The last week...

This year, (for once!) I remembered Shrove Tuesday, so we had some pancakes for breakfast...something my mother always did each year! 

I did some more cooking for DsD2's freezer...

On Saturday morning we went to the car boot sale at church and made sure we spent some money on the Parish Stall. ( the parish raised $500!) 

Our buys...a DVD and some books.

Six bottles of white wine...

Two bunnies to add to some baskets of Easter eggs next month...

On Saturday afternoon, we went to my great niece Lucy's 6th birthday...a noisy and fun affair! All the child guests came with one or both parents so the guest list of 45 is understandable. I was a bit circumspect with taking my photos, trying to avoid having other people's children in photos...there is one child's back view.

While the other children were running around, the party girl (in pink) came back to have another look at all those presents! Lol

DH and I gave Lucy an umbrella with ballerinas printed on it...pink of course! It seemed to be a hit :-)

DH, my nephew, my brother and his partner standing around chatting...

We left the birthday party at 5.30 as we had a 'date' to see Anthea. My DsD2 lives only a few streets away from my niece. 

The little lady and her mum of course were going through that settling in stage where everything is so new and a bit daunting. Not long after we arrived bub was really getting upset. 

Throwing caution to the wind I offered to take the baby and walk her around the room...it was a complete fluke! Anthea settled and fell asleep! ( But I do remember my own babies settling if they were vertical and up high! Lol) 

And then DH had a sleeping bub to cuddle...

And then we handed her back to mum...

And then it was time to go home. Not long after we left 'Grandy', another grandmother was due to arrive after she finished work. And here is a photo of Anthea and Grandy.

The other grandmother, who is Nonna, is in NZ so she hadn't had a cuddle yet, poor thing! 

During this last week, I did some more decluttering, and some knitting, but I'll write about that in another post...although it probably doesn't sound too scintillating a subject matter! Lol

A cold snap here...

The weather bureau predicted it early last week and by this weekend, it had well and truly arrived...a cold snap! Well cold by sub tropical Brisbane standards; maybe southern Aussies would call us wusses but we reckon it's cold ! lol
Time to have thick soups simmering on the stove tops...

Some minestrone

And a casserole in the oven warms up the kitchen and living rooms...

Boeuf bourguignon casserole just out of the oven

and it's pretty good to eat too!

Last week I mentioned that I was crocheting 15 inch squares in indigenous colours for a mini challenge with one of my knitting groups. At the Knit and Natter on Wednesday, I handed in the 5 that I had already done. Sharon had volunteered to sew the squares into blankets and today she sent me an email to say that she had sewn up one blanket with some of the donated squares. The blanket is quite large, 192 by 155 cm and will keep its recipient nice and warm. Sharon also has kindly allowed me to use her photo from the forum page, on this blog. I have no real idea which squares were 'mine', but I did just one colour squares. I will continue to crochet these large squares as Sharon has indicated she considers it a work in progress. And a bit of crocheting is a nice wind down activity in the evenings.

One lovely blanket in indigenous colours

The house is all nice and warm, dinner is over, DH has tidied the kitchen, now it's time to grab a cuppa and  my knitting and sit down in front of the TV for an hour or two. Bliss...

Make-grow-thrift...

Don't the weeks fly? It's Monday again so that means I'm once again joining in with Jodie's feature , Make- Grow-Thrift. This week Jodie shortened a coat to give it a more up to date look. My contribution to the topic is a 'make'. It's a recipe that I have actually posted before but I took another set of photos for this post.

Today I headed off to a Knit and Natter group in Scarborough, about a 35 minute drive north of my place. I always like to take something I've made to share at morning tea time. It's the beginning of May and I still had an unopened tin of biscuits which were a Christmas present. Since Christmas I've already made a batch of choc/brandy truffles and 2 batches of Hikers Cakes out of crumbled up 'Christmas' biscuits. So last night I decided  to make another batch of Hikers Cakes to take to the K&N.

Take some sweet biscuits...

crumb the biscuits...

In a saucepan place some butter, sugar, cocoa and mixed fruit and melt gently.

Add a beaten egg and continue to whisk mixture over the heat...

remove from the heat and add crumbed biscuits, cherries and vanilla

Mix to combine all ingredients

press into a slice/lamington tin and place in refrigerator to 'set'. Later on ice/frost

Now the complete recipe is here. Please be aware that this is not a 'healthy eating' option that's why I make it to take to groups and meetings or other 'bring a plate' occasions that I attend.  People only eat one piece each which I figure shouldn't hurt them too much.

Now I mentioned that I went to K&N this morning...there is a little 'sub-group' that sew rather than knit and here's a photo of one member's husband 'modelling' one of the garments that had been sewn and donated to the group for handing out to children of needy families. Needless to say Ren made us all laugh! I took some jersey fabric that a friend gave me to give to Ren's wife so that her group can continue to make children's clothes. Robyn, another knitting group member had also found some spools of overlocking threads  in an op shop, which she bought and today she handed over to the sewing group. When we looked at the threads it was amazing...they were the same colour as the fabric that my friend had donated.

Make-grow-thrift...

Today I'm again joining Jodie in her regular Monday feature. This week I'm sharing something a little different...it had to be something fairly quick to do as I'm working for DH for a short time in the lead up to the state and local government elections. This means that I'm a bit tired by the end of the day...so any way I'll explain about the 'Five Minute Chocolate Mug Cake'. DH saw the recipe print-out on the kitchen bench and commented on what he thought was a 'typo'; he thought it should be 'mud' not 'mug'. But that's what it is.

The recipe said use a large coffee mug; I used the largest one we had

I first saw this recipe on a friend's Facebook page last year and copied it into my recipe file. So today after work, was the day I decided to have a go at making it. The recipe says to mix it in a large coffee mug...I used a small bowl and greased the cup. I didn't use quite as much sugar and I left out the choc chips. Other to that I followed the recipe. It was such fun watching it rise through the glass of the microwave door. Shortly DH and I are going to share my 'mug cake' and I'm planning to spoon over some raspberries...just because I can! lol

A cup of cake

Now here is the recipe, including the comments at the end... dangerous cake recipe???? lol The cake is best eaten straight away.

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

4 tablespoons SR flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.

Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.

Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.

Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high). The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous). And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!
5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.

Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.

Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.

Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high). The cake... (read more)

PS My microwave oven  is a larger one (Not that DH and I use it much but the girls did when they were still at home) and I would possibly lessen the cooking time by a minute. And then check after 2 minutes 'rest' time whether it was completely cooked through.

Make-grow-thrift...

I'm again joining in with Jodie in her regular Monday feature. This week I'm also sharing a recipe. I used to make it years ago and for what ever reason, hadn't made it for years. I decided to rectify that situation by making it as my contribution to a family brunch yesterday. It has a number of names, Impossible Quiche and Nanna's Impossible Pie are 2 names I've seen used for it.
This is what it looks like...

And this is the recipe...

Impossible Quiche/aka Nanna’s Impossible Pie

Ingredients:-

4 eggs

2 cups milk

¾ cup Self Raising flour

1 small onion chopped or 3 eshallots chopped

1 cup of bacon chopped

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

¾ cup of feta crumbled

1 cup grated zucchini

1 cup grated carrot

½ cup chopped capsicum (pepper)

60 grams melted butter

Method: Now you can just mix the ingredients all together but I prefer  to lightly beat the eggs first, mix with the milk and add to the other ingredients. You can chop or grate any vegies you like (leftover vegetables are good) or add tinned corn etc.

Bake in a moderate oven for 45 minutes until set and golden in colour. There will be a base similar to a pastry. 

Even my brother who normally doesn't eat quiche, had 2 pieces!

And one more photo showing the progress on the blanket that I making out of donated squares; it's grown since last Monday and I'm now determined to have it completed by next week.

A lovely gift...

Today was the Christmas party and get together for the Sisters of Stitch. One of my friends there gave me a lovely surprise gift...a Sand art brownie jar. All the dry ingredients have been layered in a large jar (like the old sand art) and then a pretty fabric circle was placed over the lid. All I have to do is add 3 eggs, some vegetable oil and some vanilla; stir together, turn into a tin and cook for a batch of 16 brownies. How good is that!!!

I knew I'd seen something similar in my blog reading in the last week or so. Sure enough, a quick check revealed that Linni at Home had helped her daughter make up a sand art jar of 'Cowgirl Cookies' for a gift.
I LOVE this idea; it encompasses all my ideas of the Christmas season.

Another recipe...

Thanks to my lovely SIL, Sonja, I now subscribe to the craft magazine, 'Handmade'. S gave me an iSubscribe gift card for my birthday. I normally borrow mags from the library so I decided that I needed to do a bit of research to find a suitable magazine which would come to my letterbox for 12 months. I borrowed a variety of magazines from the library which cater for my interests of gardening, cooking and crafts. Eventually the shortlist was 'Handmade' and 'Homespun' and I don't really know what tipped the scales in favour of the former but both magazines have a variety of crafts covered. My first issue came early this month...a Christmas special. There are some cute little elves to knit and some lovely sewing projects that have caught my eye.

Just arrived! Still in the plastic...

On Monday night I was reading the mag in bed when I noticed a recipe; it was called 'Chocolate Coconut Balls' and as I read through it I realised I had all the ingredients on hand.
I had wanted to make something to take along for morning tea at Tuesday's Knit and Natter and had toyed with making some scones or muffins early on Tuesday morning. I now knew what I was going to make...which I did next morning...the recipe was easy...and they were very popular at the K&N.

The rich 'chocolaty' mixture 

And here is the recipe from 'Handmade' Sept 2011 issue

The recipe is in the latest edition of 'Handmade'.
Ingredients:-
1 tin condensed milk
125g butter
100g dark cooking chocolate
1 egg
250 g milk coffee biscuits (I actually used Marie biscuits as i already had
them)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup coconut (plus extra for coating)
Method
place the butter and condensed milk into a medium sized saucepan and stir over
low heat until the butter has melted and the mixture has thickened slightly.
Add the chocolate, stirring until it's melted and combined, then stir in the dry
ingredients and remove from the heat.
Add the egg and mix well then turn the mixture into a bowl and refrigerate until
firm
Place extra coconut on to a plate, roll heaped teaspoonsful of chocolate mixture
into balls, then roll them in the coconut until well coated. Return them to the
fridge until ready to serve. :-)

Enjoy!

Zucchini Slice...

Here's the recipe for Zucchini slice that was mentioned in my previous post.
375g zucchini
1 large onion
2-3 rashers of bacon
1 cup grated tasty cheese
1 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup oil
5 eggs
salt/pepper optional
Grate unpeeled zucchini coarsely, finely chop onion and bacon. ( I chop everything in my elderly food processor) Combine zucchini, onion, bacon, cheese, sifted flour, oil and lightly beaten eggs, season with salt and pepper if desired.
Pour into well-greased lamington tin (base measures 16cm x26 cm) (I use a similar sized pyrex dish), bake in moderate oven 30-40 mins or until brown.

Old recipes...

A little while ago Tanya, from Suburban Jubiliee blog, wrote a post on a recipe that her mum used to make here. Sometimes I can forget what day it is, but there was something about that recipe that stirred the memories. I went out to the kitchen drawer where I store a few of my smaller recipe books and also lots of loose pages etc cut out of magazines and newspapers over the years. Deeper and deeper into the drawer I went and there, almost at the very bottom of the drawer, was the recipe torn out of a 'vintage' Woman's Day. Tanya, and possibly her mum, had added their own touches to the recipe and definitely improved it. The original recipe had won the White Wings  Bake Off in 1971. Yes I have kept it that long. I think I only made it a few times and that would have been in the 1970s. Growing up eating Italian style food, I found the recipe  a bit bland...but that was then...

'Try it tonight and make your husband feel like a king'! Yes it says that!!!

So after that little wander down Memory Lane I thought that I would make the dish called 'Husband's Hasty Tasty Pie' again. I had defrosted a batch of my pasta sauce (with meat) and it was too much for the one meal. So I decided to use the left over mince mixture to make the HHT pie.  I added a selection of chopped and steamed vegetables, used Tanya's idea of using the cheeses and the herbs in the pastry rolls, put it all together and voila! a quick and easy meal.

Veggie selection added to the mince mixture

Just out of the oven

Slow cooking...

When I was a child, many Australian households would have a roast dinner for Sunday lunch. But not at my place...we would have spaghetti and my mother would simmer the sauce for hours on the stove top. The smell would drive me mad...I would pester my mother constantly, wanting to know if it was nearly lunchtime...lol   Mum used to put an asbetos mat over the gas flame which would allow a very low temperature. The resultant sauce was delicious.
By the time I was married and cooking, these mats were no longer sold due to the asbestos in them and I always found it hard to simmer the sauce for the number of hours that my mother did...3-4 hours without it sticking or worse...burning. When I moved in to this home it has electric hotplates but I still found it hard to get a very low simmer. But then I bought my slow cooker...and voila! I have been able to make pasta sauce that tastes just like that which mum (or dad occasionally) made. I don't have to worry about it burning or sticking and can go on with other things. Because I bought the large capacity slow cooker, I make a double batch which gives us 3-4 meals for the 2 of us.

My younger daughter works for a major bank and each year the staff raise money for a chosen charity. Last year they compiled a recipe book from favourite staff recipes and sold them to raise funds. DD2 put in my pasta sauce recipe.

Pasta sauce; Maria-style
810 tin chopped tomatoes (mum used fresh tomatoes, plunged in boiling water, then cold and then peeled)
425 can of tomato puree (tomato paste can be used but only about 4 tabs)
400-500 g, good quality beef mince
pinch of salt
4 cloves fresh garlic crushed or 2 teaspoons crushed bottled garlic
1/2 teas dried oregano
1 teas dried basil (or 2 tabs chopped fresh basil added at end of cooking)
1 teas sugar
1 tabs oil, preferably olive oil

• brown mince in oil. Use a frypan for this; drain off any fat.
• Stir in garlic, herbs and salt
• Add tomatoes and puree; stir in the sugar. Bring mixture to the boil and ten turn down to a simmer
• Simmer the sauce uncovered for at least an hour. Continue to stir at intervals to avoid sticking or burning.
• Serve sauce with cooked pasta, use in lasagne, cannelloni and even pinwheels made with puff pastry or bread dough.

Now to adapt this to the slow cooker, I double all the ingredients except for the meat which I just increase to 650-700 grams. I brown the meat before I put it in the slow cooker. I set the cooker to high for 3 hours and then to low for another 1.5-2 hours.
When I cooked this the other night I used my latest 'toy' which I bought at the recent tupperware party. It's a little pull-cord chopper...and I think I love it!!! I chopped up the fresh basil leaves in it!

A few pulls of the cord and chopped basil!

Another weekend...

On Saturday night we went out with some friends for a meal and then went back to their place for dessert and coffee. I took along some of my choc-coconut slice as my contribution. This recipe has a bit of a history. When I was still at high school, (so we're talking the mid sixties here) my mother and I were visiting a neighbour when Mrs O'Regan (the neighbour) said that could we come out to the kitchen with her as she'd just remembered that her youngest was bringing home some friends later in the  evening and she wanted to do some baking for all these young men. We watched her make the slice and my mum asked for the recipe.
I've made that slice so many times and especially when my children were young and I still make it. It's easy and people seem to really enjoy it.

So here is that recipe:-

                                       Chocolate Coconut Slice a.k.a. Coconut Delights

Ingredients:- 1 cup Self Raising  flour

                    1 cup of crushed Vita Brits, weetbix or cornflakes (or any cereal really)

                    1 cup of coconut
                     1/2 cup of sugar
                    5 oz of shortening (5 tablespoons)
                    1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
                    1 dessertspoon of golden syrup
Method:- Sift flour and cocoa into bowl. Add cereal, coconut and sugar and mix well.
               Melt butter and syrup; add to dry ingredients, mix well.
               Press into greased swiss roll tin.
               Bake in a moderate oven for 12-15 minutes. Stand tin on cooler and cut into squares.
               When almost cold, ice with warm chocolate icing and sprinkle with coconut.

Today I had plans to go to the Farmers' Markets in the next suburb. Unfortunately I slept in a bit and then we got a phone call from DH's older brother's step-daughter telling us that her stepfather was very ill and had been taken to hospital. The paramedic had told her and her mother that the ambulance would be in a queue for at least an hour at the hospital before my BIL would enter Emergency. DH has spent most of today waiting for the updates from his SIL. The latest news is that it is not known what is specifically wrong, however he is unable to walk and it is reported that they are unable to listen to his heart because of the 'noise coming from his lungs'...(sorry, remember I'm getting this third-hand!) Tomorrow is another day and being Monday, the public hospital, will again have staff involved in testing etc back working.

This afternoon I went to a tupperware party at my stepDD2's place; lots of young friends and siblings far outnumbered the 'oldies', i.e.  myself and StepDD's mother. When it was my turn to pick a prize out of the box, I picked the little tongs...a sign that I've been to too many tupperware parties is that I already have all those little goodies in the prizes box!!! lol

My new 'toy'...

Last Monday DH and I went to Chermside (a big shopping centre here in Brisbane) as I was determined to use a gift card that Myer had sent me for my birthday. I usually forget to use such things/offers until they have expired but this time I was on a mission! As well as the little 'present' from Myer, I had other gift cards which had been given to me and after much thought, I decided to use all the Myer gift cards to buy a slow cooker. I've 'hummed and hahed' about buying such an appliance for ages...the main stumbling block is that I don't have much storage room in my tiny galley-style kitchen. Also just last Saturday we had a small family get together and I served up a casserole made in my very large corning ware casserole dish...it cooked perfectly in my wall oven. So why buy a slow cooker?
I'm of the opinion that when you get gift cards you should firstly make sure that you use them and that secondly you buy things with your heart not just with your head. Does that make sense...wants more than needs???

It was Wednesday when I first 'played' with my new toy. (Sunbeam 5.5 l) I cooked a recipe that was in the instruction / recipe book. It was a beef casserole and I cooked it on low for 5 hours. It took care of itself; no burning or 'sticking' to the bottom and most importantly it was delicious. A bonus was that as well as Wednesday night's dinner, 2 more meals' worth were put away in the freezer. Yesterday I made my pasta sauce recipe but doubled the quantities. Again it cooked all by itself, no stirring etc and the longer cooking time meant it was lovely thick and delicious, just like my mother used to make. And it made 3 meals' worth!
DH is excitedly waiting for my next experiment with the slow cooker...lamb shanks...that's tomorrow!
(PS Regarding storage of the slow cooker...it now lives in the built in cupboard in the 'office' which leads off the kitchen. The first spot I chose wasn't a good idea...in an overhead cupboard in the kitchen which I need a small stepladder to access...it was too heavy for me to get down while balancing on the ladder).

Christmas Treats

Last night I started preparations for my chocolate, brandy truffles. In the food processor I crumbed a packet of choc chip cookies and a packet of arrowroot biscuits. (cookies) Then I liberally poured brandy and cointreau over the crumb mixture and mixed it  until all the crumbs were damp. Then I covered the bowl and put it into the fridge for the night.

This morning when I took the lid off the mixture, the unmistakeable aroma of brandy hit me! Then I added the other ingredients; 2 Cadbury flake bars crumbled, a tin of condensed milk, 3 heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder and about a cup of coconut. (If the mix is too moist I add more coconut, too dry...well more brandy of course!lol) Mix it all together and then roll into balls. Then roll these in coconut or chocolate sprinkles etc.

I put some truffles into a small cellophane bag

Because my friend has a 'blue-themed' Christmas, I put the bag into a little blue box.

This evening we are gathering at my friend Pamela's (and her DH Garry) place for a family Christmas celebration. She was already my best friend of 30 years when we became relatives because I married her cousin! Some of our daughters can make it tonight but it is very hard to get everyone together these days as they are all leading their own busy lives. We all contribute to the meal which will be a cold buffet but with hot plum pudding for dessert. Yum! (That sort of food ie plum pudding with so much dried fruit is supposedly off limits in my diet but I'll have just a little bit! lol)

This is the gift 'tub' I've made for our host and hostess this evening. I'm making another one (red) for my brother and his partner for Christmas Eve. Lots of fun! Note the little fluffy blue and white snowflake headband for Pamela. She can put her old reindeer one aside for this evening!

Nurturing Friendships

Today I had lunch with a former colleague who left teaching 3 years ago when the government offered $50000 re-training allowances if people would leave. The time frame for departure was 2 weeks. I was interested but baulked at that timeframe. J didn't! She secretly filled out the forms, lodged them and was successful, so off she went! She has, in the time since, worked on and off  as an insurance assessor in New Zealand and worked on contracts in a number of private schools. The insurance job is taking all her time for most of this year as, sadly. NZ has had a number of disasters, especially the earthquakes and J said that there are 160 000 claims that have to be processed!

School holidays have always been busy for me in the 'lunching' scene. Every school I 've taught at, I've naturally made friends so as the years go by there are more friends that I'm trying to stay in touch with. The PE teacher at S. Heights has taught with me at a number of schools and she once said that she noticed how I 'nurtured' my friendships and how she thought it was lovely how I stayed in touch with people including some people she also knew. But she wasn't prepared to put in the effort needed to stay in touch. I've never really thought it a great effort to ring or text people occasionally to see how they are. Or send cards for significant birthdays. FaceBook makes it quite easy to do those sorts of things. But it's a 2 way street. Those old friendships are worth nurturing and there is nothing better than to reminicence with old friends or to 'bathe' in the warmth of their friendship when things go wrong in my life.

We lunched at Zarraffa's at Arana Hills today

I plan to have more of the 'catch ups' here at my place as I love to cook. In fact originally we did go to each others houses but gradually by the early 90s we always met in coffee shops and cafes. Maybe it's time to turn back the clock!
I'll finish this post with something completely random...my friend who has some relatives in the US went to post the usual homecooked Plum Pudding to her aunt in California. Australia Post now has imposed a $9 surcharge on all parcels going to the US. That's ridiculous! I like to send little surprises to my friend in Oregon, that $9 will make postage/shipping prohibitive! Bah humbug! I was also planning to get involved with swaps through certain forums and blogs; I guess I'll have to stick with Aussie swap partners!