A sneak peek

A look at some of the things I have been working on lately:

an applique flower

another applique flower

the makings of an advent calendar

part of a finished quilt

Here's where I'm up to.......

Making :: Christmas presents

Cooking :: Broccoli and blue cheese soup

Drinking :: a cup of tea

Reading :: This is Paradise! My North Korean Childhood and also Jams & Chutneys by Thane Prince

Thinking :: that it wasn't such a good idea to eat my porridge near my laptop this morning.

Watching :: Band of Brothers and all about River Cottage (thanks Gnomes) on dvd

Listening to :: Jimmy Little

Wasting :: time playing Spider Solitaire (yes again, I can't stop myself)

Sewing :: Christmas presents

Waiting :: for the Craft Fair to come to Adelaide (30 days and counting)

Liking :: the fact that some of my summer clothes still fit me!!

Wondering :: if I got all the porridge off the keyboard of my laptop

Smelling :: the freesias that I picked from the garden this morning

Wearing :: daggy old clothes, covered in cat hair

Bookmarking :: this blog here

Realising :: that everything in this post seems to be all over the place and after looking at the Html decide not to try and fix it

Post inspiration from Pip at Meet me at Mikes

Bad Blogger

Lately I seem to be suffering from SBS (Slack Blogger Syndrome) and haven't really had the urge to blog, but I have been reasonably productive in my own way. We had our first taste of the broad beans tonight. I had forgotten that you need quite a few pods for a reasonable sized serving (about half a cup full for each person, we made do with half a cup between us).

Normally I break the pods open, but for this picture I slit it open with a knife (as evidenced by the cut in the bean). I love how they nestle in the pod, surrounded by the cottony soft lining of the pod.

I double peeled a few of the larger ones thinking the skin might be a bit tough, and also


the unpeeled appearance is not particularly appetising (sort of a greeny-grey colour) but we were surprised by how tender they were both peeled and unpeeled. I just put a bit of cold water over them and brought them to the boil for about a minute or so, drained the water off and dropped a knob (very small) of butter in, shook them around, added some freshly ground black pepper and they were ready for eating.

Results

Class 22 - Bread, white

We went to the Royal Adelaide Show yesterday, first stop was the Goyder Pavilion to check out the Cookery Competition. I had already seen the results online but wanted to check out the other classes as well.

Class 60 - Carrot Cake

I got 2nd place for both breads - there were only two entries in each class and once cut my grain loaf revealed that there was a hole inside and the white loaf had a few larger holes in it as well so both were probably not the best examples of bread. I suppose that is one of the challenges because your cake or bread might look perfect on the outside but until it is cut you don't know what is there inside.

The result that I am really happy about was a Commended (4th place) in Class 42 - Carrot Cake, there were over ten entries in that class so for my first try I am over the moon.

Busy in the garden

I wasn't the only busy one in the garden today, this bee spent ages in the broad bean flowers

I spent a much needed couple of hours in the garden today, pulling out a great crop of weeds, but there were a couple of highlights in amongst the hard work.

Some potatoes which appeared from the last crop, enough for the two of us (yum, steamed new potatoes with butter and parsley).

and look, one of the first broad bean pods, still very small, but getting bigger.

I am SO over baking

Yesterday was the big baking day.......

As I was going to be working last night, I made an early start (0530) and started on my two breads, once they were rising it was time for breakfast and then the rest of the baking. I made carrot cake first as I wanted to make sure it had plenty of time to cool (on the tea-towel covered racks to prevent rack marks) before putting the icing on. I made two cakes (in case, one wasn't very good) at the end of the cooking time I noticed that one of them had a lean on - aargh the oven isn't level, why have I not noticed that before, never mind, the icing will camouflage that.

Onwards, next up the friands, they were quick and easy, then the Anzac biscuits, also fairly quick, although I had some issues with size. Then the bread went in the oven, while that was baking, I made the Shortbread, shaped it and put it in the fridge to rest. Time for a cup of tea, and an Anzac, oh and why not have a friand as well (might as well quality check them).

Once the bread was finished, I had to wait for the oven to cool a bit before the shortbread went in. At that stage I decided to make more Anzacs because I thought the first ones were a bit dark, the second batch were darker still.

The shortbread came out and looked ok. All that remained was the icing on the cake and then packing everything away ready for delivery.

Delivery day...........
surprisingly traffic was light, we even had time to stop for a coffee on the way. I was surprised that there weren't many people there, and by how different the baked goods looked on the display plates (my Anzacs didn't look that dark after all)

Now all that remains is to eat up the leftover shortbread, Anzacs and extra carrot cake........

A pleasant Sunday afternoon tea

Last Sunday we ventured up into the hills for a pleasant afternoon tea hosted by Veggie Gnome and Flower Gnome of Mad Gnomes fame. Last time we visited, we were geographically embarrassed and had to phone for directions, there were no problems this time and we arrived safely with no route deviations.


We met up with some fellow bloggers and there were plenty of introductions and much talking about food and gardens. We also had a leisurely (though rain interrupted) tour around the Gnome's garden, nibbling and sniffing the leaves of various plants as we went, even the chickens and sheep got in on the act. (I forgot to take pictures)


As we left we were presented with a bunch of lovely proteas, the picture only shows half of my bunch (I haven't got a vase weighty enough to hold them all, without toppling over)


All in all it was a really nice Sunday afternoon meeting up with and talking to fellow bloggers and putting faces to blog names.

I had originally thought that I would use needle turn applique to fix this embroidered patch on but having started it I realise that the linen is too heavy, so now I'm going to use the blanket stitch on my sewing machine. I've only done straight lines till now but I think if I go slow I should be able to make a "good enough" job of it.

Here's where I'm up to...

this post comes via Pip from Meet me at Mikes

Making: things for Christmas presents (ssh, it’s a secret)
Cooking: shortbread
Drinking: a cup of tea
Reading: Tarte Tatin by Susan Loomis
Wanting: the house to be clean and tidy, the washing done, folded, ironed and put away
Looking: at recipe books and clippings of recipes
Playing: Spider Solitaire
Wasting: too much time playing Spider Solitaire
Sewing: things for Christmas presents
Wishing: for a fairy godmother to wave her wand and do the housework for me
Enjoying: watching Dexter on dvd
Waiting: for the bread to rise
Liking: my thimble which is protecting my cut finger
Wondering: what to make for afternoon tea on Sunday – sweet, savoury, both, how much to make, too many decisions.
Loving: the weather at the moment
Hoping: that my hayfever will go away soon
Marvelling: at how prolific Pip is with her blog posts
Needing: to make a work plan for all the baking I have to do for the Royal Show
Smelling: the fresh coriander from the garden
Wearing: daggy old tracky daks and comfy, old ugg boots
Following: too many to count
Noticing: that my cut finger is healing up quite well
Knowing: that using linen to do needle turn appliqué is probably not going to turn out too well
Thinking: that chocolate doesn’t really have a season
Feeling: that I'm going to sneeze soon
Bookmarking: On Rue Tatin some good recipes there
Opening: a fresh container of dried yeast
Giggling: at an old Footrot Flats book
Feeling: that I'm going to sneeze again

Miserable weather

I spied this lone freesia in the garden this morning, not yet rain soaked but I suspect by tonight it will be looking quite bedraggled.

The broad beans are a little bit the worse for wear, they don't really like a lot of wind, but I'm hopeful they will pull through ok.

The rain gauge showed 19mm from yesterday, another 20mm or so would be good as we are still down on last years 85mm.

Tomato

This tomato believe it or not is from my garden. Way back in March I bought a tomato plant, amazingly it has grown quite well and has quite a few tomatoes on it which are actually turning red. To my surprise this one tasted quite good (better than a not-so-supermarket tomato)

Progress

Strips of fabric ready to be pressed and then sewn together to make the rest of my black and white quilt.

Once that's done I suppose I will have to think about whether to have a border or not and what colour to make the binding. Decisions, decisions.

Apricot Cake

This is a useful dessert or cake to have with a cup of coffee, and only takes a few minutes to whip up.

It can be served warm or cold although I think it is nicer warm. I have also tried it with peaches and I have no doubt that plums would also be nice.

I haven't made it with fresh fruit but I think that it would work as well.

1 x 435g can apricot halves

75 g butter melted

1 egg

½ cup milk

¼ cup juice from canned apricots

¼ tsp almond essence

½ cup sugar

1 ½ cup self raising flour

Icing: ½ cup icing sugar 2-3 tsp lemon juice or apricot juice

¼ cup toasted, flaked or slivered almonds

Grease or line a large pan (I use a non-stick roasting pan 24cm x 35cm)

Preheat oven to 180C fan forced (or 190C no fan)

Drain the apricots, saving the juice. Measure the sugar and self raising flour into another bowl.

Melt butter, add the egg, milk and the ¼ cup of saved juice, and the almond essence, beat with a fork to combine.

Chop the apricots roughly and mix them into the liquids, then fold that into the sugar and self raising flour, mix together trying not to over mix. (mixture doesn't have to be smooth)

Spread the mixture into the pan (don't worry if it doesn't reach the edges) smooth it out a bit then arrange the remaining apricots over the top.

Bake for 15-30 minutes, (depending on the size of the pan and whether your oven has a fan or not) until the centre of the cake springs back when pressed in the centre.

While the cake is baking, make some icing by mixing the icing sugar and juice together to make a runny icing. Drizzle this over the hot cake, then sprinkle with the toasted, flaked or slivered almonds.

Dust with icing sugar before serving if desired.

A little birdie

Spotted these two Adelaide Rosellas
outside today.

I took the photos from inside (the windows aren't very clean)

The first time I attempted to take the photo they flew off, before I could even turn the camera on.



So I left the camera near the window and about twenty minutes later I saw them again, this time I got down on the floor and crawled to the window,
it must have worked as they stayed there for about ten minutes before flying off.

Recipe renovation

Just over a year ago I made these Pear olive oil spice cakes but they were a touch too sweet and oily for our taste, so I decided to renovate the recipe a little bit.

I reduced the oil to half a cup and used plain yogurt to bring the liquid content back to one cup. I also cut back the sugar to one cup and used brown sugar instead of white and then because I felt like an extra hit of ginger I threw in some chopped crystallised ginger (about one third cup)

They made 12 traditional sized muffins and I cooked them at 160C for 30 minutes, the glaze is the same as before except I used some light sour cream instead of cream.

I was quite happy with the way they came out, they are still nice and moist and I might tinker with the recipe a little more (cut back oil to quarter a cup and reduce the sugar more) as they are still quite sweet.