inner pickle

hells bells

We do a bit of music in our house.

I love it, the kids love it, and (ahem) apologies to the neighbours for all the drumming and maraca-ing. And, um, now I may have bought some bells.

A whole scale of them.

They're quite tuneful and they remind me of being a kid and playing the bells with my Mum (who taught music at Minnamurra Primary School and bought them an AWESOME set of tuned bells which she'd bring home for us in the school holidays.)

Adam came home tonight to Tilly ringing C and E together, very enthusiastically. At least it's a chord.

Oh the joys of toys that make music.

Yes, the neighbours must love us. *Grimaces hopefully.*

xxx

something so beautiful

John William Waterhouse is my favourite artist of all time. 

He was an English Pre-Raphaelite painter and something about the lush medieval-style gorgeousness of his paintings struck me from when I was a teenager. 

Looking at his work, for me, has always been like taking a deep breath of warm summer air. 

I am Half-Sick with Shadows (Lady of Shalott)

Ophelia (Blue Dress)

This was almost my wedding dress. I had the dress maker drawing the pattern before I chickened out for something more traditional. To be honest I've always been a bit sorry. 

A Mermaid

Anyone who knows me knows I had a print of A Mermaid on my wall from first year uni. It moved from house to house with me. When it finally disintegrated about 5 years ago, Adam replaced it with a beautifully framed print of this one:

Ophelia (by the pond)

Fair Rosamund

For the medievalists!

Destiny

This is probably one of Waterhouse's most reproduced paintings. Gorgeous, right?

Miranda and the Tempest

I know it might sound a bit fey and daft but I've always felt like I recognised this painting. 

I hope you think these are as beautiful as I do!

xxx

treats for you, not them

Not sure about you but I occasionally have a stash of something totally un-allowed in the cupboard. Not just child unfriendly but totally inappropriate. 

It's my own secret stash. A particular treat for a particularly dire afternoon perhaps, when the whinging and whining and washing just about does me in. 

Peanut M&Ms. 

I blame Rachel (beloved sister in law) for this weakness too. A bit like the McVities, surely without Rachel I would never have discovered the chocolately marvellousness of a peanut M&M?

Those fabulously artificial colours. 

The fact they could easily be magic beans, designed to grow a beanstalk.

Adam doesn't even like them. Perfect. 

What's your crutch? Please confess!!

xxx

too many toys

I've been promising myself and the kids that we're going to sort out the toys, give away the ones we don't want and then also give away the ones we don't need. 

Probably like you, we've accumulated so many. And they really play with so few. The puzzles. The Duplo. The trains. The box full of musical instruments. The one with a hammer and balls. The doll's house. The dolls. That's about it. 

So we're underway. 

Here's one that's staying, one of our favourites. It lives on a shelf of toys that still need a bit of supervision, alongside the tiny china tea set and the bottle of bubble mix.

You flick that lever at the bottom and the planes go round and round. Endless fun. A wonderful mechanical toy from Hong Kong, from Henry's god parents, Kevin and Jodi (our favourite Canadians.)

Long live simple battery-free toys!

xxx

Dougie's to-die-for Guacamole

My very grown-up and wonderful six year old nephew Dougie had dinner at my house a few nights ago and earnestly recited a recipe from memory that he had seen being made (on Playschool) and that he thought I might like. 

More than anything I loved the fact he gave me a recipe. One that he thought very hard about and carefully remembered. 

Doug: Auntie Fi, I have a recipe for you. I think you should make it.

Me: Fantastic, Dougo! What is it?

Doug: Avocado dip. Here's how you make it. Mash one avocado up. Chuck in some cream cheese.

Me: (interrupting) Cream cheese, are you sure? Not sour cream?

Doug: (thoughtful for a good minute) No Auntie Fi. It's cream cheese. Then chop a tomato up really small, and chuck that it. Yep, that's it. Avocado. Cream cheese. Tomato.

Me: Dougo, you're excellent.

Doug: (shy smile)

He's the best.

So here's Doug's Avocado dip.

Now to be strictly honest, I added a couple of things. I really didn't think he'd mind, and if you were making it just for kids I'd stick with Doug's. But I was making this for Adam and I, so here's what I put in:

Doug's Avocado Dip (with a couple of extra bits)

1 large ripe avocado

1 tablespoon light cream cheese

1 ripe tomato, de-seeded, finely chopped

salt and pepper

juice of one lemon

1/2 cup finely chopped chives

Thanks Doug. You're excellent.

xxx

PS Here's a wee pic of Doug and his brother Jim. It's an oldie (I think 2 years old now) but a goodie. Photo by Owen Beckinsale, lovely brother-in-law, Dad of future foodie.

(Thanks Suze.)

xxx

recipe for fun

What you are proud of in your child says so much about you.

Some people are proudest of their child's good manners. Some of clever speaking. Some of inventive imaginative play.

I am intensely proud of the fact Henry, 4, can crack a series of eggs into a cake batter without a morsel of shell in the mix. Clever fellow. He knows the ingredients list for pikelets and can make a batch of cookies (with a bit of help). Yep. I am very proud. 

Today I have an old friend, Melissa Linardon, to thank for our biscuits. (Thanks Mel.) She posted a comment on an earlier post reminding me about my Mum's Cornflake Cookies. I haven't put cornflakes into biscuits for ages. 

Surprise surprise for regular readers, it's the old visitor biscuit recipe. But today, because the kids would be eating them, Henry and I halved the sugar and they were totally delicious. Crunchy, light, sweet.

Cornflake Cookies

125g butter, melted

1/2 cup raw sugar (use white if that's all you have)

1 egg

2 cups self-raising flour

2 tblsp custard powder

1 cup cornflakes

Stir melted butter and sugar together. Add the egg. Add the flour and the custard powder and stir. Add the cornflakes. Stir. Ball into cookies and press onto a baking tray (lined). Cook in moderate oven (180deg) for about 10 mins or until golden. Makes about 24 cookies.

Best eaten outside for afternoon tea.

The other thing we discovered today was popcorn. I've never given my kids popcorn as Henry has always been a bit of a choker and Tilly was too little. She's two and a half now and Henry's much better with irregular-shaped food, so we gave it a try. It was a HOOT.

We put this stuff (above) into an electric frypan with a bit of canola oil at the bottom. I remember my Mum making popcorn like this. Except my frypan has a glass lid!! I would have taken a photo of us watching the popping, but I was laughing too hard at the kids laughing at the popping. 

It was raining, it's the end of the school holidays and the couch and Shrek the Third beckoned us. Bliss.

xxx

quickest apple pie ever

OK. In a recipe for a super quick apple pie you might think making your own pastry might be ridiculous.

But seriously, this pastry is SO QUICK to make you'll have it rolled out quicker than defrosting a piece of store-bought stuff, I promise. 

I had a moments notice that Ad was bringing some friends home for dinner. One was a friend he worked with in Brisbane who I (and Adam) adore so I wanted to whip up something quick and yummy. 

I don't normally go in for tinned fruit, as you know, (less nutrients and all that) but if you have a tin of apple in your pantry or frozen berries in your freezer you've usually got these ingredients to hand.

Try it. If you're not totally sold on homemade pastry after this, I'll.. I dunno... eat my hat?

QUICKEST APPLE PIE EVER

Pastry:

Put 250g of self raising flour and 125g cold cubed butter in a food processor and whiz up. Add 1 egg yolk. Whiz. Add about a tablespoon of icing sugar (this is optional). Whiz. Add about 5-6 dessertspoons of iced water (I get a cup of tap water & add ice from freezer) until it binds together. This will depend a little on your flour so sorry I'm not being precise. When it's ball-like, take out, roll in cling wrap and put in fridge for 10 mins or until stiff when poked.

Construction:

Break pastry into two pieces, one about 2/3 of whole, the other about a third. Roll out larger bit of pastry on greaseproof paper. When right shape for your pie dish (I use an average pie dish which I think might be 20cm across? Really I have no idea,) up-end the greaseproof paper over the pie dish and peel off the pastry. Much better chance of it coming off in one piece.

Fill with one big tin (800g) of pie apple. Or stuff you've cooked yourself, even better. Or some berries too. DELICIOUS. If just apple don't forget a good sprinkle of nutmeg and cinnamon. A wee sprinkle of sugar over the fruit doesn't hurt either.

Roll out smaller piece of pastry and place over top of pie. Crimp edges. Brush with milk. Bake in moderate oven (180deg) for about 20 mins or until golden.

Serve with icecream or cream or yummy vanilla yoghurt or custard. Oh. Yeah. 

xxx 

mum's winter garden

Mum and Dad have a gorgeous garden. They live in an old farmhouse, and the gardens are quite large. Here's some of the garden in winter (just imagine springtime...)

I love the water-spitting frog

Endless lemons...

...and my question about seasonability of strawberries answered! 

Drove past a guy selling berries by the side of the road near our place and he said their farm in the Shoalhaven finished their season a couple of months ago, the farm in Victoria finished their season three weeks ago, and these were fresh off their farm in Queensland where the season is in full swing. 

So there you go! And they were DELICIOUS. Gotta love Queensland. 

xxx

not quite coffee picking

Playing in the coffee rather than working: marvellousness. 

Not that I've done much coffee picking the last few seasons as I've been conveniently absent from the state of NSW. (AND I still score home grown/picked/processed+roasted beans. Counting myself very lucky...)

We did a lot of hiding and seeking instead.

My Mum, the hide & seek queen.

When the cherries are dark red, that's when we pick them. If you're free in October, please give me a call! Dad has 100 trees (his retirement-from-dairy-farming project) which yield about 60kg of beans.

Mum went too hard on the seeking, Henry on the hiding...

Beautiful trees.

xxx

on the farm

We're staying with my parents on the farm for a couple of days, breathing the fresh air and drinking lots of home grown coffee.

I love this place.

Dad has bees. He got his first hive when he was 14. These hives are slightly newer (and I'm guessing the bees aren't as old as Dad!) ...not that Dad's that old... just in case you're reading this post?!

Lilies grow wild in the paddocks, in the marshy bits near the windmill.

It's not just me who loves it here...

xxx