Irene's Blog

I thought I'd treat the family today so I made them some Scottish Tottie Scones (Potato Scones) and they turned out great. This is an old photo but lets you see how they look. Tottie scones are made with mashed potato and you eat them with bacon and eggs and maybe black pudding....if you don't know what black pudding is, then I won't go into detail. You can look that up for yourself. How to make Tottie Scones: No real measurements here as it's a sort of play it by ear recipe and I have tried it with instant mashed potato and it worked well. Put any leftover mashed potato in the fridge to cool then put into a bowl along with a couple of handfulls of flour. Work through with fingers until it resembles a crumb mixture - add more flour as required. Once you have the mixture nice and crumbly, add a small amount of milk and work it through...keep adding milk a little at a time until the mixture becomes a dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured board and kneed then roll out t

Lachlan and Corey - 2.1/2 years old and full of fun. I'm looking forward to tomorrow to give them their Easter Eggs - and boy, do they love chocolate.

HAPPY EASTER I've got the Easter Eggs and the Hot Cross buns and have a lovely piece of Pork for Sunday's dinner. Today, Good Friday, is a beautiful sunny day here in Melbourne and the shops are all shut for a change. I'd like to wish anyone who happens to come upon my little page here, a very Happy and Holy Easter and hope you can spend time with your family and friends.

While out today on a drive, we spotted the latest feature of Hastings, Victoria, Australia. The local hotel has had a huge wind generator installed in the car park to produce power for the hotel. I know a lot of people think they're ugly, but I like the idea and the look of them. Just wish we had enough space to have one at our house - but maybe not on such a scale as this one. I'd certainly prefer getting no, or at least a vastly reduced electric bill every quarter.

How cute was I at the age of 4! I think my mother went crazy with my hair as it's not normally curly at all - and two ribbons? I can still remember that visit to the photographer for my little sister and myself to have a photo done and I don't think either of us was very cooperative at all. This would have been 1954.

It's been a pretty miserable day today with rain and high winds on and off. Not the kind of day to do much at all so I made a batch of scones - some fruit and some plain. They turned out really well even if I do say so myself. Quite often when I make scones, they end up not rising too well but these ones were fine. I don't know what I did right but I hope I do it next time too. RECIPE: Plain Scones (yield 12-15) 2 cups self raising flour 1/4 teasp salt 2tblsp butter or margarine 1 cup milk I like fruit scones so I add sultanas to the mix. Sift flour and salt together in a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter lightly with the fingertips till the mixture resembles breadcrumbs Make a well in the centre, pour nearly all the milk in at once, keeping a little for glazing.Mix quickly to a soft dough Turn onto a floured board, knead lightly and quickly. Press out the dough or use a roller. Use a round cutter to cut into scones. Place on a lightly greased and floured tray, glaze with milk and

A painting by Aboriginal artist Roslyn Dixon belongs to a friend of my daughter. It's such a bright and colourful artwork. Click on the picture to see it larger.

These have to be one of the lovliest birds we have around here, Rainbow Lorikeets. I got up really close to take this photo when they came in to have a feed of sunflower seed. I think we're really lucky to have so many brightly coloured parakeets in our garden on a daily basis.

My daughter and her husband bought me this windchime for Christmas and it's just beautiful. It's made of glass as you can see and really catches the light and makes a very pleasant sound when the wind blows.