All Food is Good Food

All Food is Good Food - this is the message in our house.  There are no 'bad foods'.  This approach is recommended by almost all dieticians and child rearing experts these days, to help avoid food issues later in life, and to prevent attributing values to food.  Since I love food - all of it! - this comes naturally to me.  Someone asked me recently, "but how about all that processed crap?  Don't you want Tabitha to avoid that?"  My answer is, yes, of course, but I don't consider that sort of thing to be 'food'.  It's more like a food-like-processed-product.  Sure, I eat weird processed food from time to time, but I don't consider it to be proper food.  So perhaps the statement should be, All Real Food is Good Food.

Here is roughly 4kg of American-style, slow smoked barbeque meat.  Pork ribs, lamb ribs, pulled pork, pastrami, pulled chicken, pulled brisket, chicken wings, pickles.  We also had hand-cut chips (none for Tabitha, she has still never eaten a chip, she doesn't know they exist for now), beef chili and coleslaw.  All the meat rests on slices of thick bread, which soak up the delicious, homemade barbeque sauce.  We get out BBQ from Big Boy BBQ in Caulfield South.  I thoroughly recommend the place - the owner imported a smoker from the US after becoming frustrated that he couldn't get good BBQ in Australia.  Having eaten a lot of BBQ in the States, I can tell you that this comes pretty close.

As with all things, moderation.  A mountain of BBQ is fine for dinner occasionally - a trip to the Farmers' Market helps swing the pendulum back.  I needed my enormous cane washing basket to haul up all my purchases from the car:

2kg peaches, 2kg nectarines, 2kg apricots, a bunch of skinny new leeks, a bunch of chard, baby colourful heirloom carrots, larger purple heirloom carrots, a few fun types of zucchini, coriander, 3 dozen eggs, 2 litres of raw milk, 16 veggieburgers.  Also in the fridge, some bacon and pork.  Later in the day, a trip to another market, bringing home 2 butternut pumpkins, apples, potatoes, onions, more carrots, celery, lamb chops, 2 whole chooks, organic mince and steaks, 3 avocados, some rockling fillets and assorted capsicum/lemons/cucumber/sweet potato/ginger/garlic etc.

Add to the above, a trip to the IGA for yoghurt, butter, cheese, chickpeas, matzo meal, bread, oatmeal, and we have a full week's worth of groceries.  It's rare that I do a full week's load of groceries in a single day, so it was quite fascinating, to me, to see what our weekly diet includes!  No doubt, I will need to buy something or the other during the week, and the above is supplemented by all the ordinary cupboard supplies and what is in the garden.

I have found that the only way to keep stone fruit from going mouldy while it ripens, is to sit them out on the bench, not touching any other pieces of fruit.  So I have my 'army of fruit', neatly marching along the bench.  As soon as a piece of stone fruit is ripe (by touch and suddenly smelling strongly gorgeous), I put it in a tupperware container in the fridge, taking out what I need for the next day, the night prior.  This is what the stonefruit-selling lady at the market tells me, and it seems to work.

 Since I lugged home two whole butternut pumpkins (on sale and looking irresistible), I made a double batch of pumpkin soup.  Now, pumpkin soup, like bolognaise, seems to be the sort of food where everyone considers their own (or their mother's/father's/grandmother's) to be The Best Recipe.  I would like to throw this recipe into the ring - it is from my father, and includes cumin.  You must roast the pumpkin pieces first for the best flavour.

Roast Pumpkin Soup 

(large batch, makes 3.5 litres or so)

2.5kg of peeled, chopped butternut pumpkin

2 large brown onions, diced

4 teaspoons ground cumin

2 large carrots, peeled and sliced

2 celery sticks, sliced

2 litres of vegetable stock (I use Massel cubes)

Toss the pumpkin in olive oil, then roast at 180 degrees for around 40 minutes, or until softened and lightly browned at the edges.

In a very large saucepan, cook the onion in a little olive oil until just softened, then add the cumin and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.

Add the carrots and celery, and cook for a further 3 minutes stirring.

Add the roasted pumpkin and stock, then bring to boil.  Reduce to simmer, and simmer for around 40 minutes, half covered, or until the carrots are cooked.

Allow to cool a little, then either blend in a blender or food processor (in batches) or use a wand immersion blender.  A standing blender will get it the smoothest.

Season to taste with salt and a decent amount of pepper.

Serve with a big dollop of natural yoghurt or sour cream, and some chopped parsley or coriander.

This soup freezes well.  It's quite thick - if you want a thinner soup, simply add a little more vegetable stock.  If you don't have a very large saucepan, just make a half batch.

Here is a bowl with natural yoghurt and coriander.  It's not super-smooth, as I blended it in the food processor.  It is so filling!

The old mini-garden is going quite well.  I thought that everything was winding down, as the plants got hit with some major heat and not much water for a week or so, but a good water and feed seems to have given everything a second wind.

The tomato plants (the foliage) is looking a bit worse for wear, but they are nonetheless producing masses of lovely tomatoes:

My thyme and parsley are bushy, despite major harvests of late:

I am shocked by how well the basil is going.  Just two weeks ago, I completely stripped the plants.  Bare.  Just stalks (for making pesto, you remember?).  Anyway, with a good feed and some sunshine, they are looking fuller and healthier than ever.  Something tells me I'll me making more pesto soon...

My little jewel strawberry plant (not sure what variety, the berries are very small but amazingly sweet) has come back from the near-death, and is covered with a dozen or so pretty pink flowers and even more new strawberries:

Speaking of pretty flowers - my awe will never tire for the spectacular passionfruit flowers.  What a wonderful plant to have in the garden.  Masses of these at the moment:

And thankfully, a reasonable number of these (despite The Daddy hacking the vine back to a third of its size, because it was threatening to pull down the fence):

Here it is, post-haircut, along the back fence:

Aren't toddlers hilarious?  They are always up to something, and guaranteed to make you laugh a hundred times a day.  Here is Tabitha, in a t-shirt and nothing else, with her baby 'swaddled', finishing up her game of golf in the yard:

While we are lucky to have plenty of pretty flowers in the garden (snapdragons, petunias, star jasmine and strawberry and passionfruit flowers) I tend to buy-in my house flowers.  I dream of one day having a large enough garden to grow my own flowers for cutting.  In the meantime, I put freesias or jonquils in the bathroom, white lisianthus in the living room,  peonies in the bedrooms, herbs in the kitchen, and roses in the living room.  

Because roses are expensive, I get more bang for my buck by buying very short-stemmed roses, then trimming them down to around 10cm, and popping just 4-5 each in little jam jars.  I can get a few lovely little jars of roses this way, from a single bunch.  It's best to buy varieties which are very full, because as they open out, you might find you can get away with only 3 per jar, transferring the extras to yet more jars.  If you change the water every day or two, and add a dash of small bleach to the water, you can easily get a week or so from the roses.  A few jars of roses, grouped together, look so pretty.  I save any attractive jars - in particular, from my Rose's Breakfast Marmalade.

Do you have any other flower arranging tips for me?  I'm always looking for ways to display flowers that don't cost a fortune!

The Nursery

Tabitha had a very basic nursery - she did not, in fact, sleep in her 'nursery' even once for the first seven months, now she flitters between her nursery and our bed.

These photos were taken when I was first setting it up.  It looks much the same now, however there are more 'grown-up' clothes in the wardrobe, and there is a very large and gorgeous (if a little creepy) white rabbit lamp - this one.

We painted her room pale pink - we trooped down to the paint store, stocked up on swatches, bought little test pots and painted numerous patches of pink all over the walls.  Ultimately, we settled on Nursery Pink (half strength).  Isn't that terribly anticlimactic?  But it was truly the nicest pink - not too salmon, not too sickly.  We kept the ceiling and wooden trims white (White Watsonia), and to avoid the whole room looking like a bag of marshmallows, I chose very dark Walnut wood furniture, and accent accessories in shades of grey.

Here is Tabitha's cot - the Boori Paddington, in Walnut.  I loved some of the more modern ones, such as the Stokke, but I felt that a more classic style worked for our home.  I also think the Boori will fit a much longer toddler than the Stokke - and we are tall-ish people.

Here is Tabitha's mobile - sorry, the lighting is really low!  There are a number of heavy canvas butterflies, in pink, grey floral ballerina print, and 1950s newsprint:

We got a large bookshelf / room divider from Ikea - this is brilliant in a nursery because it holds so much, and so many different types of things - there are books, tubs at the bottom (with puzzles, toys, breastpump and equipment, bibs and hats, and nappies), plus shelves for displaying objects, and there is a small pink case on one of the shelves with her first-aid kit, and a nice big blue Japanese bowl with all of her little rolled-up socks.  There is also a small stereo on one of the shelves, with some great baby music such as Music for Dreaming.  Below, there are close-ups of two of the shelves - one with a pretty little Tiffany 'bunny bank' which my dad brought her back from New York, with two rattles, and one shelf full of little toys:

The change-table is also Boori, walnut to match the cot.  I decided to get a style which is basically a regular chest of drawers, with a change-mat on top.  Most change-tables are quite open underneath, which I feel limits their usefulness - once the baby is moving around a bit (Tabby was well and truly rolling by 4 months), change-tables are pretty useless, and it's easier to change them on a bed or the ground.  Whereas a chest of drawers will remain necessary for years to come.

Actually, we never once used this change-table for changing a nappy.  That's right, never.  Because she slept in our room, we just changed her on our bed!  We kept - and still keep - all of her nappy equipment in a shelf by the bed.  So I sure am glad we didn't shell out for a dedicated change-table...

Everyone kept telling me how important it was to have a good feeding chair.  I hauled my enormous pregnant self around countless furniture stores, climbing in and out of chairs.  Ultimately, the most comfortable, roomy (for a wriggling older baby) and easy to clean chair was from Ikea - the Ektorp.  It truly is an exceptionally comfy chair - in the final weeks of the pregnancy, I would sit in it and never want to get out!

Also on the chair, below, you will see my Milkbar breastfeeding pillow.  This was a total blessing during the early couple of months - I didn't feed without it.  Just the right height, firmness, and removable cover for frequent washing (Tabby was quite the spewer in those early weeks!)

While the Milkbar got a real workout, the chair - like the changetable - got absolutely NO use until recently.  Because Tabitha was either in our bed, or in her little Moses basket next to the bed, overnight I always fed her sitting up in bed.  During the day, I preferred to feed her in the living room on the sofa, rather than tucked away in the nursery.  Lately, I have started to use it - the perfect size for cuddling up with Tabitha and reading stories, and when she sleeps in the nursery, I feed her overnight sitting in the chair.  It is very comfortable - in fact, last night, I went to feed her at around 1:30am, and fell asleep holding her curled up in the chair for nearly an hour!  When I woke up, she was still latched on and gently sucking in her sleep, too cute...

Because we got a plain white chair, I bought a throw rug and some attractive pink, silver and beige cushions.  Below, you can see that the cats certainly like the chair:

We got the wardrobes redone in both bedrooms - we cut it very fine, with the final touches finished just a week before Tabitha was due (though she didn't arrive for a further three weeks).  All of the wardrobes in the nursery are split horizontally, so that I can hang little baby things on the top and bottom.  Below you can see all of her tiny newborn nightgowns, onesies and coats, from 0000 size on the left, to 0 size on the right.  She wore the 0000 sizes for about 3-4 weeks, then the 000 size until she was about 4 months old, the 00 size until around 6 months old, and now she is 0 and 1 sizes.

Even now, I find sitting in Tabitha's nursery to be incredibly calming and serene.  The colours are muted, there is plenty of filtered daylight, and the floor-to-ceiling glass French doors look out to the garden.  It is my favourite room of the house to just sit and read in!  I have seen some really gorgeous nurseries filled with bright colours, but I personally think that muted tones are conducive to relaxing and sleeping.

Here are the doors - the glass panel off to the side overlooks the garden.  You can see baby Possum peering out to the decking:

Food + Gifts

For many, the two most important elements of Christmas are food and gifts (sure, there are those who would argue for religion and family...).

At any rate, they are my favourite elements.  I have a love/hate relationship with gifts and wrapping.  On the one hand, I find it frustrating buying for people who I don't know all that well - I want to choose something that they will love, but know that I will inevitably fall short.  On the other hand, finding the perfect gift for someone gives me such a high, and I remain excited until I can present the gift.  On the one hand, I despise hours spent bending over the coffee table cutting and sticking and folding paper and ribbons.  On the other hand, I am always so thrilled to see the beautifully presented gifts laid out under the tree.

This year, I used paper in tones of a very pleasing deep red and a soft taupe, as well as a gold and taupe.  I used simple kitchen string on the red paper (then got grumpy this morning when I realised I was out of kitchen string for the pudding!).  I also found these very cute little wooden angels which clip onto the string:

These are large cardboard flowers which I think are very cute:

Here is Tabitha's stocking, with a little woolen lamb peeking out the top!

This is always a nice thing to find hanging in a Christmas tree:

I sourced these incredibly cute glitter- trimmed postcards to use as Christmas cards:

This is my favourite - I bought a few of this one!

Here are some of the gifts spread beneath the tree:

Such a nice scene!

When it comes to food, it is much more about the love than the hate!  Sure, it is tiresome peeling 16 potatoes, making several litres of custard.  But the rewards are payment tenfold!  The reason I like hosting Christmas (or in this years' case, Christmas Eve) is because I am (admittedly) a little fussy.  I don't see the point of roasting potatoes if they aren't going to be waxy (Desiree or Patrone for preference) and ideally, generously coated in goose or duck fat.  A roasted floury spud like a Kennebec makes me a little sad.  At any rate, it is SO very easy to do these simple, Christmas foods brilliantly, so there is really no excuse for bad Christmas Dinner!  Eek.  Now I think I see why my mother and sister call me The Boss of Christmas.

Only purchased a 3.5kg half ham this year (nice free range Australian pork of course).  I reasoned that I was only hosting eight guests for lunch, two of whom do not eat pork.  However it doesn't look nearly as nice as a full ham, so next year I will certainly be ordering a full ham.  Also did turkey with two stuffings - cranberry and chestnut, and sage and apple.  Turkey gravy.  Cranberry sauce.

Here is the ham with its bone protected by foil, its skin peeled back, and the fat scored and studded with cloves.

Here is the money shot:

My glaze includes redcurrant conserve, maple syrup, Dijon mustard, brown sugar and fresh orange juice.

Here is my large ramekin of rejected, misshapen cloves:

Here is the glazed ham.  I cannot describe how good it smells:

Here are the potatoes - cut into boats, my favourite roasting cut (in half lengthways, and in half lengthways again) covered in pink salt and rosemary from the garden, ready to be doused with melted duck fat:

I cut the butternut pumpkin into pieces with the skin left on one side - this side rests against the bottom of the tin, preventing the bottoms of the pieces from burning.

Golden shallots and Australian garlic.  I also did parsnips.

Slices of ham.  Lots of leftovers, thankfully!

Creme Anglaise, speckled with delicious Madagascan vanilla bean seeds:

The drink of choice for the males today:

The pudding - this one is around 3.5kg.  Served 10 with ample leftovers.

These are some of my favourite decorations from the tree this year:

Tomorrow morning, my parents and sister are coming over to open presents (Santa will be delivering all the gifts to our house, apparently).  They are bringing fresh croissants, which we will eat with leftover glazed ham and some nice Gruyere.