Bendigo, Blondies and Basil

I haven't been blogging much lately - I am working on a pretty exciting new project, which is taking up a bit of time, and hopefully I will be able to reveal more later next month!


We escaped to Bendigo for the long weekend, visiting dear family friends on their beautiful property.  My parents and sister came to, and we all had the most relaxing few days.  We played with the animals (horses, cats, dogs, chooks, guinea fowl!), we swam, ate, drank, toasted marshmallows on their outdoor fireplace, and watched some spectacular sunsets over the bushland.  I have posted photos of their lovely property before, HERE - there are also some very sweet photos of Tabitha with the chooks.


Tabitha adores their larges dog, an ever-patient golden retriever, Jem:

Jem is licking her tummy!

It always makes me laugh that chooks will all crowd in and lay their eggs in the same nesting box, instead of using the others on offer:

Back home, made a delicious and relatively healthy dark chocolate and rolled oat Blondie (recipe HERE):

Tabitha and I are spending as much time in our little back garden as possible, as the sun puts in a fine effort despite the beginning of Autumn.  The hammock is in full sun, the basil and tomatoes are still thriving, the cats are loving the warmth.  


Here is Tabby in front of the basil:

And eating cherry tomatoes straight from the bushes:

I love her hair so much - soft and straight as cornsilk:

Eww!  Ate a stem by mistake!

One for you, Mummy!

Disturbing the napping cats:

This is a little patch of miniature violets which grow along the edge of the decking - Tabitha often picks them all for me, offering them in her chubby fists.  Melts my heart!

Enjoying a bowl of walnuts (along with a whole raw carrot, her favourite snacks).  A bit of an evil look on the face - "don't even think about eating my walnuts!"

Lovely girl, offering her beloved walnuts to Possum:

The days are long but the years are short.  Lately, I have begun to occasionally feel slightly panicky, watching this incredible little girl, where just yesterday I was watching a baby.  When I hold her at night, feeding her before bed, my heart overflows with love, and I cannot believe how perfect and warm and delicious-smelling she is.  I pat her hair while she has her milk, and her hand tangles gently in my own hair.  There is no greater moment, and I am blessed to sit here with her, like this, three or so times every day.


It seems like just weeks ago that I was cradling a tiny, soft, chubby, pink-cheeked little baby.  She is now the sweetest, most hilarious, kindest, prettiest little girl, and her constant wonder and interest in all details of life are so thrilling to me.  I desperately want to freeze time, to keep this fascinating, fascinated child, her hand in mine.  But it is not to be, so all I can do is treasure every moment.

Winter is Coming

The weather is cooling.  Lamb shoulder is back on the menu.  Rub the lamb with olive oil and some salt and pepper.  Slash the skin a few times, deeply, poke some garlic slivers in the slashes, sit the lamb in a roasting tray on top of a couple of rosemary branches.  Cover the roasting tray with tin foil, sealing well.  Crank your oven up as high as it will go, put the lamb in, immediately turn it down to 170 degrees, and leave alone for 4 hours.

Remove to a warm plate, cover, then make a gravy using the pan juices (pour off the fat), some flour, a couple of tablespoons of chopped capers, a tablespoon of red wine vinegar and some torn fresh mint.  If you want more formal instructions, I posted the recipe for the lamb and gravy HERE.

In the opposite end of the seasonal spectrum, I'm clinging to the last sighs of Summer with plenty of flowers around the house.  White roses with the strongest, most heady fragrance, lisianthus, white freesias.

The Daddy cooked!  He made an actual meal, and it was excellent.  Nachos, with a mixture of yellow and blue organic corn chips, homemade guacamole, and he fried up some onions, fresh tomatoes, and re-fried beans into a delicious, almost meaty sludge.  A bit of hot salsa, and some natural yoghurt instead of sour cream (full fat natural yoghurt - try instead of sour cream for dolloping on everything from soup to savoury pancakes to nachos, it's a winner).

In fact, writing that, I have a sudden craving for these wonderful nachos.  Perhaps I can ask him for a repeat performance on the weekend...

Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention - we sold our home.  On the weekend.  It sold under the hammer at an exciting auction, so we are most pleased!  Our new house, currently under construction, should be ready in the next few weeks or so.  Now, to prepare myself (mentally) for moving!

Playdough

Tabitha is really into playdough.

The above is an example of an understatement.

Tabitha can play with playdough for hours - unfortunately, this doesn't mean I can sneak off into the next room and put on a load of washing, oh no, Mummy is required to sit and observe the playdough fun.

Nevertheless, it has been a wonderful indoor activity lately, with all the mind-meltingly hot weather, and torrential rain (did I mention we live in Melbourne?)

I make my own playdough.  It is basically free, smells a million times better than the stinky brand name version, and is free of strange chemicals.  Homemade playdough also feels much nicer - silky, like bread dough - and you can create your own colours.  It takes less than ten minutes to make, and lasts for weeks.  Have I sold you yet?

There is an 'instant version' with boiling water, but it doesn't feel as lovely, and the cooked version - the traditional one - is still so easy.  The only 'hard' part is the final stage of the stirring, because you need to really use those arm muscles!  But it's only for a minute or two - and if you're truly a weakling, rope in a strong friend/husband/neighbour.

Playdough

In a medium saucepan, sieve together 2 cups of plain flour with 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar.

Add 1 cup of fine salt.

Stir in 2 cups of warm water and 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.  Whisk together thoroughly, until there are no more lumps (you could sieve it again if you like).

Stir over low-medium heat for several minutes with a wooden spoon, until the dough thickens and becomes playdough - the last couple of minutes, you will need to really use your arm muscles to stir!

Carefully remove (it will be hot) and knead until silky smooth, on a silicone mat or similar.  Divide into equal sections (4-6), and knead in around 6 drops of food colouring into each ball, kneading well until nicely, evenly coloured.

Remember the basics - red and yellow make orange, red (or pink) and blue make purple.  Experiment!

You can also add a few drops of lavender oil, to fragrance the playdough, during the kneading stage.

When it's done, it will look like thick mashed potatoes:

The rough ball, ready for kneading:

Silky smooth:

Ready for colouring:

Make a well in the middle of each segment, and carefully work in the food colouring:

The colour will marble in - just keep kneading until the colour is smooth and even...

Green, Blue, Purple, Pink, Orange and Yellow.  Pretty - much nicer than the colours you buy, I think!

You can store each ball wrapped in clingfilm, or you can use small jars or buy little containers for the purpose.  Try to pack the dough away after playing, and if it starts to dry out, you can knead in a few drops of water.  But it's so easy to make, you might as well just make a new batch every few weeks - and you'll find that, despite the best intentions, colours do end up getting mashed together, and you'll end up with some attractive grey/brown dough eventually.

You can buy plastic cutters, generally made by PlayDoh, but proper metal cookie cutters work best.  I have a nice collection of coloured, metal cutters which I use for cookies - stars, hearts, flowers, people, bears etc.  Tabitha loves them, I also bought a small wooden rolling pin, and we do have a PlayDoh brand 'press' which produces fun tubes of dough in star/worm/triangles etc.

Afghans

I made Afghans last week.  I was in a hurry, doing something else at the same time, and accidentally forgot to add the baking powder.  I remembered, just as I was about to put them in the oven.  So I put all the mixture back into a bowl, sprinkled over the baking powder, and gently kneaded it through the dough by hand.

The cookies were slightly tougher than usual, because of the over-handling of the mixture, but honestly, no one else would have noticed.  It's nice to know that you can rescue such mistakes when baking.  Years ago, when I was learning to cook, I would have panicked and thrown them out!  

Have you ever saved a near-disaster when cooking?  I was once told that adding raw potato to a soup, and simmering for a while, then removing the potato, is a rescue for over-salted soup, but I've never had to try it.

HERE is the Afghan recipe.

Menu Planning

Firstly, an apology.  The blog is being quite buggy, and I have discovered that dozens and dozens of photos have randomly disappeared from past posts!  I am trying to fix it.  In the meantime, please excuse me if you look at any past posts and they seem to be missing pictures.

If anyone can tell me why this is happening, or how to fix it (the photos are still all visible in Picasa), please let me know!

Last Saturday, I mentioned the groceries, including market items, which I bought for the week.  In the comments, I was asked what meals I would make with those items.  Since it's quite rare that I buy a full week's worth of groceries in one go, I too found it interesting to see how the list correlated to a week of meals!

So I have reproduced my response to the comment here - you can see the rough menu plan for the week, based on that haul of groceries.  Did I stick to it?  Pretty much - although I did a lentil, vegetable and beef bolognaise instead of the stir-fry, and I haven't done the chicken soup yet - I'll do that tomorrow.

HERE is the post outlining the groceries for the week, and below is my vague meal-planning for the week:

Peaches, nectarines, apricots and apples are for eating, The Daddy will take some to work.  I’ll probably make a peach pie or cobbler or something.

Baby carrots (ordinary sort) and cucumber, capsicum etc. for snacking on for T and I.

The leeks will go into a fritatta for lunches.

Chard will be stir-fried with capsicum and go with steaks. (1 dinner)

The baby carrots were roasted and served in a salad with coriander, pine nuts etc., alongside lamb chops pan-fried with a spice rub. (2 dinner)

The veggie burgers will get eaten for lunches, with tomatoes from the garden, basil, coriander, grated carrot, some sliced capsicum or whatever I feel like. Maybe a fried egg as well.  Some of the veggie burgers will get frozen.

The eggs will all get used – hard boiled, frittatas, cakes and biscuits, pancakes etc.  Tabby loves eggs.

The pork cutlets will be fried with a mustard honey sauce, a side of roasted purple carrots, roughly mashed. (3 dinner)

The pumpkin, and some of the veg (carrots, celery, onions) go into soup. (4 dinner, plus some to freeze for a couple more meals)

There will be a stir-fry of veg, with the zucchinis, carrot, celery, broccoli and stems, capsicum, garlic and ginger.  I’ll include some beef mince, and serve with brown rice. (5 dinner)

Rockling goes into the freezer in small pieces for lunches and suppers for Tabitha and I.  I’ll dredge pieces with seasoned flour, fry in some butter, make a sauce with lemon juice and parsley, serve with some steamed greens.

Avocadoes will go on toast for breakfasts and into sandwiches for snacks / lunches.

Bacon will go into either a zucchini slice, a quiche lorraine or carbonara (dinner 6)

I’ll roast the sweet potatoes with one of the chooks, along with some shallots, regular potatoes, garlic etc.  I’ll make gravy and some stuffing (sage, thyme etc from the garden, bacon from the market).  The leftovers will do for sandwiches the next day for lunch.  (dinner 7)

The other chook, I’ll make some soup / stock (with an additional bag of bones, necks, wings etc) and with carrot, onion, celery, parsley stems etc.  I’ll make matzo balls, for lunch or light dinner, and most of it will get frozen (I like to stockpile frozen chicken soup in the lead up to winter and the inevitable colds).

Have I left anything out?  The raw milk will get drunk by myself and Tabitha, and used with porridge.  Breakfasts will be oatmeal, museli, eggs or avocado on toast.  Maybe some waffles.  I might make a compote / hot jam sort of thing with some of the stone fruit for weekend breakfast.

The chickpeas are for hummus.

I’ll bake an apple cake and some scones, maybe some chocolate Afghan cookies, for visitors during the week.