Remembering special things

I do feel rather Australian but when people talk of beauty my heart is most definately not here but in Britain and Europe. The wild flowers, twitch and trill of birds, green green meadows, bluebell woods, postman pat villages that I'd loose myself in and end up in Stratford-Upon-Avon (what the!?). Going for a drive with my family as a child on a Sunday arvo and finding an old farm house complete with work field and pigeon house out the back. Dating 1600 and something.

I miss the richness of history, language, food, diversity and feeling of European countries and their ancient, ancient places. Some of them shocking me with feelings of spirituality or history or connection of family.. I'm not sure which.

I miss Jersey Royals. I miss Jersey milk. I miss real Haggis. Rugged magnificence of  large rivers meeting and making place names. Rummaging in the wilds and scrumping.
I miss Spanish driving, honking my horn at whatever and offending no-one. I miss hitching up our clothes and walking in the shallows for sandy miles to get to an island castle at low tide. Watching for days in Spring as the buds almost shake with anticipation on the cherry trees and finally burst open. The snowdrops peeping through the snow. The bank of daffodils in Spring at Easter time. I still love that wretched scent.
I miss German Christmas markets with the man yelling "Lecker Lecker" selling roasted chestnuts. Watching wide eyed as we attended Semana Santa and saw the resurrection float being carried by a crowd of men down the streets of Cuenca. Realizing we were the only non-Spanish, non-Catholic people in the whole town - magnificent!
I miss stinky, locally made cheese. I miss the distinct change of accent with a half an hour drive in any direction of Birmingham. I miss my feet being on soil that my ancestors walked. I miss family pub lunches and baltis. I miss the National Trust. I miss that awe inspiring moment of approaching Toledo with it's castle walls intact and very much a part of the city! The adventure. The stone cottages with thatched roofs in the village of my birth.

I don't really have that feeling of being in limbo anymore. It lasts for years and years. I'm sure all first generation immigrants feel the same. I've almost mastered the art of NOT rolling my eyes whenever I hear, "wow this place is so old it was built shortly after the first fleet arrived". My brain automatically inserts interesting history here.

Have I had a good old whinge?! Nope, just said how I feel (well except for that last bit!). I still think this is the best place to bring kids up. I like it here but do miss alot of rich and wonderful experiences from my younger days. I'm very very happy that I can sit here enjoying every burst of remembrance.

Speaking of remembrance. Here's what's been on my mind all week. This special weekend.

Hello Mojo

Well it's been a long long journey from my first pregnancy 5 years ago my second 3 years ago and then Post Natal Depression for 18months. Urgh! Hormonal imbalances and crazy brain has finally abated and my cooking mojo (and happy fun mojo!) is back! Everyone's happy. 

Ok so the pic of the preserved roasted capsicum looks.. erm.. unappetizing but they taste very nice. Sweet pickled.

The latest made up recipe is a treat, Apple Almond cake, It's moist like flourless orange cake, except has flour.. and no oranges.

The other night I did a beef casserole with Patritti and the next night when we had the love bird's over for dinner I made the BEST pastry in the whole world and stuck the casserole left overs in it. YUUUUM!

These pics don't really show anything amazing but it's all I've got for now. I ordered some millet flour, rye flour and a whole bunch of nuts, dried fruit and seeds etc from our last co-op order.

Helen (the lady who does the health food orders for me) and I both decided we're sick to the teeth of it. Sooo much work (doing it properly) with nothing in return. Not that getting something in return is sought after, but after doing this damned thing for 7 years now (and Helen for about a year I think) it gets draining, annoying and we end up resentful at those who can't be bothered to pick up on time, pay on time or even get the fact that it's voluntary and share the load a bit.

There are some absolute gems that genuinely are thankful and will help when they can! But generally after each order and the pain in the butt things that happen we don't feel very good about anyone and resent doing it. But how would we get the goodies!?! Aren't most humans motivated by self interest? Of course.

What I DO love is having a home stocked with wholesome ingredients, healthy great quality produce and having the satisfaction of cooking with them knowing the nutritional value is high.

This time I got millet and rye flours to try them out. The rye flour made great sesame rye crackers, nice and crunchy but not too hard. Nice with cheese. It also made GREAT 50:50 unbleached wholegrain and rye flour bread rolls. I know I know, they look flat. I didn't let them rise for very long and it's a sourdough starter so they really needed all day. They were soooo fluffy! Even the next day. PERFECT burger bun recipe. Found it finally!!

 Gotta hurry up and pack these babies before the kids get too comfortable. There's a mouse in this house! I'm sure it won't be interested in the health food. There's plenty elsewhere

I pack dry goods (with oil/moisture content less than 10%) like THIS

Warm and Fuzzy Chocolate

Thank goodness there are more people getting involved with fair trade. It makes such a HUGE impace that we really have no idea how our small choices affect the lives of others for good and bad.
x

On My Mind..

 Today we went to my favourite piece of open ground. I took the kids to the veggie garden first and was so happy to see them pointing out the ones that we also have at home. Pretty good for 4 and 2years!!

 This big bertha of a ginger plant was flippin' amazing! It must be so old. Taking cuttings isn't too bad... is it? Na!

 DS1 and his Easter egg basket. 3 picture shrink wrapped hard boiled eggs in a woolly nest.

 Gorgeous Autumn day. We napped well!

Eat that Yellow Dragon (and Hooley dooley)

Well here's a pic I forgot to put on before. (I think). The wiggly zucchinis from my neighbour down the street (who has a mandala garden like this one but way better). These are vertically climbing zucchinis that grew so many that she gave me about 3 kilos and then more. So what else but rabbit bread and the fluffiest, most moist and yummy zucchini lemon scones (yes they worked!).

Wiggly zucchini scones:

1 cup finely grated zucc

bit of lemon zest

1cup unbleached flour

1 tablespoon butter or coconut oil to rub into flour

1 tsp baking powder

That's it! rub in butter to flour and baking powder, add zucc and lemon zest and you're good to cut and bake. I think I baked at 170C for 15/20mins. Can't quite remember. Until golden anyway. YUUUUM.

Eat that Yellow Dragon... Fruit
 About a year and a half ago, we went to the Qld/NSW border for a holiday. What luck to find a place called Tropical Fruit world!!!  Steve rolled his eyes the whole day, "did you see that guy taking pictures of an Avocado on a tree?!" my response, "Why weren't YOU taking pictures?!"
Anyway, we got to try all the lovely tropical fruits and this one I've finally seen in the shops. I don't like the red one.

 This one has the texture of a soft ripe pear, seeds like a kiwi and tastes like.... erm.... water. Maybe with a teeny tiny after taste of tapioca, but mostly just juicy water. HA! Oh well. Good for us I'm sure.







Hooley Dooley.. This bread is really olive oil bread made into mini burgers. I forgot that at such a high temp (220C) this kind of bread creates lovely air pockets. Olive oil bread by Richard Bertinet is simple. Flour, water, salt, olive oil. It's so fluffy and crisp it's delightful. NOT the ideal think for mini burger buns...

With sourdough starter the bread doesn't rise as fast BUT in the oven they really pop up.








Lucas loved stuffing carrot sticks through the holes and eating his that way.






These are the little guys. The burgers are made from left over red salmon, small kidney beans and sweet potato from the previous night's dinner. They SCOFFED them down! Woohoo!

 p.s. I was out of carrots, zucchini and sunflower seeds.. oh and sultanas. So this is renamed "bird bread" with pepitas, raisins, currants and dried banana coins. I didn't let it rise over night, just 4 hours so it's a little dense but soooo nice and we love it.

The best kind of post, pear crubmle and a whoops.

EDIBLE GIFTS!

I received my long awaited birthday present last week. Nice!
FREEEEE from Anathoth. How lovely




If it's not home made and very good, then just go out and buy Anathoth jam. It's from NZ.

Another six jars of jam to my store cupboard plus the home made plum jam from my bro's small holding, makes at least a year and bit's worth of jam. Nice!

...Speaking of food

Success in the (bought a) glut of fruit and using it department. I got about 4kilos of really ripe pears for a dollar YES! A DOLLAR! shared them, and then used my share to make pear crumble PROBLEM, no oats. So I used my home made raw muesli (rolled oats, sunflower kernels, date, sultanas and pepitas) mixed with unbleached flour, butter and a bit of sugar for the topping.


The filling is raw sliced ripe pears with about a half cup of frozen raspberries ontop before the crumble mix.

 

The kids ate it for dessert and breakfast. ;o)

Woops.. I made some Richard Bertinet style olive oil bread rolls the other day - gorgeous flavour. Lucas helped... burnt them. grr!

 

you get a round of dough and cut it with a credit card and turn them inside out. Fun.. if you get to eat them afterward. They were rock hard with my overcooking.

Cin sourdough/End of season/dehydrator

Well.. it burnt. Stupid computer. The crust was nice and thin (as you can see) but it was totally burnt so I cut it all off!

The inside was lovely and fluffy, soft and tasty. Albeit rather small slices.

So I stuck some more bread on to do the long rise and used the last bits of produce from my garden to make a lamb shank casserole. I use Patritti to drink and cook with as I'm Tetotal. It's delish and really adds that depth of flavour you need with some dishes.

The next day my lovely neighbour came around with some zucchinis she'd grown. Wiggly ones!!
I totally forgot to ask her what they were called. They're climbers.

Then I got a bargain at the shop. Dried them and packed them away. I think I'll grind them up for a tasty flavour additive to soups or.. just make it all a soup!

 Still on a roll I made very very bad jelly with agar agar. As you can see - spoon standing.. blurgh! haha!