sunny park magic

master bakers

Home-grown rhubarb from the little vegetable patch in our back garden

This year we planted our own rhubarb. Do you want to see what we made with it?

This is Wholemeal Rhubarb Banana Walnut Bread. And here is the recipe... Jamrobber style:

Wholemeal Rhubarb Banana Walnut Bread

Ingredients:

* 2 cups wholemeal flour

* 1 cup plain flour (original recipe: 2 plain flour, 1 wholemeal)

* 1 crushed weetabix biscuit (original recipe: 1/4 cup wheat germ -i had none!)

* 2 teaspoons baking soda

* 1 teaspoon baking powder

* 2 whole eggs

* 4 mashed bananas (original recipe: 3)

* 1/4 cup milk

* 3/4 cup vegetable oil

* 1 1/4 cups brown sugar

* 1 teaspoon cinnamon (oringial recipe: 2 teaspoons)

* 1/2 teaspoon allspice

* 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

* 2 teaspoons vanilla

* 2 1/2 cups diced rhubarb

* 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Have you got your aprons on? OK, then... let's begin:

1. Preheat oven to 175ºC (350ºF). Lightly grease one 11-inch ring-shaped cake mold (or two 9-inch loaf pans).

2. Mix together the flours, crushed weetabix (or wheatgerm), baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg in a medium bowl.

3. Get your mixer out and fool around with your reflections in the metal bowl for a while...

4. Get your trusty assistants to peel the bananas and mush them up.

5. Mix together the mashed banana, eggs, milk, brown sugar, oil and vanilla until fluffy.

6. Play around with your miniature assistants a little more...

7. Making time for play may (or may not) help you to keep your giddy apron-clad offspring from pushing each other around the kitchen and causing unwanted havoc. *though i obviously cannot guarantee that*

8. Add the flour mixture to wet mixture and blend well

9. Clean and dice your crunchy fresh rhubarb.

10. Stir in the diced rhubarb and walnuts.

11. Take a self portrait... just for fun.

12. Pour the mixture into your ring mold (or divide the mixture between the two loaf pans).

13. Bake at 175ºC (or 370ºF) for about 50 minutes. Cooking time may vary (and may take a little longer if baking the batter in one large tin) so check that the bread is cooked through by inserting a skewer or toothpick. If it comes out clean, it's done.

14. Allow the bread to cool in the mold for about ten minutes. Then remove carefully and allow to cool fully on a wire rack.

15. Slice and eat... Marvel at the wonderful rhubarb-banana-walnut combination and wonder why you never thought of making it before. Decide that this is your new favourite variation of banana bread.

16. Clean up the mess. Then eat some more of your tantalizing creation!

* * * * *

Bonus recipe: If you have extra rhubarb left over. Chop it up. Throw it in a pie tin. Sprinkle it with sugar. Mix some muesli (approx. 2 cups) with wholemeal flour (1/4 cup), butter (1/3 cup) and some honey, golden syrup or maple syrup. Press muesli mix on top of rhubarb and bake for approx. 30 minutes or until golden brown. Hey presto: rhubarb crumble!

Roma, città aperta...

At the beginning of May, Jaime and I went to Rome for a heavenly child-free long weekend! Liam, Malachy and Lorcan got to spend the weekend with Granny and Grandad (thanks guys!) while we stayed in Prati, central Rome, with our gorgeous friends Michelle and Luca (thanks for having us!!!).

I took so many photos, there's no way I could make a selection and upload as many as I would like here... so I've decided to settle for mosaics instead... just to give you a feel of what we did.

Above are just some of the amazing sights we saw...

{Try clicking on the mosaics for a larger view. Sometimes Blogger actually let's you do that!}

Michelle and Luca! With their kids, Anna and Peter (hi guys!) at the beach with their grandparents for the weekend, it was like a mini holiday for all four of us! Thanks to them we avoided all the tourists traps, ate like royalty and got to zip around the city in true Roman style: on the back of a Vespa....!!!


I was so taken by the cute cinquecentos everywhere!

And the food! Oh my god, the food!

And the people... the quintessential Roman people.

To whom it may concern: we really should do this more often ;)

our baby's 3!

On 25 April 2009 Lorcan turned three. At the risk of sounding clichéed, his Daddy and I are still asking ourselves how did that happen? We moved here to Dublin when he was three MONTHS old... and now, suddenly, he's three YEARS old! Pinch me. I must be dreaming.

He is the sweetest, happiest, most self-sufficient kid there is. He has a strong personality (yes, that includes a temper!) and the BEST sense of humour. He's healthy and strong, eats well and runs, climbs and kicks a ball like with passion and promise.

He loves to talk and loves to be listened to. He speaks English and Spanish almost equally well -English a little better. He'll be starting preschool in September and has already gone along a few times to try it out... with great success!

He loves his brothers, his Mum, his Dad and his grandparents. He has a smile for everyone -and I mean EVERYONE he walks by.

He makes us so happy. He makes us complete. We love our little Lorcan boy.

Lorcan decided he wanted a 'robot cake' for his birthday... so robot cake it was! Underneath the lollipop heart, m&m teeth, jelly eyes and blue mascarpone cheese frosting, there's actually a very healthy carrot cake! I swear!



On the day of Lorcan's birthday, our friends Javier, Ivonne and Isabella came to dinner... and afterwards Granny and Granddad came in for cake time, candle blowing and present giving!

{Click to enlarge and watch the candle blowing sequence!}


He was a very happy birthday boy!


Javier and his girls in our back garden on Lorcan's birthday.

Lorcan got all sorts of big fun pressies. But when all was said and done, once they were all unwrapped and oooh'ed and aaahh'ed over, what did he go for? This tiny little wind-up dinosaur!

Proving that small really is beautiful.

The kiddos finished off the afternoon playing Hungry Hippos and plasticine.

And now if I could just figure out a way to stop time...!

audrey & niamh!

One glorious sunny (yes, sunny!) day in April (yes, April!)... we met Audrey and Sam -up all the way from Cork- and Niamh and Peter -over from Swords- at the People's Park for some fun!

It was soooo good to see the girls again. So many memories of our days in Barcelona come rushing back!

Oh, yeah... and, um, that was the day that Liam fell into the People's Park fountain. Ooops. A day to go down in history. Fortunately for him, the sun was shining and his stuff dried pretty fast.

Lorcan and Sam: the two littlest dudes!

Sam and his Mam ;)

Peter 'Pan' is a huge hit with our lads!

Thanks for coming over to our side of town, guys! It was soooo great to see you!

The park was looking especially spring-y and beautiful that day, so after the others left, we stayed around a little while longer enjoying the sunshine.

There was an open percussion workshop going on so we soon joined in! Malachy found a way to make music with his entire body!

Lorcan banged his very own drum.

And afterwards we found the longest worm I've ever seen!

And the cutest trainee guide dog puppy!

That evening Daddy took a plane to Barcelona for a few days. The rest of us? Well once Liam's shoes and socks had dried, we headed on home, content after our full and happy day.