Keeping warm

It's July! Term is over, winter holidays have begun, and overnight temperatures are consistently below freezing. Keeping warm in houses built for summer is a high priority.

I was very excited to find this on my trip to Kinokuniya Sydney a few weeks ago; I'm still working my way through it and haven't picked my first recipe to try yet. But looking forward to having lots of excuses to turn on the oven this month. (Recommendations welcome!)

Speaking of excited, we got two care packages from the US in the last week - full of healthy treats, as you can see. The resulting jumping up and down helped us generate some heat.

Hot chocolate season is in full swing, of course. I've topped up my stash of hot chocolate mix (using this recipe), as well as some suitably giant American marshmallows from Costco.

I can't give up on fruit salad just because it's winter, even if I do have to use canned apricots and peaches. (These make the salad more appealing to Miss B, so whatever works, I guess?)

 

This week one of our friends had an impromptu winter cookout housewarming, including breaking in her new fire pit. I brought along the ingredients to make s'mores, and since graham crackers are hard to come by in Australia I made my own - the classic version (on the right) following this recipe, and a grain-free version (on the left) using this recipe.

I also brought this along for us to nibble on while dinner was coming together - a hot spinach dip. I've made this several times over the past few weeks, but I haven't been following a precise recipe - it's basically 1 part sauteed baby spinach to 2 parts a combination of cream cheese, Boursin-style fresh herbed cheese, and sour cream - how much of each depending on what's in the fridge. Add seasoning to taste - salt, pepper, lemon juice are what I generally go for. Bake in a 350F/180C oven for 20-25 minutes until hot and bubbling. Serve with crackers. A good way to warm people up on a cold winter's night.

Hope you're keeping warm where you are - or cool, as the case may be.

Making lemonade

So my long (long looooooong) spell of waiting is over, and not in the way I had hoped - though a number of people in a position to understand it all better than I have just about convinced me that this outcome will be the best one in the long run. I think. In any case, that's really all I'm going to say about it, with apologies for being mysterious. Overall I'm relieved to have the waiting be over, but I've got feelings to process and next steps to ponder. As I do so, I'm continuing to work on practicing meticulous mindfulness - it, along with regular strenous gym workouts, has become a key mechanism for dealing with the 'anger' phase of the process around this drawn-out decision (to say nothing of  my feelings about current events in the wider world).

As I refocus on life here in Canberra, autumn is getting underway. The first of the new season apples are showing up at the markets, so to celebrate earlier in the week I made a personal-sized version of Dinner with Julie's Apple Pie Scones - I still used a whole apple, but it was small, and I halved the scone dough.
 

I got 3 good-sized scones out of it, and it significantly improved my week.

Since baked goods can improve most people's week, I also asked Miss B what baked good she was in the mood for, and she requested Dark Side cookies - "like the kind they would have to lure you to the Dark Side?" So I dug up this recipe from Nigella Express, and these super-chocolate bombs were just what the doctor ordered - or rather the frazzled new high schooler.

Yes - did I mention that Miss B is now in high school?! To be fair, it starts in Year 7 in Canberra, but still.

In other cooking experiments, I had a sudden hankering for san choy bow the other night, so I decided to whip some up. I didn't bother looking up a recipe, I just winged it (wung it?) with what I had on hand.

My version consists of chopped onions and mushrooms (and a little smoked salmon too) sauteed with oil/ginger/garlic/chili, with a sauce of 2 parts soy to 1 part fish sauce/sugar/lemon juice/sesame oil/sriracha, topped with chopped scallion/spring onion and slivered almonds. Wrap in lettuce leaves and have some rice alongside if you're a carb fiend like me. Proper san choy bow recipe here (turns out I wasn't that far off!).

And last but not least, here's some actual (as opposed to metaphorical) lemonade:

After my weekly farmers' market run this morning, I did some prep cooking - restocking my personal pantry for the week. On the right you see my coldbrew coffed brewing. On the left, my copy of Genius Recipes open to the One-Ingredient Whole Grain Crackers, which I made with a rice-quinoa blend I'm trying to use up. And in the middle, my re-gifted T2 tea infuser* brewing up a concoction of citrus zest and juice and mint and maple syrup to add a twist to my daily Green Tea Fizz.

*Sidebar story: the friend who re-gifted this to me handed it over with the declaration that she couldn't be bothered to use it, but that she was sure I'd figure out something interesting to do with it. I decided to take that as a compliment and a challenge; it took me a few months, but - voila!

Hope all is well in your corner of the world.

Ten things

The waiting continues...and I've been working hard at practicing meticulous mindfulness. It's been going pretty well, aside from a couple of weeks where the US election combined with solo parenting to send me into an anxiety tailspin. (The election was one of the things I was waiting for, and to say I was not happy with the outcome would be an understatement on the order of describing Australia as a place with one or two possibly harmful critters.)

But. Life marches on, and I must focus on the things I can do even in the midst of feeling helpless and at the mercy of events over which I have no control. So in that spirit, here's an update of recent-ish happenings.

Going back to early September - a tiny birthday cake for a visiting colleague of DP's who has become a family friend. He made the long trek to Australia for the second year running to guest lecture in DP's program, and I found out that his first full day in town was his 66th birthday. So we surprised him when he came over for dinner.

In late September, we went to the US for our planned family visit; for me it was five cities in just under three weeks. One of the highlights of my trip (and my year) was a long-planned sisters' weekend in New York, with all of us together on our own on a trip for the first time in a very long time. It was a memorable and spectacular trip, in part because of visiting places like The Frick Collection.

Our final city in the US was a 36-hour stopover in Dallas to visit our good friends who live there. We really enjoyed visiting the Dallas Arboretum's Pumpkin Village - a clever and creative use of winter squash, and I couldn't stop giggling most of the time for thinking about this. (Warning: NSFW language!)

Then back to Canberra, swapping autumn color for spring in bloom and harvesting lemons and rosemary from the garden.

Two weeks after we got back from the US, I was off again - this time to Seoul for my organization's annual meeting. It was a productive and positive week overall, but it makes me a little sad that this is pretty much the only picture I managed to take outside of the conference (it's a little mall made up entirely of small shops run by local craftswomen and -men).

Back again for the tail end of October; settling in to nearly three months with no overseas trips scheduled, and starting to see some real signs of spring - encouraging enough that I have revived my cold brew coffee habit, making it in my French press and then storing in a repurposed Chianti bottle. (Classy, no?) My standard ratio for coffee (hot or cold) is 7g of coffee per 100ml of water; cold water for cold brew, and let it brew for at least a couple of hours. Chill in the fridge overnight, then serve over ice with a hefty splash of milk and a dollop of maple syrup to sweeten.

The end of October also means Halloween, and a sweet treat to celebrate it. This year I made ghost cakes for Miss B - basically a chocolate cupcake, topped with a gloopy pile of vanilla buttercream frosting and suitably decorated.

Moving into November and real spring weather - a good opportunity to host our first outdoor Sunday lunch of the season and invite a few friends over to share it with us.

And speaking of a few friends: this weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving in Australia, with a buffet turkey dinner for 60+ friends, colleagues, students and their families. An epic undertaking achieved with a lot of lists and a lot of help, and one to make me remember to be grateful for all the things I have.

Which today include the luxury of having to do not much of anything except eat pie, bask in the afterglow of yesterday, and figure out what the heck to do with all these leftovers.

Cranberry lemonade

Despite the fact that it's officially autumn in Australia, March in Canberra so far has mostly been unseasonably stinking hot - record-breakingly hot, in fact. That means that, instead of breaking out the slow cooker, I'm looking for ways to keep cool and stay hydrated. There's only so much ice water you can guzzle, and I'm trying once again to restrict my Pepsi intake. This is my latest inspiration to seek out alternative options.


Cranberry lemonade
The cranberry part of this comes from the leftover syrup in which I made sugared cranberries at Christmastime - essentially simple syrup infused with cranberries. Simple syrup keeps forever in the fridge, and I usually have a jar on the go. The tartness of cranberries and lemons complement each other, and the sweet simple syrup balances them out - plus you don't have to dissolve it in drinks the way you would sugar.

Fill a glass halfway with ice. Squeeze in 1/2 lemon (about 30 ml/1 oz/2 Tbsp). Add an equivalent amount of cranberry simple syrup (if you're using plain simple syrup, you might not need this much). Fill the remainder of the glass with fizzy water and stir to combine. Drink immediately.

Serves 1. Can be multiplied to share with a friend or two. Would probably also make a nice cocktail with the addition of a shot of gin or vodka.

Multi-purpose zesting

NaBloPoMo, Day 5.

I know you've been waiting with bated breath for the answer to yesterday's trivia question. And here it is:

That doohickey on the blade of your citrus zester enables you to cut off a long, thin peel of zest - apparently so you can do this:

and impress your guests when you fancy up their sangria with a garnish. Or you can cheer up your own humdrum-working-day glass of green tea fizz. These are the kinds of things you find out when you read other people's blog archives in bed late at night - in this case a post on use real butter from December 2010. (Thanks Jen!)

Of course, if it does other things too, please weigh in - enquiring minds want to know.

Detox redux

Hey, remember how I kicked my 25-year Pepsi habit a couple of years back? How I developed various creative ways of getting my fizzy fix without resorting to a can full of HFCS? How I was pretty sure I didn't even like the stuff anymore?

Wrong again. I fell off the wagon.

As with so many other things, I blame last year's intercontinental move. You'd think I would know this by now, and have figured out some way to combat it, but the chaos engendered by packing up your entire life and shipping it halfway around the world is pretty much total. It disrupts routines that you thought were so embedded that they were part of your DNA, and it takes months for the dust to settle. In the meantime, your household, eating, and exercise routines fall apart completely, and suddenly you find yourself guzzling Pepsi by the liter, morning, noon, and night.

Or at least that's how it is with me. Please feel free to weigh in if you've also experienced the Intercontinental Discombobulation Phenomenon. (Or not -- maybe I'm just weak-minded.)

Anyway. We've been back in Canberra for eight months, and moved into our house for five, and with every month that passes I find the brain space to re-establish another disrupted routine. This month it's getting back on the no-Pepsi wagon. I didn't even cut back this time; I just stopped. I know I can, because I've done it before; plus this time I think I've figured out a way to get the caffeine, and the fizz, that kept me hooked for so long.

Green tea fizz
In preparation for making this, I cold-brew four green teabags in a quart (~1 litre) of water. Feel free to fiddle with that ratio if you like yours weaker (or stronger!).

1/2 cup/4 oz/120 ml green tea concentrate (see above)
1/2 cup/4 oz/120 ml sparkling water
1 tsp/5 ml lime juice
1 tsp/5 ml simple syrup

Half-fill a drinking glass with ice. Combine all ingredients, stir and consume. Congratulate yourself for resisting the lure of Pepsi yet again.

Serves 1. Can be multiplied to share.

30 days

Note zested lime wedge - for topping up the citrus sugar jar. Frugal!

It's November 30. It's Friday. And I've made it through another round of #NaBloPoMo. I think a bit of a celebration is in order, yes?


NaBloPoMo sour
This is what the CVF evolved into after I ran out of cumquat julp, around the same time I discovered that you could buy lemon lime and bitters (my favorite non-alcoholic Australian beverage) pre-made and bottled at the grocery store. Just the thing for the end of NaBloPoMo, especially when the temperature has suddenly jumped to 35C/95F.

1 shot/1.5 oz/45 ml vodka

2 Tbsp/1 oz/30 ml citrus juice (I used blood orange for the flavor and lovely color)

1 Tbsp/.5 oz/15 ml simple syrup

5 oz/150 ml bottled lemon lime and bitters

fat wedge of lime 

Fill an 8 oz/240 ml drinking glass halfway with ice, then add first four ingredients. Stir to combine. Squeeze lime and drop in glass.

Makes 1 fizzy, tart, celebratory cocktail.

Urban foraging

The other day Miss B. and I went to visit friends who live on the other side of the lake. (In Canberra parlance, this is hell and gone far away, even though it’s only about a 15-minute drive.) While there, we went out to admire their garden, which is bursting into all kinds of bloom now that spring is getting a firm grip on the weather. C. indicated a row of small trees.

“Those are covered with cumquats,” she pointed out. “Want some? Otherwise they’re just going to sit there and rot. I don’t know what to do with them.”

She didn’t have to ask twice. I went inside, got a bag, and proceeded to strip every branch clean. Miss B. even gave me a hand. As you can see from the picture, we got a pretty good haul, and the next day I got to work processing them. I peeled them, then put the insides through a food mill. The insides produced a frothy, juicy pulp, and I put the peels in the food processor with some sugar. All of these results are still sitting in my fridge, waiting for further inspiration to strike.

At first I had thought of making marmalade, but then remembered that I’m not a huge marmalade fan (even though it was my first jam-making project). At the moment I’m pondering making cumquat-cello (ie a variant of limoncello), or cumquat curd. Or maybe both - as I said, I've got quite a haul. (Got any other ideas? I’m open to suggestion.) In the meantime, I’ve been pouring the juice/pulp (julp?) into my weekend cocktail for a variation on my typical favorite vodka & lemonade.

The CVF

Because ‘CVF’ sounds more like a respectable adult beverage than ‘Cumquat Vodka Fizz’. These cumquats more closely resemble tiny, very tart oranges than those I’ve encountered before (which resemble tiny, very bitter lemons). If you don’t have any windfall cumquats handy, swap in citrus of your choice and adjust sweetening to taste.

1 shot/1.5 oz/45 ml vodka

2 Tbsp/1 oz/30 ml cumquat julp

1 Tbsp/.5 oz/15 ml simple syrup

5 oz/150 ml fizzy water

Fill an 8 oz/240 ml drinking glass halfway with ice, then add drink ingredients. Stir to combine.

Makes 1 tart, citrusy, fizzy cocktail.

Auckland update

The centerpiece of our hotel's breakfast buffet

Honestly, I never learn. Every year I come to this meeting thinking that I'll have plenty of time to keep up with email, read books, and update my blog with all the exciting new food experiences I'm having in whatever city I'm visiting. And every year I end up averaging about five hours of sleep a night, barely getting outside the conference venue, and failing to even take pictures of my food experiences, let alone write them up. But as I pause for breath halfway through the last day, I do have a few items of note bobbing up from the morass of impressions, flavors, and conversations of the last four days:

- New Zealand has some truly amazing cheeses. And wines.
- I seem to be developing a taste for whiskey. Particularly this one.
- Similar to its nearest large neighbor, Australia, New Zealand has a distinctive ecosystem, and more than 80% of its flora and fauna are found nowhere else on earth. I have taken a strong liking to the Pōhutukawa tree, which is apparently even more beautiful when it flowers at Christmastime.
- If I lived in Auckland, I would have very strong calf muscles from walking up (and down!) the many and steep hills.
- As my long exile from living by the sea continues, I am even more drawn to a city that seems to have ocean in every direction.
- One of my colleagues (and friends) told a meeting comprising about 30 of my coworkers about this blog yesterday. So if you're visiting for the first time as a result, welcome! I promise I haven't revealed any organizational or personal dramas here (yet).

And that's about it for now, until my head is a bit clearer of strategic planning proposals, meeting action points, and the aftermath of tonight's farewell party.

Autumn sangria

I put up a post last July expressing my belief that "recipe for sangria" is an oxymoron. Having made umpteen additional batches since then, my belief has hardened into certainty. Having said that, here's what I did to make an autumn sangria for Sunday's party. (Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures of it--sorry about that.)

3 apples
1 pear
1 half pint blackberries
2 Tbsp lime juice
2-4 Tbsp sugar
2 bottles Chianti
2 bottles Prosecco

Core the apples and pear, slice into thin rings, and dump in a bowl or wide-mouth pitcher.* Add blackberries and stir to combine everything. Sprinkle liberally with lemon juice and sugar; toss to coat thoroughly, mashing the fruit a little bit as you go to release some juice. Open and add all four bottles of wine, or one each of Chianti and Prosecco if your container can't hold as much. (You can top it up later.)

Best if made at least an hour before party time to allow the flavors to meld. Suggestions for keeping it cold without watering it down:

- freeze Sprite or a similar citrus fizzy drink in ice cube trays
- freeze grapes or berries
- freeze some of the wine

Serves approximately 20 glasses. Adapted considerably from Southern Living.

* We served it in a giant glass decanter jar with a spigot at the bottom. I'm not exaggerating the giant part: we poured in four bottles of wine and it was barely half full.

Tomorrow: nibbles!

Fizzy drinks

It’s been almost exactly ten months since I kicked my Pepsi habit. It’s going well: I haven’t cut myself off totally, but I don’t really keep it in the house anymore and I order it less and less when I go out to eat. The less I drink it, the sweeter it tastes and the less I like it.

As I’ve gotten some distance from my fixation, I’ve learned that what I really crave from Pepsi is the fizz. So I’ve been focusing on ways of getting that without an unwanted heaping dose of HFCS thrown in. (Since I’ve never had much of a sweet tooth, I don’t miss the sugary part, and now that I’ve isolated the carbonation I’ve discovered that by itself it is not sweet at all, which makes me like it even more.)

July numbers

This past month feels like it has been exceptionally crazy, and I see that the relative lack of blog documentation supports my blurred memory. I blame the combination of Miss B going on summer vacation, DP’s teaching going into high gear, and an(other) absolutely crushing work deadline for me. The heat didn’t help, and neither did the mental stress of transitioning into the second phase of moving (aka “you should be completely unpacked and settled in by now”) on top of everything else.

So what has been going on this month?

Tonic detox

If you don’t know me personally, here is an embarrassing fact about me you probably also don’t know: despite all the time I spend baking my own bread, making desserts from scratch, and buying one-ingredient food items, I can count on two hands the number of days I have gone in the past quarter-century plus without consuming tonic (aka soda, pop, fizzy drink—using “tonic” to describe a carbonated beverage is the linguistic stamp of an old-school Bostonian of a certain age, FYI). Specifically, Pepsi.