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:

~ Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth

~ A Wise Woman Builds Her Home

~ Graced Simplicity

~ The Time Warp Wife

~ A Mama's Story

~ Raising Homemakers

Blessings on your week, dear friends!