Prayer & Pots; handles & holders - and op shopping

Now, I really don't use pot holders. And I've never made one. I either use the space age oven mitts which were a birthday present from The Director (my sister), pictured below, or I quickly grab a tea-towel. But, when I saw these at my favourite op shop, I had to bring them home. Who knows? Part of a gift package, a decorating item? But they are cute - particularly the embroidered one.

These oven mitts withstand temperatures of 300 degrees Celsius.

And I have found this prayer by Leunig which just seems to fit:

We give thanks for the invention of the handle.

Without it there would be many things we couldn't hold on to.

As for the things we can't hold on to anyway,

let us gracefully accept their ungraspable nature and

celebrate all things elusive, fleeting and intangible.

They mystify us and make us receptive to truth and beauty.

We celebrate and give thanks.

Amen.

Touring the suburbs of my life

Whew! I've made it back. Began to wonder. Where does the time go? How life does intervene in the life of a blogger? There was a UFO to be finished. There was crafting to be done. There were shops to be visited. Housework to be done. You see my sister, The Director, was visiting - although briefly - from Brisbane. Then of course the visiting itself. Fitted in quite a bit in 24 hours. For the crucial eating bits, I forgot to bring the camera. How could I have done that? Miss Eagle forgetting her camera? Well it happened.

We commenced at Brown's Bakery in lovely Maling Road as a preliminary to a window-shopping stroll which turned into a bit of expenditure on the part of The Director. Along with my hot chocolate and her latte, we had cupcakes. Brown's will have to keep trying. They are not up to Crabapple Cupcake standard. The violent electric blue of the cupcake decor is not very appealing. So the verdict is nice - but keep trying.

Then it was off for the stroll. We detoured ever so slightly into that beautiful by-way, Theatre Place. Now I can't recall the name of this establishment but if, on entering Theatre Place, dear Reader, you steer to the right and go down to the end you will come to a little shop which is part eatery, part homewares. This is where The Director purchased these for me:

These are oven mitts which will withstand temperatures of 300 degrees Celsius. I look forward to a burn free future and being able to withdraw hot, heavy baking dishes with much greater dexterity and confidence than previously. Thank you, dear Director.

Then there was the charming Ring of Roses where The Director found some lovely gifts to take back to Brisbane.

This was followed by dinner at Box Hill. On the corner of Station Street and Whitehorse Road stands an amazing edifice. It has large red double doors. And above the large red doors is a huge poster portrait of Chiang Kai-shek. For quite a while, Miss Eagle has wondered what it all meant. Was this a beachhead for Taiwan in downtown Box Hill? Is factional politics alive and well among the Chinese community of the eastern suburbs of Melbourne? And what on earth did Chiang Kai-shek have to do with Chinese cuisine? And was the food any good?

On Friday night, we walked through the red doors under the portrait of Chiang and had the last two questions answered for us. The restaurant is devoted to Chiang and there are large images and explanations around the restaurant. Miss E is familiar with this history. The part she has always been fascinated with has been the history of Madame Chiang. You see, dear Reader, Madame Chiang (Soong May-Ling) is one of the three legendary Soong Sisters. It is said that one married money (Ai-Ling), one married power (May-Ling), and one married China (Ching-Ling). The residence of Sun Yat Sen and Ching-Ling in Shanghai is said to be the most harmonious house in terms of Feng Shui.

The Post-Chiang restaurant celebrates the cuisine of Zhejiang Province in mainlaind China. Chiang was a native of Zhejiang and maintained a preference for the cuisine. We were three: The Director, Miss Eagle, and herself. And I think it safe to say that we, too, now have a preference for the cuisine of Zhejiang. We had prawns in a stir-fry and Beijing duck (they wrap the duck in pancakes at the table for you). Be-yoot-i-ful. Best Beijing duck ever. The restaurant is licensed so no need for BYO. The tablecloths are crisp and white, the waiting staff are subtle and constant. The decor is great. The prices are reasonable. If you want cheap Chinese chow, this is not for you. But, for a dash of Chinese elegance and excellent, well-served and presented food and value for money, then the Post-Chiang fills the bill. I'm dreaming of Yum-Cha now. Anyone else want to come?

Slipped me lid

Yes, I did. I slipped me lid. I was washing up the lovely one pounder (5oo gram) clear green glass butter dish, the lid slipped out of control, and smashed to smithereens on the kitchen floor. Sadness! :-( :-( :-(

Now, Miss Eagle has to hunt, seek, and hopefully gather another one - lid that is, or, more probably, a whole new green glass butter dish with lid. So, in the weeks ahead, you will come across Miss Eagle a-hunting in Opp Shops across the eastern suburbs and The Hills.

However, dear Reader, could you help too - pretty please. Pretty please with sugar on? If you are opp shopping, could you please keep your eyes peeled and if you find such a pretty thing as a one pounder (500 gram) clear green glass butter dish with lid please email me off the side bar.

First catch your ironing board....

Miss Eagle thinks that Ian Parmenter and Christopher Lawrence have taken leave of their senses. Christopher Lawrence had Ian Parmenter on 936 ABC Local Radio in Hobart with a recipe for Ironed Salmon. Whoever heard the like! The first instruction Method is "Turn the iron on". Depending on how you like your salmon done you can opt for either the linen setting or the cotton setting. Whoda thunk it!?!

Is Miss Eagle psychic? Surely, it would be good to be a psychic blogger: to know what people were wanting to read and blog it. How good would that be for those concerned to drive traffic to their blog?

Now what has led to Miss Eagle querying her psychic capacity? The fact that she recently blogged her sponge recipe, complete with picture. Then this week, in Epicure in The Age, there are not one, but two articles mourning the demise of the sponge.

Article #2 has some history to it. Miss Eagle thinks beating her eggs with rotary beaters and folding in her flour with a trowel-shaped spatula is quite traditional. But traditional soul as Miss E is, she will not be attempting this way of whipping egg-whites:

The State Library's yellowing copy of Australian Cookery, Canned Fruits, Summer Drinks, Preserves, Jellies, Jams as Given at The Fruit Carnival of The Royal & Brighton Horticultural Societies Exhibition, Exhibition Building, Melbourne 1890 by Margaret J. Pearson, has - despite the lengthy title - a brief and efficient description on how to beat eggs by hand. The trick is to beat the yolks and whites separately. "The yolks in a large bowl and the whites on a shallow dish until the whites are solid."

At this time knives were used to beat egg whites. The flat of the blade was lifted and swirled through the albumen to incorporate as much air as possible.

It took me more than 20 minutes to beat four separate egg whites until stiff, trying to recreate this method. A first attempt with slightly older egg whites proved the sponge-cake mantra to "use the freshest eggs possible". The albumen of the two-week-old eggs did not hold together and simply rolled off the knife. Fresh egg whites have an almost soft jelly-like appearance and stay bound in a loop as they are whipped.

This method of whipping was replaced when cheap mass-produced hand beaters - patented in the 1860s - at last became available after the 1900s.

But, seriously, dear Reader, this blog is about traditional Australian family cooking and keeping the tradition alive by sharing with readers in Australia and around the globe. So-o-o... perhaps, I'll give the CWA a ring.

What do you think, dear Reader?

Mother's Day, Rose and the Cupcake Tower

Miss Eagle hopes that everyone who cares for kids had a beaut day to-day.

Miss Eagle's present from Herself was a Cupcake Tower. Miss Eagle has been dreaming of this since first finding such a thing existed on Woofnanny's blog. A few weeks ago one was advertised in a catalogue. "No", Herself said. "Wait", she said, "until there is a shabby chic one." Miss Eagle agreed.

Then, last Thursday, Miss Eagle spotted THE shabby chic Cupcake Tower in the General Trader at Knox City. The result? Miss Eagle received one as her Mother's Day pressie.

The picture above is of Herself's decoration of the Tower complete with silicone patty pans in a variety of colours. The Cup/Fairy Cakes are still to come - but they are expected to hit the oven this week.

While photographing the tower, Rose turned up to turn it into a Feline Foto Shoot.

A flippin' good time ahead

Miss Eagle has been thrilled and much cheered, dear Reader, to receive a wonderful parcel from Lee-ann at Pear Tree Cottage! The story of the parcel began with perfidy of Herself who surreptitiously chucked out this wonderful implement which had been in use for forty years flipping pikelets and pancakes and folding air and flour in lovely light sponge cakes. Miss E was unable to locate a replacement spatula. They are not in kitchen shops or the kitchen section of supermarkets. Searches of opp shops in eastern Melbourne had not turned one up. Lee-ann, the opp shop aficionado, to the rescue all the way from country Victoria. Not only was there a spatula there was a set complete with long blade spatula, a masher, and an egg lifter. All in Miss E's old school tie colours! And don't they go well with Miss E's collection of T.G. Green's Cornish Blue. Now Lee-ann does not stint. Along with the spatula set came a beautiful card (standing), and - to help in the restoration of Miss E's health (she has been a sick old bird for quite a while) - the March 2007 edition of Romantic Homes, a favourite at The Trad Pad. The magazine came with its own tea-dipped tag. Lee-Ann is clearly a romantic herself.

Thank you Lee-Ann you - and your blog - are a blessing.

Miss Eagle wishes you and your Dearly Beloved well since you have had poor health experiences lately yourselves.

Tupperware and a Drag Queen. But, oh, the Decor!

Over at The QueerPenguin, Sam has got himself into Tupperware. The hostess with the mostest for this mushroom-quiche-and-champagne event was Portia Turbo, a drag queen. Sam got bewitched, entranced and enthused and has purchased two hundred bucks worth of Tupperware.

Miss Eagle, dear Reader, finds this an absolute hoot! Tupperware and drag queens! The latest hot and gay thing to do! LOL, Roll, LOL, Roll, LOL, Roll. In spite of only living two blocks away from a huge Tupperware distribution facility discreetly laid out in a landscape of white standard roses, Miss E has never been a big fan of Tupperware. In fact, she has only managed - in her long existence - two Tupperware parties. At one of them, many decades ago, she purchased this item.

Miss E thought this a good idea at the time for the honey and jam etc on the breakfast table (long before Rachel Ashwell taught us to do better). This item turned out to be a b-i-g nuisance in the pantry cupboard. It took up space. It was difficult to accommodate other items around it. Miss Eagle thinks she should have taken a clue from her friend Heather who had a cupboard specially built to accommodate all her Tupperware!

Miss Eagle is not the biggest fan of plastics except in certain limited situations. She prefers glass. The pantry is full of large glass jars for the flour, sugar, rice, etc. Small glass jars for the herbs and in between ones for the caster sugar and the lentils, etc. She rarely buys new. It is clear that everyone does not share Miss E's passion for glass in the pantry cupboard because she has picked up glass jars not only in opp shops but when left out for the taking when people shift houses.

But there are times when plastic is desirable - for storing left-overs in the fridge; taking lunch to work and so on. Miss E's favourite bit of plastic is Australian engineered, Australian made. These are the Decor products and its distribution centre - sans landscaping - is only a suburb away!

Miss E always recalls what her mother used to say about party-plan products that were not available through retail outlets. Phyllis always used to say "If these products are so good, why can't they be sold off the shelf where they have to compete against other products." Now, Phyllis was no market rationalist. Just very practical and full of the wisdom of good, old-fashioned common sense. So, yes, why can't party plan products compete? When you ask yourself that question, you might be surprised by the answer.

Cutting it? These take the biscuit....

Over at Pear Tree Cottage!, Lee-ann has displayed a marvellous collection of cookie cutters. Miss Eagle loves biscuit cutters too so here are hers. Some, Miss E has had for quite a while - but they are not the oldies and goodies that live at Pear Tree Cottage!

Divining colander

A colander is an underrated implement - although, in these days of custom kitchens and up-market appliances, decorator colanders are appearing all over like this Alessi/Stark design pictured above. Colanders are often seen as only for draining things like pasta, rice, and vegetables but another use is to line one with buttered brown paper, fill with cake mixture, and use the result as a skirt for a Dolly Varden cake as my mother once did for a childhood birthday cake.

~~~~~

One of my favourite poets, Rosemary Dobson, has a poem in the latest Australian Book Review on the subject:

Furi knives

Could someone in the blogosphere please provide me with some information?

Yesterday when Miss Eagle was shopping, she went into a kitchen shop in search of a knife. Her beloved butcher's knife of many decades has gone missing. Thin air. Herself has no idea of what makes a decent culinary knife. So when in a suburban shopping mall and a kitchen shop ahead, Miss Eagle decided to give them a try. There she found a large plastic knife block with four knives and a hand written sign explaining that they were Furi knives reduced from approx $150 to approx $90. The catch was that it should have been a five knife set. The smallest knife was missing. Now my sister, The Director, had been waxing lyrical about the Furi knife just last weekend on a visit from Brisbane. So, for further and better information, Miss Eagle went to the 'net. Miss Eagle could not find anything that looks like her knives. All the images were of those all in one blade & handle in stainless steel jobs. As you can see, Miss Eagle's knives have a black composition handle with grey trim. They have Qu on them with the u having the little dots above the verticals. In addition, the price of the all in one stainless steel jobs bore no relation to the price, even before discount, of the knives Miss Eagle purchased. The former were in the stratosphere, the latter in reasonability.

So the question before you, dear Reader, is what have I purchased? A knock off? A superceded model? Haven't used them yet - but they appear to be quality knives. Please help. Remember: curiousity killed the cat but information brought it back.

My spatula

My copy of the Concise Oxford Dictionary defines a spatula as a broad-bladed instrument for working pigments, picking up powder, etc; a surgeon's instrument for pressing tongue down or to one side. This is used for cooking purposes. I have had it for more than forty years. The handle used to be a bright red but the paint has worn away. You can just see the remnants of the silvery metal that covered the blade but it too has worn away over nearly half a century. Do they still make spatulas like this? When pressure is applied to the handle there is a bit of a spring which is valuable when aerating a mixture. I use my spatula for two purposes - one for turning and lifting pikelets and pancakes; and the second for folding flour into the egg mixture when making a sponge cake. This was a tip that came with the sponge cake recipe. The springiness of the spatula folds air in with the flour making for lightness in the sponge. My spatula started life in Bowen, moved with me to Toowoomba, travelled half way around Australia on a working holiday with me, a husband, three kids and a cat in a 23 foot caravan pulled by a four-ton double-cab Bedford truck. It settled in Mount Isa, went to Townsville, then to Tennant Creek, followed by Sydney, Walgett, Townsville again and now Melbourne. It learned to make sponge cakes to satisfy a husband spoiled by his mother's wonderful sponges. It made two very large heart shaped cakes for my daughter's wedding. And plates and plates of pikelets and pancakes.

Two of my favourite things

They look like they're dancing, don't they?

They are rotary beaters.

The one on the left is all metal.

The one on the right has a wooden handle and a wooden knob.

The wood had paint on it once upon a time - but is now bare.

I love these implements. Wouldn't be without them.

Great for whipping cream, eggs (whole or whites only),

and for batters and beating lumps out of liquids.

They are the greatest for providing aeration in sponge cakes.

There are other rotary beaters around - but not all are equal.

This design is the best.

Straight up and down from handle to beater.