Pasta play

Today we tried some kitchen craftiness, inspired by the post here over at Cafe Liz.

It's not too hard to make beetroot-red pasta. You roast the beetroot, make pasta dough (a generous serve per person is 1 egg and 100g Type '00' flour, whizzed in a food processor) - then add a slice of the ruby-red beetroot to the pasta dough in the food processor.

Add more flour until it no longer sticks like napalm to everything, and presto, red pasta dough.

Being a nerd, I wondered what I could use to make other colours. And I know a bunch of kids who would love this! Some of those kids have kids of their own, if you get what I mean. Having a reason to play with your food can be fun at any age.

I decided to see if I could make some fun multicoloured pasta with a basic dough and a few additions.

To start:
First I made a biggish batch of plain pasta dough, by dumping 500g '00' flour in a food processor and cracking in five large organic eggs. It works better if the eggs are at room temperature, if you remember...

I then divided my plain basic dough into five portions and started testing. I kept each portion wrapped in plastic wrap so that it didn't dry out before I was ready to rock and roll it out.

Here's what worked!

Green:
A handful of fresh parsley leaves, blanched for 1 minute in boiling water, then cooled by swirling in cold water. I squeezed the green lump of wilted leaves hard before adding it to the food processor and blending it with a portion of the basic dough. The dough looked freckly. I wrapped it up and left it in the fridge while making the other colours.

Take two: I picked two leaves of silverbeet (save the stems for something else), then chopped and blanched them for 1 minute as above. Cool, squeeze like mad to get the water out. Squeeze some more. This time I processed the leaves to a sludge in the food processor first with a dash of olive oil. Then I added a portion of the basic pasta dough, buzzed it up and added flour till it wasn't too sticky. (That was a guess: enough flour so it would not stick terribly to the plastic wrap seems to be about right.) Wrap it up and leave to rest.

Yellow:
This one was simple: just a scant teaspoon of turmeric added to a portion of the dough and a dash of olive oil to make it all come together.

Orange:
For this I cut off a chunk of the yellow turmeric dough (about half), to which I added a 1/2 tablespoon of the beetroot juice from the roasting pan. So I had less orange and yellow, but that's fine.

Red:
A slice of beetroot (skinned), added to a portion of dough.

The fifth ball of dough stayed plain, to provide the base for squiggles and other sorts of fun times.

Rolling it was the fun part! This involved rolling sheets of each colour, cutting them into spaghetti with the cutter attachment, then pressing them into a flat piece of a different colour.

That was so much fun that we decided to try sticking two flat disks (just roughly hand flattened) together, end to end. Ran these slowly through the machine on a wide setting and they stuck and became two-tone pasta!

Someone got fancy and it became a patchwork of pasta blobs that got rolled and then sliced...

Results:
The silverbeet leaves made a better green because although they were softer and made the dough a bit wet, the green leached out and the whole sheet went evenly green. The parsley dough retained its freckly appearance throughout, which was fun too.

The beetroot fades a huge amount in cooking, and ended up a genteel shade of pink.

The turmeric stayed bright yellow and it really imparted a kick to the taste of the pasta! I quite liked that, just be aware of it when matching your sauce.

We made a simple vegetable sauce and cooked up a batch to enjoy. It was a colourful lunch!

* Post updated to add more images - Blogger updated the date stamp. We don't mind, do we?

Golden

A Big beautiful bag o lemons were given to me this week, each one perfectly yellow, fat and tight with juice. Smelling like lemon oil.

I'm going to want them in summer when all the lemon trees are sleeping, so here's what I did:

Slice clean lemons and layer in a sieve, with coarse salt sprinkled between the slices.

Leave overnight, over a bowl and under a teatowel.

Pack tightly in a sterilised jar, paprika sprinkled between the layers. Cover completely with olive oil.

And in about three weeks they'll be perfectly soft and not bitter. Amazing in salads and with roasted veg.

Time to plant some zucchini!

Promises to myself

There are things you promise yourself you'd never do.

You know, things like:
- If I were a teacher, I'd never give my class a quiz just to shut them up.

And if I were a parent I'd never give my kids sweeties.
Oh yeah, right.

And if I were a gardener, I'd never, no never, plant too many zucchini plants or fall into the magic land of the pump-action inflating summer squash. No, never that either.

Good thing Mom's zucchini bread recipe is so damn fine.

- - - - - - -
Ma's Zucchini Bread

(Makes 2 loaves)

3 eggs, beaten until frothy
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups loosely packed coarsely grated zucchini (about one zucchini or half a monster)
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Beat the eggs in a large bowl; stir in the sugar and vegetable oil.
In a separate jug or bowl, mix all the dry ingredients with a fork.
Add the zucchini to the egg/oil mixture, alternating with the flour. Stir to combine.
Pour into two lightly oiled loaf tins and bake at 350 degrees about 1 hour - when they smell so good you're eager to eat zucchini again....

What became of the pumpkin?

Well, we ate it, of course.

My goodness, we liked it! I was trying to think up a name for the recipe. 'Agent orange' is not appetising, neither 'Fromorange' - an unholy union between the words 'fromage' and 'orange'.

It's been a long week.

So when my tired stubby fingers hit the keyboard and typed "Pumpklin", I thought, hmmm...


Pumpklin - Stuffed

This is for a small pumpkin or hard-skinned autumn squash like turk's turban, Queensland blue or any of the others of that ilk.


1 small pumpkin, about 1 kg
1 clove garlic
a shred of bacon, about half a slice (only necessary if you live with a carnivore)
1/2 onion, chopped
silverbeet (chard) or spinach leaves, 2 or 3 large ones
1/2-3/4 cup chopped pieces of cheese - I used raclette and a bit of rock-hard parmesan. Needless to say it should be good cheese....the dry bit near the rind will melt nicely if you chop it finely
2-3 tablespoons cream
salt and pepper
nutmeg, for grating
1-2 potatoes (optional) 

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (400 F).
• Wash the pumpkin and carefully cut a slice off the top at the stem end to make a lid.
• Scoop out all the innards with a spoon. (You might want to save some of the seeds for toasting, or even for planting in spring!)
• Put the pumpkin in a small baking dish so tht it sits firmly upright, pop the clove of garlic inside with the bacon (if using). Sprinkle in some salt and pepper. Put the pumpkin in the oven, its lid perched in place. 
• Warm a frying pan over medium heat, add some olive oil and saute the onion slowly 5 minutes, until soft and transparent. 
• Strip the leaves from the stems of silverbeet (chard) and slice them finely. Add to the onions in the pan, and stir.
• After 2-3 minutes, rip up the leaves and add them. Cook until softened, 2-3 minutes. 
• Tip the onion and greens into a medium bowl, adding a grating of nutmeg. Dollop in two tablespoons of cream, and add the grated or finely chopped cheese. 
• Remove the pumpkin from the oven, remove the lid and stuff in the onion and cheese mixture, pressing down with the back of a spoon. Pack it quite firmly and pile it up a bit, jamming the lid down when you're done - the cheese will melt and fill any holes! 
• Any remaining stuffing (I had more than I needed), can be layered with thinly sliced potatoes in the baking dish around the pumpkin base. They'll cook nicely and catch any sweet juices coming out of the pumpkin. 
• Put the whole lot back in the oven for almost an hour, checking regularly after 40 minutes. When the pumpkin if soft and yields easily to the tines of a fork, it's done. 
• Slice in half and serve half per person - or just a quarter if your pumpkin was larger and if you serve something else (or dessert) with it.

Peter pumpkin, pesto perfect

Isn't this pumpkin the most beautiful thing you evah...?

Well, I did. 

The blackboard in our kitchen advertises the crop of the moment: a beautiful bounty of cooking pears. 

Those who suspect the food processor is new would be correct. 

It made pesto shortly after this picture was taken.

We went to the Lancefield Farmers' Market yesterday and bought this from a guy who looked like a young Aussie version of Lourdes' Dad. We said hello to the beef lady and had a chat with the nice guy from Goldfields Farmhouse cheeses. Their white cheese is yummy and a staple on our list. (I learned how to make it at a cheese-making course I took from them last May, but you know what? It's easier to buy a couple of rounds a month...)

Past the guy from Red Beard Bakery who was wielding a hammer with intent (thankfully his intent was to hammer a tent peg) and we found a new stall, the Piper St Food Co., with wild rabbit rillettes - like the sweetest loveliest textured pate you ever had. If you see them at a market, try it.

We had all-important chatting moments, bought sheafs of summer basil -- one large green genovese bunch and a bunch of the purple that I couldn't help holding like a bouquet and sniffing all the way back to the car.

So the pumpkin? I think it's going to get roasted, hollowed out and the innards mashed with roasted home-grown garlic and a bit of cream, mashed back in and drizzled with basil pesto made this morning, and mmmmm I can hardly wait!

Reawaken

Well it's been a while, hasn't it?

Life took over, what with the move and a new job, exciting gardens to be established and a lot of recipes to test and trial and cook in my new kitchen, which of course needed painting...

Good things have been happening, not least the fresh garden produce and all the cooking that's been going on.

Happy new year!

Careful consideration of chocolate cake

Careful consideration of placement
Originally uploaded by Taccolina

Another photo from the launch party.

It's a pleasant consideration to have, right? One medium-sized table plus about sixteen gorgeous cakes. Where to put them? Oh, what to do?

I'm pleased to report that the Chocolate Cake Hall of Fame took its pride of place in the cafe and was duly demolished. Remnants of fame were last seen disappearing in large white boxes borne away by happy Kinglake locals.

(Do you like my op-shopped Salvos store tablecloth? I love it!)

B

Cookbooks and cake

The cookbook launch went well! We had a party at Kinglake on Sunday evening, and much fun was had by all. Dinner from the cookbook, prizes and face painting, music and delights. Not to mention, much cake.... Here are a couple of shots of the pre-launch preparations chez Taccolina on Saturday afternoon. I'm still sorting the photos from the launch itself, so I'll show you those soon.

Saturday afternoon, getting sorted: cake boxes, muffin cases, mm-mm.

Baking and icing, mm-hhmm.

Cupcakes finished and starting to fill the cake box... (Little silver sugarballs on top.)

I'm not sure if I took a picture of our kitchen table before we left, but it was piled high with white cake boxes full of baked goodies. Many lovely people dropped off a cake, or three -- and the assortment was beautiful, and turned out to be delicious.

At the party, a very serious 10-year-old wanted to discuss the various merits of the cakes with me. The Chocolate Truffle cake was pronounced 'Very dark. But nice.' - and the Orange Cardamom Sour Cream Cake was 'Really, really good.' That's one sophisticated ten-year-old cake taster, not mincing her words.

We had dark cakes, light cakes, coconut cakes and pink-iced cakes. We had three tiers of cupcakes on a gorgeous stand. There was a strawberry-adorned chocolate beauty. Glossy icing on a tall dark number. A double-decker chocolate cake, with butter cream icing and german cherry jam in the middle. A clown cake. Ring cakes. They all made new friends. Large white boxes were last seen being borne away by happy Kinglake residents full of assorted pieces of cake (the residents - and the boxes, that is!)

Hurrah to the cake bakers, one and all of you!

Jam on top

Six days to the launch and counting... I've been working on a few interesting recipes for the second printing of the benefit cookbook. Yes, that's right, Homemade: The Handmade Help recipe book will be reprinting. Thanks to all of you who bought copies we're really close to being able to fulfil our goal, which was to have enough copies to provide one for every one of those 2000 families who lost their homes, should they want one. (We've been selling copies to raise the money to print extras, and any money left over from the sale will be donated to the Salvation Army. So when you purchase one, you give twice: you give a cookbook to a family AND money to the Salvos for the work they do all across Australia).

Thanks to the oddnesses of printing and presses and production stuff, if we add a couple of pages to the book, it costs less to print. (And wastes less paper). So, let them eat JAM! I've got a couple of jams and a marmalade to add to the back of the book.

The new copies won't be out for a good six weeks yet, so in the meantime, your copies are jam-free (but jam-packed with great recipes). It's a sticky situation, knowing we need to add something extra to the book, but we think we can spread it on lightly and the result will just be that much sweeter.

Book and bag

While I was away, I did a packet-load of crafting. Here's just one of the things I made which has been in my handbag ever since. It's just a pouch, but useful, very useful! Two kinds of fabric fused to woven interfacing, with a vintage sheet lining. (More of that sheet later!)

We're gearing up for the launch of the cookbook this coming weekend: lists and ingredients, lots of helpers to muster. It's plenty to organise but I'm starting to look forward to it, too. We'll celebrate and start giving the cookbooks away through some of the community groups in the bushfire-affected areas. Should be lots of fun.

Homemade In Epicure

HomemadeInEpicure
Originally uploaded by smallcloughs

I'm on holiday at the moment -- did you miss me?

I'm on the patio, sitting in the sun in Canada, enjoying the summer breezes, the prospect of more barbeques and swimming in the lake.

Meanwhile, at home, the little cookbook we produced for the bushfire benefit has attracted some attention and was in Epicure last week. Yay!

If you don't already know all about it, go to www.handmaderecipebook.com. (I promise you it's delicious, I edited those recipes and some of them looked great...!)

More soon, just wanted to share the (belated) news. If you'e already ordered a copy of the book, apparently they have arrived and will be shipping very soon if not already. Double yay!

xx
B

Learning to fly

... with little baby wings.

I once had rather a nice boss, who recognised just how frustrating was the place we were working. Every time we accomplished something against all the odds, she used to say: "Just baby steps. Little baby steps." Every little forward movement was celebrated with that phrase I'd never use. "Little baby steps!"

So here I am, trying out my little wings on the tasks and ideas for the children's book illustration course, and thinking and writing every day, and so it comes to mind. A silly phrase, but so true. Taking little steps - or flops and flutters and bounces, in my case - towards something fun. I don't know what it is, but I hardly care. I'm having fun!

boing, boing.

(In other news: I got stuck in the lift again at work today. Popped out for a coffee, to get back in three broken lifts, ran up six flights of stairs; tried every floor all the way back down again, only to discover that all the doors were locked. And after 25 minutes? Ended up at the ground floor again. Cold coffee.)

bing, boing, bong. CRASH.

Verdict: the dog likes

.
Lemon delicious pudding.

After licking the bowls across the floor, he licked the rims of the bowls. Then he licked the outsides of the bowls. Then he licked the floor around the b0wls for good measure.And you may ask why I'm washing part of the floor at 10:15 on a Friday night?

What's Cookin'?

Today was a recipe for a great day. Sort of in the ethos of the Slow Food movement, today was a Slow Saturday of cheer and sunshine.


It began with hot cross buns and coffee, a walk in the park and a chat with neighbours (and their dogs).

We don't buy hot cross buns very often, and I've sometimes tried to make my own, resulting in a hot cross me with little lumps of dough, rapidly turning rock-hard. Mr Tacc saved the day when he came home from the Vic Market on Friday and casually announced that he'd bought some hot cross buns. Not just any hot cross buns: gooey, sticky, yeasty, spice-laden raisin-hoarding buns from the bakery ladies. I forgive them a year of a mild taciturn tendency for these buns.

So, nice buns, tick. (giggle) Coffee, tick. Off I went to the market at Thornbury, to meet with lots of lovely crafters, gossip and eye the cupcakes, and generally just mooch around the colourful stall of goodness known as the Curlypops and Tinniegirl shop. Yay!

These two did a super job, and their colourful wares looked amazing. So amazing that I had to take some home with me.... yes, Ms Curlypops, I secretly had my eye on that orange apron from the moment the teatowel was glimpsed in the corner. And when it was revealed, well -- I decided that if the gods were smiling, it would be my new apron.

-It is!

So, welcome! Come on in, and make yourselves at home. Something nice is cooking and the chef has a silly smile at the thought of her lovely new apron.

Last year, I decided Earth Hour was an occasion, worthy of celebration with a fantastic dinner by candlelight, and maybe a game of cards to follow.

Here's what's on the menu tonight:


Organic chicken braised in wine with olives, tarragon and home-grown tomatoes.
Baked jacket potatoes, crusted with Murray River salt.
Pumpkin baked in olive oil, dusted in cumin, chilli and rubbed with garlic.
Crisp green salad.

Oops, we ate dessert already. Maybe a zucchini cake will get made while the chicken finishes roasting (says she, spying there's about 6 minutes left on the time).

Dinner's on! Must go and set the table, cloth and candles, while the bird browns. Earth's worth it.

My dog doesn't like it when...

Peppercorn
Originally uploaded by AMagill
I drop peppercorns on the floor.

He thinks they're food and he crunches them up, and then his ears go -- whoosh - flat back as the bite hits.

Sorry, dog.

PS: Flickr up to its old tricks: Photo originally uploaded by AMagill

TomaToes

We interrupt today's scheduled blogpost to bring you news from the garden. Salad is in. And the tomatoes are popping off the vines - ripening at a rate of ten or so per day.


Lucky, they're little sweet bombs of juice, coddled through the heat with shade of their own and every saved scrap of soap-free water I had.

No, I didn't go out with such a huge bucket, expecting to fill it with tomatoes! It's the laundry basket, emptied onto the line - returning with mint and basil, fresh oregano. I made a yogourty garlicy tsatziki, with salt and cucumbers and a dash of lemon juice, and we had big plates of salad with cold poached chicken, tiny slivers of chorizo, tsatziki and basil on top. Yummy? You bet.

I have load of things to blog about, and pictures to show you. Sadly, they are all on the laptop, and the scheduled crafty photo post is interrupted by the imminence of a paid-for article deadline. There's no way I'll ask for the laptop now.

So, with the main computer downloading images one..... at........a...........time.........zzz.......... my pickings from the garden are greater than my harvest from the camera. Maybe tomorrow.

B

Just to set the record straight

When saying I was going to 'have words with the kitchen help', I meant me.

Just in case you misunderstood (ahem).

x
B

Pah - pah - PAH!

Home from my early walk and a big bowl of strawberries for breakfast. Left over from last night, when they were cut up and soaked with a few drops of balsamic vinegar to make them sweeter than ever. Cool, too -- from being in the fridge all night with a dollop of nectarine coulis on top.


What's this? Hmmm...

GARLIC??!!

Pah!

I must have words with the kitchen help about the washing up around here.....

Thus confirming that strawberries, vinegar, nectarines and garlic are NOT a taste sensation.

Gaaaaah.

Away... and back again!

I hadn't intended to take a blog-break, but with the onslaught of Christmas I felt pulled apart. All I wanted for Christmas was to stay at home, nose stuck in a book.

I knew a break was coming, and when it finally did, I pulled in my horns, tucked the sheet up over my head, popped the 'Back in 5' sign on the door, and hibernated. (There's four metaphors for you. Want some more? No? OK.)

Lime baked cheesecake, mangoes and sparkling rose.

Wooowee....

So, we've had quiet days and a stack of books. Shortbread came... and went. A similar fate met the cheesecake. I spent a day with my best friend, and we scored booty on the side of the road in the form of an abandoned armchair. We went fabric shopping. I sewed, sketched, slept in, sorted out, dusted (my goodness), and slept some more. It's all very ordinary, but sometimes it's quiet everyday home life that you need.

Baby grow for the nephew whose arrival is anticipated any moment now.
Red fabric fused to light interfacing; satin-stitched to the grow. My drawing.

Here's a little something I made today, and I'll be back around the traps with comments and posts. I couldn't leave my little part of Blogland - but it's been nice to be away -- at home -- for a while.

toodle pip, back anon.

B.

Christmas brooch love

A day to myself. Glorious. Wonderful. Practically unheard-of. What is it for?

All the things I love.

- Coffee at the market with Meghan, and meeting her lovely friends from France.
- Food, food, food, and Merry Christmas to the stall holders who have kept us well-fed all year.


- Sitting in the sun with the dog on my feet, watching the world go up and down my street.
- Laundry and sweep while listening to the cricket.
- Sewing, sewing... and more sewing!


Pretty felt brooches for friends.

Snipping the circle; fold and snip, fold and snip - to make the petals.

Sewing perle thread for a decorative edge.


Finished brooch: it looks better slightly ruffled, so a circle of heavy-duty thread is sewn around the edge and pulled tight for a ruffly flower.

The finished brooch.

Now I'm just sitting down to show a few photos of what I've made, then it's time to do some Christmas baking, and off to an open house tonight.

Lovely Friday.

B