Baking for builders

I've been busy baking while we've had builders.  There is nothing more rewarding than cooking for hungry men who appreciate your efforts and also enjoy a latte from the coffee machine on a cold day.  I stuck with baking basics like muffins, lemonade scones (so easy) and Jubilee Twist.  The latter recipe comes from the Country Women's Association cookbook and an old favourite Mum used to bake.  While I was busy baking, I was reminded how Mum used to be busy baking when we had shearers working on the farm.  It certainly was a busy time as she had to cater for morning and afternoon tea as well as lunch.  That doesn't happen any more as the shearers take care of their own catering now.

It's very quiet here today at home as the builders have finished most of the major work with just a few bits and pieces to finish off.  There's no radio playing, no builder singing his heart out to songs from the 70's and no banter from the other builder about how lousy the singing was.  I've never seen two tradies get on so well, laughing, joking and talking while they worked.  What a pleasure it was to have them work on the garage/workshop. 

This lovely new and expanded space (very old and asbestos garage was demolished) that very obviously needs a paint, will house our two vehicles and give hubby workshops space with storage for his tools and handyman supplies.  There is also a designated space for him to put a dark room.  There is lots of work to be done but that will be fun for hubby.

Bye for now,

Anne

Spring flowers

I thought I'd sneak in a quick post before I head off early tomorrow to Western Australia.  We have had two weeks of unseasonably warm spring weather and not much rain which I hope is not a sign of things to come.  Spring flowers are popping up and opening out everywhere and the first roses of the season should open while I'm away.  I went around this morning snapping these few blooms that caught my eye.

 

I love Lunaria and have always wanted to grow some in my garden.  I bought a packet of seeds years ago, lost them and then rediscovered them last year.  Although the packet was over 10 years old I thought I'd sow seeds into punnets to see if they would germinate which they did.  Now I have these pretty flowers in pink and white.

Foxgloves never cease to give me visual pleasure.  I love the spotted throat of the flowers and the way those bells flower up the stem.  The first time I heard of foxgloves was in the Poldark series of books which I read as a teen.  Demelza would gather bunches of foxgloves growing wild in Cornwall and when I discovered what they looked like, I couldn't quite believe something so beautiful would grow wild near the coast.  But of course I saw it with my own eyes in 2012 when we visited that very beautiful part of England.

 A few years ago when I was going for a winters walk, I came across a very tall shrub with bright and deep pink flowers.  Not much flowers in winter here so I was delighted to find a plant in a local garden flowering so beautifully in the depths of winter.  My great grandmother would often walk by gardens and take a little piece of a plant overhanging the fence and strike it for her own garden.  I figured I should follow her example and struck some pieces of the shrub which I believe to be Salvia wagneriana.  My little shubs are small yet but hope they will grow to be as tall and beautiful as those in my neighbours garden just a street away.

 This Azalea is blooming prolifically.  I've only a few Azaleas in the garden now as the others have sadly died.  Perhaps it's time to invest in a few new plants for next winter/spring.

 

 The apple tree is full of blossom this year, I hope that might mean a good crop of apples as long as we can keep the parrots away from them. 

  This next photo is not flower related but definitely worth talking about.  A recent grocery shopping trip resulted in an over abundance of Kent pumpkin and as I didn't want it to go to waste while I am away in Western Australia, I searched for pumpkin bread recipe on the Internet and found this one  and doubled the recipe.  The amount of mashed pumpkin I had only came to 1 1/2 cups whereas 2 cups was required for two loaves.  I also adjusted the sugar amount to 2/3 cup instead of 1 cup per loaf.  This pumpkin bread is light and fluffy and full of spicy flavour.  So the next time you have and excess of pumpkin on your hands, give this recipe a try.

 Anne  xx

Busy in the kitchen

Hello, how are you?  I can hear the sigh of relief in the northern hemisphere from all the peeps who are longing for spring and warmer days.  I know it doesn't really warm up for a bit but I hope the appearance of bulbs poking out of the ground, the lengthening of days and a little sunshine here and there is cheering you up.  I'm not ready for autumn yet let alone winter as we had far too many grey cool days this summer in Melbourne.  Over in the west on the farm they are longing for cooler days after a long hot summer.  I guess the challenge is finding lovely things in all the seasons and making the most of it.

So late February is when the tomatoes start to ripen nicely and then we have to find different ways to use them before they spoil.  I've already posted about oven dried tomatoes here and have made another batch since.  I've also made some tomato chutney and used the few dodgy apples from the tree in the back yard that the parrots didn't get to.
 
 

Chutney cooking up nicely.

 This is cherry tomato tart we had for dinner one evening.  Delicious.

Hubby and I visited a farmers market recently and bought a couple of kilos of blood plums, my absolute favourite plums.   I used some of them to make this upside down cake.  Recipe can be found
here.

With yet more tomatoes ripening in the garden, a mix of cherry and grosse lisse, the making of tomato sauce/ketchup was next on the agenda.  I used the recipe found here
a slightly corrupted version using red onions (all I had to hand), balsamic and apple cider vinegars and brown sugar.  It was quite a process and you need a good three hours to make it but it is SO worth the effort, the sauce tastes amazing.

After the sauce had finished cooking I blended it with a stick blender which reduced the amount of pulp after sieving.

All that remained after sieving and that went into the compost.

The finished product.

 Hubby and I are off over to Western Australia next weekend for two weeks to visit Mum and for hubby, my brother and his mate to go on a fishing holiday for a week down to the south west coast.  On our return we will have some exciting news to share but until then I just have to be patient.

Anne xx

Easy Apple Slice

The following recipe was posted on FB (source http://gggiraffe.blogspot.com.au) 

and it was so easy I decided to make it.  Who doesn't love an easy bake recipe.  So here it is.

APPLE SLICE

2 cups self raising flour

1 cup of sugar (I used just over 3/4 cup)

3 apples, peeled, cored and diced, 1 cm, (I used 4 small Granny Smith apples)

125g butter, melted

1 egg

(I added a little cinnamon, about 1 teaspoon)

Toss apples with self raising flour and sugar in a medium mixing bowl.

Melt butter in a small saucepan on the stove top or in a small bowl in the microwave.  Stir in egg.

Pour butter and egg into the apple mixture and mix until combined.

Spoon into a greased and lined slice tin.  (I used a 30 x 25cm tin).

Bake at 180C for 35 to 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Keeps for about 3 days.

I made this for a dessert served it with cream, ice cream or both.  Happy baking.

Anne xx

Summer days

Melbourne summers are usually a bit hit and miss and of recent days it has been more miss than hit with quite a bit of rain.  I'm not complaining though as it saves me from needing to water the garden.  One of the joys of summer is eating stone fruit and as much as I enjoy eating it fresh, I love to use up peaches and nectarines which are just a little bit too soft to enjoy fresh by stewing them.  In this instance I stewed them with a little brown sugar, vanilla, a sprinkling of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, the rind and juice of two oranges and a splash of red wine.  Served with Greek yogurt it made a delicious dessert.

Unfortunately the nectarines and peaches weren't home grown but the rhubarb below is and it was made into a rhubarb and plum crumble.

We've been harvesting more vegetables.  The spring onions, garlic, pak choy, snow peas and cabbage in the photos below went into a yummy stir fry recently.

Less healthy food made and eaten (not all of them yet), are these yummy Monte Carlos I made last night.

Home baked biscuits just taste so much better than store bought wouldn't you agree?!

 

Moving away from food and cooking now and onto animals.  Genevieve's cat Bungee decided he would try and catch some birds on her lap top.  He's never exhibited this behaviour before and was rather cute.

It's been an expensive week with the two cats and dog getting their annual checkups and vaccinations at the vet.  Stripey has a yearly blood test for hypothyroidism to check if his medication is at the right level and in addition to that Sophie has terrible skin allergies and requires special food and medication for her itching.  The price of the food has gone through the roof (U.S. made), so I'm trialling her on an Australian brand I've just found and hoping it works as it is considerably less expensive.  I've been assured it will solve many of her problems, so fingers are crossed.

On one of the rare occasions I was up early recently, we had a magnificent sunrise and although I can't see the horizon because we are surrounded by trees I was still able to enjoy the colours.

I hope wherever you are, all is well with you and yours.  Thank you for taking the time to read my post and follow my blog.  

Anne xx

A yummy treat

Sometimes I want a sweet treat to have with my cuppa, just a little morsel that isn't necessarily chocolate.  When I came across the following recipe on a 600g packet of Trident dates, I thought I'd give them a go and they taste delicious.

Date and Almond Balls

 Ingredients:

3 cups coarsely chopped dates

3 teaspoons finely grated orange rind

2/3 cup blanched almonds, toatsted (about 120g)

1 tablespoon honey

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 cup desiccated coconut

Method:

1.  Place all ingredients, except coconut, in large bowl, mix to combine.  Using a food processor, process mixture in batches until a paste forms (small almond pieces will still be visible).  Lightly wet hands, roll mixture into balls about 1 tablespoon in size.

2.  Roll balls in coconut.  Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 30 balls.

I put the recipe into a recipe calculator and each ball has about 52 calories.

 

Anne  xx

Snippets

Here are a few snippets of what's been happening this past week.   

Hubby testing out the bee smoker in preparation for when we have hives.

  We were out to dinner with friends Saturday night and I had a salad for my main meal so I would have room for this dessert which was mango Bombe Alaska with passion fruit curd and strawberries.  It was delicious.

 

Bungee soaking up the sun.  He's surrounded by birthday decorations waiting to be recycled and passed onto a friend of Genevieve's who will use them for her 21st later in the year.  Gotta love recycling.

My Sophie is getting old and is starting to have trouble with her back legs.  She's allowed to sleep on the sofa ONLY at night after it's covered with an old sheet.

 

Making muesli.  We go through this very quickly as hubby has a big bowl for breakfast every morning.

 Testing a recipe mix for a friend who is starting up her own business selling organic pre-mix baking packs. The one trialed below was Blondies.  First attempt was not so good, second attempt with new instructions, perfect and delicious.

I'm heading off to Western Australia again on Sunday to spend two weeks with Mum and to catch up all things farming, so my next post will be from there.

Anne xx

Good old fashioned Jubilee Twist

The biscuit and cake tin are always asking to be filled and yesterday I decided to make Jubilee Twist.  I had some recently at my sister's home and thought why not make this old fashioned favourite.  Mum made them when we were kids and still makes them, they're delicious.   

JUBILEE TWIST

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1 - 2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup currants (I used mixed dried fruit)

1 tablespoon butter

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

a little lemon peel (my lemon peel was in the mixed fruit)

 

Method:

Rub butter into the flour, add all dry ingredients, then the egg and milk.  Roll out into two long rounds and twist one around the other.  Bake 20 minutes.  Boil 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon water for 3 minutes and put on twist while hot.  Sprinkle with coconut.

Recipe from The C.W.A. Cookery Book and Household Hints, 38th Edition.

I would recommend doubling the recipe when you make this as it doesn't last long.   However I wouldn't recommend you make a mistake with the quantities like me and end up making four instead of the two I'd originally planned.  It was a happy mistake though as I iced two for our family, another I gave to our friend who helped with the studio construction and one went into the freezer.

  I prefer icing made with a little water and a dash of vanilla essence rather than the syrup on my twists.  My oven is fan forced and I bake the twists at 180C for about 25 minutes as a like a crusty outside.

In other ramblings totally unrelated to baking, I decided yesterday I would learn the military alphabet as I recently had an experience trying to spell something over the phone and was struggling with appropriate words i.e. U for what......umbrella?!!  Whereas had I know the military alphabet I would have said U for uniform.  How much better does that sound!  So I've been practicing my new alphabet, in the shower, hanging out the washing, while drinking my morning latte.  So here goes without cheating......

Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliette, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu.

I'm trying to teach this old dog new tricks!  :)

Anne xx

A little baking, animal watching and creativity

I love it when I find a super easy recipe that's delicious.  I made this Easy Lemon Slice yesterday and it's delicious with a cuppa.  The recipe can be found here.  I would add a little more lemon juice to the icing as it's quite stiff.

 

I came across this DVD in the local library "The Ocean's Supermum", a natural history documentary about the Australian sea lion.  It was beautiful and I can tell you, sea lion pups are incredibly cute.

In rather disheartening news, our protest about the McDonalds

development in Tecoma appears to have failed.  During the past week about 50 police were deployed one morning at 4a.m. to secure the site and stop any protesters entering.  The police presence was in addition to security working on behalf of McDonalds.  There is nothing more distressing and intimidating than to see police dressed in semi riot gear.  For goodness sake, what were they expecting.  We are a peaceful community protesting a development by a multinational foreign corporation taking over our beautiful part of the world.   Buildings standing in the way of the development have since been demolished. 

On going for my daily walk with Sophie I discoverd the footpath I usually walk on along Burwood highway was/is closed to pedestrians.  Police and security staff were positioned along the footpath and I was told it was closed for safety reasons.  I think not.  If it was that dangerous, nobody would have been standing there at all, more rigid barriers would have been put in place rather than the thin timber fencing that is currently in use.  To continue my usual route I had to cross two roads with pedestrian lights which is safe.  I then had to walk on the other side of Burwood highway and cross over this busy road without the safety of pedestrian lights.  I was assured by the security guard I would be assisted across the road by the police but no such help was forth coming.  High school and primary school students use this footpath as a safe way to walk home.  I saw today that the footpath has now been totally closed off and boarded over.

We feel totally gutted as a community, we feel sick and disappointed that the only voice that is heard anymore is the one that has the money.  We feel betrayed, bullied and intimidated, our faith in democracy challenged.  Thank you to each and everyone of you who has taken an interest in this story and supported our cause.  Thank you for helping shout out loud that we don't like or agree with what is/has been done.

In bid to calm my distress after my walk, I decided a little creativity was in order.  Over the past year or so I've been collecting free postcards from the local library which advertise all manner of things from cultural performance, education, awareness of social issues and the work of artists.  I based these collage pages loosely on colour themes.

I intend hanging these in a new creative space coming soon to our backyard.  :)

In other creative endeavors, I've entered the world of journaling, a totally new way of creative expression for me and I love it.  There are no rules, even better.  I've started by cutting out images from magazines and going from there.  The brain storming that was going on while doing this was so much fun.  Here are two pages I've completed, I think.

The two pages look better seen together.  I know these first two are quite basic but as I learn more about this genre and learn new techniques, I'm sure they will become more interesting.

The pages currently being worked on.

 

 This is my preferred page so far.  I've lots more work to do on these two pages incorporating stamped and hand drawn images.  I used light water colour washes on the pages before adding other elements.  The flowers in the vase above are an image from a magazine and I've used a black fine line pen to highlight different areas.  It's always a big risk to put your artwork out there.  I hope I haven't bored you all to tears.

 Melbourne is currently experiencing it's worst winters day this year with rain and lots of it, cold and extreme wind, the type that turns you umbrella inside out.  Wishing you all a lovely weekend and better weather than what we are having today.

Anne  xx