caro-rose-creations

A busy weekend

Saturday saw myself and a group of friends hire a mini bus and head up to Toowoomba for the beginning of the Carnival of Flowers, along with a good percentage of Brisbane.  We left at 8am to miss the traffic.  It didn't work, but we got up the range and arrived about 10:15am.  Just behind us two buses broke down and blocked the highway and people were stuck for over an hour waiting, not very patiently.

Once the Carnival is on your know it is really spring.  We went to see the Quilt Show,  I will be returning during the week to get some more photos of the quilts and the flowers.  We got home about 6:30pm and then it was off to a concert.  A very long day.

I like the Toowoomba Quilt show for a number of reasons.  Firstly it is a country show and all the quilts are by the members.  This means there is a huge range.  From a quilt for the kids right through to the best of the state.  Secondly there is always embroidery on a lot of the quilts and some of it is stunning.  I will return later in the week to show some of Robyn Ginn's quilts.  The detail is just delicious.

 I love the Lantana flowers, those are just the colours of Lantana flowers, and wht about those leaves?

She has a different way of seeing a crazy quilt.  It is and it isn't a crazy quilt.  Look at those beautiful buttons.  I will take a few days next week to showcase each of her quilts that were in the show.

Next morning I just didn't want to do anything so we walked down the road to a local bakery/cafe, who bake the best bread, and had breakfast.  I think I was still asleep when I put my order in because cheese and jam doesn't really appeal but this was delicious.

 

Lemon Tarts - 1

I was thinking about what else I could do with my Lemon Butter and remembered how my grandmother used it.  She used to make pastry tart-let cases which she would store in an airtight container and bring them out for when visitors came.  

I found this photo of her when she was young,

and this one where she was in her 80's (on the left) with my maternal grandmother.  This is how I remember them both.  After my grandfather died they lived together and called each other Mrs Tollis and Mrs Floyd.  No first names here, reminds me of Jane Austen characters and they never went out without a hat and gloves.

She was a very old lady, in her late 80's, when she showed me how to make pastry.  My mother died when I was 16 and it was this grandmother who had stayed with us every time she went into hospital.  I seem to remember it was this same long weekend all those years ago when I was initiated into how to make pastry.  I was probably about 18 years old.  Looking back I see that her life at this time was rather solitary.  Her children all had families of their own.  She still had one boarder who lived with her but I don't think they were very close friends.  She had a maiden niece who had been the eldest in her family when her parents had died  she had devoted her life to raising her brothers and sisters.  They were firm friends and attended the same church.  This photo was taken in the early 1900's on the banks of the Parramatta river, this was very rural in those days.

It was a weekend andmI was shocked at having to walk the 2 miles to get to churchand then another 2 miles to get home again.  But this little old lady walked this way all the time.  I have always admired her.  She had been widowed when she was 6 weeks pregnant with my father and  had 4 other children.  It was the depression and she couldn't withdraw any of her money from the bank.  But she and her sister ran a corner store, stables and took in boarders to survive.  I had a look on google and the shop is still there but the stables are now a child care centre.  It all looks very seedy.  Most of the people who live here now are migrants from the middle east.

My father attended school at Elizabeth Farm which is now a Museum and was the home of the MacArthur family in the early days of the colony.  It is now the oldest European building in Australia.  My father's great grandfather was a Lieutenant at the Lancer Barracks at Parramatta. Another one of those military families who put down roots here.

How could pastry lead to all this reminiscing?  Next installment the pastry.

Lemon Butter

Some times I get a craving for Lemon Butter.  I don't like the type you buy in the supermarket so it was back to Di's Mum's recipe.  Mary O'Neil makes a mean lemon butter and her microwave recipe it just so quick and easy.  I didn't have to buy anything, everything was in the pantry.

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons of butter

juice of 2 lemons

1/2 cup of sugar

I put everything into a bowl and gave it a good whizz with the electric  hand mixer then put the mixture into a pyrex jug and into the microwave on high for 1 minute.  A good beat with a wooden spoon then back into the microwave for 3 more 30 second bursts, beating between each time with the wooden spoon.  By this stage the mixture was coating the back of the spoon so I knew that it was ready.

I had sterilized a glass jar and it was still warm, so in went the mixture even though it was still hot. ( I knew that hot mixture wouldn't crack the jar because it had been heated.)

There was just a bit of the mixture what wouldn't fit in the jar so I had to make some toast so that it wasn't wasted.

When the jar cooled down it looked so delicious I dressed in with a lace doily and a piece of ribbon.

A lot cheaper, quicker and more tasty than buying at the supmarket.  Thanks Mary.

(P.S. Make sure you store it in the refrigerator, it will last a couple of weeks,  mine is always gone long before that.)

A quiet day

I had a quiet day at home today.  Vacuumed the house, did the washing, watered the garden and made some chocolate cup cakes.

I made a batch the other day but they have all gone.  I also made a new patchwork bag for Monique.  It is 10" X  9", just a bit bigger than the last one.  This time I recycled a piece of an old doily that I had cut up for something else.  I had enough to make a front and back panel.

This time I bound the top edge which was a lot easier.

Then all these little friends I found at Ikea the other day jumped inside.

A flower bag for my flower girl.

Food & the Baby Blanket

Thought the best thing I could do for the new parents, (my son and his wife) was to cook enough food so that they didn't have to cook for the next week.  That has meant chopping lots of vegetables and putting everything into containers for delivery. 

My secret weapon for the broth is pearl barley it bulks up the soup making it more like a stew. 

I made 2 pasta meals, 2 casseroles, stuffed chicken drumsticks, plus a huge pot of beef broth.   I have to say the look of appreciation on their faces made the time spent worthwile.

When I delivered the food baby Jasmin was just finishing her feed and was off to sleep.  My first grand daughter needed to be swaddled but this one is happy just to be covered up.  A lot of the things I made for Monique didn't get used as she was born in high summer.  This baby has arrived at the beginning of winter.  When she was put down she was covered in a flanelette blanket I made for her sister. ( I posted a tutorial for making this.)

I bought a few pieces of this fabric in Houston  (USA) and have searched for something the same or similar ever since, with no luck.  It was a Moda fabric and the quality of fabric was beautiful.   Hope this baby keeps sleeping like this.

A big day

After three years today is the day that I resign from my position as Treasurer of my Professional Association. Before that I was President for 2 years so it is a big day for me.  This has been a very difficult job.  Fueding with the Tax Department, reconstructing all the records when I first took over only to lose them all when my computer was zapped by a lightening strike and I had to start again, learning to use an accounting computer package.  The people I worked with were wonderful and the events we staged were terrific but from this point on I am just going to be a supportive member.

Now I intend to give all my engery to textiles and design, food is now a hobby.

Zumbo

There is this amazing cake shop, that isn't the right word it is far more than just a cake shop, in Sydney called Zumbo.  Sweets to die for.  The most delicious cakes that are indescribable.  I know what my daughter is getting for Christmas, if I can get a copy.

Follow the link to Not Quite Nigella for the most fantastic images.  Just make sure you have eaten first because you will be drooling.  Oh, and I'm winning that competition.

That's it !

I have finally completed my last Hospitality Event.  My legs are aching from standing all day and I have little voice left as I was the commentator for the event.  I now intend to draw a line under that career.  Today was the "Becoming a Barista" Competition for the Chefs of the Future.

We had wonderful sponsors and great competitors.  I sure miss teaching teenagers.

It was full on all day with three machines running constantly.

The event was held at Blue Sky coffee and customers at their coffee lounge were interested in the proceeding as well as all those involved in the event.   I was impressed with the signature drinks that students designed.

 
AND THEN, I spotted all these great bags that had held the coffee beans and were going to be thrown out.

Now what could I do with these?

 

I have had better days

I got up early this morning to attend a 7am meeting that is on next week!  Not a good start to the day.  Then when I got home Charlie wasn't happy because I didn't feed her before I left.

This followed a busy day yesterday.  I was baby sitting in the afternoon and evening so had to prepare the evening meal in the morning and I needed to make some lemon butter spread because if I didn't all the lemons I had bought would spoil.  I used Di's mother's microwave recipe for the spread which is beautiful.  Just a couple of tips.  Have your butter and eggs at room temperature and I used a glass bowl so that I could beat the mixture with a hand held electic beater.  (I found that the mixture made 2 small/medium jars.)

(image from Di's blog)

Now all that sounds straight forward doesn't it?  The problem was that my daughter came home to decorate a birthday cake she had been commissioned to make.  This resulted in the kitchen bench and table being taken up with her things.  I had to work near the kitchen sink.

She had already taken over my dinning room table with her quilting,

and I found she had taken over my bathroom as well and she doesn't even live here.

I returned home after baby sitting to find I had been left a present, the washing up.

Tomorrow is going to be a great day, she has to work all day.

 

 

 

Keep Calm

Life is ganging up on me at the moment. Visitors have just arrived to 'surprise' me from interstate and I am on supper tonight at my patchwork group.  No way I can get out of that.  I thought they were coming tomorrow.   Because of that I made arrangement for my daughter to fill in for me at the Regional Flavours of Queensland state cookery competitions.  Now she tells me she has to work.  Well I will have to take them with me.