food Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Handmade by Carolyn

The Gentle Art of Preservation

05/09/2012 3:32 am \ 18 Comments \ Carolyn

… otherwise entitled: Further Developments in the Case of the Super-Prolific Citrus Trees

Our lemon tree’s desire to give give give and just keep on giving…. well, I have been doing more good things with our produce 🙂 Limoncello!! Aah, the taste of Italia, si?

And thank you all for those links to recipes for Limoncello, I used this one, the link sent to me by Sue, thank you!

Limoncello

6 lemons

750mL vodka

225g sugar

435mL water

Place the lemons in a saucepan and cover with boiling water. Set aside for 1 hour to soak. Drain and pat dry. Finely grate the lemons, and combine the lemon rind and vodka in a jug. (You don’t use the juice from the lemons in this recipe, but obviously the lemons can be juiced and the juice can still be used somewhere; waste not want not 🙂 )

Heat the sugar and water in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring for 5 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved. Increase heat to medium and bring to the boil. Cook without stirring for 5 minutes, or until the syrup begins to thicken. Set aside to cool.

Add cool syrup to the vodka mixture and pour into an airtight container. Seal and store in a cool, dark place, shaking occasionally, for 1 month to develop the flavours.

Strain the vodka mixture through a fine sieve, into a clean sterilised airtight bottle. Discard the rind.

Note: This liqueur must be served well chilled. Place it in the freezer for 1 hour before serving.

We are now so looking forward to long hot summer evenings taking tiny sips of limoncello in tonic water… I can taste it already. Oh maybe that is because I just did.. hehehe 😀
And remember my plan to drink a-lemon-a-day?? well I am very pleased to report that I have not been sick or felt even vaguely under the weather all this winter! I’m positive that has been due to my (almost) daily dose of Vitamin C! My family likewise has been perfectly well all winter, which is awesome.
From our cumquat tree:

Cumquat marmalade

2 cups cumquats, washed and sliced finely

2 cups water

juice of 1 lemon

2 cups sugar

if you have bumper crops of cumquats, double the quantities

Wash and slice fruit finely and remove the seeds, but don’t throw them away.

Place the fruit in a large saucepan, cover with water and soak overnight (8 hours). Put the seeds in a separate small bowl and soak in a small amount of boiling water overnight also.

Next day, strain the liquid from the seeds. Discard the seeds and add the water to the cumquats. Cook gently on a low heat until the fruit is tender and the liquid is reduced by half.

Add the sugar and lemon juice. When the sugar has dissolved, turn up the heat and boil rapidly while stirring constantly until the mixture jells, around 30-45 minutes.

To test if the marmalade is jelling, spoon a little onto a cold saucer. if a skin forms and it glazes on the surface and wrinkles when touched, it is ready. If it is still runny, boil for a little longer and test again.

That recipe is from an old Burke’s Backyard facts sheet. Slicing the cumquats is fiddly and a bit of a pain, but I just set myself up in front of the TV and knocked off a huge batch over one evening.

(Later edit: I’ve had enough comments utilising a variety of different spellings for me to wish to confirm that “cumquats” with a “c” IS the correct spelling here in Australia 🙂 )

I neglected to mention it previously, but we have a little lime tree as well (pictured in the background of my limoncello above) and it too has been gallantly producing a bountiful harvest… so:

Lime curd

rind and juice of 5 limes
6 eggs
1 1/2 c sugar
125g butter

Lightly whisk the eggs and sugar together in a saucepan, then add the other ingredients. Whisk continually over a medium heat until the mixture has thickened to a custard-like texture then allow to cool in the pan. Decant into sterilised jars.

This is the same recipe I used for my lemon curd just with one extra lime added in, since the limes are a little smaller than the lemons. I also added a titch of green food colouring to distinguish it from the lemon curd, but I think this could have been a bad idea. According to my family it looks like jars of slime.

Oh. Mmmm. Right. Not such a hugely appetising description, mebbee?! Previously it was a perfectly delectable shade of yellow. So I would NOT recommend the green food colouring 🙂

But whilst it may look slightly dubious I can assure you it still tastes absolutely delicious! I think I like it even more than the lemon curd!

Finally, boring (sorry) but here are my additions for August

Grey Jersey set

Fabric; $5.00

Patterns; KwikSew 3300
$11.75 and McCalls 2772, used previously

Underwires; $2.49

Cup inserts; $12.95

Bra closure;
$2.49

Elastic; $7.98

Buttons; old, from stash

Total cost: $41.66

A tee or three, & “Sleeve”

Fabric; white Tshirts;
fabric previously accounted for, striped Tshirt and sleeve Tshirt, all
refashioned old garments and leftovers

Pattern; self drafted

Total cost for the 4
Tshirts: free

Spiral leggings

Fabric; birthday gift from
friends

Pattern; from Pattern Magic
3, been used before

Total cost: free

Red Riding Hoodie

Fabric; from an old cardigan
and Tshirt

Zip; $2.99

Thread; $2.68

Total cost: $5.67

Bees on white cotton set

Fabric; $7.50

Patterns; KwikSew 3300 and
McCalls 2772, both used previously

Underwires; recycled from
old bra

Cup inserts; $12.95

Bra closure;
$2.49

Elastic; $2.99

Embroidery thread; old, from stash

Total cost: $25.93

A Man-Hoodie

Fabric; $37.48

Thread; broke into a new
1000m reel of black $13.95

Pattern; self drafted

Total cost: $51.43 (but I am not including this cost in the total for my own wardrobe)

Sparkle-osity

Fabric; about $50.00?

Yellow
jersey; $12.00

Pattern;
self-drafted

Brass
Snaps; $4.95

Total
cost; $66.95

With Military Precision

Fabric;
all leftovers

Lining;
$8.39

Pattern;
from the Pattern Pyramid… free

Buttons;
$5.70

Total
cost; $14.09

Miscellaneous

No miscellaneous purchases
this month

Making the total for the second third of the year; $499.02
and my running total for the year so far $1132.06

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: accounting, food, recipe

Macarons!

19/08/2012 4:25 am \ 18 Comments \ Carolyn

I’m feeling so clever, right about now 🙂
Please let me affirm, I am NOT a good cook, in fact I am truly disastrous in the kitchen, hehe.
But LOOK!
I found this terrific recipe on homerunballerina (I love her blog, even though I am a horrendously bad cook her recipes are ab fab) and felt emboldened to give it a go.
Now, confession time, my first batch following the linked recipe exactly and to the letter was pretty horrible… I am thinking though it might have been due to the difference between Australian ingredients and US ingredients, maybe? maybe not? When we lived in the US I did find that some common ingredients were very very different from ours with the same name. Some ingredients commonly used here in Australia, for example self-raising flour and golden syrup (and that is just a few of many) are simply not available at all. A lot of my recipes that worked a charm here at home just did not work in the US. Particularly baking and cake-y sorts of things.
Anyhoo I made a few minor changes to Audrey’s recipe, both to the macarons, and I made a much thicker ganache too; and my second batch looks and tastes pretty darn goooood if I say so myself! so this might be a good recipe for other Aussies and New Zealanders to try out.
The original recipe specified egg white powder, and I have no idea where or even if one can get such a thing here in sleepy lil’ Perth. I substituted this stuff called Pavlova Magic, which contains powdered egg white along with other things. It seemed to do the trick. It is still a gluten free product, which makes the whole entire recipe gluten free; a definite plus!
My modified version of Audrey’s recipe…

Vanilla macarons with dark chocolate ganache

3 egg whites, allowed to sit for at least an hour
30g castor sugar
5g powdered egg white (if you can’t get it, Pavlova Magic works)
125g almond meal
200g pure icing sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp pure vanilla essence

Sift the icing sugar and baking powder and stir through the almond meal. Combine castor sugar and powdered egg white (or Pavlova Magic) in a separate little bowl.
Whisk the egg whites until firm and stiff enough to keep its shape when you turn the bowl upside down, I prefer to whisk by hand. Gradually add the castor sugar/powdered egg white mix whisking continuously and vigorously after each addition.
Add the icing sugar/baking powder/almond meal mix in five batches, stirring until mixed each time. Lastly, stir in the vanilla essence.
Transfer mixture to a piping bag and pipe rounds onto a baking sheet or baking paper, leaving an inch between each round, and let them sit on the bench for at least another hour or until they have developed a “skin” and do not feel sticky to the touch. I accidentally forgot mine and left them sitting for over two hours, but apparently that is a good thing 🙂
Bake at 130C for 5 minutes, turn the tray around, bake for another 5 minutes then remove from the oven. Slide the baking sheet off the tray and onto the bench; partly so you can cook the next batch, but also the cold bench stops the cooking process in its tracks. When they are completely cold, peel them carefully off the paper.

For the ganache:
150g dark chocolate
75mL whipping cream
Bring the cream to a boil, then take off the heat and add the broken up chocolate, let it sit for a minute then stir in thoroughly to melt. When it is lukewarm, spread a little onto a macaron like spreading jam thickly on bread, then stick another macaron on top.

Let the ganache set before you let everybody loose onto them.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: food, macarons, recipe

Lemons, lemons, lemons…

08/08/2012 3:59 am \ 62 Comments \ Carolyn

Like many households in Perth at the mo’ we have lemons. Lots of lemons. We are overloaded with lemons. We have lemons coming out of our ears. To say I have lemons on the brain is no exaggeration!!
Last week I was sad to see one of the boughs on our lemon tree starting to snap from under the weight of a gazillion lemons… so I salvaged all the ripe lemons off of the bough and got this…

D’ya wanna see something scary? Even after harvesting all those lemons off just one branch, the tree still looks like this…!

So I am on a mission to USE LEMONS…!
I have made lemon curd. I checked out recipes on the net and found this one, but then made up my own recipe, which uses the whole egg rather than just the yolk. I consider this to be a far more usable concept in cooking 🙂

Lemon Curd
rind and juice of 4 lemons
6 eggs
1 1/2 c sugar
125g butter

I’ve made about twenty jars of lemon curd and given nearly all away to my friends; and they have been surprisingly appreciative, especially considering most of us have lemon trees 😀

Cassie devised this clever idea…

This is mango jelly, made up with the juice from the lemons plus water up to volume, and poured inside the hollowed-out half lemon shells to set. It can be eaten by scooping the jelly straight out of the half shells, or cut up into wedges like this. Looks quite pretty on the plate, don’t you think?… Clever and delicious!

Floral arrangement…

I know I know, this isn’t really “using” lemons since they too still have to be consumed at some point. But one may as well enjoy the visual beauty of laden branches too, yes? Alongside there is my newest knitting project, hehehe…

I hesitate to mention this last one, since I get a “look” from everyone irl I have mentioned it to… I am also drinking a lemon a day… without any added sugar. I fully realise how strange this sounds but honestly I am enjoying it now. It only took a few days to get used to drinking unsweetened diluted lemon juice but now I am acclimatised I cannot imagine going back to adding sugar ever again. I used to add sugar to my lemon juice, but it always bothered me. I decided I would wean myself off by gradually reducing the amount of sugar I was adding but then I just decided to go cold turkey. And it worked! I am getting a good shot of vitamin C, without the extra sugar. I am cool with it now.
Juice of 1 lemon, diluted up to a glassful…

A glass a day keeps the common cold at bay!

I think it is important to note, I am NOT expecting my family to drink unsweetened lemon juice. For now it’s just me 🙂 For my family, I have been baking a coupla lemon cakes each week. It’s a good thing everyone loves them…. 🙂
And we are slowly getting through those lemons!
Incidentally, does anyone know a good limoncello recipe?
Now perhaps I should start thinking what to do about this…

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: flower arrangement, food, random life stuff, recipe

A meaningful motto…

02/04/2012 9:43 am \ 16 Comments \ Carolyn

source

a …er, moonflower (?)

( it closes during the day)

munchies masterfully managed…

(rhubarb and pear custard cake)

… and some mathematical musings for March.

Peekaboo in blue top
Fabric; a gift from my friend C
Pattern; from Pattern Magic 3, a gift (and used previously)
Total cost; free
Grey Stripe dress
Fabric; $41.90
Pattern; self-drafted
Total cost; $41.90
Grey Stripe Tshirt
Fabric; leftovers from the above dress
Pattern; self drafted
Total cost; free
Bitumen-hued shorts
Fabric; leftovers
Thread; got started on a new 1000m spool of white; $13.95
Pattern; Burda 7723, used previously
Zip; 0.83
Buttons; from stash
Total cost; $14.78

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: accounting, food

Pruning and baking…

07/03/2012 5:12 am \ 46 Comments \ Carolyn

… I’ve been getting out in the garden. And engaged in some ~~brutal hacking~~ garden maintenance. But I felt sad about those fallen sprays of soft and velvet-y grey-green, and gathered them up, and made an arrangement. Quite nice, don’t you think? I think sometimes the obvious beauty of flowers blinds us to the quiet and subtle beauty of plain unadorned foliage.
Alongside there; a knitting work in progress 😉
And just to prove that my kitchen is not merely for show (although everyone including my family might be forgiven for mistaking that one) I have been baking…. A friend had an important birthday and I hosted a birthday do and made a cake, and y’know what? fortuitously it was delicious! I was so proud like a mother with her new baby I took a picture…
Pink Velvet Cake (recipe from the Australian Women’s Weekly “High Tea” cookbook)

There! It can be seen that I do occasionally dabble in activities other than sewing!
But back to important matters…
In sewing news:
I’m getting behind on my documentation… I have three new things to show here 🙂 I am just awaiting on the right day to take photographs…. you know how I am a bit of a perfectionist in such things. It’s not like I am going to just slap any ol’ hideous me-photo here on the internet… And realistically, it has just been too darn crazy-hot to actually wear any of my new creations yet, and I like to actually be wearing that thing on that day or I feel like a bit of a fraud. Silly, I know… as it is I have been boringly wearing the same-old-same-old little summer things and I am getting. Sick. To. Death. of my summer wardrobe. I’m dying to get into some of my new cooler weather things! But we are expecting a nice cool change today, so soon a “new thing” picture shall appear. I promise.

I received a very cool and very generous gift recently from the very talented Shams. Thank you so much Shams!! I won’t show details here just yet… but I will at the right time. Sorry to be all mysterious, but results will appear in due course… watch this space!
Also, the lovely Mary awarded me the Versatile blogger award! Since I already have this one I won’t repeat myself by doing it over again, but if you want you can click on those award buttons in my sidebar to read the things I have written about before. Thank you so much for thinking of me, Mary!
Now I’m going to ~~have a minor rant~~ give my considered opinion on something that is bothering me heaps lately;

That hideous new word verification thingy. Is the new system not the most teeth-grindingly awful thing in blogworld at the mo’, or what…. Does anybody else agree? Whenever I go to leave a comment and that blurry, blended-together, ridiculously illegible as well unintelligible, thing pops up… well, half the time it’s so damn difficult to work it out I have to have a couple of goes at it before I get it right. And … “prove you are not a robot”? What the heck? that’s a little bit rude… Honestly, it seriously saps the will to comment… I removed the word verification from my own blog months ago, even back when the word was still relatively easy to figure out and I haven’t been spammed or had any (intentionally) rude comments yet.
Here’s my feeling; the sewing and creative community is nearly always so kind and supportive, do we really want to put obstacles in the paths of people who might merely wish to say a kind word about our new creations? So I respectfully suggest that if you do have word verification attached to your blog then you might consider removing it for a while and see how you go.
It might not be as bad as you think 🙂

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: flower arrangement, food, random life stuff

Anzac Day

25/04/2010 4:40 am \ 9 Comments \ Carolyn

Today is Anzac Day, the day we commemorate soldiers fallen for our country. The acronym ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corp, and originates from the days of the first World War when Australia and New Zealand were part of British territory and our soldiers were then British soldiers. Anzacs were sent in to some of the toughest and most gruelling battles, if you haven’t seen the movie Gallipoli then I recommend it as a good little history lesson (Mel Gibson in an early role, and incidentally my uncle is in the movie in a small speaking part)
In the first World War, wives and mothers of the Anzacs baked these biscuits, known for their keeping qualities and sent them off to the soldiers overseas, thus the name. I found an interesting fact on the internet, Anzac biscuits is a term protected legally, and it is illegal to sell them using the word “cookies”, so there you go. Interesting bit of trivia there for you…

Now, I am the world’s worst cook. However these yummy little biscuits are so easy to bake that even I can’t stuff them up so I thought I’d share a recipe with you for today. Anzac bikkie recipes are everywhere and you can find a zillion slight variations, this is the one I use. Be assured that recipes on this blog will be few and far in between, as cooking is not my thing, but today is kinda special…

Anzac Biscuits
125g butter
2 tblsp golden syrup
3/4 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup plain flour
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp bicarb of soda
if needed, approx 2 tblps boiling water
If you’re a one bowl wonder like me, melt your butter first. Stir in golden syrup. Add all the other ingredients and mix together. Water can be added as an extra binder if the mixture is still a bit dry.
Drop spoonsful onto a baking tray.
Bake at 160C (325F) for about 12 minutes.
Cool on a wire rack.

Sit back and as you nibble remember the Anzacs, or any soldier who has served for their country.

This little doily was hand-embroidered with Australian native flowers by either my grandmother or my great aunt… both of them very talented handcrafters.