My-uncle-found-these-on-the-internet Jam Drops

I had a craving for jam drops the other day and so started hunting through my cookbooks for a recipe. Crazily, I didn't have one and so I turned to old faithful - google - for the answer. But, lo! The internet was broken. Well, actually I imagine that the internet itself was buzzing along happily as always, but the thingy that makes the thingy work that makes the internet ping into my computer appeared to be broken. Tragic. Stuck at home on a rainy day dreaming of jam drops, without a recipe. I thought I would just give it a whirl and make it up as I went along but then I had a bright idea - call somebody! My recipe somebody is almost always my mother but she wasn't answering and so I called my aunt instead. It turned out that she too is jam drop recipe-less and so my uncle hopped online and found the following:

Jam Drops

125g soft butter

100g caster sugar (I used raw)

vanilla

1 egg

190g SR Flour

plain flour to dust

jam (I used cherry preserve)

1) Pre-heat oven to 180C

2) Beat butter sugar and vanilla until creamy

3) Add egg and combine

4) Sift in flour and stir

5) Roll teaspoonsful (use extra flour to stop the balls sticking to your fingers)

6) Put on tray and 'dent' each one with a finger mark

7) Add jam to the dent

8) 15 minutes

Delicious! The Man and his climbing friend Trad-boy came home just as the biscuits were out of the oven. They demolished a whole tray-full before the kettle even had time to boil....a sure sign of biscuit sucess!

Vegan Gumbo and Jambalaya

It's been raining and raining and raining, umbrellas have sprouted like mushrooms on our street, the humidity is making broken bones ache and cats irritable.

The new creek at the far end of the backyard is a steamy mini-Mississippi and so, of course, my tummy grumbled for gumbo and jambalaya.

These are traditionally dead-animal rich foods, but I have made vegan gumbo before with happy success, so I thought I would try a vegan jambalaya as well.

The starting point of almost any southern dish is the 'trinity' - green capsicum, celery and onion. Typically though, having had too much of it last week, we were now entirely out of celery. So I left it out - but it really is MUCH better to include it - the flavours will be richer and sweeter.

GUMBO

The gumbo was begun by lightly roasting the topped Okra - with a small amount of olive oil, salt and pepper.

I do this to minimise the mucilaginous-ness of the fruit - the 'slime' helps to thicken the food, but too much and it's feels like you are eating snail trails!

Chopped onion, capsicum (and celery!) are then fried, minced garlic is added. Once the onion becomes clear I added the okra, chilli, chopped tomato (or passata), thyme and vegetable stock.

This is simmered for a little while until the sauce thickens (about ten minutes if using a wide pan/frying pan).

JAMBALAYA

The Jambalaya begins with a quick fry of the trinity. Fried or roasted tempeh, chopped vegetables (I used aubergine and carrot), bay leaves, thyme, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco sauce are then added and given a good stir over a reasonably hot plate. At this point I added some Vegemite and the rice - about 3/4 cup of long grain - and enough stock to just cover. The pot is then left to simmer uncovered until the rice is cooked - stirring intermittently.

I served the two dishes together to the Man and Nerd. I really enjoyed both of them and Nerd was also impressed. The Man loved the Gumbo, but his first bite of the Jambalaya produced a reaction somewhat akin to "ycehyth ugh WHAT IS THIS DISGUSTING STUFF!?" It turns out the Man is not a fan of the texture of tempeh (even though I have fed it to him numerous times before without incident!) He did enjoy the rest of the dish though, I just had to pick out the tempeh triangles for him...like peas for a toddler. (meheehee)

Tempeh Casserole

As winter is approaching I have felt the urge to casserole everything we eat. Mid last week there was, for some reason, an excess of tempeh in the fridge and so I decided on a warming tempeh casserole. Unfortunately for my flatmate, Nerd, I was just not in the mood for cooking myself and so I prised him away from his computer and instructed him from the comfort of the couch, where I spent a very pleasant evening reading a trashy novel and drinking red wine.

Somewhat suprisingly, it was utterly delicious.

In a large bowl Nerd was instructed to mix togeather:

cubes of tempeh

thick sliced onion

minced garlic

diced aubergines

sliced mushrooms

a small amount of diced pumpkin

lots of lemon juice

crushed tomato (quite a bit)

a good dollop of olive oil

fresh herbs - sage, rosemary, parsley and basil

and a good sprinkle of river salt and freshly ground black pepper.

After mixing, this was transfered to a baking dish and, covered, put in a moderate oven for about half an hour. After a bit of poking the cover was then taken off and it cooked for another ten or so minutes (to thicken the sauce).

Nerd served his triumph of vegetarian cookery with sage and some grated parmesan.

Mr Mieow's Birthday Cake

Last week it was my cat's first birthday and, unexpectedly, I found 14 otherwise entirely normal people who were happy to come around and help him celebrate.

We had a sort of italiano-greek dinner; easy goast cheese and olive tapanade canape's, a good cheese platter, spicy tomato and white bean soup with crusty bread, vegetable lasagne, pumpkin gnocci and some tasty salads.

The highlight, for me at least, was the cat shaped cake! When it comes to first birthday party animal cakes, there is a healthy tradition in my family of creating sugary confections in animal shapes. I still recall the beautiful Bunny my mother made for my first birthday -

My first birthday cake!

I think this was probably a sponge cake, but I decided to make a (fairly) light chocolate cake, hoping that it would vaguely compliment the rest of the meal. The following is an old family recipe:

Chocolate Cake
1 ½ cups self raising flour
1 ¼ cups sugar
½ cup cocoa
2/3 cup melted butter
Small teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk
2 eggs (unbeaten)
Method:
Sift all dry ingredients into bowl. Drop in melted butter and add ¾ cup milk and vanilla. Beat 250 strokes, add remaining milk and eggs and beat another 200 strokes. Bake 30-40 minutes in moderate oven.
(If you're lazy like me it's not exactly necessary to stir that many times, but it's kind of fun if you're in the mood!)

To create a purrfect cat I make two cakes to this recipe and, when fully cool, cut according to the Betty Crocker Halloween Cat instructions:

I then whipped up come blue butter frosting, smothered the cake in said frosting, sprinkled desicated coconut all over (for that nice furry look), added some lollies for a pretty cat face and voilà -

Yes - I did make everyone wear party hats.

It was delicious...well at least for the humans. Mr Mieow was treated to a roo mince and olive oil 'cake' topped with ricotta frosting (yes I know cats are lactose intolerant - but he loves it!)

No, he wasn't allowed to eat that giant cake in one go!

THE CHOOK SHED or MIEOW'S MANSION

Tractor in construction process

Having thoroughly researched chicken accomodation possibilities, the Man and I settled on an A frame chicken tractor. Not only did they look super cute in all the photos we saw, but they seemed reasonably easy to construct and would hopefully allow the chooks to 'mow' the lawn (saving me from clipping it with hedge shears - don't ask).

Now, although it riles my inner feminist soul, I have never had much of an interest in constuction and so I left the building of the tractor to my far more skilled and enthusiastic Man. I was relegated to wearing a pink frilly apron, bringing down cool lemonade and making suitable cooing noises.

The final result was fantastic. There is plenty of room for Lady Cluck and Mrs Dumb Pluck to wander about downstairs on days when we forget to let them out to free range and the attic is as cosy as they could desire - three little nesting boxes filled with soft wood shavings.

TView of Attic, sans wood-shavings

The wood shavings were a point of contention with the pre-pubesent salesman who assisted us at the produce store. He insisted that it was the best, cleanest, easiest, most lice free bedding for the chooks, and I am in no position to refute this. The obvious downside is that wood-shaving usually come from wood! I am not particularly happy about supporting the woodchip industry unnecessarily. Wood-shavings are also a wee bit complicated on the compost front - at least compared with straw (the other major bedding option). There is a risk that if the shavings are too small they, like saw-dust, will become too compact in the compost and not aerate properly when turned. I will also have to ensure I actually compost the shavings, rather than just chucking it on the garden as a mulch. According to the old wives, uncomposted shavings can 'steal' nitrogen from the soil.

We'll see.

The Chickens Arrive!

Our chooks have finally arrived!

After trying to source all kinds of chickens from various breeders we ended up with ISA Browns - mostly because they were available at our local produce store and the nine year old salesman was very persuasive. Although he didn't look entirely convinced concerning my chicken raising abilities.

The ISA Browns (also known as Loman Browns) are bred for laying and for some reason this comes with a very short life expectancy - which seems a bit of a rough deal for the chook. It's not really part of the ethos I am trying to adhere to, but I was getting quite impatient with the fancy poultry breeders selling 'my' chickens before I arrived at their farm in woop woop at day break.

Lady Cluck and Mrs Dumb Puck are nice big friendly hens who don't mind being petted by the neighbours toddler and seem to have put my hunter-cat in his place - he has preserved his dignity by ignoring the avian interlopers.

Public by-ways

As I returned from my exciting visit to the stationers last week (cream correspondence cards you want to sleep in and or dreamily stuff into your shirt) I came across a significant sporting event.

In our city this translates as 'AN EVENT DAY' - meaning that the ordinary parking by-laws are suspended and other, usually much more restrictive ones, implemented. Roads are often cut off and mandatory detours put in place. Whilst I am sure all of this is necessary, it is rather irritating for people who merely wish to drive from place 'A' to place 'B', and are unfortunately required to go through place 'C' (the sporting venue and it's surrounds).

But, you know, you're in a car; you can either drive off in some other direction or just sit there humming away to the Bee Gees and whiling away the time. If, like me, you're on foot however, it's a whole different matter. It turns out that some fool in Council(? must look into it - who actually hold/devolves these powers??) have given the sporting venue and or it's police minions power to close public footpaths as well.

The area in question is one of those annoyingly over developed city venues where pedestrians can either utilise the designated pedestrian paths or die horrible road accident deaths. These are the only options - no sneaking across the road to the other path, no furtively jumping a fence to another road. In my case this meant a three kilometer detour in a sea of thick necked, thick waisted barbarians, all of whom were wearing hideous matching shirts, silly hats and reeking of eau de body odour as they mindlessly funnelled themselves into the stadium to sit, swill beer and scream and wave their arms erratically as another bunch of thick necked neanderthals crashed into one another.

Usually I might have been able to deal with all this with good humour - after all they're just off for a bit of family fun and it's a fabulous opportunity for some anthropological field work. But in this case the odour, the excessively long walk and the pinching shoes led me to call the two people I know who follow rugby league and notify them that they were being held personally responsible for my sore feet and homicidal rage.