inner pickle

cows are in the meadow...(or down here: paddock)

Guess where we went this weekend?

All the following photos of Mum and Dad's farm (our escape-hatch) taken by Adam. 

(For the record, I haven't messed with the colour or light in any of these. It really is that green. And the light was really that amazing on Sunday afternoon. And Ad is pretty deft on the camera! He's not just a spunky face. Or a nice bum. Yes OK I'll stop.)

 
 
 

xxx   
  

a Friday in pictures

While she napped ~

~ I sat at my new desk (thanks, babe) ~

 ~ and calculated the cost per cupcake of a small catering job I'm doing tomorrow for a friend's business (my favourite kind of work). I didn't look at the mess behind me. I ignored the chaos of those shelves. I'm just grateful for this space which includes somewhere for my sewing machine (the space used to look like this) ~

That gorgeous quilt Tilly is napping under is one of a few absolutely gorgeous quilts our friend Jodi has made for us. And this week she gave me a quilting lesson! Here's a tiny one I made to practice matching the corners up etc (obviously haven't finished the binding) ~

~ am now raring to go! ~

~ while I was matching up fat quarters and diving into my fabric stash to see if anything coordinated, a batch of my favourite favourite no-knead bread was rising on the bench; happiness under a teatowel ~

 ~ and while it was in the oven I dove into one of the many boxes of hand-me-down (actually mostly hand-me-back!) clothes for the baby... some I remember from Henry, some were Tilly's, some new sweet additions too ~

~ these tiny shoes Tilly wore when we flew from Brisbane to Sydney when she was 9 days old... I can't tell you how excited I am to be about to put them on another wee pair of feet. So excited. 

  And when she woke up, Tilly and I had our favourite afternoon snack: homemade bread with homemade peanut butter. I don't care how crunchy granola hippy tragic that makes me sounds. It's delicious.

I hope you have a truly delicious weekend. 

xxx

 

feeding small children (or Part 2 of 2: Flawed)

It's hard, right?

And anyone with children under six who says

* oh my children eat absolutely everything 

* dinnertime is always such a relaxing time of day

* I satisfy my creativeness in the kitchen and my children play quietly somewhere else while I'm cooking

is a cyborg. 

Really, they are. If you know one of these people I suggest checking all electrical currents nearby. 

I know some households have share-cooking arrangement but I can only talk about the households I know where it's the women doing the thinking, shopping and cooking. (In the interest of full disclosure I should admit I have a share-cooking arrangement in my house. I shop and cook and Adam cleans. We've done it like this since way before kids which is lucky because I am the single most incompetent cleaner or dishwasher you've ever met. I hate cleaning, he hates cooking. Perfect.)

Anyway. Back to the dinner table at six o'clock at night with two tired children that just want something for dinner that they recognise. Except their mother is currently unable to face shopping for or cooking and certainly not eating any kind of meat at all. Not even tuna. So there's been a bunch of new dinners on the dinner table as I trawl through our vegetarian options and try to make sure everyone's getting enough iron and protein. 

A few nights ago I made a delicious Nigella Lawson recipe, Pumpkin and Goats cheese lasagna, recipe here. Really yummy. Henry, usually relatively compliant with anything to do with pasta and/or pumpkin, flat out refused to try it. I cajoled Tilly into at least tasting it and she spat it out. Which of course you're not allowed to do here, but I don't think she's ever done it. I wasn't actually mad, I was just dejected. Then there was the spinach and goat's cheese frittata. Also very tasty. No go. Not at all. I was out that night having dinner with girlfriends and I'd made the frittata and left it for Ad to take out of the oven. He retreated to tinned soup from the back of the pantry which they also refused on the grounds it wasn't "good soup" and they had vegemite toast. They were lucky it was Daddy, not sure I would have fronted up the third option. 

What are your tactics?

If they don't eat it, do they go to bed hungry?

I've never wanted food to become a battle. I don't make a big fiasco out of it and am relying on the fact that one day they'll understand I'm offering pretty tasty healthy food that is probably worth trying. 

I also keep forgetting that when Henry was the age Tilly is now, he pretty much ate tinned spaghetti for about six months and not much else. That was all I could get him to eat. It was a phase, he grew out of it. 

Tonight? I made broccoli, sweet potato and barley soup and Henry had two bowls and Tilly ate all hers, no argument. Weird children. 

It's just that when it's you in the kitchen, and you serve up something you know is nutritious, and there are arguments and tears and lying down on the chairs and deliberately dropping of things under the table, it's just depressing. 

So if it's ever happened to you, please know you're not alone. I'm raising my glass of water to you saying cheers, lady. 

And as soon as I finish breast feeding this baby not even born yet, I'll be raising my glass of shiraz to you which always made dinnertime refusal a bit easier to take. 

Cheers to that. 

xxx

Part 1 of 2: floored

Hey I made something! (Other than a child - still a highlight.)

 A sewing project! I am on fire.

Just a wee one, honestly, took about as long to choose the fabric (while constantly picking Tilly up off the floor who decided to "sleep" in the middle of an aisle of Spotlight) as it did to sew up.

A floor mat for a new baby friend we met for the first time on Sunday.

When I first had Henry a friend of Adam's made me a floor mat that turned out to be one of the most useful gifts I was given. It's still in circulation today - it's been around three or four bubs now.  

This one I made from heavy curtain fabric so it's sturdy and durable and I put a layer of batting in the middle.

Then sewed up the edges and sewed a couple of seams through the centre (which I *cough* admit I didn't even pin because I am bodgy. Miraculous they're even straight. Mostly straight.)

 I hung it over a chair for day (before I gave it away), having a quiet little admire. 

So pretty!

Stay tuned for part 2: flawed. Nothing to do with sewing and everything to do with cooking for small reluctant totally unpredictable and completely inconsistent eaters. I just need a day to recover my composure. See you tomorrow.

xxx

all in the name of research

OK so the David Lebovitz icecream was very good, but a little fiddly. 

Having a dedicated tendency to err on the simpler side of things, I remembered a friend talking about icecream made with condensed milk. Mmmmm, condensed milk. Another good reason to have it in your pantry, right!

So I tried this: 

BASIC VANILLA ICECREAM

1 x 400g tin condensed milk

1 x 600ml pot of thickened cream

1 x tsp vanilla extract

THAT'S IT!!

And oh my goodness, here it is:

Apart from being dead easy to make, it's so creamy and delicious, and you know exactly what's in it. No hidden "natural" colour 160b (careful one that little one.)

I poured the three ingredients into a big bowl and used a hand beater to whizz up well first. Then put in into an icecream maker and pulled it out after three hours or so and beat it again. You really don't need an icecream maker for this - but you do need to re-beat it once it's partially set to get that whipped up icecream texture. Handbeaters will do the job or a wooden spoon and some good elbow grease. Think about those burning calories. Or not. 

Store it in the freezer (obviously) - mine's just in a plastic container with a lid on it. You don't need anything fancy. And damn it tastes fancy. You'll LOVE this. 

xxx

one more for the road

Yes, there seems to have been a LOT of cake this week. 

Not really representative of this house, but whatever. We've had a cake or two this week. 

So I thought I'd leave you with one more on this lovely Friday: the one Henry's had in his lunchbox this week. I originally made it for Adam who loves loves loves sultana cake (particularly his mother's - I know I have the recipe here somewhere, I have to get around to organizing my maniacal recipe collection someday soon) - but turns out H-Bomb loves it too. (Or maybe he just loves everything his Dad loves. Olives. Camembert. Cakes with fruit.)

I found this recipe here. And it's truly great. Not as great as my mother in law's - but still great. 

I made it in a ring tin and so cooked it for only an hour, not an hour and three quarters. 

It has a LOT of butter in it compared to an average cake, and twice the number of eggs. 

But a sliver for morning tea for a kid who otherwise snacks on bananas and carrot sticks and organic dried apricots is OK with me. 

Hope your week has been stimulating and your weekend ahead is relaxing. 

The kids are almost in bed (thanks, honey!), the sewing machine is out and the iron's on. It may not look like Friday nights once looked, but gosh it looks good to me. 

Happy Fridaying!

xxx 

when bad things happen to good cakes

To be hereby named the 'lapse in judgement' cake.

It is in fact the very easy orange cake (one of my favourites), iced and also filled with good old butter cream (not the white chocolate icing I've made previously) and due to time pressures, iced and filled while still warm (oops) and transported with icing not set (oops again.)

Hence lopsided and wonky and truly not that attractive.

Luckily it wasn't really about appearances.

It was about this dude's birthday:

Kevin, who makes up half of a couple who are some of our best friends and also Henry's godparents.

  Henry counted out the candles. Kevin told him he was turning seven which Henry thought was about right, but added a couple of extras for good measure. 

And really, who cares what cake looks like?

Nope, me neither.

Hip hooray!

 xxx

hey guess what?

Would you believe in blog-land there's such a thing as a blogiversary? And that I completely missed mine? I've been posting to Inner Pickle for over a year now! May 4th last year was my first post. 

Never being one to turn down an opportunity for cake, here's to a year that I never expected and totally adored!

 THANK YOU! 

Thank you for reading and commenting and supporting and getting it. I'm so incredibly happy to be here in this little spot and that you come back daily and be part of it. I wish I could serve you all up a slice of delicious 4-egg chocolate cake (recipe at end of post), I seriously do. Just to sit down with you and a cup of tea and a cake fork. 

Instead, we're going to play a parlour game. I'm going to tell you a few things about me that you might not know and then you have to tell me something about you.

OK, here goes.

1. When I first met Adam I may have pretended to be more outdoorsy than I actually am. (Although I don't believe he was fooled by my shiny mountain bike for a second. Might have been the black beret/9-hole Doc Martins that gave me away.)

2. I keep talking about learning French but never get around to it. 

3. I have a partially researched PhD topic that I would love to go back to one day. It was on the food supply of the armies of the Crusades. I may have been the only person on earth who thought it was terribly interesting. 

4. A small piece of my heart lives in a small town outside Frankfurt, Germany (one of my beloved sisters moves around a lot.)

5. Turns out pregnancy number three is a total breeze. If you've got two and you're considering a third, I'm a big advocate for the pregnancy bit. Let's review "breeze" in six months time. 

6. In high school I wanted to be a composer. I started writing a musical with a friend of mine when I was 15. (He's gone on to become a very accomplished composer. I now compose silly songs to amuse three year olds.)

7. My favourite novel is Middlemarch, by George Eliot. I think. Or maybe it's a trashy Sharon Penman historical fiction. Or The Little Bookroom, by Eleanor Farjeon. 

8. My favourite food has been variously baklava, cheesecake, grilled cheddar on toast, marinated goats cheese and a really good apple or blackberry pie. I am a fickle, fickle lady.

9. The job I've held down longest was in corporate marketing and communications in financial services. My shortest job was as a private investigator reporting on a medical professional under investigation for fraud. My favourite (and lowest paid) job was for four months only, as a cook for a big preschool.

10. I've lived in Gerringong (country NSW), Sydney, London, Brisbane and Edinburgh for the duration of the Fringe Festival for two seasons. Of the places I've visited I'd most like to go back to Jerusalem and Istanbul. Of the places I've never been, the one I'd love to go to most is India. Or Nepal. Or Tibet. (Hoping our kids like travelling.)

OK! Please tell me something about you! Go on! One or ten things, whatever you like!!

And meanwhile, here's the Chocolate Cake recipe.

It's from the Country Women's Association of NSW and I found it on the side of the White Wings flour bag!

INGREDIENTS
2 cups self raising flour

125g softened butter

1½ cups caster sugar

4 eggs

½ tsp bicarb soda

1 tsp vanilla essence

½ cup cocoa powder

1 cup milk

METHOD
1. preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan forced.) Grease and line 20cm round cake tin.

2. Place all ingredients in large bowl and use a mixer if you have one (I don't) - I used hand beaters - for 3 mins, on medium speed.

3. Pour into tin and bake for 1 hour 15 mins - 1 hour 30 mins, or until cooked. Cool for 5 mins in tin then turn onto wire rack. Ice cake when cool (if your kids are leaning on you for icing!) 

xxx

Homemade Vanilla Icecream

Yuuuuuummmm. 

Ever made your own icecream? I've made it a few times, including a semifreddo phase I went through in the early nineties. THAT one was bad for my bum.

But I've never made a 'custard' based icecream. I wanted to try this because being pregnant I can't eat anything with raw eggs in it - which most homemade icecreams have.

This recipe is based on the AMAZING David Lebovitz's vanilla recipe here, with, I admit, a few steps skipped out. He's the king of the scoop, David Lebovitz, and I wonder if I'd stuck to his method, if it really could have been any more sublime. Truly. This stuff rocks. 

I served it for lunchtime dessert to a bunch of friends on Sunday (with this pavlova) a pairing which conveniently uses up all the whites of the yolks you used in the icecream! 

SO good. 

Here's the recipe:

Vanilla Icecream (Recipe by David Lebovitz - with a couple of minor adjustments (*cough*, short-cuts)

 

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup (250ml) whole milk

A pinch of salt

3/4 cup (150g) sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

2 cups (500ml) heavy cream

5 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

METHOD:
1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the milk with a paring knife, then add the bean pod to the milk. Cover and remove from heat.

2. In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks. Gradually pour some of the milk into the yolks, whisking constantly as you pour. Scrape the warmed yolks and milk back into the saucepan.

3. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.

4. Stir the custard into the heavy cream, add the vanilla extract and remove the vanilla bean.

5. Either put into an icecream maker (which has a pre-frozen bowl and freezes the mix quickest) or a container with a lid or foil over it, in the freezer. Needs at least 8 hours to really freeze through. If you're using an icecream maker make you would usually pull it out and blend it again when semi-frozen (after 3-4 hours). I don't think this is necessary though. Still the creamiest, vanilla-y, most delicious icecream I've ever tried. 

There's about 2 small scoops left. Which I think Ad and I might polish off shortly with a small slice of this (even though it's not Friday night dessert night!!)

A new chocolate cake recipe with 4 eggs in it! (I only ever use 2.) Will try it and if it's any good, will blog it!

(All in the interest of recipe testing, of course. The things my bum and I do for you gorgeous people.)

xxx

 

on this day...

...seven years ago, I married the most excellent man I've ever met.

We'd already been together six years, moved to London together for two of those, backpacked for another eight months and bought an apartment back in Sydney together. And had actually decided not to get married. I'd even broken that news to my mother. Then there was an amazing dinner at Rockpool, and a surprise proposal, and a ring, and who knew the whole wedding palaver could be just so much fun?

Thirteen years and I still think he is the funniest most marvellous most easy to live with person on earth. 

If I hear a great story or read something interesting he's the first person I want to tell. 

I can't imagine enjoying children this much with anyone else.

I can't imagine being so pleased to see someone every morning and every evening and still find him the single most hilarious person ever. 

Happy anniversary baby. You rock my world. 

May 17, 2003 

xxx