christmas cooking - shortbread and gingerbread

Cammy's Shortbread

as transcribed from a letter she sent to me when I was a young mother far from home.

14 oz flour -half each of plain and self raising
4 oz Castor sugar
2oz ground rice
1/2 lb butter -leave out over night to soften (nowadays I zap it ever so carefully in the microwave)

Sift flours, sugar and ground rice into a mixing bowl, adding soft butter work with clean hands  (I hope she didn't think that I'd forget to wash my hands as a young mother living miles from home in Kalgoorlie when she sent this to me!) until it becomes like soft bread crumbs that hold together when you squeeze a fist full, if it is too dry to hold add a little more butter. Using a willow tin (one of those small slice trays) or 3 Quiche pans (Cammy used to buy those round alfiol tin disposable pie dishes and use them to give as gifts wrapped up with cellophane)
Put the mixture into pans and press & pat (obviously the pressing and patting is important as she underlined it! She actually used to use her fist to press it down giving the surface a knobbly textured surface) until it becomes shiny & sprinkle with a little more caster sugar and cook in a slow oven 150-175 for 1/2 to 3/4 hour or until light golden brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes and cut into serving size pieces while still warm.
She even included cutting instructional diagrams for me. For the rectangular slice pan it is 6 across the short edge and 5 along the longer edge then the round one has a circular small scone or cookie cutter cut out then one must cut it in quarters from the centre cut out and then each of those quarters into further thirds!

All recipes shared ended with love, God bless and enjoy

Swedish Gingerbread (Via Anki's Swedish cook book)

3/4 cup whipping cream

1 cup of sugar

2/3 cup light corn syrup or molasses

1 1/2 tblspns baking soda stirred into 2 tspns water

3 1/2 cups plain flour

Lightly whip cream. Add the sugar, syrup, ginger, lemon and soda - mix. Add almost all the flour (I tipped it all in because it seemed very sticky at this point - But don't panic it's ok) and knead lightly.

Cover and let rest at room temp over night. (Luckily I  had accidentally left my air con on all night as I found out later that as we are in australia and not Sweden Anki and her mum both leave theirs  to rest in the fridge!) But fortunately all was well and  the mixture was no longer very tacky and with a little flour and a couple of sheets of baking paper the dough was reasonably easy to handle and several hours later we have a huge dish full of yummy cookies, as I used the molasses my cookies have a slight hint of licorice to them. YUMMMMY!

Oh yes I forgot to write it down again bake for 7 minutes at 175 *C

 

gluten free low fat upside down apricot cake.

This is a remarkably light sponge for a gluten free cake: The non allergic people at the party were none the wiser and came back for seconds!

1 and a half Tblspns of brown sugar.

400g can of apricots drained well

3 eggs separated

half a cup of caster sugar

half a tspn vanilla paste

2 thirds of a cup of Self Raising gluten free flour mix

Pre heat oven to 160*C. Grease pan and line with baking paper. Sprinkle brown sugar on base and arrange apricots on top of the sugar with the cut side up.

Beat egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually add sugar beating well until sugar is all gone and mixture is smooth and glossy. Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla. Sift flour into mixture and fold through gently with a metal spoon. Gently smooth over apricots and bake for 30 - 35 minutes. Allow to cool in tin for 5- 10 mins before turning out onto plate. Best eaten on the day it is made but it can be frozen for up to three months.
I served it with very not low fat double cream.

I am going to try this sponge with different fruit like blueberries or apple or pears...

oaty toffee biscuits (based on the weight watchers Lace biscuits)

4 tble spns of Melted reduced fat butter,

half a cup of brown sugar,

half a cup of rolled oats

a quarter of a cup of slivered or flaked almonds. (I might try pecans next time)

Mix them all together in a bowl. Place half teaspoonfuls of mixture 5cm apart. Cook for 10 minutes at about 160*C :they will melt and spread- boy do they spread, they need all that space! Where they ran together I just pushed them apart and shaped them back into rounds before leaving them to cool and set for 5 mins before shifting them to a wire rack to completely cool.Alternatively just leave them and snap them apart when the are cool as you transfer them to the wire rack.

curried parsnip and apple soup.

2 medium onions peeled and chopped

2 medium potatoes peeled and chopped

4 medium parsnips also peeled an chopped- chop in thin circles to cut through the woody or stringy bits that you can get with parsnips.

1 red apple peeled and chopped.

1-2 tablespoons of olive oil

1tspn each of curry powder and cumin

1 L of good veggie stock

About 1 cup of milk (reduced fat is fine.)

Fry the onion and potato in hot oil to brown a little and create some of those yummy brown bits, add the spices and fry off for a minute to release the flavours. Then add the stock. Throw in the parsnips and apple and simmer until veggies are all tender. Pure with hand held blender stir in about a cup of milk.

Rustic Spelt Pasta

Tim has discovered that eating wheat makes him feel quite unwell, but he is able to tolerate Spelt flour. Wheat free products are very expensive or not particularly nice. So I thought I'd try making pasta with Spelt flour. I have to say that it was well worth the effort- it really wasn't all that fiddly or difficult and the pasta was delicious. I'll be making this one again! This pasta was made to go with some left over mince with peas and corn- not your traditional spag bol and not really blog worthy but it is the one that my girl prefers.

Rustic Spelt Pasta

1and 3/4 cups of spelt flour

3eggs

one very generous pinch of salt

Mix together with a knife in a large mixing bowl. Knead as the dough comes together for a few minutes. Add a sprinkle of extra flour if needed. I added about a tablespoon or two, eggs vary in size so it is tricky to be exact,plus I am not an exact cook I go by feel and instinct. Wrap in plastic wrap or damp cloth for 10 mins to rest (the dough not you it's not hard work!)

Roll pasta through pasta roller. TIP: I found that this flour was a little sticky I don't know if it was my quantities or they type of flour but I found it easier to cut the dough in small pieces and run them through the pasta roller in these smaller batches. do all of them at each number down to about the third last one.

Slice them into strips and cook in a large pot of salted boiling water for about 1 or 2 minutes according to your taste. I did a practice one first.

(Sorry about the lines through the photo's this keeps happening randomly when I upload photo's on Blogger since I changed to the new format- I don't know what I am doing!??!)

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.