midge & judy

:: markets & mamas ::

i am having a big weekend to end a big week

yesterday was spent at yarraville market in the company of wonderful, inspirational and talented women.

it is both tiring and fullfilling, i get such positive feedback from people, it makes all the hard work so worthwhile.

 and on a weekend that celebrates mothers we are starting a week of preperation to invite a new member of our family into our home.this thursday we will be picking up our new little furball.she shares a birthday with our youngest, mr 11.
she is yet to be named, we will wait and see what fits her.
 to all of the mothers have a wonderful mothers day and the love of your family every day in the year ahead.

:: cluck, cluck, sew, bake ::

today has been a cold and wet day. constant drizzle and occasional downpours.
the type of day that would have been perfect for some doona snuggling and book reading, maybe in a previous life.
instead i bunkered down in the creative cottage and did some serious stitching.


the view from the cottage window offered the occasional glimpse of the chookies. they were celebrating their freedom in spite of the damp conditions.
for the past few days they have been confined to barracks because their constant scratching has trashed my garden.
when i saw them pacing the perimeter i had little choice but to liberate them and get back to the business of making bibs.

 and so with heater cranked and mindless daytime TV to keep me company i stitched the day away.

rounding off a rainy day must involve cake of some description and the tub of close to best by date yogurt in the fridge dictated that a lemon yogurt cake was called for.
this is a truly good cake. you must try it (come on, you know you want to)

and then finally a bit of cosy corner crafting. i am busily transforming fabric scraps into wee brooches for wee girls to wear on their wee cardigans for a bit of winter cheer. 

Lemon Yogurt Cake

Cake:
1 1/2 cups of plain flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp.  salt
1 cup  yogurt
1 1/3cups sugar, divided
3 extra-large eggs (or four of alice and teriyaki's eggs which are on the small side)
2 tsp. grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Glaze:
1 cup of pure icing sugar
2 Tbs. freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a square  cake pan.Line the bottom with  baking paper. 

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it’s all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside. When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool.

For the glaze, combine the icing sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cake.

 

:: cooking with ♡ ::

my love of cooking is born of my love of eating.
i love food, good food, fresh and tasty, made with love and honesty, preferably made slowly.

tonight i made spinach and ricotta gnocchi with a roasted tomato sauce.
the recipe (with a few tweaks to add my own stamp) can be found here. 

 it tasted so good.

 i don't know what makes good food so enjoyable, maybe it's the pleasure of sharing the cooking and the eating with a loving family, maybe it's the effort that goes into the process of making each little gnocchi dumpling by hand, maybe it's the pleasure of using fresh eggs and produce from the garden, or perhaps it's the memories of people who have influenced my cooking history. often i remember people who have shared recipes or meals with us. sometimes i am reminded of people who have given me kitchen utensils or cookbooks.

 when i make pasta or dumplings i use a cranky old tin tray to line up the handmade pieces prior to cooking them.
whenever i use that cranky old tin tray i remember antionetta. she was a tiny old italian lady who lived across the road from us for many years until her death some 7-8 years ago. she had been a widow for 15 years or more, she spoke very limited english, she lived alone and spent many long days on her veranda looking out onto the street. she loved company and often dragged us over for lukewarm cups of tea with way too much milk in it and biscuits that were many years past their best by date. she would bully us into drinking the tea and eating the biscuits, she would not take no for an answer. she would always take us on lengthy tours of her house telling us her family history, always in italian. she was self sufficient and often gifted us with fruit from her garden. she would always remember us at christmas and easter and deliver little gifts for us and the children. one year she gave me a shiny red tin tray. that tray is now scratched and the paint peels off in large red flakes. i cover it with baking paper so that the paint doesn't contaminate our food. the mister thinks it belongs in the bin but i wont part with it.
antionetta's much loved home has gone now. it stood empty for several years with a wilted, dried out rose on the flyscreen door. the flower was placed there on the day of her funeral when her family took her casket on a final drive by past her home. the house was sold and pulled down to make way for a shiny new home with a shiny new family.

 i love using that old tray and remembering nonna when i use it.
i think that is what makes the food taste so good.
really good. 

:: sunday snippets ::

playing along

{sunday snippets}: a collection of photos from your week.  No need for words.  Let the pictures tell your story. 

noteworthy note; in playing along with the lovely sunday snippets meme from it's home at tinniegirl i have almost stuck to the brief this week.that is,  to tell my days story in pictures without words. however i feel i must make mention of the amazing art works that we saw today at the NGV as part of the top arts 2012 exhibition. all of the art is the work of VCE art students. it is free and is definately worth a visit.

:: in ♥ with ::

sometimes life is extra good,
the days just click over and everything is smooth and easy and enjoyable.
at present there are some simple things that make my heart go skippidy skip.

i ♥ the brilliant blooms that the roses are producing in a last flush before they rest up over winter

 i ♥ the fresh eggs that our two girls are gifting us with every morning

 i ♥ cooking eggs and soldiers for a pre school brekkie

 i ♥ that the big year seven girl is doing her food tech homework, cooking fried rice, which equals dinner is cooked for us, yippee

 i ♥ scones, jam and cream for afternoon tea, warm and squishy, straight from the oven

 i ♥ the ever growing pile of baby shoes beside my chair in cosy corner

 i ♥  snuggling on cold, dark evenings 
 i ♥ our kitchen on wintery nights

i ♥ winter sports such as knitting and crotchet (what? they qualify as sport don't they?)

 i especially ♥ that the result of all that late night stitching, click clacking and hooking resulted in a basket brimming with new stock

:: home gym ::

i woke up this morning with a determination to get to the gym. school holidays always prevent me from getting there so today it was game on.
miss 12 and a dose of flu thwarted my plans. she was home from school and feeling miserable so best laid plans were put on hold.
the next best option was to get a bit of a workout at home.

the girls were keen to help with the housework.

 they had been casing the joint for a couple of days and when they saw an open back door the temptation was irresistable.
i did a couple of laps of the house to chase them out.
then i burned off a few calories kneading some dough for bread rolls.

the recipe asked for 20 minutes of kneading!

the difficult part was resisting the temptation to eat the rolls. they smelled delicious. 

 if the speed with which they disappeared into the kids mouths i'm guessing they weren't too bad.

:: sunday snippets ::

our sunday was super

 it was super at supernova

 a festival where all of the geeks gathered

 they were well preened

 they were celebrating pop culture

 my little cosplay girl was in awe

 she had a great day

in great company.
the crowd was certainly unconventional 
there was a fabulous vibe, it was heartening to spend time in a crowd of young people who were well behaved, respectful, polite and so happy to get dressed up and have a bit of fun.
i am playing along with sunday snippets and i do consistently break with the tradition of the meme by using words with my pictures. i just can't help myself, never short of a word.
that's me 

:: turn off that screen ::

it's the end of the school holidays. the weather has been ordinary. the beginning of the week was cold and wet. we have been chasing the kids off one screen only to find the transfixed to another. it goes something like this,
turn off the computer, are you on the ipad again, where is my laptop, how long have you been playing that game on the PS3, no you can't spend three more hours on sims, that is enough minecraft for one day....
these screens are killing my kids zest for life, they are developing square eyes and their brains are turning to mush!

 in desperation we bundled them into the car, drove 45 minutes out of town and found a place where the screens don't work. ok, the ipod touch and portable DVD player work but we wrestled those off them in a pre board frisking.

 we picked up the three friends and headed for the You Yang Ranges.
after a peaceful picnic lunch in the bush we rallied the troops and set of on a couple of walks and a one hour climb to the summit.

 the girls bailed at the 3/4 point opting to pull up a rock, get comfy  and wait for our descent.

 the boys were thrilled to find a geoglyph of an eagle seen clearly from the top.

 i had to stop and read all of the signs in order to learn about the indigenous folklore of the area.

 and the mister had to stop and pick up every poor unsuspecting reptile lurking under each rock that we passed.

the kids had a great day and celebrated their new-found love of nature with a game of mario cart on the Wii 
if you are passing by our house any time soon you will find a pile of electronic devices on the nature strip awaiting hard rubbish collection.
that will fix them 

:: let them eat macarons ::

this space of mine has an identity crisis from time to time.
it is, a bit of a sometimes blog.
 sometimes i blog,
sometimes it is a crafty blog, sometimes it's a travel blog,  sometimes it is home and family and it's sometimes cooking and foodie.
at present it seems to be all about food, or maybe i am all about food.
anyway whatever the case may be today was all about the art of the macaron.

a friend/ fellow foodie  and i spent a glorious day in my kitchen trying to perfect the art of making the perfect macaron.

 there was much sifting of almond meal and icing sugar, a great deal of beating of eggs, some boiling of sugar syrup-to 140〫to be precise and rather a lot of licking of fingers and spoons and bowls and sampling of product. there was the minimum 2 hour drying time followed by a 10 minute cooking time and then the stressful peeling away of the baking paper.

 we played with flavours of passion fruit, chocolate, vanilla and orange.

 we constructed bowls of velvety, creamy, rich ganache  and glossy, delicious passion fruit cream.

 if you have never had the pleasure of the perfect macaron you need to tick it off the list.

 today we had the pleasure of a brief visit to cosy corner in macaron heaven where we got to snuggle up in the comfy chair and relish the delight of the crunch of the crust to reveal the chewy tasty goodness of the soft centre oozing with the perfect filling.

bliss

:: teriyaki, alice and the easter bunny ::

the easter bunny paid a visit to our house.

we had the traditional easter egg hunt.

last year we decided that the kids were getting too old for the hunt and so no eggs were hidden. mr 10 was dreadfully disappointed and shed big, fat tears to prove the point.

following the hunt they engage in a pooling of  egg loot in order to divvy it up evenly.

this year we shared our easter sunday with the two newest family members.

the girls arrived yesterday and have settled in very nicely.

the kids named them. they are alice and teriyaki (which seems to me to be rather a cruel taunt)

a family dinner, another batch of hot X buns (this time with dried cranberries) chickens (clucking not cooked) and chocolate.
it was a big day.
oh, and the girls who were said to be three to four weeks off being ready to lay decided they could wait no longer and gifted us with our first egg.

 i  hope your easter was as much fun as ours.