cookies part 3

Posted by trish on Aug 30, 2011 in Eat | 6 comments

The dough has spent about 60 hours ‘resting’.  Last night,  I took it out of the fridge so it could come to room temperature.  This morning, while the kids were eating breakfast and getting ready for school, I cooked three more batches.They were about 30g each, and I cooked the first batch at 180C for 10 minutes.

The next ones I cooked for 10 minutes, but I turned the oven down to 160C (I have a fan-forced Smeg oven)

Perfect, except I forgot the salt.

Cookie nirvana!

These are a much more manageable size.  30g is about a tablespoon and a bit.  And these are about the size of my palm, rather than the size of my foot which is how they would have turned out if I’d followed the recipe.  Also, I don’t believe they need to be cooked for 18-20 minutes, but you’ll need to experiment with your own oven.  These are still quite squishy in the middle, but they are definitely lightly crisp on the outside.  And the colour is good.  By tomorrow, they’ll be extra-chewy (the first batch have become delightfully chewy after 24 hours in an air-tight box).

So… the Recipe:  Here it is, cut&pasted from Kate’s blog.

My comments are in green.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

2 cups minus 2 Tbsp. (8 ½ oz.) cake flour

1 2/3 cups (8 ½ oz.) bread flour (I used plain flour)

1 ¼ tsp. baking soda

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

1 ½ tsp. coarse salt, such as kosher

2 ½ sticks (1 ¼ cups; 10 oz.) unsalted butter, softened (310g of butter)

1 ¼ cups (10 oz.) light brown sugar (I used dark brown, and that definitely makes darker cookies)

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. (8 oz.) granulated sugar (this is just good old white sugar)

2 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 ¼ pounds bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks, preferably about 60% cacao content, such as Ghirardelli (available now at your local CostCo! Whooppee!)

Sea salt or kosher salt for garnishing

Combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Whisk well; then set aside.

Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars until very light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Reduce the mixer speed to low; then add dry ingredients, and mix until just combined.

(Unless you have a plastic guard that sits around the rim of the bowl, this will make a big mess at first, with flour flying everywhere. I found that carefully holding a dish towel around the top of the bowl helped a lot.)

Add the chocolate chips, and mix briefly to incorporate. Press plastic wrap against the dough, and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. The dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Remove the bowl of dough from the refrigerator, and allow it to soften slightly (this will take a long time to soften… allow an hour.  It’s almost worth dividing the mixture into half or thirds, and defrosting only as much as you’ll need).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat.  Using a standard-size ice cream scoop – mine holds about 3 fluid ounces, or about 1/3 cup – scoop six mounds of dough onto the baking sheet, making sure to space them evenly.(This makes SuperSize cookies. Be warned, these cookies are very, very rich)

Sprinkle lightly with sea salt, and bake until golden brown but still soft, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies onto the rack to cool a bit more.

Don’t tell, don’t ask.

Posted by trish on Aug 30, 2011 in Blog | 8 comments

A couple of weeks ago I was at lunch with some old friends, one of whom is expecting her first baby.  She and her husband were talking about their plans for parental leave from their jobs, and before I knew what I was doing I said the following…”Can I give you some advice?”

And then I gave them my advice, without even thinking for a second about what I was doing.

I WAS GIVING A PREGNANT WOMAN ADVICE.

I’m pretty sure you can get jailed for doing this these days.  In the nearly 14 years since I was pregnant for the first time, the pendulum has shifted – nay, swung violently – from it being absolutely alright to offer advice (because the mother-to-be will have already decided her response to all advice would be to smile, say thank you and then go ahead and do what they feel is Right For Her Baby) to absolutely wrong to offer advice because, well, it’s just FLAT OUT RUDE to be so presumptuous.  You don’t always get a polite smile of thanks anymore, you get a stern look that says Have You No Shame???

And then, if you’re like me, you get to skulk around for a few weeks afterwards, lambasting yourself for being so out of touch, so rude, so arrogant as to offer some advice.

So why do we keep doing it?  Why do we keep giving advice, even when we know we’re not really supposed to anymore?

I can remember discovering all sorts of things that made life easier for me, long after I had already lost my sanity because life with a newborn had become so incredibly hard.  I can’t recall what it was in response to, but I do recall thinking “God, I wish somebody had told me that earlier.”

Maybe that’s why I think it’s still alright to offer advice.  I can remember needing some.

Shutting yourself off from advice from friends who have the benefit of experience seems to me to be a bit short-sighted.  Obviously it depends on who is giving the advice, and whether that advice may have long since passed it’s expiration date (scientific studies into babies are ongoing, and last week’s Miracle Cure for colic is this week’s Charmingly Naive Notion).  My mother gave me advice constantly, and much of it was helpful, but some of it was very out-dated and I would never have acted on it.  My mother in law only gave advice when asked, and even then she was reluctant because she has never claimed to have known what the hell she was doing (her two wonderful grown sons are evidence that she was doing a great job!).

But, then again, just the act of giving advice can be taken as an indication that you think the person you’re advising couldn’t figure things out for themselves, because they’re not smart enough.  I remember feeling that way, too.

Ugh.  You can’t win, really, can you?

I’m very sorry that I offered unsolicited advice to the old friend (who, when I’m honest, is more of a friend-of-a-friend, so perhaps it really was a bit presumptuous of me).  She was gracious in smiling and saying thanks.

But I’m also sorry that the pendulum is still way over there, telling us that it’s wrong to give advice, no matter how well-meaning you are or how much that advice might save the new parents from some of the suffering you endured as you floundered about in those first few dark weeks.  I was just trying to help and yet the guilt is messing with my head.  I think, in future, I really should think very carefully before I give advice.  Maybe my advice-giving days are over, if we’re talking about pregnancy and newborns.  Maybe I’m only qualified to give advice about children who are about the same age as my own?

And maybe I should wait for an answer to my first question, which was “Can I give you some advice?”

cookie story

Posted by trish on Aug 29, 2011 in Eat | 3 comments

The recipe called for 3 and a half ounce mounds of cookie dough.  That’s about 75 grams.  A decent handful.  I decided that was too much, and reduced it to 50 grams.  They were still pretty enormous.

This is one 50gm ball, sitting on my iPhone.  See how big?  Huge.

(It took ages for the cookie dough to soften after being in the fridge – it was as hard as butter, not surprisingly.  Eventually I used an icecream scoop and moulded them into balls, but I wonder if it would have been better to bring the batter to room temperature before trying to scoop it out?  But then, wouldn’t they spread out even more during cooking?  Not sure…)

The chocolate chips melted into the dough.

I think the recipe intended for them to keep their shape; I think perhaps I just used the wrong kind of chocolate.

They spread out a lot, more than I expected them to, especially as I’d put them into the oven as barely-flattened balls.  They became quite thin, which is not my preference.  I like thick, chunky cookies.

I made a few batches from the same dough, all the same size, but adjusting the cooking time.  I can’t understand how you could cook these for 18-20 minutes without cremating them.  And the less time I cooked them, the better they looked.

The kids ate them while still very warm.

So, the verdict?

They are delicious.  They are too thin for my liking, but the flavour is pretty amazing.  I used very good quality chocolate (Lindt, bittersweet, 58% couverture) but I have since found a bag of “bittersweet chocolate chips for cooking” from Costco, which I think will be much better in terms of keeping their shape.

The cookies have a light, crisp shell and are definitely soft and chewy in the middle – but again, too thin.  I like my cookies to be much thicker and rounder, and this is what I’ll be hoping to achieve with the 48-hours batch.

The salt on top is absolutely divine.  The kids were fairly unimpressed with the salt but I think it really brings out the flavour of the chocolate.  My friend Ann agreed with me, so, the Defence rests.

I’ve made about a dozen, and I reckon I’ve got enough dough for two dozen more.  I’m going to bake much smaller cookies (30gm) and will cook them for 10-12 minutes.  I’ll let you know how they turn out.

Half a pound. Each.

Posted by trish on Aug 28, 2011 in Shoot | 7 comments

They are so tiny.

This is Saffy – she belongs to Madeleine.

She is quite outrageously cute.

And this is Darcy, who belongs to Ella.  Darcy has a little tuft of white hair on her forehead, which may or may not remain.  Otherwise, they’re a little hard to tell apart.

I mean, come on, this is just ridiculous.

We went to meet Juliann, the breeder, in a carpark just of the highway she comes in on.  I didn’t know how it was going to happen, but we were going to see three pups and the girls would choose which two they wanted.  Juliann opened the puppy carrying case on the back seat of her car and handed one to Madeleine, one to Ella and the third to PJ.  There was no discussion, it was all over immediately.  PJ gave the third one back (eventually!) and the girls didn’t let go of the pups they’d been given.

We get to bring them home with us on September 17th.  I’ll try really hard not to let this become a Puppy Blog but the first few weeks might be a little difficult.

chalk&cheese

Posted by trish on Aug 28, 2011 in Shoot | 3 comments

Right now, our elder daughter is tucked up in our bed, watching the DVD of Downton Abbey, a British drama set in 1912 about a very wealthy family and their army of servants.

Our younger daughter, meanwhile, is wearing her Socceroos tshirt and watching the DVD of the Socceroos v Uruguay World Cup Qualifying Match (played in Sydney in 2005, for the 2006 World Cup).

Two girls, but they really couldn’t be less alike.  Love it.

(Ella scored two goals at soccer today, and assisted with two others… very proud!)

1.25 pounds

Posted by trish on Aug 27, 2011 in Eat | 6 comments

The chocolate chip cookies I’m blogging/making this weekend (and let’s not kid around here… these chocolate chip cookies are absolutely worth three blog posts and a dozen or more Tweets) come from an American recipe.  I saw the quantity of chocolate chips (1 and 1/4 pounds) and figured that was somewhere in the vicinity of 600gm.  In fact, it’s a bit under that.  So I bought a 1kg bag of 64% bittersweet Lindt chocolate pieces and set about turning them into Chocolate Chips.  Three hours later I had small pieces and the added bonus of chocolate under my fingernails.

Here’s the dough, ready to go into the fridge.  I really didn’t think there would be enough dough in that bowl to swallow up all those chocolate chips but, well, you can see for yourself.  I’m now feeling more optimistic that there will be enough appetite in me to swallow up all the chocolate chip cookies.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted by trish on Aug 25, 2011 in Eat | 2 comments

The other day a recipe on Pinterest caught my eye… It was called

The Only Chocolate Chip Cookie I Will Ever Need To Know How To Make For The Rest Of My Life.

Actually, the title was in ALL CAPS which is why it probably leapt out at me.  But then I read the recipe, and thought… oh yeah, baby.

Except, it’s one of those American recipes that askes for ounces of stuff.  And sticks of butter.  And cake flour.  And a pound and a quarter of bittersweet chocolate discs.  So… complicated.  Too complicated for me to bother with.And then today I was at the local supermarket and lookit lookit!

So I’ve been inspired to make these cookies.  But you’ll have to wait, because the recipe says you have to chill the cookie dough for at least 24 hours, and 36 if you can stand it.  So I’m going to do that, and then I shall report back.

If you want to join me in this culinary adventure, and you have access to cake flour and bittersweet chocolate disks and a set of kitchen scales that can help you out with the ounces, here’s the recipe.

And here’s a picture to whet your appetite.

(thanks to For Me, For You by Kate Miss for the recipe and the photo!)

Giddy-up

Posted by trish on Aug 24, 2011 in Blog | 6 comments

Dear Trish’s Conscience,

It has come to my attention that you are ignoring the very clear signals I have been sending in the hopes that you would take seriously the commitment you made earlier this year to adopt a healthier lifestyle.  I am writing to you now, perhaps with some misplaced optimism, to remind you again of why a much more wholesome and healthy approach to diet and exercise will ultimately benefit us both.

You’ve been mostly pretty good, but every now and then you seem to forget yourself.  So I’m going to remind you.

Do you remember how dreadful I felt on Monday morning when we woke up?  Do you recall my complaints about my lethargy?  My fuzzy head?  My bloated stomach?  I know that it was just that one beer – but it was a schooner! And you had it with a bowl of beer-battered chips!  The combination of beer and saturated fats is – and I can’t believe I have to keep telling you this – is really bad for us!

Do you recall how wonderful you felt during those few weeks on the Detox diet?  No coffee, no alcohol, no wheat, no dairy, no sugar, no beer-battered chips.  Yes, it was tough… but oh my goodness, how good did we feel?  Well done for sticking with it but what’s the point of putting yourself through a Detox if you’re just going to go and trash yourself again afterwards?  Where’s your commitment?  Your dedication?!

Do you remember how fantastic you felt after each session of Boot Camp in May?  How that kick-started your metabolism and you were finally able to lose those last five kilos (in fact, you lost six! Wow! Diet and exercise actually works! Whoddathunkit?)  So why are you contemplating NOT going to Boot Camp this morning?  Why are you sitting at your computer at 9am when you have to be at Boot Camp at 9.30am?  WTF?!

It’s great that you’ve started riding you bike to school with the kids, and riding back again to pick them up, but who are we kidding?  That’s an hour of gentle riding each day, with hardly any hills, and a lot of stopping for traffic lights.  That’s a good start, but it’s not going to give you the Buns of Steel you were hoping to have in your 40th year.  You. Need. To. Sign. Up. To. A. Pilates. Class. For the love of Pete, stop making excuses.

Now, get off the computer and go to Boot Camp!

Regards,

Trish’s Body

easy as pie

Posted by trish on Aug 23, 2011 in Eat | 3 comments

My friend Ann gave me this recipe ages and ages ago, and I finally made it this week because I’m trying to cook more vegetarian meals.  And there’s nothing better than a vegetarian meal that also contains three different kinds of cheese.  Am I right?

Let me start by saying that this pie is ridiculously easy and yet it looks so impressive.  My mother used to make spinach pie the traditional way – you know, layers and layers of filo pastry with armfuls (arms-full?) of spinach she’d brought in from the garden.  Clearly that woman had too much time on her hands, what with her four children.

I took a quick look at Ann’s recipe and decided that there would be enough for a couple of pies if I just added another egg and a little more cheese.  Turns out I was right.  This is one of those recipes that can be tweaked quite a bit, ingredients-wise, just as long as you maintain the egg/milk : filling ratio.  I reckon you could do this as a quiche lorraine using bacon, perhaps some mushrooms, throw in some baby spinach… just maintain that egg/milk quantity so you do actually end up with something that looks vaguely pie-ish.

So this is Ann’s recipe with a couple of tweaks.  Thanks Ann!

ANN’S COUNTRY SPINACH AND FETA PIE

(serves 6 as an entree, or 4 for dinner)

250g packet frozen spinach, thawed (zap frozen spinach in microwave on high for 4 mins then strain in sieve to drain away the water)

3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

100g feta cheese, crumbled

100g haloumi cheese, roughly chopped

2 shallots or green onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed

3 eggs

1/2 cup cream (or milk)

Preheat oven to 200 C.

Line two oven trays with baking paper.

Squeeze excess liquid from spinach.  In a medium bowl, combine the spinach, parmesan, feta, haloumi, shallots, garlic and nutmeg.  Stir well.

In a small jug, whisk the eggs and milk/cream together.  Season with salt and pepper if you like.

Place a pastry sheet on each tray.  Trim the corners to make a circle.  Divide the spinach mixture in half and put half in the middle of each pastry round, then flatten out with the back of a fork, leaving a 4cm border all the way around.

Fold the sides of the pastry up around the filling to encase.

At first, I just folded four sides up and pinched the corners.  This is wrong, I think.  You should fold up a little at a time, squeezing the pastry together so it’s sorta pleated.)  Then fill each pie with the egg/milk mixture.  You might need to coax the egg into the corners.Here’s a picture since I suck at giving descriptions:

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden.  Actually, this took about 15 minutes in my oven, so if I were you I’d check it after 15 and see how it looks.

A few minutes after you take it out of the oven it will expel most of the hot air that makes it looks so light and fluffy in the middle, and you’ll be left with something that looks much more like a rustic quiche than a country pie.  I’m pretty sure the taste is still as good.

Go forth and bake!

house rules

Posted by trish on Aug 22, 2011 in Blog | 5 comments

Thanks for your patience regarding the blog… and of course now it’s working just fine.  Well, I’m getting a new host anyway.  But you won’t notice any changes, other than new and improved downloading.

I had two new friends over for coffee this morning, two lovely women whom I’ve come to know through Twitter and their blogs.  Tina has just moved to Canberra from Canada with her Canberra-born husband and their two young boys and Louise is a Canberra writer and blogger and mum of Benedict.  The ladies and their boys all came over for coffee & cake and to show me just how far I have moved on from being a parent to young children.

It’s funny how you forget what young kids are like.  I’ve had a few visits from small children recently and I have to confess I have found these visits somewhat stressful.  The first was from a very small boy who zeroed in on all the valuables and breakables I had left at knee-height.  At his mother’s suggestion I very quickly moved everything up onto higher shelves.

The second visit was from two brothers, aged 3 and 6.  Again, the breakable stuff had to go up high.  And then I had to contend with the sound of two small children, one of whom was quite tired and emotional on account of a long drive that day.  I had forgotten how much noise small children can make.  And the acoustics in our new house are sensational.

The third visit was from three sisters, aged 10, 8 and 3.  The littlest was very curious about the water feature in the front yard… which suddenly seemed to be a whole lot deeper.  And with piranhas.

And then today’s visit taught me that small children probably shouldn’t try to climb up onto our sofas, becasue if they fall off (which poor little Benedict inevitably did) there’s nothing to break their fall but the concrete floor.  That’s an awful, terrible sound, skull-on-concrete.

I used to love going and visiting my friends-with-kids when my children were small.  We could sit and relax with a cup of tea or coffee while the children played in one of the kids’ bedrooms.  I tried to schedule play-dates throughout the week, and those visits were what got me through those sometimes lonely days of being a stay-at-home-mum.  But now, I watch small children playing in my house and all I can think is that they’re going to get killed falling off my sofa, or their fingers are going to get jammed in the big folding doors, or they’ll tumble into the swimming pool, or they’ll lock themselves in the toilet which has a stiff door handle and we’ll never be able to get them out.

When did I forget how to be relaxed around small children?  I love having little kids about, please don’t get me wrong.  But things are different for me now.  What’s changed is my blood pressure.  Before, I could just relax and not worry if someone started crying, or climbing up on a chair, or arguing over whose turn it was to play with the toy trains.  In fact, I didn’t really notice any of these distractions unless there was spilt milk or a bloody nose (it had to be something serious to get my attention away from the conversation I was having with the other, equally-oblivious mother).  But now?  Now, it’s like I’ve always got one eye on the coffee, the other eye on the kids.  I’m so worried something’s about to happen to them.

I put the television onto the ABC kids’ channel in anticipation of the young boys’ arrival today and it suddenly struck me how long it’s been since my kids were that small; I didn’t recognise the two presenters on Playschool, they’re new.  Our family has moved on from Playschool and toys on the floor, grubby fingerprints on the television screen, noses that need constant wiping, nappies that need changing, crying for no discernable reason, and fighting over jigsaw puzzle pieces.  Our house is quiet, ordered, calm…  and it has been for quite a few years now.  Sure, when Ella has a friend over things can get a little raucous.  But it’s manageable.  I now find that small children in my home make me nervous.  Nervous for their safety, because I don’t know what death-traps exist until some unsuspecting toddler has discovered it for me.

I still want my friends to come and visit, and I still want them to bring their small children around; I’ve got nieces and nephews who are much younger than my kids, so there will always be little visitors.  Besides,  we have a cubby house!  And a trampoline!  And a swimming pool with a shallow end!  We’ve got the perfect small-kid backyard, after years of having a yard that was mostly unfenced and often visited by large, stray dogs.  But I’m going to need to set some boundaries, enforce some rules, for safety’s sake and for the sake of my nerves.  And I’m going to have to do it in such a way that my guests – parents and kids – still feel like they can relax when they come around. Otherwise I’m going to go through that bottle of gin awfully quickly this summer.

geeky bits

Posted by trish on Aug 17, 2011 in Blog | 6 comments

Just wanted to let you know that I am aware of the downloading issues – sometimes I can’t get into my blog to write anything or approve comments, making this the most frustrating thing in my life so far (puppy toilet training threatens to win that contest though).

PJ is looking into it, has been looking into it, will continue to look into it.  I don’t understand what the problem is but he does, and I have faith that he will fix it.  I hope it won’t require an entire re-design and re-launch of the blog again but I’ll agree to whatever it takes because this is annoying the crap out of me.

Thank you for your patience.

Puppylove

Posted by trish on Aug 15, 2011 in Blog | 13 comments

As soon as we learned that we would be moving to a puppy-friendly house, we placed an order for two Cavalier King Charles x poodle pups (cavoodles) and started counting down the days until they would come to live with us.  That day is this weekend, when we are due to drive to the breeder’s rural New South Wales home and pick them up.

But I called her on Sunday morning to confirm a time to pop in that day just to meet the puppies, and she delivered some bad news.

The puppies are not cavoodles, they’re pure Cavalier King Charles spaniels.  Which means they will shed hair, which is not good for us.  Part of the lease agreement on this house is a promise to have low-shedding dogs.  Also, I really despise dog hair all over the furniture.  Almost as much as I despise cat hair.

We researched dog breeds very thoroughly before deciding on cavoodles.  We looked at Cavaliers very carefully because we had heard they were terrific little dogs, but we decided against them because of the extra grooming required and the shedding factor.

The breeder apologised profusely and said that it appeared the male and female Cavaliers she has ‘got to each other’ before she could introduce the poodle.  She said that by now, the pups should have developed a poodle-like coat, and they hadn’t, so she reasoned they didn’t have poodle in them.  She said she felt that she should sell them to somebody who was after a pure-bred Cavalier.

I asked her if she had any cavoodle pups and thankfully she does (two girls) but they won’t be ready to bring home for another five weeks.

PJ was away on the weekend so I called him to tell him the news and to ask him what we should do.  He agreed that we would have to let the Cavaliers go to somebody else, and wait for the Cavoodles.

Obviously, this was going to be heartbreaking news for the girls.  They’ve been waiting for these puppies for YEARS.  And to add insult to injury, yesterday we went to the Pet Shop (after WEEKS of nagging) to buy leads and collars and food bowls and have little dog tags engraved with their names.  They had most definitely bonded with Millie and Darcy.

The breeder told me she’d send up a photo of the puppies so I could show it to the girls, to cushion the blow when I delivered the bad news.  After a couple of hours there was no sign of the picture, but I told them anyway.  The news did not go down well.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen my two girls so upset.

It took them a solid hour to calm down and to accept that this was the way it was going to have to be, but they put a very strong case forward for why they should be allowed to keep the puppies they had already fallen in love with.  I almost caved a couple of times, it was awful, I felt like The Worst Person In The World.  What’s a little dog hair, anyway?  You just get a good broom, right?

The things is, and this is really wierd, I’ve had a feeling all along that these two puppies weren’t right for us.  I don’t know why, I could never articulate the doubt and it was really only a tiny little bit of a feeling that I never mentioned to anyone.  I think I had fallen for the cavoodles next door, Sam and Molly the caramel-coloured puppies who greeted me with excited bouncing and wagging tails, and decided on some level that they were the kind of dogs we would have. But since the puppies were going to belong to Madi and Ella, it didn’t matter what I thought.

(Sam, with Molly, trying to teach her to share)

Late last night there was still no sign of the photos, and not early this morning either.  I didn’t say anything to the kids about it, and the subject didn’t come up.And then just now, I checked my email and the photos have arrived.

I’ve got a good feeling about these ones.  Look at their white feet and tummies.  They look just like I imagined our puppies would look.  They look like Sam and Molly.

I still feel like The Worst Person In The World.  I feel like I made this happen.

**UPDATE**The girls have seen the pictures of the new puppies and have fallen instantly, deeply in love.  Juliann, the breeder, felt so awful about the whole situation that she even sent me a picture of another cavoodle puppy “that looks exactly how yours will look in a few more weeks, only yours will be a bit darker, so show this to the girls so they will know what their pups will look like”…

Hello, what’s your name?

We’re going to go and meet them on Thursday, because it’s a Pupil Free Day.  Yes, there will be more photos.

macaron heaven

Posted by trish on Aug 15, 2011 in Shoot | 4 comments

L-R: chocolate-chocolate macaron, hazelnut & truffle macaron, orange & chocolate macaron, raspberry & white chocolate macaron, salted caramel macaron.

(the biscuits look a little puffy at the edges because, apparently, the almonds were a bit tricky this week… it didn’t effect the flavour at all, but Marilyn – who makes them – wanted to let me know that they ‘shouldn’t look like that’.  You know what Marilyn?  I wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t said anything!)

The hazelnut & truffle macaron had some bling on top:

From Dream Cuisine at the Farmers’ Markets.

Cheat’s Chicken Parmigiana

Posted by trish on Aug 14, 2011 in Eat | 3 comments

I made this the other night after finding it on page 85 of this month’s delicious. magazine.  It was easy, and delicious.

First, make your tasty breadcrumbs. (hint: this just about makes enough for two meals; store extra in the freezer for next time).

Then, make your tasty tomato sauce topping.

Next, start cooking your chicken breast fillets.

Then assemble everything, and pop it in the oven.  See? Easy.

I’ve never made chicken parmigiana, or anything parmigiana, so I have no idea what aspect of this recipe makes it “cheating”.

CHEAT’S CHICKEN PARMIGIANA (serves 4)

1/3 cup olive oil

2 cups fresh breadcrumbs

1/4 cup finely chopped flat-leaf (Continental) parsley

1/2 cup grated parmesan

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tbs tomato paste

1 tsp fennel seeds (I didn’t have these)

1 small red chilli (I omitted this too)

400g can chopped tomatoes

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

pinch of caster sugar

4 x 170g chicken breast fillets

4 bocconcini, sliced

Steamed broccolini, to serve

Preheat oven to 200 C.

Place 2 tbs oil in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add breadcrumbs and cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes until golden.  Cool slightly, then season.  Fold through 2 tbs each parsely and parmesan, then remove from pan and set aside.

In the same pan, heat 1 tbs oil over med-high heat.  Cook onion and garlic, stirring, for 2-3 minutes until soft.  Add tomato paste, fennel and chilli, then cook for 1 minute or until fragrant.  Add tomato, Worcestershire, sugar and 60ml water, then simmer, stirring occasionally, for 8-10 minutes or until thick.  Taste for seasoning… I used a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and about a tablespoon of sugar in the end.

At this point, I steamed some broccolini in the microwave until just-done.  Then I found some slivered almonds in the pantry (I had searched unsuccessfully for pine nuts).  I heated a frying pan over medium heat, tossed the almonds in and let them toast for a couple of minutes until they started to brown then I turned the heat off and left them for a while…

Heat remaining 1 tbs oil in an ovenproof frying pan over med-high heat (if you don’t have something that will go from the stovetop to the oven, just cook in the frying pan then transfer to an oven-proof dish).

Season the chicken and cook for 5 minutes, then turn and cook for a further 2 minutes until just golden.

Transfer to the oven and bake for 5 minutes…. I put some lemon-infused olive oil into the frying pan with the almonds and heated it up again.  When the oil was hot, I tossed in the broccolini…

…I put the now-hot veggies in a serving dish for everyone to help themselves to at the table.

Back to the chicken…

Spoon over sauce and top with bocconcini and remaining parmesan, then cook for a further 2-3 minutes until chicken is cooked through and the cheese is melted.

I forgot to take a photo of it in the baking dish with the breadcrumbs on top.

Slice chicken and arrange on plates.  (I skipped the slicing part).

Add some tasty greens and voila!

I’m loving it

Posted by trish on Aug 13, 2011 in Blog | 3 comments

A note came home from school the other day, asking us to give permission for Madi to watch this film in class (it is rated MA 15+ in this country).  She watched an hour of it in class, then this afternoon we joined the video shop nearest our new house and rented this so both the kids could watch it.  I had the mute button ready for the scene that, presumably, gave it the MA 15+ rating, wherein Morgan Spurlock’s girlfriend talks about the effect all those fries had on his ability to maintain, er, interest during, er, you know.

Both kids looked away during the scene on Day 3 when he violently vomits out the window after consuming his first Super-Sized meal, and again when the cameras were inside the guy who underwent lap-band surgery in a last-ditch effort to get him to stop drinking four gallons of Coca-Cola a day.

Both the girls’ reactions after seeing this film were fairly predictable: neither will ever eat fast food again, neither will ever drink softdrink again, and both wanted to become Vegans.  The thought of having to learn how to cook vegan dishes fills me with dread so as Head Chef I immediately rejected that suggestion but instead offered to meal-plan for three vegetarian meals each week.  I’m going to need to do some research on the vegetarian diet so I don’t inadvertently cause my children’s iron levels to plummet.  And this spring/summer will be all about salads.  Stay tuned for some recipes.

I’m really glad my kids have healthy appetites and make healthy food choices, for the most part.  Ella has a sweet tooth and she also loves chicken nuggets but after seeing this program the only chicken nuggets she’ll be eating are the ones we make at home from free-range organic chooks.  It was heartbreaking to watch this documentary and see not only how obese the kids are, but how incredibly high in salt, sugar and fat their diets are.  Not an apple in sight.  I don’t actually believe my kids will never have junk food again, but it’s nice to see them having a healthy disrespect for the McDiet.

first blossoms

Posted by trish on Aug 11, 2011 in Shoot | 4 comments

We don’t have fruit trees in our new garden but we do have one of these. Aren’t they pretty?I’m really going to miss the fig tree from our last house; though maybe we can make friends with the new tenants…

ladies who lunch

Posted by trish on Aug 9, 2011 in Eat | 4 comments

My friend Clare, the one with the chef qualifications and the one who taught me how to debone a chicken and who bought me a Kasumi boning knife for my 40th – that Clare – came around for lunch today which of course inspired me to make something delicious and ultimately very impressive.

Behold Bill Granger’s spicy roast pumpkin salad with feta and olives.

This was SO easy. And with my new and improved north-facing kitchen I no longer have to struggle to get enough light for taking photos.  Suddenly, everything I cook looks even better.

I halved the ingredients to serve two people, and didn’t really measure the fetta or count the olives.  I mean, who does that?

BILL GRANGER’S SPICY ROAST PUMPKIN SALAD

(from his book, bill’s food)

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

800g pumpkin, cut into 2cm cubes

100g baby English spinach leaves

150g marinated feta, drained and crumbled

20 Kalamata olives, pitted.

DRESSING

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

60ml (1/4 cup) extra virgin olive oil

1 eschallot, finely sliced

Preheat oven to 200 C.

Place the olive oil, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper in a bowl and stir to combine.  Add the pumplin and stir to coat.  Transfer to a roasting tin and bake for 30 minutes, or until the pumpkin is tender and slightly caramelized.

Whisk all the dressing ingredients together in a bowl until combined.

Divide the spinach leaves among four serving plates and scatter pumpkin, feta and olives over the top.  Drizzle each salad with dressing.  (Or, put all the salad ingredients + dressing into a big bowl, turn it over a few times to get it all mixed together and serve at the table on a big plate that everyone can help themselves to.)

Serves 4

Oh, the arrogance.

Posted by trish on Aug 8, 2011 in Blog | 4 comments

Good morning and welcome to a world that seems to be teetering on the edge of another global financial crisis.

It’s killing me not to blog about the political situation in America.  As always, I keep an eye on what’s going on over there, but it’s become an increasingly shocked and outraged eye and, according to one American reader who took offence at my political commentary during the 2008 US elections, I’m not a good enough writer to offer my opinion without sounding arrogant and superior.  So  instead I suggest that you should watch this documentary by Charles Ferguson:

It made me angry, in the same way that most people who watch it get angry.  But you know what bothered me the most?  The last ten minutes.

This film introduces you to all the major players in the collapse of the big investment firms in the US, which lead to the 2008 global financial crisis.  Then it introduces you to the government regulators who literally allowed it to happen, by not doing their jobs.  Then it shows you how closely related the regulators are to the men who ran those companies into the ground.  Oh, and it introduces you to the many, many people (Americans and foreigners) who saw it coming a mile off and whose warnings were completely disregarded.

And then, in the last ten minutes, it shows you how several of these men are serving in the Obama Administration, and how several of the recommendations made by the inquiry into the GFC – that would prevent this kind of nightmare from happening again – have not been implemented by the Obama administration.

I’d like to believe that President Obama hasn’t been able to change government policy with regards to the regulation of the financial services industry because he hasn’t been able to get the Republican-led Congress to agree to the changes.  But the image of Obama paling around with Ben Bernanke and some of the other people profiled in this documentary just doesn’t sit right with me, now that I have watched this and have a better understanding of how the GFC came about. Stuff that was allowed to happen on Wall Street has had a tangible and concrete, devastating impact on the rest of the world.

So pardon my arrogance, superiority and lousy writing ability but… what the fuck, America?

Kerrye O

Posted by trish on Aug 5, 2011 in Shoot | 4 comments

This is my friend Kerrye.  We went to school together, from high school until the end of Year 12.  Sometime after that she went to America, and she’s been there ever since.  She came back to Canberra to celebrate her 40th birthday with family and friends, and I offered to take a couple of Birthday Portraits for her (plus some ‘corporate’ shots she needed for work).  It took a minute for her to warm up to the camera but she got there in the end, and I reckon she looks fabulous.

New digs

Posted by trish on Aug 4, 2011 in Blog, Eat | 2 comments

Years ago I read some advice for ambitious young university graduates going into their first jobs.  It said to dress for the job you want to have, not the job you do have.  So even if you’re just the office admin assistant (which I was, for a while) you should invest in a couple of good suits and well-made shoes so you look like you mean business.  The mere act of getting dressed like your boss in the morning will lift you up a little bit higher, give you that extra confidence, and will ultimately help you on your way.  Also?  People will take you more seriously. 

If ya wanna be taken serious, ya got have serious hair.

PJ and I have discovered that this new house is like a brand new suit.  We feel happier, more energised, more optimistic and just ‘lighter’ when we are here.  I have new energy for my novel and for my Top Secret project, and PJ has his own venture on the boil that has suddenly taken a mammoth leap forward since we moved here.  It’s like we’ve been stuck in a house-rut as well as a life-rut, if that makes sense, and now that we are out of there we suddenly feel just so much more alive, and things are happening again whereas they had previously seemed a bit stalled.  It’s like the world has been waiting for us to take this step and now that we have, all this positive energy.

Can’t you just hear the choirs singing?

On a smaller scale, my new and vastly improved kitchen has got me cooking up a storm.  I made yo-yo biscuits yesterday.  The recipe said to bake them for 8-10 minutes, but my oven did it in 7.  I’m telling you, things are looking up.

YO-YO BISCUITS WITH LEMON ICING FILLING

200g unsalted butter, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/3 cup icing sugar, sifted

2 cups plain flour, sifted

Lemon Icing:

1 cup icing sugar, sifted

20g unsalted butter, softened

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180 (350F).

Place the butter, vanilla and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 8-10 minutes or until creamy and pale.  Add the flour and beat until a smooth dough forms.  Roll teaspoons of the mixture into balls, place on baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper and press with a fork.  Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden.  Cool on wire racks.

To make the icing, place the sugar, butter and lemon juice in a bowl and stir well until smooth.  Spread half of the biscuits with lemon icing and sandwich with the remaining biscuits to serve.  Makes 30.

And here’s what I learned from making them:

It doesn’t make 30.  In order to get each biscuit exactly the same size, I weighed each teaspoonful of dough (16g each).  This gave me about 34 biscuits, which equals 17 little biscuit sandwiches.  To get 30, you’d need 60 biscuits, and with this quantity of dough you’re talking about very little biscuits.  Which would be fine, but they wouldn’t take as long to cook.

When you’ve sandwiched them together, put them back on your cooling rack, not onto a plate where they’ll tip over and slide apart.  The rack should keep them upright.

You can’t pop a whole one into your mouth and expect to be able to swallow it after a few chews.  This thing will fill your mouth with the most delicious sawdust ever and you’ll be gagging, reaching for a glass of milk.  Best to break them in half and then nibble.  Actually, these might even be better just served as single biscuits with a drizzle of lemon icing (slightly runnier than the thick, peanut-butter-consistency you need for this recipe).