This is the rosemary bush which is really a small tree.But just as there are plants in bloom,
there are others that are dormant.
In Melbourne, we get our rain in winter.
And we have been getting plenty.
The last week however has been like spring - and it's July!
The Broad Beans are growing so they are now much higher than in this photo.
The curly parsley was planted last summer and just keeps on.
And this silver beet is huge and spectacular and quite an ornament -
so I haven't touched a leaf!
There are others though which I have used -
The flat-leaved Italian parsley is branching and spreading.
And the lemons are productive -
and the possums have a taste and leave a half-eaten lemon on the tree
This is the golden marjoram - a relative of the oregano
which I have growing everywhere.
This one below is in a pot but rooted into the ground
right near this lot of garlic
The capsicums of summer struggle
And this sweet little sugar loaf cabbage is setting a heart
This beetroot is the only survivor planted in summer in a spot that was too shady.
Rocket regrowth.
What we didn't eat or give away was left to bolt and self-seed.
Now we have a winter crop of young greens.
The sage always looks sad in winter but survives. These plants are three seasons old and will come back beautifully.
Lemon balm in a barrow
The Lemon Thyme braves the winter elements (above)
while the common Thyme (below) is undercover.
And FootFoot eyes off the nasturtiums.
Almost no flowers but the leaves are the size of saucers.
So with all this, more seeds have been ordered
as The Trad Pad prepares for Spring.
Last weekend, was Quaker Mid-winter Gathering. Every year it happens - this year, there were 65 of us including children. It was at a wonderful establishment called Amberley in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.
The kids and their involvement in their own activities as well as inclusion in adult activities is always foremost in our minds. Amberley excelled. The children had a huge downstairs space all to themselves - h-u-g-e activity room PLUS h-u-g-e indoor games area with ping pong and billiard tables. And they could not be heard by us upstairs even during our silent Meetings for Worship.
Meals were in a wonderful olde-worlde dining room with entry out to a balcony looking across to the steep bush-clad hillside with the Yarra winding lazily below and across the river, Westerfolds Park. The romantic staircase, interior balconies overlooking the dining room, chandelier and grand piano caused one to daydream about other uses for the room.
But let me tell you about the food. Coffee and tea all the time and access to the never-diminishing fruit basket. The food was lovely and the most wonderful scones appeared on Saturday afternoon, piping hot. We were all just so impressed - and we felt really, really spoilt.
But the piece de resistance was the Lemon Slice - and the happy women who provided all our food hospitality have given me the recipe especially for the blog. In addition, they have also provided their Lemon Tea Cake Recipe. Later in the year, they plan to produce a recipe book - proceeds of which will go to a project in Africa. 'Onya girls! Like your spirit, every which way.LEMON SLICE
Topping
Method
Base
Topping
LEMON TEA CAKE
Base
Method
Filling
Method
Really yummy is The Verdict!
November has dawned - well, three days ago - and we'll see if Miss Eagle can do any better at posting than she has done in recent times. August was illness, September was recovery, and October was - well, dear Reader, you can see for yourself what I've been up to if you pop over here.
So, let's do some food catch up. Above, was my contribution to the blogging lunch described here.
Those rolls on the left are a vegetarian substitute for sausage rolls and they go just as well dipped in tomato sauce.
Vegetarian Rolls
Dear Reader, you can sort yourself out on quantities. I used:
I blended the first five ingredients in the food processor. I put spoonfuls of the mixture in a strip along the length of the pastry sheet. Rolled it over, brushed the edges with milk to stick them together, cut down the sheet, cut up the roll and placed on a baking dish and continued like this until the two sheets were used up. Then I brushed all the little rolls with milk and sprinkled sesame seed on top. I did have some of the mixture left over. That was beautiful for breakfast the next day tossed in the pan with a fried egg.
Fruit and Cheese Skewers
You, dear Reader, don't require a recipe for these. You can see what goes into them, how they are done. I used a Colby Cheese. Colby is a mild cheese that suits a broad range of tastes. Coming as it does in a block, it is easy to cube for the skewers. As for the fruit, it is your choice. I used water, rock and honeydew melons and pineapple. But strawberries would be a great inclusion.
We are now getting into the rhythm of the deliveries from Aussie Farmers Direct. Our milk comes from the Western District and is processed and packed by the historic Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory, which sits on the Great Ocean Road at Allansford. Our fruit and veges (see pictures above) arrive every Wednesday.
They are first class and, because they are so fresh and of such high quality, they keep very well. This is an important factor in a household comprising two single people. Herself optimistically signed up for the Family Pack and not the Two Person Pack. So each Thursday, I am getting into the habit of sorting, storing and planning. If we can manage to get through a Family Pack of fruit and veges a week rather than pick up the odd piece as we go, then there'll be roses in the cheeks of this household!
Our free range eggs come early in the week - and, in case we are not using them up quickly enough, a quiche goes on the menu along with a fresh salad. However, what you see pictured above is the Lazy Cook's Quiche. I figured if one can have small bread cases for savouries, why not large ones? So here is the Lazy Cook's Quiche:
Lazy Cook's Quiche
Bread Case: dip sufficient slices of bread in milk to line your pie dish. (My dish is large.) Ensure that slices abut and/or overlap so that the plate is covered. You will need to trim slices for the edge and, if necessary, to cover abutting corners. When placing the bread around the edges put the crust uppermost because this gives a nice crunchy crust when it is baked.
Filling: I used fresh asparagus, onions, diced potato, peas, fresh herbs, 4 eggs beaten with Carnation Evaporated Milk, salt. Quantities will vary according to the size of the pie plate and the vegetables you have available.
Bake in a slow oven (somewhere around 150 degrees to 170 degrees) on a low shelf. When the filling is set cover with grated cheese. Continue to bake until the cheese is golden brown. I usually turn off the oven when the cheese is melted right across the quiche but is not yet brown. I then leave the quiche in the oven. It continues to cook and can be left until it is the right temperature for serving. Allowing about 45 minutes to an hour for cooking is best so that the egg mixture is set and the vegetables are cooked through but not overdone. Quite more-ish!
I have taken the laziness and bread casing a step further with an Apple and Pear Tart. The bread casing was done as described for the quiche, apples and pears were cored and sliced thinly (four pears and five small Granny Smith's), the juice of an orange sprinkled over them, along with three dessertspoons of brown sugar. Again baked at 150-170 degrees. A low temperature is needed to allow the fruit to cook through. The fruit is piled on because as the fruit cooks and loses its liquid, it sinks down. This was a vote-winner. As I write this, Melbourne has received soaking rain for the past eighteen hours. It is wonderful and most welcome. I worked very hard to get the vege garden in and planted because there is a local wisdom which says that, to have tomatoes for Christmas, they have to be planted by Melbourne Cup Day. My plants have been in for just over a week and now, with the rain, all that is needed is some moderate weather for them to take off - I hope and pray. Tomatoes for Christmas? We'll see.
And now for the piece-de-resistance.
Cappuccino Cake Ingredients:
Frosting:
Method:
This recipe is from Jane Hornby and is published in the BBC's Good Food magazine of May 2006.
Come, dear Reader, and let's grapple with an apple. My father told my mother that he married her because of her mother's Apple Pie. There is nothing quite like an Apple Pie to win the heart of a traditional male. It never fails. But one needs some variation and Miss Eagle is always on the look-out for dishes that meet the same criteria as the Apple Pie. These two recipes, the Boiled or Baked Apple Pudding (I steamed mine) and the Bread and Butter Apple Meringue Pudding, meet the criteria:
BOILED OR BAKED APPLE PUDDINGFrom The Schauer Australian Cookery Book
Well grease a pudding basin with butter substitute. Coat well with brown sugar. Line basin with suet or short dripping crust. Fill basin 3 parts full with peeled, cored and thickly sliced apples. Mince 2 pieces of candied peel. Spread over apples with a grating of nutmeg. Cover with 1/2 cup of sultanas or currants and large tablespoon of butter substitute in small pieces. Cover closely with pastry lid pinching wet edges together well. Cook for 2 hours in slow oven or steam 3 hours.
When turned out has a nice brown crust and is delicious eating.
Miss Eagle's Notes
BREAD AND BUTTER APPLE MERINGUE PUDDING
The basic format for this is the Bread and Butter Custard which itself is based on the traditional Baked Custard. Back in Miss Eagle's early life when imperial measure was all the go, Baked Custard was made with 1 pint of milk, 2 eggs, 2 or 3 tablespoons of sugar, and a capful of vanilla. These are the proportions I still use. Bread and Butter Custard is made by adding 2 slices of buttered bread cut into quarters. Queen Pudding is a further variation on the Baked Custard in that the eggs are separated and the whites whipped into a meringue with caster sugar. The Baked Custard when cooled is spread with jam and then topped with meringue and baked in a slow oven to lightly brown.
So to this variation. The dish in which I baked the Pudding is quite large. I used lots of apples - about 8 to 10 Granny Smith's although they were not large. Layer the apples with buttered bread cut into quarters sprinkling brown sugar and sultanas between as you go. I used 5 eggs, separated. Beat the yolks and milk together with vanilla. Fill to the brim. Sprinkle with grated nutmeg. Place Pudding dish in a baking dish of water and bake in a slow oven. When Pudding is baked and cool, spread with jam and cover with meringue made from the whites of the 5 eggs and caster sugar. Bake in a very slow oven until cooked and coloured. Absolutely scrumptious!
Over at Jugalbandi the A Fruit A Month Round-up is up. The focus is Watermelon. I have to tell you, dear Reader, that I will be surprised if you are not suprised by what is there - and it is there in quality and quantity. Whoda thunk of a constructive use for watermelon rind? Would you use a watermelon as a vase? And did you know about square watermelons because I certainly did not?
A Fruit A Month is the brainchild of Maheswari at Beyond the Usual.
This month, A Fruit A Month has the hospitality of Sig over at Live to Eat. The fruit is lychee and Sig has kicked us off with some wonderfully scrumptious recipes. Oh dear! A culinary stretch exercise once again!
Miss Eagle has been a bit how's ya father over the last week so my entry for A Fruit a Month is being posted past the due date but here it is anyway. The nominated fruit is watermelon.
What do you do with watermelon? My favourite thing is to do them in lovely round balls either on their own or with honeydew and rock melon balls. But an A Fruit a Month entry seemed to require something more. So research was required. Out came the recipe books and this one, a Family Circle book titled Jams, Pickles & Chutneys - hit the jackpot.
This Watermelon based entry is actually two recipes. One of the lovely things about this book is that each recipe for a jam or a pickle or a chutney is accompanied by a a recipe for what you can do with the jam or pickle or chutney. So this recipe for Orange Watermelon Jam is accompanied by a recipe for a delightful and yummy dessert. So here they are:
Orange Watermelon Jam
Ingredients:
Method:
Luscious Orange Watermelon Dessert
(pictured above)
Ingredients:
Method:
MEAT LOAF GLAZEIngredients + Method:
Dessert was Orange Tart served with custard. The oranges that were used were Australian grown Navel Oranges. These are the most readily available oranges in Australian food markets. Citrus growing has been problematic in Australia in recent years and we have watched with sadness as many growers have uprooted their trees. Australians are amazed at this - particularly when they see Californian Navel Oranges in the supermarkets on occasions. In the last year or two though, there has been a focus on Australian-grown fruit and vegetables and, generally, food markets are taking pains to label the national origins of produce. It is not clear to all of us how beneficial this is to Australian growers overall and we do know that some fruit canning companies have gone out of Australian hands in recent years and a lot of fruit products list on their labels that they are constituted from local and imported products. In spite of the severe and prolonged drought experienced in Australia through which our food producers have battled, Australians still think of their land as a land of plenty and food sufficiency. So, many of us are saddened when basic food lines come from elsewhere.
Now to the Orange Tart. First a disclaimer. Miss Eagle is not copycatting Ahn at Food Lover's Journey. Miss E has only caught up with Anh and her marvellous Candied Orange Tart this morning. Perhaps because we share the same Melbourne weather, the need for Orange Tart was on the wind! Anh's tart looks wonderful with candied orange slices so Miss E resolves to try this one out. Miss Eagle's Orange Tart has been tweaked from Amy Schauer's Orange Tart in The Schauer Australian Cookery Book (p.413) so the ingredients below are Miss E's.
ORANGE TART
Ingredients
Pastry. (Miss Schauer calls this Cake Pastry. My mother called it Biscuit Pastry. The reference to cake/biscuit is because of the method which begins with creaming the butter and the sugar)
Ingredients
Method
Filling
Ingredients
Method
Meringue
Ingredients
Method
Following Anh's example, Miss E will be participating in Sharmi's blogging event A Fruit A Month.
MANDARIN MARMALADE
Ingredients
Method
Rhubarb is around and Miss Eagle decided to indulge in a memory from childhood of my mother's friend, Delia Brazil, and her rhubarb and apple pie.
Miss E used Flaky Pastry for the pie case, made from scratch. Miss E is fussy. She doesn't object to store-bought Filo or Puff Pastry. These really are time consuming, take practice to get right easily, and - in these days of small kitchens - space could be an issue. For Miss E, you need a good excuse to purchase frozen Shortcrust Pastry. In these days of dough hooks for the mixer and the wonders of food processors, there really is little excuse for not making your own.
Now Miss Eagle wishes to advise that between shortcrust and puff pastry there is another category: that of Flaky Pastry, sometimes known as Rough Puff Pastry. Now you would not dash home from work and rustle up this pastry for the evening meal as you could with shortcrust. However, you can make it ahead of time and keep it in the frig for later use. And certainly, it is a pastry worth making for special occasions and special guests. The recipe and instructions here are from our beloved Miss Schauer - she of The Schauer Australian Cookery Book.
First, we will look at Miss S's instructions.
Then to Miss Schauer's recipe:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Teacakes are a genre all their own with many subspecies. In fact, someone has even decided to make it the topic of debate. The quote below indicates a particularly British perspective:
The Teacake is a flat, roughly circular item with a diameter of about 15cm made out of bread, with a smooth brown upper surface and a somewhat lighter underside.
If the item contains currants then it is a Currant Teacake.
When sliced roughly in half and filled with chips (french fries for our American friends) then it becomes a Chip Buttie.
Miss Eagle is discussing here Teacake Australis - the variety that has traditionally graced morning and afternoon tea tables for generations of Australians. These days they are not seen too often. There are few morning and afternoon teas with visitors or workers' smokoes as in years gone by. Restaurants serve luxury cakes with tea or coffee but the humble and satisfying teacake is seldom seen.
Teacake Australis is a plain but sweet cake. It usually involves a topping of cinnamon and sugar and frequently includes apples. It can be served plain but is often buttered. Of course, if one wanted to live dangerously one could always pour over some cream - but that requires a spoon and moves the cake away from its plain, sweet, and utilitarian purpose. Teacake Australis is also, as a rule, a small cake. This again is an oddity in this age of supersizing everything. But this refers to its use for morning teas - quick to make, best eaten straightaway and warm with butter melting on it, and preferrably none left afterwards.
Miss Eagle's Apple & Orange Teacake has its origin in an oversight and is based on the traditional Madeira Mixture. The oversight? Miss Eagle had run out of Pure Vanilla Extract and forgotten to replace it. So in came the orange juice. Miss Eagle used a 6oz basic measurement (usually there is a 2oz basic measurement) because she didn't have a small tin. She used a 22cm springform pan.
APPLE & ORANGE TEACAKEIngredients:
Method
Allow to cool slightly but not completely. Serve plain but bring out the butter too for those who prefer this option. Enjoy!
