Food... For a change...

If you cook a slow roasted lamb shoulder, you can make another fabulous meal out of the leftovers.  Piles of cold roast lamb, green tomato pickles, mustards, sharp cheddar, bread and butter, some re-heated parsley potatoes, and some steamed green beans.  Bottle of Shiraz optional.

Our dinner guest, when warned we were just having 'leftovers', commented that the cold leftover version of the lamb, with the cheese and pickles, is possibly even better than the original hot version.  I won't argue with that - particularly on a warm evening!

On Saturday morning, I made an enormous amount of beef stew to freeze.  I like to do this around once a month - it makes eight servings, which means we can eat it for dinner once a week for a month, then I make another batch.  I am a haphazard sort of cook - see below, I wanted to add some beef stock, I had some in the freezer, so I just sort of smashed it up and sat the frozen pieces on top of the stew before I put it in the oven.  Easier than bothering to defrost it, and did no harm.  Yes, I am that lazy...

My father comes over most Saturdays - The Daddy works on Saturdays, my mother works on Saturdays (she has a ballet school), my sister does ballet classes on Saturdays.  Since I can remember, since I was very small, Saturdays have always been a day that my dad and I spend together - when I was young, he'd take me to spend the day with my horse.  These days, we hang out at home, go for a walk, do some cooking, eating, and play with Tabitha.  She adores her grandpa 'Gra'!

Dad made a pit stop on the way at Le Croissant, an excellent French bakery which is, conveniently, roughly half way between our house and my parents'.  He brought with him croissants, almond croissants, a baguette and some ficelles, a bread and butter pudding made from croissants, and some blueberry jam.  He also picked up some Camembert.

Yesterday evening, I went out for dinner and a movie with my best friend, Amy.  We went to one of my favourite restaurants, David's, which I haven't been to (except for lunch) since I was around eight months pregnant.

We had Peking duck - so, so good:

Really excellent fried rice:

Amy had something with beef.  I'm not sure what it was, but the beef was melt-in-your-mouth tender:

The whole reason for going to David's, for me, is their Mock Crab.  It is an unusual regional dish, basically sliced scallop stir-fried in egg white.  That is a very simplistic explanation.  It is like eating clouds,  delicious, scallopy clouds.  It also has black vinegar to pour over it.  It is making my mouth water to think about it - I first learnt of David's Mock Crab from John Lethlean, a Melbourne food writer, and it quickly became my favourite dish.  I could certainly eat it every week.

Here it is - it is not, it must be said, a pretty dish:

Covered in vinegar goodness:

Here is my date for the evening - we drank 2008 Chardonnay from Freycinet Vineyards in Tasmania, one of my favourite wineries in the country:

We then scurried off to see Harry Potter in 3D at the Jam Factory.  The movie was good, and I was proud of myself for staying awake through it, until nearly 11pm, even after two glasses of wine.

Oh - and I must mention, although I am afraid of jinxing myself, that Tabitha has been sleeping much, much better over the last week.  Almost every night, she has only woken twice for a feed!  So she's been going to bed at 7pm, then wakes for a feed at around 1am and 5/6am, then wakes for the day between 7 and 8am.  Amazing!!  Hopefully this continues.

What have I done differently to see this improvement?  A few things...

a) Under suggestion from my ABA counsellor, I stopped feeding her just before putting her to bed.  So, instead of feeding her in her room, then putting her straight to bed, I now feed her in the living room around 30 - 45 minutes before bed, then put her down later.  This breaks the 'feed sleep' association, so when they wake up they don't necessarily need a feed to get back to sleep.  Instead, I notice that she wakes, then makes a few noises, or cries out once, then goes right back to sleep on her own.

b) Now that she is walking - easily covering a few metres or more at a time - she seems to tire herself out a little more.

c) I decided that she might be a little cold at night - now she's past the first year, the high SIDS risk year, I felt comfortable dressing her a little more warmly.  I've added another long sleeve layer each night, and it seemed to make a difference.  I think she was possibly waking, and unable to get back to sleep because she was a little chilly.

d) She is certainly eating more, all of a sudden, over the past week or so.  She now eats, for example (taken from yesterday):

• one weetbix with milk, plus some yoghurt, plus a cube of melon, plus a one inch x two inch piece of toast with almond spread for breakfast;
• Some sultanas and half a pumpkin muffin at around 10am;
• a cheese and pickles sandwich, plus some apple, for lunch at 11:30am;
• Some baked beans (maybe eight teaspoons) at around 3pm;
• Some fruit at around 5pm;
• Some lentil soup (around ten teaspoons), some yoghurt and a few bits of steamed veggies for dinner at around 6pm.

I'm not sure which of the above (maybe all, maybe none) have contributed to her improved sleeping, but she is also sleeping more during the day (often 2 - 3 hours for her midday nap).  We certainly haven't done anything harsh, she has really made these improvements on her own, and I am thrilled!  I can completely cope with a couple of night wakings.  Like I said, hopefully this pattern continues...

Heatwave. Sort of.

The weather here has been record-breakingly warm for early August.  22 degrees, 17 degrees overnight.  The sun has been shining, blue skies, and that intoxicating smell of early Spring - an aroma of flowers, warmth and a nice breeze.

Tabitha and I met a friend yesterday and walked around South Yarra in the sunshine.  We visited a gorgeous little new cake shop, sorry "Sweet Studio", called Burch and Purchese (B&P) on Chapel Street, near the corner of Toorak Road.  I believe that B&P has appeared on Masterchef at some point?

It is a fabulous little shop - the kitchens are open, allowing you to watch the chefs creating absolute masterpieces, and you can buy all sorts of divine things - fluffy meringues, hand-made ice creams, packets and jars of sweets and chocolates, and lots of petite cakes.

Here is the 'ingredient wall', shelves groaning with hundreds of jars of obscure ingredients:

The female staff wear very sweet little pink frilly aprons:

The miniature cakes are incredible - really interesting, lots of unusual ingredients and techniques:

The open kitchen:

We bought ice creams - coated in caramelised white chocolate, with loads of macadamia praline on the outside.  They were really, really good - although we both felt that $8 was a big ask for an ice cream on a stick...

Back home, Tabitha and I spent the afternoon in the back yard - I hung out washing and read a magazine, while she pottered around and played with soil and leaves.  And practiced her walking!  Yes, that's right, she can walk.  Although - the operative word here is 'can'.  She generally chooses not to, preferring to crawl (faster!) or walk while holding onto my fingers (also faster!).

She can comfortably take eight or maybe a dozen steps, but rarely does so.  However I did manage to take a few sneaky photos of her in action...

Here she is with one hand still on the retaining wall.  Considering walking.  How cute are those chubby thighs poking out of her nappy (ivory Itti Bitti d'Lish All-In-One)?

Okay, standing up, testing out my balance...

Oh but mumma, why don't you just come to me?!

Fine, I'll walk to you - if I must!

More walking - how funny is she, lifting up her little feet so high, more marching than walking:

Back to pottering around - scrunching leaves in the garden bed.  You will notice she is up on her tip-toes.  Awwwww:

Hey, what was that noise behind me?!

SMILE - it was my cats!

The silly, jumpy one:

And the clever, dozing one:

We don't really use the outdoor area during winter, so it falls into a state of semi-wildness.  Here is a capsicum plant that has sprouted up out of capsicum seeds from the worm farm compost!

The chili plants are very hardy, and keep on producing right through winter:

Despite the warm weather, I made slow-roasted lamb shoulder with parsley potatoes and delicious caper gravy for dinner last night.  Even though it is seemingly a cold-weather dish, it has a few things going for it in warmer weather:  

a)  It's a good lazy dish - minimal prep, then put it in the oven at 2pm, and it will be ready at 6pm without any further effort on your part, leaving you free to go for a walk in the sun, or spend the afternoon in the park.  All you need to do is boil the potatoes and quickly do the gravy at the end!   

b) You get mountains of leftover cold lamb and potatoes - so dinner tonight, while the weather is still warm, will be cold roast lamb, cold buttered parsley potatoes, great white bread, some sharp cheese, and plenty of green tomato pickles.

I want to point out, too - even if you are not particularly fond of capers (I am not), still give this gravy a shot.  The capers and red wine vinegar (and mint if you use it - sometimes I do, sometimes I don't) really cut through the fattiness of the lamb shoulder.  The capers are finely chopped, so all they do is add a great salty, tart and slightly astringent note to the gravy.  It works.

Wills and Packed Lunches

This morning, Tabitha went off to occassional care for a couple of hours while The Daddy and I went to the solicitor and had up-to-date Wills prepared.  

These things become so much more important once there are children in the mix - who will care for them, who will look after their money etc.  We've left ten per cent of everything to the brilliant Borneo Orangutan Survival charity - ever since I was small, I said that I would leave money for the orangutans.  I adore them more than I could possibly express - in fact, I can barely think of orangutans without getting teary...  

I also had to write up a list of my jewellery, bags, scarves etc. to allocate who would recieve what - with my mother, sister, best friend and daughter all being female, it wasn't an easy list to write.

Anyway - all done now.  Took less than a couple of hours, now it is all signed, sealed and safely stored.  Much piece of mind.  I recommend you arrange to do the same, if your Wills are not up-to-date!

For occasional care, I have to send along pre-prepared fruit and a sandwich, with a drink bottle of water.  It is always a fluster to get her food ready, get her dressed, get myself ready, and out the door by 8:45am, considering she generally gets up at around 8am in the mornings.  I sort of dread school - the starts are earlier, the required 'kit' and food items more extensive.

Here is a typical lunch for Tabitha, packed into her little containers (which have gorgeous little animals on the lids).

Fruit - two segments of orange (I found these brilliant easy-peel, sweet oranges at the market, which are just like giant mandarins), two pieces of watermelon, and a slice of apple:

Avocado sandwich on quinoa mixed grain bread:

When I brought her home in time for her nap, she also had some cheese and a few sultanas.

It is truly the most glorious day out there - 22 degrees and sunny, which is amazing for early August.  Tabitha and I have big plans for the afternoon - go for a stroll around South Yarra with my friend Amy and have a late lunch, then go to play at the park for the rest of the afternoon.

Pork chops, cream and MAPLE!

Tonight for dinner, I made THESE pork chops, but served them on rocket, and I used maple syrup in place of honey.  I figured that maple syrup goes beautifully with pork (and ham), and the slight smokeyness worked well with the mustard and richness of the cream.  I will certainly make it with the maple again!

Not only is it a delicious meal, it is so quick to cook - from beginning to end, less than seven minutes, including getting everything out and putting it away.  Rinse your rocket while the pork is cooking.  Bang out the pork well so that it only needs a couple of minutes on each side.  Rest the pork under foil while you do the sauce.

You will probably have leftover sauce in the pan.  Do not despair - simply mop up with bread.  You know you want to...

Carbonara

The Daddy stopped by home today to have lunch with me - what a nice surprise!  Tabitha was already down for her nap, but I made some carbonara for us two.

Of course, true carbonara does not contain any cream.  True carbonara gets its luscious creamy quality from parmigiano reggiano and eggs.  

Carbonara

To make carbonara for two (large serves, naturally), you need 3 - 5 rashers of best quality free range streaky bacon (depending on the size, mine are around 20cm long pieces, I use 5 of them), along with one egg and three yolks (you can use two eggs if you prefer, instead), one good cup of finely grated parmigiano reggiano, and some freshly ground black pepper.  You also need 260g dried penne or other pasta.

Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water (around 4 litres of water and 2 heaped tablespoons of coarse salt).

Meanwhile, fry the bacon (chopped into 1 inch strips) in a fairly hot frypan.  Do not add any fat - the bacon fat will render out, leaving you with a good amount of hot dripping!  Cook the bacon until lightly crisped in places.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain and return to the cooking pot (not over heat any more).  Add the bacon and its grease, and stir through.  Add the cheese, and stir through to melt.  Add the eggs, lightly beaten, a little at a time, stirring well.  The residual heat from the pasta will gently cook the eggs, resulting in a creamy, thickened sauce.

Stir through some freshly ground black pepper (sometimes I use freshly ground nutmeg, which definitely works) and divide between two bowls.

Mis en plas - pasta, grated parmigiano reggiano, salt for pasta water, bacon, eggs.  This cooks so quickly - really, it's hardly cooking - that it makes sense to have everything ready to go at the start:

 Bacon cut into pieces - this is Fernleigh Farms bacon, which I have raved about here many times before.  I buy loads of it at the farmers' market, then freeze it in little bags of 5 rashers, which is just the right amount for carbonara or to have with French toast or pancakes at breakfast.

The bacon needs to cook until it is just starting to get crispy around the edges, for maximum flavour.  Putting it into a cold pan, then heating to medium/high heat until done, seems to work for me - the lower heat as it heats up gently cooks it and renders out the fat, then the high heat at the end does the crisping part:

Glorious, delicious hot dripping.  If you are so inclined, you can pour off a couple of tablespoons into a clean small dish, to cool and eat spread on toast later.  Dripping is a love-or-loathe thing though, I concede, so I won't be offended if you turn up your nose at this idea.

Tumbled out into a large bowl.  Oops I forgot the pepper...

Ahh that's better:

Perfect with a glass of wine - the cheese, egg and bacon call for something relatively full-bodied, so either a heavier white or a light to medium red seems to work.  Of course, Champagne works too - I am of the opinion that Champagne sort of goes with everything...

New Shoes and Amy's Birthday

One of my favourite children's shoe shops, in Maling Road, Canterbury, was having a really great sale last week.  I picked up a pair of Spanish leather shoes for Tabitha at 50 per cent discount - I favour Spanish shoes for myself, and these seemed to have the same high quality.  She is nearly grown out of her current shoes - stepping up to a giant size 20! - so new shoes are on the shopping list at the moment.

They are a very cheerful shade of pink:

Importantly, they have a buckle - now that she can remove her own shoes with velcro or press studs, I am on the look out for buckle shoes.  Otherwise she removes them every time she is in the car or pram, and sometimes absent-mindedly drops them overboard.  The backs are also nicely padded around the ankle.  Until babies are really confident with their walking and running, it is advised to keep them in soft-sole shoes, so their food and leg muscles can develop properly, and they learn to balance best.  These shoes have a simple soft leather sole.

These are my three favourite pairs of Tabitha's shoes, so far in her thirteen months on this earth.  Left, you see her first pair - little Bobux 'pram shoes' with diamante-centred leather flowers.  In fact, I liked these so much that I bought another pair in a larger size.  Centre, you can see her little Marc Jacobs mousie shoes.  They are completely adorable, and she gets plenty of comments on them.  Right, are her new shoes.  I love them, and keep picking them up to feel their super-supple leather.

It may not be shocking to learn that one of her first words - after mum, dad, cat - was SOOZ, or shoes.  In fact, 'sooz' was also my first word when I was a baby, so it runs in the family.

Here is my little monkey eating her favourite lunch - avocado sandwich.  Accessorised with avocado smear on the chin.  I would say that Tabitha's favourite foods are avocado, fish (all sorts, including sardines, grilled salmon or white fish, tinned tuna etc), cheese, and rice pudding.

On Saturday, my best friend Amy had her birthday lunch at FOG in Prahran.  Tabitha joined our table of a dozen girls (and one honorary male friend) for a long lunch.  She was in a bit of a mood, and was quite cross that she couldn't get down and wriggle all over the floor, but overall she fared okay.

At any rate, it was nice to get together with friends and enjoy a glass of Champagne.  And when we got home in the late afternoon, I handed Tabby to The Daddy and ran myself a nice long, hot bath, by candlelight, to recover from the mild trauma of wrangling a toddler in a relatively chic restaurant!

Here is the birthday girl:

Tabby and Mumma - her hair was crazy fluffy for some reason!

Could you imagine three paler females?  This is one trio you will not spot baking at the beach this Summer.  We will be hiding in one of those sun huts.

Tabitha was handed a small digital camera, which kept her thoroughly amused for quite a while - she enjoyed peering into the screen as she moved it around, watching all the pictures.

I entreat all parents of small babies - please, take your babes out to restaurants as often as you can!  Because once they reach toddlerhood, it sure does get a little more tiresome...

A Special Visitor

Today, Tabitha and I had a visit from a very special friend - why so special, you ask?  Because Miss Kitty-Cat has a baby in her belly!  So we had 1.5 visitors for the price of one!

In honour, I made my most sacred cake - the only one which (sorry) I will not share the recipe for on here, because it was handed on to me from my Godmother, who lives in Connecticut, and is a special family recipe of hers.  It includes walnuts and allspice and the texture is lovely, somewhere between a dense sponge and a traditional chocolate cake.

Miss Kitty-Cat brought us a most fabulous gift - macarons from La Belle Miette, the new Hot Kid on The Block in macarons.

Wow.  Not only are they spectacularly beautiful, they are also just divine to eat - crisp, chewy, so much flavour.

Personally, I think that a jewel-like box of macarons is almost as good as an actual box of jewels.

Chocolate Ripple Cake and Crochet

Near my house is one of my favourite cafes in Melbourne, Porgie and Mr Jones.  Their food is truly divine - worth travelling for, especially their breakfasts, such as the decadent toasted banana bread with creme fraiche, berry compote and pistachios.

Sometimes, after dropping my little sister at school, my mother brings me a McPorgie for breakfast.  A McPorgie is a toasted English muffin (from an excellent local artisan bakery) with Gruyere, free range thick-cut ham and some herbs.  It is a good way to start the day.

I have four friends who are due to have babies towards the end of the year.  I tell you, I am super-busy with wool craft.  Knitting and crochet - it is nice to have at least one project of each on the go, because the movements required are different, so you can have a break and switch to the other if your hands are getting fatigued.

Here is something I am working on for one of the babies - I can only show you a snippet, in case the recipient looks at the blog!  Three of the babies who are arriving are girls, and one is 'unknown' at this point.

I had some cream to use up the other night, so I made a chocolate ripple cake.  For any overseas readers, this is an Aussie Classic, similar in principle to many 'icebox pies' of the US, in that it involves softening cookies in the refrigerator.  Chocolate ripple biscuits are fairly rich, dark and crispy cookies.  

You sandwich them together with whipped cream (whip 500ml thickened cream with a tablespoon of vanilla caster sugar or a tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla), cover the whole lot in more cream, and then chill overnight (or for at least six hours).  You can then decorate with a dusting of cocoa, some crumbled 'Flake' chocolate bar or some shaved chocolate.  Probably the Flake is the most authentic Aussie Backyard BBQ method.

Note:  Always cover the log with far more cream than you think it needs - because overnight, the biscuits really soak up the cream, so if you don't have a terribly thick covering, you will find brown parts of biscuit soaking through, ruining the pristine effect:

Have you seen the episode of The Simpsons, where Marge had decorated a beautiful cake for a special occasion?  Homer comes in and starts attacking it, picking off the icing letters and dipping his fingers in the frosting.  Marge exclaims, "Homer, no!  I made you a cake to ruin, it's over there!"  This happens in our house - see below, the mini chocolate ripple cake for The Daddy to pick at:

Here you go - this is the cake in the morning.  No nasty brown bits poking through:

To serve, slice the cake on an angle, so you get a striped effect.

Delicious.  And might I say - this is excellent for breakfast, though you didn't hear it from me...