The Day Before

The twenty-fifth of October was Jane's birthday, a special day for our family.  Happy birthday, Jane, I am glad that you are having fantastic holidays in New Zealand.  You have been enjoying the holiday with Milo, Ed and Ivy.  What a place to celebrate a birthday.

I had a good day in the garden, in the house and in the kitchen.  We share the birthday month with our daughter Jane,  I thought to bake a delicious and pretty cake was a good idea.  Rose petal cake filled with custard and white chocolate and dressed with meringue was the cake.   Indeed, it looked beautiful, maybe too girlish, but why not.  To be young in spirit is as good as being young.  But the cake was indeed Jane, it's gorgeous and delicate.

We cut the cake and shared it for supper, it 's soft, sweet, and luscious.

Just Joy and other Roses
from our Garden

Our Birthday Cake
Lacy Cake with Meringue

The cake, the birthday cake, our cake, it looked as wrapped in laces.  It had Mediterranean flavour just the way I wanted, and I know Jane would love it too.

25-10-2014

I put on the batik table cloth, thinking of my parents who used to own a batik cloth business.  With love, gratitude and fond memory, thank you, mother and father.

I am so proud of the beautiful flowers, the mixed colour of roses and irises for our table which I picked from my garden.

The day before my birthday, everything was in place, the garden looked neat enough, grass has been mowed, It looked so grand I must say.  And inside the house fresh cut flowers were everywhere.  The celebration started early for me,  a big thanks to my dear husband and family.

It has been a busy day today, and it was excellent Face Timing with Jane, we had a chat with her and the family.  Everyone looked tired but relaxed from the big day outing to see beautiful places.  They were ready to have a rest for the night.  I am glad that you had a fabulous day on your birthday, and all my very best wishes to you,  Happy Birthday Jane, always love, mum.  xx

The day was closed with a good dinner and luscious cake, which was accompanied by black coffee.  It was an indulgence, particularly for us who must not take too much sugar.  A good excuse, though, it was a birthday celebration.


IT WAS THE DAY BEFORE, but Tomorrow is going to be a different story, I am hoping a pleasant and happy day, and I will make the best of it.  On 25 October 1975,  I held a beautiful newborn baby girl, my second daughter.   She's the most precious birthday gift that I ever had, she is a mother now, a good wife and friend, a friend of all good people.  Bless you, Jane.

The day before my birthday thirty nine years ago was so significant to me and one of the happiest day of my life.  I am blessed.


Until next post
Thanks for visiting
Susy

Flowers

Peace Rose

Flowers add colours in our garden.  The red roses are gorgeous, they do very well this year.  The other roses are the Blue moon, Peace Rose, Yellow Graham Thomas, Just Joy, Angel Eyes which are flowering too, but the iceberg roses are still in buds.

Everywhere roses are looking great and healthy, this year is the year for the roses.  I love them, they are lovely for flower arrangements,  they look beautiful in vases.

Beautiful Red Roses

The Red roses look beautiful on a red vase.

Another cut flowers for the house is the snowball, It is beautiful creamy white colour, and it matches up to the room.

Other flowers in my garden are irises,  cream and orange clivia and, hippeastrum, which has four buds.  It is apple blossom hippeastrum - soft pink colour. 

Pink and white geranium is in flower and also the pelargonium.  Actually, almost flowering all year round.  I think everyone should have the geranium in the garden. It is easy to grow and to care for.

Mixed colourful roses from our garden, beautiful!

The orchids are there. Still, they stay in flower for a long time, that is the beauty of having orchids plants.

It was good to have a friend over for a cuppa,  and we had a walk in the garden, smelling the roses and showing off the colourful flowers.

The iceberg rose bushes teeming with the buds.

FLOWERS  BRIGHTEN  UP  OUR  DAY.


Until Next Post
Thanks for stopping by.
Susy

SPRING Cooking and . . . . .

Spring  Salads

Nasturtium buds

Using the best of the season, my favourite salad is leafy mixed greens with edible flowers and fresh fruits.  Simply drizzled with the juice of a lemon.  It does not need any oil, but it is served with fresh light natural yoghurt.

Fresh mixed leafy greens, nasturtium flowers and oranges make a beautiful spring salad.  Dress the salad with citrus dressing, serve as a garnish for grilled fish, meat and fried food.

Potato salad with orange saffron dressing, instead of using mayonnaise, it is another delightful salad.  It looks clean, clear, not creamy.

Cous salad, cooked couscous mixed with fruits and dressed in orange and olive oil dressing is substantial enough for lunch.  To dress the salad, merely adding with the seasoning, some fresh orange juice, olive oil over the mixture, and mix together.   These salads are among some samples, there are more than you can improvise yourself.
In my kitchen, the spring salads are dressed prior the serving.  I will write down the quantities of the salad dressing by approximation as I remember them.

Deep fried nasturtium buds

Citrus Dressing

Juice of a lime and a lemon
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 teaspoon salt
(mix all together)

Orange Saffron Dressing
Soak a few strands of saffron in 1/2 cup hot water
1 juice of an orange
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup olive oil
(using a hand whisk, mix the ingredients together)
The colour of the dressing is beautiful yellow.


I picked the last lamb lettuce from my vegetable patch, and I composed it as a simple salad.  I added green beans and asparagus to the lettuce and dressed with olive oil, salt and some fresh lemon juice.

Lamb lettuce, bean and asparagus salad.

This salad, you can dress it on the table before serving, it is very fresh and served with cold pies or any meat dishes as you like.

A treat for Spring dishes is fried vegetables, vegetable rolls or spring rolls.  It is an indulgence, but we could shake it off by doing a long walk afterwards.

Fried nasturtium flowers and spring vegetable rolls

Nasturtium flowers

Fried nasturtium flowers in batter

Frying spring rolls

Freshly fried spring rolls

Spring Cooking 
Springtime is good for light and quick cooking,  It takes twenty minutes to cook for dinner. One pot cooking is easy to do:  pan-fried meat and vegetables (potato, pumpkin and onion). The vegetables need to be rubbed with oil before cooking.  The meat takes 9 minutes to cook for medium rare which allows enough time to rest, and followed by cooking the vegetables which take about 8 minutes to cook until golden brown.

In My Kitchen 

Pan frying lean and boned leg of lamb

Pan frying potato, pumpkin and onion

Green vegetable complements the dish, so I cooked asparagus which is in season right now, I kept them warm by placing them in the same pot while I was slicing the meat.

Keeping the greens warm together with
the pan fried vegetables

It was ideal cooking for four people.

Dinner was served within twenty minutes.  Herb's yoghurt was served for extra flavour.

Dinner is served

Often you have leftovers, in my case, the leftover meat was good to be served for the next day, like a cold or warm dish.  I decided to serve it as a warm dish with polenta and green beans. The lamb was sliced thinly and drizzled with the jus and chopped fresh herbs.

Polenta, pumpkin and green beans

Warmed sliced lean lamb for the garnish.

Add Nasturtium petals for extra colour, and it looks more attractive.

Millions of Spring cooking are good for us all, it is a matter of using the right ingredients which are in season.

Simple Menu

Steamed Rice and Garnishes (Vegetarian)
(Javanese Cooking)
- Steamed white rice
- Sayur Lodeh
- Fried Tempeh

(Recipes in the old posts, please look in on these posts)

Rice -Thursday, 29 September 2011
Sayur Lodeh - Friday, 20 May 2011
Tempeh - Saturday, 21 May 2011




Until Next Post
Thanks for Visiting
Susy

For Milo

Jane said to me, while we were on Face Time, that she was coming home with Milo, Ed and Ivy sometime soon.  It's a beautiful holiday, they decided to go to see New Zealand this month. We had a family get together to welcome them at Melanie's place in Melbourne.  Now they are holidaying in New Zealand, and of course, they love to visit Traralgon to spend time with us.  It is exciting to see Milo and be able to hold him, he is two years old and three months.

I know that Milo loves his food and he loves eating.  For the family gathering, I contributed a few dishes that maybe he would like to try.  The dishes were resoles (Javanese cooking), brioche and cheese pie.

The Preparation and the Cooking

 Resoles Javanese Style
(Pancake with braised meat and vegetable filling)

 Brioche

Stuffed Brioche with Poached Ricotta Cheese 

 Pie with Water Pastry

Ricotta Cheese and Spinach Pie 

Melanie hosted the luncheon last Saturday successfully. She put on a big spread, a lot of beautiful food, I loved the pizza with Gorgonzola cheese topping, it's so delicious.
But the best ones were the drinks, from fruit juice, lemonade, beer, to fine wine and Chandon Champagne.  His aunt Susan brought the most gorgeous and delicious salad with Middle Eastern flavours and a platter of fresh fruits.  Milo enjoyed the chocolate cake which was baked by Mary Rose, but most of all he loved and enjoyed the company.

Thanks to Lance, Mel, Susan and Tristan.  And the most important one is thanks to Mary Rose, our first granddaughter who looked after Milo so well, and also took care of the younger ones with kindness.  The five grandkids got on and played well together.

Next month he will be with us for a view day, it is time to catch up, to get to know him better.  I am looking forward to it.

Have fun holidays Milo, with mama, papa and Ivy and see you all soon.

Until next post
Susy

Vegetables - fruits for cakes . . . . .and

Moist cakes can be achieved quickly,  it is by adding fruits or vegetable puree, such as pumpkin or carrot.  My carrot cake is using cooked carrots which have been braised until soft then meshed up to a puree.  The cake is moist and smooth in texture.

Susy Carrot Cake

Mini Carrot Cakes with Cream Cheese Icing.  Garnished with Roasted Walnut

My pumpkin loaf with candy pumpkins is very moist too.  First, make the pumpkin candy, by cooking diced pumpkin until soft, keep them cool to dry.  Now make the sugar syrup with the quantities of 2 cups sugar with cup water.  When the syrup is ready, put the cooked diced pumpkin in, continue cooking, bring to simmer for 1 minute.  Take the heat off, keep the pumpkin in syrup

Candied Pumpkin

Until it's cold.  Take the cooked pumpkin one by one, rest on a baking paper to dry.  Keep refrigerated until the pumpkin is needed.

I will share the recipe of my pumpkin loaf eventually, but this time I am sharing the recipe of my carrot cake.

Zucchini is another vegetable which celebrates moist cake, add zucchini puree to the chocolate cake mixture, you will have a moist delightful chocolate cake.

Susy Mini Carrot Cake

Ingredients

200 g self-raising flour

1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 cup raw sugar and 1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 egg (50 g)

1/2 cup oil

1 medium cooked carrot with its juice (1/2 cup)-puree

1 tablespoon sour cream

Method

Using Food Processor

Process the sugar with carrot puree until smooth

Add in the oil, egg, process to blend

Add in the flour and mix for a few seconds

Add the sour cream, mix quickly

The cake mixture should be smooth, thick to drop spoon consistency.

Spoon to 12 mini tins-buttered and lined, about halfway.

Bake at 165 degrees C (a fan forced oven) for 18 minutes.
Dress the cake with cream cheese icing or dust the cake with icing sugar.

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Vegetables to make moist cakes, but mixed fresh vegetables for salad is suitable for everyday meals.  It is so bright, colourful and appetising. 

Leafy Pretty and Colourful Salad

Pretty salad with lime and olive oil dressing

Leafy and flower salad with a simple dressing, served as you like it.  My family enjoys the salad with any meat or even fried eggs and roasted roots vegetables.

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Brioche with topping

It is not a cake, but brioche that is a soft and moist rich bread using lots of butter and eggs.  Serve warm for breakfast with any jam and fruits as you wish.

This month I decided to share this brioche dressed with poached fruits in syrup.  It is delicious to serve at room temperature, which is suitable for morning tea for our sports club.
Pull apart the brioche, sliced and buttered, spread with homemade strawberry jam and put the sliced poached orange, apple and pear on top.  Rayner suggested that small slices are better, otherwise will be too much and too rich to be eaten in the middle of the sport.

Dressing up the Brioches

Sliced brioche, buttered-topped with homemade strawberry jam.

Sliced poached orange, apple, pear in syrup

The jam, softened butter, the sliced poached fruits. 

 The dressed sliced brioches


The dressed brioches looked so pretty, and taste good too, they were sweet, soft and moist.

To have brioche with a more vibrant look, add vegetable puree (pumpkin) instead of eggs.

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The things that I could not go without is not having fresh vegetables,  I harvested a basket of fresh greens and herbs.  The asparagus is coming back, growing OK.



Only self sewn vegetables are in the vegetable patch and herbs. 



Washing the vegetables and keeping them to stay fresh.





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Moist Muffins 

Using fruits pure instead of vegetables.

Quick baking, there is no accurate measurement for these muffins, but luckily, it worked beautifully.  I want you to improvise what you may have to do in cooking for the moist muffins.  No, I did not add vegetables in the mixture instead I added fruit-poached apple

Nothing like having hot fresh muffins out from the oven.

Fresh Moist Muffins

No recipe for the moist muffins.

Vegetables can be used not only for salads or garnishes, but they are excellent to add to the cake mixture to make moist cakes.  



Until Next Post
Thanks For Visiting
Susy