The Genial Hearth
I’ve just put the kettle on, join me for a cuppa and a chat.
Archive for Domestic Life
December 22, 2008 at 11:34 am · Filed under Advent, Baking, Blogging, Domestic Life, Food, Puggle, Season
Three dozen Fruit Mince Tarts made:-)
I haven’t actually made them in years, so this is a nice change:-)
I didn’t make my own Fruit Mince this year (maybe next year, I reckon Puggle may well be able to do it himself by then), but I still had home-made Fruit Mince, thanks to Lizzy_bbb. I did fail to check I had enough Shortcrust pastry (I had already decided to just use ready-rolled sheets, to simplify matters), so we did the rest with Puff pastry… They’re not as good (they don’t look right:-( ), but they’ll taste fine:-)
No recipe this year, basically circles of shortcrust pastry, place them in a tin, add a teaspoon of fruit mince and top with a cross or some other decoration out of the leftover shortcrust. Bake for about 15-20 minutes in a moderate/hot oven.
December 19, 2008 at 9:55 am · Filed under Blogging, Carnivals, Domestic Life, Food, Menu
Friday: Bottomless Quiche
Saturday: BBQ (sausages and chops) with friends
Sunday: From the Freezer (beef sausages and lentil stew)
Monday: With my folks
Tuesday: BBQ (sausages and kebabs, and white bean salad) with friends
Wednesday and Thursday will be part of the next week, because I’ll have to shop then—I’m not braving the shops on Boxing Day for groceries!
Off to sew!
December 18, 2008 at 8:31 pm · Filed under Advent, Blogging, Domestic Life, Food, Season
Make Shortbread.
I don’t think I’ve managed this since Puggle was born. And this year is no different. It may still occur if I fluke my way through everything else to complete, but that’s exceedingly unlikely!
I did get a decent portion of the remaining Christmas present shopping completed though, and Puggle and Bilby got to go to the beach, so not an unproductive day:-)
December 17, 2008 at 8:31 pm · Filed under Advent, Blogging, Domestic Life, Food, Season
Make Peppermint Creams.
As so often happens around this time, we didn’t get this done. There was a fair amount of present making completed though:-)
We will get to these over the weekend (I hope!), as they provide a good balance to the other baking.
December 16, 2008 at 8:27 pm · Filed under Advent, Blogging, Books, Christmas, Domestic Life, For Children, Picture Books, Season
Read Hettie’s Christmas Gift (doesn’t seem to be available through Amazon—I guess, because it’s Australian.)
We did this. This is another book to which I really enjoy returning. I love the fact that it provides a link between the northern hemisphere traditions that we read about, and our southern hemisphere reality.
December 14, 2008 at 10:51 pm · Filed under Advent, Christmas, Domestic Life, Family, Season
Decorate the Christmas tree.
Have a picnic underneath.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas:-)
December 13, 2008 at 10:58 pm · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Recipes
We took advantage of the lovely weather and visiting friends to try tapas again (I’ve added links to most of the recipes now).
This time, we added Spicy Almonds. Most recipes called for blanched almonds, so I started doing that. I soon grew weary of it, so went ahead without blanching the rest.
Spicy Almonds
almonds
olive oil
salt
cayenne pepper
Spread almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet. Spray with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and cayenne pepper. Stir up to ensure that nuts are covered on all sides and return to a single layer. Cook at about 180˚C for about 10-15 minutes.
December 13, 2008 at 10:27 pm · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Recipes
Labne
yoghurt, greek style
salt
thyme
EVOO
olives, kalamata
sumac
Drain the yoghurt (after you’ve mixed with salt) for at least a day in the fridge (we wrap it in a chux, and place it in a sieve over a bowl). Spread on a plate, drizzle with EVOO and sprinkle with thyme, sumac and olives. Serve with turkish bread.
December 13, 2008 at 10:07 pm · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Recipes
Tapanade from The Naked Chef
by Jamie Oliver
250 grams olives, black, de-stoned (if you can get them already de-stoned, do… black olives appear to be a clingstone variety)
1 clove garlic
6 fillets anchovy
salt
pepper, black, freshly ground
EVOO
1 lemon, juice
Finely chop the olives, garlic and anchovies by hand or place them in a food processor and whizz until smooth. Correct the seasoning, add olive oil to loosen and, very importantly, add lemon juice to taste.
Serve with lightly toasted pieces of turkish bread.
December 13, 2008 at 10:03 pm · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Recipes
Chorizo in Cider from here
4 chorizo sausages
bottle of cider
Slice the chorizo. Fry it up until it begins to brown. Pour in the cider, and continue to cook until the cider becomes syrupy. Serve hot or at room temperature.
December 13, 2008 at 9:42 pm · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Recipes
Mushrooms with Burnt Butter and Sage based on a meal eaten at Duende (We ate this, and loved it so much that we sat in the restaurant cleaning the plate with our fingers it was so good!)
mushrooms
butter
sage
prosciutto
lemon
Slice the mushrooms. Cook in a little butter and oil, and put on a serving plate.
When choosing your sage leaves, try to use a variety of sizes, some small, some medium sized but leave the extra large leaves for other uses.
To make the sauce use a generous amount of butter. Place the butter and the sage leaves in the frypan and cook over a gentle heat. You’re aiming to cook the leaves until crisp, while the butter begins to brown. Then remove from the heat.
As soon as it has reached the brown stage, remove it from the heat. Pour over the mushrooms. Sprinkle with some prosciutto and a good squeeze of lemon.
December 13, 2008 at 9:09 pm · Filed under Advent, Bilby, Domestic Life, Family, Food, Paddington, Puggle, Season
Bring Dada sweet rolls in bed.
Yesterday when Puggle was making his own freshly squeezed orange juice, he was talking about making juice for Dada for breakfast. Last night I set out everything needed for breakfast.
This morning, Paddington was woken with freshly squeezed orange juice and fruit toast. Puggle carried it all in, but Bilby helped clear it away (she’s pretty good at carrying laden plates, but not completely reliable yet:-) )
December 12, 2008 at 10:22 pm · Filed under Advent, Blogging, Domestic Life, Organisation, Puggle, Season
Make Blueberry and Cardomom Bread.
When doing the shopping, I wasn’t able to find dried blueberries (I think I usually find them at Woolies… I was at IGA). Instead I got dried cherries—what the recipe actually called for!
Sadly though, I napped with the children (three nights of Bilby waking in the middle of the night… teeth??), so I failed to put the wheat on to soak in time. None of this bread today:-( (We will make it though, possibly Monday… I’d like to see what it’s like with the cherries:-) ) I’ve cooked some fruit loaf instead, and Puggle was telling me today how he is going to squeeze orange juice for Dada in the morning:-) (I don’t think Paddington reads here every day, so it should be safe to say that:-) )
December 12, 2008 at 9:26 pm · Filed under Carnivals, Domestic Life, Food, Menu
Friday: Nachos
Saturday: Tapas. I was reminded how good it was when I finally posted about doing it at the beginning of the year. I’ll try and actually add the recipes. I have a couple of new recipes to try as well… (Deep-fried Aubergine with honey, Roasted Almonds and Spanish Omlette).
Sunday: Picnic for both lunch and dinner (an end of year thing, and under the Christmas tree). I haven’t decided for certain which way around it will be, but one will be Scotch eggs and Onigiri (with sundried tomato, pickled ginger, tuna, and avocado as the fillings), the other will be bottomless quiche.
Monday: We eat with my folks.
Tuesday: Pasta with Pesto
Wednesday: BBQ night. Pork skewers and More-ish Crunch salad (I’ll post the recipe this week). Making Peppermint Creams.
Thursday: We eat with Paddington’s folks. Making Shortbread.
December 12, 2008 at 1:37 pm · Filed under Bilby, Domestic Life, Family, Puggle
I love watching the kids play:-)
Today, they were outside, and Puggle decided to draw a couple of chalk circles (about side plate size) in the patio. He started jumping on them, and Bilby copied him. So then, he decided that they were frogs, jumping from one lily pad to the next… so now, the patio has a whole line of orange chalk circles:-)
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by A. A. Milne
by Andrew Lang
