Can't Live Without

Can't Live Without  

What is it that I can't live without? In teacher's college, many years ago, I was taught about needs and wants. Using what I could remember of this knowledge I made a decision.

 I could not live without a lot of things. But I decided that I could not live without my multi-focal prescription eye glasses because without them I would lose so much more.

Without them I could not knit, sew, read, help my Grand Daughter, shop, take photographs, (can you see how out of focus the above pic is? I took it without my glasses on - of course)and so much more. What would be the worse is not being able to see my most loved members of my family, or helping with the little things we take for granted.

How about you? What is it that you Can't Live Without? 

I Saw This

I Saw This

November Birthdays Celebrations - Halloween Theme

End of an Era

As you can see from the piles of earth and temporary fencing, work on the new road began five day before hand over, limiting our access to various parts of the property, turning areas of ground into mush after recent rain, and upsetting my Mum with machine noise (which triggered traumatic memories from her time during WWII).  All because the head honcho read his work sheet incorrectly. 

The above photograph was taken on the 21st August, which was the penultimate day of my mother's fifty third year of ownership of the family home.

We were blessed, I believe, with our own personal rainbow extending from one boundary to the other.  (It was a double rainbow too but I'm not sure you can see it clearly in this photo.)

We experienced quite a few hassles with various authorities that day but the handover, which happened the next day went better than any of our wildest expectations.

Here I am airing our grievances to various authorities.  

We did get an apology I might add.

It has been a rough journey which has opened my eyes to even more knowledge about the world.  

Now that one door has shut, the family looks forward to another door opening and the start of an new era.

Break Time

Last night's sunset,  near Mum's house.
What once was a dairy farm, will now accommodate 400 new houses.
The Blue Mountains can be seen in the background.  I still remember the first time I saw the Blue Mountains, I was only eight years old and the mountains have  been the family's backdrop for 54 years.
In 1988 Mr H.P. and I moved to the mountains to live with our four children.

Just a quick post to let you know I'm taking a short break from blogging.

I have had the flu twice this winter and  I am slowly recovering from that.  On top of chronic health issues which prolong recovery, I've been helping my Mum move out from what has been our family home for the past 54 years. 

This task has taken up almost every day over the past two weeks - and is a mammoth task.  Hopefully,  we will have achieved completion mid-week, and then comes the adventure of helping her find a new home to live in. 

To remain positive and build my health and strength I walk and attend yoga classes twice a week, and meditate daily.

The experience of helping Mum move has forced me to deal with the realisation that my mother is a hoarder, and I am fearful of the effect the compulsory acquisition and resulting move will have on her once the sale is finalised. 

I guess only time will tell.

In the meantime, we do what needs to be done on a daily basis and the entire family is coping beautifully, and more importantly, Mum is still smiling.

Skylands Artscape Schofields Railway Station - Eagle - 350 kilograms and 6 metres wide.
While the developers try to put a positive spin on the land release, for those who have been long time residents of the area can only feel a deep sense of loss - mostly because this has be a wholesale desecration of a way of life upheld for at least a century...which will disappear in a matter of months.

Then I Ran Out of Icing Sugar

...so I Googled: "how to make frosting without icing sugar"  and I took a risk and made a most yummy butter frosting that used caster sugar, milk, flour, butter, and vanilla and here is the result...

As you can see...the cake was a great success...

The cake had to serve sixteen people so I used a double batch of the Foundation Cake recipe and used a 27cm round springform cake tin to bake it in.

Nobody Told Me There'd Be Days Like This.

I've over-committed.
I'm exhausted.
I've so much to do, like bake a cake I promised for our family's monthly birthday get together tomorrow.
All week I've fantasied the cake I would bake and decorate for the occasion.
Perhaps a flourless Chocolate Torte...gluten free, layered, then topped with chocolate ganache.
Or maybe a Citrus Hazelnut Cake drenched with a fruit-of-the-forest syrup.
At the very least, I expected  I'd bake my becoming-a- trade-mark Black Forest Brownie cake.
Regrettably, I don't have the stamina for any of the above mentioned cakes.
Sometimes it just has to be a plain, no fuss, cake with predictable butter frosting.
In my early days of wife-dom and motherhood, time-poor  and pre-gluten-free days, my favourite cake to bake was the One Stage Foundation Cake. This cake recipe was easily adapted to make at least six other versions of easily sliced, (when baked in a loaf tin), freezable cakes or deserts.
The beauty of this recipe is that it's as simple as dumping all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and beating until a thick, smooth, creamy batter is achieved (two or three minutes) and then baking for around thirty minutes. And voila, a cake.

So that's what's in my oven at the moment.

Here is The Recipe.

One Stage Foundation Cake.

125g margarine or butter (I only ever use butter)
2 x 60g eggs
75ml milk (substitute with soy, lactose free, nut or any other milk you wish)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
125g (1/2cup) caster sugar
185g (1 1/2 cups) self raising flour, sieved (I never bother)  ( I have successfully used Orgran brand of self-raising gluten free flour for gluten free cake).

Method

Place all ingredients in given order in a mixing bowl and beat well with a wooden spoon until smooth (2-3 minutes) or with an electric mixer until evenly combined (2 minutes).  Use cake mixture as desired.

Bake in a preheated oven (190oC) for30 minutes.

Here are some variations:

Chocolate Cake

Replace two tablespoons of flour with two tablespoons of cocoa (powdered).

Sultana Cake

Add two tablespoons of sultanas and some mixed spice to the ingredients before mixing.

Tea Cake

Add a teaspoon of mixed spice to the ingredients before mixing.  While the cake is still hot out of the oven spread some butter over the top of the cake and sprinkle with a mixture of caster sugar and mixed spice (or cinnamon sugar).

Cherry and Walnut Cake

Add 1/4 of a cup each glace cherries and walnuts to the ingredients before mixing.

Apple Cake

Add a can of pie apples (425g) and a teaspoon of cinnamon to the ingredients before mixing.  This cake may take a little longer to bake.  Finish off the top as for the tea cake.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Grease a ring tin well and place well drained pineapple rings (from a can) around the bottom of the tin.  Place a red glace cherry in the centre of each pineapple ring.  Sprinkle with brown sugar if you wish (this gives you a nice caramelised top).  Pour cake batter over and bake as a above.  Serve cake upside down as a desert.  Hot and with cream.

Hopefully I'll post some photos tomorrow.

Remember it's okay to give yourself permission to scale back on expectations of yourself every now and then!

Cookathon

November is turning out to be quite a 

cook-a-thon.

For Little Miss Six and my niece (who turned fifteen)I baked a rainbow cake which they shared...

For our Second Son I baked the now  traditional Black Forest Brownie cake. He turns forty next week but we had a group celebration last Sunday.

I tried my hand at making macarons...a big fail...but hey, I mis-read the recipe (which I'd studied for a whole week prior), and it's a miracle that they turned out as well as they did. I will attempt again sometime in the future I guess. I would have to admit though...I'm not a macaron fan and don't really understand what the fuss is all about.  But our son is and I thought I'd make some for him.  He said they tasted quite good...even though they got a big fail for appearance.

I also made boeuf bourguignon (beef burgundy) for our group celebration and vanilla ice cream just because and because I've fallen in love with home made ice cream. 

Have you ever tried avocado, raw cacao powder and maple syrup all mashed together and served as a dip?  Delicious.

Somewhere in amongst all that we had an engagement party...did I mention?

Well, it was last month actually...our Youngest Son proposed to the love of his life and she said YES.

 It was a Halloween themed party and everyone was encouraged to come fancy dress or to wear orange.

Our family being of Dutch decent...seemed to opt for the orange option!

Mr Honey Pie's talented niece made the cake for the engagement as well as for a double 

Baptism!  Yes, Little Miss Six and another of my nieces (Little Miss Seven) were baptised last Sunday.  The priest that baptised them, by sheer coincidence also baptised our Youngest Son twenty six years ago...Father Paul was flabbergasted when we told him.  He is quite new to our parish and our family was overjoyed at him being able to celebrate a second (or is that a third?)baptism with us. 

And...do you know what?

I'm secretly dreaming of a really, really boring week or two ahead...

Easter Sunday 2013

Easter Sunday means a huge family gathering.

So we grated and 

we sliced

and drank lots of coffee

caught up on devouring chocolate

brought out the fancy

glass ware

hunted eggs

followed the clues

until the glittery foil caught our eye

admired the statuettes

along the way.

Chocolate rabbits appeared

in unexpected places.

More than enough chocolate

appeared

to supply a chocoholic

for a month of Sundays...

perhaps even longer...

The house is decorated with bunting made from upcycled paper.

Little kids, and big kids, trampolined the afternoon away.

Here's hoping that your day was fun too.

Relaxing Afternoon

The afternoon was spent preparing for Easter Sunday, packing gifts.

Making chicks with my DD and Miss Five.

Colouring in eggs to make bunting.

No pressure.

Time with family.

Time To Catch Up

I've been a bit lazy with my blogging lately.

So it's time for a very big catch up!

Because Second Son was visiting, on the 2nd of February we had an impromptu birthday 'cake' for Mr Honey Pie.

On his proper birthday I wrapped his gift in some of the marbled paper Miss Five and I had made here.

I think it looks quite impressive.

Miss Five, our Grand Daughter, had a sleep-over.

She loves books, especially old books.

Here she has set up her uncle's twenty five year old bears with a very grim Hans Anderson book from the 1920s.

This book is one of her favourite and when she asks me read her a tale from it, I have to tone it down heaps!

On his 'real' birthday, Mr Honey Pie got another cake - a proper cake this time, decorated by Miss Five.

The bower birds have returned to our garden and here is a bad attempt of a photograph. 

They are so elusive.  Their distinct whirring call is what alerts me to them but as soon as they spot me...they're off.

Then it was my turn for a birthday, and seeing it ends with a big "O" this year, I needed lots of help opening the huge present from all of my family.

After the birthday celebrations we had the obligatory 'girl' photograph.

Our family is big on girls and there are four generations in this photo. My oldest sister, who lives in Cairns, was unable to make it to Sydney.

Here are some yummy dishes I've been making with my new 'toy'-a Magi mix. Wow does it make life in the kitchen a breeze!

Above is a pumpkin bake,('cause we don't eat potato) followed by...

Pear and Almond Cake (gluten free and oh so yummy)...

Vegetarian (gluten free) pizza...

and last but not least...gluten free chai tea muffins.