the sleepers/onsies or any side of the t-shirt/ fabric and make sure they are of equal length. 

Once your fabric is cut put the pieces together, one on top of the other wrong side facing up. 

Now sew each edge of the fabric together to create a tube.

The next step is to create the top of the hat.

Fold hat in half and mark each side about 4" down from the top with a pin.














Now sew a gradual half circle from one side to the other.














Trim edges.

The last step is to create the brim. Roll the bottom edge of the hat up and pin it in place. I rolled my brim up about an inch but you can do more or less depending on your preference. Once pinned, sew in place. 

The trickiest part of all of this was trying to get my boys to smile for the camera!