Happy New Year.........

It's probably no surprise that the new year has gotten well underway before I've managed to get my act together......(I do have a reasonable excuse.)

One of the benefits of expecting guests (beyond the capacity of the guest bedroom)  is that my sewing room needed to be tidied up - so at least it was sparkling and ready for the New Year..... I could see at a glance MOST of my projects either underway or in planning as every box, basket, bag or pile related to a different project - yikes. (That didn't include things tucked away in the cupboard or a drawer or hanging on the upstairs balcony rail. It would be too frightening to add them to the picture.....)

Just needed to fold down the cutting table and roll it out of the way......

This arrived in the mail in the nick of time......

The Christmas baking - 3 cakes, 2 puddings and fat-free fruit mince.....

Results this year were MUCH improved on last year......

One of my goals for this year is to make my own sourdough bread from scratch. The first batch shows promise.....

The levain / poolish / mother / starter (or whichever term you'd prefer to use) bubbled away nicely  - though maybe not as vigorously as the pictures indicated that it should.

The loaves rose as per expectation - though it may have been better to leave a little longer....

......and they looked and smelled amazing when they came out of the oven

Possibly could have been cooked a little longer.........

Overall an exciting start to the new baking year.....

And the mischief maker continues to amuse.......

The ONLY fabric not packed up......

 .......or not so much as the case may be.....

Usually she chews the ends of laces - this one was not so considerate......

Anyway, best wishes for the year ahead. Let's see if I can make a few dents in those piles.....

Sue xxxx

Some Sound Advice

Some wise advice.............

(From the Manning Regional Art Gallery where Margaret Olley's studio has been recreated.)

Coincidently a friend dropped by with these.......(or was it a hint?)

Anyway it spurred on some cleaning.........

.....and some walnut bread...........

Sue xxxx

When is a Bonus not Quite a Bonus?

The final piece of the mixer deal arrived during the week so it washed and prepared ready for use, ice cream ingredients purchased and a plan put into action. All good in theory.......

So confident was I that I had even purchased waffle cones.......

With time on my hands Friday, and enough energy to test it out, I set about making the custard as per the test recipe, cooled it down and went about setting up the machine for action when we discovered it was too small for my mixer and didn't fit at all.........

This meant time on the phone with the company concerned and the response by the young man who took the call couldn't have been more helpful.

Within a short time he discovered that the error was in the warehouse (someone had simply picked up the wrong box - everything else was correct). He provided me with an authority to return number, a reply paid number so it could be returned at no cost to me and reordered the correct bowl for my mixer - so as long as it arrives soon they will get an A+ for customer service.........

All of this was well and good, however, it left me with custard that needed to be churned into ice cream........which also meant digging into the kitchen archives......

Lots of memories here.......

This left me with a dense ice cream which is overly rich and probably inedible - except perhaps in tiny quantities........the whisk on the mixer may have been a better choice but I was worn out by then......

At least the bread turned out well........

Passionfruit butter from the week before - ultra sweet.......something else to use sparingly.....perhaps as a steamed pudding?

Roxie seeing the New Year in............

......and otherwise keeping us amused......

Sue xxxx

Bread

The bread, present at every meal, was delicious from the first bought loaf in a Tashkent market, Uzbekistan...... still warm.....

...to the last food market visited in Almaty, Kazakhstan....

The loaves were similar throughout the four countries visited but each one had its own distinct pattern and flavour. (I'm guessing each baker has their own design and recipe, but didn't confirm this as fact.)

Mostly cooked in a Tandoor type oven, hence quite flat. (The patterning helps to flatten the loaves.) If they are too leavened and heavy they wouldn't stick to the wall of the oven to cook and fall into the fire at the bottom and burn instead.

We also had some tasty little meat and onion pastries cooked in these ovens. Simple but very effective means of cooking. 

These loaves are different to the norm - look closely to see an added difference....

(It was having a lovely picnic til spotted.)

And this is????

A bread stamp, of course - soon to be tested, I hope.

 

 

 

 

(And the lovely old man selling them.)

 

 

Sue xxxx

(PS: Acording to my jeans, some of the above bread may have come home with me. Such is life...)