Suburban Life – Page 28 – MakeCookGrow.com

Easter Planning

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Easter is celebrated in autumn in the southern hemisphere and the change in temperature is very welcome, except it hasn’t happened in WA, yet! It’s so very hot.

This is the first time I’ve made a layered cake and it was very easy but took a lot of time as I didn’t have two same sized cake tins. I made a double mix of butter cake and then divide it into four lots and added food dye.

I tried to make the dyed batter similar in colour to the speckled chocolate eggs used in the decoration. I used a very simple butter cream between the layers and to cover the cake then added the eggs.

This cake was delicious! And pretty.

Decorating boiled eggs. Bought a packet of coloured Sharpies and was keen to try them, so cut out two rabbit templates and lightly glued each one onto a hard boiled egg, dotted blue around the template and then peeled it off. Quick and easy decoration, once you’ve cut out the template!

Blue and white shrink wrap boiled eggs. I got these from EBay.

Hello Easter Bunny. He used to sit on my desk at school but now he’s on our dining table with the other Easter themed decorations. Louis, our dog, doesn’t eat chocolate so he has his own Easter Bunny ready in the cupboard for the day. Wonder how long it will last?

Other table decorations. Our other favourite part of Easter is hot cross buns. We’ll make them for Easter Sunday.

How do you celebrate Easter? What special things do you do and eat?

We have just had Know Your Neighbour Day in Australia. The theme this year has been ” The Importance of a Supportive Neighbourhood for Children and Young People” The idea is to focus on encouraging all Australians to support safe and welcoming communities for children.

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Cottesloe Beach and Sculptures By the Sea

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To Cottesloe Beach to view Sculptures by the Sea and to get my regular dose of vitamin sea! This is the 14th annual Sculptures by the Sea on the iconic Cottesloe Beach, featuring the works of 73 artists from all over the world including Denmark, Slovenia, England, Japan, Thailand, Singapore , Chile, India, Spain, America, Indonesia, Iran, China and, of course, Australia.

Here you can see such a range of themes and media, from a crocheted cat, a dog walker surrounded by dogs, a tent made from recycled toys, an enormous eggplant (aubergine), a skin diver appearing out of the sand and so much more.

The beach is stunning with over a kilometre of clean white sand, views of Rottnest Island in the distance and ships heading out of Fremantle Port and cool grassed areas shaded by Norfolk Pines. There’s plenty of food across the road including icecreams, fish and chips, coffee and cake and cafes and restaurants. The icecreams were particularly attractive as it was 36 degrees C (97 degrees F) the day we went.

The beach is such a good place to view these sculptures. You don’t need to get dressed up, it costs nothing, you can get very close to the artworks and touch them, it’s easy to get there and park and when you’re hot from wandering around, you can have a swim in clear, clean waters.

Luckily, the Fremantle Doctor, the sea breeze which occurs during summer, had arrived by the time we went to the beach. The breeze is called the Fremantle Doctor because of the relief it brings on hot summer days, blowing in from the Indian Ocean.

Sit on the grass and enjoy the artworks and the view and the constant parade of people.

It’s hot in Australia, although we are into Autumn, so everyone is encouraged to use sunscreen. Supplies are placed regularly along the beach.

Sculptures on the grass, the beach and the groyne, and one up a tree.

The white, yellow and red structure on stilts isn’t a sculpture, it’s the Surf Lifesaving lookout.

This clever “cubby’ is made of a thousand recycled toys and welcomes children to enter and relax with more toys and soft rugs. The perfect child’s hideaway.

Yesterday was International Woman’s Day, commemorating the movement for women’s rights as well as being the catalyst for change.

Just for some contrast, today is Barbie Day, marking the doll’s debut at The American International Toy Fair in New York, in 1957.

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Making Bread, A Curry, Some Art And A Gift For You!

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I was intrigued by a recipe for bread cooked in a slow cooker, so gathered the ingredients and began making it. It was a warm day and the yeast mix began foaming quickly.

When the yeast mixture was frothy I added the flour and began kneading it.

Put the shaped loaf in the slow cooker which I had lined with baking paper then scattered chopped rosemary on top.

Two hours later and a delicious, aromatic loaf was cooked and ready to eat. The original recipe suggested putting the loaf under the grill for a minute or two to make the top more crusty but we couldn’t wait. Search online for a similar recipe if you are interested. I actually prefer oven baked loaves.

Fresh, warm bread and butter. Wonderful.

Officially, autumn has begun in the southern hemisphere, although the temperatures here are still hot, but slowly dropping. The most obvious change is it gets darker a little earlier. We don’t have day light saving in Western Australia so it is light until quite late in summer.

Our reaction to autumn is to make curry! This chicken curry was also made in the slow cooker.

Some chicken dipped in seasoned flour and lots of spices.

And six hours later, a feisty and delicious curry.

We served it on pasta as there was a good amount of sauce. Enough left for the next day, too, and the flavour had matured beautifully.

To mark autumn I made a new pen and glasses elastic holder in red for my diary. As many of you know, I’ve written in my diary every night for many, many years and described how I covered them, printed the marbled front and back lining paper and also the elastic holder here.

The garden is bursting with blooms and very pretty.

Went to the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at the University of Western Australia and really enjoyed their current exhibitions, especially the FLORA pictures from the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art. This small collection reflects on the uses of flowers throughout history in decoration, in medicine, in love and death and as part of the ecosystem.

One of my favourites was this Margaret Preston’s “Jug of Flowers” print shown above. I really liked Nora Heysen’s painting “Gladioli”, too. Also at LWAG are Zadok Ben-David: Human Nature and In The Shadows.

( Image used by permission LWAGA.)

This is eucalyptus youngiana, a eucalyptus endemic to Western Australia. To celebrate the first anniversary of my blog I have a printable for you! It is a botanical painting of eucalyptus youngiana which I did some years ago. I wanted to give you a gift which is unique to Western Australia so I searched through so many of my botanical paintings until I found this one. I hope you like it. Please feel free to download and print it for personal use.

To print, click on the image and a printable page will appear, but please be patient as it loads slowly.

Today is Carers Appreciation Day in recognition of the enormous contribution made by paid and unpaid carers. So, if you know a carer, say “thanks” or send a “thankyou” card or email.

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Gypsies, Food Planning, French Decor and Finding Your Feet

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READING

Local Libraries are a rich source of recently published books, including Mandy Sayer’s, “Australian Gypsies Their Secret History”, which traces the arrival of the first Gypsies in Australia as convicts on the First Fleet, including James Squire, the brewer, whose company still exists today.

Her meticulous research across Australia reveals the origins of Gypsies and their history in Australia. Interestingly, Sayer’s research highlights their ability to adapt to the host culture while still maintaining their own traditions and mores.

Sayer traveled extensively and records the movements of many families and changes to lifestyle as they leave their nomadic lives and settle. Traditionally, the Gypsies preferred to work for themselves and still prefer to work within their family or social groups.

An easy to read, well researched and informative book.

PLANNING

After reading so many blogs about meal planning written by very well organised and inspirational people, I printed off a grid, made a plan and went shopping. Unfortunately, I forgot we were going to the cinema the very first evening of the plan, so not a great start. Will keep trying.

DECORATING

Also another book from the library, written by Australian Jane Webster, who has written two other books about her family moving seasonally to France where she hosts cooking and shopping events for paying guests. Beautiful photos and inspiring story focusing on the renovation and decoration of their chateau in Normandy.

The cover is gorgeous, but hard to read the title, ditto chapter headings. The photos accompanying each chapter are very chic, French and beautiful.

WATCHING

Went to the cinema to see Finding Your Feet. Full of humour and human frailty and some sadness; this is a very entertaining film. Funny with a great cast. Some wonderful photographic shots of London, too.

Today is Dog Biscuit Day! Dogs will be pleased, just like every other day when they’re given a biscuit.

Dog biscuits were developed in the mid-19th century by an American, James Spatt. He’d been visiting Liverpool, in the UK and saw street dogs hungrily sniffing out and eating dropped ships’ biscuits.

Made in London, his recipe included both meat and vegetables. Useful for training, these little treats now come in a wide range of flavours and sizes and remain very popular.

Louis, our dog, has trained me well. He often stops in front of the cupboard where his biscuits are kept, looks meaningfully at the cupboard door and then at me and back at the door, and yes, often I give him a biscuit.

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Shrove Tuesday, St Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year

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Crepes leading up to Shrove Tuesday.

The word “shrove” derives from shriven, which means being forgiven. Shrove Tuesday precedes Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent in the Christian calendar. Lent is traditionally a period of fasting, or giving up little luxuries, such as chocolate.

Shrove Tuesday dinner treats.

The ingredients symbolise Easter and Springtime (in the Northern Hemisphere) Eggs represent creation, flour represent the staff of life and milk represents purity.

St Valentine’s Day this year falls on Wednesday, 14th February which is Ash Wednesday. Tricky if you are giving up chocolate for Lent.

There are so many theories about the origin of St Valentine’s Day, more commonly abbreviated to Valentine’s Day now. It has evolved into a celebration of love.

The exchange of cards originated in Victorian times, resulting from the mass production of printed materials.

Victorians were also very interested in floriagraphy, the language of flowers so their choice of flowers often conveyed hidden meanings

Chinese New Year or Spring Festival begins on February 16th and ends on the second of March.

No firecrackers for us nor red envelopes, but lots of delicious little snacks eaten with the family at our favourite yum cha restaurant.

This is the Year of the Dog. Dogs are honest and loyal and the truest of friends. People born in the Year of the Dog apparently make reliable partners.

Have you celebrated this week?

February 14th is Valentine’s Day and also, in Australia, Library Lovers’ Day, celebrating how we love libraries and how they have helped shape our national identity. Libraries result in countless hours of entertainment and knowledge through books, CDs, activities, story telling and access to newspapers and other sources of information. You can also download films and documentaries……and it’s all free.

There is one public library for every 15 000 people in Australia. Drop into your local library to find out the events planned this week and enroll if you’re not a member.

LOVE YOUR LIBRARY

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Making, Cooking, Growing

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MAKING heart patterned giftwrap.

I’ve printed some giftwrap to decorate the table next week. We don’t really do anything special on St Valentine’s Day but like to do special things together during the year.

This paper is so easy to make. You need a cardboard tube, red acrylic paint, a folded sheet of paper towel, a saucer and a sheet of paper to print on. I used litho paper but most paper would be suitable.

Pour some paint into a saucer after you’ve squeezed/deformed your cardboard roll into a heart shape. ( It’s very easy!)

Dip it into the paint. If it seems too thick just dab it on the paper towel once, then print onto the paper. I printed in a pattern but randomly placing the hearts looks good, too.

MAKING cucumber agua fresca ( Spanish for “cool water”) a light, cool, non-alcoholic drink popular in Mexico and America. I had some in a cafe during the week and loved it so looked up the recipe.

Infuse one medium thinly sliced cucumber, a sliced lemon (lots of recipes use lime), 12 mint leaves and one litre of filtered water overnight in a jug in the fridge, stir the next day and enjoy. Different recipes add sugar and some blend all the ingredients to make a thicker, stronger drink.

I felt “as cool as a cucumber” on a hot and humid day!

COOKING ginger cake. This recipe made a very big cake.

The dry ingredients were mixed into the cooled, wet ingredients then cooked. Smelled good cooking!

A very big cake. ( recipe Womans’ Weekly Cookbook)

Topped with ginger icing, then some red grapes scattered with chopped, crystallized ginger. I prefer the ginger flavoured icing more than the lemon one in the recipe.

GROWING baby spinach which we eat all year round and also coriander to use as micro greens on salads. The coriander will bolt and go to seed in this hot weather if left to grow, but immature leaves scattered on salads taste very good.

This is my 86 year old computer competent mother scrolling through my blog. She has been staying for a few days.

Today is Toothache Day which is really about educating people to avoid toothaches and promote good dental routines. The focus is on good dental hygiene and suggests you have a yearly checkup as well as the usual daily care to prevent toothaches.

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How to Make a Living Ivy Topiary Wreath

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Easy to do, great looking and a lovely gift, its time to start growing an ivy topiary wreath if you want to give it as a Mothers’ Day gift or just as a pretty addition to your courtyard or garden. They are attractive and need little care except watering and twisting the growth around the wire frame. Well established wreaths need clipping back about twice a year.

You need:

* four or five ivy cuttings

* vase or jar with water

* potting mix

* pot

* clothes hanger

Select the size ivy depending on the wreath you want to make. This is a small leaf variety. I have two made with bigger ivy leaves which are much bigger wreaths.

Put four or five cuttings in water until small, thread like roots appear. I leave the vase out of sunlight in the kitchen until the roots appear.

Plant out the ivy and leave it for about six weeks to get established. I only use a fish emulsion on the new plant, but water regularly and keep it in dappled shade.

Now shape a coat hanger and bend the hook to a right angle to secure in the pot. I’ve made the circular frame from wire before but now just use coat hangers. I’ve also secured the base in a cut out circle of polystyrene in the past but now just embed the hanger in the soil.

Transfer the ivy to its final pot or embed the hanger in the existing pot. Gently twist the ivy around the frame. You’ll need to keep doing this every month. Soon you’ll have a pretty Ivy Topiary Wreath.

Today is Australia Day, the day Austalians reflect on what it means to be Australian, to celebrate contemporary Australia and to acknowledge our history. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and people from nearly every country in the would have created a dynamic society in an amazingly beautiful country. Today many Australians will enjoy a barbecue with friends and family and then, tonight, the wonderful fireworks all around the country.

Happy Australia Day!

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Making Scones

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This is sultana scone dough almost ready to be cut into scones. I use a small rolling pin to roll out the dough which was my son’s Play Dough rolling pin many years ago and is the perfect size for this job.

I prefer plain scones but these sultana scones were very good… although they look funny!

Scones are thought to have originated in Scotland in the 1500s. They remain an important part of morning and afternoon tea rituals around the world. Scones can be savoury, such as cheese or pumpkin scones, or sweet, like date and sultana. They can be served hot with butter or cold with jam and cream. Generally, they are round but can be square, triangular or diamond shapes.

This recipe is from The Golden Wattle Cookery Book. Printed in 1968 I use it so often. It includes instructions for rendering fat, making baking powder and self raising flour, how to brine and smoke bacon, how to freshen bread and scones and even instructions for making tea ( in a pot) and coffee. Interesting to read and reliable recipes.

Scones and strong tea go together so well! I grew up on a farm and our sheep were shorn during the school holidays. It was my job to carry the wicker basket to the shearing shed with morning tea for the shearers. It had scones and some cut cake or slice, all wrapped in grease proof paper. There was a jar of sugar, a bottle of milk and teaspoons. The billy of tea was carried separately and was strong and aromatic. It smelt wonderful! I don’t drink tea but like the smell so much I have a candle called French Morning Tea.

Hot, delicious sultana scones, just add butter. They were gone very quickly.

Winnie The Pooh

Yesterday was A A (Allan Alexander) Milne’s birthday. He was born in 1882. Best known as the author of many childrens’ books, but particularly Winnie the Pooh, he was a well respected playwright before this book was published. It became hugely successful and over shadowed his previous works.

“It’s more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words, like ” What about lunch?”

Winnie the Pooh

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Christmas Eating, Making and Gifting.

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FOOD

The Yule Log made by my sister in law. It was part of the Christmas feast we enjoyed in Beverley, about two hours from Perth. It was a lovely day.

Cheese, cherries and chutney, perfect. My husband buys me a china pot of Stilton every Christmas and it is delicious!

PROJECT

We had ten for Boxing Day Lunch and I made HAPPY NEW YEAR Rosemary Laurels.

To make

1. Make a circle from a piece of rosemary and glue the overlapping ends. Secure with a peg until it dries.

2. Print off and cut out your message. I glued a scrap sheet of A4 paper to the back to make it stronger, then cut.

3. Put a dab of glue on each end of the message, press onto laurel.

4. When the glue is dry ( I left it overnight ) add a piece of ribbon.

These laurels looked pretty and smelt great.

SURPRISES

A Gingerbread House Gift. Such a lovely surprise from special friends. Thankyou!

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PRESENTS

We all like books for Christmas! My mother has gone home, we are living off leftovers, things have been put away and now we have settled to some reading.

This enormous pile belongs to my husband. He is very pleased with it . He haunts second hand book sites online for titles he wants after he’s seen them in the bibliography of other books.

Books about painting Australian flora and fauna, Paris and cooking…..must be my pile.

Louis found Monkey in his stocking and is very pleased with him. Determined to get to the squeak he has already chewed his side seam.

We’ve just had Fruit Cake Day. Very convenient straight after Christmas when so many of us make Christmas Cake. Yesterday was Card Playing Day which is also handy when so many of us are on holidays. So, cut the cake and deal the cards and enjoy it all today.

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Making Our Gingerbread House

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To begin making the gingerbread dough, I melted the butter and mixed it with sugar and golden syrup. Looks unattractive, smelt wonderful.

The dough coming together. The recipe is Mary Berry’s from a BBC TV site and includes the templates to make the house.

Ginger was first cultivated in China and was used as medicine. It arrived in Europe via the Silk Road, and the biscuits became so popular in England, it became the staple of Medieval Fairs, spreading to Holland, France and Germany.

Queen Elizabeth Ist had her gingerbread biscuits cut and decorated to represent certain characters in her court, a fashion which quickly became widespread.

Gingerbread Houses originated in Germany during the 16th century and became very popular when the Brothers Grimm wrote the story of Hansel and Gretel, where the main characters stumble upon a house deep in the forest, decorated entirely in sweets.

To make the house pieces, I divided the dough into five balls and began rolling, before placing the templates on the dough and cutting them out.

The house pieces ready to put in the oven.

Used the leftover dough to make biscuits. They were very popular with the family and visitors.

Made royal icing and began constructing the house, using jars to support pieces until the icing dried.

The decoration was a joint effort and took two days, leaving the icing to dry before doing the next stage. Aesthetics took second place to fun in this project.

The house is wrapped in cellophane and is on display. We’ll declare it open for eating on Christmas Eve.

As we head towards Christmas Day, commemorating the birth of Jesus, many of us in Australia observe festive traditions, such as singing carols and lighting candles, visiting family and friends, decorating our houses, cooking special food, wrapping and exchanging gifts and attending church services.

Wishing you a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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