A picture tells its own story

My pre-Christmas sewing effort was mostly easy; I hope that it becomes a traditional family item.


Another great highlight of the baking for the season was Mum's gingerbread house which the kids decorated...


Then demolished with ease!


Meanwhile, the heat has been too much for the chooks, who are sleeping in their favourite pot plant.

Too hot to knit/sew/craft...

...so instead I am reading again.

I have always loved reading. Not just enjoyed the odd book, but loved and craved reading. I came home from my first day of school (reception in SA, prep in Vic, kindergarten in NSW/ACT) in tears because I had not learned to read yet. High standards even at 5 years old! I remember bringing bagfuls of books home from the library as a kid, and reading through dozens in a week. I remember being accused of cheating in my lists of books read over the school holidays in year 7/form 1, and I remember the librarian at school trying to get me to read War and Peace (I had zero interest in it at age 14!)

Instead I discovered the trilogy or series of books.

Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising sequence, Narnia books, Ramona books, Dorrie the witch, Secret Seven and Famous Five, as well as many others.

Now Master 7 appears to have this reading bug too. He reads very fast and processes well. His comprehension is not yet up to the larger and more complex books, but Zac Power and Geronimo Stilton in particular, as well as Tashi and Battle Boy books are consumed at an extraordinary pace.

I have always had an obsession with collecting Agatha Christie Books. In fact there are only a few titles that I am hunting down and then my collection will be complete. They are have all been read and re-read dozens of times.

Last week I read the Wildacre trilogy by Philippa Gregory. This trilogy is not necessarily recommended, but on my to-do list. The third book, Meridon, was a chore to get through.

Recently read over the Summer have been:

Remarkable Creatures - Tracy Chevalier (author of Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Lady and the Unicorn). Interesting historical fiction about fossil collection;

Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger. I enjoyed this so much more than her Time Traveller's Wife. Just as extreme but this was somehow mildly believeable...!

The Wideacre Trilogy - Philippa Gregory. I love her books, however this trilogy although gripping for the first 2 books, was disturbing. The tudor court books such as The Boleyn Inheritance are much better reading.

Currently on the go are the following books:

Committed - Elizabeth Gilbert (already wanting to argue with her and not even 100 pages in!)

Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky (makes me realise how ordinary my vocabulary is!)

Can't Eat, Won't Eat - Brenda Legge (brilliant book about Austism Spectrum Disorder and Asperger Syndrome and the issue of eating - love this book)

Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks - John Curran (present from Mr BB at Christmas; reads like an academic dissertation on Agatha Christie's methods. Fascinating)

Excel HSC Ancient History Book 1 - P. Roberts (just for interest - I always wish I had done an Arts Degree!)

Still to come in the next pile which may come to the beach next week are:

Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf (can't believe I've never read it!)

The Slap - Christos Tsiolkas (am I the last person to read this?)

Look Me in the Eye - John Elder Robinson (another one about Aspergers).

A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf (I have read this every January since 1992. We read it in year twelve, and every year I get something different from it as my life develops. Mr BB also bought me the mug for Christmas - favourite mug at the moment!)

Enjoy your reading - got any good recommendations for Summer reading?

Just realised that this post is just a list - oh well, a good record for me of what's passing by the bedside table!

J

If you thought I made a hash of the shortbread recipe...

Some time ago I saw the lovely film Julie and Julia. Now it has been 6 weeks since I read my bloglines so have no idea what others are up to (I will remedy this over the weekend!)


I have been pondering the Beef Burgundy which is lauded in the film, and decided that tonight I will cook it for Mr BB along with lashings of buttery mashed potato.

Here begin-eth the Drama.

Googled the recipe - easy. Start the conversions. It is now that I remember that Australian metric conversions are not the same as around the world. Will this impact on the result? Does this mean that all table- and tea-spoon amounts need converting too? A quick clickety trip to Wikipedia informs me that yes, this is the case. In fact Mr Wiki tells me there is "no internationally-agreed standard definition of the cup, whose modern volume ranges between 200-284ml). The cup sizes generally used in the many Commonwealth countries and the U.S differ by up to 44ml."

Am I just making things hard for myself? (Clearly yes), however what if the recipe fails spectacularly due to too much (or too little) liquid?!

Surely this can be easy I think. I am over-thinking this.

A 6 ounce piece of chunk bacon is 170g. 3 pounds of stewing beef is 1.36kg (call it 1.4kg). So 3 cups of red wine (Julia Childs specifies a young and full-bodied red) is.... conversion chart at the ready...

1 US cup = 237ml
1 US 'legal' cup = 240ml
1 imperial cup = 284ml.

240 x 3 = 720ml
284 x 3 =852ml.

132ml difference...

OK I think. Start over. Australian tablespoon 20ml, American 15ml. Hmm.

It is at this point that I think I will visit a bookshop and see if the modern incantation of the cookbook is metric or imperial. For the sake of $40 and my sanity (and YOUR sanity), and of course Mr BB's belly, I'll buy the frigging book!

NB: the only measurement that is the same in Australia/NZ/US/Canada/UK is a teaspoon, which we all agree is 5ml! Trivia for the day!.

x

Well overdue update...

So clearly the Christmas season is well and truly gone, decorations are down, mince pies all eaten! I have had several questions from friends about The Shortbread Outcome.

Derelict as the laptop has been over the past month, I have blown off the dust and return; hopefully more regularly; to the realm of writing and sharing that is this blog!

I took The Shortbread very seriously. So seriously that It Never Got Made. kid you not. I got totally bogged down in my research. I had columns and charts, I interviewed devotees (both in eating and baking), and analysed my own results. I took notes of tips, ingredient annotations and different methods. I was warned off by an elderly officianado who told me that in Canberra shortbread never works well unless you have air conditioning. It's too hot/dry/dusty/etc apparently. Who knew? This was corobborated by another friend who had the same experience.

After all the brilliant investigations, it was Christmas Eve, and I didn't have the half salted and half un-salted butter receommended by Margaret Fulton, so chickened out.

There. I admitted it. Part of the reason for not posting for so long was the shame!!! Maybe now the pressure is off I can bake to my hearts' content...

j

Christmas Baking - The Great Shortbread recipe hunt

Shortbread. You either love it or don't - there is no middle ground. My Nan used to make shortbread in little rounds with half an almond on top. This was always a hit with me, and I loved the buttery texture. Some shortbread is too crumbly, some is too hard, a lot is just gluggy. Mum's friend J has The Best shortbread I have had since Nan's. Consistently good, it's the kind of thing that you can't say no to, even when you are full to the brim and couldn't possibly fit another thing in.... except J's shortbread. Yummm.

So for the first time, I am determined to make my own. Yes, me of the instant gratification is Planning Ahead!

However, it is not so easy. Which recipe do I use? J is away and uncontactable, so her prized recipe eludes me. Rice Flour - you need that don't you? Recipe on the box - would this be a good start? Then I remember the 4 ingredients book, and also that Margaret Fulton was from Scottish heritage, so hers will be a winner won't it? How can recipes vary so much for a little biscuit? All sources however tell me that the oven is important. My old, unreliable, stand-alone burns things on the bottom when it intermittently fires out heat, do I need to outsource the actual baking?!? I am still not giving up, despite the supermarket shelves groaning under the weight of commercial shortbreads. I am determined. A woman on a mission. So where do you go when Google is unsatisfactory? The Blogworld!

So I ask YOU - do you have a recipe that produces light, crisp, buttery goodness that I could try please? In the vein of Julie and Julia I am tempted to blindly turn to Margaret Fulton, forsaking all others, but am open to suggestions.

In the meantime, I will make the mince pie pastry and await any suggestions!

With thanks - J

Weather or not...

Hot one day, cool and grey the next. The summer doona had a blanket on it last night, wheat bags and the fan are in the same room, and I don't know whether to make soup or salad. With November temperatures 10 degrees C above the monthly average, I had thought that my knitting would be put aside for a while. NO. Another tea cosy in this weather! This time it's the green and pink one in the top left corner, but I am making it cherry red and cream. The big satin bow for it may be black unless I can find just the right shade of red. Instant gratification knitting!

Strawberry Fields Forever...

A home-grown snack was collected and brought in for eating a few minutes ago. Miss 3 loves having her own strawberry plants, but there just aren't enough of them to keep her satisfied for long. They are so sweet and juicy though - yum!