Herman the German is back!

Herman is back!

I've missed Herman... It's true, when you can't have something, you want it more.

Herman and I were friends for some months. I looked after Herman until one day I had a slip of concentration and accidentally killed him off!

Herman was no more....

Now I should probably explain that Herman the German is actually a cake. No, he's not just a cake, he's a friendship cake. I wouldn't usually associate a gender with an item of food, but I will make an exception with Herman. He's a little bit special. You can't buy a Herman cake and you can't just decide on a Sunday afternoon to make a Herman cake - you have to be given the starter culture. It could be said that Herman is ageless and indefinite.

Well, maybe not quite indefinite....The story about me accidentally curbing Herman's existence needs a little explanation.

Herman is actually a version of those irritating chain letters that you got when you were a kid but it's without the irritating bit.
Basically you start with a bowl of gloop culture - aka baby Herman.  This is similar to a sourdough starter and this is what you look after for 10 days before it becomes cake Herman. You stir baby Herman daily and feed him with sugar, flour and milk on day 4 and then again on day 9. At this point baby Herman becomes too big for his bowl and you create four equal portions of him. You can then keep the chain going by passing on three of these portions to friends.  On day 10 you are ready to make a cake from your remaining portion. (I would usually pass on two portions, bake one and keep one going.)

On one occasion after feeding Herman the necessary ingredients on day 9, I then forgot to divide the mixture into 4 and just went ahead and made a ginormous, enormous feed an army sized Herman cake. The cake didn't work and I had no baby Hermans left! It was a sad day....

However....one of the friends that I had previously given a baby Herman to, had gone against the instructions of keeping Herman warm and loosely covered in a large bowl and had gone ahead and put him in the fridge - what a wonderful rebel she is!

So about five months after I had passed him to her she gifted me a refrigerated portion and even though it was touch and go for the first few days I revived him and he's back.

Yesterday was day 10, so I have given two portions away, I have one ready to go through the 10 day cycle again and I also baked one. The best bit is that it worked. Herman became a cake and he was delicious!

Next time I'll give one portion of culture away, I'll bake one, keep one going and I'm going to try freezing a portion, It will be like something out of a sci-fi cryonics novel! I wonder if he'll survive that?

It's always a well received cake whatever I do with it. There are many variations and the one I made last night had chopped up apple and a handful of cranberries.

Good to have you back Herman,


Link to the Herman the German Friendship cake website - HERE

Just some little everyday things...

The other day I spoke to a friend who asked me why I didn't blog so much anymore.

"Oh you know, life is a bit busy...." was my rather flippant reply.

She told me that she used to enjoy reading about the little everyday things that we got up to.

It got me thinking that as I fill my day with little everyday things I should find some time to record them.

The big things in life - the holidays, the concerts, the birthdays.... they all stay in the memories. It's the other smaller events that we forget.

So as I attempt to get back into this blog space I shouldn't just wait for a big event. Life isn't really like that is it? It's made up of smaller moments that are equally as precious.

So let me share my Monday.

I was mooching around the house contemplating a rare day of no plans when my phone beeped with a message....from my 11 year old.

"Can you come to a gardening and kitchen lesson this morning?"

I haven't done much with her lessons in school over the last couple of years so I decided to forgo the housework (not too difficult a decision) and replied with a "see you there".

I had a coffee date with a friend first thing. It was a mixture of sadness and tremendous excitement. She is leaving Australia to return to England. I handed over the baby blanket that thankfully was finished in time and we just about kept it together.... with both of us prolonging that final 'cheerio'.

"we won't say goodbye, as we will see each other next time I visit home"

Then I hot footed it up the hill to school.

I love the fact that even though Sibs is in her final year of primary she still gets excited when she sees me in her school.

After a lesson in the garden moving earth and mulch and pavers, I joined her and her friends for morning tea before the next lesson in the kitchen.

This is where they get to use the ingredients that they grow and create a meal for the class.

Each group of about four is given a specific menu item to complete from start to finish. We were making Gyoza.  The rest of the class made Garden Sushi, Fried rice with tofu, Edamame and wasabi salad with chilli dipping sauce and last but not least Crunchy fried noodle coleslaw.

Lunch was provided as a thank you for helping out - I wasn't complaining.

 The children prepare from start to finish, even setting the table and washing up. It was a joy to watch them work together and try out different foods and ingredients. I popped a packet of gow gee wrappers in the supermarket trolley that afternoon - there will be gyoza on the menu soon in this house!

On the crochet front I spent some time getting lost in hearts this weekend.

I decided to pretty up the laundry room with a bit of colour and use up some scraps of wool that I had in various spots around the house. Of course that led to a need to sort out said wool and what do you know - I have a yarn shop in my house!

When did I buy all of that??

This necklace was a really quick project. I saved an image of something similar on my phone months ago. (I'm afraid I have no recollection from where but I think it was from an instagram photo.) Anyway, I felt that I could now give it a go and voila.

It's a bunch of individual chain necklaces (you now that easy stitch that you start learning with). Go as long or as short as you want - just remember to count the same number of chains for each necklace! Then in a contrasting colour it's a few rows of double crochet that you sew together to secure the necklaces. I can see a few different colour combinations happening quite soon....

So I'm off to a yoga lesson in a bit, where I get to stretch and breath for a while. Then back for school pick up, quick turnaround between that and violin lesson, dinner,  and then Sibs and I are off to the theatre.

Just everyday small things....

An Australian Christmas

I sat down with the laptop this afternoon fully intending to do a bit of a 2013 reflection.

My laptop however had other ideas and decided that it was going to throw a bit of a tantrum. So after de-bugging and removing and uninstalling various programs I'm a bit over searching for just the right photos and I'm just going to concentrate on one day in December. Let me share with you my December 25th.

Christmas 2012 I was back home in Wales in the cold. It was stuff that the storybooks show - shops decorated until they were full to the brim, Christmas carols everywhere, hot chocolates in cafes and white frosty mornings - magic!
Christmas 2013 was in Brisbane in the heat. It was air con and fans, cold drinks, dips in the pool and lots and lots of people.

Before I talk Christmas day, let me start with Christmas Eve.

There aren't many  houses that show signs of Christmas around here. In fact, you could almost be forgiven for not noticing it's that time of year. There are no street lights or decorated trees outside of the city centre. There are however a couple of houses that put up a few lights....

a local house getting into the Christmas mood!

So on Christmas Eve we ventured out just as it turned dark to go and view the house with the lights. As we were nearing we spotted some red and white lights in the sky.

"Look, it's Santa on his way to New Zealand" I joked...

My eleven year old did a double take with eyes wide and muttered something like "You're kidding right?"

There hadn't been much talk or questions about the man in the red suit this year, and I hadn't initiated any conversation either. There was no milk or carrots left when it was bedtime and to be honest I was a little heavy hearted.

However.....when I went to say goodnight I found a stocking and this little note on the bedroom door.

Yes! One more year..... (thank you Qantas!!)

Christmas morning is all the same wherever you are in the world. It starts way to early! The stockings are inspected and there is always chocolate at some silly hour before breakfast. Then when the first cup of tea has been drunk it's on to the presents under the tree. 

It's not Christmas without my friend Jo Malone... diolch mam x

Our usual late breakfast/brunch is smoked salmon, eggs and toast and we shared this with Gu and Tadcu (welsh grandparents). Of course there is a need for coffee at this time as the day had already been going for hours!

We were entertaining at home and the numbers had been steadily increasing in the days up to Christmas. In the end the final count was 25.

The biggest challenge was not the food and drink, but where was everyone going to sit and did I have enough plates and glasses?
The ping pong table came in handy..... covered in a table cloth it worked a treat.
Ikea came to the rescue with cheap glasses and with some borrowed wine glass charms we managed just fine.

it's not an Australian Christmas without prawns.

Everyone contributed and we had a feast.

To start - crudities and dips, mini yorkshire puddings with beef and horseradish.

Fish course - prawns on ice, lemon yoghurt sauce, orange roughie, tomato and cucumber salsa, feta red onion and watermelon salad.

Mains - slow roasted pork, glazed ham, home made pork pie, spinach and feta rolls, green salad, potato salad, quinoa with vegetables and nuts, chick pea salad.

Dessert - mini meringues with cream raspberries and passion fruit and lemon curd, fresh fruit salad, home made macaroons and of course chocolates!

I think we had enough food!

The thing I love the most about Christmas this side of the world is how the day is very relaxed. We sit around the table for hours catching up with family and friends. The food just keeps appearing and the afternoon becomes evening before we know it. 

The children have hours of fun in the pool and playing cricket and always put on some kind of a show. Even the four dogs and two cats behaved themselves!

So another year is over. I'm grateful for many things and thankful that I was able to share December 25th 2013 with special people. 

School holiday baking - raspberry yogurt cake

It's Spring school holidays here in Brisbane. Two glorious weeks of freedom. I just love the change of pace and the chance to slow down. I'm very fortunate in the fact that I can buy extra holiday days from my employer and it means that I can plan to take school holidays off with my girl. It's a great extra benefit to my job that I'm extremely grateful for.

catching up with her cousin

Living in such a glorious part of the world we often don't feel the real urge to go away anywhere on holiday. Often the two week blocks away from school are spent pottering, catching up with people and generally taking life one day at a time. We seem to be able to fill the couple of weeks with trips to the cinema, picnics, swimming, play dates, baking and not too much clock watching. It's a time to refresh and recharge.

So we are half way through the holidays and Sibs has just left to go for a swim and play with a friend  and I thought that I would take this rare 10 minutes to write a quick blog post. Of course nothing ever takes 10 minutes and in my ipad and instagram world I had forgotten just how long it takes to fire up the laptop and download some photos from the camera....!

Anyhow, now that I've got going I want to share a recipe that I tried out last week. I love baking and creating in the kitchen and most of the time I will find myself reverting to making the same things over and over again. When it's holiday time, Sibs and I will trawl through books, magazines and more recently online to pick out dishes and goodies to try. One of the things on the list last week was a raspberry yogurt cake.

I found this through one of my favourite blogs - 'Tea for Six'. (link HERE) I often source meals and dishes from Natalie's blog and she is a constant source of inspiration for me.  This cake sounded just the thing for a morning tea treat to go with a coffee and berry smoothie. Her children had declared it the best cake ever and those were the exact words used in this house too. 

raspberry yogurt cake

Raspberry Yoghurt Cake

1 cup of vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups of caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup of full fat Greek yoghurt
2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup frozen raspberries

raspberry yogurt cake

 cream cheese icing

(I halved the quantities below as I didn't quite have enough ingredients and in my opinion it was probably just the right amount)

100g unsalted butter
250g cream cheese, softened
500g icing sugar, sifted

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.  Grease and line a 23cm springform cake tin.

Whisk together the vegetable oil and caster sugar.  Add the eggs one at a time and whisk. Then mix in the yoghurt.  Fold through the flour like you would with a muffin mix – a little lumpy is OK so don’t over mix.  Fold through the raspberries then pour into the prepared cake tin.

Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until cooked through (if it is browning too quickly and taking longer to cook then just cover the cake with some aluminium foil and continue to cook until cooked through – test with a skewer) .  Leave to cool in the tin. Once completely cooled ice with cream cheese icing.

For the icing, cream the butter and cream cheese together until pale and smooth.  Mix in the sifted icing sugar

(This cake recipe is from ‘Nourish’ from Bardon State School via 'Tea for Six' blog)

raspberry yoghurt cake

It's a very simple cake to make and the yoghurt makes it very light and moist. I think next time I will probably add a few extra raspberries and possibly omit the cream cheese icing and just dust it with icing sugar. All in all a big hit of a cake to add to the repertoire.

Happy holidays

x

glorious Queensland sunset September 2013

Peanut butter and oat slice from 'The Recipe Book'

When I first moved across the seas to Australia it was only for a year... 

Everything was left back in our home for our return 12 month later. We arrived with a suitcase each and a couple of small boxes. After unsuccessfully looking for a furnished home the budget had to stretch to making an empty house livable. Down to one reduced income it gave me an opportunity to concentrate on necessity and to look at purchases in a different way. We were living the dream experiencing life on the other side of the world... albeit on a shoestring budget, but we managed... (thank you Ikea!).

So that year was the year that I got to go back to basics. I was so fortunate to be able to spend time with my then three year old. We had a ball. Walks and picnics along the river, trips to the museum and library, playing in the parks - all free. I relished that precious time and often reflect with a lot of gratitude on how circumstances enabled me to take time away from my career and concentrate wholly on being there for Sibs. 

I think that was the year that I really learnt how to cook and bake. It's not that I didn't know my way around the kitchen before, it's just that I think I had seen cooking as a means of just getting a meal on the table. With the luxury of time on my hands I began to enjoy just making things. 

Instead of the numerous cook books that graced my kitchen shelves back in rural Yorkshire my suitcase contained just one - The Recipe Book. In it I had scribbled some favourite recipes and included a few torn out ones from magazines.

I soon realised that many of the recipes were very British. Not much call for stews and casseroles in the Brisbane heat! So I picked up those free magazines that supermarkets put together now and again and worked my way through them. It wasn't that long ago, but there was no iPhone or iPad and the only laptop we had was used by Neil most of the time so it back to old fashioned print.

Talking of necessity buying we of course bought a barbecue and spent many a balmy evening on the back deck enjoying a meal whilst watching the possums jump around the trees. No real need for any recipes for that.

Over the last year or so I've sourced most new recipes from blogs and websites viewed via the ipad. I have a nifty little stand for it in the kitchen and it's so compact and easy. However, every now and then I'll have a browse through the old recipe book and revisit some old favourites. It takes me back to the kitchen in our first Australian house. If Sibs is with me she will always talk about the time that she was once helping to bake  a cake and managed to tip a full mixing bowl of wet ingredients over the floor. Yes, I remember that day...it was the day we were expecting the agent to do a house inspection and she was due to arrive just at that instant!

The other day  I fancied something with my morning cup of coffee so I went back to the book and found this recipe for peanut butter and oat slice.

I don't always have all the ingredients to hand and I was low on rolled oats  I made it up with some muesli flakes. I also added some cranberries and omitted the sesame seeds. If I keep to the main ingredients then I usually swap and change some things around and it always works ok.

 

These freeze well too. I cut them into muesli bar size and wrap in foil, then they're ready to take straight from the freezer to put into lunch boxes or taken as a snack out and about.  I know they are not the healthiest things but as a treat now and then they taste good - and you know exactly what's in them.

As I was taking some photos of my recipe book look what was hidden amongst the scraps of papers in the back?

Little Sibs in her cot having a nap about 10 years ago. 

Now I wouldn't find that searching for a recipe on the ipad...

Pear Vanilla and Cinnamon Jam

Once a year I become jam making mama, and each year I tell myself that I should do it more often. 

I've mentioned before how huge the school fete is out here. So huge that I dust off the big pot and make jar upon jar of jam. So huge that it takes over life for the school community for a couple of months. A few years ago Neil helped to convene the fete - now that was extra huge! Anyway, that's all another story, what I wanted to record here was my latest adventure in jam making as I actually think that this is the nicest tasting jam that I have made to date.. 

Let me walk you through Pear, Vanilla and Cinnamon jam.

I don't hold any claim to being an expert jam maker...not by any stretch of the imagination, but I have to admit that if you have enough time on your hands then it's pretty straight forward and easy. 

I chose a Saturday when Neil and Sibs were away camping so I could take over the kitchen, plug in the ipod and make jam to my hearts content.

My choice of jam flavour was entirely spontaneous.....it was whatever fruit was on offer! At $1.50 a kilo, pears became the flavour of choice. So armed with a box of pears, a few kilos of sugar and a coffee I set myself up for a few hours of domesticity.

First step in jam making is to have plenty of empty jars. I gave them a wash in the sink to try and remove as many labels as I could and then put them through the dishwasher before popping them in the oven to sterilise. (more on that later)

It's very satisfying seeing gleaming glass jars all ready for the 'fruits of your labour' (pun intended!)

Whilst the dishwasher was doing its thing I got on with the slightly laborious task of preparing the pears.
First off I peeled them, then used a corer and slicer to cut them. This was pretty easy as the pears were quite soft.

 They look a little like hand cut chips here. I didn't get the weight of them unpeeled and uncut, but 40 average sized pears gave me 3.5 kilos once prepared as above.

I put a couple of centimetres of water in the bottom of a large pan together with the juice of half a lemon and added the pears and cooked them until soft. I made the jam in two batches so put in  2 kilos of pears in the first batch. I added some vanilla at this point. I only had vanilla extract in my pantry so I added a couple of teaspoons. I'm sure you could use vanilla pods or any vanilla flavouring.

Once the pears were soft enough to be mashed you then add warmed sugar. I warmed my sugar in the oven.

I believe that that general rule about jam making is equal quantities of sugar to fruit. So for 2kg of pears, I possibly should have added 2kg of sugar. However, I only added 1.5kg of sugar and it turned out fine.

Then you boil away - vigorously. The first batch that I made was just pear and vanilla and when I tasted it just before decanting into the jars I felt it was a little bland. The sweetness of the vanilla was nice, but it was a touch sickly. I rummaged in the pantry and found some ground cinnamon and added a teaspoon to the pot. This gave the jam a slightly darker colour and a lovely warm flavour.

Once the jam has been boiling for about about 10 mins you need to check if it's setting. I'm sure experienced jam makers will talk about the correct temperature for this, but I just use the cold saucer method.
When you put your jam onto boil put a few saucers in the freezer. To test if your jam is set, just remove a cold saucer, place a teaspoon of jam onto it, leave it a few second and run a knife through the jam. If it separates  then your jam is ready. I had to do this 3 times before my jam separated and didn't run together so the boiling process took closer to 30 minutes.

Once this point has been reached, remove the pot from the heat source and fill your jars. I would recommend the use of a funnel and rubber gloves as the jars can can very hot. Screw the lids on tight and you're done.

A couple of hints and tips.

If the labels on your jars are really sticky, tea tree oil can be effective in removing them.

After dishwashing your jars and lids put them on a tray and place in a cold oven. Switch the oven on to 120c and leave them there until you're ready to use. This will sterilise your jars.You can place your bowl of sugar in the oven to warm through at the same time.

If the jam isn't setting  (different fruits can vary with timing and sugar quantities needed) then you can use pectin/jamsetta. Just follow the instructions on the packet. I have used jamsetta in the past and it's rectified very runny jam.

If you spill any jam whilst filling the jars wipe away as soon as you can - it's much easier than trying to clean it off later.

Fill the jars as close to the top as you can.

Make sure the rims of the jars are clean before sealing with the lids.

My 40 pears (3.5kg peeled and chopped) made 18 medium sized jars.

When I make jam it always reminds me of a mum from the school. She was one of the Jam Stall Conveners for the school fete one year. Sadly and cruelly she passed away a few years ago. She was the one that introduced me to jam making when I told her that it all sounded too tricky.  I have her notes and some recipes that she gave to me and even though they are a little crumpled and splattered I always refer to them when the big pot comes out of the back of the cupboard.
So I'll raise my jam sandwich in your memory F xxx

Pear Vanilla and Cinnamon Jam (Makes 15 -18 jars)

3.5kg of peeled and chopped pears
2.5 kg sugar
Juice of one lemon
Vanilla extract or pods
Ground Cinnamon

Peel and chop pears
Cook in lemon juice, vanilla and a couple of centimtres of water until soft
Add warmed sugar
Add cinnamon  (approx 2 teaspoons).
Dissolve sugar and then boil vigorously.
Check after approx 10 minutes to see if the jam has set. If not continue to boil for 5 - 10 minutes before checking again.
Once done, pour into hot sterilised jars and seal

Birthday wrap up

The birthday celebrations that started on Friday continued through until Sunday.

Thank you to all who sent their best wishes.

Here's my 'capture the moment/treasure the moment' account of the weekend 

no birthday is complete without cake - thank you to Papa for this one.

Sibs's birthday was a school day and she took the obligatory chocolate muffins to share with her class at morning tea break. The number requested kept going up and up...at one point she wanted to take in 45! We compromised and after ensuring that her classmates were covered there were a few left over for a couple of special teachers and friends and I think the Principal enjoyed one with his morning coffee.

Osaka Japanese

On Friday evening Sibs invited a couple of friends to join us for dinner in a local Japanese Dining Bar. She took great joy in ordering all our food and drink and sitting at the head of the table. Relishing the fact that she was 10 - double digits! It was finished off with gelato on the way home.

Max Brenner

On Saturday morning Nana, Sibs and I took a stroll around Portside and just happened to find ourselves at Max Brenner...as you do! This is chocolate heaven. There was a cruise ship in port and we people watched with the best of them.

Then it was back home to begin preparations for the next installment - the party.

table set for a Jane Austen style dinner

 Over the years Sibs has had a butterfly party, a rainbow party, a disco party, a pizza one, a tea party - nothing too challenging really. This year she pondered for quite a while about what kind of party it was going to be and just couldn't make a decision between two things. So why not go for both?  It started with a Jane Austen theme...

we used the old  Bridgwood China

Fruit punch was served when they arrived and Papa was the butler. He did a sterling job! The table was set for four girls to enjoy a proper sit down roast dinner with chicken and beef and Yorkshire Puddings (that they found very interesting). It was all going to plan and they were having fun pretending to be little ladies until one of them went to cut a brussel sprout, accidentally missed, and her peas went flying across the table and onto the floor! Cue, lots and lots of giggles...

After a dessert of trifle, they changed head space (and thankfully rooms) and it became a One Direction party! Yes, this is the wonderful multi dimensional, glorious complexity of my girl! My ballet loving, rugby loving daughter is a fabulous mix of interests...

One Direction is a relatively new interest in this house and she received a tour DVD from her aunt and uncle for her birthday and the girls bounced and jumped (yes, straight after trifle!) and screamed to it.

the fruit punch was good....but not that good!

That was a good time to open the bubbly!

A little while later the cake was presented with candles and sparkles and we all toasted the Birthday Girl.

The merriment continued with a sleepover, breakfast and morning tea on Sunday.

just in case we needed more cake on Sunday morning!

Another year, another birthday, another set of photos for the memory box.

I hope that Sibs continues to have this amazing zest for life.

 That she keeps embracing different interests; 

that's she's comfortable to be who she is. 

We love her dearly for it...