FOR YOU.

It is good to have you home, happy birthday, Susan.  Welcome back, Sue and Tristan. Congratulations on your engagement,  I am so excited for you both, and God Bless.

Celebrations always take place at home.

Good cooking for the family.
Indeed I have problems with my oven, but I managed to serve lovely dishes, and they are almost in perfection.
The Lamb Roast
Roast Leg of Lamb with Garnishes. It is one of the family favourites, easy, simple to prepare and delicious.

The most family has roast dinner on Sunday.

We had it on Saturday for Susan and Tris.

Preparation and Carving-Serving.

Preparing the meat with care, wash, clean and dressed with herbs and salt before roasting it in the oven.  It was tender done Lamb roast, the meat of the leg was soft and succulent but not pink, served well with the gravy.

The Garnishes

Pretty Raspberry Meringue Cake

Carving the meat is the cook's task in our family, it has become the tradition.

The sweet and creamy cake was perfect to end up for the family meal.

Light Salads for Dinner

Healthy celery stuffed with ricotta cheese was so good and very appropriate after a big, sumptuous Lunch

Celery Stuffed with Egg and Ricotta Cheese

Brioche for Breakfast

Last week, I made glace pomelo pith.  I had a good harvest this year from my garden.  Brioche with the glace pomelo topping was so good, enjoyed with black coffee.

Seafood for Sunday

Sunday is a Relaxed Day.

Easy cooking for Sunday, saffron rice garnished with salmon, prawns and Moreton Bay bugs meat were a treat.  The plate looked so beautiful and Festive. ( Forgot to take the pictures).

Rice is always there for the family, but saffron rice is so precious, I love the colour and the taste so delicate and delicious.

Rayner said to me that was a goof effort, the prawns and the fish were cooked very well.

Alfie, Susan's dog, did not have a share but he has his own food, he is a good dog, who behave well, a gentle visitor indeed.

Susan and Tris have decided to go home early, Monday is a working day.   Have a good week, children!.

For you: all the best with the wedding plans, of course, we would like to help as good as we can.

No recipes are in this post, it is about sharing a good time with my family through my cooking.

Until Next Post

Susy

ENGLISH BOX

Today I am transferring my potted English box plants which have been in the pots for years.   I have decided to change the view of our entrance, and these two topiary plants would be so perfect.

It was a big job, but at the same time it was fun, especially with the anticipation to have a lovely pair for the place.  

Getting Ready for the Re-potting

Two potted English Box topiary are ready to transplant.  Good soil or potting mix and plant starter are there to do the transplant successfully

,

Tickling the roots of the plants, and soaking the plant onto the water mixed with plant starter.

The pots are ready for the new plants, put the base with gravel, follow by adding mushroom compost, soil and put the plant in, and add with the rest of the soil and give the mixture of the plant starter.

The plant sits well on the pot,  now water it properly.

The two English Box topiary look good under the porch, to dress the entrance.

Topiary English Box
Planted from a tiny plant over ten years ago.

Until Next Post

Susy

My Lucky Year

It is winter in Australia, but not too cold.  Today was a sunny day. I made the best of it to be working in the garden.  I replanted two plants, and I hope they will be good and growing well in spring.

My cymbidium orchids, which are in buds stay in the house, one of the orchids plants, has sixteen spikes/stems.  I am so pleased, this is the first time of the plant to flower, not only flowering but giving me a lot of flowers. The plant is too large; however, I manage to put it on the dining table, it looks so grand and beautiful.

Soft Orange Cymbidium Orchid

The Cymbidium Orchid with Sixteen Stems and a lot of Buds
Picture Taken - 28 June 2015

The Cymbidium Orchid 

Beautiful orchid flowers, the buds start opening up.

The family can enjoy the bloom, just as well we stay in a lot as outside is cold in winter.  What can I say about the orchid, it is so amazing, I am very proud.  It is my lucky year, indeed.

I am waiting for the rest of the orchids to flower, we will have colours of orchids to adorn our home.

Individual Stem of the Orchids

 

 

Pictures were taken today the 9 of June 2015




Added a video, 23 of July 2015

The video of the full bloom cymbidium orchid

Until Next Post
Susy

The Cake and The Buns.

Now I am back, I have been away for a short holiday to the UK, Netherlands, Vienna and a stop by in Hong Kong on the way home to Australia.  The two nights stay in Hong Kong were funny and very interesting, one day I may be able to share with you about the holiday.

I am still having a jet-leg, feeling tired and disoriented.  It has been three days since we arrived home. But I am not with it; nevertheless, the routine is jumbled up, I do what I could do.
I long for a sweet, delicious home-baked cake, and managed to bake a pineapple cake, which was ready for early afternoon tea.  I have also decided to have a hot meal for dinner, and luckily, I have enough ingredients from the pantry, cooked frozen meat ready in the freezer.  Open steamed buns with pork and egg were prepared successfully, and they were delicious.

As I did not measure the ingredients correctly,  I have no recipe for you. But I could show you the steps and the result for my cooking today.

Pine Apple Quick Mix Cake.

The ingredients:
I used my preserved pineapple in syrup, three slices round pineapples (for decoration on the outside of the cake) and about half a cup of the heavy syrup.
One and a half cup of self-rising flour, and teaspoon bicarbonate of soda.
A half firmly packed brown sugar.
Three small eggs, three quarter cup milk.
Melted one hundred gram of unsalted butter
Mix all ingredients quickly until all combined, stir it to get to spoon drop consistency.
Cut the preserved pineapple in halves, you would have six pieces.
Butter a round baba tin and dust with flour, place the pieces of pineapple around the tin, add in the cake mixture on the tin (about two third). level it gently
Bake in a preheated oven at 160 degrees C, for 45-50 minutes.  In my oven, I baked for 45 minutes.

Leave in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out the cake to cool.
Cut and serve when the cake is entirely fresh.




The cake will keep for a few days, held in an airtight container

To serve the cake, dust the cake with icing sugar.

The cake is served cold, can be enjoyed within a few days. The next day the cake tastes much better and moist.

The hot meal that I did was, steamed buns with pork and egg filling, I intended to have open buns which can be presented better with the garnishes.  They were garnished with fresh herbs and nasturtium flowers.  You may not find the buns like these elsewhere, it is the way I do it.

Open Steam Buns with Pork and Egg Filling.

The dough - use steamed bun dough (look up my older post for the recipe)
What I need is about 390 gram, and divided it into 6, it makes 65 g per ball.
The fillings: three boiled eggs cut in halves.  And the sweet pork was 240 gr chopped cooked pork which was added with salt, white pepper, sweet soy, sugar and sesame oil and teaspoon cornflour.  Mix them together to make a sticky mixture.  Knead each dough into a round, roll into a skinny and more massive round, place the egg on each round, and put tablespoon pork filling on top, gather the edges to the middle.  Put it on a round baking paper.  Place six of them on a steamer, and steam for 16 minutes.

Add some fresh parsley, steam for 16 minutes.

Freshly Steamed Open Buns with Pork and Egg Filling

Garnished Open Steamed Buns are Ready to Serve

It is delicious hot food for us, simply enjoy the hot buns with a cup of tea or serve it with a bowl of hot spicy broth.

Serving The Steamed Bun

The Hot Open Steamed Buns with Delicious Filling

We were nourished with the hot broth, and the hot buns were simply helping to recover from the jet leg faster.

Indeed it's not very traditional steamed buns, but the flavour of the filling is almost the same.  I will do it again, mainly to serve it hot on the day and fresh from the steamer.

I am pleased to start posting with the cake and the buns, and I will do more in this blog.

Until Next Post

Susy