We drink tea with a yellow submarine...

A friend linked me this the other day and of course, I had to share. Hilarious. Can be pre-ordered from here.

CAR BOOT SALE!

Next Saturday 13th March, my mum and I are pooling our resources and are having a stall a CAR BOOT SALE! My parents have recently sold up their place and are moving down to Gippsland, so they are doing The Big Clean Out. That's 25 years of fabric, teddy bear fur fabrics, books, magazines and crafty stuff my mum is clearing. If you happen to the in the area, come by and say hi!

It's at East Doncaster Baptist Church
47-53 Tunstall Road
Doncaster East
9am - 1pm

You can find more details here!

Strawberry delight!

Yumyumyum. My little $3 strawberry shrub has been producing perfect strawberries that look like this:


And smell and taste divine! I just have to get out there before the blackbirds do...

Cathedral Ranges: Just a hike over a few boulders

We took a day trip out to Cathedral Ranges on Sunday, with my friend Jocelyn. It's about 100 km north east of Melbourne, between Taggerty and Buxton, near Marysville. It's been just over a year since the Black Saturday bushfires, so it was a fascinating trip out to the area. Everything is a contrast of charred black with new bright green growth.

Please click on the photos to enlarge them!

Hues of green and black

I spoke to Jocelyn on Friday night and let her know we were thinking of heading out to do some hiking at Cathedral Ranges, and she said she knew of this great walk out that way, she'd been there only a few weeks ago. Her words were: "Oh, the track isn't too bad, but you need to climb over a few boulders along the way". By "climbing over a few boulders" she actually meant "do a near-vertical ascent up the entire rockface right the way to the top". Not that we minded at all, it was heaps of fun... just not quite what she'd described!

We started at Sugarload Saddle, took the Wells Cave track to Sugarloaf Peak, then along the Razorback to The Farmyard, with a detour to the South Jawbone Peak, to the Jawbone carpark and around back to the Sugarloaf Saddle carpark via the road (refer to this map). It took the three of us almost exactly 6 hours to complete, with breaks and time to take photos. Much of the track has had to be re-marked recently, as many of the rocks have shattered due to the fire and there is a lot of debris along the track. Apparently (I've only just read this then!) the track is for experienced hikers only... and that was before the fires.

The ascent to Wells Caves is very steep from the outset, and in some parts you need to throw your pack up first and then pull yourself up.

Near vertical

"Just climbing over a few boulders" says Jocelyn

The cave itself is steep but great fun. However I wouldn't recommend this track if you are overweight or claustrophobic. Wells Cave is quite narrow, fine for little runts like me, but Gib found it to be a bit squeezy (he's not overweight, but tall and broad). Again, you can't do this with your pack on, there isn't the room.

Wills Cave: a bit squeezy

The view after the cave is fantastic and well worth it.

The next section up to Sugarloaf Peak is a bit hairy in some spots, but there are lots of solid hand holds and solid foot places. It's more of a mind thing than anything.

View from Sugarloaf Peak along the Razorback

We made our way from Sugarloaf Peak along the Razorback, where we stopped part way for lunch. The Razorback is a fairly comfortable walk for most of the way. There is a made walking track in some parts, and only a small amount of awkward climbing with narrow ledges, and some parts of the flatter track are quite sandy and with a lot of loose rubble. Most of it is fine though. There are some great views along the way.

While making our way to The Farmyard (so named because there are lyrebirds that live nearby that make farmyard noises! We didn't spot any though) we stumbled across the most amazing patch of cherry tomatoes. Maybe someone dropped a tomato there one day and now there is this huge patch? The smell of it was absolutely divine, and we rummaged through and picked all the ripe ones. They were super sweet. I would love to go back there in a week or so I can gorge myself silly on all the hundreds of now-green tomatoes.

Like kids in a candy store: The enormous patch of tomatoes

The walk up from The Farmyard to South Jawbone Peak is relatively easy and offers lovely views. I didn't sit out on the edge like the other dudes I was with, and thankfully they didn't tell me what a long drop it was below until after we'd walked down the hill a bit.

The view from South Jawbone Peak

We took the track from South Jawbone Creek back to the Jawbone carpark, which is a pleasant descent via a creek and through cool ferny forest.

We then walked along the main driving track (uphill most of the way) back to the car.

Aftermath of Black Saturday, just over 12 months ago

Uphill home

Taste Sensation: Durios

We were walking past our Asian grocer and spotted this: The Durio


Our last Durian Taste Sensation was completely vile, but we thought, given how popular durians are around the world, maybe it was just a bad one? Perhaps if we had them in the form of a durian-filled Oreo it would be better? And for only $1.90, how could we go past that?

Opening the package made us all dry reach. But Gib took it upon himself to give it a go. Or at least try to...

Even after we had put it in two plastic bags and left it on the bench, you could still smell the stench of the durios. The smell of urinal cakes, sewerage and rotting mangos permeated throughout the kitchen, until finally Gib's mum cracked it and threw them in the bin.

Lesson: Do not eat durian flavoured anything.

Doing the sweet and savoury swing

On the weekend I tried out this 'Capetown Fruit and Vegetable Curry' from my Sundays at Moosewood's cookbook. Given that the ingredients list included many sweet things like apricots, apricot conserve, apples, raisins and bananas, I was a bit concerned that it would be too sweet for my liking. A bit too extreme. But the vegetables and yoghurt dressing really balance it really well, and it does fall right into the middle of both sweet and savoury, without going too far either side. It was new and different for me, and I was impressed.

A pickled rainbow

A small selection of our pickles in their Fowlers jars. I think they look gorgeous!


I'm really enjoying the simplicity and of pickling. It's very rewarding to just open a jar of preserved something (chutney, tomatoes, fruit, onions) that I have on hand, it tastes great, and greatly reduces my cooking times, or having to go down to the shops to buy whatever it is. Preserved fruit goes great for desserts, pickled eggplant or onions goes well for an appetiser, and the tomatoes have been really handy for whipping up simple pasta sauces. I love it.

Baby stuff

One of my buddies from undergrad had her first child back in late November. I had originally planned to make a blanket, and thought I had three weeks to spare... but then the little boy decided to come early. And my overlocker decided it didn't want to play nice. So no overlocker, no time... but thankfully my sister-in-law-to-be stepped in with this adorable bunting pattern:

I chose to make B which turned out to be exceptionally quick and easy and I made it in a couple of hours, and it was a hit with the new parents. I was tempted to make C, just so I could laugh at my friend's baby looking like a turd (it's supposed to be a carrot, but it looks more like a turd to me). I do think D is kind of cool, I might have a go at that in the future.

I also made these two little shoes for him as well. Quick and easy and cute and adorable. And well received.



... and isn't he a cutie?

Taste Sensation: Nacho pizza!

We created the ultimate Taste Sensation at a friend's housewarming recently. The marriage of two delicious comfort foods: Nachos and Pizza!

The pizza dough was made from scratch, and the crust was stuffed with cheese. The base sauce was just plain old pizza sauce...

...topped with a single layer of corn chips...


Then a layer of cheese, salsa and jalepinos...

Baked for 15 minutes until golden and bubbly

And eaten with guacamole and sour cream!

For all of you non-believers out there who don't think that Nacho Pizza can work, you'll be surprised (as I was!) to know that it was a hit and there were demands throughout the night for more nacho pizzas to be made. Even from the people who hated the idea to begin with. The corn chips melded beautifully with the pizza base, but had enough crunch that it was still distinctly nachos. The sour cream and guacamole on top, with a sprinkling of spring onions, is a must. Go on, try it yourself!

Excited by aubergines!

I'm thrilled! A feature on eggplants in today's Epicure (The Age). I'm just making a note here so I know where to find it later. And to remind myself to make the recipes. That relish sounds fantastic. Yum...

Eggplant Bake: From The Age

When baking and StarCraft meet...

It all started when a friend sent us this picture...


It turned out that there was some sort of awesome competition going on around the time of the StarCraft II Beta release, where you had to bake a StarCraft cake and the best one won a product key. I was stunned at how many other baking and gaming nerds there were out there. Gib was so excited to make his own StarCraft cupcakes just for fun, so at our next StarCraft night we brought surprise cupcakes, icing and lollies to decorate. Here are the results:

Gaming Pants go international

One of Gib's best high school buddies left for Canada last year with his awesome Canadian girlfriend (and they are now engaged too... look what we started!), but while they were still here we used to regularly catch up to play Star Craft and other games. So before they left, as their bon voyage present from us, we awarded them both their gaming pants, for their tremendous gaming efforts.

Gib's friend in Canada, boldly and confidently displaying his gaming pants

We also awarded Gib's cousin, a long-term dedicated gamer around these parts, with a pair of blue pirate print gamer pants, complete with skull and cross bone patch on the pockets. Gib's cousin, however has been a little less bold in his pant wearing, ever since driving home one night at 3am after a good Diablo session with Gib. A policeman pulled him over, breath tested him and asked him to explain what all of the computer equipment was in the back of his car. He explained that he'd been playing computer games at his cousin's house.
"Do you always go to your cousin's house wearing your pyjamas?"
"Umm... well, they're not actually pyjamas. My cousin's girlfriend made them for me. They're gaming pants."
At which point the officer looked him up and down, burst out laughing at him, and sent Gib's mortified cousin on his way.

The Engagement Party

Our engagement party: a beautiful day, shared with beautiful people, eating delicious food and vegging out. I can't think of a better way to celebrate!

It has been almost a month since Gib and I celebrated our engagement with family and friends. It was the perfect day: Fine, sunny, 26 degrees. We were out in one of our favourite parks, and everyone was either vegging out in the shade or playing cricket or frisbee or whatever took their fancy. So often at birthdays/engagements/weddings the kids get bored (I do too!) so I delighted that the weather was nice and everyone could do whatever they felt like.

However, leading up to the party, I decided I wanted to wear a pretty dress. At the end of a long day of no-luck-shopping for a dress and feeling kind of desperate, I popped into Lincraft and actually found - quite to my surprise - a fabric that I liked (for a number of years now I have hated Lincraft's range of fabrics, but they are my closest fabric shop, so I was truly impressed!). And then there was a sale on patterns. And then I found a pattern that I liked and it had my favourite word: EASY. It was New Look pattern #6557, and I made D, the yellow one. It was indeed easy to follow, and I even learned how easy it was to insert an invisible zip. I love how it tells you how to adjust the pattern to fit your measurements. I would happily make this dress again. Including the pattern, it came to a total of $50 exactly to make.

Here is an action shot of me in the Engagement Dress, while playing tug of war (Beth vs. Gib). Except the rope broke. I think there will have to be a rematch at the wedding...

My absolutely wonderful cousin, Louise, did an AMAZING job at catering all of the sweets, which you can see wrapped in clingwrap next to the cake, below. Every year she makes the most spectacular Christmas treat hampers, so I asked her if she could do the catering for our party. She went over and above the call of duty on this one, and made biscotti, mini cheese cakes, shortbreads, lady's fingers, mars bar slice, meringues, lemon tarts (ohmygoshamazing), lemon slice...!!

I made our engagement cake. I am so sick to death of chocolate cake, everyone has chocolate cake (apologies to any chocolate cake lovers out there), so I decided to make a carrot cake. You can see Gib in the background threatening to cut the cake with his bare hands.

Recipe for Carrot Cake

And before I forget, here is the recipe I use for Carrot Cake. Taken from my absolute favourite cake book: Family Circle's 'Making Beautiful Cakes' (p. 12). This recipe is brilliant, so smooth, and it smells and tastes fantastic.

150 g self raising flour
150 g plain flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
200 ml vegetable oil
230 g brown sugar
4 eggs
125 ml golden syrup
500 g grated carrot
60 g chopped walnuts

- Preheat oven to 160C fan forced.
- Line the base and sides of a 10" tin with baking paper, including 2" collar around the top (although I used a star shaped baking tin!)
- Sift together the flours, spices, and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl. Form a well in the centre.
- Whisk together the oil, sugar, eggs and syrup. Gradually pour into the well, stirring into the dry ingredients until smooth.
- Stir in the carrot and nuts. Spoon into the tins until 2/3 to 3/4 full, giving preference to the cake to be used on the day.
- Bake for 1 1/4 hours. Allow to cool completely before turning out onto a wire rack.
- Wrap in a layer of cling wrap, baking paper and foil and place in the freezer.

A photo of my dad, ever the practical joker, making his speech

And finally, a picture of me, my handsome Gib and Gib's Grandma

Unfortunately, my grandmother (dad's mum) was unable to make it to the party. As we were packing up the party, my aunt came and told me that Nan had just been transferred to the Austin. She passed away the next day, but we were fortunate enough to spend the evening with her, and the next morning as well. Dad stayed with her overnight. She was 89 and her body had finally worn out; thankfully she wasn't sick for long.

Preserving the moment

I was so relieved and excited to discover that another friend of ours (incidentally, the one I made sausages with) is also into pickling and preserving. I was also pleased to read this article in Epicure (The Age) this week that showed that it's not just us (excluding people >60 or in the CWA) that are doing it either.

And this is only a small sample of our preserving efforts.


We made:

• Preserved lemon (both sweet and salty)
• Preserved orange (sweet)
  
• Preserved tomatoes
• Tomato relish
• Pickled onions
• Mango chutney
• Pickled cabbage
• Pickled chilis and peppers
  
• Preserved tomatoes with garlic and basil
  

Getting a bit carried away

Ok, so this morning I was awake at 6am. I hadn't slept well... I was too excited about making chutneys and relishes. The colours, the flavours, the textures, the simplicty... the whole chuck-a-bunch-of-fruit-and-veg-in-a-pot-with-vinegar-sugar-and-spices-and-see-how-you-go. I love it.

So anyway, I'd planned originally just to make some caramelised red onion relish and orange curd. My list kind of grew to also include cranberry relish, date chutney and spicy carrot chutney. Oops! Before I forget what I did or throw out what I wrote, here's my recipes.

CRANBERRY RELISH

For this one I looked at a variety of recipes for inspiration, and then to the fridge/freezer for inspiration, and kind of made it up from there.

1 large onion, diced

250 g frozen cranberries, thawed

1 granny smith apple, diced

1 stick celery

75 g chopped dried apricots

175 g brown sugar

1/2 tsp curry powder

2 shakes ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

120 g sultanas

1 cup water

1. In a dutch oven, gently saute the onion in a bit of oil for 4-5 mins until softened. Add spices to the pot, cook for another minute.
2. Add all other ingredients, bring to the boil and then simmer for 20-30 minutes.
3. Take off heat, and allow to cool for 15-20 minutes to allow the mixture to thicken.
4. Transfer to sterilised jars, process for 20 mins in a water bath.

PRUNE CHUTNEY

I based this one on this recipe. I think this is my favourite one of the day. The texture and taste was just perfect. Can't wait to try it in a few weeks after it's matured a bit.

1.5 cups dried prunes

1.5 cups water

2 tbsp olive oil

1 sml onion, minced

1 tomato, chopped

2 tsp yellow mustard seeds

1 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

cayenne pepper to taste

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp brown sugar

1. In a container, combine the prunes and water. Allow to soak and plump up while other ingredients are being prepared.
2. In a medium saucepan, heat the oil, add the onion and cook over moderately high heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato and cook until slightly softened, about 4 minutes. Add the mustard seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg and crushed red pepper and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
3. Stir in the prunes and their liquid, the vinegar, brown sugar and salt and simmer over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until jamlike, about 20 minutes.
4. Transfer to sterilised jars, process for 20 mins in a water bath.

And finally, for the carrot chutney, I actually followed a recipe exactly (for a change). Check it out here. I made double quantity because we had a lot of carrots to be used up ASAP.