Author Archives: melhm

August 3rd 2011

Posted on April 23, 2012 by melhm

Here we are two weeks later, still in winter but it’s 26°C and not a cloud in the sky! I love winter in Sydney – and so too the veggies growing bigger every day… we’ve got heaps of broad beans about to pod, broccoli forming, radishes planted, spinach on the way, potatoes in the bag… and a new shipment (no kidding) of seeds about to be sprouted – it’s an exciting time in the kitchen garden!

These last two weeks we’ve all had great success with our shortcrust pastry in the kitchen, baking delicious Italian-inspired silverbeet torta; our soup morphed into a bowl of rich Jerusalem artichoke with a dollop of sour cream & chives; we’ve had huge success with our simple master salad made wonderfully luxurious with a hand pounded garlic & squeezed-lemon vinaigrette; and the orange Anzacs a massive hit of course, even though each batch has emerged completely different from the last! That’s cooking for you… thanks always to our fab helpers and ever-enthusiastic students!

Next up: we’ve got some prehistoric-looking cabbages that need slicing and stir-frying with loads of garlic and perhaps some aromatic spices; some gigantic rocket leaves that are begging to be souped; some crisp green cos lettuces that we’ll roll around in some of that vinaigrette; and I haven’t forgotten that marjoram pasta idea – the poor old bush got a number 2 buzz-cut yesterday so I might be buttering up some herbs for a while…

…and talking of fab helpers – we’re still looking for VOLUNTEERS!!! Don’t be shy, please stick your head in to the garden or cottage and let us know if you can commit to (less than!) a few hours a week. YOUR BONDI KITCHEN GARDEN NEEDS YOU!

Cheers! Melissa

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July 21st 2011

Posted on April 23, 2012 by melhm

Well it’s back to loads of rain and pretty chilly weather… good for the garden & all the seedlings that Ligia has planted over the holidays – we’ll be cooking up a storm (excuse the awful pun) in no time!

And welcome to Ligia, it’s great to have her here, stepping in just in the nick of time to get our veggies happening by springtime – please stop by and say hi: she is a goldmine of info on sustainability, horticulture and all things Brazilian too!

So we’ve got some lovely silverbeet growing that we’ll be planning a silverbeet pie-fest with; I’m besotted with the beautiful marjoram at the moment so am planning some pasta in the kitchen again next week as it was so much fun last time, thinking perhaps marjoram and fontina  ravioli this time? Mmmm… Will be checking out our olives later today too so see whether they’re up for inclusion in some olive bread we’ll make to have with our ever popular soup recipe, and we’ll also  be taking full advantage of the parsley invasion and get chopping with some bone-cuddling and blood-warming parsley soup. And to finish, if we get time we’ll also pop in a few of Ava’s orange Anzacs that I’ve been playing around with these school holidays!

Regarding recipes up on the bondikitchengarden.com blog: please bear with us while we get it all sorted! Hopefully l won’t be too far away… In the meantime if you need recipes for anything (silverbeet soup, upside-down orange cake etc) drop me in your email address & I’ll send them on.

VOLUNTEERS!!! We still desperately need mummies, daddies, grannies, granddads, next-door neighbours, godparents etc to help us in our kitchen and garden classes! It’s only an hour and a half of your time a week and I can promise it will be fun-filled, exhilarating and not at all stressful (!) and you get full instructions – and the best thing is that you get to sit down with your (or someone else’s charming) kid at the end and enjoy what you’ve all cooked together! Most desperate:

Wed 11am session

Thursday 9am session

Thursday 1.30pm session

But we can always do with another hand or two in the other sessions!

We’re here Tuesday to Thursday, please drop in to the cottage and let us know if you can help…

Also Ligia would LOVE a couple of hunky blokes (or chicks) to move some heavy stuff in the garden in the next few weeks.

 That’s all for now folks. Keep warm! Melissa

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Marjoram! where’ve you been all my life?

Posted on July 31, 2011 by melhm

I’m obsessed! Marjoram has taken over my life… I’m finding ways of getting it into all sorts of dishes these last few weeks and I’m loving it… I can’t have enough of marjoram, and thyme, and oregano and I can’t believe for the first 40 years of my life I only looked for basil and coriander in the herb section of the supermarket… with a bit of bay and a tiny bit of parsley (bleugh) and ignoring mint totally (BLEUGH).

And now I’m growing my own to keep with up with the amounts I need; it’s like a drug. A perfumed, lemony, herbaceous, aromatic and healthy drug, I’m chopping with abandon…!

Uses for marjoram leaves this week: tossed with leaves and a classic lemon vinaigrette for a crunchy almost-spring salad; chopped up with thyme, salt, a little chilli and butter and smeared under the skin of roasting chicken; sprinkled over a freshly cooked tomato, red onion & bocconcini pizza; sauced up with its aromatic herby friends – basil, coriander, thyme and oregano – garlic and butter and tossed through home-made linguine; garnishing a bowl of wintry Jerusalem artichoke soup; and my favourite: finishing off my easy-peasy & cheap one-pot chicken braise… delish. And now to the recipe!

Mel’s easy-peasy & cheap one-pot chicken braise – Serves 4 (with potential leftovers for pasta!)

 8 chicken drumsticks (free-range at least)

Olive oil

2 brown onions

4 cloves garlic

2 tins cherry tomatoes

A cup of chicken stock

Salt & pepper

Fresh herbs: handful marjoram, oregano, thyme

Dried herbs: 2 bay leaves

Preheat oven to 160°C.

Brown off the chicken drumsticks with a good glug of olive oil in an oven-proof casserole dish* (with lid & wide enough to fit chicken in one layer if possible). Remove.

Peel then halve onions & finely slice, add to hot pot and stir. Strip thyme leaves from stalks and add to the onions. Peel and crush the garlic, add to the pot and cook, stirring, on medium heat until the onions are soft but not brown.

Add chicken back to the pot, pour in the tomatoes and enough stock to almost cover the chicken, sprinkle a good pinch of salt, grind some pepper and add the bay leaves. Turn heat up and watch until it’s almost boiling, then pop lid on and place in oven for an hour.

With 20 minutes to go, take the lid off to let the liquid reduce a little.

Remove from the oven, pick the leaves from the marjoram and oregano, chop them up and sprinkle over the finished chicken. Serve immediately.

Best eaten with buttery boiled potatoes and garlicky broccoli.

*Best by far is to cook this in cast-iron – I’ve got a big Le Creuset and a small cheapie version from Aldi and they both cook up a storm… worth investing in (or not!).

dear dear marjoram, grow quickly please

Linguine and herbs

serves 6

 500g fresh linguine

1 tablespoon cooking salt

225 g butter

8 small cloves garlic

Small bunch basil to yield 1/3 cup

Bunch coriander to yield 1/3 cup

3 or 4 sprigs thyme to yield 2 tablespoons

3 or 4 sprigs marjoram to yield 2 tablespoons

3 or 4 sprigs oregano to yield 2 tablespoons

Small bunch parsley to yield 2 tablespoons

2 tablespoons black olives

Flaked salt & black pepper

 Fill a large stockpot with water and heat on high. Meanwhile wash & carefully dry the herbs, then pick the leaves if needed, discarding the stems. Finely chop herbs. Slice the olives & finely chop the garlic.

Melt the butter in the saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the garlic and cook gently for a couple of minutes. Stir in the herbs.

When the water is boiling add the pasta & cooking salt, stir, put lid back on and when boiling again cook for 3 minutes until ‘al dente’. Drain the pasta and transfer to back into the stockpot. Add the butter mixture to the stockpot and toss carefully. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with black olive slices and serve into the serving bowls.

(Adapted from Alice Waters’ ‘The Art of Simple Food)

yum yum pigs bum.

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Sunday: cooking with four-year-old Ava

Posted on July 10, 2011 by melhm

A cup of Earl Grey and an Anzac biscuit, perfect

It’s a beautiful sunny day out there but there’s a frrrrreezing cold wind… Steve has sneaked away for forty winks and Olly has finally gone down too. Ava not so! She’s bouncing off the walls after allowing me to while away some time on the laptop. Now she wants action! How to amuse her quietly and let the others have their siestas? Let’s bake biscuits!

Ava rolls Anzac biscuits

Whilst it’s not Anzac Day here (not even close – 25th April?) I never need an excuse to make Anzac biscuits. And un-Australian as it may be – apologies to those purists out there – we add some orange zest. Because we’ve some fantastic oranges in the fruit bowl and we feel like it.

Ava is funny, she keeps bending down to hide her head under the table: she’s sneaking bits of raw oat & flour mixture and doesn’t want me to see… I tell her that the more she leaves now, the more biscuits we get to eat later but I think she likes the game of subterfuge… She loves rolling the little spheres of goo in her hands and asks me every time if the ball’s the right size. She lines them up neatly to one side of the baking tray, all rubbing together, and doesn’t really understand that they’ll all spread. They’re all different sizes, but I tell her that’s ok: some will be chewy and some crispy, but all will be delicious!

The smell of the orange zest wafts out of the oven mingling with the toasty biscuit/ Golden Syrup yumminess, mmmmm.

Best thing about these bikkies? They only take 15 minutes or so to cook! Just enough time to clean up and pop the kettle on.

Anzac biscuits done!

Ava’s Orange Anzac Biscuits

 1 cup rolled oats

1 cup plain flour

1 cup raw sugar (or white, or half brown, half white)

¾ cup desiccated coconut

125g butter

2 tablespoons golden syrup

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 tablespoon boiling water

1 orange

 Preheat oven to 150°C.

 Combine oats, sifted flour, sugar and coconut in a large bowl. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and golden syrup over a gently heat. Mix the bicarb soda with boiling water, add to melted butter mixture and add this to the dry ingredients. Finely zest the orange and add the zest to the mixture. Stir until combined.

 Take a teaspoonful of mixture at a time and roll into small balls. Place these on a lightly greased oven tray and allow room to spread. Cook for about 15 -20 mins, until lovely and golden. Allow to cool on the trays and then eat!

Makes about 30. Try not to eat all in one setting like we did.

Proof of the Anzac is in the eating...

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New recipes – Term 2

Posted on June 5, 2011 by melhm

I’ve been absent for a while and realise now – so late – that it’s been months… where does the time go? I’m starting to feel like a cliche, in that the older I get, the quicker time flies. I’m always running late, I clearly never plan my time well and am forever trying to scrape through at the last minute…. and then see that the weeks fly past, and now we’re almost in July. Yikes!

Anyway,  my excuse for the absence is that I’ve dived back into the pool of employment and become what is statistically known as a ‘Working Mother’… hmmm. One child in daycare for four days, the other child can only fit in on two days so we also have a nanny on one day – and I’m only working for three days! My wage comes in one hand and goes straight out the other, it’s crazy. But I am enjoying the job, and also the enforced separation for my darlings – I relish picking them up from school having missed them all day, and love that they missed me too…

So my new job is my perfect job. Cooking with school children! The primary school students grow the veggies in the school garden; they harvest when the time is right; they prepare and cook the food; they share the food (and then they clean up!). It’s that simple.

Cooking with the kids

We have been cooking up a storm at school recently & I thought I’d share a recipe from one of the most popular dishes: Rocket, silverbeet & potato soup. This has been such a hit (I think it’s all the garlic) and is perfect for the cold wintry days we’ve been having…

and here in full is another easy & fun recipe to do at home:

 Rosemary & Thyme Grissini

 Fresh from the garden: Rosemary, thyme

 Recipe source: The Cook and the Chef TV program

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

A simple & fun bread-making exercise – I’ve found that the thinner you make the grissini, the crunchier and more delicious they are! It also pays to knead the dough well too.

Equipment:
  • Kitchen towel
  • Chopping board
  • Large knife
  • Large bowl
  • Large spoon
  • Measuring jug
  • 2 baking trays
  • Pastry brush
  • Rolling pin

 Ingredients:

  • 2 cups plain flour
  • ½ teaspoon cooking salt
  • Large sprig rosemary
  • 4 or 5 sprigs thyme
  • 1 teaspoon yeast
  • ½ teaspoon brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 100ml lukewarm water
  • A pinch or two of flaked salt

What to do:

  • Preheat oven to 180°C
  • Wash & dry herbs thoroughly
  • Strip herbs from stalks and chop up finely to yield 2 tablespoons of herbs
  • Mix all the dry ingredients (except for the flaked salt) and herbs together in a large bowl
  • Add the water and olive oil and knead together until a smooth dough is formed – this might take between five and ten minutes. If the dough is too wet just add some more flour, bit by bit
  • Brush baking trays with a little olive oil
  • Flatten the dough out and roll into an even rectangle shape. Divide into halves, then quarters, and then again and again until you get 32 pieces
  • Roll each ball into a thin cigar shape with floured hands & place evenly onto the baking trays
  • Sprinkle with flakes of salt
  • Carefully slip the trays into the oven & bake for about 15 minutes until golden brown

Notes: Grissini are thought to have been invented in Italy in the 17th century – what other dishes have originated inItaly?

Here also is a list of recipes of other lovely dishes the children have been making this term:

Basic pasta dough

Linguine with herb sauce

Baked ricotta slices with capsicum & tomato

Gnocchi with burnt butter & sage

Carrot & coriander soup

Eggplant, garden herb & bocconcini pizza

Happing reading, happy eating!

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Mayhem of a Masterchef Mother?

Posted on November 18, 2010 by melhm

Well, I made it into the Top 50 of Aussie Masterchef 3 – and then waved sadly and gladly goodbye a week later. Now I’m back in the land of the living after a few weeks of Masterchef craziness and wondering: “What was THAT all about?!”

I don’t want to be on telly! I don’t want to be a reality tv non-celebrity! I don’t want to be away from my children/Steve/life/garden/cats for up to 7 MONTHS!!! Why did I fill out the application form in the first place? And then keep accepting each audition? Well, I’ve searched my soul and come out the other end a much wiser woman – in a nutshell, I think it’s all about validation/ congratulation/ appreciation on a egoistic ability level, usually that one gets from ones job and that one doesn’t get mopping up squashed food from under Olly’s highchair 5 times a day. In short I think it means I’m ready to get back to work and get some other stuff going on in my life…

So I feel that I’ve come all around the houses in a big circle to stand exactly where I was in the beginning but with a whole lot more decided about the future. One thing that trying to get through the levels into Masterchef is that you’re asked to define your ‘Food Dream’ a hundred times a day, so if nothing else I’ve given that a huge amount of thought – If I Could Do Anything What Would It Be?  And also being involved for the week that I was WAS very exciting. Especially as I kept getting through…

I certainly hadn’t banked on the level of contact (or lack of) during the time of competition, which could be only one phone call home a week, and many weeks not even that. They have psychologists and practices in place to help once you go in to the ‘House’ however the fact remains is that you may not be able to hold your little kids for a huge amount of time. I think I was kidding myself that I could go in for a few weeks and then pull out but I think now that to enter in is to go with your eyes on the prize and expect to be there until the end – as my good friend Kerry said, the longer you’re there, the harder it will be to pull out.

So I pulled out of the Top 50 and let someone else take their place at the hotel for a 17 day ‘lock-down’ to establish who’ll be going through to Top 24 in January. Good luck to all, and I really hope we see Samala, Tony or Nathalie go through.

Here’s what I cooked to get through those first crucial stages, with mandates & subsequent recipes:

Day one, audition: You will need to bring 1 x  plated serving of the dish you have prepared.  There are no heating facilities available for you to reheat your dishes, so please come up with something that does not require it.

Chicken liver pate with balsamic onions and Sean’s malt scrolls

CHICKEN LIVER PATE (from Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course)
225g chicken livers, cleaned
175g butter, room temperature (I used European-style unsalted)
50g extra butter, for melting
2 tbsp brandy
2 tsp mustard powder
¼ tsp powdered mace (I used nutmeg)
1 tsp fresh chopped thyme
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt and black pepper

Melt about 25g butter in a heavy frying pan and sauté the chicken livers over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring all the time. Using a slotted spoon remove them from the pan and transfer them to a blender.

Melt the rest of the 175g butter and add this to the blender. Deglaze the pan with the brandy then add to blender. Then add the mustard, mace, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper and blend until you have a smooth paste.

Next, pour the mixture into one large or several small ramekins. Pour the 50g melted butter over, leave to cool, cover with cling film and put it in the bottom of the fridge for a day or two to set.

BALSAMIC ONIONS
Peel and halve 6 large brown onions, slice finely. Heat a large frying pan with a glug of olive oil and add onions in two lots so as not to overcrowd the pan. Fry gently until soft then add alternate sprinklings of brown sugar and splashes of aged balsamic vinegar until onions are super caramelised and gorgeous.

My notes: the audition was fun and easy, everyone was friendly – and nervous! My pate smelt fab, very garlicky – but I overestimated the time we would spend waiting – and consequently wasn’t able to let it warm up a bit and was too hard to mold into a pretty swirly curl… what I put on the plate looked super-rustic (which is how I described my food in the first place, phew) but could also have been described as turd-like…a  bit lump of brown poo on the plate with brown onions and brown bread. A study in brown you could say. Luckily it tasted bloody good, and even though I say it myself, my second ever attempt of Sean’s bread (baked that morning) was great.

Day two, audition: Within your allotted time, you will have 1 HOUR to prepare and cook your dish. After this there will be an allotted amount of time for judging by the judges and they will ask you plenty of questions about your dish so be prepared.  
You will need to bring:
All the raw ingredients for your dish including salt, oil etc
Any food containers that you will need
A cool bag containing all of your perishables (items to be refrigerated)
You must use raw ingredients and all preparation is to be done at the Masterchef kitchen
Your judging hour: You will have 1 hour to prepare your dish in the MasterChef kitchen. You will plate up in the kitchen and the judges will taste your food at your station. There is no time or facility to wash up so ensure you have brought enough equipment with you.

Polenta and parmesan torta with a spring ragout of broad beans, artichokes hearts and peas

(This recipe serves 4-6, I obviously adjusted the amount I needed on the day…)

POLENTA (serves 4-6)
1 corn cob
1 clove garlic
100g coarse polenta
50g grana padano
Olive oil
Salt

Grate corn directly into a heavy based saucepan
Peel & crush garlic & add to 500ml water, bring to boil over moderate flame
Rain in polenta, stirring
Cover & reduce to mere simmer 15 mins
Remove lid, beat in parmesan, season well
Pour onto tray to cool, refrigerate
*Cut cooled polenta into 4-6 wedges, brush with olive oil, panfry until golden & crisp

ARTICHOKES
2 lemons
1 lt chicken stock
2 globe artichokes, stalks snapped & removed
Stock on to simmer
Gloves on, basin cold water with juice of 1 lemon squeezed, have another half ready
Pull off dark outer leaves til uniformly pale
Place on side & cut off top half, rub lemon
Trim base & stalk, rub lemon

Halve or quarter artichokes & remove prickly, pointy, pink-tinged leaves & choke, rub lemon
Drop into acidulated water
Cut stalks into 6cm lengths, strip away dark green, rub lemon & drop into lemon
Transfer all to simmering stock, simmer 10 mins
Cool in liquid a few minutes then lift out with slotted spoon to cool further

RAGOUT (from Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen  Garden Companion)
500g broad beans in pods, to be shelled
250g peas in pod, to be shelled (yields 1 cup peas)
4 cloves new season garlic
Ice cubes
30g unsalted butter, chopped
2 trimmed & cooked artichoke hearts, halved or quartered (see above)
½ cup light chicken stock
1 teaspoon freshly chopped French tarragon
½ tablespoon finely chopped flat leaf parsley
Black pepper

Garlic into saucepan, cover with water. Bring to boil low-med heat, drain.
Repeat
Slip skins off & set aside
Refill saucepan with water & bring to boil on high
Drop broad beans in & boil for 1 minute, drain & immerse into iced water. Peel
Melt half butter in sauté pan medium heat
Once frothing add artichoke pieces, turnips, garlic & sauté until artichokes are golden flecked
Add stock & peas, cook covered for 5 mins
Uncover, scatter over broad beans & herbs & shake gently
Should be very little liquid now, if so turn heat to high & continue shaking
Add remaining butter, grind over pepper, serve.

My notes: I don’t think I spared even a minute of the 60 in getting it all done – all 6 of us were a blur of energy and activity & I didn’t even manage to look sideways the whole time to what the others were doing. I made the dish twice at home, once to work it all out and the second to fix the timing but I hadn’t been able to finesse the presentation… Amazingly on the day it all came together (the photos shown here are home ones) and I put up a lovely dish. Gary and George were just like on the tv, very friendly & supportive – George did question where he knew me from (old sommelier days) and then ask why I was there, to which I had to give the positive, ‘to win!’ spiel, but of course it should have been more a ‘what AM I doing here?!’… To their credit (and mine) they loved the dish & seasonal tones of it, and said straight away that I was in the Top 50 but would give me extra time to think about whether I wanted in, and was prepared to weather the anti-ex-restaurant-staff ‘advantage’ backlash from the public & press that would ensue… my thoughts at the time: I’ve got an out! hooray…

So now back to the highchair wiping, the nappy changes, the endless washing & the weed & snail removal and back to my life! Back to Jazzie B on a Saturday morning, yoga overlooking the beach, a bracing dip in the still-cold Pacific, digging a couple of seats in the sand for Ava & Olly, lovely summery dinners & a wineglass or two with Stevie after the children have gone to bed… and of course back to you  my lovely fellow MMMers! 

Chop chop! 

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Spring, shoots, Sydney and blossoms

Posted on October 6, 2010 by melhm

Now, suddenly it’s as if winter never existed (except of course in the $400 electricity bill of heating and clothes-drying that landed yesterday) as the clocks jumped forward an hour last weekend, and the onset of lush late afternoons of brilliant sunshine, dinners eaten in broad daylight, and little children wondering why they have to go to bed while it’s still playtime…

We gave a mostly rainy welcome to Daylight Savings, but it was a warm, moist and muggy one, followed by some gorgeous sunny, heat prickling days – the perfect recipe for explosions of garden-green, the trees and plants and flowers and bugs all bursting with life and joy (well perhaps not the snails, alas they burst underfoot on my late-night trip out to find Charlie… less life and joy, more death and snot). Everything has exploded into life, so beautiful! Our trusty lemon tree has bloomed – it’s such a pity to be so far away at the back of the garden as the blossoms are so amazingly aromatic and Jasmine-like: exquisitely perfumed, heady and tropical.

Just driving along next to the racecourse yesterday I was hit with such verdant brilliance it felt like I was on some crazy hallucinogenic drugs (which I wasn’t),  the scene of trees, grass and sunshine was so bright and crystal-clear… Centennial Park was jumping with joggers, walkers, horse-riders, dog-walkers, stroller-runners – it really does feel great to be alive when everything around you is teeming with life and pulsating heart-beat, and joy!

When I open the kitchen door in the early-morning haze of sleep, the waking dawn smell of Sydney is one that hits me full in the face and takes me right back to being a kid at my grandparents in Carlingford, … although their house was right on the busiest road in the area, the block was deep and surrounded by mature trees, thriving banana palms and passionfruit vines… the particular smell is of sun warming dew-wet leaves, the sub-tropical Sydney flowers awaking, the hungover humid air… and then it goes, replaced by cut lawns, truck fumes, tradies’ smokes, burning toast.

Yet again this year I’ve neglected to prepare the nectarines from fruit-fly onslaught… The boughs of the tree are now beginning their slow sag, weighed down with the promising fruit. Last year we had hundreds and hundreds of juicy nectarines ripen beautifully: unsuspectingly I went to bit into one freshly picked from the tree, then at the last minute thought better to wash it – and cutting it in half was freaked to find two fresh halves of squirming maggot… luckily we had the chooks to enjoy the fruit & buggie bounty but this year will have to dispose of all the nectarines lest the maggot eggs infest the soil. Bugger!

I miss the chickens – discarding all the uneaten bowls of lovingly prepared children’s meals into the compost just isn’t the same… and as well as the wormy nectarines I think we let them run wild in the crab apples & bitter, mean persimmons too… In reality though, the stress of keeping safe someone else’s livestock is something I can live without, with the landlord’s advice ringing in our ears, “Whatever you do, do NOT leave the chickens unlocked at night, or they will DIE!!!”

So now to throw down some more snail bait, pick the seeding tops from the rocket, and hide the ripening strawberries from impatient fingers… and of course breathe in the juicy morning spring air, stretch arms out wide and look ahead to summer, beachy days & sizzled sausages… aaaah Sydney!

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Little cakes for our friends the fairies (and gnome)

Posted on October 5, 2010 by melhm

What to do on a long weekend where there’s nothing but rain, rain, rain? My thoughts turn, as always, to food! With Ollsy asleep, we gave daddy a well-earned nap on the sofa watching sport on the telly & apron’d up in the kitchen for a little fairy cake escapade…

Fairy Cakes

 Ingredients
110g self-raising flour
110g butter, softened
110g caster sugar
50g sultanas
2 eggs, lightly beaten

 Method
Pre-heat oven to 180°C
Cream the butter and sugar until soft and light
Add the eggs a little at a time
Sift the flour and gently fold into the mixture
Fold in the sultanas
Place 24 paper baking cases into mini muffin trays & spoon in  the mixture
Bake for 12-15 minutes,  until well risen and golden brown
Eat in garden with fairies
Makes 24

A perfect public holiday Monday afternoon: Steve & Olly woke to a house of yummy cake smells & Ava got to do some important mixing & spooning, licking the bowl and even to do some washing up –  me, I bit my lip and ignored the floods of soapy water cascading onto the kitchen floor…

Such delicious little morsels! They almost made up for the lost playground opportunities over the three days with the early spring downpours – a great thing for the garden as all the green stuff has EXPLODED! I’ve got some lovely photos for my next post –  in the meantime, as they say: the proof is in the pudding, hmm-mm!

So, with that the weekend was over and it was time to think about finishing our little holiday – back to work, school and the week ahead with all its stresses and worries. Well, maybe after just one more tasty little morsel? And still enough cakes left to hide one in the garden for our little friends…

…and one last thing!

Good old Collingwood forever!
We know how to play the game
Side by side we stick together
To uphold the Magpies name
Hear the barrackers are shouting,
As all barrackers should!
All the Premierships a cake-walk
For the good old Collingwood!

Congratulations to the fearsome Magpies, winners of this year’s AFL Grand Final

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Have the cats got Olly’s tongue?

Posted on October 1, 2010 by melhm

Our little Ollsy turns 18 months tomorrow, already… how amazing that the times flies so quickly! It seems that the hours are excruciatingly long but the weeks fly by: I’m very conscious of trying not to wish this time away as I realise how precious it is but I think it’s automatic conditioning to want to get to the next stage with your babies, whether it be solid food, walking, potty training or talking…

Talking of talking, or not talking as the case may be – I’ve been so enjoying Olly’s silence up til now that I haven’t even thought about his ‘next stage’… Ava, bless her darling heart, is a whirlwind of noise and motion and the two days a week she is at school have been our little oasis in a desert of maelstrom. It’s only in the last week I’ve thought about Olly talking and realised that he really should have been saying a few words by now, especially as his little buddy William has been galloping ahead in the verbal stakes!

So off we went to the audiology clinic at the Children’s Hospital and we had a fun half hour testing Olly’s aural reflexes, to be told his hearing is within the normal range and perhaps he has fluid behind the eardrums and to check it out with the doctor. Or perhaps our wee man is just a tiny bit lazy?! Why bother making the effort for all those separate words when a “uhh?!” will do for absolutely everything?

Let’s see what the next month brings – walking didn’t happen until he was almost 16 months, and at the moment he probably doesn’t feel the need to compete with the cacophony: Ava, the radio, the iPod, me shouting etc. Maybe this weekend we’ll turn it all off and see what happens…

Categories: Family | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

Broad beans and blood oranges

Posted on September 27, 2010 by melhm
blood orange

Image by sweetbeetandgreenbean via Flickr

Yum yum, spring has sprung and we’ve taken full advantage of the delicious seasonal goodies of blood oranges & broad beans: we splashed out on a bottle of Campari to have with freshly squeezed blood orange juice at our regular long Sunday lunch with the delicious Kerry & Rod last week & followed drinks with broad bean & pecorino bruschetta and Spanish jamon…

Campari used to be my drink of choice a few moons ago, when I lived and drank in Melbourne as a young single thing – and when I had the energy to demand the proper measure (45mls) of the various bars if poured incorrectly – and drinking it the other day after ten years’ absence brought back many late night Negroni memories. Aaah, misspent youth!

Also, I found a lovely recipe for broad beans from Stephanie Alexander, so I set up my able sous chef Ava to podding:

We steamed the beans for 3 minutes, then re-podded to get the smaller, softer beans inside and smashed them straight away with the mortar & pestle. Then added a little salt & pepper, some grated pecorino and a glug of olive oil, stirred again and then served in a bowl to spread on yummy BBQ’d Brasserie Bread’s quinoa & soy sourdough, with a little garlic rubbed on. Just so delicious draped with a slither of jamon, am hungry just thinking about it now…

Pity Ava didn’t get in to the final product… those sneaky green vegetables!

PS. Soundtrack to this week’s cooking:
Smiley Culture – Shan-a-Shan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC-yMtPDsAw
Jurassic 5 -Hey (instrumental) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjNjZq7_TAU
The Headhunters – If You’ve Got It, You’ll Get It http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0JedCdsWSo
Mayer Hawthorne – Maybe So Maybe No http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpfcydeSGeo (still…!)

Categories: Family, Food, Music | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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