birthday dessert ideas: June 2010

Melting Moments with Lemon Cream

You can imagine how impressed I was to arrive home this afternoon to discover that my teenage son had made Melting Moments with Lemon Cream filling.

For a first effort with a piping bag they weren't bad at all, and they tasted heavenly. The ones in the picture above are the last three, left for Dad when he gets home from work.

Even better is that my son cleaned up after himself. He said it took 3 hours, but maybe it only felt that long!

This recipe comes from the Australian Women's Weekly's Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits.

Melting Moments with Lemon Cream

250g (8oz) butter

1/3 C icing (confectioner's) sugar

1 1/2 C plain flour

1/2 C cornflour

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add sifted flours, mix well. Put mixture into piping bag fitted with fluted tube. Pipe rosettes on to lightly greased oven trays, bake in moderate oven 10 to 12 minutes until pale golden brown. Cool on wire rack. Join biscuits with lemon cream.

Lemon Cream

60g (2oz) butter

1/2 C icing (confectioner's) sugar

1 tsp grated lemon rind

3tsp lemon juice

Beat butter until smooth, gradually add sifted icing sugar, beat until mixtures is light and creamy. Beat in lemon rind and juice.

Makes about 30 complete biscuits.

Outside My Kitchen Window

My kitchen window looks out on a paved area to the side of the house and a (hideous) colourbond fence.

To the left I can see an orange tree. To the right is our struggling lemon tree.

In the spring I would like to do something to make the view prettier - some potted flowers perhaps. It would be nice to have something attractive to look at when I am daydreaming out the window with my hands in sudsy water.

What do you see out your kitchen window?

Huge Blog Problems

Edvard Munch, The Scream

I've been having huge problems using Blogger's New Template Designer so I tried reverting back to Minima, only to find that I can now no longer change the header or do numerous other things I used to do - there is no Layout tab in Minima anymore. For a while I thought I had lost my new banner and almost everything on my sidebar, with no way to get them back. Arrrrrgggghhhh!

Please bear with me while I try to sort these issues out.

Postscript: The issues are mostly sorted now, I think, and I am back using the new Template Designer (Watermark template).

However, in some of the older posts the pictures do not match the frames when using Internet Explorer, and when you click on the post the sidebar appears at the bottom. I found this out yesterday when I went to link to a post from 2007, No Cook Homemade Playdough, for a blog carnival.

Does anyone know how to fix this? I've already posted the issue on a Blogger forum but no answers so far.

Why does technology so often drive me to near insanity? It's supposed to make life easier!

Australia's New Prime Minister

Like most Australians, I was astonished to hear on the radio yesterday morning that Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard was planning to challenge the leadership of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Although Mr Rudd's stance on the Mining Super Tax, his backdown on the Emissions Trading Scheme, and his apparent laxity regarding asylum seekers were making him unpopular in the polls, he was, after all, the man who kept Australia out of recession during the global financial crisis of the past three years, making us unique amongst developed nations.

Despite my surprise, I was initially excited when I heard that we had our first female Prime Minister - and a red-headed woman to boot.

However, later in the day when I had the opportunity to see the news on television, I began to have some serious misgivings.

In spite of his faults, (it appears that Mr Rudd was a micromanager, and this 'centralised leadership style' alienated him from both business leaders and his Party) Mr Rudd was our elected leader. Prime Minister Gillard's coup seems an awful lot like bullying. And Australians don't like a bully.

While I am no particular fan of Opposition leader Tony Abbott, I am inclined to agree with him that ''a midnight knock on the door followed by an assassination is no way to treat a prime minister.''

What do you think about Australia's new Prime Minister?

Word Snob

I am a word snob. I like words to be used properly and I like them to be spelt correctly.

Tragically, I usually write words out in full when texting.

I don't like it when people make nouns into verbs, such as turning 'impact' into 'impacted on', rather than 'the impact on'.

I don't like the (newish) verb 'to diarise'. It sounds too much like diarrhoea.

It's 'one fell swoop' not 'one foul sweep' (from Macbeth).

I prefer English/Australian spelling to American, although I accept that 'programme' has become 'program'.

I am amused every time I read of someone 'pouring' over a book instead of the correct 'poring'.

And why do people write 'past-time' instead of 'pastime', a hobby?

At school I learnt that sentences should not begin with 'and' or 'but'.

And I do that all the time.

But I shouldn't.

Do you have pet hates when it comes to grammar and spelling? What are they?

Postscript: A reader reminded me of one of my biggest pet hates, the misuse of apostrophe's. (Yes, that error was intentional!)

Just for the record, simple plurals NEVER require an apostrophe. Thus it's ponies not pony's and 1990s not 1990's (we would write nineties not ninety's).

Just had to get that off my chest.

Thinking About the Winter Solstice

O Winter! ruler of the inverted year, . . . I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fireside enjoyments, home-born happiness, And all the comforts that the lowly roof Of undisturb'd Retirement, and the hours Of long uninterrupted evening, know.

William Cowper

This is the first year we have done anything at all for the winter solstice.

The winter solstice usually passes us by relatively unnoticed. Unlike in the Northern Hemisphere, our solstice does not coincide with Christmas and the New Year. And unlike other places where winters are long and harsh and brutally cold, ours are fairly mild, with no snow. Our summers are much crueller, with their terrible heat.

Waking this morning with a head cold, I had a craving for mulled wine, with its intoxicating fragrance of citrus and spices. Remembering that the winter solstice is tomorrow, I decided to prepare a winter solstice meal.

We had chicken with red cabbage and the adults drank mulled wine. We ate by candlelight and thought about what the winter solstice might mean.

One of the boys asked why God created summer and winter and didn't just give us autumn and spring (the 'good' seasons). I explained how cycles are important to nature and winter gives the plants time to rest. We can be thankful for the solstice because it is a reminder that spring will come.

Do you celebrate the winter solstice? How do you celebrate?

Love...

Reading Corner

We haven't bought a sofa for our front sitting room yet, so this old armchair is it, as far as seating goes. Next to the window, it is the perfect place to read.

Where do you go to read?

Milkshakes and Smoothies

It seems that if ever I go out leaving my older children at home alone, someone will make either milkshakes or smoothies. (While the cat's away...)

While the milkshakes above were made using commercial chocolate topping, our family favourite is homemade chocolate syrup. Perhaps I should make some again soon? It lasts forever (if it is allowed to!) and has a much richer chocolate taste than any commercial product I've ever sampled.

My kids also like making the Hillbilly Housewife's Magic Milkshakes. These are especially good for days when you don't have much fresh milk, as they use powdered milk.

Although my kids prefer milkshakes, I would rather have a fruit smoothie any day. I regularly freeze banana chunks for this purpose. All you need is a blender, some fresh or frozen banana chunks, and any other fruit of your choice, and you have a snack that is both healthy and delicious.

Moroccan Lemon Cake

For her French class my daughter had to do a project on a French-speaking country other than France. She and a classmate chose Morocco.

Today the class was having a party with food made by the students from their countries of choice. Miss 13 and her friend spent yesterday afternoon baking a Moroccan lemon cake for the party.

The cake came out of the oven looking absolutely beautiful. We held our breathe as it was tipped out of the Bundt tin, but the girls has greased well and the cake looked pristine.

Unfortunately my daughter woke up this morning with a high fever and was too unwell to go to school. The cake is sitting in a plastic container on the kitchen bench untouched and as beautiful as ever.

I think I know what my children are having for school snacks tomorrow, don't you?

Garlicky Couscous Salad with Chick Peas

By request, here is the recipe for the couscous salad I mentioned in yesterday's post about our long, leisurely Sunday lunch.

The thing is, it wasn't actually a recipe. I needed something that I could make quickly from ingredients at hand, and couscous is prepared so quickly it seemed the obvious choice. Therefore, the recipe below is a guide rather than a set of rules to be followed.

Garlicky Couscous Salad with Chick Peas

500g box instant couscous

2 1/2 C boiling water

1 can chickpeas (garbanzos), drained

a good handful parsley and coriander (cilantro) chopped

semi-dried tomatoes, or diced fresh tomatoes in season

pitted kalamata olives

about 150g feta, diced

green onions

Dressing

1/2 C oil

squeeze lemon juice
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cummin

crushed garlic to taste

salt and pepper

dash chilli sauce (to taste)

Method

Put couscous into a saucepan. Pour boiling water over couscous and cover with lid. Leave for 5 minutes. Fluff up couscous with a fork and transfer into a large serving bowl. Mix through other salad ingredients then dressing.

Enjoy

The Underside of the Teacups, and Sunday Lunch

After yesterday's post about my unidentified Royal Grafton Red china service, a reader asked if I could take a photo of the underside to help her work out the name of the design.

So here it is; the underside of one of the teacups.

I'm afraid it's probably not much help!

As I write this I feel like the Goodyear blimp. We had the most enormous lunch today with friends from church.

As they have five kids and we have four, and some of their family is vegetarian, I decided to get everyone to make their own pizzas. There were ham and pepperoni, sliced red peppers, semi-dried tomatoes, sliced canned artichokes, baby spinach leaves and olives, along with plenty of grated mozzarella, of course. I also made a big, garlicky couscous salad with chickpeas and other vegies for a side dish.

Dessert was a mixed berry crumble, my home-made chocolate brownies, cream and vanilla ice cream.

Our friends brought the most delicious, oozy camembert cheese from the Adelaide Central Market, and I have eaten w-a-y too much of it.

You know Sunday lunch is going well when everyone is still sitting around chatting at 4 pm!

Royal Grafton Red China

We got married in the days before having a wedding registry was a widespread thing - at least in Australia. This meant that we got the wedding presents our guests chose for us, rather than gifts that we chose for ourselves.

Although we didn't choose a china design, we were given a white Mikasa dinner service by my then soon-to-be step-mother-in-law.

No pieces from that service have survived 19 years of marriage and 4 children, however we still use white china for everyday use. Currently, we are sticking with plain white Corelle as it is unbreakable - a very great virtue in our family.

Several years later we inherited the red Royal Grafton service in the photographs above.

I love this design. It's so much less fussy and dated than many bone china services, although I do rather like floral designs for tea sets. Because of the red it works beautifully as a Christmas service too.

The unfortunate thing is that I don't know, and have never been able to find out, what the name of this service is. We are missing several pieces that have broken over the years and I have never been able to replace them.

If anyone recognises this setting and can tell me what it is called I would be very appreciative.

This post is part of Show Us Your Life Friday - China Patterns over at Kelly's Korner blog.

Unfurling

broad bean

"Every day they all looked at that garden. It was rough and grassy because it was made in the prairie sod, but all the tiny plants were growing. Little crumpled leaves of peas came up, and tiny spears of onions. The beans themselves popped out of the ground. But it was a little yellow bean-stem, coiled like a spring, that pushed them up. Then the bean was cracked open and dropped by the two baby bean-leaves, and the leaves unfolded flat to the sunshine."

Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie

No matter how many times I plant out seeds, their germination is always magical. It is hard to believe that so much energy and growth can be stored in one little seed. And like Laura Ingalls I think beans, in all their varieties, are about the most wonderful of all.

Chinoiserie wallpaper

Gosto muito de papéis-de-parede e já escrevi algumas vezes neste blog acerca dos trabalhos que a Surfaceview faz. Um dos motivos de papel que sempre me atraiu são as chinoiserie, dos quais esta firma tem alguns exemplares lindos... Estas imagens fazem parte de pinturas do museu Victoria and Albert e ando apaixonada por elas há uns tempos. Acho que ficavam lindamente no meu hall de entrada!

O verde e o rosa chamaram-me a atenção...

E quem não gostaria de trabalhar num escritório assim??

Credits
Surfaceview

O site está muito bem construído, a colecção de imagens é enorme e lindíssima e podem-se simular online os murais, estores, etc. nas várias divisões da casa. Acho que é uma opção a considerar para quem queira ter paredes únicas ...

I love wallpaper and Surfaceview has been mentioned several times in this blog. I've always liked chinoiserie wallpaper, of which this company has some good examples... These images belong to the Victoria and Albert museum and I think they would look great in my home entrance!

I particularly like the green and pink ones.

Their site is excellent and you can even see the images you choose on their roomsets. I find these wallpapers a great option for those who want something unique in their walls...

In the mood for party

Já decidi: são estes os inspiration boards nos quais me vou basear para a festa de aniversário da Carlota. Eu sei... sempre as mesmas cores! :-) Mas tenho que aproveitar o resto da decoração da casa para enquadrar a festa e esta é a paleta de cores da minha sala.

Não vai haver propriamente um tema para a festa. Mas posso dizer que vai ter muitos doces! A Loja de Doces da Carlota!

Credits:

Greylikesweddings

I have already decided: these are the inspiration boards for Carlota's birthday party. I know... it's always the same colours! :-) But I have to fit the party into the decoration and colour scheme of my living room.

The party won't have a particular theme. I can tell you though that there is going to be loads of candies! Carlota's Candy Store!

My Girl

Thirteen year old girls have such a bad reputation for being emotional and rude and spiteful.

Yet I would have to say that my thirteen year old daughter is an absolute delight. She anticipates what needs doing around the house and (almost) always assists willingly. She does her homework without being asked and always works to the best of her ability.

She is as kind as kind can be to her youngest brother, playing with him and reading to him all the time. She is knitting him a scarf in dark red yarn 'just because'.

I am so proud of the young woman that my girl is becoming.

June Garden 2010

Although it's technically winter, the weather feels more like autumn, with cold, crisp nights and cool, sunny days.

There are still roses in bloom and the lavender clearly hasn't realised that it's winter yet; it's still covered with flowers and buzzing with bees.

Below you can see the four fruit trees I recently planted; a Satsuma plum, Tahitian lime, Emperor mandarin and Washington naval orange. I will underplant the plum tree with rhubarb but am waiting for rhubarb crowns to appear at my local plant nursery. I have sown nasturtium seeds under the three baby citrus trees which should provide colourful groundcover as well as flowers and leaves for salads.

This area in the back corner of my garden will be my vegetable patch. I am going to try a four-bed rotating system. I have marked out the beds with old bricks but haven't dug them in as I may need to move them again. Some seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago are just starting to germinate. I'll post pictures as they grow.

Plonka in the house!

Chegaram!!! Olhem que lindas as minhas almofadas da Plonka! O meu quarto ganhou outro brilho!

Não deixem de ver a loja da Linda Høgås, que tem coisas lindas!... E agradeço a sua simpatia, pois gentilmente ofereceu os portes de envio das almofadas, uma vez que, segundo disse, quis "celebrar a primeira cliente em Portugal"!

My pillowcases arrived!! Look at these beautiful Plonka pillows! My room is now shining!!

You really have to take a look at Linda Linda Høgås shops, she has beautiful products! And I have to thank her once again for her kindness, as I am her first portuguese client and she was so nice!