Easter around here

Sunday Easter was yesterday already.

Time is passing faster or slower? I am not certain.

Is it the pressure to keep everything going as normally as possibly for the kids, but with as so much to do and with so little resources, I find myself having almost no time at all. True, I have been writing on my blog more often... But that is also an exercise to keep my anxiety at bay. Focusing on little tasks to keep my mind busy. Focus on what I can manage...

To Easter egg hunt for kids, check!

Bake, check!

Write blog, check!

I prepared our Easter event as usual, a mini egg hunt around the garden. It's for kids such fun to search for the eggs that are hidden away! They run around searching everywhere and enjoy finding the eggs....and mostly eating the chocolate!
I then have to cope with ecstatic  kids for the rest of the Sunday but their happiness is a joy to watch. I hope that these little moments will be with them forever!

I start by placing eggs in really obvious places, we still have a little one that really needs to find some eggs too!

After finishing our egg hunt we had some Easter races! Our oldest was really keen on using the little bunnies to mark a race track! I had no idea that these little bunnies would be so much fun for the kids!

I still haven't finish my Easter embroidery. I started this little embroidery last year, but with everything... It pretty much remains untouched. Maybe some time this year I will manage to finish it! Nevertheless it still added some Easter sweetness to our home this year, and I managed to grab a few Flowers from our garden to add a special and different touch to our Easter Sunday lunch!

 We also had a special dessert Pao de Lo de Ovar. Maybe some time later I will share the recipe, bu today I will only drop the photo! This was lovely dessert and really tasty! Another sugar rush for the rest of the afternoon!

And this was our Easter Sunday!

Pandemia still lurking outside, but yesterday was just us. and I hope everyone enjoyed it!

I hope you enjoyed yours!

xx

My Monday Baking: Sweet Buns "Arrufadas de Coimbra"

Hello you!

It has been a long time since I last posted my baking adventures... Since Easter is arriving, I wanted to try some sweet buns recipes. So I ventured and I attempted a new recipe, Coimbra's sweet buns. These sweet buns are based on a Portuguese recipe, their original name are "Arrufadas de Coimbra" and are very typical for Easter. It has been a long time since I last had "arrufadas",  these are really hard to come by in the U.K. (actually,  impossible!). And since I had no idea how to bake these, I did what anyone does, googled a recipe and .... lets bake!

I found a recipe at Doces Regionais ,  and adapted it. I did not used the original measurements that that site suggested. I felt that using 2000g of flour would be a bit too much! Considering that most probably I would find myself having a failed first attempt (which I actually did), I did not wanted to waste so much. Also, if you feel like trying this receipt, bear in mind that it will take a long time to actually bake these buns, as they have to be proofed for a whole night. 

These are the ingredients I used:

650 g flour

4 eggs

20g fresh yeast

100g butter

165g caster sugar

salt

And a picture of my sweet buns looks! Yum!

And the method....:

Mix the flour, sugar and a bit of salt.  I also had to activate the yeast before adding it to the flour mixture. I had to use warm water,  sugar and mix it with the yeast.  Then, I had to wait until there is foam on top of the liquid mixture and that's it, my yeast is active! Then mix it with the previously prepared flour mixture, add the melted butter, eggs and mix it for 10 min.

Now it's time for the troublesome kneading stage... The dough is very sticky, so kneading it was very difficult. I followed this video, which had some good pointers:

After the dough is kneaded, I left it to proof during the night.  I covered the dough with cling film in a large bowl and waited for the morning to arrive. Yes, it is a very long proofing stage.

But my dough more than doubled the size...!

After the proofing stage I divided the dough in eight small dough balls and placed them in an oven tray and proofed for another 30min. Afterwards, I brushed the buns with egg yolk and sprinkled with both icing and caster sugar. I preheated the oven to 200C, and placed my sweet buns in the oven. After 30min, your sweet buns are ready! Yummy sweet buns ready for breakfast!

I am thoroughly proud of how these sweet buns turned out. Bear in mind  though, that this is a second attempt...

In a first attempt I did not used fresh yeast but regular dry yeast. It did not work for me, the dough did not rise once proofed. Heres a photo of my first attempt at these sweet buns and the second more successful bash:

The difference between the buns texture is pretty obvious... My first attempt resulted in very hard buns. Not fluffy and tasty as my second try. I am not sure what went wrong with me using the dry yeast, but I could see that during my kneading stage that the dough was not changing and becoming elastic, the gluten was not activated. It worked with the fresh yeast though!

I will be defenitely baking these again as these are really tasty yummy! And both kidos loved them... So kids' approved sweet buns!

Did you try any new recipes for Easter?

Thinking about Easter

Hey you lovely reader!

I have been away for a while haven't why? So many apologies for that... Life and running around after two extremely energetic kidos just gets in the way of your favorite hobbies. I cannot believe that my oldest is already in primary school. I still feel that just yesterday he was a little toddler and moving to a big cot! I have really been missing writing and updating my blog. And yes, also my crafting and DiYing has been sidetracked. I will during time fill you in in recent changes and updates...

But for now, is all relating to crafts and easter crafts... Decorating the house with very cute and funny, but most importantly, reusable and ecological friendly easter evoking bunnies, chicks and eggs! And if the kidos can help me with is, better, as we all be crafting and enjoying ourselves... and keeping them busy! My oldest notices when I decorate and change little things around the house, and he usually does ask me to join in and help me. I have been making banners to mark important days, as birthdays, or recently, the 'World book day'. I make these with paper and craft thread! when it is finished and hanged, when they see it they all cheer and try to read it. Besides a colourful decoration with its bright paper and letterings, it is very didactic. The banners helps the kidos  get more familiar and confident with letter recognition and overall helps them to be confident readers!

Since Easter is approaching I am getting all materials to decorate for Easter, and started to cut out bunnies and circles for my Easter banner. The lidos very often want to join me with these activities. I am certain that if you have more time you can make these preparations faster and closer to the event, but since I am managing more things besides decorating, I am taking things slower and requiring more time... Just taking things very slow!

I am also preparing for a Easter egg hunt. I have bought last year egg containers to put treats inside, either chocolates and sweets inside,  and a puzzle. I will spread these randomly. I will not be only adding sweet treats... As puzzles can be so much fun to assemble together! They loved it last year so I will once again follow the same idea. For my Easter egg hunt I have already prepared some signalling bunnies, but this years I also added some eggs to identify the places where the eggs really are:

 In true honesty, I don't really know who does have more fun with this... Me getting all this prepared or them, really looking for the eggs! Hoping that both! I will add a template with all my designs if you wish to make these.

My favorite Easter project is an embroidery Easter hoop that I anted to hang as well. I inspired my design from a series of images that I googled...I am also attempting to do some new stitches, hoping that this will be finished in time...

Just a few little craft projects Easter themed that I am working on... Are you preparing for Easter as well? Let me know...!

xx

Easter Holidays! - part 2

I am finally posting the second and final instalment of my Easter break... And it will be all about the little activities we have done with our little one. Being in Portugal meant that the weather was great, it was sunny, really warm and so we were able to properly embrance outdoor living!

We went to the beach a couple times, and enjoyed long walks on local parks... And our little human was able to have a proper taste of warm weather!

We discovered that our mini-person absolutely loves slides, after we helped him sliding down, he would immediately try to go up again for a second run...

I was able to dress him with  spring-summer outfits that we had purchased a while back. Those mini-Toms we bought last year at M&S but we were never able to use them until now... How cute are those stars?

Last time that we were on the beach our baby didn´t like at all feeling the sand... This time? he thoroughly enjoyed it! We were not prepared for the beach, as we didn´t have any beach-sand toys, but a really nice lady lend our baby a star-shaped form for him to play with. He absolutely loved it! But mostly, he loved to destroy mummy´s star shaped sand forms...

It was a lot of fun...
Already missing those warm days...

 

I am linking up with these amazing bloggers:

Easter holidays! - Part one

Happy Easter everyone...!

I know, this is shuch a late Easter greeting... And I am terrible sorry about my silence, buuuuuuttttt..... We were enjoying a well deserved  short holiday in Portugal....!

This Easter break is also a way of celebrating our 9 years of marriage as well... We were married on the 1st of April! I know it´s April Fools´ Day, but is also one of the most  important days in my life. It´s really incredible that we are married for so long, I can´t hardly believe it as I feel that we just said our vows yesterday...! I have been so hapilly married.... Sure we have our ups and downs and as a couple we have our disagreements and our problems. And sometimes it can be difficult to compromise, but overall I feel that my other half does indulge me....

We had a lovely anniversary, went out for lunch at a local cervejaria and also enjoyed all that Lisbon has to offer culturally.

 

We also visited Jerónimos Monastery, which  is simply beautiful!
Near the Monastery lies Lisbon´s  most famous pastelaria,  Pastéis de Belém.

Oh, these were delicious.... It´s Easter break, and there´s no room for any diets.. I believe that I put on several pounds with all the food I had in Portugal!

We also went for a walk in Lisbon centre, the weather was amazing, really sunny we stopped for an ice cream too...

 So many flavours! What to choose?? Decisions, decisions...

This is the view from Rua Augusta, near the ice-cream shop. We walked down-town, known as Baixa. Actually I was also looking for some Portuguese vintage haberdasheries, but couldn´t find it... I was looking in the wrong place, bummer. I found that out once I was returning from our walk, and found the haberdasheries and some fabric shops. Once a crafter we never stop thinking about new projects, not even on vacation...

We are so lucky,overall the weather is warm and sunny, so it has been possible to go to the seaside and play down on the beach! The little one played with the sand and explored his artistic side as well...
It´s still a bit too cold to go for a swim, but we had a taste of the sea too...

I also purchased one of my White stuff crushes, the reversible skirt. Actually it was a Mother´s day late gift... and it has been perfect for the Portuguese sunny weather!  I have been wearing it almost daily!
 And to present my skirt here is my latest experience with my blog, I am posting my skirt as an animated giff image... I hope it works...!

How was your Easter break? I hope you had fun!

I linked up with: