A soft light of a new day outside, and I’m well into my second cup of chai. There is a streaky grey sky morning about to break through and all is quiet. With little people still tucked up in their beds, a new day lays before me.
It’s 5.30 am and the day was going to be a busy.
Biscuits to make, boys to take and a check list that needs crossing off one and a half pages long; but my mind is only half on it. I want to make a little bag. A little bag with colours and tassels, a little bag for a little girl.
Colours were chosen, scraps of wool divided out and the bag already finished in my head. But it wasn’t to be. That bag lay dormant for another whole month until finally, there it was, finished. Not exactly as I had imagined it, (but things made by me rarely are.)
She loved it, and I was happy to make her something out of bits I already had.
I recently wrote a quite lengthy post on eating meat. Of which I got to the end and then just quietly, deleted the whole lot. All 852 words of it.
I felt like I was justifying my own meaty actions. Which is something I didn’t feel like I really wanted to do or needed to do. I was more than happy to engage in an amicable conversation with anyone who cared to listen. I was also more than happy to pass on any food information that I’d come across in my readings. Informed decisions on any level is an empowering thing, especially when it comes to something as important as food.
We all need to eat, it’s how we go about it that’s important.
So will I be made to feel guilty for eating a little meat here and there?
It’s the basis of many heated debates, but at this stage of my life? No. No I won’t.
I believe strongly in a diet based mostly on ‘real’ foods. Food that comes in as natural a state as possible. Keeping processing to a minimum, packaging to a minimum and being able to identify the food in front of you are top of my lists.
I also believe different bodies require different foods. Some people can exist happily as a Fruitarian and others strongly advocate they feel healthier on a Paleo based diet. I wouldn’t like to base my diet on either of these, but I respect the fact that they feel happy and healthy eating as such. I remember sitting in the audience of the His Holiness the Dalai Llama once, and his comment on the fact that he ate meat. Shocked I wasn’t, but happy yes, as he had obviously made an informed decision; and decided he functioned better with a small meat intake.
As meat eaters, vegetarians, vegans, raw enthusiasts, sugar free, gluten free, locavores, we all have choices to make and ethics to consider when we are preparing that dinner plate in front of us. (Unless by chance you are a city-living-raw-vegan-sugar free-gluten free-locavore AND on a family budget, in which case holey moley I would love you to comment and please share your story!)
Pescatarian– love eating canned tuna? Have a look at this snippet on what line and pole fishing actually is, and the value of paying that bit extra for your can of tuna. Also read here on GoodFishBadFish– sustainable seafood, what’s it all about or Slow Fish– and it’s campaign.
Vegetarians– Do you eat seasonally? Food Miles, have you considered them, how many do you clock up?…this site is so very humbling.)
Quorn– What do we know about this myco-protein? Made from mushrooms it isn’t.
Eggs– In what condition hens have your eggs come from? Caged Eggs
Are your meat substitutes highly processed coming in excessive packaging and have a full paragraph of odd sounding ingredients?
There are an array of options for cow milk alternatives- soy, almond, rice. Is there vegetable oil in there. Does this vegetable oil contain palm oil? Sunflower Oil? Added sugar? Food miles on your soy milk? where has the alternative milk been grown. Was it processed in the same place or somewhere else altogether?
Are you using sugar substitutes such as agave syrup. Have you considered the food miles (unless you live in Mexico) and extensive chemical process that is needed in order to obtain this yield?
1 billion takeaway cups and lids each year… {image credit to Responsible Runners}
Coffee– Got a coffee habit- Is it fair trade? Food miles? Excessive packaging on your daily take away coffee cup? Keep Cup– reusable coffee cup
Chocolate- Is it again fair trade? Does it have even more excessive packaging? Does it have an extraordinary amount of food miles? Was it harvested using slave labour? (Despite popular belief the cocoa bean is not produced in Belgium.) Slavery in the Chocolate Industry
There is always an impact on our food choices, regardless of what food types we mostly eat. Pretty much every choice we make has an impact. If more and more people make informed choices about what they are eating and passing a little less judgement on those that eat differently perhaps we would make some sort of head way in our food environment.
Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants…[Michael Pollan]
Our family meat intake is really quite small, we eat a mostly vegetarian diet, and bought meat is always considered; where it has come from and how it was raised. Fruit and vegetables are eaten in season, vegan and gluten free meals are becoming regulars, I try to make as many things from scratch as time allows and we eat on a family budget- keeping things as locally produced based as possible.
This doesn’t make me a sainted eater, it makes me an informed eater and at this stage, that’s the very best I can do.
So, to the next person that gets on their high horse about me making a conscious decision regarding what I have chosen to eat, please don’t. As I might just eat that high horse… I hear they’re quite delicious.
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Thoughts? Input? Ideas? Everything up for discussion in an unbiased nonjudgemental fashion.
I had the day all planned out. It would start with tea, chai to be exact. Two pots worth, and it couldn’t be a rushed thing. Some writing, a lazy eye over the weekends paper, followed by a swim. Back home for another cup of tea, something herbal this time. Perhaps a little gingery zing to kick things along for the day.
I’d now curl my legs around me, choose from one of my many unfinished books, balance it a little precariously along side my tea cup and read until the heat started to penetrate the lounge rooms blinds.
A brief stop for a light salady lunch, and a flick through this beautiful and inspiring new magazine of the sea while I ate.
Coffee would be made and along with it a lengthy phone call to a good friend. Friendship rekindled and two cups worth would be sipped while doing so. I would then make the strenuous shift moving from the kitchen table to the cool dark of the bedroom.
After two coffees I probably wouldn’t want a little midday siesta but was certainly open to the idea if one came up. Stretched out over the whole queen sized space I would then take the chance to read from my new ipad library. I would ignore the grubby little finger prints from small sized people and instead revel in the fact that I had now clocked up at least 8 hours of reading time on this most glorious of summer days.
At this point I would probably contemplate popping the kettle on once more and choose from my impressive range of herbal teas. Tea once more would be supped and with it a change of perspectives. The bedroom, to the couch, to the kitchen table. It was a tough choice but I knew regardless, my tea would be by there by my side.
In seemingly small blink of the eye, the whole day will have dissolved in a blur of reading choices, tea cups, (and realistically multiple trips to the toilet.) It was indeed a well planned day.
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In absence of ever, ever having a day like this one. (Having three small children ensures that my reading times are heavily locked in at two minute increments, and tea generally sipped on the fly.) I am linking in with the wonderful Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes for a tea party, A Cup of Tea with Me party.
The kettles hot. There is tea to choose from and if you can find a biscuit that hasn’t been nibbled on by a particular small person, you’re more than welcome to it. Sit down, take your shoes off.
A Cup of Tea with Me
Sunny greetings to those that are new to this space and those that regularly drop in. My name is Brydie, a city mama of three trying to balance a simple life, city style.
I’m a person who likes to dream of curling into a tight cat like ball and reading for 3 hours straight. I also like writing at 5am, it’s the magic hour for so many things.
Someone who feels at peace watching stormy dark clouds tumble over a horizon, while simultaneously keeping eagle eyes on three children that move at the speed of light, (usually towards another horizon.)
A girl who likes nothing better than listening to the sing of a sourdough loaf straight from the oven. Who marvels at the sprouting goodies on the kitchen window sill, thinks naturally fermented foods are the bees knees and dreams of cake creations by night.
The same girl who gets inspired by the smallest of smalls to the biggest of big. I can never tell where a tiny idea will sprout from next.
Someone who also yearns to know more about, well pretty much everything. But throw words like, sourdough, permaculture, upcycling, handmade, fermented and I’m all yours.
I’m also inspired by a whole bunch of these rockin’ women who I was lucky enough to meet through Pip. Like Rachael who makes me laugh and takes pictures that are so beautifully magazine worthy. Helen whose Friday Feminism posts I adore and Dear Moo whom I would happily scratch behind the ears if only to get just a little closer to those stunning crochet creations. And oh so many more of these absolutely amazingly creative women.
I live in a small space in a big city. A small space that when required to hide something my options are sometimes limited. However when I’m not required to hide something, and instead something goes missing that small space can feel quite large. Cavernous even.
You see I lost my cups.
My newly bought cups. I know I had stashed them somewhere ‘safe’ for a small period as I wasn’t quite ready to use them; but when it was time to use them, alas not a cup to be found.
I searched high and I searched low. I pulled everything I owned out and then back in again, only to be repeated again the next day. It was doing my tiny brain in. WHERE did I put those cups!?
If we had a cat I would have blamed whiskers, but we didn’t so the next most likely choice was the pint sized one. Surely she must have put it in a box or something and somehow that same box had grown legs and walked out. Surely it was the only possibility?
So I had to buy more.
The cups were clearly not coming back and we really needed some new drinking cups for the kids. I felt a little embarrassed, but clicked pay and now and a couple of days later, there they were. In all their enamel loveliness again, ready to be drunk from.
Along with the cups, I’ve also been enjoying the baking dishes I bought the first time around as well. I’ll tell you why I love them-
– they’re light weight, which means they don’t have a hefty weight when food is cooked in them like ceramic or glass can do
– they are stackable
– they easily live inside my oven when it’s not being used
– and size wise, I have options. After so many years of no options, I’m loving this one to bits.
When I first considered getting these dishes, I wasn’t entirely sure you could bake in them. I’d always associated enamel ware with camping, or the dogs dinner bowl. Happy to say that association has now changed, you can definitely bake in enamel ware and just quietly…I’m loving doing so.
[My enamelware was bought through the lovely Odgers and McClelland Exchange Stores... *ahem* both times. And yes, the other cups turned up as well. Turns out the pint sized one didn’t hide them in a box, her mother did… I now have ten of these cups.]
Cherry and Rhubarb Pie
farmers market cherries and rhubarb 1000g (roughly half and half)
300g sugar
300mls water
2tbls cornflour
Pastry
150g cold butter
50g sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
300g plain flour
1 tbls cold water
In a pot cook the fruit, sugar and water up until softens. Add the cornflour with a tablespoon or so and add into the mixture. Stir through and cook for a further 5 or so minutes. If there is visabally too much excess water just drain a little off for drinking, this will depend on the fruit your are using. Once cooked, stand this mixture aside and begin on the pastry.
In a blender, pulse flour, sugar and butter until resembles bread crumbs. Tip out to a bowl and add vanilla, egg yolk and cold water. Knead lightly until it comes together to form a dough. Wrap in glad wrap and chill in the fridge for about half an hour. Then roll out for your pie shape.
Pop the fruit mixture in and bake for about 35 minutes at 180C.
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I now have a ‘print green’ or pdf option if you would like this recipe for another time. Just click on the green printer icon below and follow the prompts.
That moment when the Tiramisu sits on the kitchen bench, finished and ready to eat. A satisfied moment when you think, yeah…that looks alright.
That moment when you are gifted some homemade pickled garlic. Thankful for generous friends and impressed that she had got a farmer to grow ten kilos of organic garlic just for her.
That moment when you know the starter is ripe and ready. It’s time to get doughy.
That moment when you bite into a new concoction chocolate brownie, nod and smile a little. A chocolate brownie that was deadly simple to make and not disappointing at all to the taste buds, (with a few added surprises in there as well.)
That moment when you see at your friend’s house a pretty nifty kitchen addition that you know you have to give a look into. Enter the ‘Apiwrap’– “…eco friendly and reusable kitchen wrap, perfect for storing food in the fridge or to go.” So what does this mean? It means a pretty rocking alternative to glad wrap people.
And that moment of quiet inhalation of a tiny gifted pot of almondy goodness that no one else wants to know about. That is almond heaven right there, (all marzipan dislikers need not inhale.) Now what to make with you my pretty?
There are two kinds of people in this world. Those that like marzipan and those that would well, rather not. Not me though, I love the stuff. I mourn the shift in wedding cultures that don’t seem to have the traditional densely fruited cake covered in marzipan any longer. For me, it was the highlight of a wedding. How can they serve a carrot cake or chocolate mud instead I ask you? Oh how?
I still can’t quite put my finger on why I like marzipan. It’s a textural thing, kind of gritty and ever so slightly medicinal tasting. There’s just something about it that just quietly whispers to me.
I was first drawn to the lovely Joanna’s blog over our mutual love of marzipan across the seas of the world. I am also lucky enough to have a dear friend that would quietly slip in a little marzipan log into my bag, whenever I was having a tough day. (You see, marzipan has special healing properties, that very few people are aware of- it really is the good stuff.)
As I don’t seem to be going to many marzipan laden fruit cake filled weddings at the moment, I have to find my fix somewhere else. That’s where stollen steps in.
It had been awhile since I had made it last, three years to be exact, and quite frankly it was time to give it another crack.
Stollen
(makes two big ones)
500g mixed dried fruit
80mls amaretto
300g sourdough starter (or 2 tsps of dried yeast)
600g flour (4 cups)
200g softened butter
50g brown sugar/raw sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamon
1/2 tsp ginger
2 beaten eggs
zest of a lemon
200-250mls water
Extras
500g marzipan
100g melted butter (extra)
To begin with, soak the dried fruit in the amaretto overnight. The following day, mix the dough- add starter, soaked fruit, flour, sugar, spices, butter, eggs, lemon zest and water. (Go slowly on the water, the amount you’ll need will vary depending on your dried fruit, flour and starter.
Mix the dough for about 8 minutes on a low speed. Allow to prove for about an hour and then give the dough a quick fold. Prove again for several hours. Meanwhile divide marzipan in two and roll into a log of about 20cm long.
For the dough, divide it in half, slightly flattening with finger tips to make a rough rectangle. Place marzipan in the middle and roll it up within the dough. Place on a tray, cover with a plastic bag to create a humid environment and allow to prove for another couple of hours. Preheat oven and bake at 180C for approximately 45 minutes, or until golden. When out of the oven and still hot, brush with 100g of extra melted butter between the two stollen.
Allow to cool and wrap in baking paper oven night, the following day drench the stollen in large amount of sift icing sugar.
Serve small slices with excellent coffee and bundles of enthusiasm.
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this post submitted to the always delicious yeastspotting
cityhippyfarmgirl 