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Archive for the ‘Food & Friends’ Category

Artificial Eyes

Posted in Food & Friends on August 11, 2011| 56 Comments »

I am crazy stupid irrationally proud of my two sons.

Not because they’re academic geniuses, or outstanding sportsmen, or the most popular kids in their schools – by any of the standards that the world usually measures adolescent success, my boys are pretty average.

But they are both happy, contented, loving young men who treat their fellow human beings with kindness and respect.  They view the world with constant fascination (particularly Small Man), enjoy spending time with us and each other, and fill our lives with joy and laughter.

Big Boy, who is now at university, is a writer.  He is yet to be published, but that doesn’t change what he is.  He writes all the time, and has done so since he was five.  I recently came across a story he wrote a few years ago for an English project at school. At the time he was just fifteen years old, and this was the first piece he’d produced that he was reasonably happy with.

Because I am a crazy stupid irrationally proud mother, and because I feel like you’re all part of my village, I asked him if I could share his work with you.  It’s quite long, so please don’t feel you need to read it if that’s not your thing.  But if you’d like to, then I hope you enjoy it as much as Pete and I did.

And if you’re a major publishing house and would like to offer Big Boy a book deal (ok, so I’m an optimistic crazy proud mother), please leave him a comment below.

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ARTIFICIAL EYES

password:  (please leave me a comment and I’ll email it to you)

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Five Hundred Thousand

Posted in Food & Friends on August 5, 2011| 83 Comments »

I blog

because it lets me share…

…my food…

…my thoughts…

…my garden and…

…my family…

with

…my friends.

What began as an exercise in positive thinking has grown into a community of visitors, friends and fellow bloggers.  You’ve all been incredibly supportive and kind, and I’m grateful to everyone of you for reading along over the past couple of years.

This week, Fig Jam and Lime Cordial had its 500,000th hit and to celebrate, we’re having a g1veaway.  Or more precisely, five g1veaways!

I’d like to invite you to enter by leaving a comment below.

Please tell us:

  • what your all-time favourite kitchen appliance/gadget/cookware/thing is. I’m currently besotted with my Emile Henry pots, but my 90cm Smeg oven would have to be my precioussss…
  • whether you’re based in Australia or overseas, and
  • which pr1ze(s) you’re interested in.

Please feel free to leave as many comments as you wish, and tell us a little about yourself, if you’re so inclined – we’d love to get to know you better!

We’ll take comments until 12noon, Friday 19th August 2011 (Sydney time).  Good luck!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Bread Bakers

We’re offering two pr1zes for those of you interested in baking your own loaves – one for our fellow Aussies, and another for our friends abroad…

#1 : For Australian residents only:

Set #2: For International visitors only:

. . . . .

Garden Lovers

For Australian residents only:

. . . . .

Chinese Lantern Kit

  • 50 Chinese New Year Angpow wrappers
  • decorative beads, flowers, string and 3 tassels

I’m happy to post this kit anywhere.

All you’ll need to supply are scissors, staples and glue. There are sufficient wrappers in the kit to make any of the Chinese lanterns I blogged about (somewhat obsessively) earlier this year.  Instructions for the basic lantern are here.

. . . . .

Chocolate Lovers

For Australian residents only:

. . . . .

Bits and Pieces

For Aussie and International visitors, all of the following as one pr1ze:

. . . . .

And the winners are…

Breadbakers #1 – Vita

Breadbakers #2 – Gill the Painter

Chinese Lantern Kit – Just A Little Piece

Garden Lovers – Tracie

Chocolate Lovers – Larissa

Bits and Pieces – C from Cakes, Crumbs and Cooking

. . . . .

Thank you again for all your support!

 

 

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Silver Linings

Posted in Food & Friends, Frugal Living on August 4, 2011| 45 Comments »

It’s been said that every cloud has a silver lining.

That’s especially true in the garden. Here are the happy endings to some of our early failures.

. . . . .

We attempted to convert an old fish tank into a mini glasshouse.  It didn’t  work particularly well – most of the seeds didn’t germinate, and those that did frizzled and burnt…

Silver Lining…

…this inspired us to fix up the enclosed verandah.  It’s north-facing, airy and light, and the perfect place to raise tomato plants during winter.  We have chilli seeds germinating on top of the warm fish tank, and when they’re ready, we’ll start them off in our new conservatory…

. . . . .

After an initial flush of success, sage has steadfastly refused to thrive in the herb garden…

Silver Lining…

…we’re replacing the sage with lemon thyme, which is already establishing well.  It joins the jungle of rosemary, regular thyme and oregano.  The new herb has opened up a world of culinary possibilities for us…

. . . . .

Last year, our peas developed powdery mildew and we ended up pulling out the entire crop mid-season.

Silver Lining…

…a very kind lady from a large seed distributor took pity on me and sent me a handful of peas to try.  This variety is known simply as “Willow”, and it’s doing brilliantly in our garden, despite the six inches of rain we had a couple of weeks ago…

We’ve just picked the first pods of the season!

. . . . .

Late last season, all our tomato plants developed a viral wilt and died.

Silver Lining…

…a few self-sown plants appear to be wilt-resistant and have produced fruit despite the cold weather. We’re busily collecting seed for next season before the winter chill does them in completely. All appear to be roma-cherry crosses, but each has produced slightly different fruit.  The one below even had  different shaped tomatoes on the one branch…

. . . . .

We’ve run a little short of time in the past few months to maintain the garden to schedule, and the seed raising and planting programmes have fallen behind.

Silver Lining…

…we’ve discovered that for some plants, simply scattering seed works!  Below is a bed of spinach, bok choy and kohlrabi, all broadcast as seed…

There really aren’t any disasters in our garden – just opportunities to fine-tune, evolve and improve.

How are things going in your garden?

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Weekend Seafood

Posted in Food & Friends, tagged , , , , , , , on August 2, 2011| 52 Comments »

We had Pete’s family here over the weekend, and spent Saturday feasting on seafood.

The morning began with an early visit to the Sydney Fish Market.  I was impressed with this gleaming display at Nicholas Seafoods…

I’m not great at fish identification, but I did know a few.  Atlantic salmon and snapper below…

I’m not sure what the next two were (the silver one might be small tuna?), but I’m pretty sure the large orange ones are red snappers…

Barramundi on the left below (thanks Christine!), and ocean trout on the right… can anyone help with identifying the other fish in the photo above, please?  Thanks…

Lunch was a baked ocean trout and a cold platter of Balmain bug, two dozen oysters (half from St Helens in Tasmania, and the rest from Coffin Bay in South Australia) and a kilo of really good local Tiger prawns, served with homemade mayonnaise…

We also had homemade taramosalata…

…caramelised leek tabbouleh…

…and half a dozen loaves of sourdough ciabatta!

Hope you all had as wonderful a weekend as we did!

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Condiments

Posted in Food & Friends, Recipes, tagged , , , , , on July 27, 2011| 55 Comments »

I’m still playing with my new spices!

My friend Amanda from Lamb’s Ears and Honey forwarded a link to this Saveur post on making condiments at home.  I made their simple but very delicious Spicy Guinness Mustard.  Here’s the recipe with metric measures included (and it makes enough to fill three 300ml jars)…

  • 350ml (12 oz) Guinness beer
  • 285g (1½ cups) brown mustard seed
  • 250ml (1 cup) red wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon Malden salt flakes (or kosher salt)
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ¼ teaspoon ground allspice (pimento)

Mix all the ingredients together in a large pyrex bowl and stir to combine. Cover the bowl with clingfilm or a shower cap and allow it to mature for 24 hours at room temperature (original recipe says 1 – 2 days) .

The following day, blitz the mixture for about 3 minutes, either in a food processor, or using a stick blender in the bowl (which is what I did).  The mustard will thicken in texture and lighten in colour as the seeds are ground up.

If you taste it at this point, don’t be put off – it was initially quite bitter and inedible, but after a couple of days in the fridge, it mellowed to a hot and delicious grain mustard.

I’m adding this to my list of things to make for Christmas…

. . . . .

Also, using a tip I picked up from Tony at La Casa, I half filled a clean jar with chilli flakes and topped it up with grapeseed oil.  The oil has taken on a rich red hue and a spicy chilli flavour.  I regularly scoop out a spoonful of the macerated flakes and stir them into a soup or pasta.  So simple and so tasty!

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