Historic Fruit

I was making room in the cupboard for the marmalade which we made at the weekend, when I came across a special treat.

Bottled stewed quince and apple, 1996 vintage!

Although I often reuse the seals if they have come off without bending the edge (there's a knack to that), I don't think Mum does. And I have never bottled stewed apple, with or without quinces. So this would certainly have been true to label.

Mum probably gave me a few jars of her (older) bottled fruit to use up, but that would have been some years ago.

We like quinces very much, but you don't see them often. Grandad has a quince tree tangled in with one of the pear trees in the orchard where he lives, but it sometimes only gives 4-8 quinces (and sometimes none) - and his landlady makes sure she gets a few of those. I usually make jam, when I can get them.

We opened this jar with a bit of caution, smelling and tasting the contents carefully, but all seemed well. Those of us who appreciate this sort of thing had them cold with vanilla ice cream for pudding, and then finished off the jar with muesli for breakfast this morning.

Delicious!

Connie's Christmas Cake

This is the Christmas cake I have made this year. The recipe comes from my Aunty Connie in Whangarei.

Mum was talking to her one day in early December. She got the recipe, and rang me at 9am on a Monday morning, saying she had just put her cake in the oven, and it looked like it would be a good recipe.

By midday I have my cake mixed up and in the oven (I happened to have just bought some fruit mix), and my sister Rae, in Dunedin, had had a similar phone call and also made the recipe that same day. In the evening mum was able to ring Connie and report on the three cakes that had been produced around the country during the day.

Connie's Dargaville Christmas Cake

3/4 cup sugar
100g butter
1 Tbls. golden syrup
¾ cup milk
1t almond ess.
1t vanilla ess.
1T marmalade
1 kg. mixed fruit
2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup plain flour
2t mixed spice
1t baking powder
2 no. 7 eggs
¼ cup brandy

Heat sugar, butter, golden syrup, milk, essence and marmalade till butter is melted.
Add fruit, then sifted dry ingredients. Lastly add beaten egg.
Pat top of cake with wet hand and then drop cake on the floor (or bench) to release air bubbles.
Bake in middle of oven at 125 degrees C for 3 hours without opening oven door.

I made mine in a 9" square tin, which was a good size, though if you like a taller cake, use an 8" tin. I also put the brandy over the cooked cake (2T on the top, then cover closely with foil, then 2T on the bottom when the cake is cold and you turn it out, then cover tightly again). This is what I usually do, and the recipe didn't say otherwise.

If you haven't made a Christmas cake before, you should line the bottom of the tin with a piece of butter paper so it comes out easily. Greasing the sides of the tin is not necessary, as you can run a knife around before turning the cake out. (You should ideally leave a Christmas cake in the tin until it is cool - at least let it stand in the tin for a while.)

A bigger cake, which cooked for longer, would also have the tin lined with one or two layers of brown paper, extending above the level of the tin at the sides. In theory this gives the sides (which cook first) some protection from overcooking while the centre finishes cooking.

I iced my cake with Brandy Butter icing, made with 2T softened butter, about 2 cups sifted icing sugar, mixed to a spreadable consistancy with brandy, a bit at a time. I cut the cake only a week after I made it at the Christmas party, and it cut very nicely, with no crumbling, and very moist.

It is probably a bit late for Christmas day if anyone reading hasn't made their cake (!!), but New Year is a good excuse for a fruity cake too.

Impact end of year dinner

We have just come back from the Impact end of year dinner. Impact is the youth group at our church, which is for college age kids and some older ones stay on as leaders. Both Katie and Rowena have been attending numerous events during the year, as well as meeting in small groups during the week, and on Sundays.

The end of year dinner is for the parents and other family members, and is to wrap up the year and celebrate what they have been getting up to.

We had a bit of a surprise tonight. We were randomly assigned to dinner tables (to mix people up), and randomly assigned a 'physical impairment', which we had to maintain during the main course.

My impairment was 'no arms', so I had my wrists tied together behind my back. Elanor had the same impairment. Bern had 'stiff arms' - splints tied to his elbows so he couldn't bend his arms. Katie was 'blind' - blindfolded. Sophie had one arm only and Rowena had no arms as well. Other impairments were no hands (hands bandaged into fists) and one leg.

Now just try to imagine for a minute how you would eat curry and rice, lasagna, salad and vegetables with each of those impairments.

Done that?

How about if you knew you also had to go up to a buffet table and serve your meal, and carry it back to your table?

Fun...!

I paired up with a 'blind' lady to get our meals. Mary was able to carry two plates, and I was able to see what the food was and ask someone to serve us. I also guided her very carefully back to the table so she wouldn't 'lose' our dinners!

It turned out that the people with stiff arms were reasonable at feeding others, but had to be fed themselves. The blind people needed guidance to get the food, but could eat just fine - but they all reported feeling very lonely unless people were talking to them all the time. The 'no hands' people did a reasonable amount of cheating, slipping cutlery into their stumps. And the 'armless' people could eat a bit off the plate, but being fed was much quicker (and less messy).

The whole point, of course, was lots of cooperation. Apparently the kids ate a meal in this way earlier in the year at camp, and it really was good fun. Everyone at our table got their dinner eaten eventually. We were allowed to take our bandages off for dessert.

We were also entertained with some songs, a dance (which Rowena was in), paintings which some of the kids had done displayed (including one by Katie) and a quiz.

You've got to love school holidays!

Sophie decided she wanted to make biscuits, and invited the little girls to help. She did all the setting up; I just gave advice on keeping it manageable, and hung around to discourage spoons and fingers from going in mouths!

They all had a really good go at mixing. This was the best photo for getting all the faces in, but Eva was mixing with the best of them too. Cara had particular persistence, and kept right on to the pressing out stage.

The biscuits will be for afternoon tea shortly.

(ps, at the same time, Katie was making a cake for morning tea and Rowena was putting away dishes, so it was a very crowded kitchen.)

Sophie's birthday

The other big event today was Sophie's birthday of course. We woke up early (7am) to do presents before we had to get ready for church (and we had to be earlier than usual).

Here is Soph with her cake. Chocolate with (rather runny!) dark chocolate ganache, and the candles we could find in the drawer! (Must get more before the party next week.)

Soph and I went to Strawberry Fare this evening as well. I have to admit, I'm "all caked out"!

Katie made a birthday cake for Isla as it was her birthday yesterday. We sang "happy birthday" and then she blew out the candles - like a pro!
Isla kept singing "happy birthday" for the rest of the day.

Afternoon tea

This afternoon I had an afternoon tea for the children I care for and their parents (and one sibling). Janet and Sarah from the office also came. It was lovely to catch up with you all - especially the dads who I don't often see. Nice for everyone to get to know each other a bit more too.

Sophie and her friend Imogen (who was staying the night) made raspberry muffins. Thanks Poppa for the frozen raspberrys! S also helped making sandwiches.

(The photo is from google, not the actual article - which got eaten!!)

Brrrrr!

It's flipping cold here today. Southerly, and rain on and off all day. I've made vege soup so the kids can have something hot when they come home from school. (None of them are very good at putting on a rain coat in the morning.)

Here's my vege soup recipe. I call it "Five Vege Soup" because you need at least 5 different vegetables, for preference, for a nice blended flavour.

Five Vege Soup
Start heating 2 litres water in a big pot. Add 1 cup of barley or lentils (or some of both) and then one or two of at least five different vegetables, chopped into small dice, as you prepare them. When it boils, simmer for 20-30 minutes. Add 1 1/2 tsp salt and other seasonings. Enjoy!

Today's version had the lentils, an onion, a carrot, 2 sticks celery, 1 potato, some peas, some cabbage, a little bit grated ginger and crushed garlic and some chopped parsley.

It is actually very like "Stone Soup" but without the stone.

Tips:

• if you're using lentils, don't add the salt (or any tomatoes) until lentils are cooked.
• Add the quick cooking veges (eg, cabbage, silverbeet) when the rest is nearly ready

Actually, the reason I'm publishing my recipe is I have just received an e-mail newsletter from somewhere with a soup recipe in. It goes as follows:

Chunky Monkey Vegetable soup

One Onion finely chopped

One tablespoon of Olive Oil

3 tubs of Chunky Monkey (any combo)

One carton (375mls) of beef stock

Heat Olive Oil in saucepan, sauté the onion.

Add remaining ingredients

Bring to the boil and gently simmer for 5 minutes

Salt and Pepper to taste.

I don't know what "Chunky Monkey" is, but I sincerely hope that it's not true to name!!! If this is the level of soup recipe being circulated in cyber-space, then I'm doing a public service publishing my own recipe.

Birthday time

Yesterday was G's birthday. She brought cupcakes to share at playcentre, and we made her a cake to have at afternoon tea time. so, she got lots of chances to blow candles, and we sang 'happy birthday' a lot!

I and E will be turning 2 soon. It was also good practice for I to learn about birthdays, cakes and candles.

Katie's Party

We have had a busy, fun afternoon/evening having Katie's birthday party. It was a pot luck dinner, held at church, for her and two friends who also have birthdays this month. In the end there were about 30 girls (and one brother), plus the 3 sets of parents.

There were a few games (like stomping on balloons which are tied to peoples ankles - the last one with a 'live' balloon on their ankle wins), and a movie on the big screen. The movie was Stranger than Fiction and was very good. The parents watched it too.

The food worked out well - plenty without having miles left over. Bern made a meat curry and I did a vego one, and we have enough left for our lunches on Monday (ha ha). There were three cakes too and lots of candles. I had made a Bonnie's Chocolate (and banana) Cake (some of you will know who Bonnie is) in a 12" tin. Half was left over so that will do for our church lunch contribution tomorrow.

Nice to meet some of the parents of Katie's friends. This doesn't happen so often nowadays as teenages don't seem to 'come over to play after school' so much!

Above are Katie and her friend Susan.

Cafe review

Must be time for another cafe review.

Bern and I went out last evening "just because". We were going to check out Katapo, but it was shut. So we looked at a couple of 2nd hand book shops (no luck there) and went to our old favourite, Espressoholic.

It is our old favourite because it is the one 'coffee and cake' place that seems to be open any time we are in town of an evening, whether early or late. If anyone ever left comments on this blog (which they don't seem to) they could perhaps recommend other coffee places for 10pm and later.

The latte is generally good there, though seemed only average last night. I often go for chocolate cake, but they had something new last night - citrus coconut cake - so I had that. It was a good idea in theory, but a bit dry, and needed more citrus flavour. Also, the cream was overwhipped. So it'll be back to the chocolate cake next time.

They have funky painted tables and walls there, so if nothing else you get to feel hip and cool just being seen there!

Here's a link to someone else's review of the place.

Cafe review

Speaking about coffee in the previous post, I should blog about cafes when I try a new one. I certainly have favourites, but I have been trying some new cafes recently.

I usually manage a coffee on Saturday morning. We used to have a system where I would take one girl to a cafe each week for some individual mother/daughter time. This has fallen over this year, mainly because the music lessons work out so that we don't spend as much time in Kilbirnie in the morning. They don't have a 1/2 hour gap to have coffee with me in. (OK, I have the coffee and they have a cake/slice!)

The upshot is that I have to go to a cafe on my own.... :-)

I went to a place in a pedestrian mall called something like "love a coffee". It's the one with giant lips as a logo. Date scone and latte. A very friendly waitress - who kept calling me young lady!
This must be worth some brownie points for them. I feel like sending in friends and relatives to check at what point this waitress doesn't think they are 'young'.

Date scone was sold to me by this friendly waitress, but it was overcooked and dry on the outside. Wouldn't recommend. The coffee was ok - just a bit burnt taste, but nice in a tall 'Irish coffee' glass. $3. Quite a busy cafe, including family groups.

Mother's Day morning

I have mum and dad visiting for the week. My graduation for my Dip Teach (EC) is on Wednesday, so they have come up to attend that.

They arrived on an early flight yesterday, and after mass I took them out for brunch. I've been trying to use more of the vouchers from the Entertainment Book before it expires at the end of the month, so we got a discount. The cafe was Epic. We had bacon and eggs with toast ($9) and it was a good size. Dad had a cheesy beans dish for the same price. Coffee was $3 and OK - froth/milk ratio in the latte not quite right for my taste. But the price was good so no complaining.

Then we checked out the vege market on Willis St, which I haven't got around to visiting on a Sunday before. I think I will from now on though, as we got some lovely veges at very good prices.

Pears, pears, pears, pears

Extrordinary! It has taken me 14 minutes to connect to the Blogger site so that I can write this post. (I will still have to write and publish the post, which will take more time.) This is why I haven't written more - I seem to be having a terrible time with either my interest connection or with access of the Blogger hostsite. I'm giving serious consideration to Broadband.

We have been away for a couple of days over the long weekend. Grandad has an old farmhouse in South Wairarapa which has a small orchard. Every second year there seems to be a good crop of pears, and this was the year. (I don't know what happens in the intervening year - maybe the tree has a rest.) Acutally, there's more than one pear tree, and the small variety was fruiting this year. (Does that mean that each tree needs more than one year off?) The trees don't get any thinning or pruning, or maybe they would fruit better when they do. This year there were as many pears as we could be bothered picking, but all small to middling.

Because Bern and I are both so busy studying at the moment, bottling pears DID NOT figure high on my preferred activities list. I have an essay due in a fortnight which is starting to worry me. (Hopefully I'll get some actually words written tomorrow.) But I was determined to get some of those pears, so we decided to take a couple of days, spend some time with the girls, (study for a few hours a day!) and get some of the pears.

(We had to wait until the bulls left the orchard. They like sitting under the fruit trees - but you don't feel like picking fruit with 6 or 7 bulls around for some reason!)

The girls lent a hand, and we got a total of 23 jars bottled, which I was quite pleased with. I have, in the past, done quite a lot more, but this was a reasonable compromise between getting some free fruit put away and getting on with study. Uncle Michael also came over for the weekend, so he also took a jar away, but is not too bothered about pears in general.

Nice weather over the weekend too, so the girls had lots of walks.

Sushi

I sat down to blog about sushi (of all things) last night, and got majorly distracted looking for a suitable photo on Google Images to illustrate the post. All of a sudden it was past my bedtime! I'm going to have to do my own 'food styling' to get just what I want.

I was thinking about sushi because that's what Bern volunteered to bring for a work morning tea this morning. So we came home last evening from homegroup and started rolling sushi at 9.45pm. In the event, he wasn't well this morning, and didn't go to work, so the kids had some sushi in their lunchboxes, and we can have the rest as an entre tonight.

I can't remember why we made our first sushi, but it has become something that Sophie is the expert at. We usually make vegetarian sushi, with pickled ginger, cucumber, carrot, avacado, etc. (This is because some people in our house are fussy about fish (!), and we don't usually shop for special ingredients, so just use what we have in the fridge.) Served with soy sauce for dipping, and very dilute wasabi paste. When we were away on holiday with friends in January we had some very elegant picnics with sushi (and salads, bread, etc). It's actually very portable, if you take a board and cut it up at the picnic site.

On sausage packaging

Yesterday we went to a BBQ for Girls Rally at Shoreland Park. This happened to be one of those days when I was extremely organised, and had a caserole in the oven early, so that I could do a bit of study before tea. Sophie reminded me about the BBQ, and of course there wasn't anything suitable in the house to take, so we went to the supermarket on the way. (I am now VERY ORGANISED INDEED for tonight's tea!)

I would like to say thank you very much to Island Bay New World. My usual supermarket is pak'n'save, and in the last few years they have stopped selling sausages in trays of 12. When you have a family of six, 12 is a most convenient number for sausages, and 11 is just no good at all. For some strange reason, pak'n'save started packaging in groups of 11 or 7. I can't think of any moderate group size where 11 or 7, being prime, are of much use, once you get past the toddler stage of only wanting (or getting!) one sausage. (I would quite understand groups of 8 or 10.)

I care about numbers, so this sort of thing bothers me.

Anyway, as I was walking along the meat isle I said a little prayer to the sausage-packing-fairy: "please could there be a tray of 12" - and there was! Lots. Lemonade, bananas, bread, and the salad and sauce from home, and we were away.

ps, I counted 57 seagulls lined up to take bread that was being thrown to entertain a one year old child. Mostly in neat ranks of 4 or 5, and only the front ones josstled each other. Perhaps you have to rise quite a way up the seagull 'pecking order' before you even have a chance to fight for thrown bread!

Food for the Family

I've been thinking about posting about food for a few days. John Key decided to make political hay, a few weeks ago, about the existance of an 'underclass' in NZ, and that many kids go to school hungry. His, possibly well-meaning, scheme to have private businesses donate food (muslie bars) to low-decile schools lasted about 5 minutes, because the principal of the first school such an arrangement was made for didn't appreciate the implication that their parents couldn't afford to feed their kids. While there certainly are kids who go hungry in this country, this topic has raised a number of interesting issues in the paper. (I don't watch TV.)

One, in last weeks Dompost, was an article by Sophie Gray, of destitute gourmet fame. She is a foodie who gives cooking demonstrations on how to eat gourmet food on a tight budget. Her take on the 'kids going hungry' issue appeared to be that parents are responsible for feeding their kids, but that they have been suckered into giving the kids too much choice about what they eat. As an example, she says that her kids get to choose what to have on their sandwiches for lunch, not whether they'll have a sandwich or not.

According to the article, she has two kids, aged 11 and 13, and feeds her family of four on $100 per week. Which didn't look like much, until I considered that I have four kids around that age range, and feed the six of us on $150 per week. As a comparison, the Otago University survey on food price estimates it costs $85 per week to feed a teenage boy - an amount which Sophie scoffs at as much as I always have.

When I looked up her website (see link above) what I noticed was that the recipes she shares sound very much like the recipes we cook and eat here; her spaghetti bol or vege curry could be just what Rowena made for tea tonight. One of her points is to not use pre-packaged stuff (it's usually dearer). If you don't know how to make a sauce from scratch, or do reliable baking, then you have no choice but to buy more expensive pre-made ingredients or meals. And on a personal note, not being a driver, I find it much faster to cook 'fast food' (like pasta with some sauce) than get to the shops and buy 'fast food' (like F&C).

When it comes to being able to feed your kids, one point is knowing how to do that cheaply and nutritiously. Another is to have some basic principles around food in your family. "In this family we always eat breakfast - so what are you going to have if you don't want Weetbix?" And, of course, I firmly believe in bringing up kids to be competent adults, which means that in our house when you turn 10 years old you get a cooking night once per week. This took quite a lot of hands-on help at first, but now it pays huge dividends, and of course, the child really likes getting out of doing the dishes!

(photo above from destitute gourmet site)