The Gingerbread House as metaphor for life...

 

Last week I made a Gingerbread House. I'm not sure what possessed me. I've never made one before but I was planning a pre-Christmas lunch for my sister and her family at which there would be five children so it seemed like a good idea at the time. Have you ever made a Gingerbread House? It's not for the faint-hearted or the time-poor. Unfortunately, the result was somewhat less than perfect as you can see. Walls cracked, the roof collapsed (more than once) and we used twice as much icing as recommended in a vain attempt to salvage what we could.

The thing is, I approached the task of making a Gingerbread House as I approach most things in life in life - full of enthusiasm, optimistic (often unrealistic) about timeframes and flying by the seat of my pants. I didn't read the construction instructions properly and I tried to do everything from making the gingerbread, to decorating and constructing the house all in one evening.

On the up side, it did remind me of a few of my better qualities too. I had a lot of fun once I realised perfection was not the aim. Henry and I laughed hysterically as I scrambled to catch pieces as they fell while still holding other pieces that had not yet set and I didn't give up even after my roofing disaster, in fact, I worked my way around the problem by constructing some roofing beams using bamboo skewers and overlaying them with textured ice-cream wafers I had in the cupboard.

 

 

 

It may be the ugliest Gingerbread House ever created but I still think that the time spent making it was time well spent. If you'd like to give it a go there are some good instructions here and here and if you'd prefer to stick with Gingerbread Men (so much easier to control!) here's my Gingerbread recipe.

Gingerbread Biscuits
(Makes lots!)

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup plain flour
6 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons mixed spice
1 cup dark muscovado sugar
185 grams butter, chopped and softened
1/2 molasses (or golden syrup)
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Method

1.  Sift dry ingredients into a bowl with the sugar.
2.  Add butter and mix with an electric  hand mixer until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3.  Whisk molasses and eggs together and mix until combined.
4.  Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. If the mixture is too sticky to work with add a little more flour but not too much. The dough should still be moist and should come together in a nice smooth shiny ball.
5.  Cut dough in half, press into a flat disc, wrap in cling-wrap and place in refrigerator for 30 mins.
6.  Remove from refrigerator and pre-heat your oven to 180C/ 375F.
7.  Roll dough out between two pieces of baking paper until the dough is roughly 5mm in thickness.
8.  Use your favourite cutters to make shapes and lay them on prepared baking trays and return to the fridge for 15mins.
9.  Bake for 10-15 minutes depending on the size of your shapes, or until firm.
10. Cool completely before decorating with royal icing, silver cachous etc.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Sweet treats...

One of the great benefits of finishing your Christmas shopping early is that it gives you time to make all those little sweet treats that make the festive season so special. Today I managed to make three different kinds of chocolate truffles (hazelnut, orange and peppermint); a batch of Rocky Road and two batches of Snowballs.

The first batch of Snowballs I made using cup measurements and I could tell they were spreading too much as soon as they had been in the oven for just a few minutes. So I made a second batch using weight measurements which resulted in a much stiffer paste and rounder 'snowballs'. If you like ameretti biscuits you'll love these. They are incedibly easy to make and if you use pure icing sugar rather than icing sugar mixture they're gluten-free to boot!

Snowballs

60 grams almond meal
60 grams hazelnut meal
120 grams pure icing sugar, sifted + extra to coat
1 egg white

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius and line a baking tray.
2. Add almond meal, hazelnut meal and sifted icing sugar to a large bowl.
3. Add egg white and stir until mixture forms a stiff paste.
4. Take teaspoons of mixture from the bowl and roll into approx. 18 small balls.
5. Roll each ball in icing sugar to cover thoroughly.
6. Place balls on baking tray and bake for 10 minutes.
7. Allow to cool on tray then store in an airtight container.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Return of the Christmas Spirit...

I'm feeling very Christmassy this year. I've finally found the right settings on my oven and have been baking every chance I get. I've been shopping locally and early to avoid any unnecessary present-buying anxiety and I've even given in to neighbourly pressure and installed some solar Christmas lights!

This resurgence of Christmas spirit has really bought home to me just how hard the past few Christmases without Mum and Dad have really been. When I look back now I've endured the last three Christmases rather than celebrated them. I've put on a brave face for the kids but in all honesty I've been relieved when the day itself is over and I've managed to hold it together. Things haven't been made any easier by having to spend parts of the past three Christmas/ New Year periods in the Emergency Department of the local hospital with Henry battling to breath after severe asthma attacks (a tradition I'm really not that keen to continue!).

So this year I'm hoping to start afresh. Rather than trying not to think about Christmases past I've leapt right in and bought a real Christmas tree for the first time in years. Surely nothing smells more like Christmas in Australia than a good old pine tree? Last year that smell would have reduced me to tears but this year it's helping me bridge the before and after grief gap. Decorating the tree with the kids is also balm for the soul. It's such a special time especially as we bring out each ornament and talk about where it came from, who made it or who gave it to us. I have a soft spot for two ornaments (a stocking and a bauble) that I made using a 'stained glass' craft kit when I was about eight but my favourite decorations are these funny little reindeer. The reindeer faces were made by tracing around the kids feet and the antlers by cutting around an outline of their hands or stamping them in paint. Henry's was made when he was only one year old so it is teensy tiny and it reminds me how important it is to grasp every moment of their childhood before it slips away.

So how are your Christmas preparations coming along? Do you have any favourite rituals to help kick-start the Christmas season? Any fabulous Christmas baking recipes I should know about?

You know Christmas is coming when...

:: the agapanthus burst into life...
:: you can finally put the hot water bottle away...
:: the first day of Total Fire Ban is announced...
:: there are butterflies just like this one all over the place...
:: you have an unstoppable urge to preserve things in jars...

Best laid plans...

Henry getting very excited about the 'World's Largest Chocolate Waterfall' the day before he ended up in hospital.

I don't want to sound paranoid but this is the third Christmas in a row that I've spent part of the Christmas season unexpectedly sitting beside a loved one in hospital. Last year I spent much of Christmas Day night sitting in the emergency department of our local hospital with Henry after he had a massive asthma attack bought on by suspected pneumonia.

This year we managed to get through Christmas and the weekend but by Tuesday night I found myself in a familar situation when Henry woke up gasping for air at about 3.30am. Off we rushed to the hospital again where he was put on oxygen when his oxgen saturation levels were found to be very low. Many doses of Ventolin, a chest x-ray, saline masks and vomiting later he was admitted to the short stay unit where we spent another two nights (with me on a very narrow fold out couch). He was released on New Year's Eve and we saw in the New Year (at the child friendly time of 10pm) with sparklers, party poppers and bubbles and it was lovely to see him smiling again free from oxygen tubes and with the colour returning to his cheeks.

As you can imagine it has been a very stressful time for all of us and I still find myself watching Henry breathing for signs that he is relapsing. All routine in the house has been thrown out the window. We seem to be sleeping and eating at weird times and counting the days until we can finally go on the holiday we were supposed to leave for three days ago. The fridge has been bare for days as we've been taking things 'one day at a time' and the kids have been packing on and off for days so it will be a relief to finally leave tomorrow for some sun and sand and the company of my gorgeous sisters and their families.

I hope your Christmas and New Year was a little more predictable than mine (in a good way) and I'm looking forward to hearing all about the exciting plans you have afoot for the coming year. I think plans and I are going to keep their distance for a while...

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas...

Thanks Francesca for reminding me about this lovely Christmas treat!

What a lovely surprise I had when I logged on this morning and saw this post over at Cooking Up A Storm in A Teacup. I think you can tell from Deb's words just how much we value the friendship we've forged this year. When I first started this blog 12 months ago I really had no idea that I would meet so many wonderful, warm, talented and generous people. People like Deb, Lucy, Francesca, Tracey, Sandra, Estelle, Fourth Daughter and katiecrackernuts who have inspired me, made me laugh, made me feel welcome and most important of all taken the time to regularly comment on my posts. In fact, a big thank you to everyone who has read, commented or glanced at these pages over the year.

As the days and hours whiz by I'm thinking this may be my last post for the year. There's a pavlova to make today; roast chicken, stuffing and vegetables to prepare for Christmas Eve; presents that still need wrapping and children whose excitement is so contagious I can think of nothing more wonderful than just sharing this precious time with them.

I'm pretty sure we all want the same thing for Christmas - a day filled with love, laughter, good food, an afternoon nap and no family faux pas so that is what I wish for you. Have a happy and safe holiday season and I'll see you all again very soon.

A little bit of Italy for Christmas...

A bit fuzzy but you get the idea!

Like many people I decided to make sweet treats as Christmas gifts for friends this year. It's been was touch-and-go as to whether or not I'd be able to find the time so I wanted to make something quick and easy (preferably made from ingredients I already had in the cupboard) but exotic enough to stand out from all the gingerbread and shortbread. For some reason I seem to have an enormous variety (and quantity) of nuts in the house at the moment and I always have cocoa and spices at hand so panforte seemed the way to go. Then I read Lucy's funny post about her panpepato experiment gone wrong and remembered how good (if ugly) panpepato can be.

I didn't have time to shop for specific ingredients so I adapted Antonio Carluccio's Panpepato recipe from 'Carluccio's Complete Italian Food'. I didn't have any hazelnuts so I upped the amount of almonds I used and as I'd bought some glace apricots last week for some unspecified Christmas cooking I used them instead of mixed candied peel.

Panpepato (Peppered Bread)

170g blanched almonds, toasted & chopped

85g walnut halves

55g pine nuts

55g raisins (soaked in a little Muscat then drained)

60g cocoa

100g glace apricots, chopped

1/2 tsp each cinnamon, ground coriander & nutmeg

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

125g honey

enough plain flour to bind

Method

Preheat the oven to 160C/325F. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl adding enough flour to form a stiff mixture. Using wet hands form mixture into a round loaf and place on a tray lined with baking paper. Bake for 30 minutes (you'll know when it's cooked because your kitchen will be filled with the a wonderful spicy aroma) and leave to cool, dust with cocoa and serve in thin slices with coffee or dessert wine.

How easy is that? If you need a last minute gift to take to someone's house over the holiday season this could be just the thing.

You Know Christmas Is On Its Way When...

...the kitchen is filled with the heady aroma of ginger and cinnamon, cardamon and cloves...

You Know Christmas Is On Its Way When...

...the deadline for getting your Softies for Mirabel to Pip is fast approaching. We just finished this little awake/asleep fella today. I did the sewing and Henry did the stuffing - most satisfying. While we were working we talked about the fact that not all kids have lots of toys/food/family to make their Christmas special. Henry thought that was most unfair and so do I. When we'd finally finished I wasn't sure whether or not Henry was going to make a fuss about keeping it himself (it's happened before) but not today. He simply held it at arms length and said, 'there, someone for a little kiddie to love'.

You Know Christmas Is On Its Way When...

Image from dnamuse

...the shops are full of panettone. I know you can buy panettone at specialist places thoughout the year but my addiction is such that I wait until it is absolutely impossible to avoid. I like it for breakfast, morning tea, afternoon tea and supper. See my problem? I can polish off one a week if I'm not careful and I'm sure that's not how they were designed to be consumed. Should they be shared perhaps?

Maybe the secret to moderation is to only eat panettone (hot cross buns, mince pies) that you've made yourself. Perhaps this year I'll give it a whirl using this recipe from Australian Gourmet Traveller. What do you think?

Crazy Christmas

This Christmas will certainly be one I will remember for some time. Leading up to Christmas I attended two lovely Christmas parties. One was with my work colleagues at Bar Idda in Brunswick and the other was at Henry's daycare. The first was a wonderfully casual Sicilian affair accompanied by torrential rain and thunder out the window while the second was spent outdoors on a warm December evening patting baby animals and getting icecreams from a Santa who arrived by firetruck. In their own ways both quintessentially Australian ways to have a good time.

On Christmas Eve eve, however, things started to go a bit pear-shaped. We had a terrible night with Henry coughing and gasping for air. We had him on the puffer and ventilator regularly all night and no-one got a wink of sleep. We were all up and dressed by 5am and heading for the Maroondah Hospital when he got a second wind so we waited until 7am and took him to the GP. He was put on antibiotics for a chest infection and we were told to keep up the Ventolin for his asthma.

Christmas Eve we had a special lunch (menu chosen by Isabella & Henry) of roast chicken, golden potatoes, honeyed carrots and green beans with lemon and almonds. This was supposed to be followed by the plum pudding we made together the previous week and the baby pavlovas Henry and I had made the previous day but everyone decided that they had already had an elegant sufficiency. Henry was a bit pasty and shaky from all the Ventolin but otherwise seemed a bit better.

Christmas morning was lovely with all the present opening and checking to see if Santa had eaten his pudding. We had planned to go down to Phillip Island for a few days but decided that lunch might be a better option as we were all so tired and we wanted Henry to be in familiar surroundings. So off we trotted for Christmas lunch. No sooner was lunch finished than Henry took a real turn for the worse and Tom's sister Alice suggested we get him to hospital (she's a nurse). We bolted back to Ringwood my heart in my mouth and my eyes on the rear-view mirror. I took him straight to Emergency where we stayed for the next 5 or 6 hours. Following a chest x-ray the doctor suggested that the Ventolin wasn't working as the problem wasn't really asthma but a severe chest infection (which turned out to be pneumonia).

A few days went by and Henry started to get better so Tom wanted to go back to Phillip Island. For some reason I just had the most enormous panic attack ( I hadn't really slept for a few days by this time and had been missing Mum & Dad and worrying about all the work we still had to do at their house) so I decided that I would follow them down in my own car to have a bit of time on my own and to have my own escape vehicle if necessary! So off they went and I puddled about a bit and got ready to go. For some reason I decided to top up the oil in my car as I have a slow leak in one othe seals but not only did I use the wrong oil but I put in far too much (this just shows you where my head was!). Black smoke and lurching all the way I made it back to the house after just a few minutes and was stuck at home.

No mechanics open, limited funds anyway, Tom with the kids and computer on their way to Phillip Island so I just stayed home and slept, read and ate very simple things like beautifully ripe tomatoes and contemplated how I had come to this point. Many tears later I decided that it was the universe's way of telling me that I deperatately needed some 'me' time. Even when I had the car fixed the next day I decided not to meet the others in Phillip Island. They had a lovely couple of days without me and I had the chance to do the simple things I never seem to be able to fit in like going for a walk, seeing a movie (not a kid's one!) and reading a book in one day.

Things are back to normal again now and Henry is feeling much better but I won't forget this Christmas and the lessons it has imparted anytime soon.