A Lovely Surprise

This working business is wearying.  I'm needing to do things differently, to fit everything in.  There is organising and planning to be done before I start each day.  More time driving in the car, so we all have to be on time in the mornings.  Girl 1 is making all the lunches.  Girl 2 is sacrificing a little bit of her much-loved sleep to be ready for school 15 minutes earlier.  And we're getting into a new routine.  Working on Sundays is hard, hubby is doing the very early shift, then I'm taking over the morning to mid-afternoon one.

It will all become easier I know.  Our busy timetable will soon be etched into our minds and not just scrawled onto a big piece of butcher's paper hanging on the kitchen wall.  Today I got such a lovely surprise when I arrived home from work.  I walked into our house to find our two gorgeous girls all dressed up, and I was led to the dining room table.  They had prepared a banquet for afternoon tea!!

The table had been set so beautifully.  There were candles glowing, pretty plates and favourite glasses and lots and lots of roses from the garden.  Bowls of fruit and bowls of chocolates.  It was very decadent indeed, for a Sunday afternoon in summer, but oh so welcome.  We toasted everything we could think of until it got silly.

A scrumptious Orange Ring Cake had been made by my girls, my Mum's recipe, and a favourite of ours  It had lashings of chocolate icing, cherries and tiny Easter eggs on top!  There is always a surprise element to cake decorating practices in this house.

It was such a perfect welcome home from work, which lead to a lazy, fully content afternoon of magazine reading and cups of tea, with just a few *domestic goddess* duties thrown in and not much thought of the week ahead.

Feeling twice and thrice times blessed, and then some.
Wishing you all a lovely week.
Trudy

Good Little Cakes

There has been some baking in the kitchen this morning.  A first-time recipe for me, using my Great Grandmother's 'Good Little Cakes' recipe.  This is a photo of her, on her farm in Tassie, collecting eggs.  Maybe she was off to bake some Good Little Cakes herself?

The recipe was handwritten at the back of the Hobart Cookery Book, along with other recipes such as Green Gooseberry Jam, Ointment for Cracked Hands, Anzacs, Ginger Drops and Raspberry Slice.

It was lovely to think that here I was in 2013 baking something my ancestor, Elizabeth baked years earlier.  If she had been baking these Good Little Cakes early in her marriage which took place in 1897, then this recipe has been baked, shared and loved for at least 116 years.

I wondered about the mention of "new" milk and also the "small" cup measures of flour, but the mixture looked fine (and tasted good) so on I went.

Would you like the recipe?  Great Grandma Elizabeth's Good Little Cakes :

Beat together well 3 eggs and 3/4 cup sugar.

Add 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup new milk and 3 small cups flour

with 2 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar and 1 1/4 teaspoons of bi-carb soda.

Mix well and add 1/2 cup sultanas, 1/2 cup currants and some peel.

Put into patty tins and bake in a moderate oven for 15 minutes.

After all the romantic notions of collecting the chook eggs and using fresh milk from Bessie the cow and measuring the flour in a pretty tea cup and guessing the exact amount, it was definitely enough for this little black duck, so I reached for Betty Crocker's Creamy Deluxe Milk Chocolate Frosting and finished the job off!  It was time for tasting anyway and I had two very eager helpers at the ready.

I'm not sure what Great Grandma Elizabeth would think of the green icing, but I'm sure she'd be happy her recipe is still being used and enjoyed.  Yes, they were yummy!

On the crochet-front, this is where I'm up to with Girl 2's cheery and bright blanket.

One-third of the way through, having decided on a grid of 7 x 9.  Nine different patterns, seven of each.  21 squares done, 42 to go and still enjoying it.

Trudy

In the Kitchen

Those who know me well may have a little chuckle at this point, there could be thoughts along the lines of "does Trudy know where the kitchen is?", but it is true that for the last couple of days I have spent many happy hours in the kitchen, in Christmas preparation mode.  My dear friend came to visit, to teach me how to make individual puddings ...

 

in teacups, in the frypan!  We made a lot, for a Christmas celebration on Sunday.  The table will be full-to-bursting with family and food.

 

 

 

And in between I have been thinking of the daily Reverb questions.  I am a bit behind because Monday's answer did not come immediately to mind and still has me wondering.

 

What do you really wish for?

Obviously the big stuff, that goes without saying, and then the healthy/happy stuff for family and friends, but I think this question is for me/for you. And the reason I've had such trouble answering this question is that I don't know what I really wish for. If I did I think I would be taking steps towards my wish. And I won't say there's nothing I wish for, because I don't live in a perfect bubble with everything "just so"; I do know there is something, I just don't know what it is.  Does this make sense?

 

 

Reverb 12, Day 4

How are you going to celebrate yourself this festive season?
I am going to celebrate myself by being gentle, by walking on the beach, by reading good books, by getting enough sleep, by eating well.  I will recharge and reflect and dream.

 

Reverb 12, Day 5
What was your dream destination?
An easier question, good!!  My dream destination, which actually took place this year, was Cradle Mountain, in Tasmania and my dreamy-dream destination is always, and will always be, until I really, truly visit and not just in my head, is Italy.  Italy ... destination of my dreams.

Reverb 12, Day 6
What did you learn?
I learnt that a whole day in the kitchen, can produce 34 Apricot Balls, 53 Fruit and Nut Balls and 25 Chocolate and Hazlenut Truffles .  I also learnt that life is fragile.

Would you like to ponder these questions too?  To sit quietly with each one.  Here they are again.
What do you really wish for?
How are you going to celebrate yourself this festive season?
What was your dream destination?
What did you learn?

Trudy

Rosy Posy Brooch

This is the easiest thing to make with knitting needles, without knitting a stitch.  Anyone would think I was a knitter looking at this assortment of needles, but this was my Mum's collection, and I dipped into it to find a couple of size 8mm needles, which seemed to do exactly what was asked of them.

I first stumbled over this little project at Henhouse, so thank you Hen for this rosy posy brooch idea, a brooch that can be made in the blink of an eye, a flick of a wrist!  No turning of the heel or working with four needles or knitting into the back of the stitch or psso, no sir-ee, just plain old simple winding.  Here is the end product, this is Hen's.  Do visit her blog, it has a lovely vintage feel to it.  And look, aren't these just the bees knees?

All you need are some scraps of wool, those pesky, little bits that you don't know what to do with but can't quite bring yourself to simply throw away.

And maybe a small smackerel of something, in case of tricky, patience-testing moments.  Crafting is always more fun with tea and a little something, especially if that little something is home-baked biscotti by a nine year old girl.

Now comes the winding part, wind around and around the needles about eight times, then with a contrasting bit of wool tie a knot around it's middle and there you have it, a little woolly flower.

And then lots of woolly flowers.  Stitch them onto a backing of choice.  I chose a piece of wool felt, then glued it to a piece of cardboard, then onto another piece of wool felt for a bit of colour interest.  A brooch-pin stitched to the back and it's done.

It was decided by all who first looked at my brooch that the wonky cutting of the circles was more endearing than shabby and showed a true home-baked product!!

What have you been making at your house?

Do you throw away those little ends of wool?

Do you have another idea for using up the leftovers?

Trudy

Upside-Down Antics

For those who know me well, it will come as quite a surprise - shock, even - that I was inspired, by Kate at Fox's Lane (thanks Kate!), to bake.  This involved printing off the recipe, foraging for the ingredients, setting aside some precious time, but yes, I made an upside-down plum cake and I spent quite a bit of time admiring the end result, because I've never made an upside-down anything before!

Mind you, it took a bit of convincing on my part to remove this juicy, plumy display from the table and to chop them up and cook them upside-down, but when the cake came out of the oven, and the smell wafted through the house, and the thumbs up came from 75% of the family, I knew it was all worthwhile.  There was a moment during the proceedings when I dropped the self-raising flour that had me pondering why I was baking and not doing any number of others things in the house, and then that other moment when I was on a timed beating of the mixture and the phone rang ... but then it's all part of the joy isn't it, that and the wondering whether it will turn out alright?!

The 25% of the family who didn't really enjoy the plumy part of the cake, Girl 2, has requested a pineapple upside-down cake next time.  Next time?  This could turn into a bit of a habit, this could turn into something I enjoy doing, this could be very bad for the "fitting back into the groovy orange top hanging on the outside of my wardrobe"!!

What scrumptious smells have been escaping your kitchen this week?

Have a lovely weekend.

Trudy