Melbourne Christmas nights and lights 2017

Finally I have finished my Christmas baking, Sylvia is in bed and I can relax in front of the Carols by Candlelight on the telly and share one last post before Christmas to show off some of Melbourne (and Geelong's) fantastic festive offerings.

We have been going to see Geelong Christmas lights on Christmas night each year for the last few years but this year we went earlier as this suited my dad better.  He is always part of the trip and so we went with him and my niece Ashy.  Ashy and Sylvia really loved listing the lights.

The lights at Geelong Town Hall were slightly different but fun all the same.

This week we had two late nights out with Sylvia. Firstly we went to the city on Wednesday night to see the sights.   We started with Lord of the Fries burger and fries at Fed Square.

Then headed off for a doughnut.  I really wanted to check out the Doughnut Time Christmas selection but they had closed.  Krrispy Kreme (above) ran out of their Christmas doughnuts.  So we had Ben and Jerry's ice cream.  Sylvia had part of mine because after a taster of the sweet cream and cookies, she chose it and then decided she didn't like it.  My new york fudge was excellent.

It seems we were later than usual on our Christmas city trip.  So we hurried along to the Gingerbread village at the Melbourne Town Hall.  We arrived just before the security guard put the sign up to say they were not taking any more people.  I felt sorry for the guy who had to disappoint lots of little kids by telling them they could not come in.  He was actually a really nice guy.  And we felt really lucky to have just got in to the queue rather than resenting having to wait 10-15 minutes to get in.

I really enjoyed the village this year.  It is made up on iconic Melbourne buildings made of gingerbread.  There were more icons this year than on my last visit.  Above is the MCG and further up is Flinders Street Station.

There were also some really great attention to detail.  Sylvia was very excited about the doughnut stall.

And we all had fun spotting book titles on this bookstall.

 Federation Square made an appearance which Sylvia enjoyed because we had just been there.

My favourite building was the Royal Children's Hospital.  So much detail.  And as Sylvia and I have been there quite a few times, we recognised quite a few places.  The aquarium, the odd pink and blue figure in the foyer and or course the meerkats.  I really wanted to stay for much longer than we had.

Then we headed to Myer where Sylvia swallowed her disappointments bravely.  It was after 8.30pm and there were still huge queues at the Myer Christmas Windows so we gave them a miss.  Then Santa gave us a miss because he had already gone by the time we arrived.

So we headed back to Fed Square.  The City Square, where the Christmas Village is usually located, has closed for extension to our underground railway.  So the Christmas Village is now in Fed Square.  It is so much better there.  Fed Square is the community hub that the City Square never managed to be.  So now the Christmas village is incorporated into the crowds that are attracted to Fed Square and has a great light show.  The above photos was taken earlier in the night.

And this photos was taken weeks earlier when Sylvia and I were in the city and she got to visit Santa in Fed Square on this visit.  The archway of baubles and stars was really popular for photos both during daylight and when it was lit up at night.  So it was quite an achievement to get this photo with no one in it.

The huge Christmas bauble was a great crowd pleaser - it was fun to walk inside and take photos.  Hard to get near and take a photo without the crowd around it.  But it is fine to share.  It is Christmas after all!

 The Christmas tree was light up and had a light show at regular intervals.  Someone had put a sign in front of it and I sat where Sylvia chose rather than where I could get a clear photo.  I loved how where we sat we could watch the tree light show and then the light show on the building.

Here is the light show on the Fed Square building.  The odd shapes on the building made it a bit of a challenge to see the pictures but it was a fun story about Santa making and delivering presents.  Lots of graphics of racing past buildings.

And on Friday we drove around to look at lights on the local houses.  This house was amazing and by far the best we saw.

I hope you have your festivities organised or just about.  (And if you don't celebrate, I wish you a relaxing day tomorrow or at least respite from the Christmas songs in the stores.)  And I wish you and yours a Merry Christmas with lots of good food and good company.  We are off to share Christmas dinner with family tomorrow.  Meanwhile Carols has almost finished and I still need to wrap some presents.  Back soon to share some Christmas food.

Balieys biscuit fudge - and some other photos

We had a neighbour over for Baileys when Sylvia had a sleepover at her gymnastics club last weekend.  It had been a long time since we drank any Baileys.  The bottle has sat there for months and often I am not in the mood or just forget.  So when I wanted to make something for our last group meeting at work for the year, I decided it must have Baileys in it.

I wanted to make Baileys brownies but all the dense fudgy brownie recipes didn't have liquid in them.  So I settled on a biscuit fudge - a riff on the unbaked chocolate slice with biscuits in it variously known as hedgehog, fridge cake, tiffin and other such inscrutable names.

It suited me to make an easy no bake slice that could be made quickly after I baked a batch of gingerbread for Sylvia's class party.  It would have suited me not to turn the oven on at all after a 36 C day but there were orders to be fulfilled. 

I cut the fudge into small bites the next morning and we ate it after the meeting.  It was meant not just as a Christmas treat but also as a thank you to the fantastic people I work with who were willing to go out of their way to help with some busy events last week.  It is great to have a group of adults who will readily eat such treats as I can't make it for most groups in my life because it is not kid-friendly.

They are such nice people that they all told me how much they loved the fudge.  It was quite rich and a little alcoholic but one of my colleagues was surprised later to hear it had any alcohol in it.  So it is for adults, but will suit the faint of heart.

And I have some photos to share that I will tag onto this post.  Firstly are a few I took of our group christmas lunch.  We went barefoot bowling at one of the local bowling clubs (that is bowls not ten pen bowling).  I was sad that at the meal, we also farewelled the only other vegetarian in the group but at least we still have some foodies left who love to discuss all sorts of food and baking.  The vegetarian offerings were great with lots of salad and barbecued vegies as well as haloumi and vegie burgers.

We had a bowls tournament before dessert.  My partner and I had a game plan to get to the dessert table as soon as possible.  (That means we played really badly.)  It was lots of fun and dessert was excellent too.  I took along gingerbread.  We also had baklava and chocolate wafers and lots of fruit.

I didn't take any photos of the food at our back-to-back work events the week before.  So instead I will share a photo of nearby Gunnamatta Beach.  This is the beach that was too scary for us kids to swim in when we were little and I still have an instinctive fear of it and would only wade in the tide.

Just in case you think I am exaggerating, it is 50 years on the weekend since we lost Australian Prime Minster, Harold Holt in Cheviot Beach just up the Mornington Peninsula and his body was never found.

Fortunately the food was less scary.  Generally it was pretty good with lots of salads, arancini balls and lamingtons.  I did learn that when you order a vegetarian meal at a sit down dinner, it is best not to go off talking to colleagues on the other side of the room.  And I managed to be on a table the came 2nd in the trivia quiz.

We also had our departmental Christmas lunch this week.  Yes there has been a lot of eating out lately with work. There were lots of good salads and black forest cake for dessert.  Unfortunately the bureaucracy decreed that there would be no frisbees on the oval by the pavillion where we were eating.  But what do you expect of a workplace where the costs of corridors is a talking point!

The above platter is from my own kitchen and put together with very little energy (which is all I have had to spare for the kitchen lately).  Dips, vegies and turkish bread are a favourite summer lunch.  We had this when Sylvia's kinder friend and her mum came over to help decorate our Christmas tree on the weekend.  (When we went to a carols service the week before and Santa asked who had decorated their tree, Sylvia was very cross she could not say yes.)

The day after, we went to my parents to help decorate the tree.  I was enjoying it until my camera stopped working.  I felt pretty silly when I took it to the camera shop and they said it was just a full memory card. I also was a bit annoyed that there was no clear sign of this on the camera (that I bought last year and have been filling the one memory card since) and not clear diagram of what all the numbers on the display mean if you look up the instruction manual.  Anyway crisis over.

So you see it has been a crazy busy time and the next few days will continue to be crazy.  If you want an easy last minute festive gift for adults, I highly recommend this fudge.  It is pretty adaptable to different liquors or add ins.  I hope to be back before Christmas with a few more festive photos.  Hope your holiday preparations are going well.

More fudge on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Black bean cacao fudge (gf, v)
Caramel fudge (gf)
Chocolate layered fudge (peppermint or caramel) (gf, v)

Hedgehog fudge with dried cherries
Nutella fudge (gf or vegan version (gf, v)
Vegemite fudge 

Baileys Biscuit Fudge
Adapted from taste.com.au and Olive Magazine

160g shortbread
1/2 cup cranberries
1/3 cup slivered almonds
200g dark chocolate
1/3 cup condensed milk
4 tbsp Baileys Irish cream
1 dessertspoon of butter

Line a 15cm square tin.  Break up or cut shortbread into chunks.  Measure out cranberries and almonds (because you want to be prepared to mix them in before chocolate mixture thickens).  Gently melt chocolate, condensed milk, Baileys and butter.  Mix in shortbread, cranberries and slivered almonds.  Scrape into prepared tin and use the back of a spoon to smooth down the mixture into the tin.  Chill until firm - I did this overnight.  Slice into small chunks - I sliced mine 6 x 6 so I had 36 pieces.  Wipe knife occasionally and dry if you want your pieces to look neat when you slice them.

NOTES: I used Lindt chocolate - 100g of 78% dark chocolate and 100g of sea salt dark chocolate.  This fudge is as rich as the chocolate you use.  I also used margarine rather than butter.  I didn't measure it very precisely, hence calling for a dessertspoon of butter.  Feel free to substitute the liquor of your choice or different add-ins. I probably could have had some more add-ins but I liked having lots of fudge around them.

On the Stereo:
Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Christmas Novelty CD of All Time - Various Artists

Sticky Gingerbread Cupcakes

Last night Sylvia asked if the smell of gingerbread or a real pine Christmas tree was better.  I said she was lucky to have both in the house.  We had been baking gingerbread biscuits for her class Christmas party.  Gingerbread has been her thing lately.  (All Christmas is her thing actually.)  She spied some really cute gingerbread sprinkles in the shops so we baked gingerbread cupcakes a week or so ago just to decorate with them.

As I have previously mentioned, it has been pretty crazy this festive season.  As well as the usual tree decorating, Christmas lighting ogling, carols services and play dates, we had two huge back to back events at work last week.  At the same time my computer broke down at home.  I missed it a lot.  But there was also a lot of freedom in not being online as much.

When we decided to make cupcakes, instead of heading to my computer - which was in computer hospital, Sylvia and I sat browsing cookbooks from the shelves.  It is far too long since I have done that.  (I'd like to say it has made me realise I should do it more but now my computer is back I am already back to my online ways even if I haven't had much time for blogging.)

Sylvia insisted we use treacle instead of golden syrup and we went really fancy with the icing.  Sadly we did not have lemon juice so the icing was a bit plain tasting but looked pretty good.  The cupcakes also tasted great.  (They lasted a week in an airtight container and were a bit dry but still edible.)

We made them to take to a local carols service to attend in lieu of the one that was cancelled the previous weekend.  Sylvia packaged up the cupcakes very nicely but when we took them out at the carols, they were a little mis-shapen.

As Sylvia has been quite taken by gingerbread this year, she has asked me to share a few gingerbread photos.  It is just a small part of the gingerbread in her life lately. 

Here is the gingerbread advertising at Coles supermarket.

These are Sylvia's gingerbread pyjamas.

A gingerbread man from Ferguson Plarre bakery.

Gingerbread cream that Sylvia got me to buy.  E says it is like brandy butter without the brandy.

Gingerbread recipes and a packet of gingerbread shortbread that Syliva rejected but E is enjoying.

Finally we saw the gingerbread village in the Melbourne Town Hall tonight.  It was great with a few new buildings such as Flinders Street Station (above).  I hope to find time for some more Christmas posts soon!  Lots to share but so little time.

More gingerbread recipes on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Gingerbread biscuits
Gingerbread houses (small) with vegan royal icing 
Gingerbread squares with peel (v)
Lebkuchen  
Plum gingerbread sponge pudding
Rebecca's gingerless gingerbread
Treacle gingerbread

Sticky Gingerbread Cupcakes
Adapted from The Family Circle New Muffin Cookbook
Makes 12 cupcakes and 24 mini muffins

Dry ingredients:
2 cups white self raising flour
3/4 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 cup brown sugar
3 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda

Wet ingredients:
2/3 cup treacle or molasses
100g butter or margarine
1 cup buttermilk (we used soy milk with a tsp of vinegar set aside at beginning)
1 egg lightly beaten

Mix dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Melt treacle and butter together.  Mix with remaining wet ingredients and fold into dry ingredients.  Spoon into lined muffin trays.  Bake at 200 C for 20-25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the middle.  Cool on a wire rack.

NOTES: Our cupcakes were dairy free because we used dairy free margarine and instead of buttermilk I mixed soy milk with a tsp of cider vinegar and set it aside to curdle at the start.  Icing and sprinkles are optional.  We iced our cupcakes with buttermilk but I would have preferred a lemony cream cheese frosting if I had been better organised. 

On the Stereo:
White Christmas: Bing Crosby

Coburg Night Market 2017

It has been incredibly busy lately so my blogging energy has been down and then defeated by my dying computer hard drive.  But even if it had be healthier I probably would have still gone to ground with last week being so busy at work.  Ending the week at the Coburg Night Market last night was a nice way to relax after an intense week. 

The Coburg Night Market runs for four weeks running up to Christmas each year, but was cancelled for one of these this year due to crazy storms and it was shut earlier another week due to more storms.  We got along for the three weeks that it opened.  It is indeed full of fun and good food!  So now that my computer is repaired, here are a few photos from this year.

The market has lots of colourful handcrafts.

Foodie presents anyone?

Lots of interesting clothes.

Sylvia's favourite thing was decorating your own cupcake.

I ate well.  The first week I had an Ethiopian vegetarian platter at Saba's which was one of the cheaper meals I had at $10.  It consisted of Birsen (red lentils), Ful (fava beans with feta), Alicha Birsen (yellow split peas), and Key sir (stewed beetroot) served with Injera (fermented flat bread).  I really enjoyed it, despite it being very spicy.  

The second week I went to the unfortunately named Eat The Chicken for pad thai with tofu and a couple of spring rolls on the side.  They were nice spring rolls but 4 spring rolls for $12 was not cheap.  The noodles were good too though I would have liked more vegetables. 

Last night I went for snacky food.  Sylvia had curly spuds each week but I didn't get any of them.  I shared a few arancini balls with E and then we decided to share some Sangria.  It was stronger than I expected and a huge cup but I enjoyed it on a pleasant summer evening.

Then we went to the Sri Lankan Street Food truck for the roti and curry sauce ($6).  I was so taked by the cute cones of chickpeas that I decided to have some in my curry sauce.  A good decision.  E and I shared this while we drank Sangria and enjoyed both.  The curry sauce was spicy but really good.  We ate ice cream (love the salted caramel) and drank excellent ginger lemonade for dessert

Each week it felt we didn't get around to as many stalls as I would have liked, thanks  to imminent rain or tired kids etc.  Yet I enjoyed some of the stalls.  The woman with the cute tea towels and quirky badges, the berry stall, and the Christmas scented candles all piqued my interest.

Sadly my lesson last night was that you don't always get a second chance.  Sylvia had begged for sweet and salty popcorn at the last market so I said she could get some last night.  But they were not there.  Maybe next year!

Read previous posts about my visit to the Coburg Night Market in  2013, 2014 and 2016.

Coburg Night Market
Bridges Rd Reserve
(03) 9640 0028
http://coburgnightmarket.com/

Wild rice, cranberry, celery and walnut salad

It may be beginning to look a lot like Christmas but my computer is not giving out any festive cheer.  Instead it is refusing to turn on.  I am most displeased with it.  Luckily it is only 2 weeks since I backed up but I think it needs a computer doctor.  So I am on E's computer without all my usual systems or downloaded photos and managing a short whinging post.  Fortunately salads have not been so frustrating.

This wild rice salad was quite good.  Not quite perfect.  I at first added some maple syrup and mustard but found it a bit oily so next time reduced the olive oil to 1 tbsp and then used 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar rather than 1/2 tsp maple syrup.  It was a bit too tangy to be a meal but very good as a side salad.  It would go well with a creamy potato salad or a festive spread of salads. 

In my first attempt (above and below) I ran out of cranberries and used some dried apricots which I also really loved. I served it one night with vegies, nuts and turmeric chips. 

When I made this salad recently it was hot sweltering weather that called out for salads.  Tonight we have yet another downpour after 127mm in our suburb in 3 days over the weekend.  I am happy to be snug and dry at home and relieved that the rain waited until after our barefoot bowls work Christmas party today.  Meanwhile, I am not sure what is happening with computers so might be fairly quiet until this is fixed.  Sigh!  Just what I need in the crazy season.  On the upside I am enjoying getting lots of reading done.

Wild Rice, cranberry, celery and walnut salad
Adapted from taste.com.au
Serves 6-8 on the side

1/2 cup each brown rice and wild rice
1 cup dried cranberries
2 sticks celery, thinly sliced
1 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp seeded mustard
pinch of seasoning mix

Cook brown rice and wild rice by simmering for 30 minutes.  (You can cook the rices together if you don't mind them both being dark purple.  Cooking them separately will keep the brown rice a lighter colour.)  Rinse with cold water to cool.  Add remaining ingredients and toss well.

On the Stereo:
Songs for the young at heart: Various Artists

In My Kitchen - December 2017

Well they say, it never rains, it pours!  That certainly seems true of my life and the weather.  November has been such a crazy month.  For example, I don't often know people who are in hospital and in a fortnight 4 people around me are in hospital.

As for the weather, we had a hot spring and now the first day of summer brings us storms.  I rode to work and took heed of suggestions I leave early.  I rode through heavy rain and soon after I got home it cleared up.  Sod's law.  But at least it wasn't too wet going to work and I didn't have to deal with a crowded damp public transport system.  But enough talk of the weather.  Let's have a look at my kitchen.

Firstly pizza.  Tonight there was pizza.  We have had tonight's Coburg Night Market and tomorrow night's carols service cancelled due to the weather.  I had planned to have dinner at the market but instead made pizza at home.  It would have been fine but the oven kept going off.  Do heavy rains affect gas supplies?  The pizza at the top and above is one I made a few weeks back with asparagus.  It made me think that asparagus looks pretty but is not an idea pizza topping.

One busy night I bought some Bean Supreme beetroot and black bean burgers, fried up some asparagus and cherry tomatoes.  With some bread rolls, it made a delicious quick meal.

We've enjoyed Smalt fudge and when I saw that local company Smalt had Cold Smoked Honey I had to try some.  It is odd to smell the smoky flavour and taste the sweetness but I like it.  The smoked flavour takes the edge off the tooth aching sweetness of honey.  I really want to bake with it but I also just want to enjoy it on crumpets.

We had fun making watermelon pancakes a few weeks back.  We made green pancakes, spread them with strawberry chia seed jam and then dotted them with choc chips.  The red could have been a bit pinker but it was pretty good and tasted delicious.

One of the purchases that has perplexed me the most is these Pure coconut chips with a smoky barbecue flavour.  They tasted really good, though quite rich as coconut is liable to be.  I really wanted to try them in Joanne's recipe for Spiced Braised Lentils with Tomatoes and Toasted Coconut.

What bamboozled me was the ingredients list.  I could swear there was no coffee in these.  I am sure I would have noticed if there was just coffee flavouring them.  And where did the red come from.  Finally I checked the website and found that there must have been a major typo on the packet because the smoky barbecue ingredients are listed as " Organic coconuts*, organic coconut sugar*, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne, Himalayan pink salt".

With all the warm weather, we have been drinking smoothies for breakfast.  Our strawberry plants have been producing like crazy.  I have had quite a few mornings of bringing in a large handful of berries from the garden.  Sylvia, contrarian as ever, has decided she does not like home grown strawberries, only bought ones.  The home grown ones are really soft and melt in the mouth.

The strawberries are growing well thanks to my mum.  Not only did she buy the plants for us but she also bought some netting to put over the strawberries to stop the birds and insects eating them.  (No it is not on in the above photo).  We have not used netting for our blueberry plant and it is not boasted many berries.

I've been enjoying experimenting with my favourite overnight sourdough bread.  This version had 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup of tomato paste, 1/4 cup olive oil and 1 tbsp honey added to my regular recipe (with salt reduced to 12g).  It was good but not as much flavour as I had hoped.  I enjoyed some bread rolls for lunch and also had fun making a few into fish.

Here is a close up of some of my tomato and parmesan bread.  It was lovely, especially in a fancy sandwich with a cold Wild Rice Burger.

I love listening to the discussions about advertising on Gruen.  They recently talked about special editions of favourite brands.  For example Tim Tams do lots of special editions that cost more and have less biscuits in a packet than the regular Tim Tams.  They laughed at the idea of this Vegemite Blend 17 limited edition jar.  So did I.  Yet when I saw it in the shops I still wanted to try it.  We have not quite got through the last jar so I still haven't tasted it.

Meanwhile for those looking for a cute gift idea, I noticed that our local KMart is doing personalised Vegemite jars.  For the person who has everything!

The supermarkets have lots of Christmas decorations and stuff that is just a cynical exercise in marketing and filling our houses (and landfill) with stuff we don't need kicking about.  But I liked this idea of Colour Your Own bunting from Coles.  Sylvia did too and we already have it hanging in the house.  She has embraced Christmas with a passion this year. 

When we made squeezy bottle pancakes recently, Christmas shapes were a must.  Such as this Christmas tree.  I have been resisting the Christmas bug as much as possible.

For me, 1 December is the day to start taking out all the Christmas books, CDs, and decorations (the Christmas tree is still a couple of weeks away).  Sylvia has been sneaking out what she can over the last few weeks but today she knew I would let her take what she wants so this morning she took as much out as she could from the shelves and after school, got our everything else.  There is no avoiding that Christmas will be here very soon.  Hope you are coping with the Christmas onslaught!

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event, that was started by Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial,  If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 10th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to peek into more kitchens.