Green Gourmet Giraffe

TTT Avocado pound cake with cream cheese frosting

2012-02-28T21:30:00.002+11:00

Last week I baked three cakes for Sylvia's birthday. I tried to keep it simple and plain. Simple because my time and energy is quite limited at the moment. Plain because there are so many ways to displease kids. Neither plain nor simple is my strength. I managed plain and simple with some twists. Pound cake (also known as buttercake or madeira cake) is plain but mine was slightly green. That is the joy of Avocado pound cake.

Not quite as green as I had hoped but greener than I had expected after using avocados with some grey patches and my yoghurt had some blueberries in it. It was green enough for E to guess that it the cake might contain broccoli, spinach or courgette. Green enough for me to smile with delight at the green puree in my food processor.

Sylvia then wanted a purple cake. So I decided on some purple icing. At which point she told me she wanted green icing. Sometimes you can't win. Fortunately she was more gracious about her presents. E and I bought her a new purple bike. I am not sure if it is more or less popular than the new dolly stroller from a local budget shop. I think she will enjoy the bike more if the weather ever manages to find a balance between drenching rain and burning heat.

Sylvia also received presents for her craft box as well as clothes, dress-ups, games and a new nurse dolly. Little dolly is still ruling the roost but she is glad to have nurse dolly when she doesn't feel very well. And Sylvia loves her new cape for being the wicked witch with her friend Gordon!

Her dad bought her a 1970 movie of the Railway Children DVD. She loves him reading her an abridged version of the story and was quite fascinated by the film. Birthdays are about indulgence. Watching a long DVD, eating pizza and then decorating a cake fit the bill.

I made a ring cake which seemed celebratory. E thought it looked like a big doughnut. While I am often happy to leave cakes plain (like Lorraine's afternoon tea loaf), I believe that icing is right and proper when it is a birthday. I was surprised at how restrained Sylvia and I were in decorating the cake. I suspect she planned to eat more of the sprinkles than she put on the cake but I did my best to stop her eating a handful of butterfly decorations.

I was less successful at stopping Sylvia putting her face into the empty icing bowl. It makes me laugh to see how much she embraces cakes. Yet if I can make the treats a little bit more healthy I will. Avocado was not just about colour. It also imparted some buttery softness in the cake with healthy fats. The frosting is one I like for not having a shocking amount of sugar and I love using beetroot powder to minimise artificial colourings.

I served the avocado cake on Sylvia's birthday and it was lovely when fresh. It was less popular when we had some people around for her birthday. My mum commented that it had a slightly odd taste. Probably the avocado. I thought it barely discernible. However I suspect the real reason that it was neglected on a table of party food was that there was tough competition. I'll be back soon with her other two birthday cakes.

Meanwhile, I am sending this cake to Karen of Lovage and Lavender and Kate of What Kate Baked for their Tea Time Treats event. The theme in February is Romance so I think this cake with purple frosting and pretty flowers seems just right.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Teatime and tales - for the young at heart
This time two years ago: Baking: the good the bad and the healthy
This time three years ago: Valentine Day Polenta
This time four years ago: If music be the food...

Avocado Pound Cake
Adapted from Not Quite Nigella

1 1/4 cups plain flour
1/4 cup cornflour (cornstarch)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup almond meal
1 (scant) teaspoon salt
1/4 cup rice bran oil
3/4 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
2 ripe medium avocados
1/2 cup yoghurt (I used half plain and half sweetened)
1 tsp lime juice

Cream cheese frosting (Adapted from here):

125g cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup icing sugar
purple colouring (I used a mix of purple powder and beetroot powder)
sprinkles (sparkly, flowers and butterflies)

Preheat oven to 170 C. Grease and line a 20cm ring tin (or a loaf tin).

Place flours, baking powder, almond and salt in a medium to large mixing bowl. Mix well. Blitz oil, sugar, eggs, avocado flesh, yoghurt and lime juice in food processor until smooth and green. Gently mix avocado mixture with dry ingredients until combined.

Pour into prepared tin and bake for 55 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Leave in tin for 5-10 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

To make the frosting, vigourously mix all the ingredients with a spoon (or use electric beaters). Spread over cooled cake and decorate with sprinkles as desired.

On the Stereo:
The Trip: Various Artists: curated by Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey.

WW Chocolate energy slice, rain and Ripponlea

2012-02-26T23:02:00.001+11:00

After making chocolate almond rice bubble slice recently, I was quite interested in more ideas for using nut butter. This energy bites recipe was chosen by E because he preferred a slice to balls. It appealed to me because when I made it last week it was so hot that I didn't fancy turning on the oven. And I love how these slices allow a clear out of the pantry.

In fact it was so hot last week that we ate dinner outside - though that was partly because Sylvia wouldn't come inside. Then on the night I made this slice it was so wet that both E and took twice as long as usual to get home because Melbourne went into traffic chaos. Melbourne's weather is like that at the moment. Either too hot or too cold and wet.

The slice also gave me an opportunity to use up some chocolate icing in the freezer. The recipe says that it is fine without the chocolate icing but it was the Pinterest photo with the chocolate on top that first drew me in. At first I was dubious about the slice. I wasn't sure of the amount of ground linseeds. Then I decided I really liked them. But I loved the slice so much more once I put a layer of chocolate icing on top. So did E. Every time I gave a piece to Sylvia she licked the chocolate off the top and told me it was like a icy pole.

We still had the slice last weekend when we went to Ripponlea last weekend with friends Chris, Yav and Florence. I wanted to take a piece of slice along but didn't think it quite right. It was great morning tea snacks at work. The icing went so soft that it was quite messy. That's fine for me. I didn't think I could bear to have Sylvia taking an hour to eat a piece and ending up with chocolate icing everywhere.

Instead we had a wee piece after lunch and took oat crackers, roasted chickpeas and grapes to snack on in the gardens. We decided not to do a tour of the grand house. There wasn't time once we had picnicked on a rug and wandered around the gardens with the kids. I did enjoy tryout out the telephoto lens that I had purchased with my camera. It still feels a bit awkward but I don't often have the opportunity to use it.

Our visit was timely. Ripponlea features in a new detective series based in Melbourne that started on the ABC last week: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. We caught up on the first episode last night and really enjoyed the stylish production and feisty heroine.

I am sending this slice to Ricki for her Wellness Weekends (without the chocolate topping for a vegan, sugar free and gluten free slice if you use vegan choc chips and GF oats).

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Chocolate cashew fudge and nut roast love!
This time two years ago: Serendipitous Plum Jam
This time three years ago: Frozen Fruity Fun with Icy Poles
This time four years ago: WBB Microwave Muesli

Linseed, cashew and fruit slice:
Adapted from Mia's Domain

1/2 cup rice malt syrup (I used a little golden syrup to top up when I ran out)
1 cup cashew butter
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup ground linseeds (flax seeds)
2 tbsp whole linseeds
1/2 cup raw wheat germ
1/2 cup raw hazelnuts, chopped
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup prunes, chopped

Chocolate ganache (optional)
The recipe used half cup each of dark chocolate and cream but I used this dark chocolate frosting.

Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl until well combined. I found it hard going stirring it all together but with a bit of elbow grease it comes together. Spread into a lined or greased 20cm square cake tin and press down with the back of a spoon. Leave in fridge to firm up. If desired, spread with ganache or chocolate frosting and return to fridge. Slice up int squares to serve. This slice is best kept in the fridge because once out of the fridge it gets quite soft (especially the chocolate frosting).

On the stereo:
Authentic Hawaiian Favorites: Arthur Lyman

WSC Green Apple and White Chocolate Salad

2012-02-23T22:57:00.001+11:00

'It's all getting a bit Heston Blumenthal around here,' said E as we ate our Green Apple and White Chocolate Salad. Well maybe. Except we had a small child swinging on the kitchen table. I don't know much about Heston's food but I do know that his idea of fun is different to that of a small child. White chocolate in a salad? No says small child. Thread a piece of penne pasta onto your finger? Yes please, she says.

I was excited when Choclette announced that the We Should Cocoa theme was Vegetarian Savoury. I was less excited when I deleted the post by hitting the back button twice - a really stupid feature of Blogger! So all my lovely links are gone and I will see how many I can find again.

Discussions of chocolate in savoury cooking:

Chocolate flavour pairings - Khymos blog
Chocolate in history and savoury dishes - Michael Laiskonis in Gourmet
Why chocolate for dinner - Kimberley Stakal in Wine and Food Travel

Chocolate savoury (vegetarian) recipes from my blog:

Beetroot risotto with chocolate and walnuts (gf)
Borlotti Bean Mole with Roast Pumpkin and Silverbeet (gf, v)
Chilli non carne with lager (gf, v)
Mushroom and chocolate risotto (gf, v)
Pumpernickel Rolls with Currants (v)

Chocolate savoury (vegetarian) recipes from elsewhere:

White chocolate in any savoury food seemed like a crazy idea but intrigued me. Dark chocolate makes sense because it gives great depth of flavour. I would have loved the time to make a Tex Mex nutroast with a mole sauce but I was up to my eyeballs, and then Sylvia got sick. I was interested to read an article explaining that white chocolate gives some of the fattiness that cheese adds to a dish. But sweeter. So I chose Green Apple and White Chocolate Salad because it was simple and used ingredients already available in my pantry.

The salad worked surprisingly well, served with pasta and sundried tomato pesto. The key was an excellent dressing that had plenty of vinegar, mustard and salt to balance the sweetness of the white chocolate. If I made it again I would use a more robust lettuce rather than the iceberg that was in the crisper. I still found the white chocolate incredibly sweet and am by no means converted to using it much in savoury cooking. Yet it made sense in this salad. Even E liked it. Sylvia was not keen. She just took some of my apple so I used less than I intended. But you can't be cross at a child for wanting to eat fresh fruit! Even if she doesn't appreciate white chocolate in salad.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Earl Grey cupcakes and nutritous ganache
This time two years ago: Feta Scones in a Flash
This time three years ago: Palak Paneer
This time four years ago: HoTM #12 Prune and Bean Casserole

Green Apple and White Chocolate Salad
Adapted from csppcooks
serves 2 (with lots of leftover dressing)

1-2 handfuls of lettuce, shredded
1/2 to 1 granny smith apple, chopped
1 small handful of chopped walnuts, toasted
10-15g white chocolate, shaved with a vegetable peeler

Dressing:
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp maple syrup (will use less next time)
1 tsp. poppy seeds
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp onion granules
1/4 tsp flaked sea salt

Make dressing by whisking all ingredients together in a small bowl until it is well mixed and slightly thickened (or shake in a little jar). Arrange salad on the plate in the order on the list. Drizzle with a generous amount of dressing.

On the Stereo:
Brood: My friend the chocolate cake

Jimmy Watsons - a Carlton institution

2012-02-22T22:34:00.001+11:00

Jimmy Watson's Wine Bar in Carlton is an institution. It has been there ever since I can remember but that is not enough reason to visit. I'm not so into the wine. The menu is far more favourable to carnivores than vegetarians. What I go there for is the ambiance. Who can resist the leafy beer garden on a balmy summer's evening. It was a great place to grab a quick bite before heading off to see our first 3D movie, Hugo at Cinema Nova.

The menu says that they cater to vegetarian and gluten free diets. They even have GF pizza bases. Yet when I asked what was in the vegetarian pizza, I was flippantly told it had vegetables. Finally I was told it included pumpkin and asked if I would eat feta. Huh? Not quite as welcoming to vegetarians as the menu suggests. It was an unfortunate attitude because my pizza - topped with tomato sauce, cheese, pumpkin, feta, baby spinach, tahini sauce and almonds on a crisp base - was truly wonderful. I also saw a platter of antipasto and chips pass by me that looked rather good. NB We ordered before the full dinner menu was available at 6pm.

I love the dark wine bar interior but it is the beer garden that beckons me. Occasionally noisy or smoky, I find the place convivial. I have had some lovely evenings with colleagues in search of a fine after work bottle of wine. Surrounded by bamboo greenery, it is shady, and usually filled with interesting people. The area is unexpected given the austere white exterior that I have always found quite ugly.

Yet to read the history of Jimmy Watson's makes me appreciate how important the building is in reflecting something of Lygon Street's heritage. This is the first cafe I have written up on my blog, that has sent me looking into my history books for background. The building was originally a nineteenth century building in 1935 when Jimmy Watson decided to open the bar to introduce patrons to fine wines. He died in 1962, the same year that prominent Australian architect, Robin Boyd - a critic of ugly Australian buildings, redesigned the frontage in the Mediterranean style. This was at a time when Melbourne's Victorian architecture with fine cast iron lace balconies were unappreciated. Wheelan the Wrecker was knocking down some of our lovely old buildings. I am glad that this cultural cringe has passed but today Jimmy Waton's is an architectural reminder of this time. Quite fitting considering its important place in the social history.

Jimmy Watson's Wine Bar
333 Lygon Street Carlton
03 9347 3985

Pancakes with fried peaches and blueberry sauce

2012-02-21T22:05:00.000+11:00

On the weekend I made pancakes. From a packet! We still have pancake mix leftover from our holiday in January. So no recipe. Just some fruity pancakes for Shrove Tuesday.

We had run out of milk. I used some apple juice instead. I sliced a peach and pan fried the slices in butter. They took a while to soften and brown. Long enough to chat to a friend on the phone and chase Sylvia around the kitchen. We had leftover blueberry syrup made with frozen blueberries, maple syrup and orange juice. I poured it over the peaches. Lovely! Rather gourmet, actually! With very little effort.

We had savoury pancakes for dinner tonight but I will have to write about it later - stay tuned....

Choc almond slice, Valentine and Koorioberee

2012-02-19T23:32:00.002+11:00

What have Valentines Day and local traditional dancing got in common? Not a lot. Maybe some people find it romantic to dance like a kangaroo for their beloved but I suspect they are few and far between. Yet in this post they are linked by this chocolate almond slice which seemed just right for Valentines Day and was the perfect snack after seeing a dance performance last weekend.

A surplus of nut butter, gave me an urge to make this No-bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Crispies with PB Fudge from Oh She Glows. Sylvia is allergic to peanut butter so I used almond butter, which worked really well. When I made the fudge topping I worried it was too sweet. Once combined with the rice bubble mixture it was superb.

The whole thing seemed like a healthy version of the Mars Bar Slice that is so popular on my blog. Sticky, crunchy, gooey with a creamy topping. But less sweet and more chocolatey. I also loved the addition of coconut which reminded me of childhood favourite, Chocolate Crackles.

Last weekend we went to the city for Melbourne's Indigenous Arts Festival. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. I particularly enjoyed the Koorioboree, performances by eight traditional Koorie dance groups. It is fantastic to see these groups reclaiming and sharing culture. And I find the actual dancing really uplifting. We also saw some Indigenous art in the Potter Gallery at Fed Square and some open air music performances.

At the art gallery, Sylvia spied some colourful macarons and wanted one. I thought of the choc almond slice at home and told her she could have a piece when we got home. I was glad we waited because the slice was so much more satisfying than a macaron.

I also think that the slice would make a great Valentines Day recipe, especially in Australia where it falls in the summer, a time when I don't always feel like turning on the oven. I don't get terribly excited about the day (we went out for dinner on Valentines Day this year as it was the day we could get babysitting but I would have preferred a quieter night) but I do love the opportunity to indulge in chocolate and fun shapes. So here is a list of some of the inspiring Valentine recipes I have see around the blogosphere and some heart shaped baking on my blog.

Valentine recipes around the blogosphere:

Chocolate argentine alfajores (with dulce de leche) - Chicken in a Cherry Sauce
Chocolate covered red beet hearts - Bricole
Lovebird cookies - Cakelaw
Nut butter filled chocolate (a la reeses) - Whole New Mom
Raspberry and dark chocolate cheesecake - Closet Cooking
Raspberry and vanilla heart shaped pancakes - Not Quite Nigella
Red velvet cupcake - Apple and Spice

Heart shaped food on Green Gourmet Giraffe

I am also sending this slice to Jac of Tinned Tomatoes for her Bookmarked Recipes event.

Chocolate almond rice bubble slice
Adapted from Oh She Glows
Makes about 30 bites or 16 squares

1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 cup brown rice syrup (I used rice malt syrup)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup unsweetened soy milk
1/2 cup cocoa powder
pinch salt
75g dark chocolate (I used 70%), chopped
3 cups rice bubbles (aka rice krispies) or GF rice puffs
1/2 cup dessicated coconut

Fudge Topping

1 cup almond butter
75g dark chocolate (I used 70%), chopped
1 tsp rice bran oil
salt, to taste
coconut for sprinkling

Line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper.

Place almond butter, rice syrup, vanilla, milk, cocoa, and salt in a large mixing bowl and combine. Add chocolate and microwave until it is melted (or you can do this in a large saucepan). Stir well and mix in rice bubbles and coconut.

Transfer into prepared tin, press down with the back of a spoon and wait until it firms up. Angela suggested 10 minutes in the freezer but mine was full so I just left it at room temperature for about an hour.

Meanwhile make the Fudge topping. Place almond butter, chocolate, oil, and a pinch of salt in a medium bowl. Gently heat until the chocolate is melted. Add more salt if desired. Pour over the firm slice and sprinkle with coconut.

Leave slice in the fridge until the topping sets (or Angela suggests an 45-50 minutes in the freezer). Cut into squares or small bites to serve. Keep in fridge (or freezer). My slice lasted a week.

On the Stereo:
Ruby: the Killjoys

WHB Basil pesto

2012-02-17T13:42:00.001+11:00

You'd think after almost five years of food blogging that I would have a basic recipe for basil pesto on my blog. You would also think I could photograph pesto in focus. You might even expect I could make a basic couscous salad with pesto. I regret to inform you: No, No and No!

I almost didn't post this because the top photo wasn't as in focus as I had dreamt it might be (and it is the best of a bad lot). But the pesto was still green in the airtight container after a week. It is one of the best that I have even made. So I am sharing it with you despite blurry photos, wilting basil leaves and crumbs on my table.

Some days you just have to take me as I am. I never promised sumptuous photos. Surely you wont mind if you taste this pesto. It really was wonderful. Fragrant, tasty and brilliantly green. Great in a seeded bun with tomato and cheese when you have been swimming. Quite cheesy. (Note to self: find a good basic recipes for vegan pesto that works for me!)

It is also fantastic on chia bread. But here is a tip! Don't store your pesto in a purple airtight container. Because you will surely open the fridge and curse at how your glorious green pesto has discoloured overnight. Murky brown pesto just doesn't have the same appeal. I didn't cover mine with oil as the experts recommend. Yet once the lid was off the purple tub, the pesto miraculously was green and stayed this colour in the airtight container in the fridge for a week.

Lastly, a spoonful of pesto over a minestrone-style soup is delicious. Which made me realise I have also never posted about a basic minestrone. Let's leave that for another time. For now, I will just feel my blog is that teensy bit closer to completion with this pesto recipe.

I am sending this to Lynne from Cafe Lynnylu who is hosting this week's Weekend Herb Blogging #321, the event coordinated by Haalo and founded by Kalyn.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Kalyn's stuffed peppers
This time two years ago: CNY Potluck, Pearl Balls and Healthy Treats
This time three years ago: MLLA8 Dal Makhani
This time four years ago: PPN #52 Gyoza and Salad

Basil Pesto
Adapted from taste.com.au
I think it made about 1 cup but will check next time

45g (1/4 cup) pine nuts
1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves (I used leaves and stems of 1 bunch)
2 small garlic cloves, crushed
60g (3/4 cup) finely grated parmesan
60ml (1/4 cup) good olive oil

Blitz in blender until smooth. Keep in fridge in an airtight container - I didn't cover it with oil and it was still green after a week.

On the stereo
Latitude 20: Arthur Lyman

NCR couscous salad with chermoula

2012-02-15T18:04:00.001+11:00

Before I start telling you about herbs and couscous and salad, you might notice that I have updated my blogger banner so it goes across the whole width of the page. Sylvia and I had a craft session this afternoon. I worked on my banner and she glued and cut and stickered. I am not sure the banner is quite right but it is an improvement!

Like my banner, couscous is a constant work in progress. It is hard to get right. Often it turns out clumpy or dry or just plain stodgy. Following a recipe would probably help! I was searching for inspiration for Lisa and Jacqueline's latest No Croutons Required challenge which is herbs. I stumbled upon a recipe for 'Giant couscous salad with preserved lemon and chermoula in Alice Hart's Vegetarian. It took some tweaking but I ended up with one of my best couscous salads yet!

I was quite taken by the idea of making Chermoula. It is a sauce of parsley, lemon, olive oil and spices. I had decided that this would also be a good way to use some of the lovely olive oil that Fran and John gave me for my birthday.

Firstly though I went on a detour. I remembered that I didn't have any parsley in the house. I headed off to the supermarket before dinner and as I got there I remembered I didn't have parsley because there was non in my last visit there. So I bought basil and made pesto. I tried a couscous salad with pesto, roast pumpkin, endamame, tomato and avocado. It was nice but a bit clumpy. E said it was more like a side dish.

The next morning I had to put the car into the mechanic and found myself in the unusual position of walking into the supermarket on the way home at 8am. They had parsley so I bought a bunch and decided to try again with chermoula. It was very good though not swimming in oil like the picture in the book. It was brilliant with the couscous because it kept the grains moist and separate.

The first night I was happy to eat a big bowl of it with some salad veg on the side. E less so. The second night I served it with lentil burgers, salad veg and chia bread. E was very pleased with it that night. Sylvia didn't taste the couscous but did eat a chunk out of the bread - can you see it in the above pic? E just thought the bread had come out of the oven that way. Sigh! Ah well, he does the dishes!

My one reservation is that parsley can sometimes stick in your throat but that is a minor quibble as I have come to love parsley and use it a lot. I once thought it was only good for a poncy garnish so I have come a lot way. In the above pic you will see Sylvia's new ninja babies (a bargain at 30c each!) that we bought last week on the day I made the salad. She loves them and has spent many hours making cots for them with her building blocks. Her imagination is amazingly fertile at the moment. I like to think that this salad shows my own imagination still has a bit of kick in it!

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Samosa Pie
This time two years ago: NCR Bann’s Parsnip Soup with Walnut Ravioli and Carrot Cream
This time three years ago: Potato salad, freak weather and bushfires
This time four years ago: FF #3 Dip and muffins from the pantry

Couscous salad with Chermoula
Inspired by Alice Hart's Vegetarian
served us for 3 mains and 3 side dishes

large wedge of pumpkin (about 800g)
2 large parsnips
olive oil and salt for roasting
400g tin of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, sliced
2 spring onions, finely sliced
1 cup couscous (I used wholemeal)
1 1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 tsp stock powder
2 heaped teaspoons honey (or other sweetener)
juice of 1 lemon

Chermoula:
Adapted from Alice Hart's Vegetarian

1 bunch parsley
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup good olive oil, or to taste
1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, lightly toasted
1 small clove garlic, crushed
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sweet paprika
dash cayenne pepper
dash cinnamon

Firstly make Chermoula. Blitz all ingredients in a food processor. I did mine in some batches especially as I found the parsley chopped finer if I did it in batches in my little blender attachment for my hand held blender. Mine was a bit tart but that worked ok once in the salad.

Trim, peel and dice both the pumpkin and parsnips and toss with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Roast at about 200 C for about 40 minutes. (I went to the mechanics to pick up the car in the middle of this so I can't be too specific.) Cool slightly and mix with chickpeas, sun-dried tomatoes and spring onions.

Mix couscous, stock powder and boiling water in a medium bowl. Cover and sit for about 5 minutes or until soft. Fluff up with a fork. Stir through about half the chermoula.

To serve pile couscous in a large shallow salad bowl. Heap pumpkin, parsnip and chickpea mixture on top and then dollop some chermoula on top. Serve with any extra chermoula.

On the Stereo:
Authentic Hawaiian Favourites: Arthur Lyman

On the Stereo: the soundtrack to my life!

2012-02-12T22:50:00.000+11:00

Ever since starting this blog, whenever I write a post with a recipe, I include "On the Stereo" at the end. I love to have music playing while I cook or while we eat dinner. We should each have a soundtrack to our life! I thought it might be fun to write a post about the music in my life.

Music has been part of my life from singing along with a Rolf Harris record, accompanying my sister to K-Mart to watch videos of Wham, living with a New Order obsessed housemate, watching my brother's folk band at Port Fairy Music Festival, participating in Top of the Pops chats while working at the BBC website, making friends in London with Blur fanatics, standing in a muddy field at my first Pulp performance, and travelling from Scotland to Ireland to see a Will Oldham gig.

E is first and foremost a musician, even though he now has a day job. Years ago he had an album released on vinyl. He goes through phases of listening to different genres which since I met him have included: lo-fi, country and western, blues, Americana, American folk, Celtic folk, industrial, krautrock, electronica, classical, post punk, progressive rock, reggae, funk, psychedelic, turntablism, neo-folk, jazz, ukelele, easy listening and lots more. His tastes are eclectic and account for a lot of what we hear. I love Britpop, folk and indie music, but listening to E’s selection has broadened my tastes.

We don't go to gigs as often as we used to but we still love music in my household. We can easily get into a rut with albums. Amazing, given that we had over 800 CDs which I did a quick count a year or two ago. (All my music is on CDs rather than an ipod or digital, though E is more digital savvy.) On the Stereo' challenges me to listen to more of my albums, and gives me a reason to insist on a change when E has an album on repeat. It has also given him a great excuse to buy new albums - as if he needs any. I don't have an ipod or download music from the internet.

Earlier this year when we drove to Orange, E didn't quite understand my request for driving music, so I spent hours listening to a cassette mix that I made a couple of decades ago. I was pleased that it still sounded ok. After all it is the soundtrack to my travels. Rather than expect you to read my scrawly handwriting, I have typed out the list for those who are interested:

Morrissey - Now my Heart is Full
Gin Blossoms - Hey Jealousy
Greenhouse - See Saw
Rob Clarkson - Great Day Alright
Pet Shop Boys - Suburbia
The Cranberries - Linger
Beautiful South - Let Love Speak Up Itself
Kristen Hersh - Your Ghost
The Drunk, The Monk and The Spunk - Pretty Hot Corn Girl
My Friend the Chocolate Cake - A Midlife's Tale
Pale Blue Eyes - Another Rainy Day
Beautiful South - Lips
REM - Perfect Circle
The Church - Metropolis
Hummingbirds - Blush
The Welcome Mat - Play Me
Teenage Fan Club - Escher
Killjoys - Shibboleth
Madonna - Oh Father
Club Hoy - You Promised, You Said
Billy Bragg - Warmest Room
Penelope Swailes - Strange Hands
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart Again

Music is more than sound. It is also a culture that develops around musicians, bands and genres. I am fascinated by it. I love hearing about crazy experiences that music brings to the lives of the stars and the fans. Here is a snapshot of some musical material culture that has interested me in recent years. Lists are an important part of music culture so here is my five lists of five. As you might notice, these lists are eclectic and there are many gaps. I have much to hear, see and read!

Five phases of music in my life
Not a comprehensive list but it covers some of the people I have been excited by over my lifetime. I thought of a list of 5 best gigs but it was just too hard to choose. But many of these bands would be included.

Youth: Patsy Biscoe, Danny Kaye, Rolf Harris, Bushwhackers, Wham, Billy Joel
University Days: Killjoys, Wild Pumpkins at Midnight, Billy Bragg, Paul Kelly, Rob Clarkson, The Smiths
Travelling/Edinburgh: Pulp, Divine Comedy, Belle and Sebastian, Blur, Scott Walker, Will Oldham
Return to Melbourne: Jarvis Cocker, Reindeer Selection, Decembrists, Missy Higgins, Barb Waters
Recently: Beirut, Franz Ferdinand, Michael Nyman, Phillip Glass

Five interesting music documentaries
Talking heads, archival footage and retrospective angst. Almost as good as being there!

The Factory Records Saga (Channel Four, 2008)
George Formby documentary (BBC, presented by Frank Skinner, 2011)
The Joy of Easy Listening (BBC, 2011)
Live Forever: The rise and Fall of Britpop (2003)
Made in Sheffield (2001)

Five fascinating books about music
Since reading music reviews in InPress and Beat street magazines, I have admired how words can be used to describe what we hear, and how the background stories make the music more interesting.

The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of English Rock (2003) by John Harris
Rip it Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 (2006) by Simon Reynolds
Song Man: One Man's Mission to Write the Perfect Pop Song (2008) by Will Hodgkinson
Truth and Beauty: the story of Pulp (2003) by Mark Sturdy
Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City (2004) by Paul Morley

Fantastic films about music
These films illustrate the passion and pathos of both the stars and the fans.

Five entertaining Youtube music videos
I don't spend a lot of time watching Youtube or music videos. If I had all the time in the world, I would link to videos or audio for each album I mention in my On the Stereo section. Instead I leave you with a few quirky vids that I shared with my niece Quin recently. She is a fan of Korean pop which explains the third vid.

Blood - Middle East
Eet - Regina Specktor
Marshmallow IU
This is Hardcore: Pulp
Tribute - Tenacious D

WW Healthy Chocolate Ice Cream

2012-02-11T23:45:00.000+11:00

I am not a huge fan of ice cream but Sylvia loves it. Her eyes light up at the mention of it. So when I found myself with bananas that need to be used and a ripe avocado, I followed Not Quite Nigella's unlikely recipe and made chocolate ice cream.

It was my most successful ice cream venture so far. Which is not saying much, considering my track record. I felt I did better this time at stirring the freezing custard to break down the ice crystals than in previous ice cream attempts. Or maybe it was just the banana and avocado were creamier anyway.

A minor problem was that I could detect a slight taste of avocado. Not enough to put me off. Worse were the choc chips. I think the ones I used may have been heat affected. But they were more like chips of cement than soft chocolate in the ice cream. Next time I might use either finely grated chocolate or even just try melting the chocolate.

All in all not a a bad way to please a child! After all, who can resist an ice cream that not only is vegan and gluten free, but also has more fruit and veg than sugar! Giving a child a scoop or two feels like saying, here have some fruit, have some vegetables! Great to come home to after swimming lessons!

I am sending this to Ricki's Wellness Weekends.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Cheeseymite, burgers and sylvia
This time two years ago: More baby food, more healthy muffins
This time three years ago: Tofu Burgers and Tennis
This time four years ago: WCC # 25 Velvet Soup from Nigellaland

Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream
from Not Quite Nigella

3 medium or 2 large bananas
1 ripe avocado
1/3 cup cocoa
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 cup dark choc chips (or cocoa nibs)

Chop banana flesh and freeze (I froze mine about 5-6 hours). Blend in food processor with avocado flesh, cocoa and maple syrup until you have a creamy custardy mixture. Stir in choc chips and place in plastic container in freezer. Remove from freezer, stir and return to freezer after about an hour or two. Do this about three times to break down the ice crystals and get a creamy texture. To serve, leave out to soften for about 1 hour.

On the Stereo:
The Flying Club Cup: Beirut

Pizza with carrot and leek and recent food

2012-02-09T23:30:00.001+11:00

My energy for blogging is a bit low lately. I have had such a lovely time of getting my backlog down. Then I was hit by a wave of making new recipes this week. Now I feel a bit overwhelmed by all the lovely new food and want to tell you about it all now. But I am trying to spend some time organising photos and can only spend a little time (especially when the internet is on the blink!). So I will start with the surprisingly wonderful Carrot and Leek pizza from the weekend.

Firstly, let me share some of Sylvia's artwork and some good and bad foodie experiences of recent weeks:

The bad:

I tried Bill Granger's Real Muesli Bars. I loved them when Fran made them when we visited her last year. But mine crumbled into muesli. Not a great success but I am enjoying the museli.
I made bad rice paper rolls. The rice paper was old and the noodles weren't soaked enough. Must try harder next time!
I absent-mindedly put cayenne pepper instead of cinnamon in Sylvia and E's porridge. Fortunately I realised before serving. (I also took Sylvia to her swimming lesson at the wrong time when she started back after the Christmas break. Too many distractions in my life!)

The good:

I remembered to tuck a serviette into Sylvia's Jenners party dress neckline at Cafe Lua just before she dropped butterscotch sauce down her front!
I finally tried tofu bacon. Excellent on fried rice. It was so good I will make it again to do it justice.
I tried mock tuna salad again. This time I used a bottled low fat ranch dressing rather than bitey dijonnaise and it was excellent.

The pizza I made was among the recent good cooking. It is exciting to have made it because I have been tempted by the photo so many times and promised myself to make it one day. In fact I now feel that emptiness you feel after achieving a huge goal. Well not quite but I loved this pizza. Sarah Brown calls it Cheese and Leek Pizza. I call it Carrot and Leek Pizza. It is the least cheesy pizza I have had for ages. All it has is a little parmesan which is more a flavouring than a rich flatty blanket. So I am sure it would be easily veganised.

Sarah Brown's recipe has a layer of carrot puree, a layer of leeks and ginger topped with raisins, parsley and parmesan. I was amazed at the lack of salt and added a pinch but the flavours work without salt. I didn't have sultanas (as we call what the Brits call raisins) or parsley so I just used dried apple because it annoys me sitting around when I don't really want to eat it. Of course as soon as I was cooking with it - way after Sylvia's bed time because it took me ages - she was running out of bed and sneaking off with pieces of the dried apple!

She loves pizza but not this one. I made her a tomato and cheese one to have for lunch the next day instead. Speaking of dough I used 1/2 a cup of fine semolina in my pizza dough, inspired by Mel's pizza dough recipe. It worked really well. Finally I have hope I might finish the semolina in my pantry before the weevils attack it.

When I made the pizza on Sunday we had a busy day. I sorted some of the clothes she had been given. When I was young they were called hand-me-downs and not really welcome but the quality of stuff she has been given is lovely. We also made a birthday card for her cousin in Scotland and with terrible timing, set out for the pool just as the cool change hit. There are some advantages to an indoor pool.

Lastly as I made the pizza, I had Young Talent Time on the telly. It is pretty awful but I have such fond memories of watching it as a kid that I had to check out the new version. My favourite Young Talent Time member was Sally Boyden. No one as sweet as her on the new show. And they didn't finish with a rendition of All my Loving. Sigh! I guess I am just no longer the target audience. I'll just stick to my hippy pizzas!

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Queso dip, enchiladas and food processor
This time two years ago: Pizza for the Working Woman
This time three years ago: Jam-Making Reflections by a Novice
This time four years ago: Wanton Dumplings in Ginger Broth

Carrot and Leek pizza
adapted from Sarah Brown's Vegetarian Cookery

Pizza dough for 1-2 medium large pizzas (I used about 1/2 a quantity of fast track pizza dough)
500g carrots, peeled trimmed and chopped
pinch of smoked salt (optional)
2 tsp rice bran oil (or other oil)
25g sunflower seeds
1 large leek, trimmed, washed and sliced
1 tbsp ginger, finely grated
25g dried apple or raisins
25g parmesan, finely grated (or 1-2 tbsp nutritional yeast)
Cornmeal for pizza tray

Make the dough and let it sit while you prepare topping. If you take ages to get the toppings ready like me, just punch it down every now and again when it looks a bit fluffy.

Steam or microwave carrots until soft (I boiled mine with minimal water, for 20 minutes until I smelled burning, scrapped the burnt bits off and found they still were a bit undercooked when I tried to puree them, so I then microwaved them for 3 minutes and they then were mooshy enough to puree.) Puree in until smooth (I used my blender attachment to my hand held blender but you could probably get away with just mashing them with a potato masher). Stir or puree in smoked salt. Set aside.

Meanwhile heat rice bran oil in a large frypan and lightly fry sunflower seeds for about 5 minutes. Add leek and ginger and gently fry until leek is soft.

To assemble pizza: Sprinkle large round pizza tray with cornmeal. Roll or stretch out dough to fit tray and flop it onto tray with only a slight stretching to fit. Spread dough with carrot puree. Scatter dried apple or raisins over carrot. Arrange leek mixture evenly over the carrot and dried fruit. Sprinkle parmesan over pizza. Bake in preheated 190 C oven (I also use a pizza stone) for 25-30 minutes (I did mine for 30 minutes) or until golden brown.

On the stereo:
Night on my side: Gemma Hayes

The relentless tide of technology

2012-02-08T15:23:00.004+11:00

I have Luddite tendencies. Once at school I didn't want to do computing and was called Mary Lou Cabbage Patch by a teacher. It is not that I don't like technology. I am a blogger, after all. It is more the stealth in which technology works. I wish technological changes would be presented to me by a courier with a list of items, a return address and a choice to sign if I choose to accept it. Instead they sneak in like a thief in the night, often bringing benefits but rarely do these happen without some loss.

Google's recent "developments" have prompted me to take a little time out to reflect on some changes I have seen recently.

Book Affair
I have mentioned my sadness at the bookstores closing before. On the weekend we went to Book Affair. It is a secondhand bookstore in Carlton that I have loved since my student days. Many times I have enjoyed checking out books displayed in the window and browsing books in a quiet corner. We visited their new store on Elgin Street on the weekend and found they are closing in a few months. So look at the above picture of the couch in the basement and think of where you were when you last bought a book online and tell me which place you would rather be!

Google Privacy Policy
Big Brother is watching you! That is what the new policy seems to be about. I have read a few people commenting that with this new policy, Google will know more about you than your wife. For me, I hope it wont make too much of an impact. All my blog information is public anyway (I use Blogger which is a Google service) and I don't have a gmail address. The only thing that concerns me slightly is that Google will collect information about my googling (ie searches). But as some of the commentators have said, what do I have to hide? I guess what I really dislike is the idea that Google seems to be serving marketers and big business more than the users. But then again Google has made this blog possible at no cost too so maybe that is the price I pay.

Blogger comments
On a more positive note about Google, it was a pleasant surprise that they have changed the comments so that I can reply to individual comments as a thread. I decided to stop moderating comments when we went on holiday in January and when I returned it seemed to work well. Hence I will continue this for as long as I don't see too much spam come through. I don't use the captcha code because I dislike using them myself. (I suspect that one of Google's other stealthy activities is to block more spam as I get less now than I used to.) I will of course still keep an eye on comments.

Blogger urls change
Another recent change is that my url has had a ".au" added to the end of it. So now I have both www.gggiraffe.blogspot.com and www.gggiraffe.blogspot.com.au. This sort of change annoys me both because I didn't choose this url, because the only reason E and I could think it might be done is for advertisers, and because it has affected my ability to edit my blog. (Update - just found this explanation of the url change from Blogger but not explanation of the changes to editing.)

New Blogger urls affect quick edit button and others
Just a few days ago I found the quick edit button (pencil icon) at the end of each post has disappeared. I googled it and found that others were also affected since the urls had changed. I am very annoyed about this as I like to correct typos and update posts with this button. Less concerning for me is that it has affected some templates. Very concerning is that I have just discovered that I can't delete comments any more which makes me wonder if I will continue to leave comments unmoderated if I can't delete spam. (Update - I have found I can still delete comments via the comments tab in the backend). The more optomistic side of me hopes it will be like my Delicious experience where big changes means I lost a lot of functionality but now it is even better than it was before the overhaul.

Update: 20/2/2012 just checked the google forum again - if you put /ncr at the end of your url (eg www.gggiraffe.blogspot/ncr) it will return the quick edit pencil but this needs to be done everytime you open the blog.

Picnik moves to Google Plus
I have used the free online photo editing software a few times for my banner and for event badges. So I was sad that it is no longer. Apparently it is moving to Google Plus. I don't know what that means for those of us who don't want to sign up to Google Plus. Having said that, for anyone who does want to use any of the photo editing software, it does not close until mid-April and until then all the premium products that we had to pay for are free! Now's your chance!

About this Blog page
I have created this new page on the menu bar beneath my banner. I have been thinking about the best way to have some things like my comments FAQs page and other resources on my top menu and I have decided to collect these sort of pages together rather than individual pages for each. I have got up a basic page but I plan to develop it. To fit my menu pages on one line, I have transferred my Kudos from a page to a post. It just seems the least important of the menu pages and will fit into About this Blog page nicely.

Gas oven
Not information technology but as good a place as any to mention my gas oven that I bought last year. We have had technicians out 2 or 3 times so far. The one that came out this week said that we have some problems with our gas supply being on the weak side. This explains why a new oven (and my old oven) have also needed to turned up quite high to cook anything.

SOPA
I thought it might be timely to mention the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) while I am talking about the relentless development of technology that makes me feel like a cork bobbing along on a sea of change. I confess I didn't look into this act very closely but what I saw alarmed me about punishing people for linking to dodgy sites. While it can be done with dodgy intent, it can also easily be done innocently. More information at SOPA Blackout and Wikipedia. I hope the current media silence on it is a good sign it might go away but maybe that is just me being optimistic again!

Kudos

2012-02-08T14:53:00.001+11:00

Update: this is an old post that was originally posted as a page that I have moved into a post so I can create a new page.

This is my poolroom (for those of you who have seen the Castle). It is the display case where all my favourite words and awards go. If you want to see what others think of me, here is the place to look. If you aren't interested in naval gazing then I suggest you go home (to my homepage I mean).

AWARDS:

Liebster Blog Award - thanks Jeni Treehugger and K and Toby

Stylish Blogger Award - thanks Cakelaw of Laws of the Kitchen and Rivkia of Healthy Eating for Ordinary People.

Thanks Michelle at All Home Cooking, All Year Long

Thanks Cakelaw.

Thanks Cakelaw, Katie, and Tanna.

Beautiful Blogger Award - Thanks Elle

Hoy Award - thanks Rachel

Triple award - thanks Jeanne of Cooksister

Friends are like Bras - close to the heart and always there for support Award - thanks Fleur

Yummy Blog Award - Thanks Lucy

Kreativ blogger award - thanks Katie

One Lovely Blog Award - thanks Ashley at Eat Me Delicious, Cakelaw and Sweet Artichoke

Excellent Award - thanks Jacqueline, Amanda, and Pixie

Rockin' Girl Blogger - thanks Lucy of Nourish Me and Susan of the Well Seasoned Cook.

Butterfly Award - thanks Fleur from Flowers at Home

I love your blog award - thanks Katie of Apple and Spice

Winner of the inaugural No Croutons Required blog event February 2008. Thanks Lisa and Jacqueline and all the voters. Check out my winning Wonton Dumplings in Ginger Broth and all the other soups.

Winner of No Croutons Required November 2008 for my Pumpkin and Tofu Laksa.

Winner of No Croutons Required February 2010 for my Parsnip Soup with Walnut Ravioli and Carrot Cream.

Listed in the Gourmet50's Top 50 Gourmet Resources

Listed in the 100 blogs leading the food revolution

Listed in 2010 Top Australian Cuisine Blog Awards

TESTIMONIALS:

"Poster Girl for Pumpkin" Lucy of Nourish Me

"Johanna of Green Giraffe Gourmet - Infectious enthusiasm, a weakness for winging it when the ingredients are AWOL, and the best mix of rockin' music teasers at the end of every post on her virtual stereo. " Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook

"Johanna hails from Melbourne, Australia and she is all about really good vegetarian comfort food". Jenn of the Leftover Queen

"Johanna is so clever. Her recipes always have me licking my screen. " Amanda of Mrs W's Kitchen

"Green Gourmet Giraffe who always makes interesting delicious vegetarian things like tofu and pesto crackers, and is still cooking and baking a ton with a baby! I hope I'll be like her. " Ashley of Eat Me Delicious

"If you haven't checked out Johanna's site, I highly recommend that you do. Readers are treated to thoughtful writing, mouthwatering photographs and a frequent selection of delicious vegetarian recipes. Even if you aren't a vegetarian, you are sure to enjoy Johanna's varied assortment of culinary offerings." Lisa of Lisa's Kitchen

A fellow vegetarian and a great source of inspiration when I’m stuck for ideas of what to make for dinner." Katie of Apple and Spice

"Johanna is just great, and full of ideas and advice and of course living in Oz just automatically makes you cool." Fleur of Flowers from Home

"Johanna is constantly posting the most beautiful, colourful food photos I've seen on the web (or in most cook books for that matter)." Rachel of Rachel's Ramblings

"Johanna is vegetarian but has been posting amazing vegan food every day for vegan mofo, also I got to try some of it and it was damn tasty. Shes also the best commenter too not just here but on so many blogs, I don't know how she finds the time, but I think its so awesome." K and Toby of In the Mood for Noodles

Passing on the tags
Here are some posts about awards where I have passed awards onto other bloggers if you want to find out about where my tags go as well as where they come from!

MLLA Nicki's vegetarian dumplings with fried rice

2012-02-05T21:56:00.003+11:00

Dumplings. The ultimate comfort food! Fun finger food! Heaven in a wrapper! Yes, I love them. Last year I posted about making steamed vegetarian dumplings and received some very useful feedback. My friend Nicki sent me her recipe and a few people suggested a dumpling press. So I am now revisiting dumplings with far more experience after making them many times last year.

I was intrigued by the idea of a dumpling press and rushed out to buy one. Actually I had to look around but Min Phat at the Vic Market had them. I had to ask about 4 people before I could find someone who spoke English. Which perhaps explains the odd grammar on the instructions. My colleagues who work in editing were rather amused by this.

I tried the dumpling press and found it clunky. Worse still, I cut my fingers by continually pressing them into the press when I folded it over (see below picture). Even working out what size to use was tricky. (I think I found that smaller was better). After chatting with Nicki I persevered and found it got easier.

One thing I learnt (and this isn't in the photos as they are from lots of different times I made them) is to fill the cup of the press, then use the back of the spoon to pack it down and level it off. This seemed to help make sure that I didn't overfill. Nicki says she doesn't need any water to seal the dumplings using a press but I do. Just a drip on my fingertip that I run over the edge.

Getting to know the dumpling press was easier than experimenting with recipes. I tried quite a few things. I tried roasted pumpkin, tofu puffs, chilli non carne, tamarind, silverbeet and grated zucchini. Not all at once. But over the months that I was finding a recipe. Then Nicki said that she had a tried and trusted recipe that she makes regularly.

Quite a few of the recipes I had been trying involved cooking up vegetables first. This one doesn't. It involves lots of tofu, dried shitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots and spring onions plus seasoning. I was dubious. Yet I have now abandoned all other recipes and make this one regularly.

You can see the filling in the red bowl in the above photo. It is full of flavour and vegies without having to do too much preparation. Nicki suggested serving with soy sauce. I have found that kecap manis (sweetened Indonesian soy sauce) is more flavoursome for an easy dipping sauce. I tried a Sam Stern ginger sauce late last year and it was a bit thin so I think the kecap manis will probably remain our sauce of choice.

I'd love to tell you that Sylvia loves the dumplings too but she doesn't in the way I wish. She does in other ways. She loves helping to make them. In fact the dumpling press is easy enough for her to use. And she loves to eat the wrappers and leave the innards. You don't even want to imagine the mess it makes. (She would eat the raw wrappers too but I discourage this). The other child-friendly part of these dumplings is that if you steam them they are forgiving. I have steamed them for 15 minutes, turned off the heat and left them there while I sing Sylvia to sleep.

At first when I served the dumplings I would have a communal dipping bowl. But then I bought some little Asian teacups with no handles and they were perfect to have as individual dipping bowls. This is especially useful as sometimes we eat them on the run, serving them as they come from the pot rather than as a sit down meal at the table.

Lastly I found that serving dumplings was like serving an entree and then E was wondering where the main meal was. They aren't so satisfying by themselves. Then I discovered that, if I made half of Nicki's recipe, I would get about 30-40 and I could make fried rice with the leftovers. Usually I just put the filling and rice in the frypan with a little extra seasoning and fry until hot.

I am sending these dumplings to My Legume Love Affair (#44), founded by Susan of the Well Seasoned Cook and hosted by Vanessa of Sweet Artichoke this month.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Gang of Four meme
This time two years ago: Emergency Zucchini and Rice Burgers
This time three years ago: WTSIM … Fruit kebabs
This time four years ago: PPN #52 Gyoza and Salad

Nicki's Vegetarian Chinese Dumplings
Nicki says it makes 60-80, I half the recipe and get this many but as she says it is a different amount every time.

- 1 kg hard tofu (pressed tofu is ideal) crumbled
- about 40g (1 small packet) of sliced dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked and chopped
- 1 bunch spring onions, finely sliced
- 1 bunch coriander or basil, chopped (I don't use)
- 1 x 225g can of shredded bamboo shoots, drained and chopped
- a piece of ginger, finely grated, or more if you love it
- 1 egg for binding (1 egg is fine to use even if you half the other quantities, but an alternative vegan binder could be used such as chia seeds?)
- 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, or to taste
- 2 teaspoons of sesame oil, or to taste
- 1 carrot finely grated (optional)
- 60-80 gyoza or wonton wrappers*

Mix everything in a big bowl (except the wrappers!).

Fill your wrappers with a heaped teaspoon of filling, then pinch together in half-moons, or better still use a dumpling clamp. Wet the edges of the wrapper with a fingeritp dipped in water just before pinching or clamping (NB Nicki says you don't need to wet edges if you have a clamp but I find I do).

To freeze the dumplings without having them stick together, place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper (touching one another as little as possible), and freeze on the tray. When frozen, put into bags or containers.

To cook:

Steam: arrange fresh or frozen dumplings on baking paper in a steamer insert and steam for about 15 minutes. This is my preferred method.

Boil: drop fresh or frozen dumplings into a pot of boiling water for a few minutes until they rise to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon and enjoy dipped in a sauce. Nicki does this mostly.

Fry: (NB: if frozen, boil first.) Pan fry fresh or boiled dumplings in a bit of oil with a dash of sesame oil. Nicki calls this crispy deliciousness!

* In Melbourne you can buy large amounts of dumpling wrappers at Min Phat and other Asian groceries. Alternately you can make them. I am yet to try this but I have seen a traditional recipe at Poh's Kitchen (5 Oct 2011) and a gluten free recipe at Where's the Beef?

Ginger drizzle
From Sam Stern's Eat Vegetarian

- 2 tsp graed fresh ginger
- 2 tbsp castor sugar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp rice wine (I used mirin)
- 4 tbsp rice wine vinegar (I only used 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar and 2 tbsp ginger-infused vinegar)

Mix in a small bowl.

On the stereo:
Assembly: John Foxx

Bush birthday banana cake and other self catering at Lorne

2012-02-03T23:31:00.000+11:00

One of the reasons we went to Lorne last week was that I had decided I wanted to celebrate my birthday with a swim in the sea. In my previous post about Lorne I wrote about our holiday but I wanted to have a separate post to reflect on self catering. Before we had Sylvia we often stayed in B&Bs with no kitchen facilities. Now we often stay in self catering apartments. It is much easier with a young child. As you can see in the above photo, I even self catered my birthday cake with Ricki's Banana Oat Bars.

So these days we pack food in the car. The sort of things I took away on this trip were english muffins, teabags, milk, oats (for porridge), honey, promite, pancake mixture, maple syrup (did I really need two sweeteners?), vegie sausages, vegie burgers, tomato sauce, a stir through olive and tomato pasta sauce, ranch dressing, smoky potato salad dressing (did I need two salad dressings?) dried pasta, tins of beans, capsicum, corn on the cob, cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, potatoes, cheeses, quince paste, dips, crackers, chips, roasted chickpeas, soda water, soda water with lime, butter, olive oil (never used it but what kitchen is complete without it), watermelon, grapes, nectarines, chocolate block, mini magnum icecreams, and banana oat slice.

Yes, I overcater. We had plenty of food to take home and we haven't done much grocery shopping since the holiday. Now isn't that better than leaving food on a plate at a restaurant! I also took along some plastic bowls, cups, plates and cutlery for Sylvia, and a favourite chopping board and medium mixing bowl. Just in case. (Can you tell I was a girl guide - be prepared!)

Holidays mean more processed food than usual because it is easy and indulgent. That is what holidays should be isn't it! Especially when there is a birthday involved. Sylvia loves to grab one of the bottles of pancake mix in the supermarket and usually I say no. I was going to say yes on our pre-holiday shopping trip and then I spied the Pancake Parlour mixture. I loved the Pancake Parlour as a kid and even once bought a packet of this stuff from the restaurant (though no one else in my family remembers it).

Pancakes from a packet are easy holiday breakfast. And perfect birthday breakfast. If you look carefully you will see the 1961 copy of a murder mystery set in Melbourne University that E found me in the Lorne op shop. I also got a Church CD, a guide to veganism book, a healthy baking cookbook, a book of lyrics by Jarvis Cocker, a gorgeous plate, a bottle of good olive oil and a digital radio. And my swim in the sea. It really was a wonderful birthday.

It was also a birthday that seemed full of nostalgia. Chocolates such as this caramel one are so tempting in the supermarket but I try not to get sucked in to trying every new flavour and brand. I had never seen this one before or heard of the brand (Gran's). But thought it was tooth-achingly sweet, I loved a little piece because it tasted like the fudge centre of one of my favourite chocolate bars in childhood - chokito.

Though I wanted to try lots of cafes and restaurants, I know that getting Sylvia to eat a decent dinner and sleep in the evening is a challenge. We decided we would eat out for lunch and have dinner in the apartment at night. I btought a long lots of vegetables partly so that I could make sure Sylvia ate them. She eats too many chips when she eats out and I find it difficult find a healthy meal with enough vegetables to satisfy me in a cafe.

The first night we had a Smoky potato, bean and corn salad with vegies sausages. I had made up the dressing at home and the rest was quite easy to make up in the kitchen of the apartment (which was quite well stocked). On another night we had some pasta salad with vegies, beans and a low fat ranch dressing. I also had a pasta sauce in case we wanted a quick pasta meal but that never eventuated.

For my birthday I had decided I wanted to plan a nice meal that we could make ourselves. After much puzzling over this, I decided that I would take some nice cheeses. We stopped at the supermarket in Geelong and bought jarlsberg, brie, smoked cheddar, vintage cheddar, and quince paste. With some dips, chips and crackers it was an easy lunch to take into the bush for a picnic.

For the birthday cake, I had decided to make hedgehog. I even took down the ingredients because they are quite simple. Yet I ended up making a banana oat slice from Diet Dessert and Dogs before I left because we had two over-ripe bananas. As you can see it didn't want to behave and cracked horribly when I tipped it out of the tin. It was more cake than flapjack - quite moist and crumbly but wholesomely delicious, especially in warm weather when the choc chips were melty. We had plenty of it on holiday so it seemed silly to make anything else.

You can see my banana oat slice above on a plate I bought from the op shop for 50c. On the top photo you can see that I took along candles and matches for the cake but used the lid of the tub because I forgot a plate. I had thought Sylvia would enjoy blowing out the candles but the wind got there first. Below is the birthday cakes that my mum made for me when I dropped in to see my family on the way home. All the kids had a turn blowing out those candles! We also had a great tex mex feast that my mum had prepared.

Lastly I will leave you one of the funnier moments on our trip. As we drove through Torquay on Australia Day, two surfer guys with long bleached hair ran over to our car as we stopped at a traffic light. They gave us a few lamingtons and looked at Sylvia sleeping in the backseat in her blue and white t-shirt and gave us an Aussie flag, saying "this is for the little fella". It gave us a laugh but we didn't put the flag on our car, as you know what they are saying about racism and people with flags on their car. The guys' enthusiasm was infectious! A hilarious moment in a great holiday!

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: CC Soba noodle salad
This time two years ago: My Camera Birthday Cake
This time three years ago: Apricot and Orange Glazed Tofu
This time four years ago: Muhammara by Moonlight

Banana Choc Chip Oat Slice
Adapted from Diet Dessert and Dogs

2 medium, very ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup raw sugar (or other unrefined sugars such as coconut sugar)
1 tbsp finely ground linseeds (flax seeds)
1/4 cup milk (I think I used soy)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup dark choc chips (or dried fruit)
1, 1/2 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1/4 cup oat flour (I ground oats in blender)
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Line or grease a 20cm (8 inch) square cake tin with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, combine the bananas, raw sugar, flax seeds, milk, oil and vanilla. Set aside and mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Pour the wet mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir until combined. The mixture seems quite wet but this is ok.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the top. Bake in preheated oven until it is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Ricki suggested 40-45 minutes but I took 60 minutes and it was still quite moist.

Cool in the pan for 10-20 minutes and turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Cut into pieces and keep in an airtight container. Ours was good after 6 days and Ricki says you can freeze them.

On the Stereo:
The Best of the Radio Songs: The Church

Lorne - beach, bush and eating out

2012-02-01T16:51:00.000+11:00

Lorne! Ocean Waves! Ice cream! Cockatoos! Sunburn! Tree Ferns! Fish and Chips! Crowds! BBQs! Sun Hats! Memories! We spent some happy days in Lorne last week. Not only is it a beautiful seaside town that backs onto a national park, but it makes me feel rather nostalgic. I spent a lot of time there as a child. My dad did a lot of work there and my aunt had a holiday house there. So this post will be as indulgent as it is enthusiastic.

As you drive into Lorne from Melbourne, you will see these two ladies on the corner of the roundabout by the Tourist Information. This signifies the Cora Lynn, where we had a holiday apartment. It was a perfection location, within walking distance of everything in town.

I loved the brightly coloured apartments which looked exactly as a seaside holiday house should. Inside our apartment was compact but had all we needed (except a tv remote control). The kitchen was well equipped and the bed was comfortable.

I was partly inspired to holiday by the beach, when I discovered that Sylvia didn't like the waves on the beach. Time to play in the sand by the water seemed a good way to get to know the sea. We had a few outings to the beach, mostly in the morning when it was overcast to minimise sunburn. Both E and I loved the waves but Sylvia preferred making sandcastles.

I had expected to eat out quite a bit but, as it was, we found it easier to eat in mostly. But on our first day, we enjoyed lunch at Kafe Kaos (52 Mountjoy Parade, 03 5289 2639). I ordered the Famous Tofu Burger. I am always wary of such claims, but when I received my burger I was impressed that it was truly so famous that people were pointing at it as they passed by. It consisted of a slab of Thai marinated tofu with peanut butter, sweet chilli sauce and lots of salad between two slabs of multigrain sourdough toast. Delicious. But too big to eat with your hands. Sylvia loved her chippies and E was impressed with his BLAT, though he commented on how huge the servings were.

We enjoyed wandering among the shops until Sylvia was distracted by the park. And no wonder. This is a great set-up with lots of swings and slides, a wooden ramp to run along and a boat to play in. There was no shortage of entertainment for kids. As well as the park this area also includes a pool, a skate park, mini golf and trampolines. (I don't remember the park being there when I was a kid but I always wanted to go on the trampolines.)

While Sylvia wasn't terribly excited by the waves, she somehow got into her head that the beach meant ice cream. The very word made her eyes light up. We had a couple of visits to the Lick and Sip (Shop 4, 32 Mountjoy Parade, 03 5289 1193). It boasted the best ice creams on the Surf Coast. Our experience was patchy. Some great and some could have been better.

I loved the [pictured] combination of bounty and chocolate ice creams. The bounty was delicious with dessicated coconut through it and the chocolate was creamy and rich. E loved his cinnamon doughnut ice cream but was less impressed with his vanilla. I also ordered a white chocolate and raspberry ice cream but it was predominately white chocolate and too sweet. I would have been better off having a raspberry ice cream like Sylvia. It was pink, tart and fruity in the best way possible.

What I love about Lorne is that it is so much more than the beach. When I was young I loved the Swing Bridge. So one evening, I decided to take a walk along to check it out. My walk took my through the caravan park and then through these spooky trees before coming out at the swing bridge and back along the edge of the Erskine River.

I remember swimming around the mouth of the river near the swing bridge as a child. Apparently it was near my aunt's holiday house. And it was always exciting to walk over the wobbly bridge. Sylvia also loved it. Unfortunately there are now lots of signs warning that it is not healthy to swim in the river. Shame! The mouth of the river was one of the warmest places to swim.

We took down quite a bit of food, and I have decided to write another post about our self-catering. But I couldn't resist showing a wee taste. Having our own food was brilliant when we headed out to the bush. As a child I knew this area as Angahook Forest Park but according to Wikipedia, in 2004 it was been merged with other parks to form the Great Otway National Park. When we stopped at my parents' house en route to Lorne I checked with my dad which picnic area we had gone to regularly. He told me it was Blanket Leaf Picnic Ground.

So that was where we headed for a picnic. It brought back so many memories. The drive there was through a windy bush road with no place to stop. Often at least one of us was car sick. So the fresh air of the bush was always appreciated. The picnic tables are huge. Perfect for a family of 7 kids. The barbecues are as basic as they were in my childhood. Just a metal fireplace with a sheet of metal to sit over the fire. My parents were a dab hand at lighting the fire, charring some sausages and hamburgers, and sticking a damper in the ashes.

We even used to practice swinging the billy but my mum only let us swing it with cold water in it. (For those who are unfamiliar with billy tea, traditionally water would be boiled over the fire in a metal "billy" and then the tea was added and the billy swung around and kept in the billy by some scientific principle that I can't remember. I think my mum used to boil the water after we have played with swinging it.

We weren't quite so organised as to have a bbq complete with damper and billy tea. We did have a lovely picnic in the peace and quiet that I expect of the bush. As children we often went on walks after lunch, even once doing the long bush to beach walk. (My dad says it was to tire us out so he could have a quiet evening with my mum!) Sylvia is just a bit young so instead we drove to Erskine Falls. This is a short walk from the car park but it lost some of the charm because it was so busy. Even so I enjoyed seeing the waterfall and the tree ferns that I associate with the area. As you can see, my idea of the bush was lush and green rather than dry and dusty.

After our quiet morning swings, I was astounded at how crowded the beach when the sun finally came out one afternoon towards the end of our stay. I don't remember it being so crowded in my youth, but I also don't remember ever swimming between the flags that signify lifesavers on duty. Did they have such flags back then? Was Lorne much quieter in the years before the Cumberland development when I knew it? Or did we just seek out the more secluded beaches?

One change from my childhood is that the shopping was quite sophisticated. There were none of the kitsch beach souvenirs that we loved buying. Another time I will show you my little man made out of shells. Now the shops are full of posh clothes and toys. We did have a lovely time in the op shop, especially Sylvia who found a little doll with a dummy for 50c. But I thought this kitsch painting on the floor of the fish and chip shop was more akin to the seaside town I once knew.

And what is a seaside town without its fish and chip shop. Years ago E and I drove through Lorne and had the saltiest fish and chips we have ever had. This visit was kinder. On the sunny afternoon, we spied an empty park bench overlooking the sea. Sylvia and I waiting there while E walked up to the Lorne Fish and Chips (42 Mountjoy Parade, 03 5289 1843) for dinner. It was just delightful to eat hot salty chips, potato cake and corn jack overlooking the busy beach and the glorious blue water.

On our last morning I had to stop at Louitt Bay Bakery (46B Mountjoy Pde, 03 5289 1207) because I had walked past and admired the bread too often. We bought a walnut and sultana sourdough loaf and a ciabatta. Lovely bread. While we were there we decided to have morning tea. I had to try the chocolate almond croissant. It was lovely but there was a bit much custard and I really could have done with something savoury like the cheese and chive sticks. Sylvia had a pink iced cupcake which was one of the freshest lightest cupcakes I have tasted from a shop. E had a cinnamon doughnut with his coffee and was very pleased with it. I also loved the artsy painted tables in the bakery cafe and would have loved to have tried their salad sandwiches or pasties.

Then it was time to drive home. I was sad to leave. The sight of the gorgeous beaches down that way are good for the soul and I didn't have enough time in the beach. A few more days would have been lovely but I was glad we had had our beach holiday. There were a few other places I would have loved to have tried - The Bottle of Milk had lots of veg burgers, Marks Restaurant sounded very nice, the Upmarket balcony had the most gorgeous view, E thought he spied a cafe in Fowlers second hand bookshop on Williams Street, and I would have loved to have gone to the Arab where my mum wanted to work in the holidays when she was a student.

It was a quiet trip back along the Great Ocean Road to Geelong. We then saw that on the day that we left, the only service station in Lorne ran out of petrol. Luckily we had plenty in the tank!

WW Iced Apple Chamomile Tea

2012-01-30T22:56:00.002+11:00

A couple of weekends back when it was sweltering hot, I had requests for treacle scones. The spirit was willing but the flesh was wilting. Instead I made a cool drink based on one that I had first encountered at a potluck last year. K had brought along a chamomile lemon iced tea.

I had some chamomile apple tea so it seemed fitting to add some apple juice that I had in the fridge. I drained all I could from a bottle of maple syrup (rather than making maple syrup ice cubes like K). Next time if I am low on maple syrup, I might even try some honey, which is a more traditional partner of chamomile.

I found that the taste of the chamomile was rather strong after steeping the tea for 10 minutes. Later I checked my packet and it said to steep it for 2-3 minutes, which I think I might try next time. Lastly I added a generous handful of ice cubes and some soda water.

It was refreshingly cold and not too sweet. E was not interested but Sylvia and I loved it. We drank it while watching Mary Poppins. I confess that I had hoped the chamomile might even help Sylvia sleep. When I was a student I went through a phase of drinking lots of chamomile tea until I got so sleepy that it really wasn't helping me study. No such luck with Sylvia. She seems sturdily resistant to sleep lately. Who can blame her on hot night! At least the drink cooled us down!

I am sending this to Ricki for her Wellness Weekends. I know she will appreciate me sharing a bit of summer! Also thanks to everyone who sent in ideas on water bottles in my previous post. I now need to spend a bit of time reading up on the different bottles.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: BBQ tofu like an Aussie flood
This time two years ago: WHB: Tomato and Peach Relish
This time three years ago: Hot weather, hopeful politics and summer food
This time four years ago: Wendy’s Apple Green Tea

Iced Apple Chamomile Tea
Adapted from In the Mood for Noodles
Serves 8-10

2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup loose leaf chamomile tea
2 cups apple juice
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup maple syrup, or to taste (or use honey for a more traditional taste)
about 4 cups soda water
lots of ice cubes

Steep tea in boiling water for about 10 minutes (or according to packet). Strain and discard tea leaves. Add apple juice, lemon juice and maple syrup. To serve, half fill a glass with the apple tea drink. Add a handful of ice cubes and fill with soda water.

On the Stereo:
The versatile Martin Denny

A tale of three water bottles

2012-01-27T18:53:00.002+11:00

Over the past 6 months I have tried to move away from using old plastic mineral water bottles with tatty labels. It has been a frustrating journey.

I started off with the green bottle. It was made by Aquasteel. I love it. It was lightweight and stylish and exactly what I wanted. Within a few weeks the bottle was knocked off the kitchen table, huge cracks formed around the nozzle. It was useless. I tried to contact the company to ask if I could buy another top but the email and phone number didn't work. I had bought it on holiday so I couldn't return it to the shop. I had to abandon it.

The next bottle was the tall purple one. I found it at Officeworks. It appealed because I don't really like the sucker tops. This had a nicer opening to drink from. Unfortunately it seems to open at the wrong sort of moment. It has dumped water on my camera, on the floor of the car and I get worried Sylvia will throw it on the bed when having a night time tantrum. It has been banned from my bag and from night time use but I love it too much to throw it out. It is great around the house during the day.

The last bottle is the little purple one. It is from Safeway supermarket. It is practical but is just not quite right. It is too small when I am riding my bike and reach for it in my drink holder. It just doesn't have the aesthetic appeal or pleasing feel of the other two.

The pursuit of the ideal water bottle continues. It is not an active hunt. But I hope one day I will get over the disappointment of the acquasteel and find another I can love and use.

This post was inspired by Kari's post on water bottles.

Happy Burns Night - Haggis Stuffed Mushrooms

2012-01-25T22:51:00.002+11:00

Every year E suggested I make vegetarian haggis to celebrate Burns Night. Finally this year I did. I have been in search of interesting ways to serve haggis. So far I have made pizza, tacos, nachos, crepes and pasties. Recently I discovered McSween, who makes Haggis in Scotland, have a whole heap of recipes. I decided to make the haggis stuffed mushrooms.

This was an easy recipe to make once I had made the haggis. It was merely a matter of grilling the top of the mushroom until it smelt cooked and juices started to run out of it, then I mixed some grated cheese with some haggis and pressed it into the cup of the mushroom, topped it with a little more cheese and grilled it under the cheese was golden brown. Easy. Served with tomato sauce and light green salad. Followed by some dancing to Scottish folk songs with Sylvia. Next time I want to try baked potatoes with haggis.

Happy Burns Night!

On the Stereo:

The Best of Scottish Folk: various artists

WHB Green Goddess Enchiladas and other recent meals

2012-01-24T23:30:00.000+11:00

As I have mentioned before, I have been avoiding the temptation of new recipes. Many old favourites are appearing in our kitchen. But when a dish appears with the temptress name of Green Goddess Enchiladas using lots of kale which is overgrowing in the garden, it is hard to resist. It doesn't mean the dish will be as gorgeous as Joanne's version but I had to have a go.

Before telling you about my struggles with the enchiladas, I wanted to give a quick round up of some of the recipes that I have loved revisiting and one that turned on me. Firstly here is a little overview of dinners last week:

Monday - Bangers and mash
Tuesday - Pumpkin and lentil soup (a bit like this soup but less spicy)
Wednesday - Leftover Pumpkin and lentil soup
Thusday - Broccoli burgers (from the freezer) with simple salad
Friday - Green Goddess Enchiladas
Saturday - Leftover Green Goddess Enchiladas
Sunday - Mock Tuna (Chickpea) Salad, Coconut Bacon, salad and turkish bread

The soup was great and I got some lunches out of it. I loved revisiting the coconut bacon. We had it for lunch on the weekend in a salad sandwich with mayo, lettuce, tomato, beetroot, and avocado. Even Sylvia enjoyed it. I also tried the broccoli burgers on Sylvia but she only ate as much as she needed to eat the tomato sauce off the top. My other enjoyable recent meal from my recipe index was tacos with a simple Kidney Bean and Corn Stew.

The mock tuna salad was the one that turned on me. Well it was a matter of me discovering that dijonnaise was too spicy for me. Unfortunately I only made the discovery after throwing far too much into the salad I had prepared. I hadn't realised the dijonnaise was so different to mayonnaise. A stomach upset that night made sure that I have no desire to ever eat it again.

I am not sure that my kale plant was much kinder than the dijonnaise. Here it is before the harvest. Who would have guessed that kale would thrive in a Melbourne backyard in summer. Its main problem - apart from neglect - was the little insects that race me to chomp through it. If you saw how brutally I harvested my kale, you might think I didn't deserve any kindness from it. There is only a stump left.

It felt like a forest in the kitchen. Much of it went into the compost. I tried to pick only the nicest leaves. Sylvia and Dolly were most most interested in it. I stuffed it into my food processor and blitzed it as much as possible for the Green Goddess sauce. The sauce never tasted quite right. Slightly too bitter. I'd like to think it is a learning experience but I have made the same mistake before.

My main mistake was not so much the kale as the corn tortillas. I love the latter in enchiladas. But they can turn to mush all too easily. And that is what happened. I was just a little too eager to use up all the kale and a little too busy to read the recipe properly. Though I did like the tips on heating the corn tortillas to make them easier to work with.

Joanne's post had a photo of enchiladas all crisp with just a little sauce (and used some of hers on the bottom of the pan as well as the top. My photo is of the enchiladas buried under a blanket of sauce. Maybe it would have been better if the sauce was less bitter. My mum suggested that the kale might have been a bit old. I found that the dish was actually better on the second night with a dollop of guacamole.

I swithered over whether to post this recipe but despite the corn tortillas not crisping on top it was quite tasty and I learnt a few things. January has been an interesting month for posting less recipes and more of my crazy ideas from my backlog. This has also been a survival mechanism while Sylvia is still not sleeping well in the evenings. Fingers crossed her sleeping improves.

I would love to dig a few more posts out of my backlog but it is Australia Day on Thursday and a beach holiday beckons so it may be a bit quiet around here, though I have one backlog post in mind that may be scheduled if time permits. Meanwhile I am sending Green Goddess Enchiladas to Cinzia of Cindystar for Weekend Herb Blogging #318, the event coordinated by Haalo and founded by Kalyn.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: NCR Sushi Salad and Sushi Rice
This time two years ago: Muffins at the tennis
This time three years ago: Apricot History and a Chutney
This time four years ago: HoTM #11: Chunky Beetroot Soup with Kidney Beans

Green Goddess Enchiladas
Adapted from Eats Well With Others
Serves 4-6

Splash of olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1-2 medium carrots, diced
1 red capsicum, diced
kernels of 2 cobs of corn
1 cup of cooked chickpeas
1 cup of cooked cannelini beans
125g cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 shake of ground chillis, or to taste
2/3 cup pumpkin and lentil soup (optional)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese, divided
seasoning
10-12 corn tortillas
1 tsp sesame seeds (optional)

Kale Sauce:
1 bunch kale (three very good handfuls), stems removed if possible
2 spring onions, chopped
2 fairly mild green chillis, finely chopped
1 1/4 cup vegetable stock
1 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Cook onion, carrot, capsicum and corn in a large frypan until onion has softened (I added the vegies as I chopped them in that order). Add chickpeas, cannelini beans and cherry tomatoes and cook for a few minutes until tomatoes start to wilt. Add spices and stir about one minute then turn off the heat and add pumpkin (soup) and 1/2 cup cheese. Check seasoning. Set aside.

To make suace puree all ingredients in a food processor until fairly well blended. (I pureed my raw kale first to make sure it got well chopped and then added other stuff but that is only because I am paranoid.)

Preheat oven to 200 C or 400 F. Grease a 9×13 inch casserole dish. Lightly cover bottom of the dish with 1/2-3/4 cup of the sauce. (Oops I didn't do this - perhaps it is why my sauce on top was too much).

Heat corn tortillas. Do this by either 1) wrapping the stack of them in aluminum foil and placing them in the preheating oven for 5-7 minutes or by 2) microwaving them covered with a wet (wrung out) paper towel for 30 seconds. Spoon 2-3 dessertspoonfuls of mixture onto each tortilla, roughly roll up and place seam down in the prepared casserole dish. The corn tortillas crack a bit but don't worry too much about this.

Pour kale sauce evenly over top of enchiladas. Joanne says not to worry if it is liquidy. My sauce covered the whole lot and I think next time I would make sure there only enough sauce so that there is plenty of tortilla showing through it. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese and scatter with sesame seeds Bake for at least 25 minutes (mine was more like 40 and could have been more) until cheese is bubbly and the tortilla peeking through is crispy.

On the Stereo:
Super Trouper: ABBA

WSC Blueberry Chocolate Cake

2012-01-22T17:07:00.001+11:00

My mum had her birthday last week. She came to look after Sylvia on the day. It seemed only right to bake a birthday cake. Not only does a birthday girl deserve a birthday cake, but I knew there would be hours of entertainment with birthday candles for Sylvia. Being unorganised as usual, I only decided to bake the cake in the morning before my mum came. I had blueberries and I wanted it to be healthy(ish). Fat Free Vegan's Chocolate Blueberry Cake fitted the bill.

Sylvia and Dolly never say no to helping bake a chocolate cake. It was a fairly straightforward cake to me. Just blitz the blueberries, mix with wet ingredients, add to dry ingredients and bake. There was no added oil and no eggs. Even better for licking the bowl. The main problem was that it was a 35 C day so I didn't bother pre-heating my gas oven.

The cake came out of the oven 5 minutes after mum arrived. I was concerned that it didn't look at all appetising. Flat and rubbery were the words that came to mind. Well at least it would hold a few candles. If I had remembered the chocolate ganache that is still in the freezer, I would have brought it out but I was rushing to head off to work. Yet, my mum and Sylvia seemed to have enjoyed it when I got home.

I loved it. I would even go as far as saying it is one of the nicest low fat cakes I can remember eating. E also enjoyed it because it was not overly rich. He thought it just needed a dollop of cream. It was lovely on the first day but got even denser and slightly fudge after that. I guess that Susan of Fat Free Vegan is a big fan, given that she has a picture of the cake on the banner of her blog.

She says it makes 8 servings. I am more parsimonious. I liked baking it in a square tin (rather than a round one like Susan) because it is easier to cut small squares. Which is just as well because Sylvia decided to crumble up her piece while having a tantrum about not being able to eat the pieces I was photographing. As you can see above, I experimented with eating it with fresh blueberries and some maple syrup. I agree with Susan that it is a delicious way to eat this cake.

Sylvia and I had fun making a birthday card for mum. It was amazing that all I had to buy was some card (from Deans Art) because the rest of the material - glitter glue, sticky sparkly paper and stickers - were hanging around the house. I think I could really get into making cards rather than buying them. Though I still haven't worked out about envelopes.

Yesterday we went to my sister Susie's house in Geelong for a birthday bbq. We had a great array of salads. I contributed a smoky potato, bean and corn salad. For sweets we were rather restrained and merely had some cupcakes and mum's pav. Erica made the GF white chocolate and chocolate mud cupcakes with pretty icing piped on top. We put some candles in these to sing Happy Birthday. It was a fun afternoon with the kids setting up shops in their bedrooms.

I am sending the chocolate blueberry cake to Chele of Chocolate Teapot for We Should Cocoa. The theme this month is Healthy Conscious. And for those who are interested in healthier baking, there is a great article on muffin makeovers from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Chocolate cake - the way mum made it
This time two years ago: Cheese and Almond Loaf
This time three years ago: Birthday chocolate cake and crazy computers
This time four years ago: Coconut Chai Cake

Chocolate-Blueberry Cake
Slightly adapted from Fat Free Vegan

1/2 cup blueberries (I used frozen)
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup maple syrup (or date syrup, or other liquid sweetener)
1 teaspoon ground flax seeds (or chia seeds)
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup plain white flour
1/2 cup plain wholemeal flour
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
pinch salt

Serving suggestion:
1 cup blueberries and maple or agave syrup
OR
icing sugar
OR
chocolate ganache and cream

Blend blueberries with some of the water. Add remaining water, maple syrup, flax seeds and balsamic vinegar. (I did this in my little blender attachment for my hand held blender so I couldn't do too much water at once and then I just hand mixed the remaining wet ingredients but you could just blend them all together in a bigger blender.)

Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Pour in wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Pour into a lined 20cm square cake tin. (Susan used a round 23cm cake tin.)

Bake 30 minutes in a moderate oven (180 C or 350 F) or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out cleanly. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.. Keeps in an airtight tin for 4-5 days.

To serve you could top with fresh blueberries and drizzle with syrup OR dust with icing sugar OR spread with chocolate ganache and dollop some cream beside each slice.

On the Stereo:
The Trip - Various Artists: curated by Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey

Malabar Hut - why it is our favourite Indian takeaway!

2012-01-20T23:17:00.001+11:00

We are very particular about ordering takeaway Indian meals. I want a good mix of vegetables and proteins. E is fussy about his chicken curries. Our yardstick is the Prince of India that we used to patronise when E's parents lived in Peebles. We finally had an Indian meal so satisfying that we leaned back in satisfaction and said it measured up. Malabar Hut was recommended by friends some time ago. After a few Malabar meals, we are finally on the bandwagon.

Our first order (because we have mostly had takeaway) was Gobi Mutter (cauliflower and pea curry) and Palak Paneer (spinach and cheese curry). The gobi mutter was delicious. It could have had a few more chunks of cauliflower but the sauce was mild and creamy and very very moreish. Unfortunately the palak paneer was too salty, despite the wonderful silky spinach sauce. It was promising but definitely not perfect.

On that occasion we also ordered Chicken Dopiaza for E, which he enjoyed, Dosa for Sylvia who ate a bit, and Paratha. The last is a flaky bread that was recommended to us by the Malabar Hut guy on the phone. It was a good recommendation as it was flakier than the roti that we sometimes order at Indian takeaways.

Our next order was on the anniversary of E's mother's death. She had always loved a biryani so that is what we ordered. I had the veg and E had the chicken. The biryanis were disappointing. They were edible but I didn't like the spice mixture, especially when I found myself crunching on a stray cardomom pod, and the spices were too hot for me. E didn't like the bones in his chicken.

We also ordered masala dosa which was nice but too spicy for me and roti which was cold by the time we picked up our takeaway order. The unexpected success was the Palak Paneer. These deep fried squares of cheese with a chickpea flour batter weren't too spicy or tasty but had a slight taste of lemon in the batter. The chewy crisp texture was excellent even when it had cooled down. The dipping sauces, as is often the way with Indian takeaway, was too spicy for me but I was happy to eat the pakoras plain. I had hoped Sylvia might eat them but she was far more interested in the rice.

Finally I ate in at Malabar Hut with my friend Yaz on one of his visits to Melbourne last year. He had invited quite a few friends along and we ended up with two tables. One for the omnivores and one for the vegetarians. This made it easy to share. Even better was that Yaz and his friends Brian and Bruce were so familiar with the place and their knowledge helped me discover some new dishes. I didn't take photos because I didn't know many people there.

Just watching their delight as the Gobi 65 was served was proof enough that it had to be sampled. This starter of cauliflower deep fried in a bright red batter surrounded by fried onions was as good as the reactions of the people around me, despite being quite spicy. We also ordered a paneer deep fried in a red batter (Rava Fried Cottage Cheese?), potato balls in a bright red sauce (that was amazing but I haven't managed to work out what it was), a creamy mushroom and pea curry (ok but a few too many mushrooms for me, though others loved it), a dal with lots of tomatoes (it didn't impress me because it was too much sauce and not enough lentils). The service was good. I was so full and satisfied by the end of the meal and it only cost $18 each (for 2 rice, 2 paratha, 1 dosa, 2 entrees, and 4 mains between about 6 or 7 of us).

My last experience of Malabar Hut was a takeaway meal in July last year. We ordered Gobi 65, Paneer Pakora, Dal Spinach (which was mustardy with lots of green specks), Dum Aloo Kashmiri (not the excellent potato dish of my last visit but the unnaturally bright red creamy tomato sauce with potato balls were nice), Chicken Dopiaza (boneless chicken in a creamy sauce for E), 2 Steamed Rice, and 1 Paratha. It was an excellent selection. I think it cost us about $50 and lasted two nights. The only reason we haven't been back since is that we just don't have takeaway very often.

I can't think of Malabar Hut without thinking of Malibu Stacy from the Simpsons but I assume the name refers to a place in India (according to Wikipedia there are a few). I have a copy of an old menu on which the guy serving me had crossed out the home delivery service. Online, I found that the menu is slightly updated since we were there last.some changes. Though our experiences have been hit and miss, now that I have found some dishes to love, it is our go-to Indian takeaway and I highly recommend it to others.

Malabar Hut
868 Sydney Road, Brunswick, VIC 3056
Tel: 9383 4200
Open 7 nights a week and for lunch on the weekends
www.malabarhut.com.au

Laurent Bakery Cafe - French and Fancy

2012-01-18T13:16:00.001+11:00

I love a good bakery cafe. You don't need much more than a really good bread for a satisfying lunch and you can walk away with wonderful loaves and tarts. On the weekend when I did a camera course, I wandered among the city arcades with little success - too busy or too many spruikers - until I chanced up on Laurent. This is an old favourite of mine. It is an elegant old dame of the Melbourne bakery scene.

Just look at that curved staircase and chandelier. Those tall arched windows remind me of the windows on Playschool before they went modern but in a far more charming setting. The vase of flowers in the centre of the room is huge and lush. Best of all is that this is an oasis of space and peace in the middle of the busy city.

Laurent makes crusty baguettes and a good substantial sourdough that your teeth need to work at. My aunts often visit my parents bearing this bread which is always welcome. Yet upon entering the store, it is the rows of gorgeous colourful cakes the my eyes are drawn to. The French bakery does a great line in tarts, pastries, macarons and other French fancies.

After my brief camera course I wished that I could do the bakery more justice. Seeing examples of how beautiful photography can be makes me feel inadequate. Yet I hope you will at least appreciate the glorious red strawberry tarts or tartes aux framboise because this is a French-style bakery.

Yet for all that I lust after the pretty sweet food, the sensible side of me knows that I will be far happier with some savoury fare. I chose the salad baguette. It is a simple affair of lettuce, cheese, tomato, avocado and an excellent vinaigrette dressing. My high praise of this salad roll demonstrates the quality of Laurent's goods. I am usually very fussy about eating salad rolls that are ready made and on display.

My lunch was delicious. It wasn't cheap but I will pay a bit more for a decent sandwich. I ate it while reading about Amy Winehouse in The Age, listening to foreign academics beside me and a cover of a Smiths song overhead. Oh for such ambiance at more lunchtimes! The sandwich was very filling. I couldn't face any sweets. But I did purchase a raspberry marzipan tart, a strawberry macaron and a walnut raisin roll to take home for later. They were lovely.

Laurent Bakery
306 Little Collins Street
Melbourne CBD, VIC 3000
Tel: (03) 9654 1011
Mon-Sat: 8am - 6pm Sun: 9am - 5pm
Check website for other locations
www.laurent.com.au

Nectarine bounty - salsa and pizza

2012-01-16T22:19:00.001+11:00

Wow that was some marathon of catch up posts last week. I finished off quite a few posts that had been almost there for some time. During that time I didn't make new recipes, as I promised myself. It meant I revisited some recipes posted on this blog. Then I was given a couple of paper bags of nectarines on Friday and had to experiment a bit.

Before telling you about the recipes here is a brief rundown of some of the things happening over this time. Amazing how much can happen in a week or two:

We had such fierce winds in Melbourne that our cubby hut blew over.
A bowl of peas started flaming in the old microwave with excellent timing that meant we could get a new one in the New Year sales.
Sylvia gave dolly a bath. As you can see from the above photo the water showed just how much she needed a bath but it did take a while for her to dry out.
I did a 2 hour introductory DSLR course that was free with my new camera. I still find manual photography a mystery but I like Rachel's manual Project 365. I also bought a tripod. Am still unsure I will ever have time to use it.
Sylvia and I have been doing some craft on birthday cards. Lots of fun.
I cleaned out the pantry. That doesn't happen very often.
I had some painful dental work. Never again. Please!

The nectarines came from trees that grew from stones in compost in the house of a family who doesn't like nectarines. I was quite excited and made a Corn, Tomato and Peach Salsa from Vegan YumYum to serve with broccoli and hazelnut burgers. I don't have a bbq so my method was quite different. The nectarines that I substituted for the corn were on the bitter side but worked in this salsa. My preference would be for yellow peaches in the salsa. Definitely one to make again.

After my photography course I found a place in Melbourne Central near the train station that sold a container of pineapple chunks. This was a perfect snack for me. Even better was that it meant I had some leftover for pizza. I made some fast track pizza dough with sweet potato pizza sauce, capsicum, mushrooms, olives, pineapples and cheese.

With the leftover pizza dough I made nectarine and custard pizza. Not bad for an ad hoc dessert. The bitterness of the nectarines needed more sugar but I still enjoyed it. Which is strange given that if you suggested a sandwich of nectarines and custard I might feel slightly queezy. There are still nectarines left but I probably wont experiment with too many new recipes. I wonder if the trees are quite young and that is why they are on the bitter side. Yet who can resist a gift of fruit!

I am sending the salsa to Ricki's Wellness Weekends.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Sylvia's dinner - hit and miss
This time two years ago: Tetris, the Foolish Hedgehog and Brunch
This time three years ago: Mojos Weird Pizza – for the adventurous!
This time four years ago: Mole and the global village

Corn, tomato and peach salsa
Adapted from Vegan YumYum
serves 3-4

2 corn cobs
6-8 large cherry tomatoes, halved
3-4 little peaches (I used nectarines), yellow is best, halved
1-2 tbsp olive oil
pinch salt
1 spring onion, finely sliced
2 tsp lime juice, or more (I used lemon juice)
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp chilli paste
1/4 tsp cumin powder
seasoning to taste

Toss corn, tomatoes, peaches, oil and salt in roasting tray and roast at 180 C for about 30 minutes. If the corn is still not charred, place under grill and turn occasionally until slightly charred (which is what I did). Meanwhile chop tomatoes and peaches. When corn is grilled, cut kernels off the cob and mix in a medium bowl with tomatoes, peaches and remaining ingredients. Set aside for at least 30 minutes if possible. Keeps up to 24 hours.

Nectarine and custard pizza
I used about one fifth of my favourite fast track pizza dough and made a thick custard with 3 tsp custard powder, 1 1/2 tsp sugar, and 1/3 cup milk brought to the boil. I spread it on the dough when hot and arranged the nectarine slices of about 6 small nectarines. I baked it at 210 for about 20 minutes. The custard was a little thick and the pizza could have done with a little more sugar but was still very good.

On the Stereo:
Music to Watch Girls By: Various Artists

Scienceworks - history meets science in Spotswood

2012-01-14T20:24:00.000+11:00

I love history and museums so it is a mystery why it took me so long to visit Scienceworks. Sure I had been on the fringes of the museum. I attended a conference there many years ago and once went to an avant-garde music performance at the Planetarium. But I guess they don't count. Finally late last year I took the time to wander through the museum with E, Sylvia and my dad. It was both fun and fascinating.

The museum is divided up into exhibitions. We started off in House Secrets. It was a fascinating mix of science and history, with a mock up of the kitchen upon entering. There was lots of fun. A bowl of fruit that people could stand in - great photo opportunity! An upside down loungeroom. One of my favourite exhibits was the microwave with a video where the door normally is. You could select videos of all kinds of things that should never be in microwaves and see what happened when you put them in there.

Even better was this "antique" microwave oven from circa 1960. How cool is that! I loved all the old kitchen jugs, cannisters, tupperware, teapots etc. A great example of the mixture of science and history was the old Kelvinator fridge that you can open and find a video screen with information playing on it. There were lots of interesting snippets of information, such as that the origin of teabags came from a tea merchant who packaged his tea in silk bags.

The exhibition also managed to take a mundane part of our life and make them fascinating. This wall of cans makes the everyday into art. Quite a few of these cans are in our pantry and I was tempted to go home and stack mine up just like this The Secret House exhibition included other ordinary places in the home like behind the back of the couch, little drawers of what we keep in our bedroom cupboards, and a bathroom set up with information about how it all works.

The exhibition was very clever in they way it made us see homelife with new eyes. I loved the above giant dryer. Everyone had to have a look. One you were drawn in, you could then learn something about it. Below is an old television that made me feel a little nostalgic for a time when the screen was plagued with snow and rolling pictures and there were no remote controls to help you out. Reading about how household technology had developed was great. Visiting with my dad who remembered lots of things we saw and Sylvia who just wanted to play with all the interactive exhibits demonstrated that there was indeed something for everyone.

Much as I loved House Secrets, I concede that domestic history is not for everyone. Apparently there are some who would prefer to see life-like dinosaurs wave their heads about and roar fiercely in the Explore-a-saurus Exhibition (which finishes in April). Sylvia was not one of those. They just made her cling to us. I liked watching the dinosaur eggs hatching and the sandpit where you could seek fossils. She was more interested in fake dinosaur poo.

We found a few of the exhibitions (such as Perception Deception) too old for Sylvia and instead headed upstairs to The Nitty GrittySuper City. This is an interactive exhibition aimed at 3 to 8 year olds. Sylvia at 2 years old, found it entertaining. First sight upon entering is the role play cafe. A kiddie size cafe with sink, plastic food, coffee machine and tables and chairs. Wouldn't I have loved this in our cubby hut when I was little! Sylvia spent quite some time here.

I loved how they managed to slip in some food history. The walls of the cafe are decorated with 1960s supermarket posters. That Kraft cheese one made me a little nostalgic though I would never have sanctioned tomato in my sandwiches as a kid.

The area has lots of other activities. The music bowl is lots of fun. Lots of instruments to bang and tinkle and make noise with. Other sections includ a pulley system that older kids seemed to love, some Australian animals, a log to crawl through, crazy mirrors, microscopes and a giant paper dolls section.

As with the rest of the museum, there are sections that adults just love. The below lego model of Melbourne fascinated us. My dad and I spent some time identifying familiar landmarks, places where we had worked, the Zoo, the Vic Market and the West Gate Bridge.

Midway through our visit we had to stop for lunch. The cafe isn't anything to write home about. It is a fairly bog-standard affair of pies, pasties, wraps, sandwiches, coffee and cakes. I had the spinach and ricotta roll and a piece of carrot cake. I gave Sylvia a piece of my cake and promptly took it away when I saw there were unspecified nuts sprinkled in the icing. The staff were pretty vague about what nuts and so she didn't get any in case they were peanuts.

If the weather had been kinder I would have been in favour of taking along lunch to eat outside. Out the back of the main museum is a huge expanse of grass with a few playgrounds and even a few more learning experiences. What drew my eye and made me love the museum even more was the old pumping station. I do so love an old historic building. And industrial history is just so steampunk!

Before I take you inside, I must point out that Scienceworks has marvellous views of Melbourne's major bridge, the West Gate Bridge. Can you see its curve between these two towers? I still remember the bridge being built and travelling over it to visit my grandparents. As a child who desperately wanted to fly in a plane, I loved the birds eye view of Melbourne, especially seeing the lights at night.

But onto the pumping station. I loved all the exhibitions and there are more in the pumping station. But museums, love them as I do, are tiring. All the reading and pressing buttons and learning. Old buildings are places to soak up the atmosphere and reflect on how much had happened in this space. So much more restful. Though I did talk to the guards a little about the history of this 1897 building that had pumped Melbourne's sewerage, it was wonderful to just sit in awe at the craftsmanship and technology.

The day we visited it was busy. However not as busy as the first time Sylvia and I attempted to go there only to be defeated by the queues. It taught me an important lesson about booking tickets by phone or online if you want to avoid queues and not to go there on a public holiday just as new exhibition opens. Queues aside, Scienceworks is a fantastic museum and a great day out for all the family.

Scienceworks
2 Booker Street, Spotswood
Tel: 131102
Web: http://museumvictoria.com.au/scienceworks/
Only a short walk from Spotswood train station.

What vegetarian is that?

2012-01-13T22:20:00.005+11:00

When I became vegetarian, life was simple. You were either a vegetarian or you weren't. Sure I knew a few vegans but that was it. Since then, I've read many books, found lots of ideas in the blogosphere and had many conversations about what to call vegetarians (and wannabe vegetarians).

Here is a guide to vegetarian names, labels and terms I have come across. Please bear in mind that some are not strictly vegetarian and some are tongue in cheek. It was quite a challenge matching pictures with terms, but lots of fun. Hope you enjoy them:

Lacto ovo vegetarian
Eats no meat or products of the flesh but will eat dairy, eggs and honey. Often referred to as just vegetarians. This is me so it seems quite normal but I know others can still find it challenging.

Strict vegetarian OR Vegan
Eat no meat, products of the flesh, dairy or eggs. Check out Vegan MoFo if you want to see how well Vegans eat.

Gleegan
Eats a GLuten-free, vEGAN diet. If you think it is restrictive, check out local gleegan blog, In the Mood for Noodles.

Beegan
Eats a vegan diet plus honey.

Fruitarian
Eats fruits, nuts and seeds, without animal products, vegetables and grains. The idea is to only eat produce that fall from trees and plants rather than vegetables that are part of a plant. I met a few on my travels. They like WWOOFing.

Breathatarian
Lives on fresh air and sunshine. I've never met one though I have met a few kids who seem to be heading in that direction!

Beady eyed vegetarian
Eats creatures with beady eyes. This usually means they don't eat red meat (cows, pigs and larger animals) but they eat pale flesh of chickens, other birds and fish. Maybe it is easier to refuse an animal with big eyes.

Pescatarian or Aquatarian or Fish and chipocrite
Eats a vegetarian diet plus fish. I love the fish and chipocrite term that I learnt from a friend who defined herself that way. It just rolls off the tongue so nicely.

Semi vegetarian or Flexitarian or Freedom eater
Eats vegetarian quite a lot but not all the time (and in the case of Chele's friend the "freedom eater", labels himself vegetarian when it suits him). These people are very supportive of Meatless Mondays.

Carbitarian
Lover of carbohydrates such as bread, pasta and rice. Often young kids.

Freegans
AKA dumpster divers. Reclaims and eats food that has been discarded by others. Also see amazing The Gleaners and I documentary.

Raw foodist
Eats uncooked and unprocessed foods that have not been heated above 40 C (give or take according to who you listen to). Predominantly but not necessarily vegan. There are heaps of raw food blogs. I like Choosing Raw.

Pesky-tarian
Everyone with any sort of dietary restriction, whether by choice or not. I saw this hilarious term on Where's the Beef.

And what do vegetarians eat?
Well the top photo shows a selection of my groceries. However I really think this is the ideal place to share my favourite alternative faux meat terminology: facon, tricken, shamburgers, beetloaf, chilli non carne. Any more?

Child-Friendly Almanac - recipes, eating out, play ideas

2012-01-12T12:50:00.007+11:00

Feeding and entertaining children is a delight. It can also be tiring. There are days when I draw a blank. Here is my list of ideas for such days. Most of the list are recipes and places I have tried and highly recommend but a few are on my wishlist. I hope it might be helpful for others as well as me. I will add to it as I discover more. Suggestions are welcome.

EATING IN
My daughter, Sylvia is almost 3 years old. She is a vegetarian, who has a peanut allergy and likes plain food with lashings of tomato sauce from the shop. Here is some of the food that she likes eating.

Breakfast

Boiled egg with toast
Toast with promite and cheese
Porridge
Leftover vegie sausages
Fruit

Lunch

Hummus with crackers and vegies
Baked beans and toast
Cheeseymite scrolls from Bakers Delight or home made Cheeseymite puffs
Chips (would have these every day if I let her)
Pancakes
Fruit balls
Fruit

Dinner
Often her dinner is as basic as

protein (beans from a tin, plain tofu cubes and/or cheese slices)
carbs (pasta, rice, crackers, mashed potato or bread) and
vegies (carrot sticks, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, capsicum slices, corn on the cob, peas, broccoil, brussels sprouts, asparagus, beetroot, cauliflower)
fruit (apple, pear, banana, apricot, peach, nectarine, grapes, plum, pineapple, strawberries, blueberries, any berries, mandarin, orange, watermelon, cherries)

I've been gradually finding meals that we enjoy that she can share with us. Often her meal still have fairly plain vegies with it if we have salad or is a downsized version of ours, eg when we have pizza hers is plainer than ours.

Fast track pizza with sweet potato sauce and cheese - great quick pizza recipe
Geegaw cups - these are fun because she loves putting stuff in them
Kiddie bolognaise - actually I think she has crossed this off her list but she did eat it when she had just turned 2.
Kiddie nachos - corn chips with cheese melted on them
Nut roasts - a favourite dish of mine - she will sometimes try a bit
Matthews delicious tofu - she sometimes eats the "spicy tofu" but I usually give her some plain tofu and put aside vegies for her as I prepare them for this dish.
Mee Goreng - she will eat the noodles with the sauce if I pick the vegies out of this but I can put aside raw veg for her as I prepare this dish.
Mini quiches - she loved them the first time but not the second time
Nutty sausage patties - loved these one night and refused them the next
Potato Scones - great way to use up leftover mashed potato
Roast Potatoes - these are great for a little girl who loves chips
Spinach pancakes - for kids who love colours!
Tofu Nuggets - she loves to help make these as much as eat them but it is a battle to stop her eating all the tofu raw
Vegetarian Sausage Rolls - mostly loves the pastry
Vegie sausages and mashed potato

Something sweet for everyday:

Special treats

EATING OUT WITH CHILDREN
It is not always easy to find a family-friendly cafe that has space for a stroller or a run; food that kids will eat; and friendly staff who will be flexible when faced with a fussy eater. A few times I have consulted Hey Bambini, a great website to check out child-friendly cafes in Melbourne. I have also recently discovered this page of restaurants/cafes with playgrounds. Here are a few favourite places.

Birdie Num Num, North Carlton - big yard with sandpit and toys out the back and nice kids menu.
CERES Café, East Brunswick - this cafe is in the midst of an environmental centre - tables are outdoors with shade and near to play areas - kids can watch hens, play in the sandpit or check out the gardens.
Half Moon Cafe, Coburg- great falafels for a quick lunchtime stop in an outdoor mall, and they do chips and dips too, both of which Sylvia loves.
Tea Time and Tales, Carlton - cute interior and plenty of toys and books, plus a kids menu.
Kenzan @ the GPO, Melbourne city - not much room but they do takeaway - Sylvia loves the unwrapped sushi and the endamame.
Happy River Cafe, Footscray Arts Centre - I haven't been there yet - my family has recommended this to me - lots of space for kids.

PLACES TO PLAY IN MELBOURNE
One great site with lots of information about big and little playgrounds is Melbourne Playgrounds. Here are some places I love to visit for some fun:

Fitzroy Gardens - on the eastern edge of the city, this park is full of wonder with Captain Cook's Cottage (entrance fee), the fairy tree, the miniature tudor village, a playground and a conservatory.
Scienceworks, Spotwood - great museum with lots of interactive activities to amaze and amuse kids, plus an historic pumping station and a large outdoors with play equipment.
The Zoo - lots to see and lots of space - among the highlights are the trail of the elephants, butterfly house, giraffes, Australian animals, seals and the carousel.
Indoor play centres such as Dizzy's Castle in Maribyrnong and Kidzone in Coburg
Melbourne Botanic Gardens - the children's garden is great, there is a cafe by the lake and lots of space to run about.
South Melbourne Beach playground - fun play equipment by the beach with a shade cloth over it.
Melbourne Museum, Carlton - the kids section has lots of interactive activities and what kids don't like to see the stuffed animals.
Coburg Lake - a few different playgrounds here and ducks and geese to watch on the lake.
Latrobe Wildlife Sanctuary and Blackburn Lake Sanctuary - places recommended by a friend that I intend to check out.
Chesterfield Farm, Scoresby - lots of animals to feed, pat and learn about.

FARMERS MARKETS IN MELBOURNE
Farmers markets are a great way to get out of the house, get the shopping done and let the kids stretch their legs, all in a pleasant environment. Listing are available at http://vicmarkets.blogspot.com. These are some of my favourites for kids.

Collingwood -heaps of space for kids to run about, plus the entry fee ($2) also gets you entry to see the children's farm. (Second Saturday of the month)
Gasworks - lots of interesting spaces, with some kids music for entertainment and the South Melbourne beach playground nearby. (Third Saturday of the month)
St Andrews - out of town farmers market that is a chance to feel like you are in the bush - they had pony rides and kookaburras in the bush when we visited. (Every Saturday)

OTHER CHILD-FRIENDLY BLOGS

FUN KIDS FOOD IDEAS

ABC pancakes - A Food Lovers Journey
Advice on kids food - Fabulicious Food
Animal cupcakes - Hold the Beef
Banana mermaid - Vegan and So Forth
Fish shaped bread - CityHippyFarmGirl
Harry Potter potions - Affairs of Living
House sandwiches - Please Do Not Feed the Animals
Natural dyes for Easter eggs - Book of Yum
Rainbow of fruit - Gluesticks
Sparkling bracelet cookies - Not Quite Nigella

Blogging catch up - eating out

2012-01-11T13:14:00.003+11:00

I have great intentions. I go to a cafe. I take a photo. I intend to write a post about it. I am busy. I am distracted. The post falls by the wayside. So here I am making amends with a collection of some of the places I ate out in 2011 that somehow didn't get their own post. Some should have and others maybe not. Maybe they will reappear once I have visited again and have a bit more time and energy.

Olivers Garden Cafe
Queens Park Lake, Moonee Ponds

We stumbled across this place after a pleasant walk in the park in September. Lots of play equipment and ducks to entertain Sylvia and lots of pencils to draw with in the cafe. I had a veggie breakfast with rosemary mushrooms, slow cooked tomato, home made baked beans, guacamole, spinach and hash browns. I really enjoyed all the vegies and flavours. E was not so keen on his egg. Sylvia's chips were ordinary at best. And the service was not great. Despite the failings, I would go back there to see if it was an off day as it was such a nice space in a cute little house. Maybe next time I will just have an ice cream from the takeaway window.

Snag Stand
Corner Latrobe and Swanston Street, Melbourne CBD

I was excited to read on Where's the Beef about the interesting hot dogs at Snag Stand. On my first visit the vegie sausage topped with mushrooms and a creamy sauce in a brioche bun was nice but a little heavy for my liking. I returned to try some other combinations and found them lacking. I ordered the vegie sausage with sauerkraut and sweet mustard. After standing about waiting, I found that the 'sauerkraut' actually had bacon through it. I got my money back. I will try again. I will ask if everything is vegetarian no matter what it says on the menu. If I have more success I might write about them more but the sauerkraut was just too disappointing.

Tramezzini
North Melbourne

I actually mentioned this cafe in an earlier post but thought it worth including here. My Croque Mademoiselle of leek, mushrooms and gruyere on toast was an interesting combination of flavours that worked well, even if it seemed to be reheated. The name of the dish amused me too. I requested that the ice cream and berries came on the side of her pancake. While I am not overly enthused about vanilla ice cream as a rule, I did enjoy this one with some berries. Sylvia enjoyed her plain pancakes. I liked the look of the place with big flowers, historic photos and green shelves, and the staff were very friend

Cafe Lua
Corner Elgin and Drummond Street, Carlton

Another Where's the Beef recommendation that I couldn't wait to try. I arrived and the specials board beckoned. I was fascinated by the strawberry, basil, hazelnut milk and (I think) banana smoothie. It was good but a little floral tasting. Unfortunately the soup had meat stock so I reverted to my first choice off the regular menu: GF Pumpkin and chia seed pancakes with yoghurt lentil and spinach salad. It promised so much. I liked it but found the pancakes were quite soft inside rather than fluffy and the salad was a bit creamy for my tastes.

However it was so refreshing to have something different to try and I would far prefer this to many of the standard offerings at other cafes.This might well be the most interesting dish I have eaten at a cafe in 2011. I look forward to getting back and trying more of their menu. The food is all the more enjoyable for the funky decor and the buzz of the crowds.

Vasilis's Munro Street Nursery
Coburg

I love a quirky idea for a cafe. Celebrities interest me less. So it probably worked better for me that I had never heard of Vasili who opened the cafe but I liked the idea of it being situated within a nursery that had a sideline in gourmet grocery products. My spanikopita was quite nice and Sylvia's dips were superb. I was disappointed that the dips came with crisp bread slices rather than fresh pita bread in a Greek-style cafe. The other customers were quite a bit older than me and maybe happier than me with nice but pricey grub. My mum seems to enjoy taking Sylvia there. It is a nice rustic space with lots of interesting curios and, of course, plants (see top photo).

Birdman Eating
Gertrude Street, Fitzroy

This visit actually happened last weekend but I thought I would throw it in with the rest of the catch-up to anticipate one more post that might get away. We shared four dishes. I was pleasantly surprised. The confit potatoes were delicious even if the vanilla aioli was too much sweetness and not enough bite. The roast pumpkin was soft and sweet, which contrasted well with the feta and juicy olives. The hummus was great with a generous sprinkle of smoked paprika but the bread was a bit dry. The haloumi with a red rice, sour cherry and pistachio salad was fantastic.

My main complaint was that a bit more charcoal would have been welcome. The potatoes, pumpkin and haloumi could have had been crispier and the bread would have benefited from a few minutes under the grill. The place was a little dark and cramped for a lunch with a small child on a summer's day but I would return. I was so full when I left but E wanted to go home and eat.

Emporia Cafe, Myer
Bourke Street Store, Melbourne

In December I stopped at Myer for some sweet comfort. I chose the hedgehog but it wasn't hedgehog as I know it. Too rich to finish the whole slab, I enjoyed that it was full of coconut but where were the broken biscuits! I include it here to bemoan the loss of the Myer food hall in the old (now defunct) Lonsdale Street store. Just look at these photos of the bountiful counters of food.

I used to love walking past the displays of lollies, chocolates, biscuits, bread, cakes. Sometimes I would go out of my way to the counters where I could buy potato cakes, bagels, fruit salad and yoghurt, rissoles, and other snacks. Rarely did I try and find space on the busy high counter and stools along the window. Oh how the mighty have fallen! The Emporia Cafe is on the ground floor. I recently noticed there is bread available on the 3rd floor as well as some of Brunettis lovely cakes but it is quite a detour on a busy lunch hour. These days David Jones food hall is a better bet.

Giorgios Restaurant
High Street, Armadale

We met our friends Chris and Yavanna, with wee Florence, here in September. The place was huge and great for taking kids because there was lots of room for them to run about. The menu was extensive with plenty of vegetarian dishes. I had a pizza topped with heaps of vegies. It was good but a bit soggy. The dessert was far more pleasing. The Spanish churros were warm and crisp with a dusting of cinnamon sugar. The chocolate sauce tasted like it had condensed milk in it but who would complain about that! A good place for huge families.

Sugardough
Lygon Street, Brunswick

One of my favourite bakeries. I keep promising myself that one day I will do it justice in a post but for now I will share these baked goods that I bought there in. I can't remember why. I can tell you that they were excellent. If this place was closer to where I work I would be there all the time. Which would be very bad for my waist. The savoury muffins are marvellous - I think this one is something like pumpkin and feta. The Italian bombellini (doughnuts) with chocolate filling are heavenly, albeit with a hint of citrus. The almond croissants are amazingly flaky and soft. I wish I could stop by more for sourdough loaves and baguettes. It is such a gorgeous space that queuing for bread is a pleasure and if you can get a seat it is lovely to eat in.

And folks that is not all. I still hope to post about Crust Pizza and Malaber Hut in Brunswick. Stay tuned...

FAQs - comments, recipes and promotions

2012-01-10T08:41:00.004+11:00

I love my blog and the connections it creates through comments, emails etc. I have been reluctant to develop an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page. Most readers can work it out without being told. Yet I hope it might clarify my approach in a helpful way.

What comments will you publish?
Comments are great! I love feedback, suggestions and advice. You are welcome to let me know if part of a recipe is confusing, offer information, answer questions, or respond to my reflections and recipes. Comments make a post more informative and help me find other blogs.

What comments wont you publish?

Comments that are rude, unnecessarily provocative, offensive or nasty.
Comments that are more interested in promoting your blog/website than responding to my post.
Comments that link to a generic website rather than a personal blog. I see the point of comments to be that I can connect with a real person not a corporation. Linking to a generic website seems to promote a website rather than creating connection.

Will you exchange a link with me?
No. I put links on my blogroll because I enjoy reading those blogs. I wont put a blog up on the list until I have been reading it regularly to know it is worth repeat visits. The best way to connect with me is to leave comments. I make an effort to visit those who comment and try to comment when I have something to say.

Why don't you write the recipe in grams/cups/emperial?
I don't always have time to write recipes in every possible measurement. I assume most people using my recipes have some experience in cooking and can adjust as needed. There are many online converters if you want to measure your ingredients differently (I know because I use them myself).

What is that ingredient or term you used?
I am an Australian and am aware that my terms aren't always understood in other countries. Before asking in a comment or email, you could check my Kitchen Notes which includes a list of Australian terms with equivalent American and UK terms.

Why didn't my version of your recipe work?
On my blog, I write out recipes according to what I did when I made it. This blog is where I keep my notes on recipes, rather than a recipe book that has been tested in different kitchens. I wish I could find Dorie Greenspan's wisdom on why recipes don't always work. She is far more articulate than I. I will give this advice: Every oven is slightly different. Ingredients in Australia might differ slightly from those in America. You might be baking in the midst of chilly winter while I am sweating through a humid summer day. You may have had different expectations. Maybe you tried a substitution, as I often do, and that made all the difference. I often alter recipes to make amendments for my ingredients, my oven, my family, my mood and my day. However if I can clarify or if I have omitted some information or ingredient, please let me know.

Where do your recipes come from? Are they all your own?
As a good friend loves to say, everything is derivative. Many recipes I post, but not all, initially come from a cookbook or another blog. I am fearless (or shameless) in changing both ingredients and methods to suit my circumstances and mood. I like to write out the recipe to help remember how I did it but I use my own style and words. (I found useful advice on the Australian Copyright Council Recipe Fact Sheet.) I have discussed these issues elsewhere.

Where possible I record the source of recipes, even where I have made many changes. If recipes come from my notebook that I have kept since 1989, chances are that I was not forward-thinking enough to record the source. If you see a recipe that is not sourced and you know the source, please let me know and I will add it to the post.

Can I use your recipe on my blog?
You are welcome to put up my recipe on the web in your own words - but I request that you link back to the post where you found it and I'd love you to let me know. I am always interested to see how people react to my recipes. You may not reproduce the recipe word for word. You may not reproduce my post in full. You may not use my photographs without permission.

Can you be my friend on foodbuzz, facebook, etc etc
I hate signing up to groups - too many passwords, too much of my personal data out there, and I am suspicious of new technology, so I generally stay away from such networks.

Should I let you know about a typo or omission I saw on your blog?
Yes please! Send me an emal at gggiraffe07 AT yahoo DOT com DOT au and I will fix it immediately. I will also be eternally grateful to you. I love my blog being in good order even in the old posts. I correct typos or clarify recipes wherever I see them.

Do you make money?
I have a day job. This is my hobby. I don't advertise. I do all my own design using free software.

Why didn't you respond to my email or comment?
I try to respond to genuine emails and comments, especially where a question needs an answer, but find it impossible to respond to every one. [Spammers please ignore this next sentence.] Occasionally I miss or delete a genuine email or comment by mistake - if this is the case (sorry nice guy from RV website - I did mean to respond until I lost the email and your url), please resend or remind me. I am only human!

Can you promote my event, review my product, put a giveaway on your blog, accept my guest post?
No no no and no. I don't advertise, accept freebies, review products, accept guest posts, do giveaways. There is always room for an exception. I have accepted one free ticket to an event that was recommended by a known blogger (and I was very clear about this in the post I wrote on it). However, I receive a lot of emails from people offering products, events, guest posts, content who obviously haven't read my blog. It gets tiring!

Acknowledgements
In compiling these FAQs I have looked through other similar FAQs and, in particular, found useful information on Smitten Kitchen, Choosing Raw and The Amazing Adventures of DietGirl.

Anchors: a tutorial from a novice

2012-01-09T22:49:00.004+11:00

I updated my favourites a while back to include some anchors at the top.

The work was prompted by a question about anchors. So I thought I would do a little tutorial. It is a little nerdy. I am not really a technical person. You may not need it. I do. Without these notes I would have forgotten when I did. Maybe it might help any other anchor novices.

What are anchors? I checked Wikipedia for help but it seemed too much information. So here is my explanation. An anchor is a link within a page that takes you to another part of a page, either the one you are on or another page. Sometimes people can't be bothered scrolling down to the information. They want to get there fast. We help with an anchor to leap across lots of text and land at the anchor.

This is an anchor - http://gggiraffe.blogspot.com/2012/01/anchors-tutorial-from-novice.html#the_end - because it will take to a place at the end of this page.

This is an anchor on another page - http://gggiraffe.blogspot.com/p/blog-index-complete.html#Novelty_Birthday_Cakes because it will take you to a place far down another page

This is not an anchor - http://gggiraffe.blogspot.com/p/blog-index-complete.html - because it will take you to the start of another page.

How do you attach anchors? You either have a little anchor icon on your Content management system (CMS) or you need to edit your HTML. If it is already an icon on your CMS you just need to click on it, type it in the pop up window and add it to the url as below. To edit your HTML is a bit more tricky but not too hard.

On Blogger there is an Edit HTML tab. Once in your HTML, you need to add HTML code to two places. One - the "Anchor" or the place where you want people to land when they click on the link to the Anchor. Two - the link to the Anchor. I find it easier to add the information in this order.

Let's call the anchor "My dinner". Remember that the anchor is a link (or url). First rule with links is that there are no spaces. If you leave a space the system fills it in with ugly text (eg %20).

You will have typed My Dinner on the page, usually down the page. Beside it you type this code:

When you go back to this after editing other part of the page, more HTML code will appear but I ignore it. I prefer to put in something simple and for Blogger (or your CMS) to add the rest of the code.

Now you add the hash (#) and the anchor name that you have added in the quotation marks (my_dinner) to the url for the page (http://yourblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/page-of-anchors.html). Below is an example of the url you will make. You can now link to this from another part of the page, from any other page on your blog or from any other website using the link or url that you have created:

http://yourblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/page-of-anchors.html#my_dinner

To add the link on your page using the html, place your cursor at the place (often towards the top of the page) where you want to place a link that will help your reader jump to your anchor. At this place type the link. Remember that HTML is case sensitive. For Example:

The end
Once it is done you should test it. Check it works. If it does, you can bake a cake to celebrate. If not, check your HTML or just curse me for giving you false hope and then search the internet for someone who knows what they are talking about.

One last note - I have noticed that the anchor takes you as close to the bottom of the page as it can get - ie if the anchor is really close to the bottom of the page you may not arrive precisely at the anchor.

Any questions?

in search of (3)

2012-01-08T21:00:00.000+11:00

The last couple of years I have amused myself with some of the choice search terms that bring people to my blog. A while back I spent some idle moments browsing the search terms in my Google Analytics. Here are some of the more entertaining (and some disturbing) results.

Giraffe searches:

a green giraffe small numbness
do giraffes eat oranges?
fried giraffe
full moons and giraffes
giraffes how they store food
global warming giraffe
how are a giraffe and coleslaw alike
higher than the balls on a giraffe
is a giraffe most active in the day or night?
piano music i thought i saw a green giraffe
what color is giraffe's semen?
why giraffes dont eat mulbery during winter
why is a giraffe beautiful?

Odd questions and thoughts:

bossy dolly
can i be vegetarian in the british army?
flapjack tee hee tam tams
provocative fruits
sexy poffertje
shy flapjack
would peasants have eaten apples, oranges or pears in 1066
wishing you many happy days in the kitchen
why did god make the skin of blood plums so sour?
who would call a kid fish and chips?
what is this green dried ball?
what is an aussie meal we have lamington for dessert --- what is a main that we only do in australia and a starter that is again only in australia?

Inspires me:

butterscotch maple walnut cake
chestnut, cranberry, parsnip and brie nut roast
giraffe themed fruit platters
green rice giraffe
help in making a giraffe out of potato
how to make japanese rice cookies at home
lego flapjack
pumpkin soup white wine apples tarragon cumin nutmeg
small chestnut cake with chocolate runny heart

How many ways people could misspell the name of my blog:

grengourmet giraffe
green giraffe gourmt
green gorme giraffe
green gormeut giraffe
green gouremet giraffe
green gourme giraffe
green gourmt giraffe
green gourtmet giraffe
green groumet giraffe
green gurnmet giraffe
greengurmergiraffe
greengourmetginaff

Finally I will take a moment to apologise to people who have landed on my blog full of hope, only to feel misled by the search engine. Though you will find these words on my blog, you will not find anything about giraffe cake pops, airplane shaped houses or young bimbo.

For more search terms, go to "in search of..." posts in 2009 and 2010.

Christmas cheese muffins, icy poles and the beach

2012-01-06T22:08:00.001+11:00

We had a lovely break between Christmas and the New Year. I didn't spend much time in the kitchen. Instead our days were filled with pool, holidays bumper crosswords, beach, fish and chips, birthdays, tv and dollies before we headed back to work this week.

I have made a conscious effort to keep my mind out of the kitchen these holidays. I needed a break after all that activity before Christmas. So the two recipes I have followed since then are both ones that I had in mind before Christmas. The first is a batch of Jarslberg Cheese, Cranberry Sauce and Thyme Muffins. The idea popped into my head in the supermarket when I bought too much cheese and cranberry sauce in one of my mad pre-Christmas shopping sprees.

After Christmas, I made them just because I was too tired to go to bakery for bread and too tired to think of anything else. We all enjoyed them warm from the oven for lunch. I had mine with leftover nut roast and cranberry sauce. E had nut roast with tomato sauce and Sylvia liked hers with promite.

I also made icy poles (or popsicles or iced lollies, depending on where you live) based on a Vikki Leng recipe I had seen a while back. The reason I made it was, again, a surplus of food. This time I had been too excited by all the luscious summer fruit and had too much before heading down to my parents' place after Christmas. It seemed a great idea to freeze it as icy poles. I even took a lovely photo of Sylvia licking her icy pole that got deleted by mistake, so I had to take a photo at night instead.

It was warm over the Christmas - New Year break and I had a hankering for swimming. Not real swimming. These days I rarely get a chance to swim laps. Instead I splash about with Sylvia in a shallow pool. I am glad she has started to enjoy being in a pool. Unfortunately she is yet to appreciate the joys of the beach. So I have decided I need more time at the seaside. We started with a trip to the South Melbourne beach because it has a great playground. Lots of fun wooden play equipment and large shade cloths.

I love how this playground is surrounded by terrace houses, palm trees and the sea. Underfoot is lovely soft sand. Unfortunately if you walk onto the beach the sand is a little less pure. Worse than that was the water on the day we visited. I love to walk along the waters edge but it was a murky brown. It was no surprise to read the next day that people were being warned not to swim in the metropolitan beaches due to pollution from the stormwater.

Ah well, we had a nice time of fish and chips from Mussels, ice creams and a swing. Sylvia and I were nice and neat with our peppermint choc chip icecream but E made a right mess of his bubblegum one.

A couple of days later, we went out of town to the beach at Torquay. It was so beautiful. Soft clean sand and clear blue water. By then E had sunburnt feet and stayed in the shade, and Sylvia cried at the waves. I enjoyed myself. Unfortunately I can't show you a picture of the Torquay beach. They were also among the photos I deleted by accident.

(It seems I am still getting used to my new camera but I am sad about the photos I lost. Gorgeous ones of Sylvia giggling in my new strawberry apron and snuggling with Molly the [toy] sheep, of my brother in law blowing out his birthday candles, of my nieces helping E do the crossword and a classic photo of Grace in reindeer antlers!)

After going to Torquay, we visited my parents where we had fish and chips. E thought they were better than the ones in South Melbourne. He focuses on the fish. I loved the pumpkin ring in Torquay (see above). What is it about the sea that makes you so hungry for hot salty greasy fish and chips!

E is not into the beach. His Christmad tradition is the telly. This year we managed to watch The Christmas Dr Who (magical), The Birds (I didn't finish watching it because it was too horrible), and The Christmas Bunny (adorable and so so sad). We've also started watching the Sea Change box set.

But today is the Epiphany and the tree was taken down tonight while I made green pancakes. And the chocolate and fig Christmas cake is now finished. Those melty chunks of chocolate together with the rich soft dried fruit were amazing in the warm weather. Honestly, who needs to bake anything else when you have a cake this good in the kitchen.

Actually, I have instigated a ban on new recipes for the time being. No new recipes will be cooked in my kitchen until I get some of my blog backlog cleared up. To get some of my backlog published I have decided that next week will be blog amnesty week. That means a week to publish a few posts that have been in draft for quite some time. Not recipes. Lists and advice and philosophy. January always puts me in the mood for a clear-out. You may find something there to interest you but if not then I have a recipe or two in my backlog and I am sure the new recipes will start again soon.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Christmas puddings of 2010
This time two years ago: Baby Food, Cookies and a Day at the Zoo
This time three years ago: Miso Soup for after the feasting!
This time four years ago: WHB Vegetable Stories and Potato Salad Glory

Savoury Cheese, Cranberry and Thyme Muffins
Makes 12 regular muffins or 30-36 mini muffins
Adapted from recipebridge.com

1 cup white plain flour
1 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 cup grated Jarlsberg cheese (or cheddar)
1/2 cup chopped spring onions (I didn't use)
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves, rubbed
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Generous pinch each of cayenne and smoked salt (or smoked paprika)
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup milk, plus 1 tbsp
1/4 cup cranberry sauce (or use 1/2 cup dried cranberries and add 1/4 cup milk)
1/4 cup canola oil

Preheat oven to 200 C or 400 F. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with muffin cups (or line a few mini muffin trays). In a large bowl, mix together flours, cheese, spring onions, thyme, baking powder, salt and spices. Lightly whisk together the egg, milk, cranberry sauce and oil in a large jug. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Spoon stiff batter into prepared muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes (or 15-18 minutes if you want to make mini muffins). Cool on a rack.

Fruity summer icy poles
Adapted from Vikki Leng's a Vegetarian Feast

juice of 2 oranges
125g strawberries, hulled

125g raspberries, frozen
1 apricot, diced small
2 nectarines or 1/2 cup pineapple, diced small
pulp and seeds of 2 passionfruit

Puree orange juice and strawberries. Mix raspberries, apricot, nectarines and passionfruit and spoon into icy pole moulds (I used 6 large and 6 small). Pour the orange strawberry puree over them, leaving a little room at the top for the mixture to expand when frozen. Place caps on icy poles. (If you don't have moulds, you can use little cups and stick icy pole sticks in.) Place in freezer to harden - at least 4 hours but preferably overnight. To eat, run the mould under cold water until the icy pole will slide out of it.

On the Stereo:
Like A Man: Adam Cohen

New year, gingerbread Christmas tree and haggis tacos

2012-01-03T20:59:00.000+11:00

New Year's Eve is a quiet evening in for us. It has been for some years now. Yet we have our Hogmanay traditions that remind us of E's Scottish upbringing. I make vegetarian haggis, which in recent years we have enjoyed in a large tray of nachos. This year Sylvia had her own tray of kiddie nachos - corn chips and cheese and we had some festive punch (which goes very well with champagne). Then we sit back to relax while we watch the Edinburgh Tattoo on television. This year, we had the added fun of a Christmas gingerbread tree, thanks to our neighbour Paula.

As I was about to start making haggis, Paula dropped in to invite us to come and make gingerbread with them. I was already running late and had to push on with dinner. But we agreed to come over and help while the haggis cooked. The recipe was a simple one that started with the melting of butter, golden syrup and brown sugar. It is one of my favourite smells.

Paula then suggested we use my set of five star biscuit cutters. I ran back and fetched them. We helped cut the stars - I was impressed with Paula's way of doing it which I have included in the recipe at the end of the post. I was even more impressed later on in the evening when she brought us one of the gingerbread Christmas trees that she had made by stacking biscuits with icing between each biscuit and placing a star on top (see photo at top of post).

More amazing still was that this "gingerbread" didn't have any spices in it. Paula and family follow a diet free of spices. The heady combination of butter, golden syrup and brown sugar imparted so much of the gingerbread flavour, that I never noticed the lack of spices. We really enjoyed them. Paula found that thicker icing made it easier to stick the gingerbread stars together but I liked the first tree she made with the icing dripping down it, making the tree look snowy and festive.

Now my aim for next Christmas is to make different sized lebkuchen stars and stick them together with chocolate ad finish with a light snow shower of icing sugar and some sparkles. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I continued with experimenting with ways to eat haggis. My favourite way is in nachos. Given that I loved the Scotch-Mex fusion, I thought I would try haggis tacos. I had meant to make a haggis chilli non carne but ran out of time. Instead I added a generous shake of smoked salt, smoked paprika, ground chillis and cinnamon and quarter to half a spoon of cumin and chilli paste of half a batch of haggis. Served in taco shells with grated cheese, tomato salsa, guacamole, lettuce and yoghurt, it was excellent.

I went even further the following night when we still had some haggis over. I added some kidney beans and salsa to the haggis and mixed with rice. Served with a topping of chopped capsicum, lettuce, grated cheese and yoghurt, it was every bit as good as the following night.

It is an odd world where Scottish and Mexican cuisines fuse perfectly and gingerbread is great without ginger but you can't argue with it if it works so well.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: On being a vegetarian
This time two years ago: Potluck in Prinny Park
This time three years ago: New Year’s Feasting
This time four years ago: Still life with fruit and fudge (NYE pt 1)

Rebecca's gingerless gingerbread
From Sue Dengate's The Failsafe Cookbook: reducing food chemicals for calm happy families

125g butter or margarine
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup golden syrup
3 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 egg
3 cups plain flour (Paula used spelt)
lemon citric icing

Melt butter or margarine with brown sugar and golden syrup. When slightly cooled, stir in egg and bicarb. Stir in flour until mixture comes together into a dough. Knead briefly. Paula then rolls out to no more than 0.5cm (she says any thicker doesn't work so well) on a piece of baking paper. She cuts the biscuits using cutters and removes the dough from around the shapes. The baking paper now just has the shapes to be cooked and can be placed on a baking tray. Bake at 180 C for 15 minutes. When cooled ice with lemon citric icing (icing sugar, citric acid and water, or use lemon juice instead of citric acid if food intolerances are not a problem). Stacking star shapes in a tree shape using icing to sandwich them together is optional.

On the Stereo:
This is easy: it is refreshingly different, quite fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish: 52 first class performances with crystal clear stereo sound: various artists

Reflections on 2011

2012-01-01T17:44:00.001+11:00

Another year over and what have we done.... New Years Day is the time for reflections, for lists and memories. It has been a busy year with lots of change. Life is more demanding than ever and I finish the year feeling the just like this Calvin and Hobbes cartoon:

I started 2011 with a burst of employment transition, settling Sylvia into a new child care centre, planning for kitchen renovations and coping with toothache. The revamped kitchen has made it so much easier to eat at the table and bake with Sylvia. Perhaps it is why I baked so much bread this year. It was the year of developing an intranet at work. E had a good year of ukeleles, Tiny Tim and the release of a single. We all loved our roadtrip to Orange in NSW. By the end of the year I was riding my bike more and baking up a storm for Christmas.

Geelong Botanic Gardens

Sylvia continues to change and have many firsts. She had a fussy year of eating but we found some child-friendly favourite meals and she loves any food on a stick. She also loves playing with water at the bathroom sink, jumping, the local swimming pool and Christmas trees. The year finished with a farewell to Sylvia's cot. It was replaced by a new big girl bed for Sylvia. My toddler is now a little girl. At home Dolly reigned supreme. She was everywhere Sylvia went and was often fed the food that Sylvia should have been eating. Lately she has continued to have firsts - her first pair of scissors, her first walk in the waves at the beach, her first swim without a nappy and her first feature length film on DVD (Mary Poppins).

Best of 2011

Favourite DVD - The Killing (Danish TV series)
Favourite kids DVD - The Herbs
Favourite band: Beirut
Favourite Aussie television series - Paper Giants: the birth of Cleo
Favourite foreign television series - Downton Abbey
Favourite film - The King's Speech
Favourite book - The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
Favourite tourist attraction - The Australian War Memorial, Canberra
Favourite kids outing - Chesterfield Farm

view from The Elephant House at the Melbourne Zoo

The Numbers:

Celebrated 20 years of being vegetarian.
Uploaded 216 posts during the year. That is a total of 970 posts on the blog to date. I don't know where I found the time.
Over December I had a spike in my stats with nut roasts being joined by Christmas cupcakes as hugely popular posts. Just before Christmas Day I had a daily peak of over 1800 pageviews my Blogger statistics, over 1600 pageviews on my StatCounter, and over 1400 pageviews on Google Analytics!!!
Ranked #34 on the food blogs on Technorati but #363 on the Very Good Recipes site. Hmmm... not sure what this means!

10 most popular posts of 2011:

Chia olive oil bread with promite and the Rupert egg cup

Best of blogging
It was a great year for blogging - full of cake pops, apple cakes and chia seeds. Here's just a taster of some of the recipes I shared:

Favourite bread - Olive oil bread with chia seeds
Favourite soup - Tempeh and corn soup (though not a 2011 recipe)
Great meat substitutes - Bean and buckwheat facon, coconut bacon, Ricki's cauliflower and walnut 'meat', tricken rice soup
Favourite meals - Matthews delicious tofu, pizza, dumplings, tofu nuggets
Veganised recipes - Christmas nut roast, chocolate caramel slice, sausage rolls, condensed milk, goats cheese
Favourite cakes - Christmas fruitcake with chocolate and Orange, lavender and almond syrup cake
Nostalgic recipes- Apricot delight, chow mien, marshmallow weetbix slice, chocolate crackles, party pies, mum's chocolate cake, cherry ripe cake pops,
Most decadent treat - Nutella fudge (or vegan version)
Favourite gluten-free bake - GF Brownies and Chickpea crackers
Novelty cakes - Guitar cake, Monkey cake, Dinosaur farmyard cake, Flower cake, and Cookie wands
Favourite meal eaten out - The Post Office Hotel in Coburg for our wedding anniversary (next time I wont forget the camera memory card!)

Vegan nutella fudge and Caramel fudge

Blogging achievements:

Completed the Cookbook Challenge - 26 posts on cooking from my cookbooks, using a different theme every fortnight.
My blog went vegan for a month and I posted every day in October for Vegan Mofo.
Hosted two blog events this year - a second round of my Neb at Nut Roast event and I was a guest host for Helen's Breakfast Club event.
Selected by the State Library of Victoria to be archived on the Pandora: the Australian web archive. I was really pleased to be asked. It is a great honour to be part of the nation's digital history, and reassuring to know that there is someone backing up my blog every now and again.
Overview posts on being vegetarian and food history.

Blogging changes:

I wrote a post listing some blog changes back in May so I wont go over them all again but I will note a few other changes and plans since then:

Updated design. I started playing with new design templates to update the look of the blog. I am much happier with it now but still need to get my banner centred. I did a post on the evolution of my blog design for those who are interested.

Photography - there have been lots of changes to the way I take photos. The kitchen renovations has changed the space in which I can take photos. A new camera in December has made further changes. It is a Canon EOS 550D (known as a Rebel in America) and has an SLR function that I hope to get to know.

Searching my recipes is a constant challenge. I have been using Delicious to organise my bookmarks for some time but I got a nasty shock later in the year when they changed hands and I couldn't access my bookmarks. Thankfully I finally got back in and the developments to the site have been useful. They have just introduced thumbnail pictures of the recipes. Phew I don't need to open a Pinterest account and have yet another login. But I do love to browse there occasionally.

Follow by email field on the side bar. I added this field after someone asked about subscribing. I am not sure if anyone really uses it as I don't know how to check but I was happy to put it there for A.

I have also been tinkering with key pages to keep them updated. Lots more work needed but I have a few lists in development. I hope to get up a comments policy and a compilation of child-friendly links. I also must look into Bloggers Print-a-blog feature that I noticed this week.

Happy New Year

Next year promises more dollies and less blogging. Sylvia seems ready to give up her afternoon nap. So it seems I may no longer have the time that I have often managed to fit in a blog post. I would like to see my bike rides, beach trips and bread baking in my life. I'd like to find time to delve into the pile of books beside my bed but that might be too hopeful.

Meanwhile I would like to thank everyone who has visited, comments, shared recipes, helped me cook, tasted my food and supported me in so many ways. It is at this time that I am aware of the lovely food blogging community where I have been able to find great friendship and inspiration. You keep me smiling and eating such delicious food.

A special thanks to my mum who continues to share food and cooking tips with me, and to Sylvia my little assistant baker who loves to sample the flour. As always I send a huge thanks E for keeping the music on the stereo, the dishes done and keeping me company.

May you have a happy and healthy 2012. I look forward to sharing it with you.

CC Lebkuchen

2011-12-30T23:12:00.004+11:00

As the year draws to a close, I am very pleased to present you with Lebkuchen for the last in my year of the Cookbook Challenge. I will reflect on the challenge at the end of the post but firstly let's talk bikkies. These lebkuchen were excellent and made great gifts. My only hesitation in posting them was that I wanted to try them with chocolate but we have so much rich food about the house leftover from Christmas that I can't justify any more baking right now.

The chocolate lebkuchen will have to wait until next year. It's a shame because I just know I would love them. One of my favourite biscuits that I bought on my travels in Germany and have since found at speciality shops in Melbourne is chocolate covered gingerbread. I like them even better than the thinly iced lebkuchen. I planned to use a chocolate glaze such as the one suggested in the book (see pics in book above) but I have since seen that Homemade by Fleur covered hers with melted chocolate. This makes more sense as I was concerned that the glaze would not set enough to store the biscuits.

Meanwhile I loved these biscuits. Sylvia and I made two batches of biscuits for gifts. Chocolate cut out cookies and Lebkuchen. It was interesting to compare the two. The chocolate biscuits were full of butter, made very soft dough and melted in the mouth. The lebkuchen were more sturdy and equally delicious. They had far less butter and were quite easy to work with once they had been in the fridge for 4 hours.

I was glad to leave the dough in the fridge until Sylvia was in bed. She helped with getting the two batches of dough together but she was in a rascally mood. She tasted cocoa (and cried at the taste), knocked an open jar of flour to the floor, and got Dolly's green dolly stuck in an empty spice jar. It was far easier to cut out and bake the biscuits without her. Much as I love her helping making gifts.

The biscuits were being made for Sylvia's child care workers who have looked after her all year. I had planned to make them earlier so we could ice them but ran out of time. The lebkuchen for the gift packs were uniced. (To package, I put them in labelled ziplock bags inside the green bags that we decorated with lots of stickers.)

One of Sylvia's carers was particularly delighted with the gift because it reminded her of spending weeks baking Christmas gifts with her mum when young. We also packaged some for one of E's colleagues.

The next day I thought it would be fun for Sylvia to help decorate the remaining biscuits. She loved it. To keep it simple we chose a colour for each biscuit and she sprinkled it after I iced it. Somehow she ended up with a blue smile. The icing gave them a wee lift but I think the combination of spices and citrus was the real genius of these bikkies. On the first day they were a bit dry but they softened and took on that love dense gingerbread texture after a few days. Simply scrumptious.

Back to the Cookbook Challenge. I was quite tentative in joining this group which challenged us to cook from any cookbook using a different theme each fortnight. I am delighted to have completed all 26 of the challenges. I have recorded what I have cooked on my Cookbook Challenge page.

When I look back over the range of dishes I have cooked I am very grateful to the challenge for pushing me to try recipes that might otherwise have remained forgotten in the depths of my bookshelves. I am just sad that the content on the community site has been removed and it seems that the challenge will not happen next year.

However I am sure there will be new challenges next year. And I hope there might be some chocolate covered lebkucken. Meanwhile I hope to squeeze in one more post next year if I can find time in between haggis and the tattoo.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Nut roast parcels and potato snowmen
This time two years ago: Christmas Day panforte and more
This time three years ago: Christmas, Leftovers and Vegan Mayonnaise
This time four years ago: Christmas dinner for two

Lebkuchen
From Annie Rigg's Christmas Cooking with Kids
Made about 42

2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp treacle
40g unsalted butter
75g dark brown sugar
zest of half an orange
zest of half a lemon
225g self raising flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground spice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
generous grating of nutmeg
pinch ground cloves
pinch salt
50g ground almonds
1 large egg lightly beaten
icing or melted chocolate for frosting biscuits
sprinkles to decorate

Heat honey, treacle, butter, brown sugar and zests in a medium saucepan. Stir until butter is melted and everything is well combined. Cool slightly.

Meanwhile, place flour, spices, salt and almonds in a large bowl. Add melted butter mixture and egg. Stir until a ball of dough forms. Briefly knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Wrap in clingfilm and refridgerate for 4 hours.

When you are ready to cut biscuits, preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) and line 2 to 3 oven trays with baking paper. Roll out dough on a floured surface until it is about 0.5cm thick. Cut shapes with biscuit cutters and transfer onto prepared trays. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown (I found mine were quite well cooked after 15 minutes). Cool on a wire tray.

When cool, either ice with a plain icing (I think I used about 1 cup icing sugar, a knob of butter and a bit of hot water - it needs to be quite thin) or melted chocolate and sprinkles.

On the stereo
Music to watch the girls go by: Various Artists

Christmas day presents and pudding

2011-12-29T12:08:00.000+11:00

Christmas day arrived this year with a feeling of relief that all the baking and presents were sorted. It has been a busy year. Yet we got there. By morning the presents were wrapped under the tree and the pudding was at my parent's place waiting to be boiled. Let me tell you a little about the gifts before I indulge in my annual reflections on why my pudding wasn't perfect.

Sylvia was very pleased when she woke up to find an oven from Santa under the tree. She was just as pleased to find he had eaten his mince pie. It was small enough for her to drag into her bedroom to start cooking. I think she might have stayed there all day if not for Christmas breakfast at home and a drive to my parents place for lunch. Before lunch we opened presents.

Sylvia spent the days before Christmas pondering what Dolly might get for Christmas. Maybe a dummy? Well there was no dummy but there was a "cradle". (We knew it as a car basket when I was young but these days it is also known as a baby capsule.) Dolly now has to go everywhere in her cradle. Sylvia was also delighted with her nappy change bag, a Tiny Clanger, a new doll called Baby B, a rechargeable torch, a handbag, a tea set, books, clothes and a Toy Story DVD.

E and I were every bit as spoilt as Sylvia. There was lot of food in our parcels this year. Chocolates, biscuits, mince tarts, wine and royal family tea. Books, DVDs, CDs, calendars, an apron, a Christmas tree plate and a Prince William and Kate tea towel. And check out that disco dude scrubbing brush!

My most vexing Christmas present was a DVD of The Trip (the Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden show). I bought it for E about a week before the ABC announced they would be screening it just before Christmas. I then forgot to wrap it and remembered it on Boxing Day. Fortunately E had checked the TV guides when he had considered buying it for me or we would have two copies! The most unexpected experience was sending presents on the same day - one package got to Edinburgh Scotland in half the time it took another package to get to Orange NSW!

Meanwhile in Geelong, lunch was a red and silver affair. My mum chose these colours for a stylish table setting. I was very impressed at my dad's handiwork in fastening the ribbons to the candles. My sister liked the setting so much that she took it home for her in-laws Christmas dinner later in the day.

For Christmas lunch I had nut roast with cranberry sauce, roast veg and peas. Dessert was Christmas pudding with custard as is traditional. Plus pavlova and caramel tart for the non-traditionalists. I made the pudding using a recipe I have been making for a few years. Each year I learn more about making it and this year was no exception.

The first problem I faced this year was the dried figs. I bought them at a small retailer and suspect they had sat around a bit long because they were so dry that they had a slight crunchy edge. Mum had heard someone suggest that leaving the dried fruit soaking in alcohol for a week made a wonderful Christmas cake. So I left the fruit soaking for about 4 days and by then the figs had softened. As the fruit soaked up the liquid, I added quite a bit more booze and orange juice. This made for a very soft pudding and I think it could have benefited from some more flour.

The other problem was my usual problem of getting a nice flour crust on the pudding that soaked up the flavour of the pudding. Last year my crust was too thick. So I eased off on the flour this year.

I didn't put the cloth in the washing machine to wring it out - instead I hung it on the line until it started raining. I sifted flour onto the cloth and sprayed it with water to make sure it kept on the cloth. I took the cloth off the pudding about 2 hours after it was cooked but it still stuck to the cloth. However I was pleased that far less pudding was left on the cloth than in previous years.

The pudding flavours were intense with fruit and booze but it was a very soft one, even with my mum leaving it to dry out in the oven a little before serving it. It is so rich that it really is only a once a year pudding. Meanwhile the search for the perfect pudding crust continues.

Once the presents were unwrapped and the food eaten, Christmas day was relaxed. Outside was backyard cricket, cartwheels and E strumming his ukelele. Inside some little girls were playing with their new Nintendo DS. Maddy played with her new claymation film set and my dad was digging out his old records for his new turntable. He found some old 78s, including the one I put on the stereo below which used to belong to his father. In the evening we watched the Queens Speech and a Noel Coward telemovie, Easy Virtue.

On Boxing Day morning, E and I went to see the Adventures of Tintin at the cinema. The film was good fun and a joy to look at with its stunning scenery and retro 1930s period details. We then caught up with my aunts and uncles at my parents place. Lunch was a buffet of leftovers, salads and lots of desserts - summer pudding, panforte, caramel tart, jelly slice, doughnut biscuits and fruit.

We finally got home that evening to find that hail storms had passed by our place on Christmas Night and left holes in the cubby hut roof. Just as well Santa missed the storms.

On the Stereo:
"I'm looking for a Sweetheart" sung by Miss May Loveday and Mr Ernest Pike with orchestral accompaniment (on a Zonophone record)

Cranberry nut rolls for Christmas brunch

2011-12-27T21:19:00.000+11:00

It has been a good year for baking bread. Just as well, given that I have less time to go to fancy bakeries to buy bread. The more bread that I bake, the less content I am to buy any old loaf. For Christmas morning, I decided I would bake a special loaf. Then I remembered Kari's Cranberry Rolls, which although vegan, seemed perfect for my Christmas morning tradition of posh cheese on toast.

She filled her rolls with cranberries but I used a mixture of cranberries and walnuts like the original recipe. I love walnuts and didn't want the bread to be too sweet. When I made this decision, I had forgotten I needed the nuts for my Christmas nut roast. It meant an emergency dash to the supermarket on my bike. Kari used a dough hook but I found it easy enough to knead the rolls by hand and this is the method I have written up below. I was pleased to be able to use an egg to glaze the rolls and then put it into the roast so there was no waste. Christmas eve was busy and at one stage I had to suggest E take Sylvia for a walk and take his time. I was relieved to get the rolls made by dinner time.

I wanted to make sure we had a fancy Christmas breakfast this year. So often I aim for a nice breakfast but we are so distracted that I hardly sit down and never have time to set the table. So on Christmas Eve, as well as preparing the rolls, I set the table before heading off to bed. It meant that once we had opened our presents on Christmas morning, we could sit down to eat with a table cloth (a Christmas present from Jim and Sally a few years back) and some of our festive tableware.

The rolls were delicious. Not only were they great on Christmas morning with a slice of jarlsberg cheese and a lick of cranberry sauce, but we also had them with chestnut soup on Christmas Eve and took some to my mum and dad's place later so that we could snack on them in the evening with the leftover nut roast.

We had a lovely Christmas day. I will return to tell you more about the day soon. Meanwhile, I want to thank everyone for the lovely Christmas wishes that I have received in comments and to send these rolls to Susan for YeastSpotting.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Cinnamon Stars for Christmas
This time two years ago: Glögi by the tree
This time three years ago: Festive profiteroles with salad
This time four years ago: Christmas truffles and fruit salad

Cranberry nut rolls
Makes 12-16 rolls
Adapted from Bon Appetit via Tracey and Kari

1 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp dried yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups milk (I substituted 1/2 cup sour cream)
2 tbsp oil
1 egg
1 cup dried cranberries
extra flour for kneading
olive oil for rolls
eggwash for baking

Dry fry the walnuts in a small frying pan.

Mix together the flour, brown sugar, yeast and salt. Stir in the milk, oil, egg, cranberries and walnuts. It will make a sticky mixture. I let mine sit for about 5-10 minutes while I had something to eat.

Knead on a floured board until smooth and supple, adding flour as you go. Tracey suggested you might need about an extra 1/2 cup of flour. I think I kneaded for about 4-6 minutes.

Scrap the edges of the mixing bowl and then place the dough in there, covered with a dry tea towel, for about 1-2 hours or until risen. This will vary according to how warm the dough is. It was 30 C when I baked ours and the dough was risen after about 1 hour but with rushing about after Sylvia it took me about 1 1/2 hours to get to it.

Return dough to lightly floured board and knead briefly. Use a sharp serrated knife to cut dough into 12 to 16 pieces, depending on how big you want the buns. (I made 16).

Lightly knead each piece and roll on the board under your palm until smooth(ish). Drip a little oil in your mixing bowl and when each ball is ready, dip in a little oil and use your hands to roll the ball so it is completely covered in oil - there should be just enough oil to make it glossy but no more. Place oiled balls on a lightly greased tray (or a tray sprinkled with cornmeal) with some room to expand.

Cover with dry tea towel and leave for about 1 1/2 hours or until risen to 1 1/2 size. I think mine too a little less time. While rolls are rising, preheat oven to 200 C. When rolls are risen, glaze with eggwash and bake for 15-20 minutes (I let mine bake for 20 minutes) or until golden brown.

On the Stereo:
Elvis Christmas Peace (Daily Mail on Sunday freebie): Elvis Presley

Christmas Eve reflections and a chestnut soup

2011-12-24T23:35:00.004+11:00

Christmas eve! It has been busy. I've made nut roast, cranberry nut buns and chestnut soup. Presents have been wrapped with the help of our sticky tape dynamo, Sylvia, and more are yet to be done. We've been sitting watching Carols by Candlelight on the telly with some festive punch. The tree is lit with coloured lights. I am taking a moment to get this post done while Sylvia helps E with present wrapping. Here are a few random photos and thoughts from Christmas this year.

Brandy Raisin Macarons at Cacao at the GPO

Some bizarre sightings of Santa Claus this year

Santa on a jetski salt and pepper shakers - see in a shop
Santa in sleigh being pulled by a dinosaur in a local garden- heard on radio
Santa breathing dragon's breath in Hong Kong display - relayed to me by my friend

And it seems that cars are now believing themselves to be Santa's reindeer. This year has seen the new phenomena of people attaching reindeer antlers to their cars.

Melbourne Town Hall

Why do we have to queue and pay to see Santa in Melbourne's major department stores in the city. Sylvia is not old enough to want a photo with a strange man with a beard but she would have enjoyed seeing Santa. But I will not pay and queue for the sight! Where is the spirit of Christmas?

Santa climbing the Eiffel Tower on our tree

I love our Christmas trees but others do it differently - some alternative Christmas trees I have come across:

A Christmas tree on a tea towel
Cindy and Michael's Dalek with tinsel
Brydie's Bundle of Sticks

Miss Marples tearoom, Sassafras

Among all the joy, spare a thought for the sadness Christmas brings. The death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has made international news. However, there have been some notable sad news that have more meaning for me:

Ian "Molly" Meldrum has been in a coma after falling from a ladder while preparing the house for a Christmas party. My best wishes for his health. He brought so much music and enthusiastic into my childhood.
George Whitman died last week. He resurrected the English Language bookstore, Shakespeare and Company in Paris after Sylvia Beach's first incarnation closed. I visited the store on my first trip to Paris and was offered accommodation there. Unfortunately at the time I was too naive to realise it was a genuine offer.
Bruce Ruxton, former RSL president, died this week. He was no role model for me with his right wing views but he was always there with a news bite through so much of my childhood.

For each high profile death and sadness, there are many of us with our own private griefs. I know of those among fellow bloggers and others in my life who will face this Christmas lacking someone or even something that matters deeply. Or there are those like "vegan alone at Christmas". My thoughts go out to everyone whose Christmas isn't the jolly merry event that the media likes to portray.

Dinner tonight was a relaxed affair of Celery and Chestnut Soup (recipe below) and Cranberry Nut Buns (recipe to come - thanks Kari). It is similar to other chestnut soups I have made - velvety and flavoursome. I was relieved by the end of the day that it was simple and quick. I had already been the shops twice - used up my walnuts intended for the nut roast when I made the buns and I also used up sour cream so I got inventive and served it with brandy cream. Surprisingly this sweet cream worked but is not essential. I am sending the soup to Ricki for her Holiday edition of Wellness Weekends.

Here is a nativity scene from Melbourne's city square. Nothing fancy yet the kids loved it. Sylvia has been very excited by Christmas and especially baby Jesus. I've seen her running around the kitchen yelling, "I want Jesus", because she was impatient about getting the Jesus figure out on the advent calendar. You can see below how much dolly loved it too. She sat in the highchair this morning to view the calendar.

We have had a couple of hot days over the last few days. Sylvia got out her woollie hat yesterday before we went swimming. In fact it was so hot that her a new plastic sparkly hat half-melted in the hot car while we were doing our supermarket shopping. Tonight we have had a thunderstorm but it has dissipated quickly. I am not sure we have seen the last of it but the weather is forecast to be 30 C tomorrow.

Sylvia now asleep. All the presents are wrapped. A mince pie is left out for Santa. The table is set for breakfast tomorrow morning. I wish everyone a merry Christmas, a great feast and a happy and safe holiday.

Celery and Chestnut Soup
Adapted from The Great Big Vegetable Challenge
serves 4-6

1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2-4 garlic cloves, crushed
4-6 celery sticks, sliced
1 carrot peeled and chopped
400g tin of chestnuts
2 medium potatoes, chopped
1 tsp salt flakes
3 cups stock
juice of 1/2 an orange
freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons brandy cream, or yoghurt (optional)

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan (I used a stockpot). Gradually add onion, garlic, celery, and carrot as you chop them. Gently sweat until softened. Add chestnuts, potatoes, salt and stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes. Puree with a hand held blender. Add orange juice and pepper to taste. Serve with brandy cream or yoghurt as desired.

On the Stereo:
Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Novelty Records of All Time, Volume VI: Christmas

Rocky road

2011-12-23T17:42:00.001+11:00

I tried making vegetarian marshmallow (from a packet) at home for the first time this year. It was very soft and when I tried a little rocky road with the remains, it melted and was a mess. I was wary when I found Dandies vegan marshmallows at Radical Grocery but excited too. Another chance at rocky road. I had particularly fancied trying Lorraine's Rocky Road with Turkish Delight and cranberries.

Just as well Lorraine had lured me with the hint of eastern promise. I also came across a rocky road recipe with raspberry liquorice. I wanted to use it, but it is not gluten free and I had decided to take some down to my family. I considered raspberry jubes but they have gelatine in the end returned to turkish delight which was both gf and veg*n.

I also added shredded coconut which I love and chopped almonds for the nutty factor. I would have used chunky nuts if not for choking risk with kids. Peanuts were out because Sylvia is allergic. Seems it is not easy to make a traditional rocky road with my family. Doesn't mean it can't be delicious. I was relieved the that Dandies didn't disintegrate in the melted chocolate like the Angel Food marshmallow. But they set quickly and got "rocky" rather more quickly than I expected.

I made the rocky road on Saturday night. It was fairly quick. Sunday morning we headed off to a birthday party for Sylvia's neighbour. It was at Coburg kidzone play centre and I was really impressed with their flexibility in catering for dietary restrictions. The amazing Vanilla and Carob Castle Cake was made by a friend, Catherine of Cate's Cates who has posted the recipe. Isn't it just what every kids wants on their birthday!

We went home and stopped long enough to chop up the rocky road. Then we headed down to my parents' place in Geelong to help decorate their Christmas tree. It was the usual scene. The tinsel was missing and we have to put on lights, tinsel, decorations in that order. Luckily it was found before we had to do something drastic like change our traditions. My mum was the grumpy onlooker. My dad got out the ladder and chairs so we could reach the higher branches. Sylvia and her cousins had fun hanging the decorations on the tree, but lost interest before it was all done.

We had a simple bbq lunch but had lots of chocolate goodies for afternoon tea. As well as my rocky road, mum had made GF brownies and GF hedgehog. She had also made some ginger beer that had the most impressive fizz when anyone opened a bottle as my dad found out. (E had to take one of the bottles she gave us into the backyard and wait for it to finish fizzing.)

Finally I decided to take some of the rocky road and pieces of the Chocolate and Fig Fruitcake to work for some festive treats. Most people enjoyed them, especially my colleague who took a piece of each to have for later because he was caught up with other stuff. I am really pleased to have finally made some rocky road. It isn't easy to buy the dandies as I don't get to Radical Grocery too often but I am sure I will be making it again some time.

I have more Christmas photos (hey I have a new camera!) that I hope to share tomorrow. Meanwhile here is one of Sylvia's new toys bought for her by her father. Dracula, or as he is known, "Drac" not only had eyes with a scary glow but also a scary laugh. Sylvia loves him though her friend over the road found him scary. Oh dear!

Scary toys aside, it is Christmas craziness here. I am not off to make fruit mince for panforte. More baking will follow tomorrow. E has just rushed to the post office to collect a parcel before it closes so we are looking forward to listening to Dr Demented Christmas hits. We are also planning to watch Peppa Pigs Christmas DVD tonight now that I have been back to the ABC Shop to get the security tag removed. Then some wrapping of presents tonight. Hope you are enjoying this Christmas and have a relaxing break ahead of you.

I am sending the Rocky Road to Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes for her bookmarked recipes. I also highly recommend you check out her NCR Festive Photos for some more seasonal cheer.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Potluck Tofu Chocolate Ice Cream
This time two years ago: Back home with festive flapjacks
This time three years ago: Coconut ice is very very nice
This time four years ago: Christmas Snowflake Biscuits

Rocky Road with Turkish Delight and Coconut
Adapted from Not Quite Nigella

283 g marshmallow (I used dandies - not home made angel foods)
250g turkish delight, chopped
1/2 cup shredded coconut (not dessicated)
1/2 cup slivered almonds, chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries(I forgot)
400g dark chocolate (mine was 50% cocoa solids)

Prepare all ingredients except chocolate. Line a 20cm square tin with baking paper. Gently melt chocolate (I did this in the microwave - I think it only took me about 1 minute and quite a bit of stirring so that a lot of the chocolate melted out of the microwave and didn't get too hot). Pour chocolate over remaining ingredients and gently stir. Pour into prepared tin - work quickly as it doesn't take long to firm up. Let set in fridge until hard. Slice into squares. We kept ours in the fridge but I think it could be kept at room temperature if you are not in the heat of summer.

On the stereo:
Images: the best of Jean Michel Jarre

Blogging Catch Up - breads, raw brownies, cheezly pizza and more

2011-12-22T12:26:00.004+11:00

End of year is time for trying to get our life, our house and/or our blog in order before a new year is upon us. Last night a draft post disappeared in frustrating circumstances. I decided instead to gather some photos and recipes that I had good intentions to write about but they had fallen by the wayside.

Granary Bread from Mealtime Meltdown.
I was all prepared to post about this, weeks after I made it in early November. Then I accidently deleted my version of the recipe. So I think it is best to just go to the original recipe. The only change I remember making was to add a couple of tablespoons of malt syrup because I don't have granary flour. It was nubbly and flavoursome. I hope I will make it again and write more about it. It was great with brie and tomato.

Vegemite Chips
Coming up with new ideas for crisp flavours is either desperate work or a huge amount of fun. Either way, this is an inspired idea. It works as novelty but I am not sure how much it would work as everyday. I would love to see some spin offs of my favourite vegemite flavour combinations - vegemite and cheese, vegemite and tomato, vegemite and walnuts!

Raw Brownies from Wayfaring Chocolate
I've had two stabs at the beloved brownies from Hannah. The first time they were too dry because I used the wrong dates. The second time in late October was better. I could sort of understand the chewy brownie base but the topping was too sweet. I want to try again with maple syrup. E thought it would be better microwaved. My problem with keeping them in the freezer was that I just kept forgetting about them and they were sadly neglected.

Cheezly Mozzarella on pizza
I bought some vegan mozzarella cheese recently out of curiosity. It was actually really good sprinkled over pizza with tomato sauce, mushrooms and red pepper. It was a lot softer than regular mozzarella, nor so stringy. What I liked best was that it was a lot lighter. E also liked it thought I think he would prefer real cheese.

Chocolate cut out biscuits that I have made before
I have raved about these before. These bikkies are great and look so cute I wanted to share them. They have so much butter that the mixture needs a good amount of time in the fridge but the biscuits melt in the mouth once cooked. They also fall apart easily if you use the snowflake biscuit cutters. We used them for gifts this year.

Sun-dried tomato bread from Dan Lepard
I am not sure why I never posted this bread. Possibly because I served it with a forgettable soup and it got sullied with the same memories. Or maybe I just felt the photos didn't do it justice. It was quite good but as I made it back in June, I don't remember it so well. I did enjoy the orange hue and chunks of sun dried tomato.

Christmas bangers and mash

2011-12-20T22:37:00.001+11:00

My neighbours and her two kids come over after work today to see our Christmas tree. It was such a lovely visit. Watching the kids giggling by the tree was pure delight. Sitting chatting to Paula while the kids played together and E played ukelele was a pleasure. Meanwhile the Mexicale Pie cooked in the oven. It is a meal I make regularly and don't stress over. Unlike Saturday night's dinner of fancy festive bangers and mash.

We had decorated the tree and I had planned on making a special Christmas meal for E and Sylvia and myself to share. When planning the meal, I hadn't counted on my time being put out of whack by the sudden demise of my old camera requiring a trip to the city to buy a new one. Taking photos with a new camera was frustrating. My timing was out.

Sylvia was narky with waiting for dinner. I didn't have any onions for the gravy. My sausages were threatening to burn under the grill. It was too hot to turn on the oven to bake the side dish. Then Paula dropped over with a Christmas card and the news that the cool change was upon us. I was just a bit stressed. Probably just as well she didn't stay too long.

I had hoped I might have time to set a festive table. As it was, I was lucky to find a skerrick of energy to fling a tartan runner on the table and a few decorations. It isn't easy to organise dinner when your plans are over-ambitious and a toddler is at large! At least dinner was delicious.

I had found a recipe for cheese sausages in Sam Stern's Eat Vegetarian. A bit of gruyere cheese and a handful of cranberries gave these snags a festive feel. My plans to bake pecan crusted sweet potato with sour cream morphed into a mashed sweet potato. Much nicer in that heat! I ended up using the leftover leeks and unused sour cream in a sauce. I microwaved some broccolini for a bit of green. It all worked rather well. Especially those sausages. They were fantastic.

We enjoyed the meal and packed Sylvia off to bed. Then we could enjoy strawberry ice cream and chocolate sauce for dessert. A few days later E said something about how the mashed pumpkin was much nicer than usual. When I told him it was sweet potato, he exclaimed that this was why he liked it so much.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Edible Gift Ideas for Christmas
This time two years ago: Royal Botantic Garden Edinburgh
This time three years ago: Apricot, Berry and Bran Muffins
This time four years ago: Nutroast for dinosaurs

Gruyere and cranberry veggie sausages
Adapted from Sam Stern's Eat Vegetarian
serves 4

175g gruyere cheese, grated
170g fresh white breadcrumbs
1 leek, finely chopped white part
1 shallot or small onion, finely chopped
2 eggs
handful of dried cranberries, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp parsley, chopped (I forgot)
grated rind and juice of half a lemon (I forgot)
3 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp mustard
seasoning, as required

To crumb:
1 egg
1/2 tsp seeded mustard
70g fresh breadcrumbs
melted butter or oil spray for grilling

Mix all ingredients, except those needed to crumb the sausages. Shape into 8 fat little sausages. To crumb, lightly whisk egg and seeded mustard in a shallow bowl and place breadcrumbs in another. Dip each sausage in egg mixture and then roll in breadcrumbs. (They seemed a bit fragile while raw but held together wonderfully once cooked.) Spray with oil and place under the grill (broiler). Cook for about 10 minutes, turning regularly until evenly cooked and golden brown.

Smoky maple sweet potato mash
Inspired by Helen

500g sweet potato, peeled and diced
1/2 cup leek greens, finely chopped
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
freshly ground black pepper

Steam sweet potato and leeks for about 20 minutes. Mash with remaining ingredients. Give a vigourous stir with a spoon and check seasoning.

Red pepper and leek sauce

olive oil plus butter
greens from a leek, finely chopped
1 shallow, finely chopped
1/2 x 400g jar of roasted red peppers, drained and finely chopped
pinch salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 generous spoonful of light sour cream
water, to thin sauce

Cook leek greens and red peppers gently in olive oil and butter for about 20-30 minutes, until wilted and smelling good. Add seasoning and sour cream. Heat sour cream, stirring frequently. Check seasoning and add water if you need to thin the sauce.

On the stereo:
A dark noel: the very best of excelsis projekt: various artists

WSC Fruitcake with Chocolate II and our tree

2011-12-18T22:50:00.002+11:00

We have had a lot of sweet food lately. Not all for myself, mind you. We've given lebkuchen and chocolate biscuits as presents, taken rocky road to my parents' place and had Christmas cake maturing in the cupboards. I had promised myself to open the cake this weekend when we decorated our Christmas tree and then one at my mum and dad's. I loved it though others were less enthusiastic.

The Chocolate and Fig Fruitcake recipe came from Lucy of the Kitchen Maid blog. I first tried a Chocolate Fruitcake on the blog a few years ago. It tasted fantastic but I was disappointed at just how little I could taste the chocolate because it was melted into the batter. Lucy's recipe was full of chunks of chocolate and fancy dried fruit throughout the cake. Just my sort of thing! I finally found time one evening and mixed the cake by hand in front of the telly and got it in the oven by 10pm. Later than I had intended.

I found my notes from the previous fruitcake blog post useful in reminding me about lining the tin. Lucy said not to worry but I am more paranoid than that. I used a 20cm square tin but it is a really tall cake. In future I would use a 22 or 23 cm square tin. The paper helps the cake to cook evenly and I would do this again. I just use good quality paper bags from shops (thanks Readings and Gewurzhaus). And I remembered to take off the sticky tape before putting the cake in the oven.

The cake cooked for 3 hours! At 1am, I turned off the oven, left the cake in while it cooled and went to bed. In the morning, the cake was still slightly warm. It wasn't until the next evening that I took it out of the tin and wrapped it up to mature. Unlike some recipes I don't feed mine with booze. I am not brave enough, nor does it seem necessary or even desirable to me.

On Saturday morning, we got a tree from a nearby church (where sales contributed to the restoration fund) and decorated it. When E had his gardening gloves on to avoid getting resin on his hands when handling the tree, Sylvia used socks on her hands as gloves. However she was most interested in the remote control for the lights settings. She also contributed some sparkly cut-outs for the tree that she had made at nursery. I've talked about our other Christmas decorations before so wont go into detail this year, suffice to day I love the memories attached to each ornament.

I am still adjusting to my new camera so I didn't quite get the photos of the cake I would have liked but this one shows the texture inside. I love how fruitcakes are so dense that the fruit can't sink to the bottom. The main risks are that it will be too dry or too soggy. This fruitcake was perfect. Moist and full of flavour. E and Sylvia love the soft chunks of chocolate but not the fruitcake. My mum and dad loved the fruitcake but not the chocolate. For me, this is a fruitcake that has enough chocolate to satisfy. Not for everyone but I recommend you try it anyway. It is truly decadent. Full of seasonal good cheer.

Lastly I am sending the fruitcake to Choclette and Chele for We Should Cocoa. The theme this month is oranges. I hope mine host, Choclette, wont mind that the orange is not the star of the show. This cake depends on orange juice, orange zest and some orange chocolate for its depth of flavour.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Pumpkin ravioli and nutroast
This time two years ago: The Witchery - Scottish Fine Dining
This time three years ago: Scones - plain and simple
This time four years ago: Leek Tofu Quiche and Red Pepper Coulis

Chocolate and Fig Fruitcake
Adapted from Peta Mathias via Kitchenmaid

500g dried figs, cut in quarters
200g prunes, cut in quarters
100g dried cranberries
100g dried sour cherries, halved
50g slivered almonds
whisky and juice for soaking fruit
600g dark chocolate, (I used 500g of 70% and 100g of orange chocolate)
50g slivered almonds
300g butter
300g brown sugar
1tbsp treacle
5 eggs
grated zest of two oranges
2tbsp whisky or brandy or rum
350g plain flour
2tsp baking powder
1tsp mixed spice
1tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp salt

Soak the fruit in a large bowl, covered in a mixture of whisky and orange juice for at about 24 hours, stirring occasionally. There should be enough liquid for quite a bit of sloshing about in the bowl. I checked mine after 12 hours and it had soaked up the liquid (juice of an orange and slurp of whisky) so I added a slurp of pomegranate juice and more whisky (at least 1/4 cup of it). If your fruit doesn't soak up all the liquid, you can drink it or use it for other cooking.

When you are ready to bake the cake, preheat the oven to 160 C and line a cake tin. I lined a 20cm square cake tin with a few layers of old paper bags and some baking paper. (Lucy at Kitchenmaid used a 24cm round cake tin.)

Drain the fruit if there is any soaking liquid that hasn't been absorbed by the fruit. Chop the chocolate into small bits and stir into the fruit with the almonds. Set aside.

Cream the butter, sugar and treacle. (I did this by hand) Beat in eggs one by one and then add orange zest and 2 tbsp of whisky or booze of choice. Gently stir in flour, baking powder, spices and salt. Add the fruit mixture and stir to combine. This is a large amount of mixture and you will need a large bowl and a wooden spoon.

Spoon cake mixture into the tin and smooth the top with the back of a spoon. Bake at 160 C for 90 minutes. The recipe said to turn it down to 150 C but I left it at 160 C for another 90 minutes. I tried the skewer in the cake to test if it was ready. The skewer came out clean after about 2 hours but the middle of the cake still felt a bit soft to touch so I covered it with a few layers of brown paper and left my cake in another hour - so my cake was in about 3 hours all up. It still seemed a bit soft in the middle so I turned off the oven and left the cake in there as it cooled.

Once cool - it took some time because it wasn't even completely cool by the next morning - I removed it from the tin and unwrapped the paper. Then I wrapped the cake in foil and placed it in an airtight container in the cupboard. I left mine wrapped for 2 weeks before cutting it open and it was lovely.

On the stereo:
The Flying Club Cup - Beirut