Blossom

I spent all of autumn taking pictures of trees in their glorious seasonal colours, so it is only right that I show the other end of the spectrum, the beautiful blossom that is covering our city in delicate shades of pink, cream and white.

I do love autumn, the rich red, orange and golds of the city seem imbued with the warmth of the summer past.  The blossoms of spring are different.  They hold a message of hope for the summer to come.  They speak of the coming warmth, the banishment of the long cold winter.  They are full of life and happiness. Every year the first brave blossom arrives while the days are still short, dark and cold but my heart lifts at the sight.  I know that spring will soon be upon us and I revel in their beauty.

After days of glorious sunny weather today is grey and thundery and the blossom is looking a bit bedraggled from the rain but  I know that these examples I saw over the last week or so are only the beginning.

Enjoy!

What is your favorite season?

When is a pie not a pie

There is a hard fought debate over whether or not quiche is appropriate man food.  S has a long held view that he doesn't like quiche, something I didn't know the first time I made it for him.  The thing is, he does like my quiche but to hold up his anti-quiche reputation he proceeded to rename this one zucchini pie.  This name does cause difficulties on occasion, when S requested an egg and bacon pie I made him a quiche lorraine - he actually wanted an egg and bacon pie.  Still this remains one of our go to meals.

Zucchini pie is a brilliant meal.  Delicious, tasty and best of all there are always leftovers.

If I have time I like to make the pastry, mainly because I enjoy making pastry, but also because it is extra flaky and delicious.  However store bought shortcrust works just fine.  I serve this with a nice garden salad.

Zucchini "Pie"

Pastry
210g plain flour
100g butter
1 egg yolk
cold water

Filling
olive oil
1 onion finely diced
2 rashers of bacon diced
2 medium zucchini grated
100g tasty cheese grated
4 eggs
100ml light thickened cream
pepper to taste

With your fingers work the butter into the flour till it looks like breadcrumbs.  Add the egg yolk and then cold water a little at a time till you have a smooth pastry that holds together and doesn't crack.  Give it a light kneed.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.  Alternately you can use pre-made shortcrust pastry.

Grease a 23cm quiche or shallow pie dish with  butter.  Roll the pastry out till it is 3-5mm thick.  (Tip, it is much easier to roll if you roll it out between two sheets of baking paper.  It doesn't stick to the bench or the rolling pin.)  Line the pie dish with the pastry and prick the base with a fork.

Blind bake the pastry case by first baking for 10 minutes with the base covered with baking paper and weighted down, then 10 minutes without the weights and baking paper.

Fry the onion and bacon in a little olive oil until onion is golden and the bacon is crispy.  Drain on paper towel.

Mix the grated zucchini and cheese together then add the bacon mixture.

Put the zucchini mixture in the pastry case.  It will look like the case is full.

Whisk the eggs, cream and pepper together, then carefully pour over the zuchinni.  It will soak in and should fill to the edge of the case.

Bake for approx 40-50 minutes till puffed and golden brown.  Allow to sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Floriade

One of the joys of living in Canberra is the seasons.  We get all four in all their glory (well except for last year when summer forgot to arrive).  Hot green days of summer, the golden trees of autumn, icy winter many times complete with snow and the brilliant flowers of spring.

There is no place better to experience the colour and scent of spring than Canberra's annual flower festival, Floriade. Each year has a theme, this year it is style and design but the themes never mean too much to me, I go for the glorious display of over a million flowers in bloom.

Of course like any festival there is the side show.  Stalls selling everything from hamocks to jam, soap to tea and everything in between.  There are performers, rides, bands and entertainment and of course the gnome knoll.  One of these years I might even manage to get to Nightfest, the 5 nights Floriade is lit beautifully and open for an evening of entertainment.

But all of that is just a side show.  Floriade is about the flowers.  True to my girly girl nature I adore flowers, so this is just heaven for me.  Today was a stunning spring day.  Clear blue sky, warm sun, a light breeze.  I wore a dress and a short sleeved cardigan and at times felt a little hot in the sun.  We wandered pausing to admire blooms or stop getting in people's photos.  The park was full of families, tourists and cameras everywhere.  It was absolute heaven.

If you love flowers and have the opportunity, I highly recommend a visit to Canberra at this time of year.  It is just stunning.

Spanish Cream

S loves dessert.  Actually S LOVES dessert.  I thought my family were into over catering till I saw the dessert selection at his house at Christmas.  There is nothing that makes him do a little dance of joy quite as quickly as the discovery that a new dessert is awaiting his taste buds.

With such a willing dessert eater at her table each week, Mum has been creating more and more elaborate desserts for our family dinners.  Once upon a time dessert was an icecream, or some fruit salad.  Now most Wednesdays there is a new creation, made specially for S.

As I mentioned earlier this week, Mum recently found her mother's recipe book and inspired by that made the 70's classic, Spanish Cream.  S liked it so much he googled recipes the minute we got home and when we had to bring a dessert to a dinner party last week it was his first thought.  This recipe is a combo of my Oma's and a Women's Weekly one.  It is an interesting dessert, while you mix it all up in one bowl, it sets into two distinct layers, a jellylike cream layer with a moussy fluffy layer on top (well on the bottom when you turn it out).  You can just see the second layer in the bottom corner of the picture.

When mine set there was a funny break in the fluffy layer which I think was from how I poured it into the mould.  So I would suggest carefully pouring it into the mould from one side only.

I served it with strawberries that had been marinated in a little cointreau and sugar and the whole thing went down a treat. There is nothing quite like delivering a quivering, jiggling, wobbly dessert to the table to bring out the inner child - and have people purposely knocking the table for some extra wobble, but it was people going back for seconds and thirds that really had me smiling.

Spanish Cream
3 eggs separated
3/4 cup cater sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups milk
3 teaspoons gelatine
1/3 cup hot water

Whisk egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in a pan until thick and creamy then whisk in the milk.  Stir over heat, without boiling, until the sugar is dissolved.  Bring to the boil then remove from the heat.  Sprinkle the gelatine over the hot water to soften, then stir into the milk mixture.

Beat the egg whites in a small bowl with an electric mixer until firm peaks form.  Fold whites into milk mixture in 2 batches.  Carefully pour into a wetted mould (4 - 5 cup capacity) or individual dishes (we did one in a margarita glass, it looked awesome) and refrigerate until firm.

If you have set it in a mould, turn out onto a large plate and decorate with strawberries to serve, otherwise top your glasses with some strawberries.

You can make this a day or two in advance and it will keep fine covered in the fridge.

Frocktober is here again!

It is that time of year again.  When I start looking through my wardrobe, getting excited about the prospect of a month in dresses.  Yes that is right, a whole month wearing nothing but dresses.

If you are new to reading this blog, you may not be familiar with the concept of Frocktober.  Frocktober is a month long fundraiser for ovarian cancer research.  It is a choose your own adventure type fundraiser, but all the activities involve frocks!  You can frock up on Fridays, have a special frock afternoon tea.  You can wear a different dress every day of the month or the same one all month.  You set the challenge and get sponsored.

Last year I wore a different dress on every day of the month.  This year I will again be frocking up, but each Friday I will wear the same dress styled differently.  That dress is to be revealled (actually it is yet to be chosen) but here is a taste of what you can expect throughout October.

If you would like to join in, the frockettes would love to have you.  Just head over to the Frocktober website, set yourself up a page and choose a challenge then get as much sponsorship as you can.

I will be blogging about my frocking adventures including the biggest part of the month, the annual fundraising dance I run called Rock your Frock.  If you are in Canberra or will be on the 13th of October I would love to see you there.  All the details can be found on our Facebook page.  I have had amazing support from the Canberra dance and business community so there will be some wonderful prizes on offer and as everything from the venue to the prizes has been donated, every dollar that comes in the door will go to the OCRF.

It isn't often that we can raise funds for an amazing cause simply by getting dressed in the morning, so I really encourage you to join in.  Frock on!

Oma's Baked Cheesecake

My Oma (Grandmother) was not renowned for her cooking.  Well in a way she was, but not a positive way.  I think it says a lot that my Mum's favourite meal as a child was boiled new potatoes served with parsley and butter.  However, my Oma was German and could therefore bake a good cake.  I have a theory that it is a genetic thing available to all German / Austrian people.

Recently my Mum found Oma's old handwritten recipe book.  Some of the recipes are in old German that Mum can't even read, but there are plenty she could including some 70's classic dinner party items, one of which will feature later this week.  My excitement on the discovery of the recipe book though was that it contained my Oma's cheesecake recipe.

I've never been a huge fan of the set cheesecake.  I find them overly sweet, too creamy and rich.  Needless to say S loves them.  Even most baked cheesecakes are too rich and sweet for me.  This cheesecake however is traditionally made with quark, a sour firm cheese.  It is available in Australia but according to those in the know (i.e. my Mum) doesn't taste the same, so the best substitute is farm cheese.  You do need to push it though a sieve to crumble it finely enough.

The resulting cheesecake isn't particularly sweet.  It has a slightly sweet/sour flavour, doesn't taste as fatty as a normal cheesecake and has a firm if slightly crumbly texture.  Needless to say I LOVE it.

Oma's Baked Cheesecake

750g farm cheese
200g butter
375g sugar
6 eggs separated
Juice and grated rind of 1 lemon
Packet vanilla sugar
Slivered or flaked almonds - amount to taste, I would use about 100g
3 - 4 tablespoons semolina

Preheat oven to 180oC.

Grease a springform pan and sprinkle with semolina. Line base with baking paper. (NOTE: if you want to make this gluten free you can leave out the semolina, I accidentally did, just really grease your pan well).
 
Push the farm cheese through a sieve so that it is finely crumbled.

Whip egg whites.

Cream butter and sugar, add egg yolks and some of the lemon juice. Beat until well incorporated. Add the rest of the juice, sieved farm cheese and vanilla sugar. Finally fold in the whipped egg whites and slivered almonds.

Pour mixture into pan and bake for approximately 70 minutes.

It will still be quite jiggly when you take it out of the oven.  As soon as you take the cake out of the oven carefully remove the outside of the pan. This allows the cake to settle uniformly.

Remove the cake from the base when it is completely cooled.  Serve with whipped cream.

R U OK? Day

Today is R UOK? day.  It is a day dedicated to inspiring everyone to regularly ask each other “are you ok?”  This might seem a really simple message, but ask yourself this, when did you last ask someone if they were ok?

I am actually quite a shy person.  This may come as a surprise to many, but I’m what is known as a shy extrovert.  I love being with people and get my energy that way, but I’m still actually quite shy and have had to learn to have an outgoing personality.  Doing drama at highschool was fantastic for me, it gave me a whole heap of resources which enable me to overcome my shyness to be a part of the social situations which make me happy.

However, there are still plenty of times when my shyness comes out and asking if someone is ok is one of those situations.  I find that there is something confronting for me in asking that question, almost like I’m intruding on their privacy, but those times when I have overcome my inner shyness to ask the question have invariably resulted in some really great conversations and a few times in me being able to really help someone.

R U OK? Day is a great reminder for me that this is a really important question and one I shouldn’t hesitate from asking, even when my shyness tries to get the better of me.

R U OK?