LOVELY!!!

Shall We Celebrate Loveliness!
Lovely flowers, Lovely colours, Lovely Times, and Lovely Food.

It has been a lovely start for the new year 2018, and it is now the third month of the year already.  January our family survived the hot summer month very well. February was a good month, one of the grandsons birthdays party and friends celebrated their birthdays too.  And this month is very significant for us, happy events and the sad one when we had to say farewell to our dear friend.
Over four decades we have been living here, we are blessed, it is a lovely home for us all.
Lots of birthdays in March and a lovely celebration took place for a granddaughter, my younger brother and a couple of friends.
This month also our ten anniversary to be at the sports club, I could not believe it, the time has gone so fast.
The end of March is twelve years of my father passing, and it is Lovely to remember his love.
March is a big month for our family, we welcome it with lots of love and a huge appreciation.

Now, focus on the beauty and the loveliness of nature and all around us.
Beautiful flowering plants with lovely colours in our backyard.

Lovely Colours

Autumn, the weather is cooler but very unpredictable.  One day calm and cold, the next day could be raining and windy.  The garden is a little tired of the summer month, especially the grass becomes brownish, and the leaves of hydrangea bushes are droopy the soil is so dry even though we had rain.  However, some flowers are continuing to bloom, and the lovely colour is cheerful.

From the garden to the kitchen, there are not much to tell.  We harvested tomatoes, one of them was a lovely Big Red. 

Farwell to a dear friend,  it was so sad to lose a young dear friend-Diana, Tristan's mum, Susan's mother in law.  It's a blessing that she's at peace, free from the pain now, the friendly and warm farewell was indeed the celebration of her life. A lovely Service.  Two hundred people were there, that was the testimony of her for she's the right person who loved by all.  

Thinking of my father too today, It is sad to lose the loved ones, but we know that they are in their eternal home with God.

We continue to care and to work well with people, is the way to go to make our world to be a lovely place.  Do works that we love, planting flowering plants is one of the jobs that I love as we will enjoy the lovely flowers.

Beautiful annual flowering plants were planted on the 25th of March.  I hope they can grow well and to flower in time to add lovely colours in our garden.

We have survived to be in our Table Tennis Sports Club for ten years, the exercises keep us well and fit, so we love to continue.   We are older now, with a clear mind, we can follow all the rules of the club as good as others; thus, we intend to come along regularly.

If I have to say about my personal experience for the past years is Lots and Plenty; learning the skills, learning about people, also to support my long partner-my husband and more so learning about myself.  It has been fun and exciting for ten years, and I must say, the benefit of the exercises is priceless.  I believe that Physical health is excellent and nourish the Wealth within. Very Good Isn't! It is essential to keep fit and well.  

This year is very unsettling for me, but Rayner enjoys his games, his exercises, he is well looked after there, it is triumphant for both parts. I can see that they always have a lovely time.  

In the past, I came with good spirits to join the fun in these sports, and I still do, and always will.  In my quiet way, I am celebrating the tenth anniversary today.  Thank You All.

Everyone is Good, We are Together for the Good of Everyone.

Sharing this motto or a phrase that I learnt at school: mens sana in corpore sano.  It is a phrase in the Latin language, and translated: " A healthy mind in a healthy body".   We can nurture a healthy mind in a healthy body,  through physical sports. 

It is the theory that physical exercise is a necessary or essential part of mental and psychological well-being.  I believe that, if you have a healthy mind and your body is fit, healthy and well, you will feel good, and you can enjoy a long and lovely life.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday.

I wish you all a Very Happy Easter, Have a Lovely Time with Family and Friends.

Egg for Easter

Our Easter Crowns

Easter Crown, lovely food for my family, that I love to prepare every year.

The family enjoy good food, and at Easter is good to have lovely food.

Until Next Post.
Susy

FISH

Pretty Platter.
The latest cooking in my kitchen.
A treat of the sea, panfry juicy prawns and fried squid in batter served with caramelised fennel is suitable for any Friday dinner.

Very easy cooking and economical food.  Get the ingredients in any supermarket, simply go to the frozen section.
The cooking style that suits me better now, uncomplicated and yet the dish is delicious.




From Older Post
Two Colours Poached Fish
You need fresh fish for this dish, but you won't find any problems with getting the fish, but if the Ling is not available, you can replace any white fish.

Recipe and details, please look at older posts, type: Fish.

White and  Orange, Ling and Salmon

Poaching the Fish

Serving the Fish

A colourful dish, fun to prepare and light enough to be served for lunch any day.
I must say, you need time and extra care to cook the dish, the fish is delicate and
preparing the mousse has to be done correctly.

From Older Post
FISH PIE
Based on Russian cooking, Kulebyaka-the Russian fish pie.

Fish Pie - Susy Recipe

Ingredients:

The Dough

220 g plain flour

100 g butter

1tablespoon sour cream

1 egg yolk

3 tablespoons water

 a pinch of salt

1 egg + 2 tablespoons milk, for the egg wash

The filling:

125 g fresh salmon, sliced

6 fresh large green prawns, cleaned and halved

½ cup cooked rice, chopped red tomatoes

lemon, mix herbs (chives, fennel, parsley)

1 soft boiled egg, chopped

olive oil

salt to taste

some water extra

Method

The Dough

Rub the butter in the flour thoroughly

Add the sour cream, egg yolk, water and the salt, then mix!

Knead it gently to make a soft dough. Wrap in a cloth to rest.

The ingredients for the Pie

The filling

Saute the salmon, and prawn until almost cooked! (do not overcook)

Add in the rice, chopped tomatoes, egg, herbs and the salt. (the mixture should be moist).  Cool aside.

 

The Pie

Roll the dough into a large square/rectangle, thinly.

Cut the dough into two, one is larger than the other.

Place the filling on to the large dough, spread evenly

Brush all the edges with the egg; then cover with the other dough

Press the dough with a fork to join the dough together.

Brush the pie with egg wash, bake in preheated hot oven 190 C for 22 minutes.

To Serve

Cut into two, and serve with mustard sauce and a salad.

If you are fond of pies, it is one of the bests.
A beautiful fish pie, it fits to be served for Good Friday.

This two dishes-cooking with fish were taken from the older posts for you just in case you wish to cook fish, these are delicious food and quick to enough to cook.  An idea for you, and maybe you like to try.

Have fun and Happy Cooking!

Susy

HERBS

Lemon Myrtle Tea

Love these herbs that grow in my garden.  Herbs are essential for my cooking, and for garnishes.  Add fresh herbs to boiling water to make herbal tea is good. It relaxes you and has a calming effect.
To brew herbal tea, pick fresh mints or cut fresh lemongrass, wash them properly.  Place in a pot, add lots of boiling water.  Leave for a few minutes, let the herbs release the fragrant before serving.  That's another way to prepare the herbal tea. Another herbal tea that I like is lemon myrtle tea.


Potted Herbs

Potted Saffron of a Nursery

Transferring the potted saffron to a large Pot

It's good to have potted saffron in my potted herb garden.
Unfortunately, the potted saffron did not survive, and never harvest the saffron,  It's tragic, but It was good to try to plant.  Luckily the dried saffron for cooking is easily be purchased in any Supermarket in Australia.  In fact, good quality saffron produced in Tasmania, we don't need to buy the overseas product any longer.

One of my cooking using saffrons was pea soup, the recipe is in an older post.  Type: Saffron to search.

Pea Soup with Saffron

Soaking Dried Saffron
in Hot Water

Rosemary, Sage, Thyme, Oregano and Bay Leaf are perennial herbs, they are potted and convenient to have.  These herbs are useful to add to European cooking, as for Asian cuisine, kaffir lime leaf, lemongrass, ginger and turmeric, these two I had no luck to grow.

The Potted Herbs and Freshly Cut Herbs for Cooking and Garnishes.

Using the herbs for cooking as people would do, and I do for garnishes for serving the dishes from savouries to sweets.  In my kitchen, how I celebrate the fresh herbs.

Rice garnished with fresh mints and Fish decorated with fruits and fresh herbs

Sweet Garnished with Rosemary

Using the bay, to add to stews, soups, any long braising, especially tomato sauce for pasta. It is delicious to add to the meatloaf.  I did carrot, mushroom and meat terrine, and the bay is one of the herbs in the ingredients.  It is a considerable saving if you have your own herb garden, one of the bonuses.

Potted Bay Leaf

The cooking using the bay leaf, a delicious light dish-the carrot terrine served with salads, and it is suitable for picnic food, and it freezes well too.  No recipe, as I simply prepared without the note.

Carrot, Mushroom and Meat Terrine with Bay leaves.

Milo Cake

The recipe for moist Milo Cake is in an older post.  It is a very moist cake, people seem very curious about it.  You could find a lot more cooking using herbs through this blog.  If you love using herbs as much as I do, you may like to explore this blog.  Simply type: cooking with herbs.

I will close the post with a cute story about the Bay Leaf.  Once upon a time, we were invited by friends (a couple)  for lunch. I love to give the host a bunch of herbs from my garden, an honest gesture that I always do.  It was a pretty small bouquet of herbs, but something was missing, that was the bay leaf.  I determined to add the bay leaves into it, even though the potted bay were only small.  I cut a sprig of the bay leaves and add the bouquet to make it complete, and it looked so pretty.  I was so pleased and proud.  As I found out when we got there, the couple had a large bay tree, taller than their house, very well established Bay Tree.  OH!
I am happy to tell you that my potted bay tree is living well and right, and now is taller-bigger and useful.

Pictures the dishes above were taken from the older posts,




Susy

PROOFING BASKETS

Now, I have a good collection of proofing baskets.  They are the essential baskets for the preparation of my sourdough bread, a large round, a small round and three ovals also one long shape for the baguette.



The latest addition to my collection is the smaller size baskets for proofing the Boule and the Batard.  Somehow, to have a new thing is always very encouraging.  Here they are my new toys, pictured at the right.



They need to be baptised, without further ado, the baking is taking place sooner but not next month.
This time baking sourdough bread with flavour-Bread with Walnuts.  A few baking had been done in the past, but they were not perfect only good enough.  I hope this time it will be better

The Leaven

The leaven is floating
Ready for baking.

The same routine and procedures that I have familiar with to follow.
These are what I need to bake sourdough bread.  The tools are ready, and the ingredients are a good quality flour, the leaven - a sourdough culture, salt and water.  Made the leaven eight or twelve hours before the start to make the dough mix.  And test the leaven for readiness by putting a spoon of it in the water, if it is a float that means it is ready for the baking.

These ingredients make the beautiful sourdough bread.  Add any flavour as you wish, could be herbs, dried fruits or nuts.

1 kg good quality flour, water and leaven and the salt.

The recipe makes two loaves, a Batard and a Boule, and added walnuts for the flavour.
The Batard was baked first, and it's light and looked good, the scoring spat alright, not as perfect as I wanted to be.

Freshly Baked Batard on a Cooling Tray

The bread is light, it baked in perfection.

The Sliced Batard with Walnuts

Cut the Batard after it's cool.

The Boule baked well, good-looking enough.  It's light in my hand, a beautiful bread.

Freshly Baked 'Boule', It's Cooling on a Tray

Cutting when it's cold, beautiful
tender crust but crisps

Beautiful looking sliced bread
with walnuts

The Process of Baking The Sourdough Bread with Walnuts.

It was a fun baking day, just the right time as outside was unpleasant, raining and windy.  The loaves were beautiful, they were much better bread than the previous baking.  I remember that I should not over kneading during the bulk fermentation, I was very faithful, and my reward was to have almost the perfect loaves, they have a tender, soft but crisp crust and open crumb. A good improvement,
The Crust?  No Hard Crust any longer, we could enjoy it with comfort. It is easy and pleasant to eat.

Family and friends will be happy to have the taste this week, right to surprise them.


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Susy