I have recently adapted my favourite English Flapjack recipe, to include salted peanuts, much to the delight of my friends, who absolutely love the chewy, oaty, fudgy texture. This particular flapjack mix is reminiscent of a 'peanut brittle' mixture, (but made with honey). This is an ideal sweet food to have in the house for offering to guests who pass by, or for the constantly hungry young things........
AMERICAN READERS, PLEASE NOTE :- English flapjacks are akin to your cookies. They are fairly healthy, because of their fibre content and if made with honey, instead of the traditionally used syrup, then they are even healthier.
You will need:-
1/2 lb Butter or quality margarine (Stork Margarine, recommended for UK readers)
1/2 lb Honey or syrup
1/4 lb Brown or Demerara sugar
3/4 lb Oats
3/4 handfuls of salted peanuts, plus a little additional salt
12" X 9" Baking tin - oiled and floured
preheated oven - 350F
Using a pan to replace the scale pan, weigh out the Honey (or Syrup), then add the Butter (Margarine) and the sugar.
Put the pan on a low heat to melt the ingredients, stirring while you go. When the ingredients have all melted, add the Oats, peanuts and salt.
Immediately, pour into a prepared tin and smooth out the mixture, as best you can, with a spatula. The mix will be quite liquid at this point, but once it starts to cool, the oats will become sticky and hard to spread.
Place into pre-heated oven, for approx 20-25 minutes or until golden.
When ready, cut into squares and allow the mix to cool - this is an important step, as the fudge type mixture will harden as it cools and therefore makes slicing messy and difficult!.
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CUSTOMISED SANDALS - YAY!
Living in Belize means that shopping addicts, like me, find it hard to get a fix, as we do not have the lifestyle options offered by the wealthier consumer led countries, i.e. We don't have many shops! We therefore, have to make do with what we can get.
One of my ways of making do, is to buy my goodies from the UK using the internet and wait for the items to be picked up and delivered by visiting friends or family - but I get very few visits, so this is a boring option. The alternative is to order items and have them posted out to me - an expensive option to say the least, especially because we do have to pay customs tax on incoming parcels, as well as high postal rates. The downside is that when we finally get the parcel, containing the (exciting) goodies, it is difficult to return same goodies if they don't fit - because by the time they arrive back in the UK a period of up to 3 months will have elapsed! (Sellers aren't keen on this long passage of time, I gather)
Anyway, long story short (Hah!) I bought a style of sandal, which my lovely daughter has been warning me not to buy, because I now have broad feet, and this particular design only appears to be made for very slim feet!
I finally picked up the sandals a few days ago and immediately tried to put them on, once I arrived home. To my horror, I found that they were more than a little tight, the front strap being too tight across the foot and the backstrap being too short to do up at the back - no matter how much I contorted myself to try to force the buckle fastening.
The strap thing is a common fault with modern sandals, so I have to ask, why, oh why, don't designers and manufacturers get sandal back straps right? They are usually too short and placed in a hard to get at angle - if you know what I mean!
The upshot of all the unnecessary excitement was, that I couldn't return the silly things and so I had only three alternatives:- give them away, let them rot on my shoe rack or alter them!
Being entirely selfish and childish, options one and two, clearly weren't viable options, just stupid ones so, I decided that the altering thing was for me.
The above picture shows the alteration of the front strap.
I sliced through the faux leather and then, using wide black satin ribbon (from my sewing box), I machine stitched a ribbon on each of the cut straps - folding the ribbon over, underneath, to strengthen the join. Once they were both attached, I joined the two ribbons by pushing one ribbon inside the pocket of the other and hand stitched them together on top and underneath (again to give the holding some strength.
I sliced through the faux leather and then, using wide black satin ribbon (from my sewing box), I machine stitched a ribbon on each of the cut straps - folding the ribbon over, underneath, to strengthen the join. Once they were both attached, I joined the two ribbons by pushing one ribbon inside the pocket of the other and hand stitched them together on top and underneath (again to give the holding some strength.
To cover the rather uninteresting joining of the ribbons, I made a flower, using brown satin ribbon (kindly donated by a chocolate box that passed me by, some time ago) and Ta Da! One pair of prettied up sandals - almost finished.
Unpicked the strap and found that it was only just long enough, so added elastic - mostly because it was just the width I needed for the addition. I had to add some stitching to ensure that the elastic lining stays in place - for good! (The sewing machine really didn't like the straps at all, so I couldn't attempt too much stitching on the straps)
These are the finished sandals. Excepting the disfigured big toes, I think the added flower style decoration camouflages my bunions pretty nicely. Yay!
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BLUE
Today, 22.2.2016 our loyal and loving Blue passed away!.
Previously, we have never owned pets and only agreed to receive Blue as a gift, from my Uncle, because we realised, living in Belize, we needed additional security in the form of a dog. Of course, being a Blue Heeler, (loving, loyal and intelligent) she soon became a very dear and much loved friend and brought great joy to us all.
Unfortunately, like all dogs, she simply couldn't resist putting foody things in her mouth and so, this morning, her curiosity caused her to be poisoned by, the vet thinks, a poisonous frog. So our darling little girl suffered the consequences and has left a devastated household behind her. Our little girl died as gracefully as she lived and I truly hope that dogs have souls that go on, because it would be comforting to know that she hasn't just gone for good!
23.3.2016
This morning, about 6.30 I heard a dog rustling the leaves under the bamboo tree, where Blue is buried, so I jumped out of bed and quickly threw the doors open, ready to chase the dog out of the garden (I was so angry!), but when I rushed out of the house, I stopped and looked at the animal from the verandah and it was just a friend of Blue's. He/she was just moving the the leaves, to make a sitting place. The dog just sat looking at the little grave for about half an hour, before going back home. Isn't that lovely, its kind of made my day (even though I still keep crying). I've been puzzling ever since, as to how the dog, knew Blue was dead and how it knew to look for the grave? Its really the strangest thing, but it was such a lovely sight to see the dog sitting and thinking and I am enormously comforted, by the act of friendship..................
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Unpicked the strap and found that it was only just long enough, so added elastic - mostly because it was just the width I needed for the addition. I had to add some stitching to ensure that the elastic lining stays in place - for good! (The sewing machine really didn't like the straps at all, so I couldn't attempt too much stitching on the straps)
These are the finished sandals. Excepting the disfigured big toes, I think the added flower style decoration camouflages my bunions pretty nicely. Yay!
**************************************
BLUE
Today, 22.2.2016 our loyal and loving Blue passed away!.
Previously, we have never owned pets and only agreed to receive Blue as a gift, from my Uncle, because we realised, living in Belize, we needed additional security in the form of a dog. Of course, being a Blue Heeler, (loving, loyal and intelligent) she soon became a very dear and much loved friend and brought great joy to us all.
Unfortunately, like all dogs, she simply couldn't resist putting foody things in her mouth and so, this morning, her curiosity caused her to be poisoned by, the vet thinks, a poisonous frog. So our darling little girl suffered the consequences and has left a devastated household behind her. Our little girl died as gracefully as she lived and I truly hope that dogs have souls that go on, because it would be comforting to know that she hasn't just gone for good!
This morning, about 6.30 I heard a dog rustling the leaves under the bamboo tree, where Blue is buried, so I jumped out of bed and quickly threw the doors open, ready to chase the dog out of the garden (I was so angry!), but when I rushed out of the house, I stopped and looked at the animal from the verandah and it was just a friend of Blue's. He/she was just moving the the leaves, to make a sitting place. The dog just sat looking at the little grave for about half an hour, before going back home. Isn't that lovely, its kind of made my day (even though I still keep crying). I've been puzzling ever since, as to how the dog, knew Blue was dead and how it knew to look for the grave? Its really the strangest thing, but it was such a lovely sight to see the dog sitting and thinking and I am enormously comforted, by the act of friendship..................
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