Endo High Tea

I am hoping to get this post up quickly as I think it is important I share it today, the last day of Endometriosis Awareness Month and the day after my Endo High Tea.

Next weekend is the next Aussie YouTube Hop and the theme is based on Awareness raising and using a ribbon on your project so you won't see all the photos from the High Tea in this post as one of the decorations I made was for the YouTube Hop, so make sure you check out the Hop next weekend to see how that came together and how it turned out.  ;)

I also filmed my process of making the door prize so I will try to get that edited and up asap.

I decided to host a Endo High Tea this year as it is so important that awareness is raised of this painful and debilitating that is suffered by 1 in 10 women and the High Tea sounded like a great way to raise awareness and funds while enjoying lovely food and company.

I spent some time over the last couple of months looking for Yellow items for my Endo High Tea.  I found my gorgeous yellow table cloth, the doilies and the Yellow Cupcake Stand at my local op-shops over a period of about 5 weeks. 
I often see people say they can never find what they need at op-shops but I have found the key is going regularly and having a basic sort of list of what you are looking for.  I have a lovely collection of solid coloured tablecloths now but that is another post I think.

I found my gorgeous Teapot set on Gumtree and pick up was right near my daughter's boyfriend's work so he picked it up for me and I collected it when visiting my daughter in February.  A very round about way to do it but it all lined up and worked well.





 

Now onto the food.  With how hectic life is right now it was really important I keep things as simple as I could for myself but I also wanted to explore some foods (preparing and eating them) with my boys I otherwise would not get around to.

I decided to try making cucumber sandwiches, my sons love cucumber so I knew if no one ate them I wouldn't be stuck with something going uneaten for long but I know cucumber sandwiches can have a bad rep so I did some research online and after reading several recipes with good reviews in the end I winged it on the day.  My sandwiches were a big hit.  There was very positive reactions and feedback from guests.
To ensure they were as fresh as possible for guests I prepared my fillings at home but didn't assemble my sandwiches until at the venue, as I went a hour early to set up and once I had everything set up started assembling sandwiches.

Cucumber Sanwiches
1 225g packet of Cream Cheese (room temperature)
1 15g packet of fresh Dill
Juice of half a lemon
a crack or 2 of salt from the salt grinder.
Place cream cheese in a bowl and with a fork stir until creamy and free of lumps.
Add Dill, Lemon Juice and Salt.  Stir to combine.
Refrigerate overnight.

On the day thinly slice cucumber in sandwich sized lengths.  Pre-butter bread with a thin coating of butter (you could probably skip this but I was planning on doing a assortment of sandwiches and most needed butter so it was easier to do it this way).

To assemble spread a generous amount of the cream cheese mix on each slice of bread.  Cover 1 slice with cucumber and put the other slice on top.  Cut and Serve.

Low FODMAP Quiche Cups -  note only lofo if you tolerate dairy

Another easy recipe we made was Quiche cups.  I tried doing the bread base option but you can skip this if you have a silicone muffing tray.
This recipe make 12 quiche cups but you could spread it out if you want flatter quiche cups.





4 Large Eggs beaten
2 slices of ham cut into small pieces
Diced spring onion greens
300ml Milk
100g shredded tasty cheese
Bread flattened with a rolling pin, crusts removed for the crust.  You can do 1 slice per Quiche Cup or a half slice if you wish but the egg mix may go through the bread.

Preheat oven to 180c.
Spray muffin pans with cooking oil spray.  Place bread in them.
Mix beaten eggs, milk, chees, ham and spring onions in a bowl.
Spoon evenly into muffin pans.
Bake until golden on top.


I also made mini Caprese Salad with Yellow tomatoes.  E and my first every attempt at making a Balsamic Glaze, it was so yum.
And Mini Cheesecakes which I merged 2 recipes to create, the base was not the best so I won't use the base recipe again but the filling was delicious, I did put way more lemon juice in than it called for.  Instead of measuring with a spoon I used the juice of 1.5 lemons.  Here is the link to the recipe that is the filling I used.  I made 20 in a mini muffin pan and 5 in a standard muffin pan.  I baked until they were just starting to crack on top.  Next time I will do a base with arrowroot biscuits, butter and sugar I think as the one I tried used vanilla wafers and it wasn't as good as a arrowroot biscuit base I have made in the past.

To reduce how much work I had I bought a Lemon Slice, Madeira Cake with lemon icing and some yummy shortbreads.  I cut the Lemon Slice and Madeira Cake into small squares.

My friend Tracey brought some delicious cupcakes and mini banana muffins so we had a really wonderful spread for our small group of attendees.

We had a lovely time chatting and we all knew multiple women with Endo who had had dreadful experiences with Doctors dismissing them so hopefully with the improved awareness we are now seeing this experience will become a thing of the past soon.

For more information on Endometriosis visit Endometriosis Australia and Pelvic Pain Foundation
The Pelvic Pain Foundation has some great info for parents, teens, women, men and health professionals.
Here is a link to the website
https://www.pelvicpain.org.au
Here is a link to the parents info.
https://www.pelvicpain.org.au/for-parents/
Here is a link to the teens section which even has links to a children's book that is about children having pain, all types including migraines so a great resource.
https://www.pelvicpain.org.au/category/for-teens/
Here is a direct link to the children's book.
https://www.yumpu.com/…/61002…/a-journey-to-learn-about-pain

St Paddy's Day Dinner - low FODMAP Guinness Stew

As part of our St Paddy's celebrations I wanted to make a special dinner, and made my first ever Guinness Stew.

I looked up several recipes and sort of adapted/mashed them together according to our needs as we are on a modified low FODMAP diet and due to my shoulder and hand issues I needed a slow cooker version and I didn't want to wind up with left over Guinness so wanted a recipe that would use the whole can.
As beer is low FODMAP due to the fermenting process I am assuming Guinness is too.
A couple of recipes suggested the stew is better the next day so I made it Friday to have on Saturday.  Hubby taste tested it on Friday night and said it was definitely far better on Sunday night, he said it was richer and more hearty than on Friday.  So this is a great make ahead meal which really helps with planning for a day that you know you won't be able to cook.

I managed to get 8 serves out of this recipe, we had a family meal and I put 4 single serves away for hubby.  Note he said it didn't do well being frozen and reheated.

So here is what my adapted recipe wound up being.

900grams of diced chuck steak
2 tables spoons of flour
A crack of salt and pepper added into the flour
1 can of Stout or Guinness
3 cups of Beef stock (either homemade or Massel stock cubes disolved in water)
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
2 teaspoons of dried thyme
2-3 tablespoons (I spilt it into my pot) of parsley (fresh was out of stock when hubby did the shopping so I had to use dried)
2 large carrots cut into chunks
2 potatoes cut into chunks (I used 3 and it was too much potatoe)
2 celery stalks diced
The greens from 3 spring onions finely diced.

Put the potato and carrot into the bottom of the slow cooker.
Place flour and a crack of salt and pepper into a freezer bag, in batches put meat into the bag and shake, set aside on a plate ready to cook.
Once all meat is coated in a heavy pan in batches brown meat, transfer to the slow cooker.
Add spring onion greens and celery to the pan and saute a little.  Add to the slow cooker.
Add tomato paste, stock, stout, thyme and parsley.  Give a stir without disturbing the vegetables at the bottom.
Cook on high for 4 to 6 hours or low for 8 to 10 hours.
Cool and refrigerate to serve the next day.
My sauce did not thicken so for serving I decided I would put one family serve in a pot on the stove for 15 minutes to simmer off the excess and cook the dumplings in the sauce while doing it.

Serve with Mashed Potatoes or Rice and low FODMAP parsley dumplings.

Easter Decorating on a Budget

I decided to do a little decorating for Easter, something we have never done before but the budget for supplies would have to come out of my Easter budget which is usually used only for all the yummy food, the Chocolates, the Hot Cross Buns, dinner on Good Friday and a big family Breakfast on Saturday or Sunday depending on when everyone is available. Being a shift working family sometimes it may be a Famil lunch or dinner instead, we just roll with what works.

I already had 2 tiered cupcake stands that would be perfect, I got them on clearance after Easter about 4 years ago for a High Tea Fundraiser my daughter was hosting for Starlight Foundation.
I wanted a Banner, and some suitable plates, cups & table cloth.  However I had 2 problems budget and there was very little Easter stock when I was trying to shop for supplies that suited decorating available in my town.  It was either travel to another town or make do.

I could not find a Banner I loved so it was time to DIY so I bought this Pastel Burlap Banner from the Reject Shop when I bought a Bright Pink table cloth, Teal cups and Light Pink Serviettes.  To tie in the Bright Pink and Teal I grabbed some Bright Pink and Teal gems from Big W, due to what supplies I could get the decision was now made that except for my cupcake stands I was going with a Bright and Pastel Pink and Teal/Aqua theme.
Total budget spent including the cups, table cloth and banner supplies was $11.

I then shopped my stash for anything that might work for this Banner.  I thought those 2 cute pink rafia flowers would make cute bunny tails.








My work on the Banner had to wait until I had all the prepwork on the food for Easter Breakfast done and all the organising of the house to accomodate our guests done.  We had visitors stop by also so by the time I started working on the Banner it was getting dark and I had to wait until the next morning to take photos, hence the poor lighting of my supplies.

I grabbed out my 6x6 Magnolia Lane paper pad and selected 4 sheets that I decided to tear for layers.  I also had this small piece of acetate I recieved in a RAK a couple of years ago and had not had a use for until now and a gorgeous little wood veneer bunny I recieved in a RAK in Feb.
I worked on each flag individually but tried to line up the letters and tried to make sure that I alternated the main flower's colour.

I used some old Creative Memories Monogram alphas in White for my lettering as they were the only ones I had that were big enough for the Banner.

I also grabbed out 2 sheets of flower stickers from my haul of stickers I got in clearance bundles at Lincraft.

I was short a E so I used a F and cut a piece of a K to make a second E.

I managed to get it 80% done in a very short amount of time before having to leave for a special Good Friday Dinner at my in laws.
I didn't get a chance to finish it before our Easter Breakfast but I love it.
I will finish it for next year with a cute bunny on each end that has a raffia flower for a tail, I think.  I also want to add ribbons between each flag.

Now to share with you the delicious French Toast Casserole I made for Easter Breakfast, I discovered it via Easter Mums.
This is fantastic tasting but also really convenient.  I prepared it the day before and left it in the fridge until a hour before guests were due, then I preheated my oven, made the crumbled, and baked it for 55 minutes.
It was a huge hit.
I didn't have the right sized baking dish so I divided it between 2 dishes.

Due to life events cooking needed to be quick and simple.
The boys loved making chocoloate eggs, noodle nests and decorating milk arrowroot biscuits.

The biscuits on the right in the bottom tier are from Aldi.

The nests were a huge hit with adults and kids.












I placed a fabric table cloth folded thick in the middle for all the hot dishes to go on.
I used every white plate I have, and a white plastic plate for a toddler attending.
I later added a Cadbury Bunny to the place settings.

I am so glad I bought those cupcake stands on clearance 4 years ago, they will be getting a lot more use now.
I am looking forward to building my Easter Decorating Supplies next year as this really did make things more fun.