Thursday 6 November 2014

Smoked cheese spread, weekend, random notes and facebook

Entertaining always leaves leftovers in my fridge.  I had bought more cheese than necessary for our recent birthday lunch.  It went into a delicious cheese spread that saw us through a long weekend.  Sylvia had a holiday on Monday as well as the Melbourne Cup public holiday on Tuesday.  So here is an overview of the weekend interspersed by craft, the zoo and the cinema.  Oh and I have some random reflections to share as well.

I have already told you about the birthday lunch on Saturday.  On Sunday we had a quiet day at home. It seemed an excellent opportunity for some craft.  Sylvia got out her craft tablecloth and craft box.  She was keen.  We also got out the paints and she set about painting some pictures while I cut out some cake shapes for her to paint.  (Template from here.)

Meanwhile I started some birthday cake collages I had been keen to try. The idea is to rip layers of cakes from craft papers.  We have a ridiculous amount of patterned papers and this was a fun way to use them.  Though it did leave the loungeroom in a mess.

Meanwhile we needed lunch.  I had ambitiously planned to make cheese balls for the cracker spiders the previous day and had bought some nice cheese that never got used.  So I mixed it with leftover cream cheese and seasoning.  It was delicious, albeit quite rich.  It wasn't that easy to spread.  Perhaps a bit of butter would help that so I have added it as an optional extra to the recipe below.  It would be very good in a ball rolled in crushed walnuts for entertaining.

For lunch I made sandwiches with smoky potato salad, vegie sticks and kale chips.  (The leftover kale chips were great and I loved having some ready chopped vegies!)  It was so good.  Afterwards I had to finish the collages.  Sylvia had done with her paints so she helped me and even made some of her own.

For dinner that night we had hotdogs.  I have had Fry's hotdogs in the fridge for far to long.  Actually they were 2 months past the best by date.  Oops.  I wasn't overly keen on the hotdogs but I have never found a vegetarian hotdog that I like.  When I was young my mum would make hotdogs on weekends occasionally.  I have never found hotdogs that have the red colour and the crunch of the skin that characterised the hotdogs I knew.  These ones were good served with some cheese spread, kale chips and tomato sauce in the hotdog buns.

Finally on the Monday, Sylvia and I went to the zoo while E had to work.  I made a cheese and chutney sandwich for E with the spread and for me I made a sandwich of cheese spread, chutney and kale chips.  Sylvia had cheese and vegemite sandwiches.  I am not in the habit of taking sandwiches out with us a lot but now that Sylvia has come to appreciate cheese and vegemite sandwiches, thanks to school lunches, we do it occasionally.

We go to the zoo frequently enough that I just hone in on favourite animals these days.  The meerkats are always entertaining.  Not only are they so cute to watch but I really like the sense of community.  The little meerkat here is on the lookout on behalf of his buddies.  We went to see the seals who were a unusually inactive.

Two elephants in the pool.
The trail of the elephants is a favourite with us.  It is created to imitate walking through the jungles of Thailand and has lots of interesting jungle infrastructure as well as animals.  Many times we have walked this trail without seeing much of the elephants.  So it was fascinating to see quite a bit of them on this visit.  It was a warm day and we spent some time watching them play in the water.  Mostly submerged, squirting, cuddling tusks and ... er... pooing.

I had promised Sylvia an ice cream so we sat to enjoy it.  When we walked back past the elephants, they were out of the water and walking about.  It was quite amusing seeing one recalcitrant elephant refusing to come for its hay.  The little baby elephant (above) was very sweet.

The trail of the elephants also include the butterfly house and the orangutangs.  The butterfly house is mesmerising with so many butterflies fluttering about and landing on the watching people.  Sylvia was most displeased to have a butterfly land on her hat.  We enjoyed watching some of the orangutangs playing on the ropes and platforms.

As we were ready to leave we walked past the giraffes only to find they had gone to bed.  I was most displeased.  Sylvia was very pleased to buy a bag that came with colouring in pens to colour in the picture on the side of it.  The next day we went to see the House of Magic at the cinema.  It was a movie that was at times cute, spooky and heartwarming.  I liked it, only not as much as I thought I should.

Home made cash register at the cousins cafe.
Now I have some random notes to share:
  • Great article about our relationship with food and cooking by John Lanchaster in The New Yorker.  I was struck by his comment "[f]or the most part, recipes are useful only when you already have a pretty good idea of how to cook."  A theme that rears its head in food blogging every now and again.  (Thanks for the link Lucy.)
  • Sylvia was playing cafes with her cousins the other day.  They create a cafe in my parents' loungeroom and ask for customers to visit.  My dad came along and asked for a steak.  Sylvia had to ask for a steak to be pointed out to her in the plastic food items.  Then I asked for something vegetarian and my nephew had trouble finding something for me on the menu they had written.  All a learning process!
  • I enjoyed listening to the Gough Whitlam memorial service yesterday.  And I have been watching a documentary on our former prime minister called The Power and The Passion.  One of the interesting pieces of trivia was that when he went to China in 1971 he forgot his brylcreem and after that never used it again!  Which explains the slicked back hair in earlier photos and the fluffier hair later.  Trivia aside, I still have that pang of what our country would be like if he hadn't been sacked!
  • I was astounded to read on The Ecologist that the UK throws away enough pumpkin to make 360 million portions of soup, pie or cake.  It is even more surprising that the Brits need a campaign to educate them about recipes to use pumpkin.  But then again, I guess they didn't have pumpkin a few times a week on their dinner plate as a child like I did.  (Thanks for the link Kate.)

Roses in our garden - thanks to my mum who gives them lots of TLC.
Finally I wanted to reflect on Facebook.  This week I have reached 100 Likes on my blog page.  Thank you to those of you who have liked the page.  It feels good.  Though I read that it is estimated that my posts will only reach about 6% of the people who Like my page.  Wow!  I Since starting my FB blog page in August, I have found it has been another way to engage with readers but also another drain on my limited time for my blog.  However I have found it useful for following other blogs.  There are some blogs that don't show up in my blog list on the side bar that I use instead of a feed reader.  I have been able to keep up with these blogs through FB.  This has helped demonstrate the value of a FB blog page.

In a related note, recently I stumbled across a FB post where someone had shared the apple slice recipe on my blog.  It has been shared a gobsmacking 75,000 times.  (As well as lots of shares on Pinterest and gawks on FoodGawker.)  I had noticed the spike in my blog stats but it was impossible to see where it was coming from in Facebook until a friend tagged me.  I still get frustrated with the exclusive nature of Facebook.  Yet I also find it a useful way to share information and links.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
One year ago: Apple and white chocolate blondies
Two years ago: Zaatar - friendly middles eastern bakery cafe
Three years ago: WHB Twice cooked apple cake
Four years ago: Afghans – childhood comfort food
Five years ago: The Cornbread that Stops a Nation
Six years ago: Soup from the Black Lagoon
Seven years ago: Easy Peasy Risotto Soup

Smoked cheese spread
Inspired by Martha Stewart
Makes a scant cup

100g good cheddar cheese
90g cream cheese spread
1-2 tbsp of butter or margarine (I didn't use)
1/2 tsp each smoked paprika, seeded mustard, worcestershire sauce
dash of chilli powder

Mix all ingredients and serve immediately or keep for up to 24 hours in the fridge.

On the Stereo:
American Industrial Songs: Pete Seeger

22 comments:

  1. I make greeting cards with colorful fabric scraps (just like the papers you used) but your cards are way cuter than anything I've made!! So adorable.

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    1. Thanks Nupur - your greeting cards sound lovely - I have done a few with fabric scraps but wasn't sure about gluing the material - these cakes are on bigger pieces of paper than greeting cards so I could add more detail

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  2. You are right about most of us brits not eating the pumkin just using it for halloween then throwing it away - it is not something that is a regular on the british dinner table. I on the other hand love it and make soup or pumkin pie whenever I can. Canned pumkin is not readily available here in the UK so it is usually fresh I use.

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    1. Thanks Lorna - it does seems more and more brits are starting to eat pumpkin - which is why I was amazed at these stats - hopefully there will be more people learning to love eating pumpkin and less waste.

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  3. Happy birthday for last week. It looks like Sylvia is very talented with her craft. How lovely to spend a day at the Zoo. My father actually brought the elephants to Australia. He flew on the plane with them from Thailand and then was with them during their quarantine in the Cocos Islands then finally the journey to Sydney then a few of the girls went to Melbourne. It was a very exciting time and the breeding program has been so successful xx

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    1. Thanks Charlie - what a great story about the elephants - how exciting it would have been for you - did you get to spend time with the elephants - and how scary for them to go on the plane. Watching the elephants the other day gave me a great sense of their playfulness

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  4. Congrats on the 75,000 shares, wow! And those paper cakes look lovely and would make for such lovely birthday cards. My mum looks after my roses in the garden too, I always forget to tend to them so I leave her to it ;)

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    1. Thanks Veganopoulous - the shares were quite surprising and the paper cakes were fun. My mum is great with the roses but last time she cut a bud of a rose for Sylvia. She made me laugh because she was waiting for the stem to grow and then told me she would have to deadhead it. She has been watching my mum!

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  5. That Apple slice recipe is awesome, so I can understand why and well done. II love those craft cakes, but also your cake craft collages, there is def. a crafter in you.

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    1. Thanks Shaheen - I think there is a crafter inside me just waiting for some time and energy to have fun.

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  6. Thanks for the links. I haven't baked any pumpkin this year. Perhaps I will remedy that this weekend.. Also, I am still not a fan of FB but it has some merits, too. Way to go on the viral share!

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    1. Thanks Janet - hope you get stuck into the pumpkin - I really need to use the last of some pumpkin in my fridge too. FB interests me as a phenomenom even if it frustrates me at times.

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  7. I love the cake craft - just gorgeous! I watched the Gough doco too - absolutely fascinating, though like you, I am too young to remember Gough being in power. I want to read a new book about Gough and Margaret - they sound like they were well matched.

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    1. Thanks Cakelaw - the Gough doco was really interesting - I remember watching The Dismissal mini series many years ago and not really understanding it - I think his rise and fall takes a lot of understanding of the political system and is quite hard to get your head around as a young person. Gough and Margaret sound like a fun and fine couple. I was interested to hear she was going to stand for parliament if Gough lost his seat before he was PM.

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  8. Sylvia from the back looks just like my god daughter Evie! It's quite startling really! And don't worry you're not alone about facebook, I find that the biggest challenge too :(

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    1. Thanks Lorraine - Sylvia has a very Australian blondness - there are a few little girls in her school who look like her from the back.

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  9. I too have been surprised that pumpkin isn't really a 'thing' here. Squashes are, but pumpkin seems to be overlooked. Odd! And I always adored meerkats until I learnt on QI that the 'look out' ones are often the smallest and sacrificed to be killed, as they look out on roads and areas disaster is likely to strike! It did put me off a bit.

    On a more positive note, I love your cake cards and mix of foods over the weekend.

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    1. Thanks Kari - I find the whole squahes v pumpkins odd - I grew up thinking squashes = flavourless and pumpkins= flavour but it doesn't seem that way in the UK. And that is disturbing info about the meerkats - I had just heard that one is always on the lookout for the others which I liked but making the littlest do it sounds a bit harsh

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  10. Hi Joanna GGG,
    I enjoy reading your blog, especially your varied thoughts and experiences of the day. To respond to one of your thoughts: those pumpkin statistics sound misleading. At least here in Michigan, where we grow lots of pumpkins, display pumpkins grow large and are suitable for carving or decorating. IN contrast, small, less interesting-looking sugar pumpkins make good pie, soup, pumpkin bread, etc. So the thrown-away ones may not be that great for eating, and thus the waste issue isn't quite what it sounds like. Or maybe it's different in other environments.

    As I said to Gaye, another Melbourne food blogger -- in the spirit of Louise Volper's "Cookbook Wednesday" I'm looking over my Australian cookbooks and food history books, including some Aboriginal histories and some histories of urban Australian foods. I wondered if you could tell me what in your view is the best Australian cookbook? I probably don't own it but at least I could mention it in my post!

    Keep in touch... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

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    1. Thanks Mae - I don't really understand those bright orange pumpkins of halloween - I thought they aren't that tasty because thin fleshed and easy to carve but I thought that people can still eat them. (We have been reading one of the Beverly Clearly 'Ramona' books about a family without much money who salvaged what they could of the pumpkin because they needed to eat what they could.). Good to get your perspective.

      I think one of the best Australian cookbooks is Stephanie Alexander's A Cook's Companion because it is so thorough and she has lots of classic Australian recipes. And the Australian Women's Weekly cookbooks are the other one that many Aussie cooks would own. Your Australian post sounds very interesting.

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  11. These birthday cakes greeting cards look beautiful! Gosh, these Fry’s hot dogs, they look pretty good though! Cheese and vegemite? That’s an interesting combination, I would love to try that with vegan cheeze sometimes! I agree with Mae’s comment above - we also grow lots of pumpkins here in the Northwest and Americans love them for carving or decorating! But we have a lot of winter squashes, especially kabocha squashes around (smaller pumpkins) and they’re so good in everything else.

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  12. Sounds like you've had some lovely times :-) I love LOVE love meerkats, one of my favourite animals!
    Facebook sure can be a time-waster, even though it can also be a handy tool!

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