Small victories

*

As I mentioned a while back, one of the challenges of living in a new country is that you often have to find out what things are called, and where they are sold, before you can acquire them. This sometimes complicates even the simplest tasks. For example: our front door has been creaking the last few months. A lot. Really loudly. To the point where my sister was making Vincent Price jokes. Every day of her visit.

“You really need to get some WD-40 for that,” she advised just before she left.

“I will, I will,” I said, “as soon as I find out what they call it down here.”

Then the other day, I opened the door so that a visiting Australian friend could depart, and it creaked so loudly that she jumped involuntarily.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “I’ve got to do something about that, as soon as I figure out what the Australian equivalent of WD-40 is, and get myself out to Bunnings (a big box store, equivalent to Home Depot/B&Q, not accessible without a car) to get some.”

She looked at me with bemusement. “It’s WD-40 down here too,” she replied. “And I bet you they sell it at Big W.”

(Equivalent to Target. A five-minute walk from my house. Would not require a special rental-car trip!)

Today, after an extended hunt through every possible department (Hardware? House cleaning? Manchester?), I found WD-40 in the “Motoring” department.

And my front door doesn’t squeak anymore.

Life is good.


* NB I didn’t think a shot of a can of WD-40 would be too enthralling, so here, have a picture of a vintage Holden (another thing you could use WD-40 on!) instead.

Challenge 3.2

The source Eat This…It’ll Make You Feel Better! by Dom DeLuise

The recipe When I picked this cookbook for Cookbook Challenge #3, I envisioned myself making lots of hearty, tomato-based sauces and soups to chase away the winter chills. So I’m a little surprised to realize that everything I’ve flagged so far is a dough recipe. This one really intrigued me, because I’d never heard of an Italian version of egg bread that wasn’t a sweet bread. This one is more like challah or brioche.

The ingredients
1 packet yeast*
1 ¼ cups (10 oz/250 ml) warm water
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salad oil**
4½ cups/540 g all-purpose/plain flour
2 eggs
1 egg yolk, beaten with one tsp water
3 Tbsp sesame seeds (optional)

The method Dissolve yeast in ¼ cup of the warm water and let stand for about 5 minutes. Add the remaining water, along with the sugar and oil.

Mix in 3 cups of flour and beat until smooth and elastic.*** Beat in eggs, one at a time, then gradually add the remaining 1½ cups flour. Turn dough out of bowl and knead, adding flour as necessary (if the dough becomes sticky) until the dough is shiny and very pliable (you should also be able to see small bubbles under the surface).

Put the dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled (about 1 hour). Punch dough down, cover and let rise again (about 45 minutes). Punch down again, and divide into 3 equal portions. Roll each portion into a long sausage. On a prepared baking sheet, braid the three strands. Let rise again (about 45 minutes).**** Brush with egg-yolk mixture, and sprinkle with seeds, if desired.

Bake at 375F/190C for about 45 minutes. When done, the crust should be golden brown, and the loaf should sound hollow when tapped.

* Since they don’t sell yeast in packets here, I used 1 generous teaspoon.
** I used light olive oil.
*** My dough was not smooth and elastic at this stage.
**** I completely overlooked this step. This may be why my braid looks somewhat misshapen.

The verdict I still have no idea if this is authentically Italian, or if Dom’s mother adopted it, but he's right about one thing: it makes fantastic toast, topped with butter and jam.

False advertising

If winter in Canberra is a much milder version of what I expected, winter in Sydney bears no resemblance to anything I’ve ever experienced by that name. We took my sister and niece there for the last weekend of their recent visit and spent the first weekend of August (the antipodean equivalent of February) sitting outside in cafes, admiring local landmarks gleaming in the blazing sunshine, and “wrapping up” (that means putting on a fleece) for a sunset ferry ride across the harbor. We capped off the weekend with a picnic in the Botanical Gardens that was pretty much identical to the last one we had, in December, except this time we had cold roast chicken instead of prawns, and I planned ahead a bit better for my contribution to the feast.

Hotel Kitchen Greek-ish Salad
The ingredients for this salad were pretty much determined by what I could find in the little market next door to where we stayed, and prepare with the minimal equipment on offer--hence the name.

1 medium cucumber
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 medium red onion
1 block feta cheese
1-2 tsp dried oregano
2 T lemon juice
5 T extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Peel the cucumber, quarter lengthwise and chop into chunks. Halve the cherry tomatoes. Peel and slice the onion. Rinse the feta cheese and cut into cubes. Sprinkle oregano evenly over everything; mix lemon juice and olive oil and drizzle over. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Either serve immediately or lug to your destination. Keeps well.

Serves 8-10 as part of a picnic lunch spread.