Pantry tea and gingerbread people

My long awaited, dreaded, and inevitable return to blogging is here, and I shall make more of an effort to assault you with my bakings and ramblings from now on.

Having been in England for four months from April to August, I had little opportunity to bake, having no kitchen to speak of, or worthy of the name of kitchen. Mr A's mum eventually took pity on me and invited me over to bake, which was a glorious release and an apple pie and a cherry pie came forth in quick succession. Both were rave successes, especially the cherry pie which was made with fresh morello cherries, and therefore had a lovely tart quality to it. The cherry pie was repeated for Mr A's birthday and crumbles full of bramley apples and summer berries were also made. We went blackberry picking, and picked a tonne of blackberries as Mr A was working up the courage to propose...which he did, and I said yes....A celebratory apple and blackberry pie followed, though I have since learnt that you must put some cornflour in when baking with blackberries as the pie was almost drowned by the vast quantity of delicious crimson juice.

Since coming home things have been busy with with the thesis, work and friends. My dear friend Miss P got married and so in the lead up the the joyous occasion we had a pantry tea, which allowed me to get my bake on!!

Having been deprived of means and opportunity for so long I made:

Little lemon tarts
Almond macaroon/biscuits - intense little almondy diamonds that you left to dry out over night before baking and smothering in icing sugar
Caramalised onion and bacon quiches
Balsamic Caramalised onion, pumpkin and Parmesan tarts
and Pistachio Macaroons.

I have made these macaroons before, but the first time, whilst they turned out really well, something was wrong with the mixture as it was very liquid and wouldn't pipe. These, on the other hand were perfect. They are Nigella's recipe from "Domestic Goddess". The recipe makes way too much butter cream - so I have some stashed in the freezer to use for something else as it is intensely sweet if you used it all to fill the biscuits it would totally overwhelm them and everyone would get diabetes instantly.






For Miss P and Mr D's bomboniere's they lovingly made gingerbread brides and grooms to give to their guests. We were called in once all the hard work had been done to turn the little guys and girls into brides and grooms. It was great fun, especially when I got half way through a bride only to realise it was actually a groom! The whole thing made me want to run away and become a pastry chef...which part of me still wants to do, especially on the days when my thesis is driving me insane or I have had a particularly good day in the kitchen....







HH

Raspberry and Vanilla Meringue Layer Cake

I have had a lovely, if somewhat jam packed three weeks with Mr A, and I was very sad to see him go on Friday. It was not a very culinary holiday, but that being said, I did not go hungry and had some excellent fish and chips (several times), a delicious spiced soup care of Mr A's sister-in-law which I intend to make, an excellent BLT on gorgeous sour dough bread at a very nice cafe in Cooma, yum cha at the Marigold in Sydney, a gorgeous peppery meat pie with mash potatoes mushy peas and gravy at The Lord Nelson.

Adelaide was beautiful, and the sunset we saw at Mount Lofty in the Adelaide Hills was gorgeous. We flew from Adelaide to Melbourne and after spending a day or so with Mr A's mum, we headed off to drive to Berridale. We took the scenic route, down through Gipsland and up the coast. It was beautiful, and really fascinating to see how the country changes. We visited lots of nautical things in Sydney, including the Maritime Musuem and Fort Denison, where Mr A, much to his excitement, got to fire the gun.

I did manage to get a little cooking in amongst all this travelling, though nothing really note worthy - except the dessert I made for the BBQ I held at my place so Mr A could meet some of my friends.

I had planned to make a pavlova, but as I didn't have a stash of egg whites, and didn't have time to make two desserts, one with egg whites and one with yolks (I was thinking a fruit flan). I combined the two and made a Meringue layer cake with creme patisserie filling. I based it on Nigella'sGooey Chocolate Stack from Domestic Goddess,which I have made before, but substituted chocolate for vanilla, adding a good bit of vanilla extract to the meringue mix before baking (and white wine vinegar instead of red wine vinegar) and some vanilla bean paste to the creme patisserie. The meringues were wonderful, chewy but crisp and the raspberries, which were inbetween each layer, as well as on top, cut through the sweetness. By the time I served it, the raspberries had bled quite a bit as they weren't defrosted when I assembled it, but it created a lovely raspberry sauce, which if anything, added to the overall deliciousness.

HH

Christmas Pavlova and the misadventure continues

I was feeling very unmotivated for Christmas this year, and whilst several batches of mince pies did make me feel a bit more festive, nothing could persuade me to make a proper boiled pudding this year. Instead I resorted to an ice cream pudding and a pavlova. I normally use Nigella's pavolva recipe, but I went with Jamie this time after eating a delicious offering from this recipe. It was pretty damn good. The unsugared egg whites are beaten until stiff and then the sugar is added gradually, but not a painstaking teaspoonful-at-a-time like Nigella suggests. The egg whites and sugars are then beat for between 6 and 10 minutes until the sugar is dissolved. It only took an hour to cook and doesn't have to cool in the oven - bliss for when you have left things a bit late and don't have time to let it sit in the oven. It is also the most wonderful texture, the perfect balance of soft and crunchy. Wonderful. I decorated it with mango and passionfruit, though it would have benefited from strawberries or raspberries, but I couldn't justify paying for the strawberries and I forgot to get frozen raspberries. But with vanilla cream, it was lovely.


In other, non-baking, news, I am reunited with Mr A tomorrow. It is only for 3 weeks, but it is better than nothing after what has been a long 11 months! We are heading to Adelaide then Melbourne and home via Berridale (wherever that is). Hopefully it will all go well and be lovely.

In thesis news, well, perhaps we shouldn't talk about that.

HH

'In the shape of some fragmented journal'

After a string of posts, I have once again become terribly slack in my blogging, and I do apologise, though I have had nothing of note to say. (perhaps I still don't).

I have finished my tutoring for this semester, all the marking is done, I just have to record the marks and haggle with my supervisor on the scaling. So this is excellent. I am now waiting, anxiously, to hear if I will be tutoring next semester. I hopefully will be doing a 20th C course, that I took when I was a first year, many moons a go. So fingers crossed.

Other points of interest were another trip to the Lord Nelson Pub where many pints were drunk, and where the pie with mushy peas (well peas that were mushed), mash and gravy was had. It was all very delicious, and Nelson enjoyed him self as well.

These pics are courtesy of my good friend Brennan




In other news, Mr A has booked his flights to Australia for a holiday in January next year. It is all very exciting and now we just have to work out our movements as he has family in Adelaide and Melbourne and go to see them before I spend a bit of time showing him round Sydney and its surrounds (and convincing him that he really wants to live here).

Finally, on the baking front, which was been relatively silent, I have made White Chocolate cheesecake cookies from Hungry and Frozen, as prompted by Foodycat. They are delicious, so creamy and tender and delicious, though I didn't enjoy them warm, patience in this case, is a virtue.



I shall try to be more diligent with the blogging, but seeing I have a chapter due in just over a week, perhaps it will have to wait. On the other hand, uni work tends to make me blog like fury, so you never know your luck!

HH

"I have sometimes thought of going to London again after Easter"

The last few weeks have been somewhat crazy. Tutoring and marking have somewhat consumed my life, and my PhD has gone by the wayside. Tutoring itself is going really well, marking I hate and am now anxiously awaiting the avalanche of complaints. Mr A is good, though still in England, and it is a bit of a downer being apart, especially for the long weekend when we are both doing nothing in particular. I am secretly wondering if I need another research trip, I am sure I could pitch it legitimately to the uni and my supervisor...maybe....

I hope over the coming week to get back to my own work and have some down time, which I seriously need. Today I made a good start on that, by watching several more episodes of Buffy! (Phwoar, urst, angst!) I also made some hot cross buns, from Nigella Feast. I am tempted to make them again and let them rise in the fridge overnight as she suggests as they could be more tender. Though infusing the milk with spices before adding it to the dry ingredients and ground spices, awesome. I didn't pay much attention to presentation so they are a little ugly, but really, it is what is on the inside that counts. (Sorry that there are two missing from the picture, they smelt so good we couldn't wait!)



I hope everyone has a good Easter, or long weekend, which ever takes your fancy.

HH

"They left England with the probability of being nearly a twelvemonth absent."

After leaving Ireland I had a week and a half left in England, to enjoy and misadventure as I saw fit. Lunch with Foodycat was my first port of call, and then I headed South to see Mr A. We explored the delights of his little local pub, which was a good real ale pub, and where we had Smoke Beer which was an unique, strange and delicious beer in which the barely is smoked prior to being used for the beer. Poor weather kept us indoors and then poor organisation prevented us from going anywhere too far a field. However we took a reasonably optimistic weather forecast and headed to Battle for the day to see the Battle of Hastings site, which was very interesting and rather beautiful. We rambled about in the mud most of the afternoon and then went to the pub for a quick pint. Four pints later we were both starving (and getting a little drunk) so we marched back up the hill for dinner and another pint before making our way home on the train. We also headed to Ramsgate for the day, though the weather was bloody awful and the ship we went to see disappointing. I think we ended up walking about 8 miles, again in mud! I was up to my ankles in mud, and if I had of had long petticoats on (thankfully I was wearing a shorter dress and slip than dear Lizzy), oh my, 6 inches deep I'm sure they would have been. It was too cold and far to go to the main harbour, so I didn't see where dear Georgiana had almost eloped, but walking along the cliffs, I could imagine it quite well. It actually felt almost Gothic, so it wasn't altogether unliterary. The misdaventuring went really well, and so now I have to work out what to do about it, I don't want the story to stop here, and niether does Mr A, so we will see. It is now a question of if he can come over for a holiday at Christmas, and when I can get over there, perhaps for more than a holiday....But I won't bore you anymore, but will just put up some pictures. Enjoy.

"Hope had already entered; and feeling all its anxious flutter..."

Historically Hysterical had been going to the library to read old letters day after day. The staff started to recognise her and her presence in the reading room. One in particular, Mr Archives, was drawn into conversation with her because of her accent, having spent a time living in HH's homeland.

HH and Mr A, from then on always exchanged smiles and small talk, but HH thought nothing of it, just that Mr A was a nice fellow, though their eyes had met across the reading room several times with some degree of intensity, HH went back to her work and Mr A to his. HH decided it was time to finish her work at the library, and on the day she was set to leave, she didn't see Mr A, so never said goodbye to him, which she regretted. After going to a bigger, less inviting library, HH decided that she wanted to go back to the other library, and so she did.

The next day, she saw Mr A again, who was surprised and, it would appear, pleased to see her. Mr A said how lovely HH's hair looked, and HH, though flattered, thought he could think nothing of her other than a reader, and went back to her work. Another day went by and HH thought that she would finish up at the library that day, and told Mr A that she was going to Ireland. Mr A was sad to hear that, but thought that the ship had sailed. However, HH was not quite finished her work, and left some letters in the library to read the next week. Mr A, seeing these when he was locking up the library, hurried out to where HH was packing her bag. He asked if she was coming back to the library, and she said, with a smile, that she was and that she would see him next week. HH left the library with a smile, wondering what Mr A could mean by rushing out to see her in such a fashion, and may have frightened some of her fellow commuters by smiling the whole way home.

HH's friends told her to ask Mr A to share a cup of coffee with her, but HH thought that it would be much to forward, but determined to wear her hair in the way that Mr A liked when she returned to the library. When she returned, Mr A was there and said that they should get a coffee, which caused many smiles from HH. The next day HH and Mr A not only had coffee, but also went for a drink after work, and a lovely time was had by all. HH had to go to Ireland the next day, so that was it, or so she thought. Many emails later, HH decided that being in Ireland would not do, so headed back to England to see Mr A, and again had a lovely time. Much historical sight seeing occurred, including Portsmouth, and cooking and walking and all in all having the most marvelous time.

HH had to go back to Ireland for Christmas, but Mr A came to see her just afterwards and stayed until New Years. Mr A and HH had a lovely time in Ireland, particularly spending hours and hours in a pub in Belfast. HH and Mr A will have about another week together before HH has to return home, so who knows where the story will go after that. HH is all hope, all anxious flutter.....but no more on that today.

HH