Blog birthday

Yesterday was my blog's first birthday but, as it was Sunday and not, I deem, the day for such things, I am celebrating today. So, instead of a "munchy" I am going to do a post of photos of some interesting purple or lilac things I have found over the past year. So here goes...

Purple cape daisies from the garden,

clean laundry,

a moped in a backstreet in Tarragona,

a wallflower,

a cushion and a carpet,

bindweed on the side of the road,

shutter doors on a shop,

washing-up liquid,

a house on a hill,

and some lovely presents.

Knowledgeable

Along the same language lines, some years ago, whilst still homeschooling, I challenged one of my boys to a contest to see how many words he could make from the word "knowledgeable".

Now I would like to do the same with my bloggy friends : )

Just for fun, how many different words can you make from the letters in the word KNOWLEDGEABLE, without repeating any letter within the same word. i.e. the word "good" cannot be used. The letters may be used in any order.

Remember: no slang, no bad words, no initially foreign words, and looking in the dictionary or internet must only be to make sure the word exists! Just plain, everyday words.

On Friday, 7th of February, I will publish my list. Let's have some fun.

Homophones

As you might or might not know, I like language and words and having fun with both.

Homophones are words which sound the same when spoken but can differ in their spelling and will differ in their meaning. The English language is stuffed with homophones, maybe more than others, but you only realize this when you are teaching it as a second language!

The following little rhyme is one I used to teach my kiddos when studying homophones. It gives a fine example of just what they are.

Dr. Bell fell down the well 

And broke his collar bone!

Doctors should attend the sick 

And leave the well alone!

Now read this joke through. It's one of my favourites!

Now, there's a bunch of fish in a tank and one says to another, "Does anyone know how to drive this thing?"

I think I'll leave it there! Have a nice day : )

Dear Mama,

Your loving daughter.

A dozen things you might want to know about eggs

1. When preparing eggs for an omelette, beat the eggs together with a pinch of salt. This helps to mix the egg yolk and white quicker so that you don't have to beat the egg as much. The less you beat, the lighter the omelette will be.
2. Ideally, use a separate non - stick pan only for your egg recipes.
3. When scrambling, beat the eggs together with a drop of milk.  This will make the end result light, fluffy and moist. Do not stir too much.
4. Always use your eggs at room temperature. 
5. Eat vitamin C, preferably citric fruits, at the same meal. The vitamin C favours iron absorption and the citric acid helps to absorb calcium.
6. Add lemon juice or vinegar to the water when hard boiling eggs to prevent the shells from cracking. To hard boil eggs, bring water to boil, turn off heat, cover and let eggs sit for 20 minutes. Peel and enjoy.
7. In Columbia and other S. American countries, where there might be a shortage of other calcium sources, eggs are soaked for some days in vinegar to dissolve the shell and then the vinegar is drunk.
8. Egg white is also known as albumen or glair
9. An egg white is made mainly of protein and also contains niacin (vitamin B3), riboflavin (vitamin B2), chlorine, magnesium, potassium, sodium and sulphur. The yolk is a favourable source of iron, calcium, sodium and potassium.
10. A double yolk egg is longer and thinner than other eggs. To determine a double yolk, the farmer will shine a bright light behind the egg and, almost like an x-ray, he sees through the shell and it's content. This process is called "candling" because, before the invention of powerful electric bulbs,  farmers used a candle.
11. The only difference between brown and white eggs is the price. The colour of the hen indicates the colour of the egg it will lay.  There is no nutritional difference whatsoever.
12. Eggs take 24 - 26 hours to form. The hen lays the egg large end first and within 30 minutes the whole process starts anew.

O.K. Just some info. I have picked up on my way through life, speckled with one or two things I have found interesting in internet.

Altafulla...

...another village we have visited very recently. Again, as we left the visit to late afternoon I didn't manage to catch any decent photos. These are all taken from internet.

The castle, church and indeed much of the village which lies inside the stone walls date back to the XI century. Amazing, isn't it?

Munchy Monday #28: Lemon cherry rice cake

Now the lemons are abundant and not too expensive, what better way than to use them in a delicious and very filling cake. So as not to alter the measures I will write them down in ounces as specified in the recipe. I took this recipe years ago from a weekly magazine my mum used to get.

You will need:

6 oz margarine (milk free)
9 oz caster sugar
Grated rind of 3 lemons
4 eggs, size 3, beaten
6 oz glacé cherries, halved
9 oz rice flour
3 oz self - raising flour
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons

Method:

Cream margarine with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in lemon rind. Gradually add eggs, beating well after every addition. Stir in cherries. Sift ground rice and flour together and fold them into the cream mixture, adding a little lemon juice at the same time. Add more lemon juice, if required, to give the batter a dropping consistency. Set oven to warm, gas mark 3 or 160º C (375º F). Grease a 20 cm diameter tin and spoon in the batter. Bake for an hour or so, until the cake is firm and springy to the touch. Leave the cake in the tin to cool.