Ten Days and a Recipe Hallelujah

 I know, its been 10 days and I didn't come back and tell you about the rest of my 10 days (didn't seem that long) or Easter celebrations (more than enough chocolate and some) or visiting parents or - well, I did do stuff, I just didn't BLOG stuff.

However I do have to tell you that I made my own Birthday Cake because apparently that is the most surprising thing, which it shouldn't be if you know me because (a) I like to cook, (b) I like things the way I like them and there are times when anything else isn't quite right and (c) I have found the BEST CARROT CAKE recipe in the world and I like carrot cake.

I took no photos (well, I took a BEFORE photo)

 

 

 we went out to dinner - the place we went had either 1 star reviews or 5 star reviews and we had never been - the entrees and breads were worthy of the 5 stars but the service was definitely 1 star

 

I drove out to my parents for the first bit of the long weekend (Anzac Day - 25th - is a public holiday here, and Dad was going to be doing to BBQ with Rotary).  The drive out there is so beautiful, but of course driving you don't get to take photos - this is from a lookout I remember always having a cup of tea at when we drove the other way when kids.

 

 Dad unfortunately wasn't well enough to do the BBQ - and for that man to pull the pin on any social event or something he has promised to do, you know he isn't well.

I took Mum to music (their Friday ritual - this man Brian did all of the dances when we were kids and it still banging the piano keys for nearly a solid hour).  Dad has taken over from another gentleman who used to read a poem or two to give him a break - he had given me the poems to read and Brian was VERY pleased to have his 5 minutes when I read them.

I did give the sourdough crusts another run - still forgot the 24 hour step, still didn't matter.

 

I also tidied "that drawer" - we all have one, and this one hadn't been really looked at in quite some time

I came home for Sunday to do a session of Qi Flow (with my Yoga lady - its a mix of Tai Chi and Qi Gong I think) and book club (an interesting book of short stories and a lovely group of people) and this sunset.

I am back to work as of yesterday.

 Oh - and the recipe hallelujah is for the BEST CARROT CAKE recipe is from Food Network.  I do use walnuts instead of pecans and it is pretty delicious.

Saturday's Muse

 It is 5:21am and still dark here - I woke about an hour ago which is pretty much par for the course. I have reached that stage of middle-age where as long as it isn't before 3am, its time to get up and stop arguing.

We made THE MOST AMAZING Sourdough Pizza bases for dinner last night.  My sister gave me a gluten-free sourdough kit for Christmas and, while I have made some bread (both GF and regular) with it, all of the other things that I have discovered to make use of it have been phenomenal.  This recipe has now joined the bao buns and English muffins in the OMG we must do with again repertoire.

Now, I do have a confession to make - I didn't follow the recipe to the letter (surprised?) because this one was chosen due to it not requiring a "start the day before" step because I very rarely google a recipe that far ahead, so when I got a "Important step: Refrigerate for at least 24 hours before using." I was already too invested to turn back.  I relied upon the "relax, its Australia, things move quicker (at least in baking breads) here" mantra and it did work.  That being said, I made a double batch and still have enough for 2 more crusts in the fridge (and the mushrooms that I forgot to have among the toppings we could use) so we will see if there is enough noticeable for me to think ahead about.

While my starter is GF and I have kept it GF so my GF friends can also have both starter and occasional end results, it is versatile enough to work for this so a VERY SUCCESSFUL Christmas gift that keeps on giving.  Sourdough Mate created the kit that I was given - I am not in any way an affiliate, I am just a very happy recipient. (I must admit that the local health food shop is where I get my GF bread flour that I use to feed it now) 

So what are your most recent "hallelujah" recipe finds?

Words for Wednesday prompt

 

I am still waiting for daughter and visitor to awaken so we can organised the next week - so will use the time wisely and do Words for Wednesday (as inspired by River and the words from Elephant's Child)

We were walking down by the river - the gentle calls of birds hunting the muddy banks harmonised against the cicadas incessant beat, the glaring shimmer of the dry heat, the only moisture our sweat - all combined and seemed to defray our nerves after being read the standards and expectations the night before.  

It was the odour that first alerted us - it seemed organic in nature, and it was just around the next corner. A crow cawed our approach.

This long, long, long weekend is started by another Thursday

 I have got 10 days off work for the price of 4!  That is pretty fantastic.

 I have an old flatmate coming to visit, Easter, my birthday, Anzac Day, at least one show and book club all within that time frame.

I am already tired!!

Today, though, my list has bookwork, an accountant's call, shopping for school camp and getting a room from "dump everything and office" status to spare room for a guest.

I didn't even sleep in.  I don't, but today I didn't because I had a dream.

There was some sort of party at a pub - two in fact, one for dogs - but I forgot to pay for them, so had to track down an ex-boss's girlfriend who had organised it.

When I finally tracked her down and was organising payment, I realised one should have come from an account I didn't have details for so I asked her to send it through in an invoice.  I wrote her a note that also had on a recipe that she asked for - and after she left I can't remember if I also put the relevant details on it. 

So I went to the pub but had to park in this car park where there was a lift to street level and the pub was a labyrinth - I eventually worked out it was the wrong one and then couldn't find the car.

Finally I found the entry to the car park but had to walk on the road and there were a lot of corners and I was worried that a car would come around the corner and wipe me out so when I saw a cleaner in a little alley off the side remembered there was a lift near my car.  The cleaner had disappeared by the time I got to the aluminium door so I pressed the button, but when the door slid back I saw that it was a very narrow, very steep, very white staircase and in the distance, the cleaner.  I figured that where my car was must have a door so, after some hesitation, I started to climb.

Very soon afterwards, another man was behind me climbing and the stairs were getting steeper and higher - they had rungs that you could hold onto as you climbed but I seemed to be carting some bags with me making it awkward and scary - my heart was pounding.

That is when I woke up.  I was so relieved that I didn't have to pay for 2 parties I couldn't remember and I didn't have to find my car!

Anyhoo - one step at a time today - get my resources together to work out what I have to talk to the accountant about and work out the camp list.

Another Thursday.

Chilli sauce and movies.

 You see, I had to stay up late tonight as I had to make this chili sauce.

Do excuse the sequence of photos - blogger and I disagree on the way to do things and you can't be bothered arguing with it any more.

When you have a certain amount of chillis and a certain timeframe to do it one, you don't need to wait for a certain moon phase to concoct.

But it doesn't hurt.

Boiled and mouli'd and reduced and bottled to the tune of Moonstruck.

And outside indeed is that moon.

Oh it was a Thursday

 The dream I awoke from was a work dream, that merely reflected the frustration that encroaches upon my real life.

I awoke to the alarm. My alarm goes at five on a weekday. I like that bit of me time on the morning to prepare for the day.

Lately my body has woken well before the hour - or is that earliliy? - but as last night I had found a fascinating tale of a family of my husband's forebears who migrated from Germany to the United States in the 1880s - a saga of love and loss and inheritance and tragedy and comedy -the head of the household was listed as a "chicken" in a census - and therefore it was the alarm that woke me.

"It can't be!" I thought as I rose through the fog, then sobbing "It's Saturday, it's Saturday" but alas by the time I had met with the clock to silence it, my switch had flicked, and not only had I worked out that it was Thursday, I had a list ready for me to tackle.

First I had to sort the back-assed* way that an organisation that is wanting to be user friendly but failing. While my comfort zone is generally grids of electronic signals of numeric values,  it just wasn't working for me this morning. 

We got there, but it was from me lowering my expectations and some very thorough analysis. 

Again reflecting the frustration that encroaches upon my real life.

Not enough caffeine.

Then I valiantly attempted something that is such a modern day first world problem. 

You see, I had receipts to scan.

The cheap-assed* scanner-printer that I fled to when the previous cheap-assed* scanner-printer died failed in all key aspects of its purpose - or at the first half of its stated purpose.

It lulled me in to a false sense of security at first, offering a preview of the oh-my-giddy-aunt I didn't know things scanned this blurry!

So i investigated the settings- it always reminds me of lifting the hood of a car engine and peering when I go into settings.

I remember a sci-fi TV sitcom from the BBC in the late 70s or early 80s?;  I think that it had Mrs Slocum in it - where a bloke lost one key piece of evidence that he was who he said he was when he lost his house keys and l wonder if this is the moment I have a lost password issue and my computer will ignore my commands forevermore. 

I tinker and think that I have overcome the blur.

But I will never know.

For then I discovered the other thing that this cheap-assed* scanner-printer failed at.

I have this far been unable to find where -  or even ascertain IF - it was saved. 

It's a modern day philosophical conundrum, isn't it?

If you cannot find where a file has been saved, did it ever exist at all?

This was all before 7am.

* Insert own asswords here.

How was yours?

The Festival - or Folly - of Fancy Mashed Potatoes...

 Or mere tales of squishy potato bake?

Hot Lactose-free Vichyssoise, even?

(Apologies - i fought the technology but the technology won in the below order of photos - imagine them in reverse.)

For visual description in the right order- 

• a very wet end to a very wet week;
• wet-weather organ-warming soul-massaging goodness-in-a-bowl;
• Super-Crunchy Garlic-Flavoured SourDough Croutons from the air fryer: 
• a piece I call "still-life with wine receptacle, fresh ginger and a grey tin of McKenzies coarse-ground black-pepper"; and 
• a white bowl with an artsy-fartsy arrangement of croutons, black pepper and greenish yellow potato-and-leek soup.

***

****

Not deconstructed-reconstructed extrusions in a tin that tastes like someone lied to make money, but good-to-honest from scratch.

Well, I didn't grow the potatoes or get the recipe from a bookseller. But as close to the shore of nature as a modern day working woman intending to solve hunger sails.

I went to the supermarket. A leek I did buy. Also some chips to go with my Friday night glass of wine.

I found a guide to follow for the something whipped up on a very wet end to a very wet week. *

With super-crunchy garlic-flavoured sourdough croutons from the air fryer.

It hit the spot on this child free evening.

Practical wet-weather organ-warming soul-massaging goodness-in-a-bowl. What is not to love?

So - tell me yours.

-----

* If you haven't discovered RecipeTinEats yet, to paraphrase an Aussie icon, do yourself a favour!

No paid content here - just very yummy.

Also I made this one lactose-free by omitting the cream altogether- already rich enough.  Whilst part of me remembers the CONCEPT of cream was curious-ly appealing, too much of my muscle memory is tied up in post warmed lactose hell.

Don't even MENTION melted cheese!

** How did I go? Placeholder for Words for Wednesday by way of River.

1.bookseller 2. solve 3. shore 4. lied 5. buy  

and: 

1. folly 2. tales 3. love 4. curious 5. practical

*** I should point out that the ginger was just for effect.  (I can be a bit pretentious that way) 

**** oh, and the licorice? My kryptonite.