this week it’s been made abundantly clear to me
that the mundane, the every day is not so ordinary
I always try to not take those every day moments for granted. Posts like these ones, focus on my love of those little moments… I know that, I really do.
But hearing what is going on in some other peoples lives at the moment and I’m left speechless…
This weekend, I’m celebrating my everyday.
We’re having pizza!!! sang The Monkey’s to Mr Chocolate as he closed the front door behind him.
Two grinning boys launched themselves at their father…pizza!
Mr Chocolate looked happy too as he scanned the table tops with their proving doughs. Although, you’re not having pizza Dada, I think you’re having salad, said a sombre looking Monkey Boy. His face fell, as he looked to me to for confirmation.
Yep, mung bean salad lucky man.
(oh relax, I’m feeling generous… you can have pizza as well.)
sprouted mung beans
one can of chickpeas
one finely sliced capsicum (pepper)
one finely sliced small chilli
couple of finely sliced shallots
Dressing
a couple of slugs of great local olive oil
good pinch of cumin
and dried coriander
salt/pepper to taste
pop half a clove of crushed garlic (new season- which is a bit damn exciting)
juice of half a back yard lemon,
shake it up a bit and
add to your salad
eat with gusto… or pizza
In my kitchen sat my absolute favourite pie in whole wide universe…. lemon meringue. It had been a while since I had made it and Monkey Boy asked ever so nicely if I would. I didn’t want to disappoint, so made it, gave him a small slice, and packed him off to bed. This left me to admire a rather large slice of my own. Lemon meringue pie is one of those lick the bowl when your done kind of moments. Yep, it really is.
And I would have been crazy not to make one, as I had these fat gifted backyard lemons sitting on my kitchen table waiting to be loved.
A trial of a Pear and Ginger Slice. Amazingly enough I actually followed a recipe this time. It wasn’t bad, I would tweak it a little to cater more to my taste buds. But definitely not bad.
The last of my dad’s pumpkins. The orange of the flesh in these pumpkins has been amazing. Nothing like a super market bought one what so ever. I’m still thinking about my pumpkiny options.
My new mixer love arrived. Oh my sweet, sweet goodness how I love it! (Very, very nerdy post to come soon.)
In my kitchen, there has been quite a lot of my staple salad. I very rarely tire of eating kale… which is lucky, as there is quite a bit around at the moment.
and lastly, in my kitchen sits two new pans. I’m not usually one to buy new kitchen gadgets just for the sake of it, (despite desperately needing a new cooking pot- as I had burnt the crap out of one of my usuals.) Mr Chocolate wanted these, and if it had just been me, there is no way I would have got them. Thankfully I did though, as I am hooked. Cooked on low to medium, ceramic coating, no oil used, heats up really quickly, (and makes a perfect pancake!)
What’s been happening in your kitchen?
linking up with the ever lovely Celia@Fig Jam and Lime Cordial
I think hazelnut chocolate is my second favourite chocolate, I boldly declared to Mr Chocolate.
It’s not quite as good as marzipan, but it’s definitely up there… trailing off just a little as I mused on the merits of both of them.
Yep… hazelnut and chocolate, they go really well together.
After voicing my new-found decision of having a second favourite chocolate, I decided I needed to revisit the taste as quickly as possible. Just in case my bold statement had been made in haste. Chocolate…check. Hazelnuts…check. Fifteen minute window period to put it all together?…check. Melt, stir, pour, bake.
It seemed too easy.
Usually my baking needs a few tweaks, a change here and there, and trialled a few times to get it right. So I was surprised after tasting a corner of this one to find it worked just the way it was. I tried another corner just to make sure. No, seemed fine there too. A third corner? Yep, pretty similar to the other two corners.
It really was a surprisingly good hazelnut brownie.
200g chocolate (50%)
250g butter
200g brown sugar
4 beaten eggs
2 tsp vanilla
150g hazelnuts (I blitzed whole ones)
50g self raising flour
In a pot add the chocolate, butter, sugar and vanilla. Gently melt it down and add remaining ingredients. Pop into a greased and lined tray.
Bake at 180C for approximately 35minutes, and then let it cool in the tin.
The Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens are a very easy way to spend a Spring morning. Tall shady trees, beautiful flowers out, lots of winding paths to walk around, and plenty of little corners to discover.
Grab a picnic rug, take away coffee, your camera, old Grandma Elsie, a good book, or a bag full of bakery goodies and make the most of it.
This little corner of Sydney is truly beautiful… and it’s free.
“Often life’s pleasures pass us by simply because we don’t take a moment to focus on them… Make a point of noticing everyday something that uplifts your spirit or tickles your heart… Stop to breathe in the joy of this moment and then tell someone about it. Share your joy and revel in it. When your joy is savoured, and then shared, it is magnified…” ROBIN GRILLE
loving this week
some seasonal strawberries still trickling through
regifted wool stashes, not by one but two people this week
meeting up with my Wednesday group mama’s
feeling incredibly lucky as a blog reader sent me a picture of her precious, precious newborn
reading about my very own newborn- our homebirth story in a magazine
eating seasonal food that feels good for the soul
listening to Little Monkey enthusiastically sing a Spice Girls song walking down the street (where did he get THAT from? said Mr Chocolate…ahem, no idea.)
spending the whole afternoon taking funny pictures with our little family
experimenting with a quinoa and rhubarb pudding and liking the results
starting the school holidays with popcorn, smiles and a deep exhalation
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If anyone else would like to do a ‘loving this week’ post, (or simply write something in the comments). Please let me know, link back to this post and I’ll do a link up. I would love to know about those little moments in your week that have tickled your heart.
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I’m having a love affair with spelt at the moment. I’d been meaning to for quite some time, and then finally I bought some, the love affair could begin.
I had dibble dabbled a little before but not like this. Not 10kg bag fulls of the wholesome goodness that it is. Sourdough loaves were switched to spelt, a variety of scones were made with spelt, caramelised onion sourdough rings were ripped apart, toasted spelt muesli was munched on, spelt and walnut bread rolls were teamed up with swiss cheese and inhaled. Spelt knekkebrod was revisited and spelt pancakes were jostled over. Slowly my bag full of spelt, got smaller and smaller.
It’s an ancient grain that has seen a relatively recent revival. Giving a slightly nutty flavour, I’ve just been substituting it with my regular flours and decreasing the liquid in the recipes. The Monkey’s haven’t noticed anything different funnily enough and still eating everything with boyhood enthusiasm. All baked goods have got a thumbs up from Mr Chocolate, and me?
Well I just think it’s a whole bundle of spelt goodness.
1 1/2 cups s/r flour
1 1/2 cups wholemeal spelt flour
a pinch of salt
a pinch of cardamom, cinnamon, ginger
1 cup cream
1 cup water
2 heaped tablespoons honey
Lightly mix wet ingredients to dry, and turn out to a really well floured surface. Lightly knead using your finger tips mostly, bringing it all together (you don’t want to handle it a lot.) Cut into circles (an upturned glass works well.) and place on a greased or lined baking tray. Bake at 220C for approximately 20 mins or until a light golden.
50g melted butter
1 beaten egg
1 1/2 cups spelt flour
1 1/2 cups milk
As much as I often think, oh I wish we lived out of the city. It’s days like these, I think… damn I love our city. I love having the opportunity to go to things like this. A community fair in celebration of all things sustainable- it was a great morning out.
The Eco- living Fair just keeps getting bigger and better each year. More stalls, more demonstrations, more information being passed around and most importantly, more people. As without people…well, it’s not going to be quite so good is it.
Some snippets from the day…
Have you thought about joining Slow Food Sydney?
Paint your own umbrella for the kids.
Food Co-op spreading mandarin love
Urban Bee Hive Honey is all from Sydney urban hives.
A very knowledgable little friend of Monkey Boy’s who explained this (rather awesome) renewable energy concept that is awaiting approval in Australia. Monkey Boy then explained it all to Mr Chocolate a little later, (and that’s how enthusiastic information gets passed on, kids!)
colourful stilted entertainment
valet bike parking and free bike maintenance
a free plant for anyone that wanted one from the local council nursery
and everyone needed a hat.
*****
What have you been up to this fine weekend?
Any eco-living action?
It’s quiet.
Not a murmur, not a word. Just the rhythmic sound of two forks being taken from bowl to mouth.
The Monkeys are eating two bowls of sushi. This is their favourite dinner at the moment. Not daintily rolled between a sushi bamboo mat, instead carefully constructed by their own little hands. I get it all out, prepare the ingredients and then they assemble what they would like to go in there.
Healthy, looks good, they get to help put it together and most of all they love to eat it.
I can’t help but feel a teeny bit pleased. Pleased and proud of my vegetable loving children. Sure they won’t touch zucchini, mushrooms, sweet potato or spinach. Eggplant also isn’t getting a look in any time soon, but what they won’t eat- they make up for. If that means a bowl full of sushi, with a selection of raw vegetables in there, I’m more than happy to give it to them.
I know kids can be picky little things, but if you plant the seeds of eating healthily from the very beginning and get them involved it sets them up for later on. Once a week, the Monkeys wrestle over who gets to bring in the vegetable box after it’s been delivered to our back door. Carefully sorting what’s in there and what exactly it all is. We don’t get to harvest a great deal from our (rather pathetic at the moment) plant pots, so this along with going to farmer’s markets is a second best. Sorting, learning, preparing and then eating it.
As a child, the idea of sitting through an eggplant or mushroom dish set me up for an hours worth of good solid gagging. These truly were horror vegetables that were put on this earth just to torture me. A few decades on and funnily enough what are two of my favourite vegetables?… Eggplant and mushrooms. The seed had been planted, the palate had already been explored, and then it was just a matter of finding out how I liked to eat those two little vegetables.
So that’s what I’m doing with The Monkeys. Expanding their palates and planting seeds. No, they don’t have to eat handfuls of mushrooms, broccoli, and zucchini. They can try a little bit each time though, just so to remember what it tastes like and then they can move on to what they really love. Vegetables like peas, capsicum (peppers), tomatoes, cucumber, corn, avocado, lettuce, pumpkin and carrot. Pop it all in a bowl of rice, with some shredded seaweed and a little line caught tuna, (Good Fish.)
There they have, a bowl full of sushi.
council clean up day
a soft warm spot
city cat sleeps
*****
hope you are all having a lovely weekend
My grandmother recently gave me her mother’s recipe for brownie. Now this is brownie not as most of the world today knows brownie, (a chocolatey, decadent dense slab.) This is brownie that was born out of two world wars and one great depression. A time when making do and frugality skipped hand in hand and landed with a plop on your kitchen table top.
During this period, sugar was readily available, locally grown sultanas were in abundance and a simple slab of this would easily fill up hungry bellies. My grandmother in the 1960’s did the same thing with her children, reducing the sugar somewhat (it’s achingly sweet) and filling my dad’s childhood bottomless belly along with that of his siblings. I remember eating great squares of it when I would go and visit. The ting of the metallic cake tin as eager hands would cut just a little more.
Twenty plus years went by and speaking with Grandma she reminded me of it again. Asking whether I would like the recipe for the bottomless bellies of my own Monkeys. I sure did, but…. couldn’t promise I would adhere strictly to the recipe. (I have a proud “Hack Baker” reputation to uphold here!)
(original recipe without the mixed spice)
First go, and I did follow it to the letter, (well almost, I didn’t have any mixed spice, which sort of loses the ‘brown’ effect. Ooops.)
It’s tooth achingly sweet, but gets a thumbs up from Little Monkey and visiting friends tasting it. One friend said it’s exactly as her grandmother would have served up during the same era in the UK. I do like it, it’s very plain and simple, but I think I could probably fiddle with it and jazz it up just a little.
So I did.
Now I had set my self rules with this though. It still had to be frugal and simple, with minimal butter, and no egg at all. I did wonder to myself as I handed out another slab for The Monkeys to eat, what my Great Grandmother would have thought about this slightly jazzed up version of her trusty old recipe.
I like to think she’d have liked it.
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup sultanas
1 tbls butter
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spice and baking powder
Boil water, sugar, sultanas and butter together for approximately 5-10 minutes. Allow to cool, add remaining ingredients. Bake in a greased and lined tin at 180C for approximately 30 minutes.
1 1/2 cups currants and raisins (or mixed fruit)
2 cups water
3/4- 1 cup brown sugar
50g butter
zest of a whole orange
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
3 cups self raising flour (450g)
Add all ingredients together (except flour) in a pot and boil for about 5 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Add flour, fold through and pour into a greased and lined square tin.
Bake at 180C for approximately 40 minutes.
It looks like we are springing in to spring round these parts. The light is different, days longer, clothing layers are slowly being peeled off and jasmine…
Beautiful jasmine is flowering on local suburban fences, where I’ll quite often smell it before I see it. A gorgeous soft delicate smell that I’m sure to my end of days will always remind me of my mother. It’s such a favourite flower with her. A tiny sprig is just enough to scent the air, enough to turn heads that say “Ooooh, what’s that lovely smell?
Blue sunny skies and cold seas are enticing little feet in. Sand is being strewn, holes are being dug and shivery skinny bodies are being dried off. Part of me wants to listen to the sea’s siren song and go swimming. The other part of me says, oh hell no, it’s still way too cold in there. Maybe in a few months…
I’m still crocheting too. I keep getting side tracked with different projects though, which is making it tricky to finish anything. A little bit here and a little bit there. Stolen moments that slowly add stitches while creations grow. I’m not sure what is more appealing at the moment, the prospect of making something and fueling that creative drive or the calming meditative effect repetitive stitches has on me. Either way, it’s working.
Goodbye to winter which I always adore. Winter and all she has to offer. The warming foods, seasonal vegetables, looped scarves, and a cooler time to stop, think and plan. With spring now here though, there is a new vibrancy. A new sense of growth and energy, both internally and around me… an energy that I’m sure will put just a little spring in my step.
What’s happening with you and your change of seasons?
cityhippyfarmgirl 