Life at the Outpost

The top of the Cowboy Quilt is now finished, and I don't think I will have to piece the back, which I am very happy about.  With the selvedges removed, the width of the fabric is 41.5 inches and the top is 40 inches square (half an inch bigger than it should be!) and I have two metres of this so I am going to try cutting a 41.5 piece for the back.  The margin for the quilting will be very skinny though.  The other question is how to quilt it - I am definitely not hand quilting this one as the baby in question is due to arrive at any minute and I would like to give this gift to his parents before he turns 21!  Any suggestions would be welcome.

As usual, I've learned a few new things putting this quilt together:
- All quarter inch sewing machine feet are not equal.  Using the Pfaff foot comes out with a skinnier seam than the Janome foot and the result with Pfaff foot with a fabric guide is an even narrower seam.
- I am a compulsive pinner who forget to take the pins out as she goes which sometimes results  in seam/pin/needle disasters.  For this project I used flat head pins and they make life so much easier!

My self imposed deadline for finishing this quilt is two weeks - with house guests and other commitments, a week is out of the question. And this is also dependent on how long I faff around trying to decide how to quilt it. Let's see how we go.

A Year of Good Things

In a week of Bad Things being trumpeted by the media (job losses, world financial market doom and gloom and so on), it has been helpful to think about the Good Things.  This project has helped me keep perspective about how lucky I really am.  Picking out a few for the week:

15/366 - Getting up early on a Sunday morning, driving to my parents' place with the dogs and going for a walk with Mum and Evil Eve.
Good for - all of the dogs, me and Mum.
15/366 - A second Good Thing on the same day!  Having lunch with some lovely friends who we have not seen for a long time.  A sunny afternoon spent out on the deck - bliss!
Good for - maintaining friendships.
16/366 - Going to see 'Re-inventing Radio - an evening with Ira Glass'.   Ira Glass is the host and creator of one of my favourite podcasts (actually a radio show) called 'This American Life".  The show based on an overall theme and is usually made up from a number of different stories relating to that theme.  The stories are always interesting and range from hilarious to heartbreaking.   The live show discussed the art of story telling and comparing the approach to stories on 'This American Life' to traditional news reporting.  It also covered the creation of the stories, the process for getting them on the air and a very funny example of what can kill a show just when the producers thought it was a sure thing.  A fascinating insight into ground breaking radio by a genial and informative host.
Good for - My broader interests.
20/366 - Another dinner, with friends D & S from Perth.  After a couple of memorable stays with them over the last couple of years, it was great to be able to extend hospitality to them.  And look at the beautiful housewarming gift they gave us:

Good for - returning the hospitality of lovely people.

And this coming week is full of more Good Things with S arriving from Sydney tomorrow for a week.  That'll keep the Bad Things at bay for a bit longer.

My Creative Space

The Creative Space at Kootooyoo is on holidays but to keep up the habit, I thought I'd post on things that I have been working on anyway.  I have two projects on the go; the Wonky Star Quilt, which is taking ever so long to hand quilt, and a cowboy quilt for a baby boy due to make his entrance later this month.  Starting on the second before I had finished the first is not a good habit to get into but is the result of what I have learned over the last few weeks, which is that hand quilting is definitely a winter craft.  It is no fun hand sewing a quilt when the weather is hot and in fact it is pointless as your hands slip when trying to get the needle through the three layers of the quilt, resulting in even more wonky stitches than normal and frayed nerves.  I definitely do not need to spend more time correcting mistakes, so I gave it away when the mercury was in the high 30s at the beginning of last week.  At that stage I started work on cutting and machine piecing the cowboy quilt.  It has come together nicely so far, despite a cutting error which necessitated inclusion of a red inner border that is definitely not in the pattern!  I'm really happy with my progress since Monday night;  just the bottom border to join before sewing the top together.  The fabric was quite tricky to put into the design - even though I liked the range, the large scale of most of the prints meant that a lot of thought had to go into the composition.  I reluctantly decided that  my favourite of the lot couldn't be used for the top, but will make a great backing.

The next decision is what to use for the binding.   A darkish blue print from the same range (Wrangler's Ranch from South Sea Imports) is looking like the front runner, but I'll finish the top before making a decision.

A Year of Good Things

Pip from Meet Me at Mikes is running a Year of Good Things Project.  I think this is a great thing to do and introduces a wonderful guiding principle into our lives.  I think we all do Good Things everyday, we just don't take note of them.  Initially, I thought being in a project like this would require a significant amount of effort but I don't think that is the case.  So I am going to join in but won't be blogging about this daily - now that sounds like far too much effort.  It also set me thinking about whether Good Things can be negated by Bad Things;  ie. Good Thing 6/366 was getting up at 5.30am on a day off to go to the gym.  The Bad Thing was on the way home buying a Wagon Wheel (chocolately, marshmallowy thing) to have for morning tea.  Then another Good Thing was not giving in to cravings for a hamburger with the lot for lunch.  So two Good Things wipe out the bad thing?  Interesting.

Anyway, thinking about the best Good Thing for the week, that would have to be:

4/366:  spotting dog reported missing by a neighbour, following it but when not able to catch it, letting locals know about it, then reporting whereabouts back to neighbour (who hopefully has got it back by now)
For:  Previously unknown resident of our street.

Stos's best Good Thing for the week was taking an elderly neighbour shopping this morning.  He is a very Good person.

And the relevance of the picture above?  That's my nephew E, who is a very Good Thing for our family.

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!

Unashamed advertising

I'm not a great one for entering competitions.  But this one was worth creating a Facebook identity (avoided to date)  in order to "Like" the two businesses sponsoring the giveaway, writing a specific blog post covering the competition and putting a banner up in order to win a Naughty Shorts frock and a pair of clogs from  Lotta from Stockholm.  Since reading about Bec from Naughty Shorts in Frankie Magazine earlier this year, I have bought two of her dresses and I love, love, love them.  Her size 8 fits me perfectly and her vintage fabric range is just divine.  So there is not much I wouldn't do to get two extra entries in her giveaway.

This is a picture of my latest purchase which is going to be my favourite frock this summer: