November 2023 – MakeCookGrow.com

It’s December!

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And just like that, it’s the first of December and I’m not really ready!

Luckily, I began soaking the fruit for the two Christmas cakes we make each year ages ago, so when the opportunity arose to mix and cook the cakes, I was ready. Ably assisted by my husband, both cakes were in the oven and the kitchen was cleaned within two hours. Smells very good.

Every so often I’m tempted by a Christmas Cake recipe described as ‘fabulous’,’ quick’, ‘ready in no time’ and we’re always disappointed. The recipe I use came from my Aunt via my Mother and the photocopy is stained and showing signs of being folded year after year. It is still the best cake! The list of ingredients is long and converted from Imperial to metric measurements. I assemble everything on the kitchen bench before I begin, streamlining the actual mixing time. Who doesn’t enjoy the distinct aromas of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, a splash of almond essence and vanilla? And the mixed dried fruit has been soaking in port for about two months and smells pretty good, too.

So, I line the tins with brown paper, then parchment paper, holding the layers in place with pegs! It works. I remove them before the cake tins are really full. Once the cakes are cooked, which takes about four hours, they’re left to cool in the tins in the oven. Some days later, my husband begins dosing them with the port drained from the mixed fruit and kept in a jar. Using a skewer, he pokes the cakes then drizzles them with the port. These are rich and beautifully moist cakes by the time we start eating them!

Ready for the oven. I simply decorate the top of the cakes with cherries and almonds. I am the only one who likes the traditional layer of marzipan and icing, so I don’t bother anymore.

CRAFT

My other Christmas occupation has always been craft. Inspired by a lovely gift from a friend, I have made air dried hearts. My dear friend gave us the blue and white porcelain heart when our adored dog Louis left us suddenly on the 9th of March.

I rolled the air dry clay on a bread board and used a cookie cutter to cut the heart shapes. Previously, I’d made holes in ornaments I intend to hang using a straw. No plastic straws in this house anymore! Resorted to the sharp end of a temperature probe. Not perfect.

Left the hearts to dry for a few days, turning them regularly. I think I should have made them thicker as these needed flattening as they curled a little on the edges.

The process is similar to covering the baubles. ( here) Using the same 3 ply patterned paper napkins/serviettes, I separated the layers. I glued the blue and white patterned paper onto the now dry hearts. I used a UHU glue stick. ( I use a lot of this glue on all sorts of projects, so I look for the multiple packs on sale before school goes back. Buying three at a time can be very economical!)

Needed small, very sharp scissors to trim the paper in line with the edges. Then I realised it was far easier to trim the overhanging paper, leaving enough to glue onto the sides. Quicker, easier. Then I poked the hole through the paper napkin layer and added a ribbon to hang the hearts or tie them to gifts. I’ll be making more of these!

This flurry of activity has been prompted not only by Christmas approaching but also because I had my second eye surgery last week. I had very poor eyesight, now I am really pleased by my restored vision. It is life changing. I will start driving again this week, I can read easily without holding the text right up to my eye, watching the television is amazing and I can see faces.

The first surgery was perfect, the second not so easy. By the time I was discharged from hospital my eye was really uncomfortable. Eventually needed pain relief, at which point we discovered we had an almost empty packet of Panadol. Had no impact at all. Another search revealed some codeine. Slight reduction of pain but the codeine did let me sleep for a few hours. It was an extremely long, painful night. Saw the surgeon early the next morning and he told me the cornea had been injured. Anaesthetic eye drops helped but I was also sent off to get better pain relief. We’ll be prepared in future for treating any sort of pain with a supply of effective pain relief.

Eight days later, my right eye is still extremely bloodshot, with occasional pain, but remarkable vision, too. I wander around, looking at the house, at the garden, just taking everything in. Really photophobic, so only going outside without sunglasses in the evening, but it’s early days. I feel very lucky.

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Jacarandas, Tomatoes and Some Other things

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JACARANDAS

Years ago when I began teaching at a new school, the Principal was showing me around. Near the decking outside my new classroom was a magnificent jacaranda tree. The tree was totally covered in flowers as was the deck under it. I admired the tree, saying it was beautiful. I was told most crisply that I wouldn’t feel that way if I had to clean up under it!

I still really like jacaranda trees. There are many around here, but to really enjoy them en masse we go for a drive to Applecross, Ardross and Attadale over the other side of the river. So many mature jacarandas in full bloom. Some of them are very old as my Mother went to school in this area and she remembers planting some of them on Arbor Day as a small child. She is now 92. So pretty.

The jacaranda is not native to Australia but comes from South America.

tomatoes

Nothing tastes as good as freshly picked, home grown tomatoes. I’ve had great crops over the years, but more recently I’ve had to share the bounty with the river rats. In an attempt to enjoy our fair share I have all sorts of cages and protective frames to keep the tomatoes safe.

My Mother’s tiny tomatoes taste wonderful. She kept me some which I brought back and squashed onto a piece of paper towel, spreading the seeds. Left them to dry out until it was time to plant. Cut the sheet of paper towel into six pieces and buried a square in each pot, covered them with potting mix and watered regularly.

Seedlings germinated in five of the six pots. What happened in the sixth pot? I have no idea! When the seedlings developed four leaves I transplanted them, mostly two in a pot, leaving a week between re-potting each lot of seedlings. I put two in each pot following the advice of a local gardening broadcaster who suggests pulling out the less vigorous seedling later. I can never do this, so end up with so many plants.

Soon I will plant some of the seedlings in their final beds, covered in protective cages, and share the others around. While I’m eagerly awaiting my own crop of tomatoes, I have bought some to try dehydrating them to mimic sun dried tomatoes. Using my son’s dehydrator, I sliced a couple of kilos of washed tomatoes and arranged them on the shelves of the dehydrator, turned it on to the recommended temperature and left it alone for nearly seven hours. I did turn the slices over half way through the process.

At that stage they felt dry so I put them in two jars with a clove of garlic and extra virgin olive oil. Left them to settle for two days then tried them. Very, very good! The tomatoes taste wonderful after soaking in the oil with just the lightest hint of garlic. The tomatoes really shrank during the drying process and only filled two jars. Five days later they are nearly all gone. If I have a glut of tomatoes I will do this again as they tasted very good!

Two jars from all those tomatoes, but the taste is worth it.

My lunch the other day; Italian bread, melted sheeps’ pecorino, sun (dehydrator) dried tomatoes, basil and black pepper. Wonderful.

other things

On the topic of tomatoes, I was asked if I peeled the cucumber before I sliced it to add to the tomatoes and bread in Panzanella Salad. No, after I’ve washed the cucumber I simply run a fork the full length from one end to the other, scoring the skin. Then I halve the cucumber longways before slicing it and adding to the salad. I seem to be making this salad on repeat, but we have been buying lots of bread and I don’t like wasting food. I have a large jar of breadcrumbs already and it’s a bit hot for bread and butter pudding, but just right for Panzanella Salad.

I have just completed a long overdue tidy of the two lower shelves of one half of the laundry cupboard. Many of the things stored on these two shelves were put there the day we moved in and not touched since. Our house took longer that expected to finish, we were under pressure to leave our rental, I had just begun working at a new school and had a student who’d had a full time assistant previously but funding cuts meant no help, all compounded by the Administration being temporarily accommodated in the area outside my classroom while their original area was extended. Constant noise! So I unpacked the necessities and forgot about other things.

Amongst all the ‘treasures’ I found was this wooden base.

It was the base of a wind up Christmas decoration. Overly wound up by a visiting child, it had stopped working and I couldn’t repair it. ( Now I would probably look on YouTube) The top part was thrown out, the base kept. I’d found a candle on the same shelf. It sat nicely on the existing screw in the base. I glued a piece of ribbon at the base of the candle, then glued the faux mistletoe and berry decoration I made a few weeks ago over the ribbon join.

Our first Christmas decoration is now on display.

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Phalaenopsis Orchids, Panzanella and Other Things

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A POT OF ORCHIDS

Cut back and tidied the roses after the most amazing flush of pink and red Pierre de Ronsards, red Father’s Love and yellow Holtemans Gold. Even the Glamis Castle, which I was going to dig out after it was decimated by chili thrip, has bounced back and had beautiful white flowers. No fresh flowers in the house presently, except alstromerias and a few pink Asiatic Lilies.

Decided on phalaenopsis ( moth) orchids to have on the table for the next few weeks. I bought a straight sided glass salad bowl from the op shop/ thrift shop plus three little brass drawer pulls from the hardware shop. Picked up orchid potting mix plus three white phalaenopsis orchids while I was there.

Glued the three drawer pulls on the base of the upended bowl using a clear multipurpose cement and left them to dry. Next day I planted the three orchids including most of their existing soil. Then I filled the rest of the bowl with orchid potting mix. The bowl sits on the table getting diffused light. The plants have settled well and each has had a new bud. When it gets hotter I will mound sphagnum moss on top of the existing soil to keep it moist.

PANZaNELLA

This traditional Tuscan salad is a way to use any leftover bread. Two days after a visit to a new Italian grocer, we had leftover bread and lots of it! I’ve made Panzanella before, using Jamie Oliver’s far more complex recipe, but as a fan of Nagi’s Recipe Tin Eats, (here) I decided to try her recipe. Both are good.

This is a traditional tomato and bread salad, requiring humble bread and seasonal tomatoes. This style of food, called ‘cucina povera’ or food for the poor, relies on beautiful tomatoes and rich olive oil for flavour, topped off with basil. Gather some stale bread, very ripe tomatoes, a cucumber, a handful of basil and, for the dressing, extra virgin olive oil, red or white wine vinegar ( I used red), Dijon mustard and crushed garlic and you’re ready to go! Use a French brand Dijon mustard for the flavour.

Nagi oven roasts her bread. I toasted slices of our leftover bread in the toaster then tore them into bite size pieces. Traditionally the bread is not toasted but, like Nagi, I find the soggy, lumpy bits of unroasted bread a bit unattractive. She drizzles olive oil on her bread before roasting it.

Quick, delicious and a great way to use up leftover bread this salad relies on very ripe tomatoes for flavour and moistness. Eat it when all the dressing is soaked up!

We really liked this salad, so I made it again. I oven roasted some leftover Italian bread, lightly drizzled with olive oil. I also added very thinly sliced red onion as I saw this in other recipes for this salad. Will do that again.

After a few hours, the bread has absorbed the tomato juices and the dressing and is really wonderful. Quick to make, full of fresh tomatoes, cucumber and basil and the best dressing.

So it’s no surprise I made another bowl of Panzanella two days later. This time I pulled apart an Italian loaf and roasted it in the oven, as directed in the recipe. The pieces of roasted bread were bigger than the toasted bread I’d used previously and absorbed more flavour. I’ll roast the bread next time, too, because there will be a next time!

Our new favorite salad, this time with oven roasted bread. Delicious.

OTHER THINGS

Our son came down from Kalgoorlie to spent the weekend here. It was my birthday. He gave me a lovely surprise! A new food processor which mixes, grates, slices and other clever things. I had to use it straight away, so made pastry. Very fast and mixes well. I really like the small rolling pin, too, and use it all the time. I commandeered it when my son stopped playing with Play Dough, so about 33 years ago. So versatile!

The pastry became the base for a quiche. I had lots of zucchini so I fried that with some bacon, then grated a variety of leftover cheeses ( Edam, Stilton and chilled Camembert, which grated well) added some eggs and a little Greek yoghurt and, viola, dinner. Served with some small boiled potatoes and some Panzanella salad. Dinner for two nights.

No recipe because it was just a mix of available ingredients. Only the pastry was made from a recipe!

OLIVE OIL CAKE

I did follow a recipe for the Olive Oil Lemon cake, from Jaclyn Crupi’s book, ‘Nonna Knows Best’. There’s definitely a Mediterranean influence to how we eat in Western Australia. We have access the best quality seasonal fruit and vegetables, plus very good wines and very good olive oil. We enjoy them all.

The cake also featured lemons. So many things I cook for about eight months of the year feature lemons and limes.

DID YOU KNOW?

There’s only 38 days until Christmas!

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Kitchen Devices and Blue and White Baubles

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kitchen devices

I needed to use up some mince in the fridge. I looked up Nagi’s Recipe Tin Eats site to see how she makes rissoles as a change from the usual way I make them. Her recipe included grated zucchini, grated carrot and grated onion. Bit off putting as I typically hand grate using either an old fashioned box grater or a grater resting over a bowl. and it takes ages. Our son, who is a keen cook and was staying with us, said, ‘Use the grating device on the processor.’

The processor is older than him and regularly makes superb shortbread dough, mixes great pastry, purees and other things requiring the normal mixing blade. He rummaged around in the appliance cupboard and found a grating disk, the frame it sat on, the lid with a chute and a thing to poke the vegetables down the chute. Within seconds I had a mound of finely grated carrot, zucchini and onion.

One kilo of mince and a mound of grated vegetables made a lot of rissoles. I used an icecream scoop to scoop out the mixture from the bowl to make the round shape.

Still had more zucchini so once I’d mixed the rissoles I put the whole thing together again and grated the zucchini to make a zucchini slice. It’s fair to say this grating plate is my new interest. We will be eating lots of things with grated vegetables and cheese. The zucchini slice, a blast from the past, will also make three dinners with added vegetables.

The rissoles were cooked on the barbecue. The best part? Two more dinners of rissoles now labeled and in the freezer.

CHRISTMAS BAUBLES

English, Japanese, Korean, German and Chinese blue and white plates on a bathroom wall.

Are you a fan of blue and white Chinoiserie decorated china? I’ve always loved the various blue and white patterns and have some of my Grandmother’s very old pieces, some from my Mother and a lot I have bought for myself. When we lived in China I bought pieces made in Japan and Korea and a lot made in China. Some pieces were bought from shops, some from roadside stalls and a few pieces came from antique markets.

Many of these blue and white pieces are now around our home. Earlier this year I bought some plain white Christmas baubles intending to decorate them with blue and white patterned paper, in this case, deconstructed three ply paper napkins. We don’t put up a massive amount of Christmas decorations anymore, so I decided on a simple theme, featuring blue and white pieces.

I carefully peeled the printed sheet from the two other layers of these paper napkins. I’ve seen both three ply and two for sale locally. I cut small images from the decorated sheet and glued them to the bauble until the entire surface was covered in blue and white paper. I’ve seen other people posting about decorating Christmas baubles and they simply cut or tear the printed sheet into small pieces and glue them on. Each way seems to work well.

I think blue and white baubles will feature a lot this Christmas.

When the entire surface of the bauble was covered I hung it to dry and began another one. I bought the baubles well after Christmas and was limited to plain ones and a few with a textured surface. I was going to leave the textured ones but decided to try gluing the paper on, anyway, and it worked perfectly.

When they were dry I sealed them with a craft sealant. When I make more I will spray a glossy enamel finish on them as the first batch look a bit dull. And I will make more because it was fun and they look very pretty.

So. if you’re inspired to try this, you need some white Christmas baubles, paper napkins with colours and images you like, scissors and a glue stick or Mod Podge and sealing spray if you’re not finishing off with Mod Podge. (I used some of the removed white paper layers to rest the drying baubles and to wipe my hands. Later I used the leftovers to clean up.)

To decorate a bauble remove the hanging attachment (the silver or gold coloured clip at the top). I couldn’t remove them from the baubles I used so I just made sure the paper sat cleanly around the base. Most commonly, people use Mod Podge to glue then seal the papers. I just used a glue stick and it worked really well. (My Mod Podge is very old and has gone thick and attempts to dilute it weren’t successful)

I cut out images from the patterned paper. It isn’t necessary but I like the clean cut edge. You can tear the paper, too. I just glued the images onto the bauble until the entire surface was covered. I washed my gluing hand when it got sticky and kept going. Left the baubles to dry. So satisfying. When they were all dry I sealed them with craft sealer but will spray them later with gloss enamel.

Can’t stop making baubles! Off to hunt down more plain white baubles to decorate. The collection has doubled and I’ve seen more white baubles in the shops now that Christmas decorations are for sale.

Please let me know if you try this project. I’d love to see your finished product!

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Reading and Pottering

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Reading

Being restricted to large print books meant I explored a whole new area of the library in the past six months. I was surprised at the number of romances published in large print but also found some thrillers before almost totally gravitating to the non-fiction section. Found some great biographies. The latest was William Miller’s Gloucester Crescent : Me, My Dad and Other Grownups.

His mother was a doctor as was his father who was also known for being a famous satirist, opera director, documentary producer and writer. They lived in Gloucester Crescent (where the author and his family now live ) surrounded by other very relaxed, radical, left wing, anti-establishment, affluent, well known actors, producers, authors and philosophers.

William relates his story from age 11 to age 54 and it is quite amazing. His neighbours, including Alan Bennett*, have featured in their own books from this time and I have previously read several of them. Child rearing was pretty relaxed ( Miller says laissez faire) and the children drifted from one house to another. William doesn’t do well at school but years later ends up in a business partnership with Nigella Lawson, producing her television programs and merchandise. They had been childhood friends due many affairs, divorces, marriages and other arrangements resulting in shared holiday houses and some other pretty bizarre situations.

A record of a different time, it is fascinating to read about the over lapping lives of so many creative people such as Allan Bennett, John Cleese, Oliver Sacks, A.J. Ayers, the philosopher, Shirley Conran, VS Pritchett and a plethora of other famous people. I couldn’t put this book down but the minute I finished it my husband began reading it and is now recommending it to his friends.

* Allan Bennett Lady In The Van

* Nina Stibbes Love, Nina

pottering

I like painting and little craft projects requiring paper and glue. I have a serious collection of papers, card, paints, glues for all occasions and scissors, trimmers and lots of other useful things. I have been really restricted in what I can do because my eyesight was so poor. I haven’t painted for some months. I used to paint almost daily.

As the date for my eye surgery approached, I kept planning all the Christmas crafts I’d like to do as soon as I could see. Bought myself an Advent calendar from an office supply shop. Each of the 24 windows has an ‘arty’ surprise. I know it meant for Christmas but I really wanted some little activities I could do quickly and might not normally do.

The first treat, day 1, was a fine tipped gold pen. Now I can read the calendar I had a lovely time writing notes and reminders. Very pretty. My next surprise was oven cured clay. I used to make Christmas ornaments with the children at school using this product. There were two tiny blocks of clay, one red, one green, so, of course I made mistletoe. So easy, so sweet.

The next treat was a tube a green acrylic paint and straight away I thought of gum leaves. I don’t open a box every day because I have so many other things I want to do, now that I can, but it is a lot of fun. Anyway, as soon as I unscrewed the cap I knew gum leaves and that green wouldn’t work! The next box I opened two days later had a little canvas, so I used the green to paint a Christmas wreath and put it on a small easel.

I’ve cooked more spanikopita, too, not just because we really enjoyed the last lot but I’m trying to avoid food waste. I’ve bought phyllo pastry before, used it for one thing and put it back in the freezer. When I’ve suddenly thought I should use it the sheets had cracked on the folds and gone dry. Not good. I also buy the pastry you store in the fridge, now, not the freezer.

Still making this German version of potato salad. The cooked potatoes are doused in vinegar and turned regularly until it is all absorbed, then a dressing of vinegar, Dijon mustard and chopped fresh herbs is stirred through then it goes into the fridge until the next day. I use whatever herbs are in abundance in the garden.

At the moment I’ve got lots of chives. Until we lived in China for a few years chives didn’t really feature in our house, now I use them all the time. Same with ginger. I liked gingerbread, a little bit of ginger in some savoury dishes, but I didn’t use it very often. Now fresh ginger, preserved stem ginger, glace ginger and powdered ginger feature regularly. Same with chilies.

My Mother grows tiny, sweet cherry tomatoes from the seeds she collects at the end of the previous season. They explode in your mouth and taste like summer. I squashed two cherry tomatoes from her plant onto a paper towel and left them to dry. Later I prepared six little pots to bury the soaked, then cut up, paper towel and left them to see what happens. I like to get tomatoes going in small pots then plant them in a bed or a bigger pot. Then it’s me versus the water rats to see who will get the fruit. I have a big, chicken wire cage to protect the tomatoes. Very unattractive but does the job.

I really like my new gardening apron but didn’t have anywhere to hang it in the laundry. I wanted it near the back door. Our laundry is really small so I solved the problem by putting a hook inside a cupboard door just near the door going out into the garden. Perfect!

Out of the way but easy to grab on the way out the door. Perfect.

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