Birthday season...

October marks the beginning of festivities in our house with two birthdays in October followed by two in November. Birthday celebrations are of a very elastic in nature around here and can last from one day to a week- throw in Halloween and before you know it it's Christmas.

Last weekend it was my turn and as always I was showered with lovely thoughtful gifts starting with this gorgeous orchid. Next came the books, oh so many books...

As you can see I have a fondness for Wodehouse. The other two books I've been coveting for some time. The glorious big magic book is full of wonderful illustrations and photographs of magicians from the 1400s to the 1950s. I'm not sure I've ever shared my obsession with early twentieth century magic with you before but that's a post for another day!

The other book is a cookbook from the famous Parisian confectioners, A La Mere de Famille. As an Australian, the thought that this corner store has been in continuous operation since 1761, well before white Australia is almost unfathomable. The recipes throughout the book reflect the different eras covering everything from cakes and biscuits to chocolates, candied fruits, syrups and ice-creams. Most intriguing of all, however, are the stories surrounding how the shop has found new owners often by serendipity rather than through family connection. The right people just seem to appear at the right time including a number of people who were initially enamoured customers.

So as much as I would have liked to just blink my eyes and find myself in Paris, birthday lunch was a little closer to home at our closest Italian equivalent, Brunetti's where we had homemade gnocchi with tomato, basil and buffalo mozzarella, pizza and salade caprese. We also took home one of their profiteroles towers filled with zabaglione cream for afternoon tea and lounged around reading books and dozing for the rest of the day. Bliss!

 

Happy Mother's Day

Originally uploaded to Flickr Commons on June 2, 2009by National Media Museum

This is only my second Mother's Day since we lost Mum and to be honest I find the build up to the day quite difficult. Unfortunately the focus on breast cancer awareness which swirls around Mother's Day means that I am often caught off guard by those little cut-out pink ladies who remind me of all the wonderful women whose light was dimmed too soon.

Tom and the kids know how emotional I can be around special holidays so they went out of their way to make the day special for me. There was no chance of breakfast in bed as the kids were far too excited but we had a lovely breakfast around the kitchen table of croissants, danishes and jasmine tea.

As for presents I was extremely spoilt. The day started with lots of presents including a tasting box of 12 teas from T2 and a beautiful red tea canister. Next came Season 1 of 'Glee', 'Easter Parade' and 'On The Town' on DVD. Isabella also gave me two lovely handmade cards and a pair of black Ray-Ban Wayfarers knock-offs the likes of which I haven't worn since the 80s! She knew that I had just broken my sunglasses and when she saw them at the Mother's Day stall at school she was sure she had found the perfect gift, bless her cotton socks.

Hope you and your family had a great day too.

ANZAC Day

That teapot is crying out for a tea-cossie!

Yesterday was Anzac Day, the day we remember the sacrifices made by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp in war so it seemed a good time to make a batch of Anzac biscuits and explain the meaning of the day to the kids. My version differs slightly from the traditional biscuits made by mothers, wifes and sweethearts and shipped to the boys on the frontlines during World War I. I have replaced the plain flour and bicarbonate of soda with self-raising flour as I'm not a real fan of that weird aftertaste bicarb sometimes leaves and I have also reduced the amount of sugar other than that the recipe remains the same.

Anzacs biscuits were the first thing I really mastered in the kitchen when I was little and I used to love making them as much as I loved eating them. We made a bit of a ritual of it yesterday with a pot of tea and our old china and between us we polished off nearly the whole batch!

ANZAC Biscuits

1 cup self-raising flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 cup shredded coconut
2 tablespoons golden syrup
125 grams butter

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C/ 350F.

2. Grease or line baking tray with baking paper.

3. Melt butter and golden syrup together in a small saucepan over a low heat.

4. While butter is melting mix dried ingredients together in a large bowl.

5. Add butter and syrup to dry ingredients and stir to combine (I sometimes use my hands to do this towards the end to make sure that everything is really combined). Test to make sure that mixture will hold together if not add a few drops of water.

6. Take teaspoon amounts and roll into balls then flatten and place on prepared baking trays.

7. Bake for 15-20 mins or until golden. Sometimes they can be a bit chewy which is nice but if you like a crispy biscuit cook a little longer so they go a deeper brown but keep an eye on them so they don't burn!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Halloween

Bella the Witch


Bella the Witch & Henry the Monster

Last Saturday I went 'trick or treating' for the first time ever! We were inspired by a note dropped in our letter box stating that 'seven families' from our street would be participating and that if we would like to join in the fun we should leave our outside light on. The kids were very excited about the idea so we quickly rustled up some costumes and when the night finally came around we ventured out shyly into the street. We went to a few houses before we ran into our American neighbour Brian who gleefully admitted that there were no 'other families' just him and his wish for his kids not to miss out on a lovely American tradition - so now we were two families! At the first house we went to together we picked up little Amelia and her mother and then Eva at a house a little further down. By this stage we were a 'posse' and the kids were really getting the hang of yelling out 'trick or treat' at each house.

It was a lovely warm night but there was thunder and lightning in the background - very atmospheric. After 13 houses we were ready to call it a night and parted ways but I feel quite differently about the street now (and so do the kids) having met so many lovely people. We must do it again next year.

Caz