caro-rose-creations

The problem with food

The problem with teaching kids how to cook is that after a day in the kitchen it is hard to get enthusiastic about cooking.  I still love to cook but sometimes it is a bit of a strain.  I am looking forward to regaining my love of cooking again when I don't have to do 4 demonstrations in a day and then come home and cook for the family.

This was what was so good about Saltwater Dining.  Someone else did the cooking.  That someone was indigenous chef Dale Chapman.

  When we arrived at the island the ferry dropped us off at the Little Ship Club not around at the main jetty.   I thought that we would have to walk the kilometre to get there but we were dropped at the door.  They had put all the chairs and tables out on the lawn and there we sat on the waters edge watching the boats come in and the sun sink slowly into the west, while we drank a chilled glass of wine. 

The guests of honour were the elders from the Noonuccal tribe who were able to tell us some the stories of the island and the foods they hunted and ate.

We started the night with an entree of oysters, collected locally, along with river salt, a local pepper, finger limes and an astringent berry, who's name I missed.

Then we were served crumbed Calamari.  Oh, I forgot, centrepiece on the table was good as well.

 

The main course was Baked Snapper which was stuffed with a selection of bush herbs and the vegetables were potato and yams in a mustard sauce,  A green salad that included Warrigal greens and cous cous that had chick peas and a citrus sauce.  Just wonderful.

There were two desserts.  Panacotta with Davidson plums and native violets and Johnny cakes with Lilli Pilly jam and cream.  I haven't had those Johnny cakes since I was a kid.  I am in the process of asking any one with a Lilly Pilly tree is the area if I can have the berries to make jam.  The jam has a fruit and cinnamon taste, yum.

Tomorrow the stories.

In the pink

My new pink knitting/handbag has arrived and it is very pink, in a nice way.  The design is called Zuma and just think of all the junk that I will be able to fit in here, and because it opens so wide I should be able to find what I want.  (Well that's the plan.)

Today my Hospitality class have been icing cup cakes.  We used a basic recipe.

60g butter and 1/3rd cup of caster sugar creamed
1 beaten egg (put away the beaters)
Fold in 1 cup of sifted Self Raising Flour (divided into 1/3rds)
1/4 cup of milk to which has been added 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence.
The flour and milk are added alternately, flour, milk, flour, milk, flour.
Spoon into cupcake papers and cook for 15 mins in a moderate oven.

The icing was a bit of a challenge.  I told them, "just a little milk to blend"  but three packets of icing sugar later we got the right consistency.  Not bad for their first try at piping icing though.

The butter icing recipe is;
125g butter
2 cups of sifted icing sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
&
a little milk to blend.

Next year I will appoint a photographer.

Yes I will.  I just can't cook, serve, be a hostess and do every other little thing.

Christmas Eve dinner is over for another year.  My holiday now begins.  It has been a funny time,with 12 guests unable to make the party and another three arriving late because of work commitments.  But, with the current financial situation if you are needed to work, you work.

A complete change of theme this year.  Informality and a family orientation.  We had "A Cowboy Xmas".  I got the idea for this when I was traveling in the USA  and we stopped at a 'Texas Roadhouse'.  The customers where just like people up on the downs.

Everyone came with their cowboy hats on.  For some this just meant getting the "Akubra"  out of the cupboard, others had to find theirs in a shop. 

Storms were forecast and I had vision of us being drowned on the verandah.

We used an old piece of mesh to hang the lights and boots over the centre of the table.



Red and white check overlays and a red overlay on the centre table cloth.  A mixture of napkins, red, green and checks.  A small Xmas tree with candy canes and some angels.



The house looked welcoming.



Our old Christmas ornaments welcomed guests as they came through the front door.

Then everything went wild and I was so busy I couldn't take another photo.
Next year I will appoint a photographer.

Here is our Menu.Download Menu 2008

Christmas Cooking

My daughter came home bemoaning the fact that she couldn't afford to buy presents for her work-mates.  Mum to the rescue!  "What about Rum Balls". 

So, Mum went down to the shops and bought the ingredients, found some ribbon and cellophane to wrap them in.  Laura mixed the ingredient together, rolled them out, and,

Hey Presto, Christmas presents.



(The table cloth was my son's Home Ec project when he was in Year 10)

So what is the recipe?

RUM BALLS

Ingredients

1 tin condensed milk
8 weetbix or 1 pkt plain biscuits  (I've tried Corn Flakes and they work as well)
1 pkt Glace cherries
1 Tablespoon cocoa
1/2 cup coconut
1 cup mixed fruit  (or 1/2 cup mixed fruit and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts)
1 teaspoon rum essence    (you can use rum but this makes it more expensive)
extra 1 cup coconut for rolling.

Method

1. Crush the weetbix (or biscuits) and finely chop the cherries.
2. Mix all the ingredients, except the extra coconut, together and let stand for 15 minutes (if time allows).
3. Roll the mixture into small balls and toss them in the coconut until well coated.
4. Refrigerate overnight and then package.

(You can also freeze the Rum Balls for later use.)

Back to school

So the holidays ended and school has begun.  I have all cookery classes and no textiles.  Oh well, that's how it goes.  My year 12 Hospitality class is doing cake decoration so that will be interesting.

A few posts ago I reported on the quilt show at Toowoomba.  I missed talking about the work of Robyn Ginn.  Robyn received an Order of Australia this year for her contributions to patchwork and embroidery.  For those who do not know Robyn's work it is hard to catagorise.  She had a bad accident which left her in a plaster caste for 6 months and she was left with residual movement problems.  This has meant that she can not sit at a sewing machine but can sew by hand.

Her first quilt was stitched whilst she was in the caste and is a large quilt composed of Suffolk Puffs or Yo- Yos.  This was followed by some wonderful crazy patch quilts.

There have been some wonderful Australiana quilts and some patterns are still available today.

Her quilts on biblical themes are full of detail.

Her latest work has been on quilt tiles

Yet when I did a search I could find few examples of her work and the only reference to her was in the Australia Day Honours list.   The one link I did find was at The Queensland Quilters 2007 Quilt Show  winners. Three separate quilters had won prizes using Robyn's designs.

A new bakery

Interesting things can happen if you walk in the other direction.  That is what happened today.  Instead of going down the hill to the shopping centre and the coffee lounges there, we went up hill for two block and found a French Patisserie.  This has been opened for a while but we never thought of walking up the hill.

This little shop is for real.  Not fake French cakes and bread but the real thing.  It occupies two shop fronts with the bakery in one and the sales area in the other with a few seats and tables.

In the window sits a cockerel in all it's glory.

And in the display case that most delicious cakes and breads.

The walls are decorated with antique prints.

And each of the tables is named with a plaque.

Where we sat matched my key ring that I bought in Paris.  Oh! I do love Paris.
I think that I will have to walk in different directions more often.

The weekend

I haven't achieved much this weekend.  I did the shopping and ran into an old friend, had coffee and talked.  That kind of finished off Saturday.  Today I went with my son to look at a house he is interested in buying and then out to lunch with the Chefs to celebrate the Competition that was held earlier this year.  It was a wonderful lunch at a Thai restaurant.

The Entree was a work of art consisting of muscles and prawns, just wonderful.  The next course was crab with deep fried lime leaves.  It was so good I forgot to take a photo!

Just the rice left on the plate and that was delicious.

The main was this wonderful tender beef with chilli, just look at those potatoes.

The dessert was a lychee sorbet.

Back to work tomorrow.

Wasting time.

Days just sort of slip by when you don't have the routine of work.  You get up and next thing you know it's lunch time.  That puppy is the worst time waster I have ever come upon.  I start sewing and next thing you see that tail disappear out the door and you know she has stolen something.  I have had to put all my cottons up on the wall because of her!

I Have finished a couple more tops, both of which drove me mad!  The pattern said it was for polar fleece.  The polar fleece must be very thin because the pattern was sooo big!  Flattering the find that I'm a small size by the time I had resized the pattern.

When we were out at Boonah the other weekend we stopped at a small pub in Dugandan for lunch.  There were a few people sitting on the verandah and the front bar only had a couple of patrons.

But, we walked into the dinning area and found the place was packed with families and groups.  This was timber country though most of that has been cleared for cattle farming and there are some crops.  And like all small towns the Honor Role of ANZACS who served in WW1.

I liked the chandeliers.  Bundy and coke tins.  For those who don't know Bundy is a rum.  When I first went out west in Queensland I couldn't get over the amount of rum that was drunk, more than beer.  But when you think about it there was no refrigeration and the rum was distilled in all the sugar mills up the coast.  This little pub in on the edge of the hat town region and with the spread of the suburbs the old ways are being squeezed out.  I wonder if my kids realise what is about to disappear?

Last day of competition

I have survived the State cookery competitions   for another year.  Hospitality involves being physically fit, both back and front of house.  Each year it takes a little more effort, on the physical side, for me.  But it is great to work with wonderful Chefs and young people who have a passion for what they do.

This piece won first place for the food sculpture competition this year.  It is made of margarine.

Now it's time to get back to sewing!!!

Feeling my age.

Last night Kay brought along this patchwork bag she made, I think that I will have to make one.

Today was the State cookery competitions, 'Chefs of the Future', for schools.  I was working as the head Marshall, which was setting and clearing tables and making sure that the students had all the ingredients etc.  It was the clearing of tables that got me.  I used to be able to clear a table of 12 at one go.  Today my back didn't like carrying that weight.  All the students performed really well.  They had to make a main and dessert and worked in pairs within a time limit.  They had to plate up 4 serves, 1 for judging, 1 for display and 2 for taste testing by the public.  Some of the food was impressive.

This was Olive and anchovy chicken with trussed herb crust with apple and onion.

This salmon looked delicious.

As did this dessert.

There was a wonderful display of chocolate work by apprentices.  They and the chefs will cook tomorrow.  I hope my back holds out.