December already!

Man, I can’t believe it’s December already.

It’s been a long time between drinks here (and over at Blooming Good Food as well) but let’s say CELEBRATION! It’s December, which means it’s the last month of the calendar year, and there’s quite a few celebrations this month! There’s a few religious celebrations, a few secular ones, and everyone seems to be cheerier this time of year anyway. Up north, you’re preparing for winter, with some snow for the lucky ones, and raising a glass of eggnog around a fire. Down here, we’re wondering where Summer is, and will be cracking a beer or raising a glass of bubbly under a tree or an air-conditioning unit.

So, I’m dedicating the month to happiness, joy, celebration (if you’re scrooge-like, you can insert “blah blah blah here), and trying out new things. I’m going to be crocheting some little holly leaves for the xmas table, picking out my decoration for the table, putting up shiny things around the house, trying out some new receipes (I’m in charge of cooking xmas lunch, generally every year – I love it) and bundling up gifts to give!

(Jan.1.2009) Whoops, just found this post, and another, in the “drafts” section. It never got posted!!! Laaa de da da *posts*

The Weekend is Bliss

It’s the weekend when I love living in the country. Working where I do at the moment, getting as far away as I can, as possible, is the best therapy. By Friday night I looked just terrible, and felt like a piece of gum stuck on the road, being stepped over a bazillion times. But by Saturday evening, after a quieter Saturday than normal, I looked, and felt, much better. And tonight – bright eyed and rosy cheeked! We ambled around the river today, found a nice walk. It was the sort of country ramble that you’d think about taking on a holiday, when you’re staying in a small town caravan park. Except we LIVE here!

It’s brilliant (That’s all.)

(ps. Did I tell you about the new baby cows? Probably!!)

Wee little lambs!

I catch my train at dawn at the moment (the sun keeps rising earlier, so I’m sure I’ll be catching it in the early morning soon, just like I was catching it before dawn for a week or two there), and on the way from my station to the next one down the line, I pass lots of little farms (strangely enough, since I live in the country now…). There are quite a few sheep flocks I pass, and since it’s spring, there are ADORABLE little lambs everywhere!! Seriously adorable, when they’re feeling exceptionally frisky, there’s even little jumping lambs that run around the paddocks. I have to look real quick and thoroughly, because hey, it’s an intercity train and it goes rather fast, but I get enough of a look, and it’s a great way to get a first smile out of the day.

That, and I’ll be drinking my cup of coffee by then…

The Country!!

Here I am, many months later, finally updating this blog. Sorry for the space – Winter was a bit funny this year. We moved a few times, had a bit of uncertainty, and then – ta da!

We’ve moved to the country We’ve moved to a small country town of about 5000 people, just north of the town that we want to build the house in. It’s in the North Central area of the state we live, and it’s gorgeous.

Living in the country is great. Living in the country and working down in the city is a bit of a challenge. I’m away from home for more than 12 hours a day at the moment, something I really dislike. I’ve never managed to to live far enough away from where I’m currently working to have a long commute, but from my front door to my desk, it’s taking me 2 hours each way, 5 days a week. It’s a long commute. However, I have to admit, I do like the train ride! Getting up at 6am each day is absolutely killing me!! I wake up on the train at the moment, with some bread and jam, or peanut butter or vegemite, and a cup of coffee. I’m out of sorts without the coffee, so I’m pretty sure to take it every morning! And in the evening, it’s a delight to get on the train to come home. I get to read a book, or listen to a podcast and do some crochet (which currently is a friend’s baby blanket. The bub’s about a month old now, and I like getting the blankets to them by about 6 weeks, so I better get a move on!!), and I get to unwind from work!

The town’s just had a yearly festival, so it was the perfect time to move up. It’s the end of winter, and we started spring ‘officially’ 2 days after we moved. There are SO many daffodils up here it’s amazing. Of course, it was a ‘daffodil’ festival in the town, so that might have something to do with it!

I’m getting used to living away from the city, and I’m loving the small country town feel.

Banana-manana Muffins and a house meeting

Firstly, do you like bananas? Do you like banana bread? Well, do I have a quick recipe for you!

Head over to Blooming Good Food and discover a recipe for Banana Muffins! (I just like to call them Banana-Manana Muffins!) As like most of my recipes, it’s quick & easy to put together. And what a result. Gorgeous muffins. I have to stop myself from making them all the time!

Secondly, some news on our house. We’ve had the first meeting with the company that we want to put together our house. It’s all very exciting. Got some other things to take care of, but we’re still on the lookout for the right piece of land, but it all might be a bit more delayed. For example, we’re off on Holiday next week to Tasmania! Hopefully I’ll have some great photos to share with you!

Ahhh such is life

C’est la vie. Is that’s right? Such is life?

This blog has gone beyond what I meant to do here. I know, I know. I even wrote a post saying “Oh, I’m going to make this more about cooking”. What a silly thing to do. I was reviewing what I thought I’d done, and though “You twit”. In all seriousness, this was meant to be about moving to the country, and what we did once we got there. Not happening on this blog right now! *laugh*

I never meant for this blog to be a food blog. So I’m stopping post about food. Not altogether, just here. If you want to continue to follow my foodie adventures, I strongly recommend that you follow me here:

Blooming Good Food

That’s right – Blooming Good Food. What’s with the title, I hear you ask. Well, sometimes, food is just blooming good. Blooming. Awesome. Great. Good. Bloody Fantastic! It’s an Australianism that is shared with New Zealand and the UK I reckon.

This week, I’ll be looking at:

Macaroni & Cheese, with bacon & mushrooms. I made this for dinner on Monday night and OMG IT WAS SOOOOO GOOD. I have to share the recipe. Except I didn’t take any photos during it. So, gosh darn, I guess I’ll just have to make it again…

See? How good does that look!! It was crunchy on the top, and breaking through that crusty layer was so exciting.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Mint Frosting. I can no longer hold myself back from posting these awesome cupcakes. I made this batch a few weeks back for a friend’s Afternoon Tea, but made them AGAIN this weekend to take to my sisters. These cupcakes are the MOISTEST cupcakes EVER, and last days! (Although, when do cupcakes manage to last days? Our small batch – most of them went to a household with a 16 year old & 11 year old living there – only lasted till Monday!)

I’ve also got Anzac Biscuits ready to go, and Banana Muffins itching to get out there.

Thank you for following the food here. Now you should go here – to Blooming Good Food.

Basic Red Sauce

I’ve got a couple of basic recipes to put up. I’ve been putting it off, because I realised the other day that this blog has outgrown what I originally meant for it. So I’m moving it, but I haven’t fixed up the other page yet. So, procrastination is my name at the moment.

This is for my friend Star, who a few weeks ago, asked me if I had a good plain tomato sauce for pasta recipe. I usually just make a sauce up as I go, with a few basic things, so I tried out a few different things, and have decided that this batch was a good basic recipe. You can make this, and add other things to it to make quick different sauces. Bacon and chilli, for Spicy Bacon Pasta. Olives, capers, capsicum and a good italian sausage for a variation of Puttanesca. Add a whole batch to some browned mince, and you’ve got a basic bolognaise.

I learned sometimes the simplest sauce you could make, was cooking some crushed garlic, adding a good tomato sugo, fresh basil leaves and seasoning. And that is a good sauce. But other times, it’s nice to have a bit of variation.

See? A plain tomato sauce

Cheese & Chive Scones

Sundays mean scones to me. In my childhood, my Mum would often whip up a batch of fluffy scones for morning or afternoon tea on a Sunday, and they would be served hot, the batch wrapped up in a tea towel to stay that way, with whipped cream and jam. I learned how to make scones at my Mum’s side, so it’s been one of the recipes that I’ve always understood how it works, and how to put it together. I’ve never managed to have a flat, hard rock instead of a scone (instead of that one time that I put in plain flour and forgot the baking powder required to make it self-raising, but this is the last time that I shall mention this!). To me, a scone is made with flour & butter & milk, not flour and lemonade and something else. It puzzles me that there are recipes that include a fizzy liquid, however I can understand them. I’ve had family members that couldn’t make a scone to save their life, and their results are hard enough to bounce off the floor and stay in one piece.

The feathery texture of scones are reliant on rubbing the butter in to the flour well, and not over-mixing or kneading the dough. However, it’s not a disaster if you do – simply let the mixture sit for a while. Wrap it in plastic and pop it into the fridge, then let it come back to room temperature after 15 minutes or so. It’s also a recipe that you perfect if you make it often enough. You wont need a recipe for them. My Mum doesn’t need her recipe for them, and whilst my recipe is very water stained and flour covered, I now am almost at the stage of not needing the recipe either. And I am definitely AT the stage of knowing the mixture well enough – how it mixes, and comes together – to know how to add things. In fact, my excels-at-scone-making Mum now calls me for my Spinach & Cheese Scone recipe!

For a recent themed competition on another site, I produced these scones. The theme was cheese, and as soon as I saw it, I thought “Ooooh what an excuse to make cheesey scones!!” And they’re so good. By themselves spread with butter than melts when they’re still warm from the oven, or slightly toasted and eaten with soup the next day, you can’t go past Cheese and Chive Scones!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have a confession to make. I’m addicted to chocolate chip cookies. I have several recipes for them floating around. I’ve made them so often, I used to have one of the recipes stuck to the inside of my head. As it is, I’ve now formulated my own recipe, which could probably be found in a lot of cookbooks. A friend’s husband loves my chocolate chip cookies, and managed to teach their 2 year old to ask me “Cookies ‘izzy?”

They’ve got to be my foremost default cookie. I try and have the ingredients on hand at all times, and it’s not that hard to do. Of course, looking in my cupboard and fridge right at the moment, before I’ve done shopping for the week, I’ve hardly got any of the ingredients! Chocolate chips? Nope. Butter? Zilch. Flour?? Get outta here. But I know it can be easily remedied.

Now that the weather has turned towards winter, and the days are colder, the nights longer, my cookie jar calls out to be filled! At the moment? It’s got sultana & oat biscuits in it. These cookies are made from the same basic recipe that my chocolate chip ones come from. So, in regards to the recipe that I’m going to write up today, there are many variations, all depending on your own likes and dislikes.

But seriously – who couldn’t love these cookies?

Beautiful, golden brown, crispy cookies. YUM. Eaten whilst still warm out of the oven, is sheer decadence.

Chicken Noodle Soup (with meatballs Mmmm)

Greetings! I do apologise for the distinct gap in between this post at the last post I presented. Goodness, it’s been a month! I’ve done a bit of traveling back to ye-olde-hometown (*waves to the new people*), seen some friends, and the most important thing is that I’ve been cooking up a storm! If I don’t have more than 4 new recipes to share – well, you can dress me up in a tutu and call me Lola!!

No, seriously. Don’t do that. I really do have at least four brand new recipes to share! Starting off with this one today, I’m sure you’ll love them all!

Who doesn’t love home made soup? Especially as we’re (down here) heading into Autumn, and before you know it, we’ll be smack into frosty nights, and wet drizzly days. Oh, hang on – we’ve already got those! (Boy, did we have a bluster of a storm last week! Why, an entire window blew out in the apartment block facing us, and wasn’t that a huge noise! Just about had a heart attack.) This soup recipe I have adapted from that wonder of wonders, one of my favourite cooks, Nigella Lawson, and her book Feast. She cooks up a great Chicken Noodle Soup, which we just love. It’s so quick and easy to make, and you can throw it together with things that you’ll generally find in your fridge & freezer. What makes mine different from Nigella’s, is that I’ve substituted a few yummy chicken meatballs, instead of just plain chicken breast!

Today, I’ll give you Nigella’s recipe, and then show you how I’ve adapted it to get to Chicken Meatball Noodle Soup!

See? Doesn’t that look great? Come on in and have a looksee at the recipe