Sunday Snippets

Better late than never!

 All happy at the circus.

 Having a bite with old friends at one of our favourite places.

 Trying to include some healthy treats in the Christmas excesses.

 We don't like the OTT aspect of Christmas but couldn't resist these pretty lanterns.

I raced through this latest 'must read' book and it had me in most of the way, but like most blockbusters, the ending was disappointing.  The plot was a bit too clever for its own good.

Thanks to Tinnie Girl for hosting Sunday Snippets.

Cookbook love

Any of my friends who are remotely interested in food have heard about my latest obsession - America's Test Kitchen and Cooks' Illustrated.  Starting with receipt of the ATK 2012 cookbook for my birthday, 3 or 4 sneaky purchases along the way and discovery of the podcast, I am completely hooked on this group and the charismatic founder Christopher Kimball.  What I love about the ATK recipes is that each recipe includes the accompanying food science, describing how the recipe works and how their version stands up against others.

One current favourite is the Light and Healthy Cookbook, which takes various standard recipes and lowers the fat content, explaining the process along the way.  I've made a few dishes out of this book but one that is definitely a keeper is the Pasta with Chicken and Broccoli.  Sounds boring but has a really great taste with the addition of sundried tomatoes and the use of finely chopped anchovies in the sauce (I didn't tell Stos about this until after we had eaten).

So if you haven't checked out America's Test Kitchen, get onto this group ASAP.  I would have to say that this is the closest to idiot proof cooking that I have ever seen.

Happy New Year

We saw out 2011 with some lovely friends, just sitting out under the stars, having a barbecue, a chat and a few cold beverages.  Give me a catch up with a small group any day over a big party!  As we had seen some illegal fireworks close to home the previous night, we decided to leave a bit earlier to make sure that Misses K and P weren't spooked by the noise, but they were fine.   Then the official fireworks went off at midnight and we had great views of the action over the city (but not the Art Centre Spire fiasco!), the west and the north where there were also firework shows.  Unfortunately the camera isn't really up for good pictures at night and while out of focus, I thought this looked quite pretty:

For the first day of 2012, we were up early and I went to the gym at 11pm.  It was another beautiful hot day and we were able to get out on the deck again with S and S over another dinner.  The menu was simple; just chicken cooked on the barbecue, Vietnamese coleslaw and Jill Dupleix's Crash Hot Potatoes out of her Simple Food cookbook.  I made these on Friday night and they were so delicious and easy, I thought I would make them again.  I did learn that before you flatten the potatoes, they should be cold - when I flattened one batch that had just come out of the microwave and they stuck to the potato masher.  The recipe, with some slight changes is below:

Crash Hot Potatoes (Jill Dupleix's recipe with a couple of tweaks)

1 medium potato per person (or more if you like)
Olive oil (I used extra virgin)
Sea salt
Pepper
Fennel or caraway seeds
Fresh thyme

Heat the oven to 250C.  Cut potatoes in half and cook  in the microwave on High until done.  I find that 5 minutes cooks four potatoes (eight halves) nicely.  Place on a greased oven tray (I prefer to use baking silicone) and flatten each half potato using a masher or implement of your choice.  However, I found with the narrow gauge metal masher, the potato still tended to stick to it so I would use the flat style or a large spoon.  Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with seeds of your choice, thyme sprigs and season with salt and pepper.  Cook for around 20 minutes until crisp and golden and serve.  I found that 20 minutes wasn't quite enough - I took some out of the oven at this point, then turned the oven off and left the remainder there for a bit longer.  The latter were much more golden and crisp.  This is one dish that is going to stay in the repertoire - easy and universally popular!

Money well spent

It is fair to say I have a lot of cookbooks, food magazines and recipe clippings.  It is also fair to say that most of them are in pristine condition - or at least read but not used.  However there is one that is comes off the shelf constantly or at least once a month.  This is a book that I picked up as I was about to leave a second hand book shop years ago and I think it is the best $8 I have ever spent (closely matched by the USD9 spent on my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook from Walmart).  This is the Julie Stafford's Muffin Book.  Julie Stafford wrote a very popular series of books called "A Taste of Life" that contained healthy recipes that she developed as a result of her husband being diagnosed with cancer in 1980.  The muffin book contains a huge variety of sweet and savoury muffins; the savoury ones don't appeal to me but the sweet variety are great, with most containing fruit.  The common theme in all the recipes is the use of apple juice concentrate in place of sugar and grape seed oil instead of butter.  All the sweet muffins include eggs, but there is an option to use either whites or whole eggs.  The Lemon and Blueberry recipe, pictured above, is one of my favourites.  They freeze well, are tasty and quick to make as well as being relatively healthy.  Win win I say.

Christmas Day

The first Christmas Day lunch at the new STLT HQ was fairly quiet with some lucky family members spending time in Hawaii.  So it was just Stos and myself,  L & D, Mum and Dad and three dogs.  Lunch was non traditional starting with Buffalo Wings, followed by Stos's perfect pork cooked on the BBQ accompanied by scalloped potatoes, roasted baby carrots, roasted pumpkin salad with spinach, walnuts and feta and baked tomato, onion, zucchini and beans.  Following on for dessert was pavlova with berries and Christmas pudding with custard.  After that came almond bread, shortbread and Christmas cake - whew!  We always like to have an after lunch activity on Christmas Day - watch a movie, take dogs for a walk or simply have a snooze - but this year was a bit different; we gave the dogs a bath.  Evil Eve was in desperate need for a bath and it was easier to wash her in our outdoor laundry sink.  And while Stos was at it, he decided that P & K could have a bath as well - much to their disgust.  Dog washing complete, we then spoke to cousins in Sydney, a sister in Hawaii and a brother in Savannah, the latter interrupted by the noise from the hailstorm that hit Melbourne during the afternoon.  The noise in a tin house with a tin roof was so loud that we couldn't hear ourselves think.  But there was no damage, just a mini river across the backyard from the ensuing downpour.  But by tomorrow the temperature will start to head north, with 36C predicted for New Year's Day.  The vagaries of Melbourne weather!

The extent of my Christmas baking

A lot of people go quite crazy at Christmas with baking - American blogs/podcasts talk about making all sorts of Christmas cookies and my sister-in-law goes into a biscuit baking frenzy at this time of the year.  In the case of the latter, that's OK as we usually end up with a lovely tin of assorted biscuits, including a Tassie specialty called Kiss Biscuits (but not this year and we are not happy!).  As for me, I don't feel an overwhelming urge to bake for weeks in advance and turnout vast quantities of anything, but I do make a few lots of almond bread.  This started over 20 years ago when our neighbour in Footscray gave us some almond bread for Christmas.  I loved it so much that I had to have a go at making it myself.  I originally used a recipe from the Women's Weekly cookery card series but over time I have adapted it somewhat.  I like to give it to people bagged in cellophane and ribbon as a Christmas gift, but always have to keep plenty for my family, who get cranky if they don't have some on Christmas day.  The best thing about almond bread is that it looks impressive, is almost universally loved (allergy sufferers excluded), yet it is so easy to make.  This is the recipe I use, based on the Australian Women's Weekly Recipe:

3 egg whites
1/2 cup castor sugar
1/2 cup plain flour - sifted
1/2 cup self raising flour - sifted
125g whole almonds with skin on or use half almonds with the other half made up of pistachios or roasted hazelnuts.  The pistachios give a lovely pale green outline but use whatever makes you happy.  If you really like glace fruit, use a half quantity in place of half of the nuts - the result looks pretty but I don't like glace fruit enough to bother.

Heat oven to 180C/350F.  Beat egg whites until stiff and beat in the castor sugar until dissolved.  Gradually add the flour and stir in the nuts.  Transfer into a greased bar tin (I use a tin 8.5cm wide and 25.cm long and cook for approximately 40 minutes.  Allow to go completely cold and leave over night.  Slice into very thin slices (I get Stos to do this with a serrated knife) then lay out on baking sheets and dry out in a slow oven (150C/300F).  I find that about half an hour does it in my oven and the thinner bits dry out more quickly.  The slices should be dry, but still pale in colour.  Well that's the theory - I always find I have a few brown bits but they still taste good.  Once cold, serve with coffee and stand back and accept the compliments, or package as gifts.  The recipients will think you are a genius - if only they knew!

This recipe doubles quite well although the froth of 6 egg whites starts climbing up the beaters in the first stage of the recipe.  And if you hate waste like I do, the left over 6 egg yokes are the perfect quantity for the base of home made ice-cream.  Or use for proper egg custard for the Christmas pudding.  Enjoy!

What's cooking?

I think I have said before that MasterChef is not my thing.  While it's not nasty like other reality television shows, I hate the exaggerated suspense of the elimination and judging and the staginess of the whole process.  After living with the Landlady last year, who was a bit of a fan, Stos got hooked on it and will frequently call me in to look at a dish he thinks I will like and I have to make sure that I don't get sucked into the culinary vortex.  So when he bought home a copy of Julie Goodwin's cookbook "Our Family Table", I wasn't all that interested.  But having had a flick through, it has a curious appeal, not unlike a CWA cookbook.  There's nothing scary in there and I love the way she has written the book as tribute to her family and friends by sharing their recipes and associated stories.  The chapter on baking is probably my favourite; packed with tasty biscuits and cakes, including one entitled "Never Fail" cake.  If that's not a Nanna recipe, I'll be damned!  What really caught my eye was the passionfruit shortbread - a combination of two of my favourite things in life.  The urge to make it finally overcame me and last night I baked the disc of golden shortbread (well, a bit brown around the edges) and made the passionfruit butter that will sandwich wedges of it together.  It's looks good but one change that I would make is to flatten the shortbread into a larger tin than the recommended 20cm springform pan.  For a lovely big piece of plain shortbread, the thickness is fine but when sliced and wedged together with filling, well even I would have to say it's a bit much.  However passionfruit butter looked amazing, so I really wanted to use it.

My solution was to cut the biscuit into wedges, then cut in half again across the width and fill.  Verdict - the right size; not the best shortbread I have made but tasty enough and the passionfruit buttercream was heavenly.  Put it this way, I took some in to the Day Job to share and my colleagues  didn't complain!

That's what friends are for

Stos has a milestone birthday coming up on Wednesday.  He is not interested in celebrating with a party or a dinner so I have organised a number of small gatherings with friends.  Most have been social serendipity i.e a dinner at a very favoured restaurant with one group of friends;  a lunch date with another couple expanded to include other people from the same circle.  In one way, a party would have been much easier to organise and I would have felt entirely justified getting caterers in.  But , the group by group thing has been fun and is going to continue for another week or so.

The first "do" was Saturday night - dinner at Lau's Family Kitchen with the Triple Rs.  We just love Lau's; great food, great service and great environment.  It ticks all the boxes.  The night started with glasses of Piper Heidsieck before heading off for the usual delicious meal.  Stos was totally spoiled with lovely gifts and a birthday "Mystery Box" from the floral R.  Then yesterday was a lunch for 13 of our oldest (as in longest standing) friends.  The weather was ideal for an afternoon out on the the deck and we soaked up the sun, ate, drank and caught up.  It was a very special afternoon.  And all of this is before his birthday!

Delicious chocolate Brownies from
Nigella Lawson's "Express"

KISS principles

After a heavy week at the day job, contemplating inappropriate development plans for our neighbourhood, and some other curve balls that life throws you, it has been nice to have a simple weekend doing mundane, but satisfying things:
- we've cooked up a storm.  Meals for the rest of the week are largely sorted and I've made Ants Nest Cake and Lemon Chicken from this great book lent to me by George.


- we went to see this film.  It was complex, the cast is a real Who's Who of Australia's top actors, but I think I have to overcome my fear of reading Patrick White and get into the book because I don't know if the film covered all of its nuances.  I really thought there was something missing:  while I understood the attitudes of the children towards their mother, I did not get a sense of why Elizabeth acted the way shed did towards them.  And what was the symbolism of the last scene?  Will the book provide the answers?  I'll just have to add this to the list.  And as a side comment, if anyone can guess (without looking on IMDB) who Helen Morse plays, I'll go He!
- tidied up the garden, noticed new things growing and enjoyed the spring sunshine.
- got lots of unconditional love from these gorgeous girls.

And that's what it's all about.

Crowded House

Another weekend has completely flown by.  We've had family houseguests here for the last four days and as we owed some cousins an invite to the house, I thought that it would be a good idea to get the family together on this weekend.  Which meant 13 for dinner.  Fortunately, the meals area is big enough to cope, we have a couple of tables and enough chairs that we didn't have to raid the outdoor furniture.  Food wasn't too tricky - a slow cooker chicken and chickpea "tagine", Moroccan vegetable stew, lamb shoulder roasted in the barbeque and baked tomatoes and beetroot.  For dessert, Nigella came to the rescue with her Anglo-Italian trifle.  I think it needs a little tweaking (cutting down on the marscapone and limoncello) but it is a quick and impressive dish that serves 12 - 14, depending on how greedy they are. 

As we had a guest with lactose intolerance, I thought I'd make a flourless orange and almond cake, however it got overcooked (OK, burnt).  But with a trim, and instructions to the guests to cut off any additional carbon, it was tasty.  It just didn't look like it should have. 

We had a great night catching up with everyone and look forward to doing it again.  At someone else's place!