My Cooking and My Garden: The First Week of Winter

Autumn has gone, now we welcome the New Season Winter. The weather is not too cold just yet, but we have a lot of rains, the ground is so wet, we could always take advantage of the situation, it is perfect for pulling the weeds out. It's a pity though that we both have been suffering from a common cold but the soto chicken soup which we had, helped to heal us quicker. We are on amend now. Keeping inside seems better at this stage; we need to stay warm.
The Soto Soup

Hot chicken soup remedy for colds

Light, fragrant soup Javanese style
Soto Suy's Way

Fragrant herbs and spices for the soup are kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, turmeric powder, fresh ginger, onion, garlic, nutmeg and white pepper. Lemon juice added to refresh.
This is the way I cooked the soup.

Using a big pot, saute the herbs and spices until they are releasing the fragrance and the onions to soften. Add in a tablespoon salt, the whole chicken cook to braise in the herbs and spices for five minutes each side. Add in three litres hot water or stock, also a tablespoon salt and a tablespoon sugar and bring to simmer, continue cooking for 25 minutes over warm heat. Reduce the heat, add chopped vegetables you like (carrots, celery, beans and shredded cabbages and flat parsley). Put the lid on and cook for an hour over low heat. Taste the soup, and adjust the flavour. To serve: place a small piece of the chicken meat and ladle some broth with the vegetables. (take the chicken of the soup, deboned and shredded the meat to serve).

It was delicious, healthy chicken soup, we all were well nourished, and it helped to get better from the cold.

A lovely and A Warm Place.
Inside the house, the front room is cosy with indoor plants, fresh flowers and the colourful leaves from the late Autumn, and the central heating faithfully works well for us.

Inside The House

It is so comfortable and warm undoubtedly I am enjoying the cosiness of the room.
The indoor plants start off with the tall green Swiss cheese-Monstera Deliciosa, the Maiden ferns and the flowering orchids and cyclamen, cut flowers are in tall vases as well the dry hydrangea and dried mixed flowers sleeps in a basket. Indeed they adorn the place.

The room looks cold but warm with beautiful Autumn leaves, and pretty flowers and the soft, fragrant dendrobium orchid imparts the sweet scent, it's lovely.

The green, beautiful colours and lovely fragrant of the Australian Orchid-dendrobium certainly made the room.

Beautiful Autumn Leaves sit in A vase.

The sofa-bed is covered with its clothing to keep away from dust. I don't think that we will need it a lot more now. Often it is used by the girls while they come home. Melanie and her family have moved away to Queensland, we miss them, but of course, we could always see her there, and they will be home to us for visits, even though not so often.

Keeping busy inside was the right thing to do, just as well I needed to prepare food for a morning tea. Every year I attend the Australia Biggest Morning Tea, which is organised by a friend Shirley in our sports club. Members come to bring a plate to share.
A pink cake I wished to share, and it has to be done, the savouries have been done, and they were sitting in the freezer, but they needed to be dressed on the day.
Baking the cake from scratch is the way I do, and I did that, the cake came out beautifully.

The Pink Cake and The Savouries

The Pretty Pink Cake

It was a quick mix cake, all ingredients mixed together on an electric mixer until smooth. Bake in a moderate oven at 180 degrees for 45 minutes. Here are ingredients that you need if you like to bake for your family.

Ingredients:
2 cups self-rising flour
1 3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup custard powder
1 cup milk
250g unsalted butter
1 vanilla essence
4 eggs

I kept some of the white plain cake mixtures to mix with almond meal, I added into the cake and swirling around to make a white pattern.

Pretty pink with white pattern

Freshly baked cakes

Freshly baked cakes were delightful and ready to dress up when they are cold. Sugared rose petals for the decoration were well prepared a week before.

Dressing the cake was fun, I thought by using chocolate to cover the cake was easy; indeed it was, but you do need a lot of the quantity. White chocolate I used and added food colouring to have a pink colour. A very unpleasant experience was a time that I had to melt the white chocolate, its split, and I was not sure how to fix it. The temperature was too hot to melt it, so I added some butter, I mixed again, and finally, I said Kirch liquor and the mixture become so smooth and shiny.😊

The cake was moist, sweet enough and looked pretty pink. The savouries were great, rice rolls based on Javanese cooking Arem Arem, and sliced savoury baked ricotta cheese with zucchini dressed in avocado.
It was a very successful morning tea, which was dedicated to raising money to support the Australia Cancer Council. A fantastic spread, we had, absolutely delicious, colourful cakes, savouries, sweets, scones and fresh fruits for the occasion. Everyone shared generously. Well done and Congratulations to Shirley you did a great job and Well Done All!

The first day of winter went beautifully, and now I have to focus on getting well of the cold. It is not contiguous, and I feel free and fair to be with people. What I need is to be fit, stay active to survive winter. A flu injection we have had so we shall be alright and healthy eating is a must.
Good soup and fresh vegetables are on our menu. On that note, thanks to dear friends Kay who gives me the lemongrass plant which is growing very well but I have to make sure it survives through the winter and flourishing in spring, and to Fred, I think the rocket and spinach are settling OK thank you for dropping the plants to us. We shall have a lot more fresh vegetable in our garden.

Preparation and cleaning our winter leafy salad.