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.

Red Onion Relish and Orange curd

Gib is working tomorrow morning, so I think I'll get stuck into the kitchen and do some preserving. I have made red onion relish before, but I think I'd like to try a new version. I'm typing it up here so I can go straight here without having to remember where I put my written out version, which I always lose.

Caramelised Red Onion Relish

3-4 tbsp olive oil
12 red onions, sliced in the food processor
5-6 cloves garlic, crushed
330 ml white vinegar
330 ml apple cider vinegar
330 ml red wine vinegar (or even just red wine is fine)
3-4 cups brown sugar
2-3 bay leaves
~20 crushed black peppercorns
Grated zest of 3 oranges

Heat the oil a large, heavy based pan. Add onions, cook until starting to soften a little. Add garlic, cook for a further 1-2 mins.

Add brown sugar, cook 1-2 mins, then pour in the vinegars, bay leaves, pepper corns and orange zest. Bring mixture to the boil, then reduce to low heat for about 2 hours until well caramelised.

Transfer mixture to small, sterilised 250 ml jars, until mixture reaches 1cm from the top of the rim. Boil in a water bath for 15-20 mins


I have a habit of getting oranges for the orange zest, but never knowing what to do with the rest of the orange (apart from just eating it). Well this time I'm prepared: I'm going to make...!

Orange curd

• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• 2 egg yolks, at room temperature
• 170g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
• 2 tsp finely grated orange rind
• 185ml (3/4 cup) fresh orange juice
• 125g butter, chilled, cubed

Lightly whisk the eggs in a medium saucepan until pale. Add the orange zest and juice, caster sugar and butter. Place the saucepan over medium heat and whisk the mixture continuously for about 7-8 minutes until thickened. It will continue to thicken upon resting.

Can be frozen for up to 3 months.



Ok. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Can't wait!

Edit: I think I'll use only 2 cups of sugar in the red onion relish next time! (18/2/10)

Vegetarian sausage-fest

Last weekend I got together with some friends for a sausage making day. The meat eaters made real sausage with real intestines, while the vegetarians banded together to make some gluten free vegetarian sausages (we had some celiacs present). In fact, they go beyond vegetarian: they are vegan. Vegetarian sausages are stupidly expensive, and also impossible to buy gluten free as often the main ingredient is gluten flour, so I was keen to learn how to make them myself. I followed this recipe and instructional video, and went from there for the first one. And for the second variety I based my ingredients on this list. We tried steaming in both aluminium foil and cling wrap, however the aluminium foil gave much better results (they stayed the shape they were supposed to).

Spicy vegetarian sausage

250 g dry soy meat/TVP, purchased from my local asian grocer
1 - 1 1/2 cups chickpea flour, depending on how wet the mixture is
3 tbsp vegetable stock
1 whole onion, minced
2 tbsp fennel seed
2 tsp coarsely ground pepper, preferably freshly ground
2 tbsp ground paprika
1 tsp dried chili flakes (I'd add more of this in future)
3 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp fresh thyme
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground allspice
8 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp salt

1. Cook the soy meat in about 750 ml water until all the water is absorbed. Drain off any excess water.
2. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Add more chickpea flour as required until it is a thick mixture.
3. Scoop out mixture and make little logs to desired thickness. Place onto aluminium foil and roll up, twisting the ends. Steam for 30 mins. Allow to cool.

Your sausages can now be placed on the BBQ, in the fridge or in the freezer until you're ready to eat them.

Makes 8 fat sausages, or 12-14 smaller sausages.

Freshly steamed spicy vegetarian sausages, waiting to be BBQed!

Black bean and corn sausages

1 onion, minced
4 large cloves garlic, minced
3-4 tbsp vegetable stock
1 tablespoon Vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups cooked black beans
3 teaspoons Salt
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp paprika
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 medium green capsicum
1 small carrot peeled, minced
1 tub (125 g) silken tofu (probably firm tofu is better to use, in hindsight!)
400 g can corn kernels, drained
1 1/2 cups chickpea, corn or rice flour
1/2 bunch fresh coriander (optional)

1. Mince the onions and garlic, beans, carrot, green capsicum and tofu. Transfer to a large bowl.
   
2. Transfer to a large bowl. Mix through spices. Add whole corn kernels. Add enough flour so it all binds together to a sticky but relatively firm mixture.
   
3. Scoop out mixture and make little logs to desired thickness. Place onto aluminium foil and roll up, twisting the ends. Steam for 30 mins. Allow to cool.
4. To serve, remove plastic and cut on the bias into 1/2-inch- thick slices.

Makes 8 fat sausages, or 12-14 smaller sausages.

Just a minute in... November

I'm still catching up after my holiday, so I'm kind of a week behind on everything! But this is what I've been up to...


Listening... to Raindrops by Basement Jaxx. It's currently at the top of my 'most listened to' list.

Travelling...to Tassie. After The Engagement, I stayed on in Launceston for 7 days of karate training, while Gib went back home for work. It was great (the training that is, not Gib having to go back to work). Usually training twice a day. Being on holidays, and with a training regime like that meant I slipped into my natural rhythm of waking up early (training), having a nap in the afternoon, (more training) then going to bed late. I'd love to live in a country where they have siestas. I felt so refreshed and energised.

Organising... an engagement party. Christmas presents. The family Kris Kringle. Posting stuff. It's all go go go.

Re-organising... our living quaters. We've swapped our study and bedroom around. I now have an entire wardrobe to myself in the bedroom (which I can keep clean without all that boy mess) and Gib has another one all to himself in the study next door (where he can throw his clothes in, and if he loses his socks and undies, then it's not my problem)

Reading... Gourmet Traveller. 'The Waterbug Book'. Mostly non-fiction.

Preparing... for my first grading at the new karate dojo I'm now at. I'm a little nervous, not quite sure what I'm in for!

Cooking... some interesting dishes. New flavours from parts of the world I haven't tried before. Just generally having fun in the kitchen. I'm itching to do some baking, but haven't found the time in the past few weeks.

Loving... cherries, peaches, plums, nectarines... all of those delicious stone fruit that summer brings! They are my favourite fruit.

Writing... engagement party invites. Christmas cards. Christmas letters to friends overseas.

Sewing... little shoes for my friends new baby boy, an adorable star shaped bunting, some bibs... all sorts of other baby-related things. He's completely adorable. So tiny. This is my first friend from my age group to have a baby... I'm now officially in the whole 'engagements, weddings and babies' phase with my friends. I think it's time for my Christmas sewing to start too... perhaps I've left my run a bit late!

Growing... tomatoes. Lots of them. Too many in the one pot. I didn't quite expect them all to grow!

Hope you had a lovely November too! Check out what everyone else did last month over at August Street.

Amusing nursery find

Found at the nursery, side by side. Clearly I have a very primitive sense of humour...

News flash!

I'm back and sewing again, mostly because I have a new purpose to do so. It's Christmas time, my friend has just given birth to a lovely baby boy... lots of things to sew! I've also been into the garden, and cooking a few exciting things too. Maybe I'll get some time to post some of what I've made?

But for now, I have some exciting news! A couple of weeks ago we headed over to Tasmania again. Gib only had a few days to spare because he's recently started a new job, so he only came for the weekend, but I stayed on afterwards in Launceston for some karete training. A couple of days before we left, we both came down with rotten colds. We arrived in Tassie and it was a lovely 10 degrees (we had just left Melbourne's heatwave! We're not summer people). We headed east to Binalong Bay, one of our favourite little spots. Our room where we were staying wasn't quite ready, so the guy at reception advised us to go for a drive or take a stroll along the beach.

Me, strolling along the beach. Look at those awesome storm clouds.

It was drizzling, we were sick and miserable, but having fun walking along the beach. It's one of our favourite spots. As we wandered, Gib just casually commented that we'd been together for 4 years now and wanted to know if I'd marry him? After I'd overcome the surprise and shock, I hugged him, said yes!! (there's nothing like saying yes to marrying your best friend!) and burst into tears (good tears). So now we're engaged!

He asked me right there!

Ahhh... the newly engaged couple.

Now, I'm not really one that is into jewellery. Mostly because the work I do, and the hobbies I enjoy, are not really conducive to wearing jewellery. I'm a practical, no fuss kind of gal. So we decided that I wouldn't have an engagement ring (we've decided to put it towards custom wedding rings) so instead we got an engagement painting:

The engagement painting: A lino print of a SCUBA diver swimming in kelp. Apologies for the poor photo quality.

It's a lino print by an artist, Craig Worby, who is a local at Binalong Bay. It was on the wall of the restaurant we went to, and we both liked it as soon as we spotted it. So they called him up and he popped by to wrap it up and sign it for us. It's different, but then again, we're not a typical couple.

Example:

About 5 minutes after Gib had asked the Big Question, we both spotted this dead chiton:

The dead chiton

We were pretty excited to find it. I love

Background information: Gib and I did zoology together at uni, and for our end of year exam we had to dissect sea snails. I hate snails. Nothing makes me shudder more: They are cold and slimy and gross (but I love chitons, which are close snail relatives. They are less gross and much prettier, and don't eat my strawberries). Specifically, we had to dissect the snails with bare hands, find the radula, which is the "tongue" of a snail. The radula is tiny, very thin, quite transparent and breaks easily (see photo below, you'll see how small it is). When I dissected my snail for my exam, I succesfully found my radula but then accidentally dropped it (but managed to find it again on the table, about 10 minutes before the end of the exam), and Gib had made a mess of his dissection, but managed to squish about blindly and find his by accident. Either way, we both have vivid memories of radulas.

So anyway... we were quite excited to find that this chiton must have been freshly eaten, because its radula, which is the two dark lines protruding at the lower end of the chiton with a blob of sand stickign to the the end, was still intact. We were excited enough about finding a chiton with its radula still there, we had to take a photo.

Perfect match: We get engaged, then 5 minutes later take photos of sea critters. It must be true love.

So Gib left for home, and I stayed on in Launceston for another week to do my training. The training was awesome, but I have no photos because the camera ran out of batteries and I had no way to recharge it. Oh well...!

And now we're organising the engagement party for late January and things like that. I'm currently having fun making the engagement party invites. It's going to be a while before the wedding due to the PhD and us saving for other things first. We're planning for the wedding to be some time in Autumn 2012.

Hope you're all doing well out there!

Just a minute... in September!

So there hasn't been much gardening, sewing or cooking around here. The garden is under threat (see below) and I've been sewing the same old things and cooking nothing particularly new or exciting. Except that it's spring now, and there are tons of new fruit and veg to eat. It's mostly been karate and my PhD studies, both of which are going well, but aren't really the topic of this blog. I've toyed with the idea of starting a karate and science blog (the two do have a surprising amount in common), but I haven't thought of a way of doing it without sounding arrogant and self obsessed (two things that shouldn't be in either karate or science).

So... here's how I spent September:

Fearing... walking down my street. It's magpie season, and we have a family that is doing an excellent job of defending it. They used to only swoop once, but now they're making multiple dives. And if you're watching one, while you're distracted, the other one will get you from behind. Even walking from the front door to the car in the drive way, or hanging out the
washing in the backyard, is enough to provoke our angry little maggies. They're even trying to work out how to attack us through the windows. The weather has been great for running, but I've changed my running path so I run around work, rather than around our block. Eeek!


Reading... the rest of Dune trilogy. The Princess Bride. Lables on the back of cereal packets while eating my breakfast.

Despairing... from Gib getting screwed over in his job (along with a few other of his work colleagues).

Celebrating... Gib getting a new job. A new, improved job. One that means he gets to wear a suit on a regular basis. I like that. I also like that one of his first sites that he'll be working on his directly opposite my work.

Recovering... from tendonitis, in both shoulders. The two week break from karate is killing me, while I have treatment, but I get to go back tonight with improved shoulder strength and flexibility! Hooray

Enjoying... asparagus. artichokes. broccoli. dutch carrots. all sorts of other delicious spring vegetables. Berries are cheap, and it's almost stone fruit season. This is definitely my favourite time of year for fresh produce! Artichokes are definitely my vegetable of choice at the moment, and I'm having a ball preparing them and eating them in all manner of different ways. And when they're so cheap (90 c each at our local grocer!) why not?

Loving... my PhD. Maybe I'll get tired of it soon. I've been saying that for about 18 months now, but no, I still love it. I'm testing participants, meeting all sorts of awesome people. My supervisor even told me that I was "on track" (I was gobsmacked: they are words that
every student dreams of). Science is still rocking my socks.

Wondering... what the hell I've signed myself up for. I'm heading to Tasmania to train again. This time by myself for a week (well, under guidance of the sensei there). I keep wondering why I've just decided to spend my annual leave in considerable physical and mental discomfort. I'm terrified, but at the same time it's exciting (or maybe just crazy) to put yourself outside your comfort zone... at least, that's what I keep trying to convince myself of anyway.