2ish minute raspberry sorbet (with an ordinary food processor)

Last week I went to a Thermomix demo. Now I am not really a fan of the fancy machine (nor its price tag). It has some great features, I am particularly impressed by the milling bit. But let's face it I am an old bag and I have been married for almost 20 years and I have cupboards full of contraptions that do the same stuff.

My friend who is still deciding the merits of the machine for herself asked the demo person "what can it make that is not slop?" tis true really - it can't roast stuff all lovely and brown and you can't smell the onion slowly frying in butter with garlic swirling through. I am getting side tracked.

I was impressed with the super quick sorbet the demo person whipped up. I thought to myself, I bet I can do that in my 20year-old food processor. So I did. YUMMMMMMMMMMM!

measurements are dodgy and I reckon just about any frozen fruit will do.

4 handfuls of frozen raspberries
a tablespoon or so of sweetener (or none)
1 egg white (preferably from a very happy chook fed nice stuff and roaming freely)

Throw the raspberries and sweetener in your food processor (or blender might work too) and whizz till they are a pretty fine crumble.
Add the egg white and whizz again. The egg white will bind the crumble and make it all creamy)

That is it my friends - enjoy.

Oi! No eating in the patch!

Tis strawberry season... the girls and I took my mum (who is visiting) for a little drive up the coast to some lovely ripe strawberry fields... we skipped a little though the rows and picked big fat, ripe berries and plonked them into our tubs. Loads and loads of them, there was some overflow - they were sweet and warm from the sun... they made our tastebuds tingle

It really was a delightful way to spend an hour - cause it just doesn't take that long to pick a couple of kilos of strawberries.. and I am only feeling a little guilty that we all ate one (or two) in the patch because a quarter of us can't read signs anyway.

and another quarter of us (me) paid $16 a kilo for the rest! Eeek! Ah well there are worse things to spend money on.

Happy holidays.

I think there is something missing from my soil. For the last 18 months I have been trying to grow a red tomato... it would seem that need to be content with orange ones - loads of ripe, juicy orange ones...

I have planted four different tomato seedlings from four different sources - the last a 'sister' seeding from my brother's garden and his produces scores of fat RED truss tomatos... mine grows orange ones. I have followed threads of web conversations suggesting too much/not enough..water, sun, shade, heat or cold but I don't reckon any of those reasons is it... it is a nutrient thing, I'm sure of it, I just don't know which one... any ideas you care to share?

 

A stickful of sugar

The big girl and her friend made biscuits the other day; I left them to it... I was busy crafting pincushions. She said they wanted to make biscuits with cutters, not the roll in a ball and let the heat of the oven do its thing kind.

 

To be honest I didn't even know we had all those sprinkles and chocolately bits in the house. They made a special one for the wee girl who was sleeping while they were baking.

It is a Yummy Earth organic lollipop... that makes it good for her, yes? shh don't tell the big girl they use black carrots, pumpkins and alfalfa for colouring and no sugar!

Happy Father's Day

To Mine, and theirs.

We are off to eat pizza (his favourite food, not mine or even theirs) at Arriverderci Pizzeria (I noticed they have a gelati bar...)

Birthday cakes and balloons

I LOVE cake, it is one of my very favourite things to eat... and there is just something so very good about butter icing (and I don't like butter..well not in its raw form but whip it with sugar, bake it, toast it, saute' in it). And I love making birthday cakes; I fill them full of love and can't wait to share them with family and friends.

This year I made extra cakes, little felt party cakes in lieu of lolly bags... two years olds don't need lolly bags.

They were fun to make (a little stressful because I left it to the last few days but worth it). I will do a little tutorial sometime... maybe in spring, after the school fair.

The wee girl got some lovely gifts... these are a few of my favourites (all from me... My mother made her the most delightful knitted turtle I will take a picture soon and show you).

The little Alice in Wonderland was made by Cynthia who blogs The Fairies' Nest and sells her stunning creations through her etsy shop. The swiss cheese, felted mice and painted silk play scape were made by Lori of Beneath the Rowan Tree I snaffled it as soon as she posted it on her blog; she has a beautiful etsy shop too. The little owl fabric in the background is a cotton and linen satchel made by a talented friend Helen, her brand name is Asher and I think she will have an online shop soon. Harriet you'll drive me wild! is another of my favourite Mem Fox books (I'm sure we had a copy but for all the looking I did on the too crowded bookshelves I could not find it).

She had a lovely day. Thank you all for your happy words and wishes.

Orange Syrup Cake

For a birthday. For Sarah's (aka queen coordinator of craft group) birthday. She deserves something good ~ she asked for sugar and butter (birthdays are supposed to be a bit indulgent); so I gave her a bit of both.

Wanna make one too? You will need:

1 3/4 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking soda
125g unsalted butter at room temp
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 tbs freshly squeeze orange juice
the finely grated rind od 2 oranges
2/3 cup of buttermilk (or ordinary milk with a dash of vinegar)
Orange Syrup (recipe follows)

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Sift the flour into a bowl with baking powder.
Cream the sugar and butter and add the eggs in one at a time until well combined. Mix in teh rind and the juice.
Stir the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk.
Spoon mixture into a well greased/oiled bundt tin (or round tin) and bake at 180C for 45-50minutes, or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Turn out on a wire rack set over a tray. While the cake is still warm poke little holes all over the top with a fine skewer, pour the syrup over (keep collecting the syrup that drips onto the tray and pour it over again, and again), decorate with candied peel.

Orange syrup: combine 1 cup icing sugar with 1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, 2 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice and 2 tbs freshly squeezed lime juice in a saucepan and stir over low heat until teh sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, add julienned rind of 1 orange and cook for 10 minutes. Use warm.

Eat with friends, warm or cold, with or without fresh cream.

Sing happy birthday if the occassion suits the tune.

There is nothing like a cup of tea

on a cold grey day (especially when my mood is matching the sky)...

My Yarrow plant is flourishing and on the way home from playgroup I picked some new leaves from the Lemon Myrtle tree in Vicky's yard.

Lemon Myrtle is a Queensland rainforest tree; which seems quite at home in Brisbane. When the leaves are crushed in your hand they release the most amazing aroma of strong lemon which is so wonderful to inhale.

 

Snip some up, plonk it in your teapot, pour on boiling water and let it steep for a bit.

I woke this morning with a cold, and I am feeling less than enthuiastic about everything really. The day has been bitterly cold, a sure sign that winter is around the corner... the solstice only a week or so away.

While waiting for these pictures to upload I did a quick google and found that among a hord of fabulous properties Yarrow  is a geat herb to fight colds and Lemon Myrtle strengthens the immune system. So there you go not only does it make me warm inside but it is good for me too.

The Quilt and the Rainbow

Here it is, my big girl and her birthday quilt.

It turns out to be a good hiding place too.

She is calling it her discovery quilt...discovering a new pattern, or favourite block everyday.

Her birthday party was fun; exhausting, but fun. First I filled them full of sugar, and a few strawberries with chocolate fondue.

They entertained themselves from that point until I did the grumpy mummy go to sleep talk at quarter past midnight...I think they were all finally asleep by 1am....and up at 6am.

Crepes with strawberries, raspberries and or blueberries plus or minus (most plus I think) maple syrup for breakfast.

And to top it off (the sugar high I mean) we had cake.

Rainbow cake ~*

As we sent them on their way we gave them each a little present to take home

After they were all gone I had a little sleep.

* I got the rainbow cake recipe from here but substituted 200g natural yoghurt for 250ml of the milk as per the clever little trick here to make the colours vibrant without adding loads of colouring. I didn't used Swiss buttercream instead opting for Italian meringue...just as much sugar but no butter.

The last fruits of summer

Look what my mum made and sent for the wee girl - the last ripe cherries of summer.

They go beautifully with her basket of vegetables (a gift found last year under the Christmas tree)

I wonder if I smile sweetly I could talk her into knitting a few asparagus stalks too?

Pattern for the cherries, from this book

Our Little Earth Playgroup

Off to feed the horses.

The dark brown one did a 'horsey snort' which gave several wee children, including mine, a bit of a fright ~ Horses are quite big, I imagine being down at unexpected snort level would be startling. Anyway a big hand did some feeding til they found their confidence again.

And how is this for cheating! I photographed the recipe for you ~

can you read it?

Australia Day - lamintons and pavalova

Ahh a public holiday loads of sunshine, plenty of food, family and fun. We spent the day pretty much in the pool. My brother, his wife and their two children joined us as did my sister and brother in law. For lunch we had a BBQ (barbeque) butterflied leg of lamb with a simple salad...dessert was more decadent.

Our passionfruit didn't ripen in time so we bought a couple for about a dollar each (crikey!) because they are a must have topper for pavalova.

This picture is especially for Gardenmama, I do wish you could taste one; your tastebuds would do a little dance.

and this is what we did with them (your tastebuds would be tingling all over by now!)

For those of you who may not have been introduced to the pleasures of pavalova; it is a base of light fluffy meringue tpped with whipped cream, fresh fruit and and passionfruit pulp. I kept it pretty simple this year and I cheated by buying little mini meringue nests rather than making one but that is because I was busy making lamingtons and i didn't have enough hands or time to do both!

Lamingtons ~ sponge cake, coated in chocolate and rolled in coconut another little Aussie favourite.

Here is the recipe:

For the sponge cake ~3 free range eggs from happy chooks, 1/2cup caster sugar, 1/2cup corn flour, 2tbs self raising flour.

Preheat your oven to 180degrees C (160 fan forced) not sure what the fahrenheit is. Grease a laminton tin (yes there really is such a thing!) an oblong tin, deepish say 30cmx15cm something like that anyway; line the bottom with baking paper. In a small bowl whisk together the corn and self raising flours and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat the three eggs together on high til they are thick, light and fluffy. Gradually add the caster sugar while you continue beating until all the sugar has dissolved. Quickly and lightly flod in the flours into the egg mixture - do not over mix - you want it light and fluffy. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer gently poked in the middle comes out clean. Cool in the tin for about 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool. When cool cut into small squares.

For the chocolate icing ~ 3 cups of icing sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa, 90g butter, 3/4cup boiling water. (I know sugar overload!)

Combine the icing sugar and cocoa in a bowl; stir in combined butter and water and mix til smooth.

To put it all together ~ 2-3 cups of desiccated coconut and a couple of forks.

 Using two forks, dip the sponge squares, one at a time, into the chocolate icing mixture,

roll in coconut, and stand on a wire rack. Repeat til there is no bare cake left. Let the lamingtons sit for at least an hour (we put them in the fridge) before gobbling.

Happy Australia Day to all who reside here and those who live abroad but have hearts here.