22nd September 2009
Top to bottom: Amelia’s bird list, Totoro playing to itself in the sitting room (there’s too much else to do to be sitting around watching tv - nice for a change), a cup of tea and a slice of mum’s boiled fruit cake. Wanna know how to cook it? Straight from Mum who is sitting next to me on the couch listening to the rain while my Dad reads the girls their bedtime story:
My Mum’s Boiled Fruit Cake
Soak 4 cups of mixed dried fruit (raisins, sultanas, currants and mixed peel etc) in 1/2 cup of brandy overnight.
Next day put 125g of butter, the soaked mixed fruit, 2 tablespoons of treacle and 1 cup of water in a big saucepan and bring slowly to the boil. Let it simmer for a minute or so. Remove from heat and let it cool.
Beat 2 eggs together and add to the mixture with 1 cup of sifted self-raising flour and 1 cup of plain flour. Mix it all around and pour into a square tin lined with baking paper.
Cook at 150°c on the bottom shelf for at least a couple of hours. Test with a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake. When it comes out clean, it’s ready. Let it cool in the tin. Eat with cups of tea or glasses of milk in the middle of the night (at least, that’s what my Dad recommends).
12th September 2009
There’s nothing like a deliciously creamy pasta dish when you are bone tired. All the better if someone else is cooking. Phil’s specialty is a weekend favourite he has nicknamed “Heart Clog” which is actually Jamie Oliver’s Farfalle with Carbonara and Spring Peas. Totally delicious.
We had a birthday party for Amelia’s school chums today and I am so tired tonight that I have made an annoying animated gif.
Hmm. Annoyed yet? Here’s something soothing:
Left over musk sticks from the party bags. Yummo.
26th July 2009
I have already posted this on twitter, but it’s so worth a quick mention here. 101 Simple Salads for the Season in The New York Times – unusual ideas that all look pretty yummy. The season referred to in the title is Summer, but as salad seems to be the only thing Lily will eat regardless of the season, 101 variations on a theme (9 A4 pages) are a welcome addition to my recipe file. I’ve been making my own crutons lately, and feeling like that makes me adventurous… but now I have large amounts of inspiration.
via @swallowfield
20th July 2009
Pip is hosting another “A Week of” – this week it’s “A Week of Special Stuff” – and I am going to take part because I have lots of special stuff piling up around the house. I have lots of not-special stuff piling up too, but maybe that will be next week.
This notebook doesn’t actually belong to me, but it’s in my house at the moment and it’s pretty bloomin’ special. It’s my Mum’s first of many cookbooks: “The Robertson Family Cookathon Guide; 1970 est”. One day I will inherit this piece of family history but for now I am borrowing it to mine it for gems for our own sequel “The Robertson McCluskey Cookathon Guide; 2009 est”.
Top: Cover
Middle: Mum’s fab marble cake recipe which I loved as a kid – it was always pink, vanilla and chocolate. And yes, it did tend to be dry.
Bottom: My illustrated recipe for Coconut biscuits – c. 1974 (I know it’s around 1974 because that’s my brother in my Mum’s arms. She did have boots like that. Doesn’t every mother of a newborn… no?)
*** update… hang on, it can’t be 1974, that would make me 2 and I doubt I was writing like this at age 2… so maybe it’s more like 1977 or so ***
11th July 2009
For the first time in – I can’t even remember – years? I got up this morning and felt like making bread. I used to make bread a lot – around the time Lily was a wee baby. I can distinctly remember patting a very tiny Lil to sleep in her cot one night in a sleep-deprived daze only to realise after a few minutes that I was gently kneading her like a loaf of bread. But life gets busier and bread, while it takes little effort, does require you to be around the house for a chunk of hours so that you can return to your dough after each rising to whup it into shape some more. But today was wet and cold and we had absolutely *nothing* on the agenda – no playdates, no expected guests (so no cleaning), no shopping, no anything by popular demand… so time I had.
The girls were completely absorbed in a complicated make-believe game of teachers and babies and school photos and what-not so I cracked open my copy of the Tassajara Bread book which I bought late last year after reading Amanda’s recommendation.
Here is the Tassajara Bread Book, sitting victoriously on top of The River Cottage Cookbook, whose bread recipe I usually use. I have a soft spot for the Tassajara cookbooks because one of my first cooky books in my collection was this one:
My Mum’s old hippy copy of Tassajara Cooking which contains awesome line drawings of vegetables
and this fabulous picture of author Edward Espe Brown (and unnamed woman and child), who still teaches zen baking at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Centre (have you seen How to Cook Your Life which Amanda also recommended some time ago? A much older and hairier Edward Brown is the subject of the doco.)
So I made the “sponge” and it was crazy and sticky and I am sorry to say that I had very little faith in all of this at this point because it just seemed way too wet, but I left it to rise, and when I peeked under my damp tea towel after about thirty minutes it looked like an enourmous frothy milk shake. When you see yeast work so thoroughly, you get pretty enthused. And the rest of it worked like a charm.
It certainly isn’t a quick loaf, but boy is it a good one. Light and tasty and all gone in the blink of an eye. We devoured an entire loaf with butter for afternoon tea after returning from the library. (I borrowed Stephen King’s “On Writing” – thanks for the many recommendations!)
I made the “basic” recipe today and I am keen to try more of the numerous variations and then move on to the pastry chapter. Mmm.
11th July 2009
Hello! It’s been quiet around here, I know. It’s the school holidays, and along with another round of Wintery colds my blogging, writing, crafting, drawing etc etc (those Marshmallow Bunnies are coming along slowly) have taken a bit of a back-seat.
Something not in the back-seat is the newly released “Homemade: The Handmade Recipe Book“.
In February 2009 Victoria was victim to the worst bushfires on record, which wiped out entire communities, caused 173 deaths and left thousands without homes or shelter.
The Handmade Help Recipe Book evolved as part of handmadehelpsout.blogspot.com by a group of crafters and artists who wanted to contribute to the recovery effort.
The result is a truly international cookbook, packed with treasured recipes and family favourites, donated by people across the globe who wanted to help including well-known chefs such as Margaret Fulton, Allan Campion and Michele Curtis.
All proceeds from sales of the recipe book will be donated to the Salvation Army.
I can’t wait to check it out. I was asked to do the cover illustration and very happily obliged.
PDF copies are available now for download at a tasty $8 (AUD) or you can pre-order a paperback copy for $15 (AUD).
6th June 2009
I can tell Winter is here because I am spending time looking at beach-holiday destinations and imagining how nice it would be to lie on the warm sand. Hmm. Byron Bay looks nice in wide-angled photos. I seemed to remember doing similar browsing in the middle of Summer, imagining chilly destinations including the Ice Hotel in Sweden.
Because it was a more than a little Wintery here today, the girls and I spent large amounts of time drawing pictures for each other to colour. And when I wasn’t answering to the call of “Mum, draw me! Draw me!”, I made rock buns – have you ever made Jane’s rock buns? They are delicious and lemony and I highly recommend them. Leave them to cool a little when they come out of the oven, but make sure to eat them while they are still a bit warm. Lily did not eat hers (which is unsurprising, as she is a non-eater in general, unless it’s bread or chocolate), but the rest of us devoured two each.
20th March 2009
Last night I finally used the ramekins I bought from an ebay seller back in 2003. I remember it was my first ebay auction experience and I got them for a song, so it was a great day, but they have been sitting up in the very top most shelf of the cupboard since we moved into the house, and in a box in storage before that. If I was following along with that Oprah Clutter Clearing guy I would had to have thrown those ramekins to the wind because I hadn’t used them in the last 12 months, so sometimes it pays to hoard. They were absolutely perfect for making our scheduled (weekly menu plan in action) Shepherd’s Pie all the more exciting. All I had to serve along with the pie was frozen peas so we made them look (according to Amelia) “more Japanese” and less completely pathetic by serving them in Japanese tea cups.
My Twitter people already know this, but Amelia poked at the meat under the potato crust and said “so, this bit in the middle is the shepherd?”.
Anyway, it’s super easy and super yum and pretty cheap and can be baked in a big baking dish or individual ramekins. It’s real Nanna food and we love it!
Shepherd’s Pie
500g minced beef (definitely not shepherd, and try to avoid the diet stuff if you can)
1 medium onion finely chopped
Olive oil or butter for frying
Handful of fresh marjoram leaves (chopped)
Handful of fresh parsley leaves (chopped)
Black pepper
1/3 cup of tomato sauce (ketchup or something of better quality if you have it)
Tablespoon of bonox (or a stock cube or even some vegemite)
Lug of woustershire sauce
Tablespoon of gravox (I have NO idea what an international equivalent to this stuff is. It’s like a gravy mix powder with cornflour in it. Basically I use it for a bit of extra taste and to thicken the mixture)
Mashed potato (your favourite way)
Grated cheese.
While you are cooking this I recommend wearing your most slumpy tracksuit, comfiest slippers and a scrunchie in your hair.
Gently fry the onion over a medium heat in a big skillet until it is soft and transparent. Add meat and brown it while breaking it into small lumps with a wooden spoon. Add herbs, tomato sauce, bonox (or stockcube) and a generous lug of woustershire sauce and a generous grinding of black pepper. Let it simmer for 30 minutes and add gravox to thicken in the last minute.
Make your mashed potato (basically? 4-5 big potatoes, peeled, chopped, boiled until soft, drained and then mash and mix in 50g butter, pepper, and enough warm milk to make it the right consistency – but if you want a good recipe try Delia’s).
Put the cooked meat in a nice chunky baking dish or ramekins, and cover with a generous layer of mash. Sprinkle grated cheese on the top.
Cook in an oven at 200°c (aprox 400°f) for 10 minutes until the cheese has melted. I actually gave it a quick grill on the top at the end to brown it up.
Served with steamed vegetables (or a tea cup of peas!). This is my mum’s classic recipe. We grew up on this stuff. Last night I made double the mince recipe and have frozen half for another day. Bonza.
5th February 2009
I’m playing along with kootoyoo again this week with a photograph of my creative space. When you combine the heat with the end of the school holidays, the first week back of school and the fact that Phil has been in California for 7 days, you can imagine my creative life has been a little stymied this week. I did manage to make some muffins from a new recipe. That was quite creative. And I have started writing again after a 10 day slump, thanks to rediscovering Anne Lamott’s wonderful book Bird by Bird
. That’s it on the floor beside my bed. Her chapter titled “Shitty first drafts” has definitely been a kick-starter for me this week. I am pushing through chapter ten at the moment and all the time I am writing I am thinking “This seriously stinks! How is it that it seemed so easy two weeks ago and now it just seems like I can’t write a word that doesn’t sound tired and cliched and … stinky?” But that’s all part of it, apparently, so I keep writing stinky prose and terrible dialogue. I am waiting for my characters to revolt and start doing amusing and alarming things again. At the moment they are slouching around at an exhibition opening sipping glasses of wine. Yuck. But I’m doing at least 20 minutes a day, regardless, and in this way I will get through this shitty first draft.
The other things you can see in my creative space are my notebook which contains some gems (gems I tells ya!) which will or won’t make it into this shitty first draft. There’s also a pile of books which a friend lent me so that I can research funny sex scenes, because I am having trouble with sex scenes (that’s in my book, thanks) and am “fading to black” rather than facing it. I can’t even read this research material let alone contemplate writing it. Call me a prude. And you can also see some Japanese craft books. I have got out all my Francophile Paumes titles because I have watched “Priceless
” twice in the last week and now want to be French.
31st July 2008
*** UPDATED to say it’s SELF RAISING FLOUR! Sorry! ***
After the day before yesterday’s cake baking revelations I meant to publish the revised recipe as part of that entry but I got distracted by proof reading etc., which is lucky because it would have still been wrong. Mum called me early yesterday morning to also admit that the recipe I have also calls for too much butter! Sabotage! I made another cake today and while it didn’t rock my world it’s slowly improving. I am thinking of moving on to another chocolate cake recipe which I can call my own. If anybody has any good recipes they feel keen to share, please do!
But due to popular demand, today I can provide for you the FULLY revised, spot-on chocolate cake recipe. Here it is:
Melt 85 grams (3 ounces) of butter.
Put in bowl (in order of appearance) with 1 cup of sifted self raising flour
1 cup of caster sugar
2 Tablespoons of cocoa (sifted) — not drinking chocolate, but real cocoa
2 cold eggs
dollop vanilla
pinch of salt
1/2 cup of whole cream milk
combine & beat 3 minutes
Cook for 45 minutes on 180°c
Clearly this is a very brief recipe… you will need to tip it out of the tin when it’s cooled a little and then ice it with something delicious.
Mum’s tips: If it’s a cold morning, warm the (preferably metal) mixing bowl with hot water and then dry before adding the butter. Use stale eggs. Use fresh self raising flour.
The cake recipe was given to my mum from Dad’s young cousin, who used to come and spend weekends away from boarding school with them back in the late 60s, early 70s. She used to cook this cake in Mum’s kitchen, cover it in cream and take it back for the school week. She told my mum “If you’ve got cake, girl, you’ve got friends.”
And just for fun, here are some photos from the family album of the cake in action.
This is my brother c. 1975 enjoying the cream on the top of the cake on a family picnic:
This is me, in our backyard in Adelaide, on my 10th birthday (showing off my new watch):
And here is Dad, Amelia and me in Mum and Dad’s kitchen on Amelia’s 1st birthday, almost five years ago – that must be a 1.5 sized cake because it sure looks huge:
It was Amelia’s first experience of cake! It looks as though she had about four bowls full.
And on that same occasion this is Mum pouring some kind of sparkling burgundy, probably saying “oh yes, definitely cook it for an hour, and definitely 3.5 grams of butter…” and I look very trusting (or drunk) but the cake was obviously good because we seem to have eaten it all.
And this is Lily from last month on her second birthday … just LOOK at that slice of cake! Sensational!
