June 2010 Newsletter

Hello and Welcome to our June newsletter. Hopefully we will be able to update you on anything you have missed over the last month or so.

June Meeting
We had a really positive and productive meeting this month

NFWI AGM at the CIA.
After welcoming the members to the meeting, Emma gave a report on the NFWI AGM which she attended as representative for our link WI’s. She was able to give very positive feedback. Lots of very interesting speakers,

Fundraising
We discussed the need to raise our funds and after some discussion it was agreed that we should use our September meeting to hold a social evening, inviting other WI’s members for a reasonable admission fee. We intend to spend some time at our July meeting discussing possible themes for the evening, and will hold the August meeting (against tradition) so that all members can be involved in finalising arrangements. Most WI’s have the tradition of arranging a summer trip in place of the August meeting, but under the circumstances, we are planning both meeting and day trip, details of the trip given on the last page

Raffle. Continuing on the theme of funding and costs, Emma explained that while we are still a small group, raffle prizes are likely to be quite small. We discussed the necessity for a raffle and decided it should continue from the fun aspect. This month’s raffle winner was Lynne Harris.

Competitions. Emma asked if members wanted to reinstate the monthly competitions that we have had in the past, either on the same theme or something different. There was very little interest and it was decided not to re-establish the competition at this time.

Our speaker - Jan Lewis gave us some very interesting information about hats and other headwear over the last century or so, including the falling interest in plastic rain hats. As she talked us through different periods of time, those of us old enough to remember fashions from 50’s and 60’s joined in with tales of the things we wore during that era – giving the younger members of our group lots to laugh about. Jan then gave us a treat by inviting us to try on the numerous hats she had brought with her, many quite glamourous. The information and the collection of hats was very impressive.

Supper Club
Six members enjoyed the supper club this month. Despite there being confusion resulting in a table not being booked, staff at Trattoria managed to find us a table even though they were extremely busy. As usual, good food at reasonable cost.

Reading Circle
The book for July meeting is “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold. Reading circle starts at 6:30 and is likely to be restricted in time this month because of the Cheese and Wine evening at Morganstown being on the same evening.

And in General
Don’t forget this is your WI, so please feel free to let us know of any suggestions you might have for new groups, new activities you think we should try, and generally anything that you think might be of interest to your fellow members.

YAWI website.
All our newsletters are available on the website. Is there anything you want to catch up on, or was there are recipe that you fancied and forgot to save. It will be on the website. Any questions you have or any ideas you want to share, or any comments you want to make, try the web site. There is still work to be done on the website, but we are getting there slowly.


Report from the NFWI
Emma had a fantastic time at the NFWI which was held in the CIA in Cardiff. Thousands of ladies from across the UK were present and the atmosphere amazing. The NFWI had organised some great speakers including Lee Durrell (the wife of Gerald Durrell), Gwen Parry Jones (the first female director of a nuclear power station) and Tim Smit (founder of the Eden Project). There was a live link-up with John Bercow The Speaker of the House of Commons, who had crept out of Prime Minister’s Question Time to speak to the ladies and to top it all off they were serenaded by the dulcet tones of Welsh choir ‘Only Men Aloud’. Ruth Bond reported on the growth of the WI over the last 12 months (there are now approx. 207,000 members of the WI) with plans afoot to try and increase membership to 250,000 by 2015. Another interesting fact was that you will soon be able to buy WI cakes in your local supermarket! The WI have done a deal whereby they get royalities for each cake sold. Measures have been taken to ensure that all cakes are (nearly!) up to homemade WI standards. If you have any further questions about what went on at the NFWI please ask Emma and she wil be delighted to tell.
Next year’s NFWI will be in Liverpool and all members are welcome as observers for a small fee. Keep your eyes open for further information in the future.

Recipe for the Month

Quick and easy chicken receipe this months – sure no-ones wants to be spending time over a hot stove when they could be relaxing in the sunshine (hopefully)

Summer Traybake Chicken
Ingredients
4 Chicken Breasts
1 tablespoon olive oil
250g cherry tomatoes
4 tablespoon pesto

Method
Put the chicken breasts in a large shallow roasting tray and drizzle with olive oil. Grill for 10 minutes then add cherry tomatoes and grill for another 5 minutes until chicken is cooked. Drizzle pesto over the top and serve.

Source: Good Food Magazine August 2006

Things to come.

Friday 18th June 2010 – Creigau WI Cheese and Wine Evening – Join our link WI’s for the evening.

Wedneday 23rd June 2010 – Reading Circle at 6:30 at Gelliwastad Road Club.
Morganstown Cheese and Wine evening 7:30

Thursday 4th July 2010 – Supper Club at La Trattoria, High Street, Pontypidd – 6:30.

Wednesday 14th July 2010 - July monthly meeting

Wendesday 28th July 2010 – Reading Group

Saturday 7th August 2010 – Cotswold Tour and Meal – see next sheet for full details.

Don’t forget
You can call Emma on 07762493928 or Erica on 01443 409959 if you want any information about any of the groups etc or if you have any ideas you want to run by them. Leave a message and they’ll get back to you if they can’t come to the phone when you call.

It’s your WI – don’t be shy in having your say.

May 2010 Newsletter

Hello and Welcome to our May newsletter.

Hopefully we will be able to update you on anything you have missed over the last month or so.

May Meeting
Welcome to our new member, Carole, who joined us this month.

AGM Resolution - This month we discussed and voted on the AGM resolution: The mandatory clear labelling on food with true country of origin. This meeting urges HM Government to introduce clear and mandatory country of origin labelling on all meat, poultry and fish products sold in this country. Janet gave us a basic explanation of the idea behind this and following discussion we had a unanimous vote for the resolution to be taken forward.

Our speaker, Marga Quince makes regular visits to Africa in connection with her involvement with Pont – a project linking Rhondda Cynon Taff with a region of Uganda (Mbala). Marga is involved with the road project there, but gave an overall and very interesting talk about a variety of aspects of the venture. The main purpose is not to provide funding, but to help the local people build on the skills they already have.

Membership Our thanks to Amanda for pointing out that the membership cards which can be found in the membership handbooks can be used to get discounts in various places. With this in mind this month’s printed Newsletters will be personalised to give you your Membership number which will be shown at the end of the newsletter. If you have not received a membership handbook, please speak to Erica who will be able to let you have one.

Supper Club
Again a very enthusiastic response from members who enjoyed their visit to Trattoria this month. If you haven’t tried it yet, please come and join us. The food really is very good and we take advantage of the “Early Bird Special”, so the cost isn’t too prohibitive either.

Reading Circle
No book chosen for this month – please read something of your own choice to share with other members

June Meeting
Jan Lewis will give us a talk on “Hats through the ages”.

YAWI Committee
We still need members to join our committee – if you don’t want to take on a specific role, we do still need Committee Members. We also need people to take charge of groups – so if you have any particular interests that you would like us to take on, you may be the best person to take charge of forming a group.
Your committee needs you !!! AND WE WILL SUPPORT YOU IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE

And in General
Don’t forget this is your WI, so please feel free to let us know of any suggestions you might have for new groups, new activities you think we should try, and generally anything that you think might be of interest to your fellow members.

YAWI website.
All our newsletters are available on the website. Is there anything you want to catch up on, or was there are recipe that you fancied and forgot to save. It will be on the website. Any questions you have or any ideas you want to share, or any comments you want to make, try the web site. There is still work to be done on the website, but we are getting there slowly.



Recipe of the Month

Looking ahead to what will hopefully be a good summer where we can think about sharing open air meals with friends and family – BBQ, etc, perhaps an easy pudding recipe would be appropriate.

Eton Mess

Ingredients
285 ml whipping cream
3 tbsp orange liqueur (Cointreau, Grand Marnier)
350 g punnet strawberries, washed hulled and chopped
75 g meringues or meringue nests, crumbled.

Preparation
1. Lightly whip the cream then fold in the orange liqueur. Stir in the strawberries and the crumbled meringue and fold in lightly.
2. Transfer the mixture to individual sundae glasses and serve at once.

Source - http://www.ivillage.co.uk


Things to come.
It is difficult to realise how far into the year we are already. It will soon be necessary for us to think about making a booking for any Christmas festivities – yes it really will. If you have any suggestions that you might like us to consider please speak up and share them with us.
We are also hoping to arrange a day out during the summer. As a small group we are not enough in number to arrange a trip of our own, so the plan is to look at organised trips on offer from local bus companies so that we can join them. Again – if you have any ideas, please share them with us.

May – Reading Group 26th

June – Supper Club 3rd
Meeting 9TH
Reading Group 23rd

July - Supper Club 1st
Meeting 14th
Reading Group 28th

Please feel free to pass these dates on to anyone you think would be interested in joining us

Don’t forget
You can call Emma on 07762493928 or Erica on 01443 409959 if you want any information about any of the groups etc or if you have any ideas you want to run by them. Leave a message and they’ll get back to you if they can’t come to the phone when you call.

It’s your WI – don’t be shy in having your say.