Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Father’s Day Delights...


We had a truly lovely Father’s Day celebration this year...  To begin with, the weather was cold and rainy, so we had a comforting fire blazing all day long which really made things very cosy...
Then, the gift, which we had already planned at the beginning of this year, turned out splendidly and Daddy really loved it. 

This is what we put together...



 We pasted photographs of each of us girls on the pages of a special book to make A Photo Memory Book.

I thought I would share our gift idea with you because, by using a book appropriate for the specific occasion in mind, this photo memory book is a wonderful keepsake and very personal... 

Instead of the book being read through once and then finding its way to the bookshelf, this book will always remain with my dad’s things and on hand whenever he feels he wants to page through it and be reminded of his girls who love him so much...


To make your own you will need a special book – we used ‘Blessings for You, Dad’ by Angus Buchan, but you can use whatever book you choose - a selection of photographs printed out to the desired size and scrapbooking tools such as acid-free glue, a craft knife and ruler, and any stickers, embellishments, etc you wish to use...
 
 Embellish the book to your taste – add as many photographs as you want and any notes that you feel may add charm to your gift!

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For our special Father’s Day lunch, I put together a delicious little feast of Chicken Roll with Butternut and Piquant Pepper Stuffing and Roast Potatoes, Creamed Spinach and (home-grown!) Honey and Parsley Glazed Baby Carrots...
 


 It was so much fun to prepare and absolutely delightful to the taste buds!

Recipe below...

 
Chicken Roll with Butternut and Piquant Pepper Stuffing
{Serves 8}

500g Chicken fillets
50ml Butter
1 large Onion, chopped
4 cloves Garlic, crushed
500ml Butternut, peeled and cut into small cubes
10ml fresh Ginger, grated
5-10ml dried Chilli flakes {Beware and add less if you’re not too keen on hot food...}
15ml Lemon zest
100ml Parsley, chopped
30ml Piquant peppers, sliced {I added more as we love these!}
200ml fresh white Breadcrumbs
2 large Egg yolks, lightly beaten
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
500g rindless streaky Bacon

Place meat between two layers of clingfilm and flatten to about 1.5cm thick.  Sauté onion in butter till soft.  Add garlic and sauté for a further minute.  Add butternut, ginger and chillies.  Stir well then cover and allow to cook gently till just tender.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool.  Stir in lemon zest, parsley, piquant peppers, and crumbs.  Stir in yolks and season with salt and black pepper.  Spread mixture over chicken and roll up like a Swiss roll.  Place in a greased roasting tin and cover with strips of bacon, securing with toothpicks.  Secure roll with lengths of string.  Roast at 180 degrees Celsius for about an hour.  Remove toothpicks and string and rest for 10 minutes before slicing.  


Serve warm with a selection of side dishes of your preference...

For dessert, Nancy blessed us with scrumptious Tipsy Tart...  Oh, how I love this pudding – served with plenty of whipped cream or warm vanilla custard, it is very hard to resist and a perfect way to end a good meal!


Tipsy Tart ~ Cape Brandy Pudding

60g Butter
200ml (160g) Sugar
250ml pitted Dates, chopped
375ml boiling Water
5ml Bicarbonate of soda
2 Eggs
375ml (210g) Cake flour
5ml Baking powder
2ml Salt
125ml (50g) chopped Walnuts

Syrup

250ml (200g) Sugar
125ml Water
60g Butter
5ml Vanilla essence
75ml Brandy

Mix butter, sugar, dates and boiling water with bicarbonate of soda in a mixing bowl and leave to cool.  Beat eggs and add to mixture.  Sift flour, baking powder and salt and add, with nuts, to date mixture.  Mix well.  Spoon into a greased oven-proof dish and bake in a preheated oven (180 degrees Celsius) for about 30 minutes.

For Syrup:

Boil sugar, water and butter together for 15 minutes.  Add essence and brandy.  Remove tart from oven, pour syrup over.  Serve warm with whipped cream or hot custard.


 

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After this lovely lunch, we cuddled up on the couch to watch Disney’s Frozen...

While I enjoyed this film and thought the music and animation was superb (and the characters were really quite funny!), I unfortunately won’t be watching it again – I felt the ‘magic element’ was a little over the top and some of the scenes were very scary - for our little ones at least...  We had to cover the little girls’ eyes during some parts.  But I did love the end when Kristoff asked Anna if he could kiss her – so sweet!

...And thus ended a wonderful day of family, good food and entertainment...

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What did you do for Father’s Day this year?

Linking up to:

4 comments:

Tane Hannah said...

Wonderful! That is a brilliant idea and it turned out lovely - I am confident your father was overjoyed with it.
And the food looks delicious.
Thank you for that touch of inspiration!
Tane♥

JES said...

What a beautiful day! The memory book is a wonderful idea. I must also add that you look like a marvelous cook. What a head start you have! Thank you for linking up your special day to inspire us :) Please join us the following Monday on the Art of Home-Making Mondays...

Kelly-Anne said...

Dear Tane, thank you for kind comment! I am delighted you were inspired through this post:-). Hoping your day is beautiful, Kelly-Anne

Kelly-Anne said...

Dear JES, thank for your lovely comment, I am so glad you enjoyed this post:-). And I would love to link up again next Monday -- I really enjoy reading your blog!

Blessings and love,
Kelly-Anne