The Positives of Poverty

I found a sliver of silver today. You see, normally Jim is dead finicky about the type of meat he'll eat. He hates anything on the bone, or with any 'bits' attached. Having been raised on sausages, chips and beans, or some variation thereof I guess it's understandable, but it's hard going sometimes as the cook. However, since we're on our uppers at the moment, I can get away with the cheaper cuts and he can't complain.

So...this week I got some lamb shanks, and they were blummin' lovely. Even he had to agree. Here they are, with rosemary, thyme, tomato etc. and some canellini beans towards the end of cooking.








In other food news, I'm still a big fan of sliced tomato with salt, pepper and red wine vinegar on toast for breakfast. Last week though, I had some tomatoes that were getting a bit soft so I roasted them and swapped the red wine vinegar for balsamic a la The Capitan. Lovely! I might do a weekly rotation of tomatoey toastiness.



In the background you can see one of the little canisters that the aforementioned Capitan sent me yonks ago. I use this one for salt and the other, which is a darker shade of green, for chilli flakes. I love them sooooooo much that I now use way more salt than is good for me. I have a little wooden spoon to go with them too. I may end up with arterial sclerosis, but I'll be doing it in style.

And while we're talking about the Capitan, here's a pic of Jim eating home made pizza. He's sporting the serviette with the tie on that you sent!



More later, Bert xx

Furrowing My Brow on a Friday

I'm developing a theory. They say a lot of marriages run into trouble when the child/children leave home, and that women can have a bit a personal crisis around that time - all because the parents realise they don't have much left in common without the child around, and the mother feels a bit lost without the child to look after.

My theory is that maybe that's not it at all. Maybe the crisis comes when you realise that all your opportunities to do the job of parenting better, to get it right, to be the mother you want to be, are gone. However you may have stuffed up, there's no going back to fix it now.

I really hope that doesn't happen to me. I may very well screw up the Murph in some way, but I really hope he can think of his childhood in a completely different way to how I remember my childhood and my mother.

Every day I pray I'll do a better job, that I'll be more patient, that I'll...well let's be honest, I pray that I'll be his perfect mother. I can't stand that he'd ever have anything like any of the memories I have.

It doesn't matter how much effort I put in though, or how much I exhaust myself worrying, it never feels like enough. I always feel like I'm failing him.

Like today for instance, he's bloody exhausted from not sleeping well lately, and I'm doing everything I can to get him to have a nap, and he just keeps fighting it no matter how much he needs it. Even if it's him that suggested having a sleep!

Aaaagh, I just feel so guilty about possibly passing on the insomnia thing to him. Maybe he'll be fine, but it worries me a lot. It's so cruel.

Mind you, I say that, but when he did finally give in today he slept for 2 1/2 hours! When that happens I'm torn between being pleased, and thinking, 'Well why all the bloody carry one then? You were obviously tired.'

Sometimes I think instead of harbouring feelings of rejection like I do, he'll think 'yeah, Mum was all right, but I wish she would've just relaxed a bit more!'

Whaddareyagonnedo?

xx Bert

Mooching on a Monday

Jeez, where've I been? Sick mostly, or looking after fellow sickies. Having all sorts of tricky times with the Murph being funny about sleep, going a bit mad, and generally shouting 'No, I not!' a lot. Jim's still out of work of the official kind, so it's been kinda hairy.

I don't think I even have any nice food photos to upload. Will have to get on to that,

xx Bertie

Savin' it For Sunday

Oy, what a few weeks! I've had the flu for forever, although I'm feeling okay now, and Jim (who never gets sick) got a bug of some sort this week.

Me: Dada's got a bug
Murph: Oh bugger.

That's how it goes.

Otherwise, there's still no work for Jim and I'm whistling past the graveyard by baking, baking, baking.

Let's see if I can find some pics..



This is a Raspberry and Buttermilk Cake - the recipe came from Smitten Kitchen -here via Meet Me At Mike's - here

The recipe at Mike's used cherries, but I didn't have any, and I really dig the tartness of raspberries. The only little thing is, that I used frozen raspberries and for some reason they give off a bit of a grey 'aura' when they're baked. I'm not sure why this is, but it doesn't affect the taste.

You can see what I'm talkin' bout here:



Here is the Delia Smith bread I've been making. I have to admit, I get bored very easily, so I've been splurging on rolls, or a loaf of Farmer Bread from Brot - our local German bakery. It is a good easy to make loaf though, and since funds are low, and I invested in a 5 kilo bag of wholewheat flour, we'll be eating this one for awhile.







And that's all the procrastination I can afford right now, I've got study to do.

xx Bert.

Movin' It Like Mike On a Monday

I signed up to Move it Like Mike last week, and considering time constraints, illness and various other lame excuses, I haven't done too badly. Have moved it twice this week, and hoping to make it to three next week.

The thing is, I love going for a walk. LOVE IT. Especially since I get so little time to just be quiet, and think my own thinks. It's hard to get out on my own though, but I'll get there. I will, I will!

Meanwhile, I've been cooking a lot. I've taken to baking my own bread, which is dead satisfying, and much easier than I expected, as well as being pretty cheap. I got a recipe from Delia Smith's - How To Cook Part One.

This recipe doesn't even ask you to knead the bread! It's a pretty sturdy loaf, not one for the white pap bunch, but just my sort of thing. This week I've been adding sunflower seeds to the top, and will probably experiment with other bits.

What else? Umm, oh yes we had a birthday party for my brother, my Nanna and myself for which I delved into the Ottolenghi cookbook that my old pal Roy gave me. The Apple and Olive Oil Cake With Maple Icing is delicious. I think it'll become a standard.

I also tried their chocolate cupcakes, which were dead good. Even Nanna said so. 'You could eat them!' she said. Quite the compliment! The picture here is minus the icing, but you wouldn't leave the icing off, oh no! It's thick and full on, and blummin' lovely. Just to jazz up the tops I sliced up some Fry's Turkish Delights and put a piece on each cake.

The party was tops as always. Too much food, too much laughing. Too much, too much! But never enough.

Here's Nanna, the night of her birthday:



The cupcake mix - it had treacle in it, which helped with the gooeyness:



The final product, minus icing:



And of course, the bowl needed licking:





And finally for this post...homemade English Muffins! I got the recipe from the Kitchen Wench here and they were a lot easier to make than I would've thought. I think they'll be a regular on our breakfast table, although I've got to get some better marmalade. I bought some organic stuff that is okay, but a bit insipid. I prefer it to be a bit bitter, so I can get that pinched look of an elderly, powdered lady with lipstick on her teeth and the world in her eyes.

Ready for cooking:









And here's one that has nothing to do with anything:



Here's to winter, and red coats.

Cheers!

xx BertieBlue.

First Things First On a Friday.

Okay, it's been awhile, but I've been trying to find time to work out how to use mucho pics in minimo space.

I haven't found time for that, or for much else. Although, I have been cooking a fair bit. Jim was laid off a couple of weeks ago, which is kind of grim - I'm trying to stay positive by saying, 'kind of' rather than 'quite', you see. Anyway, I've been baking a lot to keep the home fires burning so to speak, and to keep us all a bit chirpier than we might otherwise be.

There are loads of photos of things I've made to upload, let's just see how I go.

Here's some fennel crumble.





I've got a real thing for fennel right now. It started with a salad made when my pals, the Hazel's were visiting from London. It was really simple, involving lots of fennel, the zest and juice of a lemon, zest of an orange, fennel fronds, toasted pine nuts, olive oil and salt and pepper. And it was THE BUSINESS!

Here's the recipe:

http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/1854/fennel-salad-with-citrus-zests-and-toasted-pine-nuts

The crumble was lovely too. Creamy, and with a bit of parmesan crunch on top.

And here are a couple of Autumnal appreciation type pics.

First Things First On a Friday.

Going to a wedding tonight. Unfortunately my dress was bought to stop Cousin Emma from telling me to try on everything in sight, and holds all the appeal that you might imagine. Also, I ordered some cute earrings, ring and hair clips on Etsy, but they haven't shown up yet. That's what I get for ordering things from Tasmania I guess.

Oh yeah, and I just went for a haircut, and was completely bullied. First off, she ripped into me for not explaining what I wanted in proper 'hairdresser' terms - I brought a picture, what more could I do?? She actually said, 'I've dealt with Japanese students before, so I can work out what you want, but most people wouldn't take the time.' Then she chose a magazine and flung it in my lap, and proceeded to cut the kind of fringe that you normally go to the hairdresser to have fixed, when a friend tries to do it for you! How do I always end up in these places?

Anyhoo, here are a couple of dishes from this week. First up, a pumpkin and sweet potato risotto that I was quite pleased with but which The Murph took one spoon of and regurgitated into his hand. Some days I think I should just do beans on toast.

Then there was a chicken casserole which started as Donna Hay's Chicken Leek and Mushroom Pie. I didn't have any puff pastry though, so dredged the chicken in seasoned flour to thicken things up a bit, and dropped in some small pieces of baby potatoes to make it a bit more substantial.


Now I'm off to make a cottage lasagne for the Murph and Dad to eat while we're out.

Bertie.

Good Mornin'

How do you do,

Here I am in my new blog, where the air is clearer and the drinks are dearer. Mostly I'll be using this blog to show off my small attempts at craftiness and cookery to my pals, and to add a little bit of structure to things.

Was lucky enough to catch You Am I in concert on ABC2 yesterday, whilst the Murph was sleeping. Ahh Mr. Rogers what did we do to deserve you?

Ahem, that small bit of irrelevance reminds me that I was going to tag Monday's posts as 'Mindful Mondays'. I need to remind myself to be mindful over, and over again, as you can see.

So, what can I be mindful of right now? Well, it's 7.13am and it's a beautiful crisp Autumn morning. I've got a second cup of coffee in front of me, and the Murph is demanding more toast. I'm also noticing the little shoots that are appearing in our planter boxes on the balcony. Life is pretty sweet this morning.

Last night I made some Casarecce with a tomato and eggplant sauce. Normally, if I'm using eggplant, I cook it down with tinned tomatoes and tomato paste, but I had a lot of fresh tomatoes hanging around the place, so used them. I cooked the eggplant (diced up) for a little while in some olive oil, and then added the tomatoes, plenty of garlic, a bit of tomato paste, and some of Herbies; Italian Herbs. Oh, and a little splash of balsamic - then let it simmer for half an hour or so. I was quite pleased with it actually, the eggplant broke down and thickened up the sauce nicely. The Casarecce is a good shape of pasta too, the sauce covers it well.

Forgot to take a pic, but will do it again for sure.

That's it for now, as my old pal Mr. Barrett says, stay casual,

Bert.