Lockdown Soda Bread

A three day weekend, combined with lockdown and my university mid-semester break has been wonderful to take some time to focus on other pursuits.

To accompany our homemade chicken soup for lunch today, I thought I'd try making some soda bread. The good thing about soda bread is that it's very quick to make - no long hours waiting for it to rise, because it doesn't have yeast in it.

This one was done within an hour. It looks good and smells great, but still a little dense to my liking, so further experimentation must be done to perfect it.

Tips:

• Because you don't use yeast it's important that the lemon juice reacts with the milk. So leave it long enough to curdle.

• You only need to knead it a few times. It doesn't need a bashing.

• It's important to flatten the bread before baking, and it's important to cut the cross deep, as this lets in the heat to cook the middle as soda bread is a quick cooking, quick rising bread.

China teacup: Spode "Spode's Aster"

Butter plate: Ascot (found in a charity store)

Vase: Cabbages and Kings, Tauranga

China dogs salt and pepper: Kmart, New Zealand

Tiny Ordinary Days

 I'm not new to blogging but I've missed having a place I can come to and write about life.

The name of my blog; tiny ordinary days, reflects where I am in life at the moment. I'm a mother to four children - two at university, two at home. I work 4 days a week to support them. I study part-time at my local university towards a Bachelor of Social Science, which I'm very passionate about, but I miss having a place to write just for the fun of it.

In this busy season of life it is hard to find the time to do the things that bring me happiness. So this is what this new blog is about. Recording the little, ordinary things of my life that make me happy.

Writing is part of that happy. So is dabbling in watercolours. Nature journaling. Gardening in my small suburban garden where I am trying to cultivate edible plants to sustain my family and so I can make my favourite recipes, like lemonade and elderflower syrup. Rhubarb pies and Feijoa ice cream and a good supply of my own garlic, tomatoes, lettuces and cucumbers, herbs and berries. 

Sometimes I make things on a sewing machine. Sometimes I like to try out making breads and cakes. Sometimes I go to pottery class. This is going to be my place to journal about all this. Just tiny, ordinary things that fill my days off and my seasons of life.