Happy New Year, Resolutions and Gardening News

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HAPPY NEW YEAR

We spent a lovely Christmas Day with our extended family. Enjoyed catching up with all the news. Not so lovely was the 43°C top temperature. Really hot nights, too, so I’m watering the garden every night. Then Boxing Day was hot at 44° (111°F) but we’d already planned to take my Mother shopping for a new television. Despite the shop being air conditioned it was very hot and crowded and this week we have to wear masks. Not complaining, as we’ve only had to wear masks twice in two years.

We have had 9 deaths from Covid in Western Australia and I realise we are really lucky. We will need to wear masks at any New Year parties and the numbers able to attend will be limited. Why? Because 86 close contacts of a French unvaccinated back packer who arrived in WA and was diagnosed with CV-19 haven’t fronted up to be tested.

The best post Christmas thing is settling to the books we received as presents. We are a family of keen readers and enjoy this slower time after the festivities to read and stay cool. There’s always lots of leftovers to eat for two or three days so it’s a relaxing time. One night we wanted variety and had a curry feast! Unfortunately, the garden is wilting. It is also too hot to set up our new worm farm.

Luscious curry dinner, not cooked by me!

I was really interested when a friend told me her family only exchanged gifts they could eat, drink or read. Probably because we’re all in a similar age group we don’t need other things but still enjoy reading, eating or drinking! In fact, most of our gifts already fit into these categories but now is the time to formalise the plan

resolutions

woman stretching This is definitively not me!

Do you set New Year goals? I know lots of people see the new year as a fresh start and therefore the ideal time to make changes for the better. I’m not big on coming up with goals for the new year, despite being aware of some changes I’d benefit from making, but I’m always interested in what other people are planning. Popular goals mentioned amongst friends regarded diets, exercising, drinking less alcohol, spending more time with family and friends, decluttering and organising expenditure. In fact, losing weight or just eating a healthier diet are the most popular resolutions in the Western World. Do you make resolutions? I’d love to know if you keep them!

happy birthday greeting card on brown wooden table

decluttering

We spent a day decluttering. It wasn’t a New Year Resolution but really a necessity. The large cupboard under the stairs was overly stuffed with things. We couldn’t get to the back! About four years ago when I decided to retire I brought home and stored work things in case I ever wanted to go back. Of course, I’ve never looked at any of those things since. Our son moved home after a couple of years in another state and many of his things were stored and forgotten in the cupboard, too, when he returned. Years of me painting, drawing and printing have resulted in an overflow of art works. I have no idea what to do with them.

It took a day, many difficult decisions and two trips to the tip plus a large box of things to donate to sort out the cupboard. It is at risk of being filled with the overflow of our lives again as it is on the way into the main part of the house and we can just shut the door on the things we can’t decide about and there are many. But for now we’re just enjoying standing at the door and admiring how organised and tidy it all is, however briefly.

gardening

purple flower in macro lens photography

In gardening news, the agapanthus are loving the scorching sun and blooming with great gusto, the alstomerias have given up, the roses are managing but not enthusiastically and I am picking passionfruit, blueberries, a few tomatoes, coriander, perpetual spinach, mint, parsley and basil.

Wishing You All A

Happy And Healthy New Year!

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T’was The Day Before Christmas

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It might be the day before Christmas but all is not still in this house! My Mother and our son are staying and I am still running around taking care of Christmas preparations. The Christmas carols CD is on, the oven is on and the heat is high. The cards are mailed and the gifts are wrapped. The fridge is bulging but I know all the food will get eaten.

Lots of last minute jobs finally done before the Big Day. Cherries were bought, drinks enjoyed with neighbours, all the plants were watered as it is very hot (42C/108F) and the table is set for tomorrow. No crackers this year as I left it too late to order empty crackers to fill myself with chocolates, scratch and win cards and jokes. I wont be buying crackers with plastic novelties which end up in the bin after lunch!

last minute treats

Thinking about a really fast, last minute classic Christmas treat? Me too, so I made Rumballs. All you need is a 250gm packet of plain sweet biscuits crushed using a rolling pin. You can put them in a food processor to crush them but it will result in very fine crumbs and I like a few bigger, crunchy, biscuity pieces in my Rumballs.

Add a tin of condensed milk, a teaspoon of vanilla and 3 tablespoons of rum to the crushed biscuits. I add half a cup of unsweetened cocoa, too, to make the mixture firm and not too sweet. Mix with a knife. It will feel quite stiff but that means it will roll easily into small balls. I roll them in my hands but there is no way I’m including a photo of that bit as I was covered in Rumball mess!

Drop the balls into a bowl of coconut or another bowl of unsweetened cocoa. It took two of us to do this part, one rolling the sticky balls and one dropping them in the coconut or cocoa and then putting them on a lined tray to chill in the fridge. Leave for a few hours then they’re ready to serve. Delicious!

shopping and silicone covers

Wandering around while we were in Kalgoorlie, looking for stocking fillers, I spotted these silicone sheets. The packet said they stretch to cover bowls securely. I’ve tried bee wax covers. I tried bought ones and ones I made myself and they just don’t stay on in the fridge! So I bought these. I currently use silicone bowl covers. Eventually, with constant use, the covers snap and break but they do seal well for freshness.

I use these silicone covers all the time. When I saw this packet of three different sized flat covers I bought them. Back to Perth and tried them. They’re useless, they don’t seal at all! They don’t even partially seal.

So what was I going to do with three sheets of useless silicone? Well, I cut them into strips and used them as shelf liners in the fridge door where they do a good job!

New, useful fridge door shelf liners.

two great books

Very little spare time but I’ve squeezed in two books found on my son’s bookshelves.

The first was Under The Wig. A Lawyer’s Stories of Murder, Guilt and Innocence by William Clegg QC. This case book and part memoir follows the progression of the son of provincial florists who achieved mediocre success at school and went on to be a “squatter” in a London law practice and eventually, became the head of a large London firm.

Clegg write clearly and concisely. He believes everyone should have access to fair representation in court, despite their crime and outlines the consequences to the deep cuts in Legal Aid funding in the UK.

He writes about appealing to the jury and winning the trust of the judge. He seems to have a almost forensic skill for disseminating information and evidence. These are intriguing stories, well written. A good read.

The second book, Hitler’s Horses also relied on collecting, analyzing and acting on evidence. In this case, the Dutch art detective, Arthur Brand had heard a whisper that two bronzes by Josef Thorak made for Hitler had not been melted down and destroyed at the end of the war, but where held by a private collector of Third Reich memorabilia who wanted to sell them.

The Standing Horses are 4.9m (16 feet) high and 10m (33 feet) long but had been carefully concealed since they were spirited away from a secret location in East Germany before the wall fell. Originally they had stood at the front of Hitler’s New Reich Chancellery in Berlin. Brand eventually located the statues and the police retrieved them and other artworks.

This book is translated from Dutch to English and parts of the discovery and retrieval remain secret. At times the story feels awkward but it was a compelling read.

Merry Christmas and

Happy Holidays

to you all!

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Chicken Roulade and Christmas Cakes

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My extended family will be coming to our house for Christmas lunch. It will probably be a very hot day, as it usually is, so I’m scrolling through recipe books and making lists for cold food to be served on platters. As we’ll have family staying I’d like some things to serve as leftovers the next day, too.

Making plans.

making chicken roulade

Planning Christmas entertaining and want a change? I’ve bought the ham but wanted a change from turkey. I decided to practice making an old fashioned chicken roulade. It can be eaten hot or cold. The filling can be altered to suit the season. The filling I chose had leeks as they looked so fresh at the greengrocers..

To make a roulade begin by brining the chicken. This ensures the meat stays moist and tasty. I laid the breasts in a container and poured the brine to completely cover the meat for 24 hours. I use free range chicken breasts so their size is not uniform.

The brining mix is 1/2 cup of cooking salt dissolved in 2 litres of water, left to cool. Then pour it over the breasts, cover and leave in the fridge.

After 24 hours, remove the breasts, pat dry and trim off any fatty bits.

Lay the breast on a length of baking paper and cut through the middle, not going all the way through. Lay the butterflied breast on one half of the paper and fold the other half over. Most cooks use plastic wrap for this step but I try to avoid using single use plastic.

Use a rolling pin, meat tenderiser or even a bottle to flatten the breast. I use this little rolling pin as it’s just the right size. It began life in a Play Dough set but I finally adopted it about thirty years ago as it’s just the right size for so many jobs!

Uncover the butterflied breast. Check the thickness. Trim off any scrappy bits.

Lay the filling down the middle and roll one end over it. Tuck the edge under the filling and roll it into a sausage shape.

I was trying two types of meat to roll around the chicken. I used prosciutto and a smoky bacon. Both retain the moisture of the roulade. I will use the bacon for the Christmas lunch roulade as the prosciutto was quite salty.

Bacon and two prosciutto roulades ready to roast. Some cooks wrap the rolls in plastic wrap and poach them in boiling water to secure the neat shape before roasting but I’m not wrapping anything in plastic and then heating it! I rolled the breast wrapped in the bacon or prosciutto, tied with kitchen string and put in the oven.

Into a 160ºF oven and cook, turning the rolls when one side is browned. Remove when both sides are browned, leave to cool. Snip off string.

Slice when it’s cool and enjoy! I also made gravy from the pan juices but the prosciutto meant it was too salty.

I browned a tablespoon of pine nuts and then a well washed, finely chopped leek. When they were cool I mixed in 200gm of cream cheese and four finely chopped chives to make the filling. Left it to mature in the fridge for 24 hours while the chicken brined. It was easy to spread on the breasts and tasted very good.

After I’d made the roulades I had five rashers of bacon left over. Quick audit of the fridge as I needed to shop that afternoon. I gathered bits and pieces left in the fridge to make a pie. Apart from the bacon I used five eggs, an onion I browned, some chopped up broccoli, some grated cheese and a tomato to make a pie. Eaten cold for two lunches, it was delicious!

christmas cakes

The next job to be done for Christmas was making the two Christmas Cakes. The fruit had been macerating for over a month. Normally I soak it for longer, but this year has not been a normal!

We each stirred the mixture and made a wish.

Hope all your holiday plans are going well. Sadly, some families will be separated by new outbreaks of CV-19. We live in very different times.

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Visiting Kalgoorlie

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We’ve just spent a week in Kalgoorlie staying with our son who lives there. Kalgoorlie is a large,vibrant and diverse town. Settled in early 1893 after gold was discovered, the town has grand old buildings, very humble small corrugated iron houses and modern brick and tile homes. In fact, Kalgoorlie is a boom town again and there are new suburbs with very attractive new houses.

We like to go exploring! Our first big day out involved driving the Burra Woodline, a 28 kilometre unsealed road following the remnants of a bush railway network. Early European settlers established a railway camp and industrial repair hub at Barra Rock at the end of the track. The camp and industrial hub moved when the line moved. The railway transported timber for mining and domestic use in Kalgoorlie. The tracks radiated out from the central hub, clearing the timber as they moved each time.

Still some wildflowers in bloom.

These very pretty flowers growing on a bush at least a metre high look like tulips.

Barra Rock is also a natural water catchment area. The early pioneers built a rock dam wall to capture and store water which was essential for powering the steam engines. The natural spring is still evident.

Reminders of when this area was an industrial hub and pioneering farming area.

The support for the winch going down this shaft was made from three old drill rods.

The next day we set off out Yarri Road passing the old Yarri Pub, now derelict. Edjudina is the nearest station (large farm) and well. Evidence of so many mines. This area is very stark and beautiful with many signs of mining ventures but most are now abandoned.

Old meets new: a windmill next to a solar panel.

Returned to Kalgoorlie via Pinjin Road and then Bulong Road. Saw lakes and distant hills, a small graveyard, falling down houses and abandoned accommodation camp sites. This is a harsh but very beautiful landscape.

st barbara parade

Truck with four trailers.

Some of the haul trucks stand 6m high, 8m wide and 13m long.

Sunday was the last day of the St Barbara Festival culminating in a parade down the main street of Kalgoorlie. The festival begins on Thursday evening with a memorial service honouring the men and women who have lost their lives in the mining community over the past 125 years. A miner’s lamp is lit at the memorial service to signify the beginning of the festival. The festival has been held every year since 1999, except last year due to CV-19.

Saint Barbara is the patron saint of mining and also military engineers, armourers and artillery men. She was known for her bravery and courage and has been the patron saint of mining since 304AD.

The parade featured decorated mining equipment and personnel, floats, a pipe band and other groups from mining and the community. There were several school groups, Aboriginal service groups, two St John Ambulances, mine rescue teams and other community organisations. People on the floats threw sweets into the audience, which lined both sides of the street. Very exciting for the children. And for us, too!

We enjoy visiting Kalgoorlie. We drive up from Perth. The trip takes about seven hours as we stop twice so the dog can stretch his legs and have a drink. Kalgoorlie is a vibrant town with museums, ghost towns, interesting drives in all directions and so much history. There’s shopping centres and strip shops along the main streets and many cultural attractions. Of course, the main attraction for us is spending time with our son!

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How To Microwave Delicious Asparagus, Electric Cars and Planning For Christmas

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microwaving asparagus

We love asparagus! It’s asparagus season in Western Australia. This year I have been cooking it in the microwave, maintaining the clean, crisp flavour. No soggy asparagus for us. I’ve had a couple of requests to explain how I do it so I’ve photographed the process and hope it’s easy to follow them.

Tear off four sheets of paper towel. Fold in half then dampen under running water. Squeeze so the paper is damp, not dripping. Lay flat.

Wash and the trim the spears. Lay along the short edge of the dampened paper in a single layer.

Then begin rolling the paper to create a cylinder. Microwave for 2 minutes.

The first time you cook asparagus this way, take a piece out and test it to decide if it’s cooked to your taste.

Unwrap, cut in half if you need to and serve with butter and black pepper or however you like!

Asparagus with mushrooms, cauliflower and steak. Delicious.

electric cars

During the week three protesters locked themselves to concrete filled barrels and by parking across a bridge used to access the Burrup Peninsula near Karratha, Western Australia, prevented workers from leaving the LNG hub at the end of their shift. Over 600 cars were unable to pass.( The frustrated workers eventually thwarted the blockade by driving along the beach)

The protesters claim the development of Woodside’s LNG project will produce 1.6 billion tonnes of emissions over its 30 year projected life time. A consultant analyst, quoted in the Financial Review, noted this project will process gas with higher thermal efficiency and lower greenhouse emissions. Woodside claims by exporting gas to India, China and Japan those countries will reduce their dependence on coal.

Our discussion about this news item and the use of energy resulted in my husband writing this brief essay.

The Law of Unintended Consequences

Everything we do, every choice we make, has a consequence or a cost.

Sometimes we consider the cost, sometimes, carried along by feelings and emotion we don’t and sometimes we are just uninformed and unaware of what the real consequences of our actions are.

It feels morally correct to buy an electric car. We feel good about it, righteous. We never think of the energy and CO2 cost of making the car and its battery.

Battery chemicals start out as rock which is mined, crushed, separated, smelted and transported across the world before being put into a new car made from steel which has been created in a similar way. It takes about 68% more energy and produces 68% more CO2 to make an electric car with a battery range of 400km than a conventional car.

Then, if the electric car I buy is fueled with electricity which is not produced by solar energy or wind power it too is responsible for creating more CO2.

By trying to do the right thing I am adding to the problem and increasing the burden. Perhaps it would be better if everyone made their existing car last as long as possible before replacing it with a new electric one. That would produce far, far less CO2 and pollution and require much less energy and be better for the planet.

preparing for christmas

As we near the end of our second year with CV-19 I still feel our celebrations need to be quieter, smaller and less like Christmas celebrations before the pandemic. Western Australia has been closed off for nearly two years with no community transfer, so we feel safe but this cannot continue with pressure to open the borders to other states and the identification of another strain of CV-19, the Omicron strain. We have a few cases in Sydney already.

I’ve reduced our gift giving, our decorating and will even reduce the amount of cooking I’ll be doing, too. There will be the extended family to lunch but I’m planning a simpler menu. I’m still making little gifts for friends and baking two Christmas cakes and a ham, but turkey has gone from the list. Are you doing less, too?

Our son and my Mother will be here for a week or so and we look forward to the lunches and parties already on the calendar but also look forward to the hot days after Christmas Day when we can relax with our usual haul of books ( we are a family of keen readers) and leftovers.

I hope your preparations are going well!

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