Memories of Locky, our beautiful Border Collie

 

I am writing this up tonight, and you may not hear from me for a few days dear readers, as we have had to make a very difficult decision in our home. A few weeks ago we discovered that our beautiful chocolate and white Border Collie, Locky, has a form of aggressive nasal cancer, with not a good prognosis.The vets, as were our friends and family who all love Locky, have been devastated by the news. When is the right time to give him a peaceful end to any suffering he is encountering? We have decided that now is the right time, as we don't want him to suffer anymore, even though he still loves his tucker, and his walks, however he can't really smell anymore and he has always loved to have a good sniff along his walks, and sleeping is troublesome for him. There are also other side effects happening which aren't pleasant for him. So we would rather say good bye tomorrow, than see him have a fit or deteriorate quickly. You may remember that he was our son's family dog, and when they went overseas a few years ago he came to live with us, to enjoy a nice quiet retirement. After only a few years, it's as if he has been with us forever and is very much a part of our family. We love him so much. What an awful month it's been, as it has been for a few other bloggers who are online friends as well. 

Locky loved the beach and chasing the tennis ball, in the backyard as well.

I wrote the above and didn't post it, and yesterday Locky went to sleep forever peacefully, and we are both absolutely devastated and a bit of a mess, and not far from tears at any time. Our home and backyard is full of constant reminders of Locky as he was with us almost 24/7 when we were home, and being retirees we are at home a lot.  He was always with me in the kitchen as well, just hoping a little treat would come his way, and it often did. I still can't believe that he is gone.

I am taking a break for a little while now from blogging and we will be venturing away for a while to help with the grieving process and have a break. Being older doesn't make our loss any easier,  there are so many other sad family memories of losing loved ones that come flooding in as well, and this one adds to our list of life's experiences. Thankfully though we have lots of happy memories of Locky which in time will be hopefully what we think of. He was just the best dog, with a beautiful nature, full of unconditional love and so very handsome. He would have been 13 next year in February.

These beautiful orchids and plants of mine are flowering at the moment and bringing us some pleasure, and hopefully next year will be flowering at this time again, as another memory of Locky.

Phalaenopsis

Beautiful Brassia

Aggregatum

Soft Cane Dendrobium

Fraser Island Creeper

Take care everyone, and love the ones you are with. 

Warm wishes,

 Pauline

Tropical Pineapple Butter Cake

 

The tropical, rough leaf pineapple, in all it's golden glory is the heroine of this cake. It feels like Summer here now in Tropical North Queensland,  and it should be the season of colour, happiness, and sunshine, and yellow to me is the embodiment of these sentiments. This is a fruity, luscious, moist cake, quite sinfully delicious in it's flavour, and we kept coming back for just another mouthful. If I can't make an amazing pineapple cake in the tropics, well where can I make it?

I'll be honest with you dear reader, I've made this cake a couple of times over the last two days as I thought it was worth persisting with and perfecting, more for the right size than anything. The cake didn't need any improvement. The original recipe from American Chef Dennis Littley suggested using a 23 cm/9" round cake tin, however it was too flat for my liking. So I've adjusted this recipe down to a 20 cm tin and whilst it's still not a high cake, it's deep enough for a rich fruity buttery cake, which is perfect for dessert or afternoon tea, served with lashings of cream, mascarpone, or yoghurt if that is your preference. I really urge you to try this one if you can buy pineapples where you live. I think the fruit needs to be fresh, not tinned or frozen so that the juices, sugars and flavours can develop and caramelise perfectly.

Ingredients:

113 g (4 oz) butter

2 cups fresh pineapple chopped into about 3 cm pieces (this was one rough leaf pineapple which are smaller, sweeter, and juicier if you can get them)

2/3 cup plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, all at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup caster sugar

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Icing sugar for dusting

I used edible pineapple sage for extra colour and pizzazz on the plate, as we have a large bush of it growing. It has a very subtle pineapple flavour and lovely red flowers.

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 deg. C or 350 deg. F.

Butter a 20 cm spring form baking tin, and line the base and the sides with non-stick baking paper.

Prepare the pineapple. Remove the core, and slice the flesh into small pieces.

In a frying pan, large enough to fit the pineapple in one layer, melt the butter over a medium heat. Then pour 6 tablespoons of the melted butter into a small bowl and reserve for later. (This will be most of the melted butter.)

Add the pineapple to the frying pan in one layer, and cook for 10 minutes. Be careful not to burn it. Turn over the pieces after 5 minutes. Most of the juices will evaporate off. Only the pineapple and not the juices will be used for the cake.

Meanwhile, sift the flour, baking powder and salt together into a small bowl and set aside.

Beat the eggs, and egg yolk together in a larger mixing bowl, add the reserved melted butter, sugar, vanilla essence and lemon zest and mix in by hand.

Add the flour and pineapple and mix in gently by hand.

Spoon the batter into the prepared spring form cake tin. This is a wet mixture.

Bake until the cake is browned on top, 30-35 minutes. It develops a nice crust.

Cool the cake in the tin on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, and remove the sides of the tin. 

Then invert the cake onto a plate to remove from the base, and invert again onto another plate and return to the cooling rack to cool completely.

To serve, dust cake with icing sugar, add some cream, mascarpone or yoghurt. I also garnished the plate with a sprig of edible pineapple sage.

This was the cake I baked for my Mahjong friends this week as I hosted it at my home, and I think they enjoyed it with a delicious espresso coffee made by Mr. HRK. I urge you to spoil yourself and bake this one. It's a keeper.

It seems that there are lots of colds and viruses out there in the community at the moment, and they are in addition to Covid. Hope you are well, and please take care of yourself.

Warm wishes

Pauline

Curried Egg and Cauliflower Salad

Do you remember Coronation Chicken which was served originally as "Poulet Reine Elizabeth"? Well as Yotam Ottelenghi says at the beginning of his recipe, this is what it would taste like if you replaced the chicken with cauliflower and boiled eggs, and I wholeheartedly agree with him. You will need to taste this salad to understand what I am talking about. Beautiful fresh vegetables and boiled eggs lightly coated in a  curry cream sauce is the basis of this recipe. However if you really want chicken to be involved, bake a chicken on the weekend and serve this healthy and delicious salad with it. Cauliflowers are very well priced at the moment so now is the time to buy up big on cauliflower and embrace their versatility. I believe they are one of the most adaptable vegetables to have on hand, and I often eat bits and pieces raw while I am chopping and cooking with them.

Le Cordon Bleu, London is one of the oldest cookery schools in London. Rosemary Hume, the founder of the school and her students, prepared the Coronation Luncheon in January 1953, for Queen Elizabeth and 350 guests in the great Hall of Westminster School. This event made Le Cordon Bleu and the recipe famous and it is still served today as Poulet Reine Elizabeth in some British restaurants.  I remember eating it at a restaurant in Mackay just after we first moved here around 35 years ago. I've never forgotten it, absolutely delicious. Some of you will be aware that Queen Elizabeth then toured Australia the following year in 1954, and I was lucky enough to be able to dress up and catch a glimpse of her, albeit from my pram, but my Mum always loved to tell that story. Anyway enough nostalgia, we need to make this salad.

This  is also one of the more simple recipes that I have cooked, and also absolutely delicious. We ate it over two days. This is my version of Yotam Ottolenghi's recipe from his book "Simple".

Ingredients:

Serves four to six people

1 medium cauliflower, trimmed and broken into 3-4cm florets: keeping the tender green leaves (500g)

1 onion, sliced into 1cm thick wedges (180g)

2 tbsp Extra Virgin olive oil

1 tbsp mild curry powder (I used good old reliable Clive of India) (divide into 2 + 1 teaspoons)

9 large eggs

4 fresh red radishes

100 g Greek-style yoghurt (I use Valia for it's probiotic qualities)

50g mayonnaise

1/2 tsp regular chilli flakes (be brave it isn't too  much), or 1 tsp of Aleppo if you can find them

1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and roughly crushed

2 lemons, 1 squeezed to get 1 tbsp juice and the second cut into 4-6 wedges, to serve

10g tarragon, roughly chopped, I used a bit more but I have it growing.

salt and black pepper

Method: 

Preheat the oven to 230 deg,C.

Bake the cauliflower, onion and spices. Mix the cauliflower florets and any young tender leaves in tact, in a large bowl with the onion, oil, 2 teaspoons curry powder, 3/4 teaspoon of salt and plenty of pepper. Spread the combined mixture out onto a a baking tray lined with baking paper, and roast for 15 minutes, until the cauliflower is soft and golden brown but still retaining a bite. It needs to be tender enough to eat at this stage without falling apart, as an indicator. I also used a skewer to test it. Stick it back in the oven for another few minutes if you think it needs a bit longer. 

Remove the tray from the oven and place on a cooling rack.

Boil the eggs. Fill a medium saucepan with plenty of water and bring to the boil on a high heat. Reduce the heat to a medium simmer and carefully lower the eggs into the water on a large spoon, and boil gently for 10 minutes, until hard-boiled. Drain the eggs, then return then to the saucepan and fill with cold water so that they chill and stop cooking. This also prevents that dark ring forming around the yolk of the egg. 

When they are just cool, carefully remove the shells from the eggs by peeling them, and place them in a large bowl and break them roughly with the back of a fork to form large chunks. This whole eggy process could be done the day before serving and kept in a lidded container in the refrigerator. I have to restrain myself from not eating the mashed egg there and then on a sandwich with mayo.

Slice the radishes and keep them chilled in the refrigerator.

Make the Yoghurt Sauce. In another separate smaller bowl, mix together the yoghurt, mayonnaise, the lemon juice,  the remaining 1 teaspoon of curry powder, half the chilli flakes, the cumin, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. 

Assemble everything. Combine the eggs, with the cooled cauliflower and onion, the radishes and the tarragon and add the sauce. Mix this together well, and spoon the mixture onto a large serving plate. Sprinkle over the remaining chilli flakes, and little bit of chopped tarragon, and garnish with the lemon wedges. Bon appetit!

I've learned not to be concerned when my day isn't planned. The need to plan is such a spin off from working all of my life, when my days were pretty much planned out, but now it's amazing how unplanned days become some of the best. The simple things in a day can bring me the most pleasure and make me smile. An early morning walk around the garden now that's it's Spring, the discovery of a tomato on our new tomato bush that is ripening, and the flowers emerging on the bean vines with the promise of a good crop to come in the Summer months hopefully. We bought a Cumquat tree last week, a dwarf Nagami, however I've learned that in the tropics dwarf can mean normal sized, normal can mean giant. Given the success of my latest cumquat marmalade, and Mr. HRK's love for jams and marmalades especially cumquat, we invested in a tree. So the unruly pumpkin vines came out and a kumquat tree went in. 

Another early morning discovery, there are buds on the tree, so exciting. Now the million dollar question is should we remove the buds so the tree has a chance to strengthen for 12 months, as we do with lemon and lime trees, or do do we allow it to yield a crop this Summer. Of course I am with letting the buds develop into fruit because cumquats are only a small fruit and surely the tree can handle it?? Anyway I'll do some more research and we will make a decision.

Happy Friday my friends, and I haven't forgotten what a wonderful feeling it was when I was working to reach Friday. If you have a chance to try this Curried Egg and Cauliflower Salad on the weekend, I hope you enjoy it, it's a cinch to make and what I love from a cook's perspective  is that the various stages can be prepared in advance and the dish assembled just before serving. Otherwise, It will be perfectly delicious for Meat Free Monday.

 

There are more Covid lock downs threatening Queensland, will the football finals go ahead? I hope despite all of the inconveniences being experienced by everyone around the world, you still manage to have a great weekend, finding joy in the simplest things.

Warmest wishes,

Pauline

Almond Flour Peanut Butter Biscuits/Cookies Recipe

These gluten free, Almond Flour Peanut Butter cookies or biscuits will be ready to eat within 20 minutes, and I promise you that no-one will be able to resist them. When life gets busy, but a sweet treat is still needed, I bake biscuits, and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are one of the most delicious combinations you will find. These are perfect to have on hand over the weekend, although this recipe makes 36 cookies, too many for us, so I have given some of the batch away to friends. We all have friends and relatives who are gluten intolerant, and I wanted to know I could produce a quick batch of biscuits for them if necessary. I am really happy with the crisp texture of these biscuits, and they are also very satisfying and quite filling to eat. This recipe is from the Marcellina in Cucina blog, she is also a North Queensland girl like me, and I like to follow what she is doing. 

Speaking of North Queensland, we are very lucky to have one of our very talented home grown Opera singers, Paul Ettore Tabone back in Australia from London. Paul Ettore Tabone, the tenor from Oz. In between his Australian shows and performances, he and his partner are living with Paul's Italian parents on their sugarcane farm near Ingham. Paul finished his UK opera season last March with Phantom of the Opera in London, where he played Ubaldo Piangi for four years, until the coronavirus lockdown drew the curtain at Her Majesty's Theatre in London to a close. Meanwhile their loss is our gain, as Mr. HRK and I attended his concert at our nearby Central Queensland Conservatorium of Music here in Mackay recently and it was just lovely. Paul was at his best, vocally. Director of the CQCM, Professor Judith Brown was the piano accompanist for Paul and their synergy on stage is extraordinary.

Paul Ettore Tabone at Her Majesty's Theatre in London

 I feel quite an attachment to Paul and his career, as when he was a Music Theatre student here in Mackay at the CQCM, part of my role at the Central Queensland University Library was as the Music and Performing Arts Librarian at the CQCM, and Paul  was a student for 3 years during this period so by the end of the three years I knew him quite well. As with most small regional universities, one of the benefits is that staff develop a rapport with their students.  It is so rewarding now to see him achieving on the world stage of opera and music theatre. If I've piqued your interest about Paul's career, he is in Australia to start rehearsing for the Sydney season of Phantom of the Opera, which hopefully will go ahead sooner rather than later. He also mentioned they are hoping for an outdoor performance of the show at Sydney Harbour. If you happened to watch the Rugby Union match in Townsville last Saturday Night, at Queensland Country Bank Stadium between Australia and Argentina, either on the TV or were actually at the match, you would have seen Paul sing the Australian National Anthem, Advance Australia Fair, and ending on a beautiful high note.. How's that for an impressive introduction to a football match. 

Cook's notes:

From the start, apologies for any duplication here and in the actual recipe. I have lots of little tips to take in when baking these,and I don't want you to miss them.

• Using a small biscuit/cookie scoop,  a small version of an ice-cream scoop, available from kitchen shops,  will make it much easier to portion out biscuit dough onto the baking tray. However my Mother didn't have one and she made great biscuits. A teaspoon will also do.

• Stir the peanut butter well before measuring, just like tahini.
• Don't get distracted during the baking process, you will need to keep an eye on these little gems in the oven to ensure they aren't burning.
• If you are intending these biscuits to be completely gluten free, check all the ingredients, the peanut butter, vanilla extract and the chocolate chips to ensure they are 100% gluten free and suitable.
• Total preparation time is 20 minutes.
• Almond flour is quite expensive, however it brings wonderful texture to these biscuits, and they are quite filling. It has a lighter texture than almond meal, and is rich in magnesium, protein, and Vitamin E.
• Looking for a variation to this recipe, no problem. Why not add 1/2 teaspoon of ginger or cinnamon to the mixture. We love ginger here, so I sometimes add one whole teaspoon of powdered ginger, this certainly adds some extra pizzazz.
• Instead of chocolate chips, use some regular M&Ms for fun, they are gluten free last time I looked, or raisins, or chopped nuts, such as pecans, cashews, or walnuts, or dried berries.

Ingredients:

MAKES 36 BISCUITS

2 1/4 cups almond flour

1 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy), stir well in bottle before measuring to include the oils 

1 egg

3/4 cup castor sugar, or superfine white

1/2 cup (4 oz/115 grams) unsalted butter (softened)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup chocolate chips (plus more for decorating)

Method:

 Preheat your oven to 180 deg. C/350 deg F.

Line two large baking trays with baking paper.

Add the almond flour and baking powder to a bowl and whisk to remove any lumps.

Add the softened butter, peanut butter,and sugars to your electric mixing bowl. Beat until it becomes nice and creamy. This combination creams up beautifully.

Add the beaten egg and the vanilla extract then beat again until completely combined.

Remove bowl from the electric mixer, and stir in the almond flour and baking powder mixture.

Add the chocolate chips, and stir through. The mixture will form a ball in your bowl.

Using a small biscuit/cookie scoop, select scoops of dough and  place on the baking paper allowing room for spreading. or if you don't have a cookie scoop, roll a heaped teaspoonful of dough into small balls and place on the baking sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes until lightly browned. However check at 8 minutes that they aren't burning, this all depends on how hot your oven is. They might even need 12 minutes. Leave to slightly cool on the baking tray before removing to the cooling rack using a knife to lift them.They will crisp up as they cool.

Enjoy your week,

Warm wishes,

Pauline

My Summery Cypriot Grain Salad

 

Grain salads are a wholesome side dish next to chicken, fish or meat, and will also hold their own as a vegetarian dish for dinner allowing the versatility of lots of extra add ins. Or if you fancy a light vegetarian main dish for a change after a big social weekend, although that's a challenging thought these days, this is my suggestion for a Meat Free Monday. Make a large batch on the weekend, and you will enjoy it for lunches during the following week, this applies to most grain salads. 

I made this salad to take to a dinner a few nights ago and it was a real hit. I assemble the grains and the lemon dressing the day before if I have time, add the chopped herbs on the day of eating, and then add the yoghurt dressing just before serving. The flavours combine beautifully.

I have made this salad before using quinoa as the main grain, and it was delicious as quinoa is a wonderful supporter of flavours. However, my preference is now to use Bulgur Wheat. It has a uniquely earthly flavour, is kind to the gut, and is also very fast and easy to cook. However you can use both quinoa and bulgur wheat combined for even more grainy impact. Bulgar is made from durum wheat that has already been cracked and partially pre-cooked,and all you need to do is soak it in boiling water for 10 minutes, drain and you've got a light and nutty addition to your meals. It can generally be used as a healthy alternative to  rice, couscous or stuffing for a high-fibre meal. As a friend said to me, ancient grains are just the best.

This recipe is based on a popular one by George Calombaris and is very easily modified to suit what you might have on hand in the pantry. Mix up your grains. It saves time to have pumpkin seeds, slivered almonds and pine nuts, already toasted and stored in separate jars for using in  grain salads.

Cypriot Grain Salad

Cook's Notes:

Ingredients:

1/2 red onion finely diced
1 cup of  Australian Bulgur Wheat (or freekah, quinoa or other grain)
1/2 cup Puy lentils

2 tbsp. toasted pumpkin seeds
2 tbsp. toasted slivered almonds
2 tbsp. toasted pine nuts
2 tbsp. baby capers
1 bunch chopped coriander
1/2 bunch chopped parsley
1/2 cup currants (1/4 cup dried cranberries plus 1/4 cup currants is also a nice mix)
juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt to taste
1 pomegranate, deseeded to serve

Cumin Yoghurt Dressing: - 

1 cup thick Greek yoghurt
1 tsp. cumin seeds, toasted and ground (essential)
1 tbsp. honey

Method:

Soak Bulgur wheat in boiling water for 10 minutes and drain and set aside to cool.

Boil Puy lentils in boiling water until just cooked. Drain very well and allow to cool.

Place all the ingredients in a medium bowl, except the yoghurt dressing, and mix well. The yoghurt dressing can now be left covered in a jar in the refrigerator for a day if necessary. Whisk the oil and lemon juice dressing in a small jar until it emulsifies, season to taste, and add to the grains.

Just before eating, place the grain salad in an attractive serving dish and top with the delicious Cumin Yoghurt. Garnish and decorate with pomegranate seeds. However if pomegranates aren't in season or your thing, pour a few strips of pomegranate molasses across the yoghurt, and top with some scattered coriander leaves, or mint leaves, or roughly chopped cranberries. It's all about the colour and flavour to contrast with the grains.

Warmest wishes my friends and I hope you are having a safe and enjoyable week. Thanks for visiting.

Pauline

Strawberry Cream Cheese Shortcake with Streusel topping

 

It's strawberry season when I adore using strawberries in cooking, and this shortcake exceeded my expectations with how delicious and satisfying it is. Strawberries are enjoyable just to eat fresh, however red, ripe strawberries transform superbly into intense luscious flavours when used in cooking to make jams, cakes, or just a simple coulis

Chocolate Beetroot Cake - In My Kitchen, September 2021

             "Food connects people, and the Kitchen is where the magic can happen."                                                                    

There are days when nothing but a rich, moist chocolate cake will do. I'd been wanting to make a Chocolate Beetroot cake for a while, ever since I went out to coffee with some friends at the Soul Food Market in Mackay, North Queensland, where we had a slice of Chocolate Beetroot cake, which was gluten free, lactose free, sugar free, and perhaps egg free, but not delicious free, because as you have probably already guessed, it is a health food shop and a bulk foods shop, which also specialises in vegetarian foods for dine in or take away. It's an amazing little business tucked away in an unpretentious arcade.

There is always a delicious aroma floating out of the front door, with soups and ratatouilles etc cooking on the stove. One of my friends has allergies to everything it seems, so we chose to eat at the Soul Food Market so that she could enjoy something delicious to eat without any after effects.  My Chocolate cake recipe isn't vegetarian or vegan or sugar free but it does contain beetroot, and dark chocolate, both healthy additions, which also makes it exceptionally moist. These comments about the Soul Food Market are purely my own and we all paid for our own morning tea. So here's the recipe my friends, it is adapted from a Taste.com recipe. 

Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Chocolate Ganache

Note: This is a one pot saucepan recipe. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (125 ml vegetable oil or light olive oil)

1 cup (220 g) firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup (125 ml) maple syrup

60 g dark chocolate (70 %) chopped

250 g (around 2 cups) raw beetroot, coarsely grated

3 eggs, lightly beaten, room temperature

1 1/2 cups (225 g) self raising flour  or 1 1/2 cups plain flour sifted with 3 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 cup cocoa powder

Ganache

3/4 cup (185 ml) thin cream

150 g dark chocolate, finely chopped

1 tbsp. maple syrup

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160 deg. C.

Grease a 20 cm round cakepan and line with baking paper.

On a low heat, warm the oil in a medium size saucepan, which is large enough to hold all of the ingredients when needed.

Add the brown sugar, maple syrup and chocolate and stir until the chocolate is melted. Remove saucepan from the heat.

Add the grated beetroot to the pan.

Whisk the eggs in a small bowl and then add them to the saucepan.

Sift the flour and cocoa powder together and stir into the cake and beetroot batter.

Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 50 minutes - 1 hour or until the mixture pulls away from the side of the tin and a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Leave the cake to cool for 5 minutes in the tin, before turning out and cooking completely.

Ganache Method:

Combine all of the ingredients in a small saucepan over a low heat. 

Stir over a medium-low heat, for 5 minutes, or until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth and glossy.

Leave to cool for 10 minutes, when the mixture should thicken slightly, and pour small amounts gradually over the cake. Cover the top of the cake first, and then smooth the ganache around the sides of the cake.

Perfecto.

This post is part of the In My Kitchen series hosted by the lovely Sherry from Sherry's Pickings, where we share lots of interesting stories from our kitchens over the last month. Today is the deadline to post so my apologies that this might be a bit of a rush job.

Cumquat Marmalade, 2nd Batch 

We were given some more cumquats, a completely different variety of cumquat to last time. These were almost the size of half a small mandarin, and had the largest seeds, and lots of them.

Amazingly, it seemed that every quart in each cumquat contained a seed, we were still removing them from the pot even as the jam was nearly ready to be bottled. Mr. HRK and I both removed all the seeds, or so we thought, the day before so that they could be soaked to extract the pectin, which is the jam thickener. Well weren't we in for a surprise, when seeds kept popping up in the pot as the jam was cooking, until the end of the cooking time. I also had to remove half of the skin when I sliced them up to soak, as some of the skin had dark spots on it.

Anyway not to be deterred, I followed exactly the same formula to  make this marmalade as I did a couple of weeks ago when I made my first batch, although I had a lot more cumquats this time, I just increased the ratio of quantities according to weight. This batch is still delicious, and thickened well, but isn't as clear as the first batch. I'm blaming it on the fruit which I think had been left on the tree too long, anyway it still tastes delicious. "I'm certainly not looking a gift horse in the mouth". Cumquats are a precious commodity. This is the link to my previous Cumquat Marmalade batch recipe in August if you missed it. Dear reader, if you are gifted a jar of Cumquat Marmalade by a friend or relative, please be very appreciative. The maker of this marmalade put her/his heart and soul into making this jam. Jam making is a labour of love and every batch can turn out differently given the differences in fruit quality. I am getting better at it and feel a lot more confident now with jam and marmalade making. This one such a delicious marmalade.

Did I tell you about my new pot? I cooked this latest batch of marmalade in my new beautiful Blue cooking pot. It's a Baccarat Le Connoisseur Limited Edition 6.3 litre model. (I think that's the correct volume.) I needed a large pot that I could transfer from the stove top to the oven and then to the tabletop. I know I'll use it a lot. 

My daughter in Cairns was unwell recently, so we sent her a Care Package from Mum and Dad which she always loves to receive and so did our Son in Law. I hope it helped her recovery. So I did some baking and made a a large Cherry and Brandy cake and a batch of Lemon Crispies. The secret ingredient in the Lemon Crispy slice is corn flakes, and here's the link to the recipe.  So delicious

Lemon Crispies

Nasturtiums from our garden give the slice some colour for afternoon tea at home.

I often make this Boiled fruit cake into two smaller cakes, but this time I used a large square cake tin and sent the whole cake North. Two packets of cherries, lots of mixed fruit and a swig of brandy give this cake a delicious flavour. Here's the recipe and it's story for you.

It's Spring here, and we've been doing a lot of gardening, planting new seedlings, repotting and enjoying being outside in the beautiful weather. I pruned my Pineapple Sage plant a couple of weeks ago and it has responded beautifully by thickening up and flowering. The red flowers bring some nice colour and attract the bees and insects. I added some of the Pineapple Sage leaves to my

 Chickpea and Vegetable Korma curry during the week and they brought a nice little burst of flavour to the dish, in addition to the fresh curry leaves.

Pineapple Sage coming into flower

I've planted beans under the trellis, and two rows of radishes. They are coming along nicely in the warmer weather.

I'll leave you with a couple of photos from our Spring garden. There is a close synergy between the garden and the kitchen at our place, and most gardeners who also enjoy cooking know how beneficial and rewarding it is to grow some of their own produce and how lovely it is to share it with friends and family. Only this morning, our friends P & J dropped off some excess cucumbers and eggplants from their garden which are very much appreciated. Our vegetables are only at the seedling stage, however some orchids are flowering nicely. Mint is a wonderful herb to grow in a pot, however it won"t be long and I'll need to move it into the orchid house for protection from the Summer heat. I love having mint on hand for cooking.

Spring orchids are flowering. This is the Phais Tankervilleae or Swamp Orchid, which I am thrilled to have in flower.

This yellow soft cane Dendrobium orchid is as pretty as a picture.

The Lemon Tree in a pot below has lots of small lemons on, the bees have done their work.

Warm wishes,

Pauline x