Highly recommended

Home made ice-cream sandwiches. I can't believe I hadn't thought of this before!

To all my southern hemisphere friends - get a batch of these babies in the oven before it gets too hot again.

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen (where else do I lurk these days?). I halved the ingredients and still had enough for 12 large (9 cm across) pairs of star biscuits. I rolled mine to about 4mm (plenty chunky enough).

Next time I might reduce the sugar a little. Or just find some REAL vanilla bean ice-cream (not the weird, whiter than white stuff I got from the moopersarket). You know - creamy and flavoursome rather than icky sweet. Though I can't say I got any complaints.

With many thanks to Whirly-girl for taste testing for me.

And as she suggested - feel free to leave the biscuits out overnight so they are a little softer. That way when you slather on the good stuff - they'll be nice and squidgy like the Monaco bars used to be.

In the meantime, I promise there will be some crafting around here soon. Unless Smitten Kitchen decides to cut me a deal.

Blame the new mixer - every time I make toast in the morning, there it is cooing in my ear "Make something yummy... your husband will love you ... and your waistline won't mind".

And because it pretty much does everything for me (compared with 5 minutes worth of cutting feeling like I've just ascended K2) it usually wins - not to mention the tasty treats at the end.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I can't decide which, now that I am going to Hydrotherapy twice a week, the sobering reality of having to shoe horn myself into last years bathers - is starting to win the war against temptation. Almost.

So maybe I'll get some sewing done instead. Take the dog for a walk. Write the great Australian novel. Talk to friends. Or just start watching Buffy from the beginning again.

...

I feel like I've been slapped in the face.

The fires that have, and continue to devastate Victoria have seemingly ripped through the very fabric of the state. 107 dead and counting.

I don't know what to say. I don't know what to think.

Everything I've ever written before seems shamelessly superficial.

When I posted briefly about our high temperatures, in the back of my mind was an uneasy feeling that if things were going to go pear shaped, it would do so quickly. Everything is was just so tinder dry. Even here in the city.

We hunkered down at home on Saturday's record breaking temperature day. Keeping the doors and windows shut tight against the horrid northerly wind, watching West Wing and bemoaning the fact that the cool change was taking its own sweet time. Completely unaware that at 3pm, serious fires had already started across the state.

As is our habit in hot weather, we were regularly updating the Earth Sciences temperature page, cheering when the temperature finally dropped. 15 degrees in an hour - Woot! The cool southerly winds are here! Forgetting completely, that this is devastating news for those battling a fire front.

A pile of clean laundry has sat untouched since late Saturday afternoon in the bedroom. As I upended it earlier today, to fold and put away, the unmistakable, sweet smell of wood smoke and eucalyptus filled my head. I felt sick.

The smell of wood smoke frightens me to the core.

When we first moved back to the country, it filled me with thoughts of romance and the cosiness of home. The endless enthral of an open fire - memorising and captivating.

But after several summers on high bushfire alert (and with no water to defend ourselves) the stress of living in the bush got to me. The merest whiff of smoke had me searching the sky for a tell tale plume. My mind racing to thoughts of fire plans, water, the whereabouts of partners, family and animals.

But it's been a few years now, and my mind has decommissioned itself from being so attuned to those kinds of threats.

It feels like folly, but what could I have done?

I am now trying desperately to not think about what the victims went through, nor the horror that the survivors must face.

All I can do is humbly offer up my prayers of condolence, and grieve for the lost.


(With thanks to Shula and Sooz for sharing)

A patch of blue

And yes - the kitchen has reopened!

I have a VERY good husband.

Who will doubtlessly be showered in baked goods.

As soon as it cools down enough to turn on the oven.

Dang that's hot!

Courtesy of Dept. of Earth Sciences, Melbourne Uni.


PS. Third hottest Melbourne temperature on record. Beaten only by 44.7 degrees C on the 10th January 1939, and 45.6 degrees C on 13th January 1939. Otherwise known as Black Friday.

29th February 2008, approximately 5.03 pm AEST

I got married!























Its been 8 years in the making. And it was worth the wait.























All the handsewing, the 7am dress fittings, the breakneck visits to Chadstone to buy last minute items (sushi, chicken fillets, suits, sushi, pashminas, shirts, sushi, sandals, lipstick, ever more sushi)


















Sleepless nights worrying about having enough fabric, enough time, enough food and enough friends. Preparing for monsoonal rains and antartic winds.



















Not caring about any of these things in the end because I got to marry the most incredible man in the whole world.

Witnessed by a small but stellar group of wonderful people - whose mere presence made it the most amazing day of my life.

Smiling, crying, laughing and thinking I'd burst with all the love.

Being blessed with sunshine, sunshine and more sunshine.

Proud to be upstaged by the cutest flower girls ever.























AND the tiniest flower girl ever.
















And the furriest page boy ever.


















My heart overflows with love and gratitude to all who made it possible.























Thank you.

Got girt?

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross,

We'll toil with hearts and hands,

To make this Commonwealth of ours

Renowned of all the lands,

For those who've come across the seas

We've boundless plains to share,

With courage let us all combine

To advance Australia fair!

In joyful strains then let us sing,

Advance Australia fair!

I may look like a dogs breakfast

But I assure you I am delicious.

Indeed I am the answer to the question of what to do with a surfeit of plums (but its too late in the evening to bake a cake or you can't be bothered getting the mixer out to make some pastry for a tart)

Why yes, I am Plum Clafoutis. Pleased to meet you.







Recipe shamelessly lifted from here - accompanied by a delightful poem to boot. In fact their photos are supremely better too.

I might be a tad jealous but fortunately I have bowl full of oozy fragrant joy to console my ego.


(Post Script - without a lie, the left overs ARE excellent for breakfast)

Sweet & Sour

The best thing about enduring the inevitable streak of 40 degree days in January - is the delicious tropical booty to be found at your local market. Peaches, plums, nectarines, and mangoes - by the arm load and all those wacky ones that from the outside suggest there could not possibly be anything delicious contained within.

I could seriously become a fruitarian. But only in summer. Obviously.




My only sour note is the recent passing of a wee friend. Manuel "Fatty" Sanchez was a little golden ball of joy who greeted me every morning with a pert little shuffle and a voracious appetite. Such a happy little soul who had nothing but joy to give. Tireless tank companion to Bernard the grumpy.

Rest in peace little friend.

(Forgive the poxy photo but - he wasn't much of a poser)

New leaf resolutions

Welcome 2008 - I'm glad to see you!

The past few years of my life have been pretty challenging - they have been for all of us, everywhere. The irony is that challenge is actually what makes it a life.

I don't usually do New Year's resolutions - why wait for an arbitrary date to reassess and make changes? But this time I want to vocalise and set it out like a contract that I am sure to revisit on Jan 1 2009, and no doubt throughout the next year as homework.

The 31st of December 2007 felt like the closing of a chapter of my life. I finally feel like I am in charge and behind the wheel. As much as we ever can. I have some wonderful things to look forward to in the near future - and they seem like a perfect opportunity to cast off the skin of my past. Let go of the bitterness that plagues my head and my heart. To accept who I am, the great and the grim.
It is a simple list:

1. Watch less TV. I love it and it feeds my mind. It is a happy distraction when I am desolate and overwhelmed. But it is the thief of time. I don't drink, I don't smoke, and I don't do drugs, yet it is my soma. And I am in denial. I can't count the number of times I've said "I don't watch much TV but...". Just because it is HBO or some other high quality production, it is still a creative block.

2. Stop carrying around that chip on my shoulder. It's heavy. Even if I can just leave it at home sometimes for parties. My friends know I have had some crap cards dealt my way. I have taken active steps to protect myself from those that can hurt me. I am more resilient than I give myself credit for. Accepting my past and how it has made me who I am does not equate with playing the victim card. I have also been well enough, for long enough, to know I can actually choose to be positive.

3. Be honest about my illness. Not "Hi my name is Cate and I have depression", But take the ego out of the equation and use the doors that acceptance opens rather than bemoan the ones it closes. Announcing this on my blog is hardly keeping a secret. And I am afraid of the consequences - what if my boss decides to Google me as she has joked? Well screw it. Its true to say that the people that count, don't care, and that the people who care, don't count. Instinct tells me I am strong enough to deal with any fall out. Not to say I'm not scared of what this honesty might bring. Not enough people understand depression to release it from its stigma. Hell most days I don't understand it and I've been living with it for probably 20 years. But life experience has shown me that dishonesty not only creates conflict and unhappiness around you, it also fractures your soul. Confessing each horrible detail of my secrets: the violence, emotional and sexual abuse I have endured were diabolically painful. Each memory working its way to the surface like a splinter. But it has also been the most liberating thing. With each telling my voice gets less choked and it feels less like I am cutting myself open and exposing my my core to harm. Confessing my illness is my last secret to tell. It is part of me so why hide it? It is what makes me my best as well as my worst.

We all endeavour to present the best of ourselves in our on-line persona. Its not necessarily ego - its pragmatic. No one wants to post about having nothing to post. But it doesn't always have to be about sunshine and lollipops. The best writers, they ones we constantly return to, balance the rough with the smooth. It is this honestly that creates the personal connection, represents the whole. The perfectness of imperfection - the wabi sabi if you will.

Oh yeah...

4. Eat less junk food.

Season's Greetings from the southern hemisphere!

Christmas is always the best excuse to do some serious baking.

Unfortunately its usually stinkingly hot in Melbourne at this time of year - so sweating it out over a hot stove on top of the usual Christmas time over achieving is a little more arduous than fun.

But with plentiful rain being the bestest-ever possible early Christmas present for our drought ridden land, I am seriously enjoying some quality time with my oven.

The last month I have barely stepped foot in the kitchen (except to sneak past the gargantuan pile of dishes and quickly grab the stash of home delivery menus). We have eaten so much pizza lately I'm ashamed to call myself a foodie. However this has been nicely juxtaposed with quite a few "nice" restaurant visits including the work Christmas party at Rockpool - encrusted with enough lobster and wagyu beef to fund a small military operation.



Nice as it was, my heart yearned for the simple pleasure of rubbing butter into flour, adding a bit of this, a touch of that and a few minutes in the oven followed by the heady sweet smell of baked goodness wafting throughout the house. And best of all - I am officially on holiday and can indulge in the fiddly biscuit department to my heart's content.

Now I can't claim any of the credit for these cuties. Instead all kudos goes to an unnamed and probably completely under valued staff chef at Nestle.


To be completely honest, they aren't the best biscuit flavour wise - but they are so much fun to make and the squeals and ahs a plate of these will generate is definitely worth it. They truly do look amazing and are remarkably good at restoring one's Christmas spirit. I am also tickled by the ironic use of a "Star of David" style cutter too.


Christmas Star Biscuits

Preparation time: 50 mins (including chilling time)

Makes approx 20

250g butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup caster sugar
2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup clear boiled lollies, chopped

Cream butter, vanilla and sugar in a mixing bowl. Sift flours and cocoa together. Combine with butter mixture, mixing well.

Turn out to a clean surface and knead until dough comes together. Cut in half. Place each half between two sheets of baking paper and roll out to approx 8mm thickness. Refrigerate until firm.

Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees Celsius.

Remove top sheet of paper, cut out shapes using a 7cm star cutter. Place onto a tray lined with paper. Cut out inner star with a 3 1/2 cm cutter and remove. (Collect the "waste" re-roll, chill and repeat for more biscuits)

Bake for 8 minutes, remove from the oven and fill the center with a few chunks of the chopped lollies. Turn up the oven to 180 degrees and bake for a further 8-10 minutes or until the lollies have melted and the biscuits have cooked. Allow to cool on trays.


Notes:
Boiled lollies are often hard to find. Don't use the milky ones because they won't melt properly or give the glass effect. This year the only "boiled style" lollies I could find were Starburst lollipops. They worked fine but were pretty strongly flavoured. Also, don't overfill the middles - otherwise you will break your teeth trying to eat them!