June 2024 – MakeCookGrow.com

Focaccia, Orchids, Uranium Power Stations and Other Things

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focacCia

Social media is full of people making focaccia, so I did, too. There’s so many recipes online, but I chose one which involved leaving the dough to rise in the fridge. I have never left yeast recipes to develop in the fridge and wanted to see how it went. Not so well is the answer. I didn’t need to ‘knock’ down the dough for the second rising as it wasn’t fat and puffy. Checked the date on the yeast, well within ‘use by date’ so I put the focaccia in the oven at 80º C F/F. It rose enthusiastically.

Left it for 2 hours and when it was light and puffy I increased the oven temperature to 215ºC F/F and cooked it for 25 minutes.

I will make focaccia again during winter but will try another recipe. I always search online and am now compiling my own recipe collection, making my collection of recipe books obsolete. I have had two extensive culls of recipe books but still have too many. I also find we eat differently now. Often I cook proteins such as curries, ragu and bolognese, and stews in the slow cooker, then we eat some and put the rest in the freezer. Then I can just add vegetables. Plus we don’t eat a lot in the evening anymore.

Served with Saturday family lunch to accompany beef ragu and vermicelli. Unfortunately, we discovered the warm, fresh focaccia was irresistible!

It’s a family lunch as our son is here to go to his 20th year school reunion. I can’t believe it is 20 years since he left school!

So many lemons this year. They are very juicy! Lemons feature in our diet for twelve months of the year. We also have a lime tree so there’s probably no vitamin C deficiency in this household.

orchid update

Each stem is continuing to grow a flower so I’m pretty pleased.

I have another orchid which is also on the end of the table so gets the same amount of dappled light, watered at the same time, same soil but keeps growing leaves but no flower stems. Any suggestions?

nuclear power

The Opposition party has announced its intention to develop nuclear power stations in Australia as part of their platform at the next Federal election. The announcement generated enormous debate. The one morning I turned on the TV news as I was up very early, all I got was debate about developing nuclear power stations in Australia. Flicked from station to station and ended up watching the BBC news. No mention of nuclear power there. But, if this government has introduced nuclear powered submarines, how can they be so anti nuclear power stations?

other things

We sat in from of the fire in the sitting room this week. The cold weather with heavy rain arrived while we were away. Before we left it hadn’t rained for months and was still hot during the days. Not anymore!

That’s when I noticed this piping was detaching from the cushion. You know I’m keen on mending and maintaining, so I immediately threaded a needle and restitched the piping to the cushion.

This is one of several tapestry cushion we bought back from our house in China.

We both read all the time. When we are going away we buy second hand books, read them, share them, then leave them at our accommodation. I didn’t read all the books I took away with me so had two to finish when we got home. Then I visited the library.

Did you read Claire Keegan’s previous book, Small Things Like These? It was a very popular book, so when I saw her next book, So Late In The Day, I immediately borrowed it. I’m glad I did, too. It’s a day in the life of Cathal, the day he was supposed to get married. His frugality and thoughtlessness result in Sabine, his bride to be, leaving him.

He likens his behaviour to that of many young men in Ireland. He remembers laughing at cruel pranks played on his mother by his father and brothers and feels that’s just how life is for women. Beautifully written but I feel no sympathy for Cathal!

The second book, Carys Davies’s Clear, is beautifully written. It is set in a remote island off the coast of Scotland in 1843. This is the story of two men thrown together, in isolation, by circumstance. They find friendship and understanding through necessity. One man was sent to the remote island to evict the other man. Due to an accident he finds himself being nursed by the other man. A story of solitude and connection. A great read.

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About Bali and Back to Australia

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about bali

Sometimes the skies in Bali are a mass of kites! Apparently June to September are the best times for flying kites. The Balinese fly kites to symbolise the spiritual connection between the Earth and the Heavens. These kites are not childrens’ toys, they are part of the Island’s Hindu customs, thanking the Gods for taking care of the Island and to request good harvests.

Image Pixabay

When we first visited Bali (as a family, I first visited Bali in 1982) the kites were generally made of paper, bamboo and string. Now these family projects are often illuminated and huge, incorporating new technologies. They are very attractive.

street dogs in bali

Image Pixabay

Wandering around laneways near our villa we are often confronted by fiercely barking dogs. Dogs within or around a family compound will bark to scare off intruders. I was surprised to find about 90% of dogs wandering around in Bali actually have homes. Often the dog will have a collar but there’s no real way of knowing if the dog is a stray or a pet. Best to leave them alone!

The dogs seen everywhere are Kintamani dogs with a recorded history as far back as 1400. They have thick fur, strong muscular bodies and a curved tail. They can be any colour, but yellow or tan fur is common. They are many charities in Bali caring for homeless dogs.

offerings

In the centre of every entrance to compounds, cafes, restaurants and every other business, the Balinese place offerings.They adorn household temples and even cars and motor bikes. The small basket shapes are made of woven palm leaves. Typically these offerings contain flowers, food, incense, rice and other symbolic offerings. Daily offerings are an important part of Balinese Hinduism.

Image Pixabay

The offerings are part of the balance that exists between Balinese people and the spiritual and mortal realm of people. These beautiful offerings are made by women. It is important that you don’t step on them nor photograph them.

michelin restaurants

There are no Michelin starred restaurants in Indonesia. This doesn’t mean the food in Bali isn’t wonderful! The idea for rating cafes and restaurants originated in France. Brothers Èdouard and André Michelin came up with the idea in 1899. Producers of tyres, they wanted to encourage people to travel. At the time of conception there were only about 3000 cars in France and most people only traveled short distances.

Their plan included free travel guides with useful information such as maps, directions for changing a tyre, where to buy fuel and information on accommodation and dining. The dining information resonated with the French public as the best restaurants and cafes were awarded a rosette, or two, or three.

Image Pixabay

The popularity of the guides meant the guides were redesigned the focus on food and the rosettes became stars. The Michelin star became the gold standard for culinary excellence. Interestingly, the gold star system is not about opulence, but rather the quality of the food coming from the kitchen. Currently, the guide features over 30 000 establishments in over 30 countries.

growing

When we left Australia it hadn’t rained for months. While we were away the weather changed and we returned to cool days and rain. The garden has really perked up! So have the weeds. The shallots, chives, sweetpeas and perpetual spinach I planted have all germinated. I’ve just planted tulips, too. The roses I pruned before we left have all started to green up. Happy garden.

Image Pixabay

I cut the stems of three moth ( Phalaenopsis ) orchids back to the second node on each stem after they bloomed last year and fed them. I am so pleased to see they are sending out new stems with flower buds. The blooms last for ages.

Tomorrow is the shortest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere. Enjoy!

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Beautiful Bali

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Bali

Regular readers know our favourite holiday destination is Bali. Bali holds a special place in the hearts of many Australians. We like to spend a few weeks here every year. This means we can do day trips to learn more about the Balinese and how they live plus spend time enjoying the countryside. We have always stayed at the same villa in Seminyak. Delightful staff, comfortable villa and a great pool in a pretty garden. Close to cafes and restaurants, spas offering reflexology and pedicures and lots of opportunities to admire decorator items I don’t need but really like.

Greeted by beautiful flowers. So lovely!

Arrangements of flowers are everywhere. Frangipani blossoms decorate hairstyles, tables, uniforms and our pool, until the cleaners come and remove them. I gather them and place then in a line to record how many laps of the pool I’ve done. Works well until there is a gust of wind and they blow away!

A favourite lunch restaurant has divine green crockery, vases and even wash basins. The floral arrangements in Bali are so beautiful!

Bali is all about relaxing. Our other holidays involve long lists of things we must do, places we must visit and things we must see. Bali is very beautiful and has a fascinating history and unique culture which can be learnt about slowly and bit by bit. It also has beautiful accommodation often in lush green tropical gardens and fabulous cafes and restaurants.

Time to read.

Before Covid, Bali was a bit frenetic once you stepped out of your accommodation but those levels of crowding and rushing haven’t returned. We like the more relaxed pace of life here. There’s time to read and swim and wander about. I find the architecture really interesting, from traditional Balinese styles to very modern buildings. I’m always peeping at lush gardens when we’re walking around.

I spend a lot of time in the pool. The weather is warm to hot and the pool is lovely day and night. I start the day in the pool and often end the day in there, too, with a few swims in between. I burn easily as a fully paid up member of the melanoma family so I wear a rashie ( a long sleeve shirt designed to limit sun exposure) and unless I’m doing laps, I wear a large, floppy hat. Lots of frequently applied sun screen, too.

We have breakfast delivered in the morning and enjoy sitting at the table planning where we’re going for lunch. Sometimes our son is here, too, so we collect ideas before we even come to Bali and then refine our plans once we are here. The food scene is Bali remarkable. There are so many choices from simple, fresh cafe meals to sophisticated and wonderful restaurants. We like to check out the new restaurants and also go to a few we’ve been going to for years. Food delivery services seem to arrive with your order very quickly, too, if you don’t want to go out. There’s also many supermarkets where you can buy the basics and some things you might not recognize!

Post pool peckish? The hardest part is deciding what to eat! Delivered quickly.

Delicious treats after we’d decided not to have dinner because we’d had a big lunch! It was a good plan until we were feeling hungry later in the evening.

There’s a lot of places providing good massages. A habit developed when we lived in China is regular reflexology. Not just a nice foot and leg rub, but a really good session of reflexology. Our favourite practitioner has gone! Her shop is now a hair dresser and no one knows where she’s gone. Shame. But there are plenty of other options and we quickly found a great place.

There are many personal services, too, such as pedicures and manicures, facials and a whole array of age defying treatments. I’ve heard people come here on holiday and have dental work done very economically and today I saw a sign outside a clinic offering teeth whitening and treatments. We often come to Bali when it is cold at home and I’ve been wearing boots, so a pedicure is something I seek soon after arriving. The other booming business is tattoos.

I enjoy looking in the decorator shops, the jewellery shops and less often, the clothing shops. I’ve had boots made and know people who have clothes made, too. I like the woven, lined rattan baskets with drawstring tops and a zippered pocket, too, but shouldn’t buy any more.

Strong, light and so useful, but I don’t need any more!

I’ve spent a lovely morning at a perfume making workshop and my son and I did a Balinese cooking class. Wonderful morning, learnt so much about preparing Balinese produce and flavours and also about Balinese celebrations and village life.

Went with our dear Balinese friends to their favourite restaurant, Mr Bob’s in Nusa Dua. Lovely dinner of seafood curry, brownies and icecream. Then Mr Bob arrived and wanted us to have a traditional Balinese dessert in his Balinese restaurant. So pretty, so good.

Each little treat could be dipped into the palm sugar syrup. Looked lovely, tasted lovely.

So Bali is our idea of a restful holiday with no pressure to do anything but relax and enjoy!

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Difficult Times

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Since last September we have been going down to Australind to see my Mother almost every week. Initially we stayed a few days at a time and went shopping, to appointments and to visit her friends. We paid bills, I cooked and gardened and sat and chatted. She had carers visiting and a physio to maintain her high level of fitness and a dressing nurse to patch her wounds. She was having mini strokes, often in the garden, falling and tearing the skin on her legs. She wouldn’t wear trousers.

As things became more difficult, her doctor and the wounds nurse suggested she move into a nursing home. She didn’t want to leave her house or her garden. Eventually she agreed to look at some nursing homes and she agreed to ‘try’ one. I washed and labelled and packed her things and several pieces of furniture were taken to her new home. The house was left as it was when she was there, in case she ‘wanted to go back’!

Gradually, Mum began to adapt to the rhythm of the nursing home. She went to the exercise class every morning and really enjoyed it, worked out with the physio once a week, met people she knew and began developing a garden outside her room. She went to a karaoke session and thought it was great fun. With regular meals and medication she seemed to be doing very well. She trained the staff to make her porridge just how she wanted it and they’d make her a salad if she didn’t like any of the options on the menu for other meals.

Mum had always suffered from terrible migraines. She had preventative medications which became more effective over the years, but sometimes nothing worked and she was very ill for a day and fragile for a few more days. She told me one day she’d had a migraine but it was different from the usual ones and she still had a slight headache two days later. I asked her to speak to the nurse who dropped by every day.

Twice that same day she told me the things she’d really enjoyed doing. I was so relieved to think she was settling in. She had been there five weeks. Keen on reading the newspaper every morning and then watching news channels during the day, she was well informed and liked to keep me well informed, too.

Later that same day, a staff member from the nursing home rang me to say Mum had been found unconscious in her room and was being taken to the hospital by ambulance. Mum spoke to me from the ambulance and told me she must have fallen because she was found on the floor. My sister-in-law and brother met her at the hospital and stayed with her through emergency, while she had a MRI scan and then when she was transferred to a room in the hospital. By then she was in a coma. She’d had a massive stroke.

We packed up as quickly as possible and arrived in Bunbury to stay with her. Our son drove down from Kalgoorlie and arrived at 5.30am the next morning. My brother and sister-in-law were there that night and every night and morning, too, along with their girls who came when they could be there. She lingered for eight days. It was sad and difficult but the staff were so kind and they kept her comfortable with an air mattress and medication.

My brother and S-I-L where with us at the nursing home emptying her room when the phone call came to say she’d passed away. They’d told us she go when there was no-one there and that’s what happened. We went to say goodbye. That’s when we were told there would be a Coronial Enquiry as she died as ‘the result of an unwitnessed event in a nursing home resulting in death.’

The autopsy took nearly a week as she had to come to Perth. It was confirmed she’d suffered a massive cerebral infarction. It was all so distressing for everyone. Finally she was laid to rest with my Father, in Bunbury, after a beautiful funeral at her church, attended by over a hundred family and friends. She was 92. We miss her so much.

Maidee 30.09.1931 – 13.03.2024

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