It never rains but it pours

Melbourne's weather has not been very kind of late. Yesterday's deluge hit the city HARD

I was listening to the radio reports yesterday about all the flash flooding the heavy rain was causing.

Well, we had our own flash flood....in my Mum's garage!

MONT says he only went to the garage to see how it was holding up, but almost got washed away when he opened the door.

Wouldn't have been such a problem, except we've been storing a WHOLE lot of furniture in there that came from my late Aunt's house...as well as some of our own, like that (used to be) lovely cream sofa.

This was what it looked like outside where the drain was obviously blocked!.

The Plumber's been called to use one of those drill/probe/snakey things to try to sort out the blockage. Hope he gets here quick!

There's still water pooling in there this afternoon. Looks like the weekend will be spent emptying the garage and moving furniture so the place can be dried out...and then we'll have to decide what has to be "turfed" and what can be saved.

Getting ready for Christmas - Candles

Our family Christmas get together is just a few days away now - panicking much yet?

This year I got the idea of making a special candle feature for the table...and I wanted either brass, copper or black.

I went with black as soon as I saw these little candle holders at K-Mart. For $6 each

I bought four of them with the idea of having a very long feature in the centre of the table, but then realised the piece would have to be done in two
separate units to accommodate the outdoor umbrella we have that slots through a hole in the middle of the table.

Mont had some pieces of timber in the back yard, that would be perfect

He cleaned them up and then cut them in half....now, how to attach the candle holders to the wood.

I suggested some little staples that I could spray black. 

He suggested cutting off the bottom cross-bar piece and then slotting the little legs into holes he drilled in the wood.
I wasn't sure because I was worried they would wobble and not be strong enough to hold the candles upright.

                                                             Now all that's left to do is give the wood a coat of dark grey stain, stick the little legs in their slots and see how they go

Banana Chocolate and peanut butter bread - yep you read that right

This is a recipe from The Minimalist Baker...but I tweaked it and it's not bad at all.

If you want the vegan gluten free version, head on over there...this uses just plain flour, olive oil, and regular oats...not the organic kind

THE CAST
-----------
1 egg
3 ripe bananas
3 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1/3 cup crunchy peanut butter
3 tablespoons oil (olive oil, coconut oil-whatever you prefer)
1/2 cup raw sugar
3/4 cup almond milk (or whatever milk you prefer)
1 1/4 cup almond meal
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup plain flour
1 cup oats
1/4 cup chocolate chips


ACTION:
------------

Preheat the oven to 180 deg and grease and line a loaf pan with baking paper

Beat the egg and add the banana and mash through, then add the other ingredients down to the almond milk and mix to combine well.

Add the cocoa powder, almond meal, flour and oats and stir, then stir in the chocolate chips

Pour into the prepared loaf pan and bake for about an hour...it should feel firm to the touch and a little cracked on top

Let cool completely before cutting.

• It's pretty tasty. A little bit cakey rather than bready,  but lovely with a cuppa

Savon

I've been on a baking frenzy these past couple of weeks. Cup cakes, orange loaves, bread....and now, I've made soap.

It's the first time I've ever made soap and it was surprisingly easy. 

Much easier and quicker than I thought it would be.

It is a very basic recipe with just four ingredients: water, caustic soda, olive oil and copha. Yep copha

It's from the Mr Home Maker Blog, which I've been reading for a little while now.

The recipe and instructions are here. He can explain the process far better than I. The trick is to get the measurements/proportions right otherwise it just won't work 

These babies are currently drying out in the spare room....

All I can say is it looks like it's going to work out fine

I just have to wait a minimum of six weeks for them to completely dry out. Should be interesting

Sunday baking with DISH

We humans can be strange creatures. 

In a time when cookbook sales are as strong as ever and television cooking shows are rating their socks off...we build apartments that lack a full functioning kitchen...you know, one with a full stove and sink...not to mention enough storage for crockery and cutlery

Food magazines are also as popular as ever.

I used to be a regular buyer of some of them... but then I started realising I wasn't actually cooking anything from them, just looking at the photographs. I was also having a bit of deja vu when looking through them, with similar recipes showing up across the different titles.

Then I accidentally found DISH.

It's a New Zealand magazine and it's fabulous. In fact, for me, it's probably the best of the lot.

I say I found it by accident because I was just going through a magazine rack one day, trying to find something to browse through while we were away on holidays...and the front cover caught my eye...so I flipped through it and found at least four things I would be more than happy to cook.
I bought that edition and the next ...and then started subscribing.

DISH  comes out every two months, so it's not something that's turning up in your letter box every couple of weeks before you've had a chance to get through all the things you want to make in the current edition

I can say I have cooked at least one thing from each of those magazines and they have all turned out well...including today's offering,

It's from the Friday Baking range on the DISH website, put together and photographed by Food Editor Claire Aldous.

(I didn't have any freeze-dried raspberries, so left them off)

Lemon Pistachio Cakes
------------------------------

You'll need: 12 friand or other small cake tins greased and bases lined with baking paper

CAST

70 grams pistachio nuts, finely ground

¾ cup instant polenta
⅓ cup self-raising flour
pinch salt
250 grams butter, soft but not melted
1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
finely grated zest 2 lemons
4 large eggs
juice 1 lemon
1–1½ cups frozen raspberries
----------------------------

ACTION:

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Combine the pistachio nuts, polenta, flour and salt in a bowl. 

Beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and lemon zest until very light and pale. Whisk the eggs together in a jug then gradually beat into the butter mixture.

Add the dry ingredients and the lemon juice and gently beat to combine.

Divide the mixture between the tins and smooth the tops. Dot over the frozen raspberries, but don’t press them into the mixture.

Bake for about 30 minutes until the tops are firm and golden.

Leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the inside of the tins to loosen then remove the cakes and place on a cooling rack.

To serve: Combine 1 cup of icing sugar with 2 to 3 teaspoons of lemon juice to make a runny icing, adding a little more icing sugar or lemon juice if needed. Drizzle the icing off the tip of a teaspoon over each cake.

Top with crumbled freeze-dried raspberries and pistachios if using, then a dusting of icing sugar. Makes 12.

They really are easy to make and even easier to eat!

The Sunshine Coast

The sun goes down in Queensland very early in Winter. Here in Melbourne it's still reasonably light around 6pm...but it's a different story up north. By 5pm you feel like it's time for bed.

The days are mild and sometimes pretty warm ...and the night's are cool and lovely. Perfect for sleeping. We slept with the windows wide open every night.

We drove through torrential rain. It was so heavy the windscreen wipers were working overtime but still didn't allow us to see the road ahead. When we finally rang the front door bell it had eased a little...and we were greeted with open arms and a very cold, long drink! I don't think I've ever been so happy to arrive somewhere.

My brother and sister in law moved to the Sunshine Coast some years ago

They bought a small yacht and sailed up the east coast from Western Port Bay...

They lived on their boat on Sydney Harbour for a while - near Birkenhead Point - until deciding the 2000 Olympics were going to make life there more difficult than they wanted it to be. So they sailed north. Settling first at Airlie Beach for a couple of years and then heading south to Buddina on the Sunshine Coast, where they've been ever since. Then last year, tragedy.

The view from the back of their yard is fabulous.

Sunset is glorious from their backyard

Their pool is lovely, but unfortunately it wasn't quite warm enough for a swim

My sister in law still works part time and has a great life on the Sunshine Coast.

She's decided against moving back to Melbourne to be closer to family. Why would she? She has a life and friends on the Sunshine Coast. Who could blamer her for staying there.

It's been a tough year for her - and our entire family - but  it was lovely being able to catch up and not be worried about shedding a tear while reminiscing....and MONT had a lovely time pottering around in my brother's shed. They had a lot in common - they both love tinkering, modifying and making things.

Designer luggage on a road trip? I don't think so...

No I haven't been stuck in Dubbo for the past few weeks...

I didn't get to see much of Dubbo actually. We arrived at the Endeavour Court Motor Inn just after 5pm....and it turned out to be a good choice.

We chose it because it was on the north side of the city and frankly, we didn't want to do a "U" turn and head back into town and start searching for another place to stay.

David was a great host..and had a chuckle  when I told him he needed to be careful with my "designer" luggage. It was a blue plastic IKEA bag. No, you don't need traditional luggage on a road trip. .

We walked to the Bowling Club for dinner - better known as SPORTIES. All I wanted was a tall glass of something cold and I almost skulled it

It was a buffet dinner - OK, but nothing to write home about. We slept very well that night though

It was still dark and raining steadily when we left Dubbo the following morning...the rain got so hard at times we could hardly see through the windscreen.

We made it to Coonabarabran and then headed to Narrabri and Moree, where we stopped for lunch. Then after a short break and a coffee...we headed for the border and Goondiwindi.

A few of our friends were a little surprised we chose to drive to Queensland instead of flying. Well...Mont had promised to do a few things around the house for my Sister in Law...and we also wanted to see how his new (to him) car would go as far as comfort and fuel efficiency would go.

...and it went great!!

Mont traded in his Toyota work truck for a Ford Ranger. It wasn't a brand new vehicle but didn't have a lot of mileage on the clock and was still "as new" inside.

The main difference for us? We were able to walk normally when we got out of the car without looking like we'd been crippled during the drive.

Our aim was always to get as far as we could without being silly about it. Little did we know we'd make it to our destination that night in torrential rain.

We headed for Toowoomba and arrived there just before 4pm. Then onto Esk, Kilcoy, Beerwah and our final destination, Buddina, in the heaviest downfall I've ever experienced.

One Night in Dubbo

We left home last Thursday...leaving the cold behind us and headed north....up the Newell past Seymour and Nagambie .. crossing the Murray River into New South Wales and stopping at Tocumwal for some morning tea. I'd packed some things so we didn't have to find a cafe. BUT, our thermos failed us. I poured the coffee and it was stone cold. Not sure if it was the thermos or the fact we'd left it in the boot of the car. It was probably 2 degrees when we left home. No wonder it had gone cold.

After a coffee, we headed towards Jerilderie, past Neranderah and Grong Grong ...then to Forbes and Parkes. The countryside was beautiful, just like the day. It was cold but clear and sunny....for a while.

We didn't really care where we ended that first day. We were making good time, but the heavy rain made the decision for us. Dubbo it was.

Hall Table - finished

The little hall table I painted is now finished and back in the hallway

Here it is before the little knobs were put on

I wanted something a little bit different...and found these at Schots Home Emporium in Melbourne. 

Not something I would normally choose, but hey, they're only knobs and if I change my mind down the track, they can always be swapped out for something else

So that's another little job off my to-do list, which is damn long but gradually getting shorter.

A cake with a difference

I was hunting around for a cake recipe recently and came across one for a Red Velvet cake. But when I was looking through the ingredients, realised the only thing that distinguishes it from a regular old cake was red food colouring.

Sure it looks nice, but I wanted something with a bit more substance. and not not just food colouring. So I found this recipe and it's probably the most delicious and fool proof cake I have ever made. In fact it's so easy I've passed it on to a number of friends...and the proof must be in the pudding - or cake - because they've all reported back that they love it.

So here it is...


Chocolate Beetroot Cake
-----------------------------

The cast:

425g can beetroot - drained
3 eggs
1 1/4 cup caster sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
100g dark chocolate - melted
1 3/4 cups plain flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons bi carb soda

Action:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees or 160 fan forced

Finely chop the drained beetroot in a food processor
In a medium bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar until pale and creamy, then gradually beat in the oil until well combined

Stir in the cooled, melted chocolate and the chopped beetroot. Then in another bowl, sift together the flour, bicarb and cocoa, then stir into the egg and beetroot batter

Let it sit for at least 5 minutes. This helps the gluten in the flour to relax and will minimize the cake cracking on the top. Also, the batter will be quite runny. Don't panic, it's supposed to be.

Pour the mixture into a 25cm cake pan that's been lined with baking paper.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes - check with a skewer to see if the centre is cooked.
When it is, cool the cake slightly in the pan before removing it

For the frosting:

I haven't actually measured this when I've made it, so these measurements are approximate.

Put about 3/4 cup of cream into a heat proof container and microwave for about 30 seconds until it's hot. Put about 100g  chocolate melts into the cream and stire until it's melted. Then put 3 heaped tablespoons of icing sugar in and stir until it's all combined. I then pour the icing mixture over the cooled cake and let it set.

All you have to do now is eat and enjoy

You can play around with the recipe a bit. Sometimes, I've added half a jar of drained cherries just for something different.