Tomato orzo with chickpeas and mushrooms

Sylvia was dubious when I suggested making the Kitchn's Tomato orzo with chickpeas but it has become one of our favourite meals of last year.  It is excellent comfort food.  And quick to put together with store cupboard items.  Think of it as pasta c ceci meets risotto. 

It is a forgiving recipe that is open to variations.  If you want it vegan it is great without the parmesan.  I am sure it would even work with arborio rice for the gluten free crowd.  We liked to add mushrooms and sometimes a handful of spinach at the end.  And I like using passata rather than tinned tomatoes.  Most of all I have learnt to use my wide flat metal eggflip (or spatula) to stir regularly.

You see, the best advice for making this pasta is: keep on stirring.  When I first made it, I found that the pasta would stick to the bottom in clumps and sometimes burn.  I now add a little extra water and stir it a lot.  And when I say stir I don't mean to for the eggflip to meander around the saucepan.  This is stirring with intent.  It is scraping all the orzo that is clinging to the bottom of the saucepan and making it move around with the rest of the mixture.  There is a "no resting on the bottom of the saucepan" rule here.

Here is one of our variations.  We tried it using tiny pasta.  Sometimes we like to wander the aisles of the Mediterranean Wholesalers in Brunswick and marvel at the variety of pasta in all sizes and shapes.  We also find that my favourite brand of AnnaLisa chickpeas are cheaper there than the ones at the supermarket.  Like everything the price of chickpeas has skyrocketed lately and now is up to $1.90 per 400g tin.  The orzo we buy is actually risoni and I still can't work out the difference but I say orzo in the recipe as it is a satisfying word to say.  We also used chives instead of basil or parsley.

It makes a lot.  I make it in my stockpot.  (Apologies if I use saucepan and stockpot interchangeably).  It is easy enough to make after work.  Coming home to a pot of leftover orzo is even easier than making it.  So quick and yet it brings to mind an Italian nona in a cosy kitchen serving up bowls of this to a big family.  This is home cooking at its best.

More comforting pasta recipes on Green Gourmet Giraffe blog:

Chickpea pilaf (gf, v)
Chickpea, potato and cauliflower curry (gf, v)
Chickpea, potato and tomato stew (gf, v) 
Chickpea and spinach soup (with noodles) (gf, v)
One pot pasta with chickpeas and zucchini (v)
Risoni with chickpeas, lemon, and mint (v)
Slow cooked smoky chickpeas (gf, v) 

Tomato orzo with chickpeas and mushrooms
Slightly adapted from The Kitchn
serves 6-8

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small brown onion, chopped
10-12 button mushrooms, chopped into quarters
500g dried orzo pasta (or risoni)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
5-6 cups vegetable stock
700g bottle of passata (pureed tomatoes)
2 x 400g tins of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
1/4 cup loosely packed chopped fresh basil or parsley

Heat oil over medium heat in a stockpot and fry onions for about 3-5 minutes until softened.  Add mushrooms and garlic.  Fry for another 5-10 minutes until softened.  

Stir in the orzo for a minute.  Add 5 cups of stock, passata, chickpeas and a little seasoning.  Cover, bring to the boil, keeping an eye on the mixture sticking to the bottom - I used my eggflip halfway through it coming to the boil to scrape the mixture off the bottom of the saucepan.  Then simmer, covered, for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly - again I regularly scraped the bottom of the saucepan to stop the orzo sticking to the bottom.  Feel free to add more stock if it needs a bit more.  Especially if you will have leftovers because the orzo will absorb the moisture.  

When the orzo is cooked, stir in the parmesan.  Now check and adjust seasoning.  Serve with more grated parmesan and basil or parsley.

NOTES:

• Feel free to leave out mushrooms or add other vegies.  I think pumpkin would be great in this.
• I use water and stock powder to make my stock.
• To make it vegan, leave out the parmesan and either add vegan parmesan, nutritional yeast flakes or just extra seasoning.

On the Stereo:
Wild Type: Duece

Mr Grumpy's Cafe, Mulgrave

 

We had lunch at Mr Grumpy's cafe in Mulgrave back in August with friends who live out that way.  I don't often eat out in that part of Melbourne.  It seems so far away.  I was impressed at Sylvia finding some interesting looking cafes.  And I was impressed with Mr Grumpy's.

It is a small cafe in a small row of shops just off a busy road.  I liked that it had artwork on the walls and red baseball caps for sale with the cheeky take on the MAGA slogan saying Make Mulgrave Great Again.  The menu has changed since we were there but on ubereats I can see there is lots of Quesadillas, filled Zataar bread as well as the usual egg dishes, smashed avo and toasties.

When it came to ordering the menu had a few interesting offerings.  Sylvia only wanted vegemite on toast as she could only face plain food that day.  I wanted warm food because it was a cold winter's day.  Not much of the hot food appealed but I liked the look of the crunchy noodle salad with warm falafels and hummus (top photo).  It was really nice and a different way to have falafels.  The crunchy noodle salad was a large serving of fried noodles, capsicum, grated carrot, cabbage and other crunchy vegetables with a nice dressing.  I was really full at the end of the meal.

Our friends both had the fancy scrambled eggs which were presented in a pretty rose shape.  Yav had roasted mushrooms on the side and her daughter had a lot of bacon with hers.  We all enjoyed our meals but were too full for any of the cakes and doughnuts.  It was really nice to catch up in a different part of town but we had to watch the clock as there was a time limit on our parking space.

Mr Grumpy's Cafe
899 Springvale Road, Mulgrave
Open 6am to 3pm weekdays and 7am to 3pm weekends
www.facebook.com/mrgrumpymulgrave

Fruit mince muesli (granola) - using Christmas leftovers

Since I started blogging I have found some favourite recipes.  Occasionally they merge together in a wonderful way that means I can have whisky for breakfast.  I jest but seriously I did find that putting my fruit mince into muesli was delicious but I found the whiff of whisky in the morning just a bit much.  I was glad it settled after some time.

My breakfasts go in cycles.  After lots of peanut butter on toast each morning, I started buying muesli and fruit yoghurt to have instead.  Then I read about Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs) and decided it was time to make my own muesli again.  As an aside on UPFs, I find the idea useful for convincing myself not to be tempted by new flavours in the supermarket (sometimes) but this article "beware the mix of food and fear" talks about the complexity of demonising UPFs so we should be wary about hard and fast rules on what we eat.

I experimented with a muesli recipe that I loved: Tahini, quinoa and apricot toasted muesli.  I really love the way that the tahini and maple syrup mixture looks a bit like caramel.  (The above photo is a bit darker than usual as I was experimenting with adding some Vegemite but decided against doing it again.)

Muesli is great for using up bits and piece.  I like using different dried fruit.  The first time I used dried apricots, cranberries, strawberries and goji berries.  The next time I added peaches, cranberries and used up the rest of fruit mince from the previous Christmas.  In the past I have tried lots of ways to use up fruit mince but really liked this one.

My fruit mince recipe (below) is based on one from the Vegetarian Society (UK) website and a recipe from the venerated British vegetarian cookbook author Rose Eliot.  Since first making it fifteen years ago I have made it most years .  One reason to make my own is that a lot of fruit mince has suet in it.  This recipe uses no fat and is only sweetened by fruit. It is quite thick but I love it.  And I like the white dots of banana that remind me of the little chunks of suet I am used to seeing in fruit mince.

I have been so happy with this muesli.  I thought that the fruit mince would save time in not having to chop all the dried fruit.  It didn't save much time because I had to mix the muesli a lot to get the fruit mince mixed in and break up the clumps.  Any other fruit mince will do and some have a bit more liquid than mine.  I considered baking the muesli another few minutes to dry it out and think this would work if I do it another time.  Of course this recipe also works with dried fruit instead of fruit mince.

My favourite way to eat this muesli is with fresh fruit and plain yoghurt.  I originally thought I needed some honey but don't always do that now.  It is a great way to eat my fresh fruit, especially at this time of year when there is so much wonderful stone fruit and berries on offer.

The fruit mince muesli is not overly sweet but I like it.  It is a great way to use up leftover fruit mince and extend that festive feeling.  I always have leftovers hanging around after Christmas.  It is great for mince tarts or fruit bread.  In fact I have used it in hot cross buns over a few years because I usually have some left at Easter.  Not this year! 

More muesli recipes on Green Gourmet Giraffe blog:
Applesauce muesli (granola) (v)
Banana and maca muesli (granola) (v)
Chocolate muesli (granola) (v)
Microwave muesli (v)
Tahini, quinoa and apricot toasted muesli (v)

Other recipes to use fruit mince on Green Gourmet Giraffe blog:
Chocolate mince tarts
Chocolate panforte
Fruit mince flapjacks (v) 
Fruit mince muffins
Fruit mince scrolls (v)
Fruit mince sourdough bread rolls (v)
Sourdough hot cross buns with fruit mince  

Fruit Mince Muesli (granola)
Adapted from Green Gourmet Giraffe

4 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup walnuts, chopped
3/4 cup seeds (I used a mix of sesame, sunflower, linseed and pumpkin)
1/2 cup quinoa flakes 
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup rice bran oil (or other neutral oil)
1 cup fruit mince (see below recipe)

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Lightly whisk together maple syrup, tahini and oil in a large jug until smooth and thickened like caramel.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until well mixed.  Tip into two large lined roasting tins.  Bake at 180 for 20-25 minutes, stirring halfway through.  Add fruit mince and mix well, using a spoon to break the dried fruit clumps up as much as possible.  Leave to cool.  Store in an airtight container.

Fig and Walnut Fruit Mince
Adapted from The Vegetarian Society / Rose Elliot
Makes enough for 36 mince tarts, scant 4 cups (1 cup = about 275g)

250g dried figs, chopped
400g chopped dried fruit (I like to use apricots/peaches, sultanas, cranberries and prunes)
50g fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
50g walnuts, roughly chopped
4 tbsp whisky
1/2 tsp mixed spice
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
juice and zest of an orange
3 tbsp water
1 ripe banana, peeled and mashed

Place all ingredients except banana into a large saucepan and stir over a low to medium heat for 5-10 minutes until the mixture is heated through and melding together. Stand for 1-2 hours to cool and then stir in banana. It is ready to use or can be kept in the fridge. I have kept mine in the fridge for 10-11 months. 

NOTES: 

• I usually use glace or dried ginger in fruit mince but I want to try the fresh ginger options next year.
• Once I have run out of fruit mince I have been making this with a cup of chopped dried fruit.  
• I had some experimenting with flavours and tried vegemite and smoked paprika for fun in one batch.  They weren't amazing enough, perhaps I could have added more, but I might play with it another time.  I still dream of making a savoury muesli.

On the Stereo:
Ten Thousand Miles: Danu

In My Kitchen - January 2024

Happy new year.  December was the usual seasonal craziness and feasting with plenty of leftovers.  We visited markets, saw festive lights and sights, and made a gingerbread house.  Lots of family, fun and food.  I started the new year with a swim at Torquay Beach.  And I have found time for reading, cleaning and eating out.  You can read more in my December posts and in my Reflections on 2023 post.  Meanwhile, here is some of the food from my kitchen over the last few weeks.  (Above is a photo of haggis nachos with New Year's Eve leftovers.)

After lots of blogging in December, I feel I have less time to get posts up.  We are busy with travel plans.  This time next month Sylvia and I will be in Europe.  In the past I have written up posts on my international travels so I hope that I will have the energy to share some of my experiences.

Sylvia bought these dried flowers at the German Christmas Market that you can see in this Christmas post.  They are now in her room but we had them on the kitchen table for a while.

We bought these fancy chocolates from Loco for Cocoa at the Coburg Night Market 2023.  The woman running the stall was very kind and generous.  She put the two little gingerbread biscuits into our bag of purchases.  We enjoyed all our chocolate. Sylvia especially loved the spiced gingerbread and caramel chocolate named not naughty always nice.

It was great to make my fruit mince early this year so I could make a batch of chocolate mince tarts.  I baked them at 10pm after we had been out seeing Christmas lights and I wished I had mince tarts.  These are the only mince tarts that Sylvia eats, even though they horrify traditionalists like my mum!  It was so good to watch a Christmas movie and eat warm mince tarts.  I meant to make another batch but never managed it.  With some mince tarts from my mum and a pack on special from the supermarket I had plenty of mince tarts.

Sylvia had Christmas dinner with her dad while I went to see family in Geelong on Christmas Day.  She looked for alternatives to nut roast or tofurkey. At one point she wanted to make crispy tofu cutlets for a roast dinner.  The above photo is of the practice meal.  I loved the tofu cutlets but Sylvia found them too chewy.  Finally she decided to make a favourite meal of pasta with creamy mushroom sauce.  I helped her make the pasta sauce on Christmas eve and was impressed at how she did this without a recipe, using ideas from searching recipes online.  It went down very well.

Another contender for Sylvia's Christmas Day was a batch of these mushroom pinwheels, made by rolling up a cheese and fried mushroom mixture in puff pastry.  They were delicious but much smaller than I expected.  We were going to trial them for starters but ended up deciding against them.  Sylvia was still keen to try them but tired so I made and served them two nights before Christmas Day for dinner.  They were quite rich so I enjoyed them with mock tuna (chickpea) salad and tomatoes and spinach. 

These hasselback potatoes were made with a little cheese for new year's eve.  They were so satisfyingly crunchy.  We had an array of favourite dishes on New Year's Eve: I wanted to make Haggis, Sylvia wanted to make pasta with Vodka pasta sauce, I had made a Brown rice salad with legumes and almonds and wanted to make a Mock tuna (chickpea) salad. And lots of leftovers.

We originally planned to go to see the NYE fireworks in the city but changed plans to see the city fireworks from Moreland Station.  This gave us more time to make a dessert platter with panforte, mince tarts, popcorn, strawberry yoghurt rice cakes (that looked disturbingly like ham) and lots of fruit.  Again we had lots of leftovers.  And we had fun walking to and from the station with a fine breeze and bright moon, and there might have even been a shopping trolley ride.

On New Year's Day I visited my parents in Geelong.  My mum put together a fine lunch platter of Christmas leftovers.  It was very relaxing to sit after lunch and chat.  Then I headed to Torquay beach to enjoy the waves.

We have not had much ordering out for pizza recently but when we got pizza delivered from Crust in Brunswick I could not resist ordering the Shepherd's Lie Pizza.  It was a veg version of shepherd's pie topping with plant based mince meat, potato slices, mozzarella, caramelised onions, grated carrot, garlic and tomato sauce on a sesame base.  I really enjoyed it but remarked to Sylvia that I could not really taste the mince meat.  She laughed because she had ordered the pizza with no mince meat.  I had confused her with my talk about being wary about the plant based mince meat.

Another fun meal we made in December was this massive sheet pan quesadilla.  It consisted of making a large sheet of torillas, spreading a mixture of grated tofu, black beans, corn, capsicum, yoghurt, cheese, salsa and taco seasoning.  Then the tortillas were folded over the mixture.  We baked them and cut them into squares.  It made heaps with plenty for the next night.  I really liked it but it was too much sauce and too much tofu for me.  I would ease back on the salsa and yoghurt and have many more black beans and less tofu next time.

I bought this Skrapr surface scraper at the post office on a whim (while getting Sylvia's passport).  It cost about $27 and is similar to ones advertised on Amazon.  I have used it to scrape food off dishes, clean up the sink after washing dishes and remove a variety of annoying bits and pieces.  As the packet says, it seems to scrape hard-to-shift bits without scratching!

Here is a selection of groceries from before Christmas.  The festive special brandy butter caramel yoghurt was very good.  Cherries are so good to snack on during the festive period when there is so much rich food about.  Cherries are like the indulgences of the fruit world. And I have been buying celery in a whole bunch because it is cheaper than a smaller bunch in plastic and it lasts.  But really I don't eat it as much as a bunch requires.

A grocery item we could not resist was a packet of Bundaberg Ginger Beer kettle crisps.  It sounded weird but actually worked.  The balance of salty and sweet with some ginger flavour was right (ie not too sweet).  

We took the crisps to the drive-in cinema where we saw Wonka.  It was a magical film, perfect to watch just before Christmas.  I also saw Past Lives just before Christmas which was less festive but such a beautiful insightful reflection on relationships and how they relate to our history.  I loved the moment when Hae Sung says "What if this is a past life as well, and we are already something else to each other in our next life? Who do you think we are then?"  I think about it from time to time.

Our garden is hanging in there.  Geraniums are such an easy and colourful flower to have in the garden.  The pot of dead weeds is the fallow field of johnny jump up flowers which I have confidence will flower again.  This small purple and yellow pansy grows like weeds in many pots and even by our steps to the back door where there is no soil to speak of.  I am also hope to see the resurgence of parsley which has been going to seed.  The lavender at the back is gone crazy and makes life hard for the mint by covering half of its pot.  The pots of seasonal tomatoes and basil were brought here recently by my mum who continues to support the nurture of my garden.

Sylvia got a candle making kit ages ago and just before Christmas a friend came over and we had our first go at making candles.  It was a lot of effort for two small candles but I hope we can have another candle making session which will be easier now we have had our first effort.

We had a baked potato night with some smaller potatoes (reminding me not to wait til I have large potatoes to bake).  I made mock tuna (chickpea) salad and Sylvia made guacamole.  We loaded these onto the potatoes with butter, plain yoghurt, and cheese.  So good.  And yes we both love the chickpea salad and could eat it straight from the bowl because it is so good.

Another of Sylvia's favourite meals recently was a Shredded tofu salad bagel by @sezzy.brown (Note: this Sarah Brown is from Melbourne, not the published British vegetarian cookbook writer).  The salad was made by frying grated tofu, mixing with mayonnaise, red onion, celery, lemon and herbs.  It is served on a bagel with avocado.  This is a bit of a vegan take on a shredded chicken salad.  But better! (Admittedly I am not a reliable source given that I have been vegetarian for over 30 years).

Most recently I have made Gina's Swedish meatballs. She served her tempeh meatballs with a savoury gravy and mashed potatoes like the ones they serve at Ikea.  I served mine with a over paprikaed mashed potato courtesy of Sylvia but also with peas and cranberry sauce, which is more like I have it at Ikea.  I didn't have the lingonberry sauce that Ikea serves.  But I had leftover cranberry sauce and this seemed a great way to use it up.  I also just read my 2010 post about the Ikea cafe, saying that I didn't think there would ever be vegetarian Ikea meatballs. There is so much I would love to update on my blog.  Meanwhile, how wonderful for past-me to be proved wrong about vegetarian options these days.

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event. If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens and her gorgeous hand drawn header.

Reflections on 2023

Welcome to 2024.  I bid 2023 farewell with mixed feelings.  It promised much, had fun surprises - a work trip to Indonesia, the Rone exhibition in the Flinders Street Station Ballroom (photo above), visiting amazing cafes with Sylvia, and Barbenheimer - but it was also unsettled and challenging.  It was especially disappointing to end the year with the lack of acknowledgement of Australian's First Nations people in the Voice and the tensions and devastation of the Israel-Hamas war.  My yearly update is a long one so grab a cuppa and settle in.

Melbourne Now Exhibition, NGV Ian Potter

For me, 2023 offered opportunities to get out a lot more than I had for the past 3 years, to catch up with friends, to work with some amazing people and organise some stuff at home.  My energy was still lower than previously and all the medical niggles - asthma, eczema, sleep problems, swollen feet - made me feel tired and old but I am glad most of these are more under control now.  Early in the year I stopped wearing a mask in most settings, though Covid is still among us.  We had some major changes around the house.  Our big purple sofa was replaced by a recliner sofa, our decommissioned gas wall heater was replaced by an Ikea cupboard, and my dad installed new locks on our cat flap.

Although I didn't have much energy for reading books, I got to the cinema much more (I saw Barbie and Oppenheimer on consecutive days), relived my student days at a Billy Bragg gig, attended my first Women's AFL game, saw some art exhibitions, saw Peter Garrett sing at a rally for The Voice to Parliament, loved Lightscape in the Botanic Gardens, had ice cream at Sydney Road Street Festival, caught Matildas fever during the Women's Soccer World Cup, found tempeh chips at a Festival Indonesia event, ate interesting food at markets, and I celebrated finalising my divorce by going axe-throwing with a friend.  And Sylvia developed great skills at finding excellent cafes to go for lunch.

Voting at the Indigenous Voice to Parliament Referendum

Politics was crazy. Actually the world seemed crazy.  And unsettled.  Covid ceased to be a public concern as the government collected less and less statistics until we got to the point where we know it is about but it is hard to determine how much.  Our state premier, Dan Andrews resigned after leading us through Covid times.  The cost of living and mortgage rates skyrocketed.  ChatGPT made AI seem more part of our lives than ever.  Australia had the shameful stories of the Robodebt Royal commission, the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial, and the toxic opposition to an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.  Internationally there was so much mess with Trump court cases, the UK Tories plans to send refugees to Rwanda, the Ukraine war going on and on, the Israel-Hamas war wreaking so much death and destruction in Gaza, etc etc.  No wonder so many embraced the triumphant phenomenon of the Taylor Swift Eras tour.  Of the meany changes in the world, I was sad to see the resignation of Jacinda Adern, the end of Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness's marriage, and Virginia Trioli no longer doing her ABC Melbourne morning radio show.  This hardly scratches the surface but is as much as I can do here.

Borobudur Temple, Indonesia

I travelled more in 2023 than for I have a long time.  My first international travel since 2016 was to Yogyakarta in Indonesia for a work short course.  I also went to Brisbane and Cape Schanck for other work meetings.  Plus there were personal trips to the Grampians and Lake George.  There was sightseeing, swimming, amazing food and visiting university friends.  And more travel is planned this month.

Halloween decorations, Melbourne

There were lots of notable deaths.  The above photo is of a house decorated for Halloween with skeletons dressed as Dame Edna Everage and Tina Turner plus a host of gravestones remembering Barry Humphries, Michael Gambon, Pele, Lisa Marie Presley, Tony Bennett, Ron Barassi and Fantales among others.  Other high profile deaths that had meaning for me were Cal Wilson, Michael Parkinson, Steve Mackey (Pulp), Sinead O'Connor, Burt Bacharach, Jane Birkin, Shane McGowan, Andre Braugher Brooklyn 99), Ryan O'Neal, Shirley Barber (Flower Fairies), Matthew Perry, Rolf Harris, Richard Belzer (Law and Order: SVU), Renee Geyer, Mary Louise McLaws, Galarrwuy Yunupingu, and Fr Bob Maguire.

Street Art near ABC Southbank Studios (on their open day)

My blogging energy was much improved in 2023.  I wrote 70 blog posts, three times as many as in 2022, and the most I have written since 2019.  I have had moments of tinkering with formatting indexes and would love more time to get this blog into good order.   Having written 2,430 posts makes blog housekeeping quite overwhelming.  It seems I could do this full time and still take years to get it anywhere near how I would like it.  And by then the blogging / social media world would have moved on many times.

I was sad to hear that Zomato Melbourne is no more this year.  I contributed quite a few reviews but also found it really useful for searching cafes.  However the landscape of the world wide web continues to morph and change.  Blogging today is so different to when I first started blogging that I doubt I would start a blog today - too much pressure.  I was also sad to check in on FoodGawker and find it just hanging in there. It takes a lot of energy to constantly be following new social media and styles. 

Meanwhile I continue my old style blog and appreciate other bloggers I have followed for years or discovered recently who have enough affinity to connect and/or provide much food for thought (and meals). Although I use Google's Blogger platform, I have been having problems with commenting on other Blogger sites (including ones that I have long loved sharing comments with - Where's the Beef and One Hot Kitchen).  I used to participate in a lot of blog events but now just do In My Kitchen on Sherry's Pickings - and I am grateful to Sherry for continuing to run this event.  I miss some of the blogging community that was once so rich and vibrant, and even now continues to be meaningful to me.

I have many more ambitions for my blog than I have energy.  But I do what I can.  I mostly maintain my two main blog indexes - recipes and reflections - and dream of more updating of the formatting.  I have even considered a new blog header or sorting out subscriptions but don't hold your breathe!  Meanwhile I continue to have lots of drafts I hope to publish and lots of good intentions.

A blood orange, olive and feta focaccia that was never posted

One of the nice aspects of having a blog has always been recording recipes I make and places I eat.  While not comprehensive, it is often useful to look back on.  More recently it has been useful with sharing cooking with my daughter.  I can point Sylvia to blog recipes and record what we are cooking together so she has notes on it when she makes it without me.

This year our eating patterns have changed.  (Always change!)  Some routines have become less regular, such as pizza nights.  One great change is that Sylvia and I discuss meals for the week before doing our weekly grocery shopping.  This helps us eat better and try new recipes.  It also means less food waste in this time of skyrocketing grocery prices.

We are still making some old favourites: fast track sourdough pizza, pasta, vegan omelettes, sourdough flatbreads, Tofu bacon, stirfries, dumpling okonomiyaki, orzo, roasted feta and tomato pasta, mushrooms.  Some of the creations I am most proud of include Vegemite and three veg pizza, Vegie mac and cheese money bag dumplings, and my Rustic gingerbread house.

Holiday dinner platter at our Grampians holiday house

Favourite blog posts by month:

• January: A-Z of my international travel (places and stories)
• February: Point Nepean Quarantine Station tour 
• March: Time by Rone, Art installations 
• April: Chocolate cheesecake with Easter nest for my blogiversary
• May: Tempeh and vegetable ramen soup
• June: Borobudur and Prambaran Temples, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
• July: Calle Bakery, North Carlton - Bastille Day specials
• August: ABC Southbank Studio: Open House Melbourne
• September: Parmesan and onion focaccia (with tofu bacon option)
• October: Sir George Pub, Jugiong, NSW
• November: 20 Vegemite recipes for the 100 year anniversary, plus reflections and products
• December:  University of Melbourne Meals, Buildings and Changes (with memories of Union House)

Amazing chocolate mousse dessert at Westbourne Garden, Northcote

More of my 2023 favourites:

• Novel: A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell, The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
  
• Non-fiction book: Wifedom by Anna Funder, Growing up Aboriginal in Australia by Anita Heiss
  
• New release film: The Fabelmans
  
• New release television series: Sherwood
• Television character: Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds
• Non-fiction tv show: Is it Cake?
  
• Local eating out: BrewDog
• Out of town eating out: Sir George Pub, Jugiong, NSW
• Mocktail: Cuddle on the Beach at La Vista
• Exhibition: Time by Rone, Art installations
  
  

Our cat Shadow with New Year's Eve sweet platter

Sylvia's favourites in 2023:
(She asked to list her favourites too and I said, why not!)

• Book: Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
  
• Song: Trouble by Twin
  
• Album: Happier than Ever by Billie Eilish
• Singer: Suki Waterhouse
  
• New Release Film: Barbie, Taylor Swift: the eras tour
  
• Streamed film: Ocean's Eight, Carol
  
• Television show: Private Practice, Haunting of Bly Manor
  
• TV character: Amelia Shepherd from Grey's Anatomy
  
• Artist: Felicia Chiao, Jeremy Hush, Jenifer Prince
• Crystal: Prasiolite
  
• Recipe: Roasted tomato and goats cheese pasta
  
• Cafe: Chooka's Cafe
• Pizza place: Roccoco, St Kilda
  
• Pasta place: Tiamo, Carlton
  
  

My dad's birthday cake with the AFL Premiers Collingwood theme

Interesting links
Mostly politics but a few more esoteric links from the year:

Nothing to see here by Richard Denniss in The Monthly, February 2023 "COVID remains a major public health crisis – so why isn’t the government talking about it?"

ABC’s lack of ambition on coronation coverage left Stan Grant to shoulder outsized burden, by Margaret Simons in The Guardian, 27 May 2023.  Discussion of problems with the media and racism in Australia that led to Stan Grant resigning from the ABC.

Robodebt royal commission exposes welfare bashing as a meanness at the heart of our politics by Laura Tingle on ABC News, 8 July 2023.

The enshittification of academic social media by Inger Mewburn on The Thesis Whisperer, 10 July 2023. A reflection on social media's changes, algorithms and diversification.

 Fat bear week, 4-10 October in Alaska - the website that gave me lots of laughs

The referendum’s result holds up a mirror to Australia, and the reflection is ugly by Maeve McGregor on Crickey, 17 October 2023.

Prominent journal editor fired for endorsing satirical article about Israel-Hamas conflict in Science, 23 October 2023.

Preserving our digital content is vital. But paying $38,000 for the privilege is not by John Naughton in The Guardian, 26 November 2023. "Storing online data in perpetuity is not just about photos and texts but thoughts and ideas. Platforms such as WordPress are starting to act, but it must be at a realistic price."

Albanese is prioritising governing over spectacle – but in an era of zero-sum politics, is it enough? by Kathryn Murphy in The Guardian, 2 December 2023.  Why the outraged tantrums of the opposition attracts more attention than good governance.

The weird but true history of cereal - from anti-sex campaigns to mind control by Matthew Cantor, 26 December 2023.

Open Justice by David Tyler, The Australian Independent Media Network, 30 December 2023.  Reflections on the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case.

So much incense

Happy new year to you and yours.  I hope you have a year of happiness and healthiness, of peace and goodwill, of meaning and merriment.  As always at this time of year, I wish to thank my readers and supporters, those who share meals and cooking, and everyone who takes the time to comment on my blog.  I hope my 2024 will be filled with more beach and bike riding, more salads and more smoothies, more writing blog posts and watering the garden, and more getting to bed early to curl up with a good book. I will finish with a quote I love from the wonderful Mr Jarvis Cocker "2024 - please wipe your feet before you come in."

Rustic gingerbread house - notes on making it with a 10 piece cookie cutter set

It is 10 years since I made my first gingerbread house and I am still filled with pride and wonder when I make one.  I am always a little amazed they don't collapse though not so anxious about them as I used to be.  I was really happy to make quite a different gingerbread house this year.  This little stone house with fudge roof tiles, a chimney and front yard, to paraphrase a friend's reaction, is somewhere I would love to live.

Previous Gingerbread houses:

Before discussing making my gingerbread house this year, I have collated photos of gingerbread houses I have made in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2018.  You will see that after doing a large one the first year, I settled on a favourite template for small gingerbread houses.  This was useful, especially in the years I made extra ones for community club raffles.  I used either the 2013 dough or the Primrose Bakery's vegan gingerbread house dough but have lost the latter recipe.  And I tried both traditional royal icing with icing sugar or vegan royal icing with aqua faba.  They all worked well as did the decorations.  Sylvia's eyes lit up with joy at these houses decorated with lollies.  

I wrote posts on the first two years but then got too busy to write about the next two years of baking, despite best intentions.  So this year I am determined to write up what we did so I don't need to wonder how we made the Christmas trees in 2018 and scratch my head in bewilderment when I look back on notes like "when putting gingerbread house together put a tin in and a texta to keep it the right size".  This is a lengthy post because I find detailed notes help me, especially when it can be a year or five before making another gingerbread house.  I hope others might find it useful too.  If you want a guide on how to make a gingerbread house, I suggest you also check out my step by step instructions on my first gingerbread house.

The gingerbread house cookie cutter set:

Last year I bought a Jolly and Joy 10 piece gingerbread house cookie cutter kit (similar to this kit on Amazon).  Above is the illustration of the cutters.  And a note that the finished size is 17cm high x 14cm deep x 10cm wide.  I didn't have time to try it last year but I had more time this year and wanted to try the cutter set for when life gets busier.  It really helped to make it easier to cut out the house parts.  In the past I have used measurements to draw up and cut out templates out of baking paper.  I did not miss this at all.

Planning:

I had decided to avoid the bright colours of the previous houses, meaning that I used less lollies and more muted colours.  I had ideas with the flake chocolate bars and the stick pretzels of using them for window ledges, corners and pathways.  Sylvia really wanted a pile of logs in the yard.  While we used a lot of jersey caramels for the roof, we used no pretzel sticks and less than 2 flakes for the corners of the walls.

My gingerbread house timetable:

• Friday: made the dough (using this tried and true recipe) and wrapped it in clingfilm in the fridge
• Saturday: cut out the pieces, used a knife to do the stonework and baked pieces.
• Sunday: iced the stonework (with icing sugar), made royal icing, piped vines, assembled the house and finished decorating.

What is needed to make this gingerbread house:

Ingredients:

• 1 batch of my gingerbread recipe*
  
• 4 egg whites and approximately 700-800g icing sugar to make royal icing*
  
• Extra icing sugar for sprinkling*
  
• 2 x 150g packets of jersey caramels (we had a few leftover)
• 2 flake chocolate bars
• green food dye for vines
• sprigs of rosemary for garden and tufts of grass
• 2 currants for eyes if you want to build a snowman (or an edible marker)

*Notes on ingredients:

• To make the darker gingerbread I followed Twigg Studio's lead and substituted 1/4 cup of cocoa for flour in the gingerbread recipe.
• I did see some notes about using vegan gingerbread so the gingerbread can sit at room temperature but this has never been a problem for me.  I sometimes finds eggs help gingerbread texture but my experience of vegan gingerbread houses is that 
  
• I needed a food processor for the gingerbread dough but next time I want to try Twigg Studios vegan gingerbread recipe which is made in a large saucepan.
• If you want a completely vegan gingerbread house, as well as vegan gingerbread, I have made vegan royal icing with aqua faba. You will also have to substitute for the flakes and caramels but you can just bake some extra pieces of gingerbread in tiles and logs if you need or use grissini (crispy bread sticks) or nuts.
  
• Icing sugar is also known as confectioners sugar or powdered sugar.
  
• Icing is also known as frosting.

Equipment:
(in addition to the usual bowls, spoons, knives, measuring cups and measuring spoons etc that most bakers will have)

• Food processor or large saucepan to make gingerbread
• Gingerbread house cookie cutter set (or cut templates on baking paper)
• Ruler to measure the thickness of the house pieces 
• Sharp knife for stonework
  
• Electric beaters to make royal icing
• Piping bag (preferably 2)
• 2 piping tips - one fine for green icing and one medium for white icing. 
• 1 cake board or flat plate.  My cake board is 30 x 30cm.
  
• Straight edged glasses or unopened tins of food to hold up walls while assembling the house
  
• Lots of time and patience
  
  

This photo collage shows the steps it took to make the gingerbread house over 3 days.  I wanted to make a rustic or woodland style of gingerbread house and looked at online ideas when planning.  I fell in love with a gingerbread house at Twigg Studios.  They had templates and a vegan recipe but most of all it was the presentation of the darling little British cottage that inspired how I did mine, including the stonework.  I did the jersey caramel roof I had done in 2018.  More details below.

Cutting and baking the parts of the house:

The Twigg Studios suggested using a knife or spoon to make the stone imprints in the walls before baking the gingerbread.  I was dubious but tried it on one piece and planned to have it on the inside if it looked wrong.  But it was good.  The only problem was that I cooked one of the walls without any stone imprints.  I got it confused with the roof shape.  I realised before it came out so once it was out of the oven I carved some stone shapes into it as best I could but it is easy to spot because it looks so different and was too hard to to the edges..

Notes on cutting and baking:

• I rolled out the dough between two sheets of baking paper.
• It was ok to add patches so that the dough was rolled out enough for some of the bigger pieces - the joy of rustic stone work is that it doesn't have to be perfect.  
• I used a ruler to check the thickness of the dough after I cut it and if it seemed too thick I rolled it more and used the cookie cutters again.  
• I decided the chimney wasn't high enough so I added more height by lightly placing cookie cutters on the rolled out dough and extending it to be a bit taller.  
• I cut out a door but decided it did not look right.  So we ate it.
• I measured out a small yard and used some leftover dough with rustic edges to be the fence.  I also cut out a gate with some criss-cross but it did not show very clearly.  I also made a stone footpath, which was too wide but worked anyway.
• Cutting the stonework before the dough was baked was a lot of detailed work but it meant very little work was needed on the walls once they were baked.  The stone is not meant to be uniform because stones are not all the same size.  I cut the stonework once the dough was rolled out, cut and on the baking tray.
  
• I regretted cutting the door and windows out of the front wall before moving it to the baking tray.  The door and windows got wonky when I moved the dough.  Yet again, the rustic nature of the house was forgiving of imperfections.
  
  

Stonework and vines

The stonework that I cut looked quite good, albeit a little like an Easter Egg.  The stonework looked far more realistic once I rubbed icing sugar over the walls.  It even looked ok on the wall I had cut after I baked it.  I made some royal icing, took a bit out into a separate bowl to dye, and piped the vines on the walls before they were assembled into a house. 

Notes on stonework and vines:

• It is really satisfying to rub icing sugar over the walls to make the stones stand out but it is messy.  My fingers were sticky and I was glad I put a tea towel under the gingerbread pieces so it was easier to clear up after it.
• My mum had told me that pure icing sugar is best for royal icing but I had forgotten and bought the soft kind that has a bit of cornflour in it.   
• Royal icing is pretty robust.  I had it out of the fridge for quite a few hours after I made it and covered it with a tea towel (or you can use clingfilm or beeswax wraps).  It kept for a few hours in the bowl and also in the piping bag.
  
• In my head the vines were to be quite a dark or muted green.  My dye made a brighter green than intended but I think it worked.  
• I used a thin writing piping nozzle and a separate piping bag for the vines so I could leave it aside while I assembled the house in case I needed to do any extra piping later (which I didn't).
• While the icing sugar on the stonework looked great, it also made it harder for the royal icing to stick to the gingerbread. 
• By the time I was doing the stonework I was tired and only did it on two walls.
• I also made a half-hearted effort at piping some snow in the windows but didn't quite get the sense of snow drift I was aiming for.
  
  

Assembling the house:

Assembling the pieces of gingerbread to make a house is always a nerve wracking exercise.  One of the reasons it is great to use lollies is that they cover a multitude of imperfections.  Often the pieces don't quite fit together and a length of licorice, candy cane or marshmallow can be placed over some thick icing to draw attention from it.  I expected mine to fit ok thanks to the cookie cutter kit.  Even so, I was still worried if the gingerbread would hold up, despite being a tried and true recipe.  It seemed easier than it should have been with the walls seeming sturdy and standing up quite easily after the first wall without much support.

• I used a medium piping nozzle for the remaining white royal icing.  I really liked the advice on sweetams cookie art to mix royal icing at different consistencies for different parts of the house.  The thick royal icing worked well in the assembly phase.
• When I was handling the walls and roof pieces I could feel that they were fairly sturdy.  I didn't worry as much as in my previous 2018 gingerbread house when I lost track of measurement of the butter and had to wing it with a bit more flour to get the right dough consistency.
• My house stuck together well but I was still alert to check that walls weren't slowly falling over or the roof sliding down from its position.  I had some glasses on hand to prop it up with if needed.
• When assembling a gingerbread house there is the moment when I need to decide whether the side walls sit outside the front and back walls or inside them.  After trying to decide which is right I have found it depends on your pieces and the best way to know is to put your pieces together without icing.  I piped a line of icing and stood up my first wall (the back) with straight edged glasses either side.  Then I propped up the side walls and checked how the roof would sit on it to check it had a decent overhand on both the front and sides (though with roof tiles it is easier to get more overhand on the sides.)  In this case on the corner I had the side wall as the outer corner where the sides and back/front joined.
• I decided not to use the door but you could prop a door open or pipe the outline with royal icing.  Sylvia and I also discussed using pretzel sticks to make a door, which we might try another time.
• Once the house is together you can't see the tops of the walls well under the roof overhang, so bear this in mind when decorating.
• I used flake chocolate bars to cover all the icing on the corners where the walls met and some icing usually is visible on the outside.  This had to be done fairly quickly after placing the walls together.  I cut my flakes to be thinner logs but they did crumble easily and some I had to add in pieces.  In hindsight I wish I had had the flakes further up the sides of corners, and maybe should have tried this after I could check it when the roof was on.
• I haven't done a garden before but it was fairly easy to put up the fences and use icing to stick down the path and then spread a bit of icing around the path.  I used some ends of rosemary to make plants down the sides of the garden.  These worked well and were easy to stand up because I crowded them in a little and they had the fence to lean on.
  
  

Preparing the roof tiles:

I had decided to use jersey caramels for the roof tiles, perhaps because I liked this part of my last gingerbread house.  We usually get them at Woolworths supermarket so we did not get them at Coles supermarket when we were there.  We went to Woollies where we had a few other bits to buy.  But they did not have any jersey caramels.  So we had to return to Coles which had smallish bags and buy two.

• It was sticky work slicing up the jersey caramels with a sharp knife.  They were cut as thin as possible and moulded to be thinner and a bit larger with our fingers (and a bit of water to keep our fingers damp so they did not get so sticky).  It is good to have some slight variation in sizes.  We did not use the white in the middle. 
• If you prefer not to use caramels, you could also use flaked almonds or bake individual tiles of gingerbread and stick these on.  In the past I have also piped on tiles and you could try cutting tiles into the gingerbread roof piece before baking it.

Adding the roof tiles:

• Make sure you have the chimney attached before doing the roof tiles. 
• It is easier to attach the roof tiles if they are quite thin.  I just piped a line of icing to stick on each row of tiles.
• Start at the bottom of the roof and have each row of tiles overlapping the row below.  
• I had my bottom row of tiles overhand the roof a bit.  If your roof pieces are unevenly placed so one side of roof is lower than the other, you could have one bottom row and tiles lower than the other to even it up.
• Try not to have the roof tiles too uniform.  This is rustic imperfections. 
• Don't worry too much if the tiles look like one big mass.  Once the icing sugar is sprinkled that makes the shape of each tile clearer.
  
  

Adding snow and the finishing touches:

It is so satisfying when it begins to look like a house and you just need lots of snow to cover any imperfections and make it look wintery and festive.  

• Start from the top.  I piped royal icing (aka snow) on the top of the chimney, where it met the roof and also along where the roof pieces joined at the peak.
• I have done drippy icing (like icicles) around the edge of the roof before and I think I might have used a thinner pipe nozzle for this.  I found my drips quite thick and used my fingers to thin out a few.  I think a medium consistency of the royal icing might have helped thee roof edges as well as the chimney and top of the roof.
• I started assembling the house with a bowl of royal icing made quite stiff from 3 egg whites.  Next time I might start with two egg whites so I can then make some softer icing for the snow decoration.  It might help with the dripping edges of the roof and go further.  I did not have enough icing to go around the edges of all the roof but liked the roof tiles so just piped a few drips along the roof.  I would have also liked a bit extra for the windows and fences.
• I ran out of icing before the cake board was covered with snow so I made another batch of royal icing that was quite soft and I could easily use a spoon to spread it over the board.
• When I made my second batch of royal icing I was tired and didn't wash out the royal icing bowl.  In my weariness I cracked open an egg and put the whole lot in the bowl - white and yolk.  The yold was whole so I tipped it out and checked there was no yolk before adding an egg white.
  
• I wanted some rosemary trees outside the walls but also did not want to cover too much of the stonework.  Next time I might leave them out as they did not have enough snow to stand up (and this is where I could have had a hump of thicker royal icing to help them stand.  I liked the little clusters of very short cut rosemary leaves to be like grass poking through the snow.  If I had had more snow to pipe at the base of the house, I could have tried to have some of this rosemary "grass" along the lower edges of the walls.
• I made a snowman out of the royal icing.  On my first go I found it looked a bit like Frosty the Snowman melting on a warm day.  So I started again and this time kneaded more icing sugar into the royal icing to make it stiffer.  This worked better.  The arms were made of bare rosemary sticks and the eyes made of currants.  Later I thought I could have used my icing pen (edible marker) to draw on the face and buttons.  I might have been able to make a hat out of a mini oreo and slice of thick licorice but I was really trying to not buy a bag of lollies that would leave me with lots of leftovers.  Maybe a chocolate melt for the brim and some smaller melts stacked up on top for the hat.  I need to think about it.  I hope to do a snowman again.
• I didn't do any Christmas trees but I think we did them like in this gingerbread house recipe.  They pipe icing spikes in rows starting at the bottom onto an ice cream cone.  Maybe next time.
• Last thing to do is a sprinkle of icing sugar for the fresh layer of snow.  I find a little mesh tea strainer helps sift a little icing sugar.  Everything looks better with a sprinkling of snow!  They you can step back and admire your work - or take photos and send to everyone! 
  
  

Postscript 

I really loved this gingerbread house.  People commented that it looked European.  However it also reminded me of our local bluestone cottages in Victoria.  I am quite fond of them as my best friend in primary school lived in one.  Sylvia loved it because it was a little like a Taylor Swift cabin in the woods.  I felt a bit more creative with this gingerbread house and feel I would like to continue to make my own changes when I next make one. 

I had planned to take the gingerbread house to my parents' place at Christmas.  Then I found that my niece Ashy had already given my mum a gingerbread house that she had made.  It seems that one gingerbread house is enough for any home.  Sylvia told me she was not keen on eating our gingerbread house and I just could not face eating it alone.  Making and sharing it is more fun than the eating.

Then I heard that my next door neighbour had covid at Christmas and was holding a Christmas dinner with her family a few days later.  She is lovely and does amazing work on our shared garden.  I offered her the house for their Christmas dinner and was pleased she accepted.  She has grandkids who would really appreciate it.  I saw her after her Christmas dinner with her grandson.  When he heard I had made the gingerbread house he gave a delighted smile and told me that he loved the caramel roof tiles.  Although I had encouraged my neighbour to have her family break the roof of the gingerbread house with a spoon - it is so much fun - the kids decided they didn't want to break it.  I was just happy hear they they enjoyed it.

More gingerbread recipes on Green Gourmet Giraffe:

• Black cat chocolate gingerbread 
• Gingerbread biscuits - bush shapes
  
• Gingerbread house 
• Gingerbread houses (small) with vegan royal icing
• Gingerless gingerbread Christmas tree  

Interesting and useful gingerbread links on the internet:

• Dessert Advisor: gingerbread house history, gingerbread house records and homeless reflections
• Twigg studios - template and how to make a rustic country gingerbread house (vegan)
• Under a Tin Roof woodland gingerbread house recipe and how to 
• Gingerbread journal: patterns, tutorials, recipes etc 
• Sweetambs cookie art: Utimate guide to royal icing (they use meringue powder but I prefer egg whites)
  
• This Old House: 99 amazingly crafted gingerbread houses
  
• Good Housekeeping - 55 simpler gingerbread houses