Where has the time gone?

I spent most of my holidays unwell and this last week at school has been a blur. The low point included an abusive, graphically rude note put in my letterbox by a student I had growled at at school on the last day of last term. I don't expect that all kid will like me but I don't expect to be bothered at home by them. The mother was informed and she was beside herself with embarrassment so hopefully it wont happen again.

At least one little girl was so pleased to be back at school, in her words she missed me so much she wished there were no holidays. Everyone told me not to take it to heart but it isn't nice to be on the receiving end of something like that and when it follows you home it is a little unpleasant.
Bantam Boy's mocks are done, only a couple of weeks to the real thing. I am not convinced that there is anywhere near enough study being done. We are all a little grumpy and stressed around here at present so I have tried to stay away from here so as not to bore you all silly with my whinging! My posts my be few and far between until the end of this TEE caper. Although if I am not working (I was at school till 8pm on Friday getting stuff ready for art blast- a huge cross district display of children's art work.) I may have more time just to potter, organise my house and myself and maybe take some photos of what I've been doing.

My friend D and I went into the travel agent today to book our flights and organize our elephant trekking trip to Thailand. We plan to spend a night in Phuket, from there the elephant hills people will pick us up and take us into the national forest. Where we will do these things. (Photo's from the Elephant hills luxury tented camping tours website.)

This is D's 50th birthday wish - to trek on an elephant.

This is included...

if she can do it I'm sure I can!

I've started walking this week to help improve my fitness to make sure I can. I also bought one of those weekly tablet containers with the days marked on them to make sure I take my thyroid medication every day as I am supposed to... it might help me loose weight so that I am not mistaken for an elephant!!!!

One of the tents...
inside the tent. My kind of camping!


We will stay at the campsite in the middle of one of the oldest tropical rain forests in the world for a few nights then instead of returning to Phuket we are going to Krabi for a night or two. From there we will take the train to Hua Hin where we will spend a couple of nights before heading to Bangkok. We decided that the train trip would be an interesting way to see a bit of the countryside rather than seeing the inside of an airplane! We also thought that the contrast between the forest in a tent and such a huge city like Bangkok would be fascinating.

I have to admit I am a bit nervous, mostly as I will be leaving Chicky Babe here. But she will be 17 by then and is looking forward to spending 10-12 days on her own! I am worried that she might follow through on her threat to get rid of some of my junk-or tea cups and fabric as I call them. I'm sure she wouldn't....yeah I'm pretty sure she wouldn't ...would she?!?!

Asparagaus and greek fetta tart

This was so easy to make and delicious! This could be made as individual tarts using a bit more pastry and a cookie cutter to cut small circles to fit into a cup cake tray. Just chop the asparagus and mix egg in a jug to pour small amounts of the egg mixture over individual tarts, Just a word of warning you may need a spoon or knife to cut off the flow of the egg mixture as it will continue to flow out in clumps sometimes overflowing the tart cases!

1 sheet of frozen puff pastry defrosted.

about 200g of greek fetta cheese

two bunches of asparagus, pre steamed until just tender

6 large free range eggs

250 mls (1 small carton) of pouring cream

Press pastry into your favourite deepish pie dish.crumble in half of the cheese, arrange the asparagus on top then sprinkle the rest of the cheese.

In a separate bowl beat eggs with a fork, season with a little salt- remember the fetta is also salty. Mix in about three quarters of the cream and pour over the asparagus and cheese.

Drizzle most of the remaining cream in a spiral pattern over the top. (this gives a variety of texture to the dish so you will get patches of lighter textured less eggy creamier sections in your tart.)

Bake in a moderately hot oven until the egg mixture is set, and the top is a light golden colour, Make sure it is not too hot so as to burn the top.

Variations;

Keeping the basic egg mixture with cream the variations are endless....

Roast vegies and fetta or

Mushroom and your favourite cheddar cheese

pancetta, fetta and sweet corn.... tuna... oven roasted tomato and basil....

You can add as many or as few flavourings as you like, however sometimes simplicity works best.

Quince and coconut cake

125g soft butter

3/4 cup caster sugar............creamed

3 eggs ...........mix in one at a time

3 cups sifted SR flour

1cup of coconut cream...............mixed in a bit at a time alternately with flour

Spoon into a greased and floured spring form tin

Top with Quince Poached in Sugar (3 quince, about 4 cups of water and 3 large tablespoons of sugar) simmer for an hour and a half, cool and spoon on top of cake mixture. After this time the quince will have turned a lovely pink colour and the pectin in the fruit will have made the syrup all jammy.

Bake in a moderate oven for aprox 50 mins.

Serve with thickened cream.

Sausage rolls!

Having been allergic to preservatives, colourings and flavourings and MSG (not to mention raw onion, including raw garlic and any other thing of the onion family when raw, salmon, sword fish, cobbler- violently!!) Eating out is often a bit tricky. sometimes I just decide that I will put up with the consequences- except for the cobbler ones I avoid any fish that I am unsure of. But the other thing I miss are things like the occasional sausage and pies and sausage rolls.

Finally after years it is becoming far easier to find in the average supermarket preservative, colouring and flavouring free foods. Just recently our local "Growers Fresh" gourmet deli supermarket has started to stock organic gluten free sausages. I LOVE them. And at about $1.40 each sausage they are extravagant as far as sausages go I would never have thought I would look upon the humble sausage as a gourmet treat. The other day I made a good old sausage curry.

Nothing inspiring just fried onions, sausages, curry powder, diced potato, A tin of crushed tomatoes a dash of water and a preservative free stock cubeand a sprinkle of frozen peas and corn. YUM!!! A childhood dish.

On the weekend I got a sheet of puff pastry sliced it in half . I removed the sausage meat from it's casing and lay it along the centre of the pastry (about two sausages for each pastry half) I rolled them up and chopped them into small "party sausage rolls". After about 20mins in a hot oven, Finally after YEARS of salivating at staff morning teas I could eat some sausage rolls!

Spaghetti and Meatballs

After I had the family over for dinner my nice text me to ask me for thr recipe. I realised my recipes are more like lose suggestions. This is the instructions I emailed to her.
Ok here goes this is what I did for the dinner we had.
Into a big bowl put....
1.5 kg of good quality mince meat- not the cheapest one but it does not have to be the super fine choice brand one, as a little fat in the mince improves the flavour.
Sometimes I add onion ( I can't remember if I did that on the last occasion) but if you do it must be diced finely and fried to a light golden brown and cooled before adding to the raw mince. usually I add 1 onion but for this quantity I would have used 2.
add a good pinch or shake rather of dried marjoram or oregano (about a tspn. maybe a bit more in such a big quantity)
A good slurp of preservative and colour free tomato sauce (Hinze brand) about a table spn or more per 500g I think)
a couple of eggs (only one if you have between 500g and 1kg closer to 1kg and over use 2 eggs
A good grounding of sea salt and a bit of pepper.

Now get your hands messy squishing it all together until well combined. (wash your hands)
Using a desert spoon measure out even quantities of meat and fashion into meatballs.
Fry in a heavy based pan with a slurp of good quality olive oil- this will stay in the pan so make sure it is good as it will flavour the sauce. Don’t add to much or it will make the sauce oily and unpleasant, just enough to help the frying process. (At this point if you have used cheaper mince you may want to drain off most of the fat but leave all the caramelised stuff on the base of the pan as it adds flavour.

now when the meatballs are cooked pour over 1 (or two bottles for a big quantity ) of passata or sugo that’s the tomato pure in a bottle which has only tomato and salt. crumble in 1 or two "massel" brand salt reduced preservative free msg free natural stock cubes. Allow it to simmer long enough for the flavours to develop and the sauce to thicken or until you are all so hungry you can't wait any longer.

Serve with your favourite type of el dente pasta and parmesan cheese that you have to grate yourself (not the yucky powdered type)

Enjoy!
(this is how my grandmother used to sign off all her recipes)

corn cakes topped with beans and sour cream

This is a recipe I have kind of adapted from a meal I had with my friend 'A'. This is far more 'corny' than the one she made - from memory and the basic recipe calls out for adaptation. Try adding spices like cumin or coriander to the batter. Mixing in fresh corn kernels is good and a good strong Cheddar added to the batter is yummy too. You can add chic peas and use bessan flour for a change.

I used this little teacup as my cup measurement.

Corn Cakes topped with beans and sour cream

1 cup plain flour (substitute corn flour or your fav. gluten free flour to make it wheat free)

1 cup of instant /fine polenta

about 1 cup of milk (I just remembered I didn't actually measure the milk, you need enough to make a thick batter when all ingredients are added.)

1 tin 420g tin of creamed corn

1 egg

Salt to taste.

mix all ingredients together to create a thick batter.

Put desired portions into a heavy based pan, with a small amount of olive oil if you think you'll need it. I made little corn cakes but you could make them much larger if you prefer, much like pikelets or hot cakes.

When they are cooked about 2 or three mins each side. Pop them onto a plate and top with the same kind of ingredients you would put on a taco. I used shop bought bean dip lettuce, coriander, some grated cheese and a little dollop of sour cream, although plain yogurt is a good substitute if you prefer something a little lighter.

Although they were yummy all together they were a real treat just plain too. Crisp and sweet, the polenta gives it a great texture.