Nice Life With A Cup Of Tea

I just realised

2011-04-14T13:18:00.001+10:00

...I've been putting off (for months!!) writing an email to my very good friend in Canberra because I am too embarrassed about being a stay at home mum. Too embarrassed about not having a 'real job' to tell her about. Too afraid of being boring because all I want to do is rave on about how awesome Pippin is (which is HUGELY AWESOME by the way).

Whoa. What is that all about?

I am going to write her an email about my TERRIFIC and PRODUCTIVE and ENJOYABLE life of baking, crocheting, homemaking, gardening and Pippin-wrangling right now.

Stuff I love: kitchen edition

2011-03-27T10:00:00.000+11:00

In the spirit of celebrating what I already possess, rather than lusting after things that I want, here are three kitchen items that I totally adore and cannot live without:

My slow cooker. A gift from my parents a few years ago, it has come into its own since I have had Pippin. Seriously, there is no easier way to get dinner on the table. Also since I bought a kindle copy of Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cook Book my confidence in using it has greatly increased and I am much more adventurous.

This bread tin. An op shop find, it is simply the best tin ever. Nothing sticks to it; it makes an ideal loaf size-wise, shape-wise and burnished crust-wise. I don't know what it's made of but it is worth its weight in gold to me (and it only cost me about $4 or so).

Nigella's book How to Be a Domestic Goddess. We are serious Nigella fans here with all her cookbooks in pride of place on our already well-stocked shelves and HTBADG is my favourite baking book; I come back to it again and again.

What kitchen stuff do you love? Do share!

Love

Verity

Things I know

2011-03-25T13:09:00.000+11:00

Having my non-computer literate mum tell me to google something is hilarious.

If I had had any idea of the sheer volume of liquid poo that Pippin could produce I would have stuck with disposable nappies, damn it.

Crochet is the crack cocaine of the craft world. I am so addicted, I'm hooking it even as I write this post.

It is sheer bliss to not have the house surrounded by scaffolding, even though the renovations are still not quite finished.

Some days it is just absolutely necessary to make fairy cakes with pink icing and cherries on top.

Joining in with Shae for the week - see what other people know here!

Love

Verity

The green earth, say you?

2011-03-20T12:39:00.000+11:00

...that is a mighty matter of legend, though you tread it under the light of day.

- Aragorn to Eomer of Rohan (JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings)

Sensationally Tasty No-Knead Sourdough Bread: a tutorial

2011-03-19T13:34:00.000+11:00

I've been trying, over the last few weeks, to find a satisfying compromise that marries the deliciousness of sourdough with the convenience of not having to knead said damn dough. Because, when I need to fit in bread baking two to three times a week, it is just easier if I can spend two lots of ten minutes on it, rather than trying to get the timing right for mixing, letting it rest, kneading, rising, shaping, rising, baking.

(The eating part is not complicated, though.)

So, following round after round of extremely tasty semi-scientific experimentation, I feel confident in presenting you with a tutorial for no-knead sourdough bread that has a delicious chewy crust as well as fabulous tangy flavour.

And - it's easy. Feel free to follow along with my simple step by step instructions. I make baking fun!*

You will need:

150g ready to use sourdough starter
750g flour - one kind or a mixture (eg 500g bread flour, 250g wholemeal)
10g fine salt
500ml water
More flour (added after first rise)
22cm x 13 cm (9 in x 5 in) loaf tin, greased

Before we start: some notes about ingredients
I only have one sourdough starter, which is a rye one made using 1 part rye flour to 1.5 parts water. Based on my experience, though, you should be able to substitute an equal quantity of any other kind of sourdough starter if you don't have rye to hand.

I normally use about 40-50% bread flour, because it gives good lift and helps to support the heavier wholemeal (regular wheat or spelt) that I use to make up the rest of flour weight. You can use either bread flour or wholemeal flour to stiffen the dough after the first rise.

I don't measure the quantity of flour that I add after the first rise, either; I just chuck it in until the dough looks and feels right. This is something I've learned over the course of a year or more of bread-baking, so I can't really describe it apart from to say that the dough will be stiff, difficult to mix, not at all batter-like, and not sticky. I hope that helps.

Don't be astonished either if the dough just seems to keep sucking up the flour; for example, on really humid days it sometimes seems like it takes twice as much flour as on a drier day.

You may want to filter your tap water as well; I have read that chlorinated water can be death to sourdough. Mind you on occasion I have used unfiltered water and everything has turned out just fine.

Can we get started already?

But of course.

1. Measure your flour(s) into a large, non-metallic bowl (avoids the metal reacting with the acids in the sourdough). Add the salt and stir thoroughly to distribute.

2. Measure your starter and your water into a large jug and give it a good stir.

3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix thoroughly. You will end up with a shaggy sticky dough, like this:

4. First rise! Cover with cling wrap and leave to ferment for 12-15 hours at cool room temperature (too easy).

5. At the end of the first rise the dough should be bubbly and greatly increased in volume:

Give it a good stir to deflate it. It will be extremely sticky but much smoother than when you first mixed it.

6. Add in the extra flour, bit by bit, mixing well to incorporate each addition. You want to end up with a dough that is very stiff and hard to mix.

7. Even when stiff, this dough will be a bit softer than a normal dough, and consequently harder to shape, but it is also quite forgiving; so just scrape it out into your tin and smooth the top with a wet hand.

8. Second rise! Cover with cling wrap and let sit at cool room temperature for 2-3 hours.

The dough might not seem to have risen very much (I would say mine normally rises about 30%? But that's just me eyeballing it) but fear not, there will be an awesome oven spring!

9. Half an hour before you will bake your bread, preheat the oven to 200C.

10. Stick the tin in the oven and bake for 60 minutes (if you have an oven that browns things readily, you may need to cover the top with foil before this time, so keep an eye on it). Check it by slipping it out of the tin; does it sound hollow on the bottom? If so, good, but no-knead breads are wetter than regular ones and take longer to cook. So stick a fine skewer into the thickest part; if it comes out with more than a hint of crumbs on it, pop the loaf back in the oven (with or without its tin) for another 10-15 minutes. I often end up cooking my loaves for about 80-85 minutes.

11. Allow to cool if you can before you enjoy your insanely tasty low-maintenance homemade sourdough bread!!

Love

Verity

*with apologies to Strongbad.

Comfy Pants

2011-03-17T11:00:00.001+11:00

The photo is not the best, but even so. I made them. Myself. From a sheet I got at an op-shop! It's the first item of clothing I've ever sewn!

They are comfy and AWESOME. I made them to be pyjama pants because I wasn't sure if I would do a good enough job to be able to wear them out of the house. I totally would wear them out though. So would my sister, but she is known for wearing pyjamas all over the place, frankly (hi little sis!).

The pattern is from Sew La Tea Do by Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes. I am going to be making more more more more comfy pants!!!

For more creative and hopefully equally comfy creative spaces pop in at Kootoyoo!

Struggling to understand

2011-03-13T22:39:00.000+11:00

I am struggling (as many people are right now I am sure) to understand and make sense of the wave upon wave of natural disasters that have caused so much devastation in Australia, New Zealand and now Japan. I am so lucky; my home is safe and my family and friends are too. I am going about my daily business, cooking, reading, playing with Pippin, laughing, talking, blogging.

Yet there are people out there who are frightened, homeless, injured, in danger. I can barely imagine what they must be feeling.

If there is a loving God who created us, how can He let these things happen? If they must happen, why to person A rather than person B? What did I do to deserve the many blessings that I currently enjoy? What did someone else do to deserve the loss of their family, their home, their livelihood?

I left the Catholic church of my upbringing a long time ago; I have lived a number of years as an agnostic and even an atheist. Recently I have been trying to find a place for God in my life again. I would like a simple faith, if I could find one. But there doesn't seem to be anything simple about it, in the face of suffering of this magnitude. In fact it even seems more comforting to believe, as Tennant does, that the things that happen to us during our lifetimes are the result of pure chance and not in any way part of some grander design or controlled by any divine being.

Right now I don't know what to think, apart from just being deeply, deeply grateful for the fact that I am alive, safe, and drinking tea while Pippin sleeps upstairs and Tennant plays some questy-adventure game on his computer.

Love,

Verity

Delicious

2011-03-01T13:00:00.000+11:00

From the farmers' market last weekend.

So this parenting thing...

2011-02-26T12:56:00.001+11:00

...is hard.

Pippin is nearly 16 months now and getting more independent and person-like by the day. I feel like I've hit my stride (to a certain extent) as a stay at home mum over the last month or two (yes, it really took that long... oh my) and I am lucky that Pippin is a bit of a creature of habit and seems to like the routine we have settled into, which looks something like this:

7am up and breastfeed
8am breakfast for all
8.30-10.30ish morning activities usually around the house but sometimes we run errands
11am lunch (I usually eat this with Pip, I am often hungry by this stage and it gets it out of the way so I don't have to waste precious Pippin-nap time on eating)
11.45ish breastfeed
12noon - 3pm (ish) Pippin sleeps and I do stuff (like blog, clean, crochet, sew, drink tea)
3.30pm afternoon snack
3.30-5.30pm afternoon activities, trip to the park or library, playgroup etc
6pm dinner (usually for us all - again it gets it out of the way so I can actually sit down later in the evening)
6.30pm bathtime
7pm breastfeed and then into bed

It looks very organised like that doesn't it, of course I leave out the bits where - on days that I am very tired or not feeling terrific - I spend time staring at Pip wondering what the heck to do to entertain him, or wishing that I could just do what I feel like instead of having to cater to his needs first.

On the other hand I feel so incredibly lucky to be able to spend this time with him. So blessed.

Yet simultaneously embarrassed... shouldn't I have a 'real job' and be doing something of 'real value'?

Oh, hang on. I AM. I just re-read this awesome post at Apron Strings to remind myself.

Because I DO have to keep reminding myself. It is so easy for me to minimise the work that I am doing here, now, every minute that I am taking care of Pippin. Friends ask me what I've been up to, or new acquaintances ask me what I do, and I usually say 'oh, just taking care of Pippin' or 'oh, I'm just a stay at home mum.'

What I do is not 'just'. It is not 'merely'. It is not 'less worthy'.

I am actually raising up a human being and that is infinitely valuable work. It is NOT work that should be farmed out to others as a matter of course (although that 'village' that people always say is needed 'to raise a child' would sure come in handy sometimes).

Wow, I feel so defensive about this. I didn't really realise until I started writing it all down...

Things I know

2011-02-25T12:41:00.000+11:00

c\_/ there is nothing cuter than the sound of Pippin babbling and singing to himself

c\_/ unreliable uncommunicative tradespeople are THE WORST

c\_/ reliable, trustworthy tradespeople are THE BEST. Also, unfortunately, rare

c\_/ I cannot wait to get all the scaffolding out of our front and back yards and get a kitchen garden in

c\_/ being premenstrual means all I want to do is shop shop shop

c\_/ knitting is boring compared with crochet

What do you know this week? See what other people are sharing at Shae's place!

My Creative Space

2011-02-17T12:42:00.000+11:00

Two words: Crocheting. Obsessively.

I taught myself to crochet last week with a bit of help from my mum, some handy pictures from Crochet Australia, this granny square tutorial and this heart pattern from Meet Me at Mikes!

Love

Verity

(This is my first time playing at My Creative Space. For lots more creative inspiration, visit Kootoyoo!)

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-16T22:01:00.002+11:00

Love

Verity

Turtle bars blankets and kittehs, oh my!

2011-02-11T22:55:00.000+11:00

Well, here is the slab of turtle bar, baked and cooling, waiting to be sliced... We shared some with a friend after dinner. It was totally delicious, and the kind of rich that sneaks up on you and makes you feel rather queasy while at the same time contemplating a second piece.

The blanket that I made... the fat quarters are from vintage sheets (thanks Fifties Housewives!) and the back is cut from a thrifted plain white double bed sheet.

The light in our bedroom is rather poor, so I had to use the flash on the camera... which did not disturb our determinedly-snoozing cat Beren, obviously.

Have a wonderful weekend -

Love

Verity

A quiet 'good afternoon'

2011-02-10T15:53:00.000+11:00

It has been a long time since I felt I could fit in any blog posts here... It's not like I haven't been doing stuff; I've been doing lots of things: baking, making, running around after Pippin (now 15 months old and more amazing by the day), reading, cleaning... Oh and drinking tea of course (I've just started back on my tea blog as well).

I want to try and keep posting here though. I think it will be good for me, but I'm not quite sure what things will look like or the kind of content I'll be putting up. So please bear with me if things are a bit muddled, chaotic and jump around a bit as I strive to find my blogging groove again. That said, part of the reason I stopped posting for so long was because I felt like my little blog here didn't really compare with any of the other homemaking/baking/daily life blogs I read and enjoy and I felt discouraged and sad. This was part of a kind of 'my whole life sucks and is pointless' existential crisis that I went through around Christmas time in particular, I think. Plus the pressure that I was putting on myself to take pretty pictures and post LOTS wasn't very helpful.

But! As I have come to realise, I'm not in the blogging business; I write my blogs for fun and I don't really care how many people read this blog (although if you do, and you enjoy it, I'm very glad!)... So there will probably be fewer posts in general, and probably fewer pictures as well. If this means that Nice Life With a Cup of Tea is not to your taste that's ok and I will not be offended if you move on.

In the meantime... Here's a few things that have been inspiring me lately:

c\_/ this poem posted on Roots of She, a site I am coming to love more and more I must say.

c\_/ these Turtle Bars (I had never heard of them before, had you??) sound SO DELICIOUS, I am making them tomorrow!

c\_/ I got a sewing machine for Christmas (from my lovely family!!) and I made a blanket like this one - I'll post some pics soon. It is making me so happy every time I see it on our bed.

Love

Verity

Fruit Breads

2010-10-24T10:00:00.000+11:00

Do you have a favourite fruit bread fruit combination? These are some of the ones I've made recently:

Date and walnut
Dried apricot
Fig and glacé ginger

I was particularly hopeful about the fig and ginger one, but it wasn't quite as mind blowingly good as I had hoped it would be (although it was still very nice). Perhaps it was too wholemeally? Perhaps it was the wrong shape (the dough was very wet and I didn't handle it well so it was flatter than I wanted, and I got rather cranky).

I think so far the dried apricot one is my favourite. I have a bunch of raisins and currants sitting in the pantry, so I might use those up next time, with almonds! Any other suggestions?

Blurry photo, sorry!

Things I don't normally do

2010-10-22T11:09:00.000+11:00

There are two things I hardly ever bake: biscuits/cookies and pastry.

Biscuits (however tasty) involve faff. You have to make lots of little balls of dough, roll them, flatten them, bake them in lots of batches (or at least I do; our oven is small)... Yawn. I prefer to make one big thing, like a cake, that I can just stick in there and forget about for half an hour or whatever, without being chained to the kitchen. However, having made the oatmeal raisin cookies from Veganomicon (photo here) - VERY PATIENTLY I might add, three sheets worth of carefully rolled and flattened cookies) - I am prepared to admit that diligence does pay off. I'm just not that keen on that much diligence very often.

Pastry - I lack confidence with. I am intimidated by the concept of making and handling pastry. I'm not quite sure why though, because despite my fear I have made several lots of shortcrust pastry in the last month or so and each has turned out well, and even been easy! Perhaps my developing bread-baking skills are giving me more confidence. Even more exciting is the fact that I now know how to make sourdough pastry, using this recipe from Wild Sourdough:

50g sourdough starter (any kind; I normally use rye)
310g wholemeal wheat or spelt flour (I haven't tried it with white flour yet)
85g water for plain pastry or maple syrup for sweet (honey also works)
75g olive oil
1 tsp salt (optional so far as I'm concerned)

Preheat oven to 200C.

Combine the liquid ingredients including starter and mix thoroughly. Stir into the flour and add the salt if using. Let rest for 10-15 minutes before rolling out and lining your pie dish - this is enough pastry for a 26cm tart or about 3 dozen mini tarts. (It also works well for free-form tarts.) Prick the base several times with a fork.

Rest for 30 minutes in the fridge before filling and baking - you can also blind bake it for about 10 minutes or so if you want to add a filing later.

I filled this little stack of sweet tart cases with the following coconut-chocolate ganache:

200ml coconut cream
200g dark chocolate (50-70% cocoa depending on how sweet you want it)

Heat the coconut cream in a small saucepan over low heat until steaming. Remove from the heat. Break up the chocolate into small chunks and add to the coconut cream, stirring until completely melted and smooth. Allow to cool slightly then pour into tart cases. It will thicken and set as it cools. Store in the fridge.

It's not super-strong in the coconut flavour - you might like to add some coconut essence or liqueur or something if you want it stronger. You can use it as a sauce for ice cream or to ice a cake. Or just eat it. It's pretty good.

Taking Things at a Different Pace

2010-10-18T12:25:00.000+11:00

I tend to rush around. I like to get from A to B at a brisk pace. I tell myself I can 'slow down later'. Well, like tomorrow, later never comes... or when it does it tends to get filled up with other stuff that Has To Be Done Now.

Having a toddler in tow, however... well. That's a whole different thing isn't it. Either Pippin is attached to my leg making it difficult for me to get from A to B (and I'm talking about from the bench to the kitchen table, not some epic trip), or else I'm holding his hand while he toddles alongside me, forcing me to go at a pace his little legs can manage. Or else he's in the stroller and I'm going along at a fair crack and then I remember that I could go slower and actually point things out to him, talk to him, take him OUT of the stroller even (brainwave!) and let him potter around a bit, before continuing on our way.

Guess what? You can see and do some pretty fun and lovely things when you slow down a little bit.

Conservatory at the Fitzroy Gardens

Tudor Village (ripe for stomping, Tokyo-style?)

Snoozing wizard

Although that said... Pippin CAN also move himself from A to B pretty fast when he wants to, especially when A is one end of the kitchen where his toys are and B is the other end where the rubbish bin is.

What I've been baking lately

2010-10-13T15:44:00.000+11:00

Half 'n half wheat-spelt sourdough, my new favourite I think - I've made two batches; this was the first and it was better than the second. Not quite sure why? That said the second batch was quite different from the first... no spelt just white/wholemeal wheat, I remembered the salt, I made it free-form instead of in a tin, held the dough over in the fridge for 2 days... ok, ok, so basically it was two different loaves entirely.

Oatmeal-raisin cookies from Veganomicon - the yummiest ever!

A second batch of ciabatta, more successfully and carefully shaped this time.

And a second batch of Peter Reinhart's French Bread #1 from Crust and Crumb... the first batch tasted ok but I didn't even photograph it because it looked appalling. I got the shelves and heat wrong in the oven so it burnt on the bottom and didn't colour on the top. This batch was better. I had to return the book to the library but when I get my hands on it again I'm going to try a third time to see if I can improve some more!

Peaceful Sunday

2010-10-10T12:18:00.000+11:00

Bread on the rise...

a gorgeous posie of herbs and flowers

(from the Collingwood Children's Farm market yesterday)

...and kitteh basking on the windowsill!

Lemonade Scones

2010-10-09T12:13:00.000+11:00

I have never made lemonade scones before. Have you? I don't think I've ever even eaten them before. Which is a pity, because they are delicious, and easy! I made them to share with a lovely friend who came over for afternoon tea yesterday - kindly bringing with her some DELICIOUS homemade peach and vanilla jam (I am still swooning! It was that delicious. Did I already say that?).

I think I need to somehow mark my scone cutters with their sizes though (and my cake tins for that matter) because I never know how wide they are, and it is a pain to have to get out the tape measure or ruler every time. Except for the times when I don't, and then I end up with scones that are too big, like yesterday's. But that didn't really matter all that much because they were so yummy!

The ones I made were based on this recipe from taste.com.au... my version was as follows:

300g self-raising flour, sifted
55g caster sugar
125ml soy milk
125ml lemonade (fizzy, not flat - you need the bubbles to make the scones rise or something)
zest of one lemon

Preheat the oven to 220C and lightly grease a baking tray or square cake tin.

Stir together the sifted flour, sugar and lemon zest. Pour in the lemonade and soy milk and mix to a soft dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently for a couple of minutes - the dough is very sticky so you'll probably need to add a little more flour. Press into a flat round about 2cm thick and cut out with a 6cm (theoretically) cutter. Place close together on the tray or tin and brush the top with a little more soy milk if desired.

Bake for 10-15 minutes depending on the size of your scones. Turn out and enjoy while still warm!

Something Lovely

2010-10-08T12:12:00.000+11:00

Yesterday I had the opportunity - the first in weeks, if not months - to leave Pippin at home with a babysitter in the afternoon and go out! By myself!! For a couple of hours!!!*

I walked up to Smith St and had a potter around in the awesome Lost and Found Market... I managed not to buy anything... (this time) and then took myself to Las Vegan Bakery for chai (best I've ever had while out and about) and some comfort e-book reading: The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie.

(original cover image from wikipedia, link above)

I love Agatha Christie books. LOVE them. I had read most of them by the time I was 12 years old... starting age 8 with The Seven Dials Mystery which was on my mum's bedside table when I used to curl up in my parents' electric-blanketed bed instead of my own on winter nights (until I got shooed out when they wanted to come to bed!) and onwards and upwards from there.

They are totally my go-to comfort reading. I think my favourites tend to be Miss Marple ones, but Tommy and Tuppence are so spunky and awesome (especially Tuppence) that their tales come a close second. There is no better reading with a cup of tea (except perhaps a Tea Shop Mystery).

*no, that is not too many exclamation marks for this momentous event.

Something Lovely

2010-10-01T09:57:00.000+10:00

Image from we heart it

Yesterday I read this post, 'You Are Already Perfect' from Zen Habits, and it really resonated with me. It was just what I needed to read and I hope you enjoy it too.

I particularly liked this bit:

And here’s another realization that I’ve written about before: You already have everything you need to be happy, right here and right now.

Do you have eyes that see? You have the ability to appreciate the beauty of the sky, of greenery, of people’s faces, of water. Do you have ears that hear? You have the ability to appreciate music, the sound of rainfall, the laughter of friends. You have the ability to feel rough denim, cool breezes, grass on bare feet … to smell fresh-cut grass, flowers, coffee … to taste a plum, a chili pepper, chocolate.

This is a miracle, and we take it for granted. Instead, we strive for more, when we already have everything.

Softies for Mirabel

2010-09-29T09:00:00.001+10:00

Do you like to make things? Have you heard about Softies for Mirabel?

It is a project where you make a soft toy and donate it to the Mirabel Foundation which provides support for kids who have been affected by a parent's drug addiction. I only just heard about it via Meet Me At Mike's; and I am not terribly good at making soft toys but I think I am going to have a go! How about you? You can also contribute to the Mirabel Foundation in other ways if that is better for you.

You can sign up for softie-ness here!

Flavour of the Week - Dulce de Leche Ripple

2010-09-28T09:00:00.001+10:00

Dear Colleagues,

The latest iced delight to grace the ground floor freezer presents a puzzle. One taste is enough to render the unsuspecting scooper dizzy, but it this because of the stupefyingly simple genius with which it fuses vanilla ice cream and smooth caramel sauce? Or simply the precursor to an onrushing diabetic coma? Why not both? Enjoy, for as long as you can stay conscious, the golden swirls of lovingly home-made Dulce de Leche (“sweet of milk”). This traditional Latin American confection, coupled with an already-sucrotic creamy-eggy frozen custard, is just the challenge that our nation’s dentists and insulin specialists have been preparing for. Don’t let them have planned in vain!

Dietary information: this ice cream contains milk, cream, egg yolks, sugar, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, vodka and salt.

Yours recommending Dulce de Leche as a breakfast spread,

The Stressed Chef

Radical Homemakers - have you read it?

2010-09-27T09:00:00.002+10:00

I'm reading it at the moment (on my iPad as an e-book, ironically but conveniently enough). I came across it mentioned on the Apron Stringz blog (which is awesome in itself) and have been working my way through it over the last week or so - I'm about two-thirds of the way through. It's incredibly thought provoking. I admit I picked it up, virtually speaking, because following the closure of my Etsy shop (which you can read about here) and entering into basically 100% full-time 'home duties' (as it was so lyrically put in my most recent mobile phone contract) I really, REALLY needed some reassurance that I am:

a.) Not lazy, and
b.) Making a valid and responsible lifestyle choice

particularly in light of the fact that many of the other mums in Pippin's local playgroup are heading back into the workforce.

And Radical Homemakers is reassuring - forcefully so - from that point of view. It is also quite an eye opener into some aspects of American consumer culture, although I am of course aware that the author has a particular view of the world and that this colours the way she represents that culture. I am just starting the section of the book which discusses the underlying 'how' of being a Radical Homemaker - the skills of nurturing relationships, redefining pleasure, rediscovering 'real food' (I think we do pretty well on that one already, honestly) and so on. I'm particularly looking forward to reading this section, I am sure it will be inspiring.

What I would also really like would be a book written about Australian Radical Homemakers... and to meet some... I would love to know if you have read it and what you think about it!

The BEST Tomato and Lentil Soup

2010-09-26T12:37:00.000+10:00

Ever! I invented it the other night. I'm writing it down here a.) to share it and b.) to remember it! If you like tomato soup, especially one with lentils, give it a try!

olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried tarragon
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
3 small handfuls green lentils (preferably French-type 'Puy' ones)
2 x 400g tins of diced tomatoes
water

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and add the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring often, until soft. Add the herbs and fennel seeds and stir around for about a minute. Add the lentils and stir in the tinned tomatoes. Then add approximately two cans-full of water. Bring to a boil and then simmer, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are cooked - about 30 or 40 minutes. Enjoy!

Ruby Grapefruit Marmalade

2010-09-22T13:00:00.000+10:00

Earlier this week I made ruby grapefruit marmalade based on the recipe for orange marmalade in Sally Wise's A Year in a Bottle - great book, so inspiring!

When I say 'based on' I mean that rather more loosely than I intended... not only did I substitute ruby grapefruit and their juice for the oranges and orange juice (which is fine according to the recipe) I forgot to put in a lemon (which is NOT fine according to the recipe).

I was rather cranky when I realised that I had forgotten the lemon because I thought it meant that the marmalade wouldn't set properly... it looked very runny. But what do you know - once it had thoroughly cooled it set just fine! So I am over my grump.

Gosh I love marmalade, making it AND especially eating it! Do you? This one tastes great. And it was so easy - you chop the fruit finely in the food processor so it doesn't take long at all.

My husband and I have had the ambition this year to make one preserve a month - we're a bit behind (although I cheated a little and made lavender sugar and cinnamon sugar one night, just to get us a bit up to speed! Ha!) but we're not doing too badly, which means we will have plenty of homemade goodies to all ready to hand out at Christmas time rather than making things in a bit of a rush at the last minute!

A Thrifty Storage Solution

2010-09-20T21:43:00.000+10:00

Looking for a new storage solution for our dishwashing brushes and scourers and things, I hit upon what I think is an equally nifty and thrifty and nice-looking solution - a terracotta flower pot sitting on top of a random vintage saucer from my collection that has no matching cup!

A really useful site!

2010-09-19T13:55:00.000+10:00

I discovered this site just the other day: I Op Therefore I Am - a collaborative blog about the joys of op-shopping in Melbourne!

Full of useful info about opening hours and locations... I'm definitely going to be referring to this one often! It will make it so much easier to make the most out of an op-shopping trip if I know there are several places to check out in a particular area!

Flavour of the Week: Chocolate Peanut Butternanza

2010-09-18T09:24:00.001+10:00

(The Stressed Chef is on a work trip to Washington DC - he took the picture above! - so this week's ice cream

is as American-inspired as... well... chocolate peanut butter pie.
Also, he has told me that thus far, his US ice cream experience has been mediocre compared with his own creations).

Dear Colleagues,

In a tribute to deliciously excessive Americana, this week’s ice cream takes a sumptuous cocoa-loaded cream and splodges a heaping wodge of enchantingly smooth peanut butter into it. After vigorous and extended stirring of the arm-wrenchingly thick mixture, followed by a turn in the ice cream churn that almost gave the overburdened motor a nervous breakdown, the result is tasty enough to make intelligible speech challenging. “Mmm” may be the best that you can do, particularly if you’re allergic and undergoing an almost-worthwhile bout of anaphylaxis. The clearly labelled concoction can be had from the freezer downstairs.

Dietary information: this ice cream contains milk, cream, sugar, salt, cocoa, peanut butter.

Yours in allergen alert,

The Stressed Chef

Something Lovely

2010-09-17T13:49:00.000+10:00

I am obsessed with apple cosies; they are so kind of pointless yet also so AWESOME. Although, I suppose they are kind of practical if you are carting your apples around in your handbag... At any rate, wouldn't you just love to snugly wrap up your fruit in one of these!!

Apple cosy by Beadles and Pins

Not (Much) Cheating (I Hope)

2010-09-15T13:21:00.000+10:00

Our iron died an unfortunate and violent death the other day. It took a plunge from the ironing board to the hard floor just as my husband was in the middle of ironing his shirt for work that day. Normally shirts get ironed on a Sunday night when we are over at my parents' house... this particular Sunday my parents came over here for dinner so shirts did not get ironed... a star-crossed turn of events and a real shame because that iron was very functional until it ended up slightly splattered on the floor.

Luckily my husband had a couple of casual shirts that were ironed, and no urgent meetings to attend which would require him to be properly dressed and suited up for a couple of days!

So, I thought about trying to locate a second hand one, but in the end I made a trip to the city to acquire a new iron. I feel a bit guilty, but I wasn't sure where to look for a second hand one, nor was there a great deal of leisure to look for it. I can't deny that buying a new iron was just more convenient than not. (In hindsight perhaps I should have gone to Savers first? Didn't think of that at the time though.) Hopefully though this one will last at least as long, if not longer, than the now-defunct one (which must have been about ten years old, I reckon).

Or maybe I should have gone looking for one of these?

I was slightly comforted to know that Tif from Dottie Angel has had similar issues recently!

This Week's Baking: Ciabatta

2010-09-11T09:00:00.000+10:00

I made sourdough ciabatta for the first time this week. The process was a but different - the whole rise (apart from the last hour or so) was in the fridge,and prior to that the dough was stirred rather than kneaded - it was VERY wet dough.

My shaping left quite a bit to be desired, unfortunately. Only the middle one really looked like a proper loaf.

I cooked the loaves on the bottom shelf of the oven with Tennant's pizza stone under the tray and a water bath on the top rack. Not sure how much difference the water bath made (it's meant to made the crust crustier I think?) but the bottoms browner nicely! Sinceour oven heats from the bottom, though, the tops didn't colour at all in the short baking time (15 minutes). Luckily I came up with a solution - rearrange the racks and then put the loaves under the grill for five minutes or so until browner. It worked a treat.

The ciabatta was SO delicious. And check out those air holes!

I didn't intentionally cut it this way so it would look like a pair of lungs... These things happen to me sometimes.

Something Lovely

2010-09-10T17:04:00.000+10:00

I spotted these round and about the streets near where I live...

...I think there's a third one as well but I couldn't remember where it was to go back and get a photo of it. I'm not sure who the 'happy bandit' is (it's not me) but I like his or her style!

Flavour of the Week: Raspberry-Vanilla

2010-09-08T11:54:00.000+10:00

Dear Colleagues,

Australia’s most pressing political crisis came to an end this morning as Senator the Hon Walter Whippy declared he had the numbers to retain his position as Minister for Ice Cream. While less-crucial negotiations over the national government continue between the ALP, Coalition and Independents, Senator Whippy said he had cobbled together an agreement to fuse Raspberry First and The Australian Vanilla Party into a unity flavour that promises stability and deliciousness.

The announcement is a disappointment for The Chocolates and the Citizens Coffee Council, whose efforts to form a mocha coalition foundered despite natural affinities amid a bitter dispute over who was tastier. Sources close to Senator Whippy say that he rejected overtures from The Chocolates early on, fearing association with the Chocolates-dominated Neapolitan government of the 1970s. The latter still evokes unhappy memories of waffle rationing and unauthorised attempts to borrow whipped cream from shadowy Middle Eastern financiers.

While Senator Whippy declares he will serve out a full term, independent observers expect the unity flavour (already ensconced in the ground floor freezer) to last for no more than a single litre. Metaphor confusion has left insiders split on whether ambitious plans for sorbet reform are now on the front burner or whether they are to be put on ice. However, a commitment to transparency is likely to be met, with full ingredient disclosure pledged by all sides.

Dietary information: this ice cream contains milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, vodka, raspberries.

PS some of last week’s unheralded-but-rather-nice cara gelato remains to be eaten too (cara juice and zest, milk, sugar).

Yours negotiatedly,

The Stressed Chef

Fathers' Day

2010-09-07T13:10:00.000+10:00

This Sunday just past was Fathers' Day - Tennant's first! He has been working SO hard, so I got him a voucher for a relaxation massage, but then I wanted to get him something Pippin related as well. I decided to try making hand prints with Pippin.

Well. He was not so much of a fan of having his hands smooshed around in paint as I anticipated... And he cried... And wanted to smear his paint-y hands all over himself and me... But I managed to get them pressed onto sheets of paper instead, without too much collateral damage!

(I had high hopes of getting Pippin to draw something with some crayons as well, but that requires morer coordination and lessinterestbin stuffing everything in our mouth, apparently.)

So now Tennant can take Pippin's very first artwork and stick it up at his desk at work.

Something Lovely

2010-09-03T09:00:00.002+10:00

This is one of my favourite photos of Pippin and Tennant, taken when Pippin was not very old at all... how tiny he was!

Today he is 10 months old! And growing up and changing every day. I love him to bits.

This Week's Baking: Rye & Spelt Sourdough and Chocolate Cherry Cake

2010-09-01T18:53:00.000+10:00

It's been a while since I did a baking post... I have been too sick to bake much over the last couple of weeks - we even had to buy bread from the market the other weekend, which we haven't done for ages! And then I thought my sourdough starter might have died... It was looking very sorry for itself in the fridge... But I took it out and gave it some love (and flour and water) and it has perked right back up and is still doing its job beautifully. Thank goodness!

Today I made a rye and spelt sourdough. Here it is on the rise in its tin:

This dough was a dream to knead, not too sticky at all. Drives me bananas when the dough is super sticky, especially because I am not always as organised as I should be and then I have to go hunting for my bench scraper with dough all over my hands, etc etc. I do try to remember my mise en place but I get a bit carried away sometimes.

It's not been super warm and in fact has been raining steadily for most of the day, so the dough rose relatively slowly. I'm pretty happy with the way I rolled and shaped it to fit the tin this time; I need a lot more practice (and maybe to watch some instructional videos) to get my shaping right!

I wish I could share with you how nice this bread made the kitchen smell on this rainy, rainy day! I had some trouble getting it out of the tin to check it for doneness, unfortunately... The bottom stuck even though I thought I had greased it thoroughly. Oh well.

Last night I made a chocolate cake for dessert (seeing as dinner was a pot roast that didn't require any last minute preparation - have I mentioned how much I love my slow cooker?? I must write a post in praise of it sometime) from my husband's Ultimate Encyclopaedia of Chocolate: the Chocolate Cherry Polenta Cake.

It's quite a nice cake and relatively easy to make as well. I don't normally choose recipes that involve beating egg whites and folding them into a mixture because that sounds intimidating. It wasn't too hard though, but I think the cake turned out a bit flatter and denser than it was supposed to because I didn't fold the egg whites in delicately enough. Anyone have any handy hints for how to do this properly??

The cake tastes good, but I prefer the Nigella Lawson chocolate brownies for sheer chocolatey indulgence! But this cake was a good way to use up some glacé cherries that have been lurking in the pantry for goodness knows how long (although glacé cherries are so scarily artificial that they could probably survive almost indefinitely. There's something slightly addictive about them though don't you think?).

Busy Monday

2010-08-30T19:23:00.000+10:00

Mondays are busy for me and Pippin...

In the morning we go to the local pool for Pippin's swimming lesson (well, 'water familiarisation class' is the correct if excessively lengthy term)...

And in the afternoon we go to playgroup. It's so fun to see how all the babies are growing and changing and really have their own personalities.

Today because it was a beautiful, sunny, mild day, after playgroup Pippin and I went for a bit of a walk and spent some time in the Fitzroy Gardens looking at grass and leaves (and definitely NOT putting them in our mouths)!

And now a very tired baby is sound asleep and I am looking forward to dinner.

I would really like to knit this blanket!

2010-08-26T10:00:00.000+10:00

Wouldn't you? The pattern is available here. Do you think it's too hard for a novice knitter like me? Part of the reason why I only ever knit things in plain stitch is because if I have to put the work down I can't find my place again in the pattern to know where I'm up to!

Do you have any other suggestions for simple blankets to knit? I would really like to make one to keep us snug next winter.

On a related note, what are your thoughts about buying new craft supplies (like the wool I would need to make a blanket - I don't know if I could afford to make a blanket out of completely handspun wool! Or to buy a completely hand-knitted blanket, for that matter) - does that fit in with my Challenge of the Utmost Kind? I have been umming and ahhing over this issue for a while. I have bought a couple of new supplies recently (a little fabric, some polymer clay) for a gift that I am trying to make for the Calico & Co Birthday Swap. Was that bad, do you think? I do hope not...

Regrouping

2010-08-25T12:56:00.000+10:00

Well, over the last ten days or so I have had some very bad news and been very sick. Connected or not, who knows? It has been a pretty crappy time I must say.

Today, however, I'm starting to feel better physically and to get things back in perspective. I'm taking the time to get some household things done... Like folding the nappies (Pip has spent the last couple of days in disposables!) and sorting out laundry and making the bed. And I just did some yoga and had a cup of tea. (I also had to have a giggle while doing my yoga, because I had some rainforet sounds playing on my iPod, and the bird calls sent our cat hunting round the room trying unsuccessfully to locate their source.)

I'm thinking that maybe this afternoon or this evening I might bake some biscuits... Or anything really, because it is beyond freezing at our house today and having the oven going will be a good way to warm the place up a bit! This evening I think I will snuggle down with my husband, some tea and my Tea Geek course and do some tea-geeky study. I really feel like doing homey, comforting, quiet things. What about you?.

I am worth more.

2010-08-17T13:34:00.001+10:00

Image via kind over matter

Trawling my way around the interwebs, I managed just before to stumble across the first pro-anorexia blog I have ever read (I am not going to link to it). I am feeling sad and confronted by the feelings this has brought up for me.

Those of you who know me well will be aware that I have struggled with eating issues for approximately half my life. I developed anorexia in my teens, pulled myself out of that, headed a pretty straight course to bulimia via a very strict vegan diet, and have been working for the last approximately 5 years to recover from the bulimia.

I am extraordinarily lucky in that while my eating disorders have often made me miserable they have not destroyed my life or my overall health. I am working on having a calmer, happier relationship with food. This blog, where I celebrate the things that I cook and eat, is part of this. It's hard work, especially when I am tired and stressed as I often am, but I can genuinely say that I am now on the road to being recovered, rather than just struggling, or even worse, pretending.

There is so much more to a meaningful life and a HEALTHY life than the type of food I eat, the amount I weigh, the way I look. This really is easier to remember and to live when I don't expose myself to media that suggest otherwise... but that's another post.

I came across the image at the start of this post on the Kind Over Matter blog and it stuck with me. It also made me wonder about how to define my worth in non-weight, non-food ways... but that's another post too. The point I want to make for myself and for anyone who is reading this blog today is this. Creating rules around food, weight, exercise and looks don't help. These rules can't protect me or you from real life. I am not a better person because I eat a particular way... or weigh a particular amount... or whatever. I'm me. I'm enough just as I am. You are too.

The other week I desperately wanted to weigh myself. My sister's scales are stashed in the back of the bathroom cupboard; out of sight out of mind, it's not helpful for me to remember they are there. But I desperately wanted to pull them out and reassure myself (?!) about my weight. I came so close to doing it.

And then I remembered the Kind Over Matter post and I was able to step back and kind of boggle a bit at what I was doing. HOW was knowing my weight going to be reassuring? WHAT kind of value was I placing on a random, meaningless number? WHY was I going to let that number determine how I felt about myself? Good grief, I thought - this is RIDICULOUS.

So I didn't get out the scales. I still haven't. I'm still anxious about my weight. But the difference between me now and me even a couple of years ago is that I'm able to put this anxiety in perspective and let it hang around without acting on it. Most of the time, anyway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you have your own struggles with food...

c\__/ have a look at the If Not Dieting, Then What? website (or get the book from the library, or even buy your own copy) - so helpful, totally sensible advice.
c\__/ the Oak House has made, and continues to make, a huge difference in my life.

Feeling Inspired: Making a Scarf!

2010-08-16T11:39:00.000+10:00

I felt inspired to get out some of my wool stash and knit myself a new scarf - I am a bit over wearing the same old ones (much as I love them - they were my mum's, from like the 70s or something, and she gave them to me a couple of years ago).

At the same time I also had an epiphany where I FINALLY understood the purpose of the loop scarf or cowl-type scarf: Yes! It stays out of the way! If you wear scarves around the house like I do to try and keep warm, and you are also trying to cook or change a baby's nappy, you will understand why this is important. I felt like a lightbulb finally went on in my brain.

So I am going to attempt to sew the ends of my scarf together to make a loop, and see how that works. I'm knitting it on large needles, doubled (one ball of mustard yellow and one ball of very pale beige) and only 15 stitches wide so that it's quick. It's coming along nicely! This is what it looked like a few days ago:

It's quite a lot longer than that now - I'm on my second balls of wool - and I think I'm nearly done! I do hope it works.

Something Lovely

2010-08-13T15:30:00.001+10:00

I always love reading Luisa's blog Dance In My Garden and the other day I saw her tutorial for making a natural linen freshener... Have a look!

I think I am going to mix up some of this myself - we could use a few hanging sachets in our uninspiring wardrobe. I don't have any rosemary to hand, but I think dried lemongrass might be a good alternative!

{EDIT to add: I just made up some of this, but instead of lemongrass as I mentioned above, I used a small handful of cloves... It smells divine! Going to cut up some muslin pieces to make some little bags now!}

Soapariffic Father's Day Giveaway

2010-08-13T13:28:00.000+10:00

Father's Day is coming up soon in Australia and goodness me but Dads can be hard to buy for... at least mine is... but there is an opportunity to win a gorgeous gift from Inner Earth Soaps - three bars of beautiful handmade soaps in masculine scents:

The manly soap-pack includes:
~ Bloke Soap - made with beer
~ Kakadu Soap - lemon myrtle, eucalyptus & tea tree
~ Ocean Spa Soap - rosemary, lavender, lemongrass, mint & kelp

Doesn't it sound fantastic? I would love to win this for my Dad (or myself for that matter, although I might pass on the beer soap ;) ) - I am in fact using some of Erin's delicious Vanilla Buttercream soap in the shower at the moment. It smells as good as it looks!

You can enter the giveaway here! Entries are open til Wednesday 18 August. Good luck!

Confronted

2010-08-09T22:13:00.000+10:00

I was reading through some of the recent posts on Zen Habits the other day and I came across these two:

The Clean-Slate Guide to Simplicity and How to Simplify When You Love Your Stuff

I love the idea of simplicity. I love the idea of having less stuff. Perversely, I do also have a lot of stuff, including stuff that I don't use, wear, read, like, or even remember that I have.

That's too much stuff, in that case, then, isn't it? But how to get rid of it? How to manage it?

I felt particularly confronted when I read this, in the 'How to Simplify' post:

7. You will know you are buying mindlessly if you:
Buy on a whim.
Buy to impress others.
Buy because you feel you deserve it.
Buy when you can’t afford it.
Buy just to update something that still works or looks fine.
Buy because someone else has it and you want it too.
Buy because the advertisement seduced you.
Buy because you are bored.
It’s purchased because buying soothes you.

I don't really think that I buy to impress others, or because someone else has it and I want it too, or because I am seduced by advertisements. But... because buying soothes me? On a whim? I'm bored? And even... because I feel I deserve it?

Ow. Those ones bit deep on a number of levels. I had to stop reading and come back to the article later. I felt ashamed. And a bit overwhelmed. The excess stuff that I know is lurking around has been haunting me for the last week or so. It is hard enough not buying things. Why is it also so hard to get rid of them?

On the one hand I want to hang onto some things for Pippin's sake. Like knick-knacky things... our glass paperweight collection for example. I don't think I would miss them if they weren't on our shelf, but I reckon he will have heaps of fun looking at and playing with those things when he's a bit older. (I remember how fascinated with my mum's sewing box and button collection and fabric stash I was.) Some old clothes will be good to hold onto for dress-ups. Should I start a 'Pippin stash' with things like these? What do you think?

Books and notes and things from my university days though, that I haven't looked at but have been hanging onto just in case... they could definitely go. So I am making a commitment to de-stuff my life a bit. Today I took the time to go through the boxes of crafty things that I have under my desk: sorted them into 'Christmas' and 'non-Christmas', tidied them, got rid of some stuff. I also did the 'clean-slate-email' thing and emptied out my gmail inbox. I don't have a backup drive so am a bit scared to try the complete computer reformatting thing!

Next will be the box of folders I have from my old public service job; I can pretty much guarantee I NEVER intend to look at them again.

After that, my old notes and books from uni.

And after that, the bathroom cabinets.

And after that, stuff on top of my desk (this is a scary one!).

And after that, my iPhoto library... yes it's only taking up space on my computer but it's driving me bananas how many useless photos I have on there.

And after that... well, that might do for the time being. I reckon I could get many of these tasks done in the course of the next couple of weeks. I'll let you know how I go! Do you have any helpful tips or advice for managing your STUFF??*

*and also possibly your husband's?? I'm feeling a ruthless cull of excess socks coming on.

Stationery Swap

2010-08-08T12:19:00.001+10:00

I was thrilled to take part in the Calico and Co stationery swap recently... Look at all the wonderful stationery goodies that my swap partner Amanda (who is the designy queen behind Calico and Co) sent me:

Best of all were the cards that she designed especially for me!

Amanda will soon be launching her own stationery line 'Lemon Tree Lane' and if these cards are any indication it's going to be gorgeous. Can't wait to see the rest of the range! Thanks so much for spoiling me with such a great swap Amanda!

Here's a sneak peek of the parcel that's currently making its way via Australia Post to my swap partner... But I won't say who it is or reveal any more until she has received it. I hope she loves it though.

I had so much fun with this swap that I signed up for the Calico and Co birthday swap as well. You could join in too!

And I am now also slightly obsessed with Swap-Bot and so I might be organising a swap of my own shortly. Guess what it will involve? Did someone say 'tea'? My goodness, you do know me well...

Something Lovely

2010-08-06T12:44:00.000+10:00

I was the lucky winner of the re:deem designs blog giveaway! And look what the talented Vicki sent me... a beautiful handbound journal made from a repurposed vintage book, 'The Philosopher's Notebook'.

I adore the finishing touch with the old-fashioned library card in the back! Thank you SO much Vicki!

Vicki has a wonderful Etsy shop where she sells these beautiful journals and more... paper decorations, paper ephemera, little clutches... What is even better is that she uses a portion of her sales to support micro-enterprises for the disadvantaged. Definitely a shop you should check out!

I'm a Maverick Renegade

2010-08-04T10:00:00.008+10:00

I actually would never have thought this until I started writing this blog... but I am a renegade when it comes to recipes.

Burglars and Cupcakes by Tamara Garvey

If you had asked me a few weeks ago, I would have said I always followed recipes carefully and to the letter... but I realise now that I don't. I substitute this and leave out that and don't check the time and bake things too long or goodness knows what else.

What a naughty, self-opinionated cook I am. Luckily what I make usually turns out ok and I don't have too many disasters... What kind of cook are you?

Flavour of the Week: Shameless Cross-Promotion

2010-08-03T16:18:00.000+10:00

Dear Colleagues,

In the grand and glorious history of cross-promotion, few combinations have been simultaneously so brazenly nepotistic and so unarguably merit-driven as this week’s unctuous ice cream flavour. The astounding conjunction of hitherto-separate product lines that I disinterestedly describe and relentlessly flog is simply this: my basic average everyday hyperpremium handchurned ice cream, infused with a hefty measure of the finest hand-made chai available in Australia today. This exquisitely robust blend of black tea and copious spices is more than sufficient to turn a surreptitious afternoon scooping into a bracingly fragrant icy-spicy frozen tea party. And as you’ll find when you take your own sample from the ground floor freezer, in the interests of palatability and non-crunchiness the tea leaves and spices have been graciously strained from the custard prior to churning, at no extra charge!

If you’re intrigued by the sheer deliciousness of the chai but want to experience it as a tea, not a frozen confection, why not visit Joie de Tea, which by an amazing and fortunate coincidence is my wife’s online tea shop? There you can find her full range of staggeringly tasteful handmade black, green, herbal and rooibos teas, available for purchase and delivery Australia-wide. This non-partisan, entirely objective suggestion has the advantage of being backed up by a 100% satisfaction rating from tea customers – a claim that I cannot make for my own products, alas, after a disastrous let-us-never-speak-of-it experiment with Camembert ice cream.

Dietary information: this ice cream contains milk, cream, egg yolks, sugar, organic Sri Lankan black tea, organic cinnamon, organic ginger, cardamom pods, allspice, fennel seeds and black pepper.

Yours uxoriously

The Stressed Chef

Second Hand Stuff WIN!

2010-07-31T10:00:00.000+10:00

Look what I picked up at one of our local Red Cross stores the other day...

...a lovely green hoodie, a pretty flowered scarfy thing (it will probably end up being a tablecloth) and a dark-yellow flowered shirt. I can't tell you what a miracle finding this shirt was; not only did it fit, but it is almost EXACTLY the shirt that (for some unknown reason) popped into my head as The Shirt I Really Wanted To Have But Could Not Find. I have no idea why I suddenly developed a private obsession with having a yellow-flowered shirt. It paid off though.

And this week I also bought two second-hand activity tables for Pippin to play with... for a grand total of $27. Score. Here he is playing with the musical one:

Cuteness!

Something Lovely

2010-07-30T17:05:00.000+10:00

...and very special! Tonight my husband and I are going out for dinner to The Restaurant at Grossi Florentino on Bourke St.

It's a tradition; except for the couple of years we were in Canberra, we have dinner at Florentino once a year to celebrate our 'date-iversary' of when we started going out. We just celebrated our 7th year together!

I am looking forward very much to a lovely romantic dinner, baby-free (thanks mum!).

Some thoughts on different bread styles

2010-07-29T16:20:00.000+10:00

I am loving my sourdough baking, but the bread really is very different to the Kneadlessly Simple ones I was previously baking almost every week. The sourdough breads are much leaner; unless it's a fruit bread there is no added sugar/honey/molasses and although some oil gets worked into the dough from my oiled bench and hands (to stop it sticking) there is usually no added fat either.

The sourdough breads consequently don't keep anywhere near as well. In the Kneadlessly Simple book the author Nancy Baggett generally recommends only keeping the bread at room temperature for a couple of days, but I find that the breads keep perfectly well in our bread bin for nearly a whole week (we do mostly toast them though). Of course they don't always last that long! But I find that the sourdough breads are only good for a couple of days and then you really are better off to freeze the remainder.

Now that my sourdough starter is vital and healthy I am keeping it in the fridge, taking out what I need and refreshing it as I go, rather than tending to it everyday. I also use the 'dough retardation' method as often as possible, whereby you rest the dough in the fridge overnight before baking it after a slower second rise. That said it is still a bit more complicated to make the sourdough breads compared with the no-knead ones. With the latter you seriously only need a couple of periods of about 10 minutes each for mixing and the rest of the time the dough is just sitting around either in the fridge or on your kitchen bench doing its thing without any help from you. Consequently it's easier to fit breadmaking into your life. With the sourdough you really do need an hour or two at home to get the bread ready for its first rise. Things get a bit easier after that.

The other thing about making the sourdough though, is it is FUN! You get to air-knead the bread by grabbing it and throwing it in the air! Then whacking it on the bench! It's great and even more cathartic than regular kneading. So if you feel that you have stuff to get out of your system... this is a most productive way to do it. You let off steam, and then you have nice bread. This is called a win-win situation.

Do you have a method of breadmaking you prefer? My friend Anne was also posting about these sorts of issues on her blog Pins and Thimbles... check it out!

This Week's Baking: Semolina Sourdough and Orange, Currant & Fennel Loaf

2010-07-29T10:00:00.004+10:00

This week I decided to try the orange, currant and fennel fruit loaf and the semolina sourdough from Wild Sourdough. Actually, I'd already made the semolina sourdough the week before (as bread rolls to have with some burgers) and it was that nice I thought I would make it again.

I even managed to take some photos while I was making the batches of dough. (They might be a bit fuzzy owing to the difficulty of using a camera without getting it coated in doughy gunk.)

The currant loaf recipe was rather vague about the point at which the orange marmalade should be added. Like, didn't mention it at all. So I thought I would layer it on as I was folding in the currants and fennel seeds. It worked a treat:

Folded!!

This bread is SO delicious. Screw you Dench bakers and your orange fruit loaf that costs $7 a pop. This is better.

Rising

And the finished loaf:

Here's some action shots from the semolina sourdough. This is another one that uses lots of starter - I fed my rye starter with white flour so it is only a little bit rye-y, but definitely 100% dense tangy goodness.

Honestly, not quite sure where that funny pointy bit that's sticking up at the side there came from, but no matter.

I'm thinking I might do a couple of no-knead breads next though, for a bit of a change. I also have a post scheduled that compares the two different kinds of bread techniques - just a few thoughts.

Herb and Yoghurt Scrub Mask

2010-07-28T16:53:00.001+10:00

My sister would be appalled at my lack of high maintenance chickness since Pippin's birth.

Ok so I was never THAT high maintenance (so I maintain) but I do love nice skincare products, facials, massages... Seriously... Who doesn't?? They don't have to be super expensive (though I think you do get what you pay for to a certain extent)... Just nice. I make a lot of my own treatments; you can see some recipes here.

However, I'm so tired these days that I often don't feel like taking the time to wash my face before I go to bed. Also there are still occasionally days when I don't actually manage to have a shower because of running around like a maniac. I do know, however, that I always feel much, much nicer when I do take the time to wash my face twice a day and nicer still when I make myself a yummy-smelling something extra.

So, I'm going to try to treat my skin nicely more often. And I think this is my favourite mask/scrub to date.

Do you have some spare herbal tea sitting around in your cupboard? (No surprise that I have a lot!) Something flowery that includes chamomile, lavender, that sort of thing, would be best - avoid anything spicy as it may be too irritating. Grab your herbal tea. If it's loose leaf you'll need about a heaped teaspoon - grind it up finely in a mortar and pestle, or if you don't have one of those, you could put it in a small plastic bag, seal it tightly, and crush it up with a rolling pin as fine as you can. If the tea is from teabags, empty out two - you probably won't need to crush it as the pieces will be much finer.

Combine your crushed herbal tea in a small bowl with a heaped teaspoon or so of yoghurt - I used plain, but vanilla would also be delicious. You want a grainy paste of a spreadable consistency.

That's it! Now pop into the bathroom, give your face a gentle wash with warm water and then smooth on the scrub mix. Leave it on for a few minutes while you shower (or even better, take a relaxing bath), then rub gently into the skin and rinse off with warm water. You will feel so lovely!!

Something Lovely

2010-07-23T16:40:00.000+10:00

I love the work of Michelle from Wing By Sea so much. I think she has a terrific aesthetic going on with her jewellery pieces, and I'll let a few of my very favourites speak for themselves...

Bluebird earrings

See clearly earrings

Freshwater pearl necklace

I'm sure you agree... everything is so very, very lovely!! Enjoy your weekend!

Flavour of the Week - Christmas (in July) Pudding

2010-07-22T14:33:00.000+10:00

Dear Colleagues,

Congratulations are due to all those loyal ice cream citizens who have continued to anticipate and intercept weekly dessert deliveries, as evidenced by their disappearance from the freezer. This remarkable consumption was maintained despite an appallingly extended period of email silence and the resulting lack of a guarantee of the contents or provenance of the frozen shipments beyond their self-evident deliciousness. Only now can the true tale behind this icy blackout be told to a hopefully-credulous public!

For the truth is that I was rendered incommunicado by the sinister programmatic specificities of the infamous international public-policy supervillain known as ‘The Diabolical Problem’, alias ‘Le Problème Diabolique’, alias ‘El Cambio Climático’, alias (possibly, pending further investigation and an all-clear from copyright lawyers) ‘Keyser Söze’. Forced to respond with brutally non-Geneva-Conventions-compliant interrogation of the data in a dangerously unstable partnership with Microsoft Office, there was barely time to produce a litre here or there of Blackberry Swirl, Rhubarb Crumble or Übervanilla, and no chance to adequately publicise them.

Fortunately for those who like to confirm the lack of allergens in their dessert prior to anaphylaxis, the chaos and confusion of the explosively onrushing election has allowed me the breathing space to inform you that this week the freezer downstairs contains not-quite-a-litre of Christmas Pudding Icecream. Swirled with fruit mince soaked in the sticky-raisiny indulgence of Pedro Ximénez sherry, a small spoonful is all you’ll need for your own personal Christmas In July!

Dietary information: this ice cream contains milk, cream, sugar, vanilla, fruit mince, Pedro Ximénez.

Yours moving forward to real action on ice cream,

The Stressed Chef

Thirty things that I love

2010-07-21T10:00:00.000+10:00

I ♥ my crazy quirky family
I ♥ my crazy quirky friends
I ♥ tea
I ♥ roaming around farmers' markets
I ♥ roaming around handmade markets
I ♥ Twin Peaks
I ♥ The Muppet Show
I ♥ baking my own bread
I ♥ Nigella Lawson recipes
I ♥ living in Melbourne
I ♥ the interwebs
I ♥ The Lord of the Rings
I ♥ Agatha Christie mysteries
I ♥ a sleeping Pippin
I ♥ vintage teacups
I ♥ the smell of roses
I ♥ being asleep
I ♥ cute softie toys
I ♥ long flowy skirts
I ♥ The Dark is Rising books
I ♥ massages and spa treatments
I ♥ chocolate mud cake
I ♥ laughing
I ♥ walking
I ♥ a tidy house
I ♥ fresh sheets on the bed and clean pyjamas
I ♥ thunderstorms (when I'm inside the house!)
I ♥ warm a scented bath
I ♥ steamed broccoli with brown rice and lemon-soy-tahini sauce

Thanks Amanda from Calico & Co for the inspiration for this post!

This Week's Baking: Sourdough Bonanza

2010-07-20T10:00:00.001+10:00

This is actually a bit of last week's baking as well. I made fetta and chilli sourdough from Wild Sourdough... except without the fetta because I couldn't get hold of any at the time, so instead I sprinkled the bread with chilli flakes, fennel seeds and dried thyme. You do that when the dough is pressed out into a rectangle and then roll it up tightly. The pinwheel effect was only very minor because the spices were so small; it would have looked more impressive with the fetta. Tasted good; this is a wholemeal bread (using rye starter) and it has a nice texture and medium-dense crumb:

The bottom is all bumpy because I have taken to baking my bread directly on the oven rack with only some baking paper underneath the loaf. I think it looks kind of cool:

I have a bit too much sourdough starter on hand though, so I've been looking for ways to use it up. I came across this helpful recipe for blueberry muffins.

(Sourdough Home, where the recipe is from, is a terrific sourdough resource by the way - much as I love my Wild Sourdough book it leaves out quite a bit of useful information (poor sub-editing I'm afraid, which is disappointing) and so I have had to turn to the internets for additional information. Sourdough Home has been extremely handy for filling in some of the gaps.)

With some alterations, here are the muffins I made:

1 cup sourdough starter (rye, in my case)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour
pinch of salt
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup frozen blackberries

1. Prehreat oven to 220C. Grease a 6-hole Texas muffin pan.
2. Mix the starter, oil, egg and vanilla together thoroughly in a medium bowl.
3. Mix the flour, sugar and salt together in a small bowl. Stir in the chocolate chips and blackberries.
4. Working quickly, add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and combine thoroughly. Spoon into muffin cups.
5. Bake at 220C for about 30 minutes or until slightly browned on top and cooked through.

These muffins are not your usual sort of muffins - much chewier and denser (although if you used a plain white starter, rather than rye, they would be lighter I suppose). They're not excessively sweet, either, so are a good breakfasty option; if I'm going to have a muffin for breakfast I like it to be substantial and not super-sweet and fluffy!

The Challenge Begins

2010-07-19T10:00:00.028+10:00

Well. Notwithstanding my sister's evocative description of my commitment to The Challenge of the Utmost Kind as 'el lame-o' (thanks sis! I love you too!) I remain resolved to undertake it.

Here are my parameters:

Official start date: 19 July 2010 (that's today folks)
Official finish date: 18 July 2011

The Commitment: all purchases made by me, for myself and (as far as is practicable) the house and family will be either second hand, or handmade, or possibly even both.

Some exceptions:

- Gifts. Obviously I am not going to require that someone who is so delightful as to wish to give me a gift adhere to the Challenge parameters. I will note that antique, vintage estate jewellery, preferably with diamonds, is acceptable from all perspectives. Also if my husband decided to present me with a shiny new dishwasher I would not complain. Subtle hint.

- Shoes. I'm not 100% confident that, should I need a new pair of shoes, it will be possible to get them second hand. Handmade offers possibilities though. But I'm just not sure. That said, I am just not that into shoes so it is not like I am making a tremendous sacrifice by promising not to buy them.

- Underwear. Obviously. This also applies to socks and tights. No point in replacing my holey socks with someone else's. I will try hard to find handmade ones though and if I can justify their cost I will invest in some should I need to.

- Things for Pippin and other family members. I will do my best to source things in accordance with The Challenge but it might not always be possible. Life is unpredictable.

- Work-related items. In the interests of full disclosure I should reveal that I am about to sign up for the Tea Geek Certification course (yes! I know you all thought I was ALREADY a tea geek but within 12 months I shall have a certificate to prove it!) which will involve being sent some specialist (sort of) tea wares that will be new and unlikely to be handmade. However I PROMISE not to buy any other new, non handmade tea wares. Cross my heart. Why, purely in the Spirit of The Challenge I've already been wasting hours of my time drooling over antique tea cups on eBay!

It's going to be an interesting year I think... I'm already facing a few challenges like... I have a bunch of cardigans (including some that I inherited from my sister before she went overseas). Most of them have buttons missing or holes (thanks, jumping, sharp-clawed cat). My sewing skills extend to replacing buttons but do NOT stretch to darning machine knit fabrics, nor am I sure that hand-sewing a split seam on one of them will be of much benefit (I don't have a sewing machine either). So I am tossing up what to do. It's not quite as easy for me to 'make do and mend' as it would be for someone with more skills.

Letterpress poster by Print for Love of Wood

My commitment is already bringing up some questions for me about consumption generally. I AM doing The Challenge partly as a way to be more conscious about my consumption. I do love buying nice things (especially unique handmade fun things); I am also very short of personal spending money... Apart from the minimal income I get from my Etsy shop, we are now a single income household. I haven't been financially dependent on anyone for a long time and it's making me a bit uncomfortable I must admit. So I am more confronted than usual by the dichotomy of need versus want. Also slightly ashamed of how easily I am usually able to convince myself that a 'want' is actually a 'need'. I'll probably be posting more about this in the future.

At any rate, let The Challenge of the Utmost Kind begin! I promise to be quite honest about any slips and difficulties and also will do my best to post regular updates about thrifty finds and homemade goodness (I have a plot for some new cushion covers in the works, as soon as I can find some fabric dye).

Something Lovely

2010-07-16T10:00:00.001+10:00

Our camellia tree in the backyard is finally in bloom. It doesn't get a lot of sun over by the fence so I think that's why - despite having loads of buds - it's taken quite a while for them to actually burst out. Most of the other camellia trees in our suburb have been flowering for weeks.

I thought I'd take advantage of the ones that had opened and adorn our kitchen table with them.

There's still a lot waiting to unfurl - in fact perhaps too many. I think I've heard that it's a good idea to remove about half of the buds to encourage the others to open - I shall research and see what I can come up with.

Nice Note Drop

2010-07-15T20:01:00.000+10:00

So here it is, my 'Nice Note Drop' to celebrate the 2nd blogiversary of Operation Nice... I secreted a few of these lovely bright notes around the local library...

Hopefully some pleasant surprises there for the people who borrow the various books I stuck them into!

By this stage you may be asking yourself... 'What is up with all this niceness huh...? Has Verity gone completely loopy?'

Well that's a bit of a moot point... but what I will say is that there have been times over the last few months when I have been having a difficult baby day, or just a difficult day all on its own, and been wandering around the park with or without Pippin just wishing and wishing that some random person would come up to me and tell me that everything was going to be all right... or smile at me... or that the universe would somehow wrap me up and give me a great big hug.

And it didn't happen. At least, not just like that. I had to reach out and ask for that love and support and niceness from friends and family... which is just a lesson that I also need to learn I guess, so that's ok.

But I can't help thinking that it would be wonderful if some other person, wandering around my local streets in need of substantial cheering up, found the inspiration and love they were desperately wanting because there is some crazy lady posting funny little notes around the place. Wouldn't that be nice.

This Week's Baking: Nigella Lawson's Brownies

2010-07-15T10:00:00.024+10:00

Sometimes you just gotta have chocolate things... like brownies.

These are the ones from How To Be A Domestic Goddess, except without the walnuts (didn't have any; also I have recently been converted to the way of the nut-free brownie thanks to some absolutely delicious ones brought around by a friend of mine one day).

I have trouble achieving the right cooking time for these; I think my pan is not quite the right size, plus our bottom-heating oven is a bit funny (don't get me started) and I worry about burning them, which ironically often leads to them being undercooked.

However, this time I gave them their 25 minutes, then turned the oven off and left them in there (following consultation with the Stressed Chef) for about another 15 minutes. Result: perfection. Squidgy, chocolatey, rich, but - surprisingly - not too sweet. If you are a fan of brownies this is definitely one to try. Along with all the others, of course.

A treat this yummy deserves a pretty plate, don't you think?

A NICE Assignment

2010-07-14T09:54:00.000+10:00

This Thursday marks the second blogiversary of Operation NICE, a blog I have only recently stumbled across but which is ever so... well... NICE. Melissa who writes the blog has requested that readers help her celebrate by participating in a 'nice note drop' - print out some of her free note cards, write a little message, and scatter them around to spread a bit of niceness!

As an added incentive, for each person who emails her photos of their note drop she will donate $1 to The Hunger Project. How NICE* is that?

* My inner naughtiness can't help but feel that NICE should actually be some kind of Orwellianly sinister acronym. It's not though. Pity.

A Challenge of the Utmost Kind

2010-07-13T15:11:00.000+10:00

I have decided to sign myself up to the Dottie Angel 'Challenge of the Utmost Kind.' You can read about how it all started here. I know, I know; it's almost at the end of the challenge year that Tif set for herself. What can I say? I'm a late bloomer.

But still! Here we go. I am challenging myself to only purchase handmade and second hand goods for my closet and home... I am still working out the nitty-gritty details though, and will post up some more specifics for myself by the end of the week.

I'm excited! And also rapt to have discovered that this 'challenge of the utmost kind' is not, in fact, about hair-shirting it in a painfully sanctimonious eco- and socially-conscious* manner (unless you want to) but about having fun and being creative... how awesome is that. Stay tuned!

*Note: nothing wrong - far from it - with being eco- and socially-conscious. It's the sanctimony that's the problem.

This Week's Baking - Wholemeal Oat Yoghurt Bread

2010-07-10T10:00:00.004+10:00

A lovely friend came over for dinner the other night, and - having had a very busy day and insufficient time to cook - I served her soup from the freezer. Soup not even made by me; it was my mum's minestrone soup which she had given us a gallon of a week or so before. It is terrific soup; but in order to maintain my self-respect I felt that I needed to actually make something myself.

So I did a bit of a cupboard and fridge hunt... I had wholemeal self-raising flour and yoghurt and a little bit of buttermilk... I figured I had the makings of a soda-type bread, but which recipe to use? Google to the rescue; I searched for 'yoghurt bread' and found this recipe for Whole Wheat Yoghurt Bread. So then I took the plunge and reworked the recipe to incorporate the ingredients that I had on hand:

3 cups wholemeal self-raising flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 tsp salt
2 tsp brown sugar
150ml buttermilk
350ml plain yoghurt

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Mix together the buttermilk and yoghurt.
3. Stir dry ingredients together thoroughly in a large bowl. Add the buttermilk/yoghurt mixture and mix until most of the liquid is incorporated. The dough will be raggedy, not smooth.
4. Turn all the bits out onto a clean work surface and knead together. If the dough still seems a bit dry (mine did), wet your hands and knead it a few times to incorporate a little more water, but don't over moisten.
5. Shape into a round and cut a cross on the top. Place on a sheet of baking paper or a baking tray dusted with flour.
6. Bake at 180C for an hour - should be golden brown all over and sound hollow on the bottom. Best allowed to cool thoroughly before slicing.

We didn't wait though. The bread was very tasty although it seemed a little doughy in the middle - but I think that's because it was still so hot. Another 5 minutes in the oven probably wouldn't have hurt though. Beautiful with the soup (thanks mum!). It was also excellent toasted the next morning. None left now!

Something Lovely

2010-07-09T14:40:00.000+10:00

I came across this gorgeous printable Free Compliments Poster on Kind Over Matter the other day and wanted to share it with you! What a great idea!

I'm printing some out now as I write this and will post up a few of them when I have to pop out a bit later this afternoon... one at the library I think and another at the Post Office if I can. Where will you put yours?

Note to Self...

2010-07-06T14:34:00.000+10:00

...do not spend a long time browsing amigurumi on Etsy just before going to sleep. It will induce weird crochet-related dreams.

(this is Max, by y0omii)

Don't ask.

Something Lovely

2010-07-02T13:24:00.000+10:00

I missed my 'Something Lovely' post last Friday due to being so sick - so here's a double shot of loveliness for you today!

I have definitely needed some cheering up with bright colours and cuteness... and I spotted these beautiful tags when I was browsing Treasuries on Etsy last night:

Technicolour Tree Tags by PS It's In the Details

They were in the 'Into the Woods' treasury curated by Kattuna... so then I was checking out her shop and I think this little hippo embroidery is just adorable... don't you agree?

Sweet Hippo Embroidery Wall Art by Kattuna

I hope these have made you smile today!

This Week's Baking, Part Two - Sourdough Rye Sandwich Loaf

2010-07-01T15:47:00.000+10:00

I think this might be the best loaf of bread I've made, ever.

waiting to go into the oven...

I don't have time to go into blow by blow detail on the making of it... but I will say that 'air-kneading' (throwing the dough in the air and whacking it on the bench) provided plenty of entertainment for Pippin!

The recipe is from Wild Sourdough. This particular loaf uses approximately equal quantities of starter (rye in this case, though the recipe calls for white) and plain flour, resulting in a loaf that is about 50% starter. This means (apparently) that it rises well, in a shorter time, and has a denser crumb, but a less complex flavour.

looks like a treasure chest!

It is still plenty tasty, though. The texture is incredible, moist, tender. This is the sandwich loaf that supermarket or Bakers Delight loaves can only fantasise about being. I love the flecked look from the rye flour. It's got a nice slightly sour tang. I think it could possibly have done with another 5 minutes or so in the oven to dry it out a touch more... but it's damn good as it is.

Pause for consideration: This bread is, like, a MIRACLE. It is flour, and water, and a little bit of salt, and that's it! Nothing else! And it still rose properly and everything! WOW!!!! I am in awe of the power of sourdough!

Hallelujah!

Winter Garden

2010-07-01T10:00:00.000+10:00

Love the Fitzroy Gardens, anytime of year.

This Week's Baking, Part One - Peanut Butter & Oat Slice

2010-06-30T16:58:00.000+10:00

I came across this tasty-sounding slice recipe in a recent Taste.com.au newsletter decided to bake it up for our snacks this week.

A few things went wrong... but it ended up not mattering!
- didn't have enough coconut. So I added cacao nibs instead. Win!*

- accidentally added way too much honey, as a result of a brain snap that had me thinking it was a good idea to pour the honey out from the 1-kilo tub (instead of doing something sensible like scooping it out with a spoon)...into the same bowl as the peanut butter was already in. Whoops. So there was about 100g of honey in the slice instead of 60g. However, it is by no means oversweet, so that was ok too.

- got caught up with Pippin and overbaked the slice by about 10 minutes, resulting in a slightly drier texture than I think it should ideally have, but it's certainly not a disaster, especially because the edges are really nice and crunchy now.

It's really yummy. I'll be making it again. Very simple and potentially quite versatile... you could use different combinations of nut butters and seeds (or chocolate bits or dried fruit even as well). Substantial, comforting and, despite the additional honey, no sugar crash from this one.

Stay tuned for some sourdough baking news! Things have been going well so far!

*yes, we are the kind of people who just happen to have more cacao nibs than desiccated coconut in our pantry. It's just how things are round here.

Look, I've Started!

2010-06-29T17:14:00.000+10:00

Remember the other week when I was feeling inspired to start doing something crafty...

(

nice colour isn't it?

I've made a start on a plain knitted square... not sure what I'll turn it into when it's finished, and it's going to take me quite a while to finish it unfortunately, but it's something to be working on when I don't want to (just) bludge and watch DVDs or read!

I've got some new socks put aside for making a sock friend as well... but I'll need to work up my courage before I take that plunge!

Things REALLY don't always turn out like you expect.

2010-06-26T11:51:00.001+10:00

What a week.

Trying to get Pippin to bottle feed, or even to drink from a cup, or to spoon feed him, has been a disaster.

I had no idea he would be so stubborn, so uncooperative, so downright uncoordinated about the whole thing! It got to the stage where I basically had to make a choice between breastfeeding him or taking him to hospital because he was not getting anywhere near an adequate fluid intake.

So I am back to breastfeeding, having got some advice from a nurse at the Children's Hospital who specialises in baby feeding problems. I need to be on the lookout for signs that he might bite, and be really strict with him if he does. I'll be taking him to see her at some point, hopefully next week, to discuss options for weaning. In the meantime, I've got mixed feelings... On the one hand I am desperately glad that Pippin is getting the nourishment he needs and I am also glad to still be breastfeeding. On the other hand I was just getting used to the idea of NOT breastfeeding... Then I had to change back.

I feel kind of jerked around.

Also I am terrified of being bitten again. Especially since, on top of everything else, I came down with mastitis a couple of days ago; I have been SO SICK and in so much pain. If Pippin bites my affected breast I swear people in Canada will hear me screaming. Fortunately the antibiotics are just starting to really kick in, but I still feel relatively dreadful. Ironically (although also luckily) regular breastfeeding is actually helpful because it drains the breast properly.

It has been a rotten, rotten, rotten week. I could not have made it through without the amazing support I have received from my husband, my family (especially my mum), my friends, the mothers at playgroup, the maternal & child health nurses...

'Rescued' by klbaileyART - just how I feel!

Everyone has been beyond wonderful and I am so, so grateful. Thank you all!

This Week's Baking - Easy Oat Bread, and a Sourdough Starter!

2010-06-23T10:48:00.002+10:00

Earlier this week I made the Easy Oat Bread from Kneadlessly Simple. This is just about my favourite bread from that book, or at least the one I make most often; it's simple, very versatile, and makes two loaves in one go.

This time I opted to make one plain and then decided to experiment by adding a chopped-up apple and some cinnamon sugar topping to the second loaf. It turned out well, although I could have done a better job of incorporating the apple.

I think next time I will have a go at flattening the dough out into a square, sprinkling the apple over and rolling it up... that might work better.

I am also making my first-ever sourdough starter, a rye-based one. Look! Bubbles!

I took this photo on Sunday when it was 2 days old. It's looking pretty good now, smells quite sour but ok, and I think it will be ready to use in another day or so. I'm a bit confused about the right feeding schedule, but it seems to be going ok, so I'll just keep doing what I'm doing (feeding it once a day) and change if I need to.

Flavour of the Week - Blackberry Ripple

2010-06-22T18:26:00.001+10:00

My husband, herein to be known (for reasons well-understood by our intimate friends) as The Stressed Chef, is an avid maker of ice cream. (He is also an avid consumer of ice cream, a habit which I consider a most peculiar perversion at this time of year, but to each his own.) Most weeks of the year he churns a batch and takes it into work to share with his colleagues, and time permitting alerts them to the presence of a new frozen delight with an appropriate email. I'll be sharing these with you as they are produced).

Dear Colleagues,

In the grisly annals of heinous crime no greater enormity can have been committed than that lately visited upon the unfortunate berries of the infamous Freezer District downstairs. A discovery by horrified yet oddly peckish police inspectors has shown that the series of disappearances that had roiled the close-knit blackberry community was but the first step of a gruesome design. The person or persons responsible, of unknown identity but demonstrably diabolical culinary criminality, had evidently plied the missing blackberries with vanilla-laced vodka, rendering them insensible to the merciless pulping that ensued.

The crime came to light with the delivery of an insulated package to the unsuspecting functionaries of the constabulary. The container inside proved to hold an icecream within whose rich confines were strewn the mortal part of the former blackberries, arranged in a layered display of fruity gore that left transfixed onlookers unable to decide whether to weep or fetch a scoop. Affixed to the top of the container was a note claiming responsibility for the evidence of “my funny little games” within. Chillingly written in juice, the note was signed “Jack the Rippler”.

Investigations into the matter continue, though the gradual and inexplicable disappearance of the icecream has led increasingly plump detectives to issue public appeals to the perpetrator for further samples. In the meantime, unaccompanied berries are subject to a curfew, and members of the public are encouraged to examine the custardy-fruity evidence for themselves while it lasts.

Dietary information: this icecream contains milk, cream, egg yolks, sugar, blackberries, vanilla, vodka, lemon juice.

Yours ripplaciously,

The Stressed Chef

Things don't always turn out how you expect (or hope)

2010-06-21T05:59:00.000+10:00

I've been breastfeeding my little son since he was born nearly 8 months ago. As of last night, I'm not. To cut a long story short:

He has four large, sharp teeth.
He likes to bite things.
Those things include (for whatever reason) my nipples.
The last few bites have drawn blood and I cannot stand the agony any longer.

It wasn't meant to end this way. Yes I have complained about breastfeeding - it's not 100% easy after all, takes practice etc - but I really wanted to go the full 12 months. I didn't want him to go to formula. Nevertheless it looks like that's how it's going to be. I'll keep expressing as much milk as I can for as long as I can, but it is - obviously - not the same. The next few days will be really difficult too, I anticipate - Pippin is not used to a bottle at all. My husband is trying to give him one now, I'm not sure how successfully. I'll look in on them shortly.

I am really grieving. I have been crying and crying and crying. I guess I didn't realise how important breastfeeding is to me until it has been suddenly taken away.

Sesame Yoghurt Face Scrub & Mask

2010-06-20T10:15:00.007+10:00

Here's another easy face scrub/mask that I made for myself the other day:

1 tsp polenta (cornmeal)

1 tsp plain yoghurt

1 tsp tahini (sesame paste)

Mix all ingredients together to form a thick paste. Spread onto clean skin, rubbing in gently, then leave on for 5 minutes. Wash off with warm water.

This scrub/mask is great for exfoliating and deeply moisturising congested skin, and is also a really good hand scrub. However if your skin tends to be delicate, sensitive or blemished, it might be too abrasive - use finely ground rolled oats or almond meal in place of the polenta.

Happy pampering!

Something Lovely

2010-06-18T10:30:00.001+10:00

Flowers from my husband:

I love the smell of jonquils, do you?

Feeling inspired

2010-06-17T10:39:00.000+10:00

I'm a hopeless crafter-dreamer. There are SO many things I wish I were able to do... Like sew clothes and make softie toys (I'll have to get a sewing machine first though, AND learn how to use it), crochet, knit something more complex than a stocking-stitch scarf, make collages...

I've dabbled in a bunch of different crafts over the years: making soap, soy wax candles, aromatherapy creams and lotions, scrapbooks, pot pourri, embroidery. I've made a couple of softies from the lovely book Sock and Glove...

This one was my best effort: it was originally meant to be a rabbit, but then it ended up a bit more like a dog... I finally decided that it was in fact a Heffalump.

Since then I have been rather too discouraged to try making any more! This is the problem with most of the things that I try... They don't turn out as well as I hope they will and I lose confidence and don't keep on trying. Maybe I should? Or am I just a glutton for punishment? I've dug out my copy of the book again, nonetheless.

At the moment I'm also feeling inspired by a knitting feature that I saw in a library copy of Better Homes & Gardens from a couple of months ago. Ten things to do with a knitted square (even I can knit a square in garter stitch), including making a little bag for your jewellery, making a soft toy, using it as a placemat, making a keepsake envelope, brightening up a plain cushion...

I have a bunch of brightly coloured balls of wool stashed away under my bed... All I need to do is dig the bag out and get knitting, how long can it take to knit a few squares?

What are you feeling inspired to make?

PS: Wish I had some of this gorgeous wool... How divine are the colours?!

Irish Soda Bread

2010-06-16T15:26:00.000+10:00

I had some buttermilk sitting in the fridge last week, leftover from something else I had cooked, so I decided to use it up in some Irish soda bread. The recipe was this one, from The Bread Experience. I only made half the quantity, because I didn't have quite enough buttermilk for the full version.

The recipe was super simple and quick to make - only took about ten minutes, plus the resting time, and then 40 minutes in the oven. I think I should probably have given it another 5-10 minutes to brown it a little more, plus it was still a touch doughy in the very middle - only a tiny bit though.

Basically it looked like a giant scone, but easier to make (no rubbing in butter)! Fantastic toasted for breakfast. I'll be making this one again, and might experiment with different flours and some flavourings as well... Maybe a spicy/fruity version, what do you think?

Something Lovely

2010-06-12T03:15:00.001+10:00

This gnome by HumbleBea on Etsy.

Is it not too gorgeous for words? Everything else in HumbleBea's shop is divine too...

Happy sigh.

Thyme and Prosciutto Scones

2010-06-08T12:29:00.000+10:00

I signed up to be part of Bake Your Own Bread, which is not just about baking bread but baking oodles of other things as well, and this is my first... Hmm, I'm not even sure what to call it... entry? installment? Whatever, it's my first thing for BYOB, anyway.

I made these scones to have with some pumpkin and carrot soup when my parents and brother came over for dinner on Sunday night. The recipe is from The Women's Weekly Bake cookbook and originally called for sage, but then I remembered that my dad doesn't like sage (pity! It's so nice!) so I used some thyme instead. You actually couldn't taste it that much unfortunately; I should have used more.

Other than that the scones were very yummy and a perfect accompaniment to the soup. I would normally serve bread with soup but I hadn't had time to make any, and I thought that some savoury scones would be a good alternative. It was certainly a perfect day for baking and having soup; incredibly changeable weather, pouring rain one minute, sunny the next, and chilly the whole time!

I remember from Home Ec classes at school, when we made cheese scones we were told we should never end up with flour in the palms of our hands when rubbing the butter into the flour, only on our fingertips. I try! I am not sure about my technique though, it always seems to make my hands cramp up. Maybe I'm rubbing too hard? Or maybe I just need more practice.

Speaking of scones (or rather things to have with them), on the weekend my husband made the pumpkin jam from A Year In A Bottle (I helped a bit, but got caught up with the baby). Isn't it the most amazing colour?

There's quite a lot of lemon zest and juice in it so it tastes almost like a lemon curd. Can't wait to have it with some plain scones for afternoon tea! Perhaps when my first flush Darjeeling tea order arrives from Thunderbolt Tea...

Lovely Sunday

2010-06-06T12:20:00.000+10:00

My husband took Pippin off to Daddy Playgroup this morning, leaving me with a couple of hours All. To. Myself.

There were a million things I felt I should be doing, but instead I made myself a cup of Japanese sencha and ran myself a bath.

I love essential oil blends for bathing... this morning I mixed up a recipe from Judy Chapman's book Spa: chamomile, rosemary and ylang ylang blended into a small amount of milk and then poured into the bath.

I also adore homemade skincare products - so simple, effective and inexpensive. I mixed myself up the following face mask for my poor neglected skin:

1 tsp ripe avocado, mashed
1 tsp plain yoghurt
1 drop chamomile essential oil (diluted in jojoba)

How easy and delicious is that...

And then after some serious soaking time I took myself downstairs for some yoga... something my body has been totally craving for the last several days.

I feel refreshed and more ready to face another week now. What have you been doing with your Sunday?

Welcome

2010-06-05T08:29:00.000+10:00

This is going to be my blog for things other than tea (gasp! Yes, I do have other interests!). Thanks for your patience while I get it all set up and looking pretty. See you soon!