Happy New Year

The bag model :)

One of my bags

Pea pancakes

Lemon cake

The Raw Food Kitchen

 

A few bits of delicious Liberty Tana Lawn from a visit to Materialise

Hello from my little plot!  I'm back to the rhythm of my normal life after a wonderful 10 days of flying by the seat of my pants. Days spent doing things on a whim.  It was pure delicious-ness to throw routine out the window and move easily through my day.  A dear, dear friend came to visit, which was so special - we had such an amazing few days.  We did not stop talking as we explored, drove, ate, cooked, walked, swam, shopped, drank. We had so much catching up to do.  I have known Sal from the day she was born (I'm a little bit older!) so our families have a long shared history. It was incredible to have time together - it was the first time Sal had left all 3 of her children, in 13 years.  It filled up our souls, reaffirmed our friendship and sparked all our creative juices.  Sal is the most wonderful person, with an incredible ability to live a truly creative life.  I love her to pieces. Our time together is something I will treasure forever.

I sent her off with one of my bags, and forced her to model it for me in the above picture.  It looked so great with her outfit!  Much better than the table pic, don't you think?  The food pics were taken as we ate our way around Perth.  Everything pictured is gluten free - from Sayers Sister in North Perth and The Raw Kitchen in Fremantle.  All of it was a taste sensation.  Sal and I talked food and nutrition a lot and have decided to share recipes across the country. I've sent off the first one, which is roast potatoes with prunes from the Jerusalem cookbook.  I made them one night and served them alongside Jamie Oliver's lamb with a green leafy salad.  Dessert was one of my small Christmas cakes - another success!  See pictures below...I can't take credit for the potato shot - it's from the cookbook....but the Christmas cake is my pic.

Potatoes and Prunes in caramel sauce from Jerusalem by Ottolenghi

Recipe from Cake Angels by Julie Thomas.

As you can see it was a bit of a foodie-fest!

Bon appetite...until next time.....

Scrummy Banana Pecan Loaf

Absolutely delish banana, pecan and golden syrup loaf.

Gluten and dairy free.  Totally delish.  Started at 8 am, baked at 8pm!  Life interrupted.  A lovely Sunday. How lovely if we could sit and have a cuppa and a slice together, eh?



 

Christmas Jam

This year's batch is Berry Raspberry Jam.  Made with mostly raspberries, but a few mixed berries thrown in.  It's quite sharp, but I think it's a good batch.  Hopefully recipients will too!

Weekend in Review 3

Ooops it's Friday and I haven't done my weekend in review post, although I've posted about a couple of things I did. My weekend was very very quiet. I blobbed in front of telly on Friday night.  Saturday morning did a few chores before heading out on my "Artist's Date".  I've read the book by Julie Cameron, The Artist's Way and try to incorporate random artist dates into my life.  I love that book and it sits beside my bed, so everynow and again I flick through it and re-acquaint myself with it. So with the prospect of a long weekend and time on my hands I decided to have an artist's date. I headed to Calico and Ivy to soak up some inspiration.  In particular I wanted to buy sock yarn and needles so I can learn to knit socks. 

The yarn for sale is heaven.  The colours are heaven.  I was in heaven.  My mind started jumping all over the place with projects I want to make.  It almost became stressful.  I had to take big deep breaths! I was there for ages fondly the yarns, flicking through books, looking at fabric, drooling over the Liberty bolts. Eventually... mission accomplished very satisfactorily!

Here are the socks I'm about to embark on!

Next weekend job was to buy myself some jeans.  With the weather turning, and not a pair in my wardrobe, I need to rectify this.  Again mission successfully completed - 2 pairs purchased - a dark dark navy pair and a red pair!  Thumbs up from everyone at home.

I also splurged on a wooden sign for the kitchen.  Very fun!

Sunday was spent doing chores and sewing my Russian Doll quilt - see earlier post.  Evenings were spent crocheted my wavy edging on my rug.  Almost finished - one and a bit sides to go.

A lovely walk down to the river on Sunday evening.  I'm so lucky to live so close to the beautiful Swan River.  As I approached the foreshore I could hear bagpipes.  I discovered it was coming from a small glen :).  A piper and drummer were practicing.  How special was that.  I stayed within earshot for the entirety of my walk.  It was very special.  I grew up learning Scottish dancing and listening to pipe band records with my Scottish grandfather.  I love the bagpipes, pipe bands.  The sound of them transports me to other times and places.

Monday was lost in running the girls around, chores and cooking.  I did squeeze in an hour of sewing, but that was it.

Foodwise I cooked a delicious chorizo and bean soup (thanks Bill Granger), a lamb and lentil stew, some delicious bacon, pea and parmesan mini quichey muffiny things and the dismal failure of a cake!

And that was my long weekend.

Epic baking fail....aka lemon brick cake

You know that saying "When all else fails bake a cake"........well what happens when the cake fails? 

My Sunday baking was a Lemon Drizzle Cake - a gluten free version.  All mixed in a food processor, whacked in the tin and the oven - easy peasy. 

First sign of impending disaster was that the mixture curdled in the food processor.  Mmmmm I stood and looked and considered this...do I add more flour?  No I think I'll soldier on being my first attempt at the recipe.  Put it in the silicone loaf pan and slid it into the oven.  Watching it carefully as my oven is awful.  I really must get someone out to look at it.  It was browning up very quickly but sloppy as all get out.  The butter was bubbling all around it.  Was that the silicone baking tin?  (It's not a tin, but what else do you call them?)  I bought it recently as I needed a loaf pan of a certain size.  Don't know why, I don't like using silicone.  I went against my better judgement and got talked into it by the shop assistant and I needed one to make my gluten free bread and it was all they had.  (Still haven't made the bread!). Anyway I think I'll donate it and get myself a tin tin...

I tested the cake and the top half was sloppy and the bottom solid.  I thought "oh no' it's burning on the bottom.  But perservered until the top was the tested properly. So finally I pulled it out and drizzled the drizzle over it and left it to cool completely in the pan.

It didn't look too bad when I turned it out....

The top half was edible....so we nibbled away at that...real cake desperados that we are!

and played and sculpted it....

It looks like a barge or oil tanker, don't you think?  Although this one would sink without a trace.  The bottom half was just a solid slab - reminiscent of the concrete slab out extension is built upon.

So all was not lost completely... we managed to have some fun with it.  I'm wondering whether to try again, but not use the food processor and make it by steps, that is, cream the butter and sugar add an egg and then the rice flour etc etc. That way I can keep an eye on it, oh and use one of my trusted cake tins, not the new fangled silicone. 
so all is not lost when the cake fails too! 

Weekend Review 2

so how did I go this weekend?  It felt really busy. Starting Friday night when I went to a friend's for dinner.  It was her birthday, but she insisted on cooking for us.  It's her favourite thing.  She loves to cook, so we just went along for her entertainment!  It was the least we could do! Armed with a great bottle of champers - thank you Mr Verve and a 2001 Shiraz...so good for a winter's feast night... and stunning flowers for the birthday girl! It was a gourmet thrill of an evening.

Saturday was eaten up by taxi duties and grocery shopping, although I did sneak a coffee at Jamaica Blue on one taxi run (shhhh!) and read a bit of the paper.  Then it was rugby night.  We popped into Northbridge for burgers at Jus Burgers before the game.  They make a great burger, although the chips were my fave this time. The aioli dipping sauce was dee-lish!  Very unusual night at the rugby - our team won! Which was lucky because just between me and me, I didn't really want to go.  I was quite keen to have a sofa bound night with my crochet rug for company!

Georgia asked for my help making a prop for her performance on Sunday night.  Her technical stage unit final assessment was a show in the Hayman Theatre at Uni.  So I whipped up a stuffed bird, reminiscent of the bird from "Are You My Mother?" which their performance was based around.  Then it was taxi duties again.  A chat with my sister Angela (she lives in Chicago) so we don't get to chat that often!  Some cooking - this weekend was Bacon and Lentil soup.  A very simple Donna Hay recipe. Easy peasy japaneasy! Then some more taxi duties - George to Uni and Bridge to the library for an afternoon of study.  I popped out with a girlfriend.  Back to Northbridge to a bar where we had a couple of ciders and played Scrabble - I got THRASHED.  Then off to watch Georgia's production/assessment on Sunday night.  It was very entertaining.  AND my bird was the lead/starring role!  And I have no photos of my sweet little bird. 

I forgot to mention.  I was trying to print off an image from the computer to use to draft a pattern, but the printer has died, so I gave the tracing paper to George to put up to the computer screen.  I don't think she's ever used it before!  Kids in the digital age - what they've missed.  I grew up using tracing paper!  It's so useful!  My sister was very funny when I told her what we were doing.  Analog mother, digital children I think she said or something to that effect!

Somewhere in amongst all that I found time to make these littlies!

Four little itty bitty yo-yos or suffolk puffs.  I've had a yen to make them for a long time now and finally I just did it!  I have no plan for them.  They are just going to hang around until I decide what they would be the perfect embellishment for.  Meanwhile I have no doubts they will multiply.

One of my inspirational creative books is this one

Quilting in No Time by Emma Hardy.  I haven't made any specific projects out of it and I'm not sure I will, but it gives me lots of ideas.  Like this lavendar pillow.  See the connection?

Later, dudettes!

Where's my head at?

Í'm all over the place lately - it comes of being sick for months on end I think.  I'm just not on top of my game.  Another couple of visits to the doctor, then a visit to emergency, then a heavy course of antibiotics to kill bad bugs.  Seriously one lot of them are horse pills.  Coupled with the odd day of extreme fatigue, I just know I exude vagueness at times.

So last Tuesday I had to remember to pick up my younger daughter from the airport, returning from a school holiday trip to Sydney.  I raced home from work, via the grocery shop for food supplies.  Raced in the house, donned the apron, started cooking tea, dished up tea, gulped down tea, grabbed keys and handbag and drove to airport.  Parked the car, raced in, my phone rang.  My daughter had landed early and was at the baggage carousel.  We raced towards each other, smiling in greeting.  Happy to have her home safe and sound and eager to hear the details of her trip...

"Hello darling, I'm so sorry I'm a bit late..." to be interupted by ...

"Mum, you do know you're wearing an apron? Don't you?!!!"

Me..."What?" A very blank yet confused look on my face.

I looked down (I didn't want to but I did) and shrieked... if I hadn't already drawn attention to myself, the shriek certainly did! Yes I most definitely WAS wearing an apron.  There was no denying it... the calico one with red gingham trim and Susie embroidered across the front.  I ripped it off and stuffed it in my bag as if that would erase the whole event - the walk from the car park to the terminal and to the baggage carousel. Then we both fell about laughing, continuing to draw attention to ourselves (see how I dragged her in?).

Bridge just shaking her head and laughing and saying "Oh mum!"

As one of my sisters said - I should have just owned it.  We have been known as a family to go to airports dressed up - particularly at Christmas time.  It just seems so appropriate to don elf costumes at that time of year!!

Sunday Baking

I quite often bake a treat for us on a Sunday.  It feels as though it rounds off the weekend nicely.  A celebration of time spent at home and in my kitchen.  An acknowledgement to the week ahead and and extreme busy - ness for the week days.  Baking has been absent whilst I've been sick and also because of the gluten free diet.  I mean I ain't gonna bake something I can't eat, now am I?  Cakes and baking being an integral part of me! (Remember, this bake a cake post, So it's taken a while to get my head around gluten free alternatives.  I've armed myself with a couple of cookbooks and scoured the web and found heaps of recipes, so now I'm armed and equipped, ready for action! First cake.. A Victoria Sandwich Cake!

Here it is posing for its photo! A very photogenic and willing subject!
(The flowers were a lovely surprise from my stepmum, wishing me wellness as the whooping cough drags on.  Aren't they beautiful? so bright and cheery - the complete opposite of how I've been feeling...morose and sorry for myself.  C'mon Susie snap out of it!  Well the cake helped.)

  It was perfect. Such an easy recipe...one bowl. Mdae with brown rice flour.

Dusted with icing sugar

Sandwiched together with my home made plum jam.  Is your mouth watering?

Served up on my favourite cake plates, with a super generous DOLLOP of cream whipped with icing sugar. Sitting contentedly watching Sunday night TV.
Really it's all good isn't it?

Going Gluten Free

I've started the New Year on a gluten free diet - I started a week before Christmas.  I've had health issues for so long now I don't remember how it is to feel truly well and energised.  I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, an auto-immune disease.  It was diagnosed after the birth of my second daugther over 16 years ago and I've been on thyroxine ever since.  I have the slugg-iest metabolism around and I can't live without coffee.  Lately though it's as though I have sleeping sickness.  I have to nap at weekends and think I'll just put my feet up for 5 minutes and wake up 5 hours later.  I was so tired at work one day I put my head down and fell asleep.  I have a hoarse voice a lot and a slightly sore throat and swollen glands.  I have acute bursitis in my back, hips and legs.  I am sore to touch practically everywhere.  My legs burn walking up a flight of stairs, my arms ache hanging out washing, my back aches standing cooking in the kitchen, walking around a shopping centre is exhausting, I don't have the mental capacity to make a shopping list or plan a menu.  Things are dire.  I have been seeing a naturopath who has diagnosed extreme adrenal fatigue.  I have all the symptons of chronic fatigue.  I am desperate to get well.  I go to my GP who runs the blood tests and adjust my medication every 6-12 months and tells me I appear to be suffering or recovering from some low grade virus, but assures me the medication adjustment should help me out.  I would scream except I don't have the energy. 

So a few weeks ago in my desperation, I googled my (extremely common) condition and thought it was time to read up again and see what I can do to help myself or where to go for help.  I feel ANCIENT in my forties - how I am going to feel in my eighties, if I make it to them?

I stumbled across a blog of another sufferer, sarah wilson, and read this from Nora Gedgaudas

The primary issue at hand is IMMUNE function (specifically, a need for immune modulation).

Most if not nearly all cases of autoimmune thyroid are profoundly tied to gluten sensitivity and/or celiac disease (either as an initiating or complicating issue).  Avoiding ALL gluten and whatever cross-reactive compounds you have a sensitivity to should be 100%, immediate and permanent.  Nearly all available testing for gluten sensitivity currently is quite unreliable…so if you think you aren’t gluten sensitive you may want to seriously reconsider revisiting this though more in depth testing.  If it were me, I’d just assume an issue with gluten and avoid it like the plague.

Healing your gut is hugely important in this.  It will be impossible, btw, without generating healthy glutathione levels.

It was a light bulb moment...when you feel this crappy you will try anything, so I am.  So farThere is only one thing that has changed in the 3 weeks.  My oedema (swelling of the ankles) has reduced and family members have commented on my slimmer ankles!!  I still want coffee served intraveneously to function, but I am delighting in my slimmer ankles.

Here's a picture of a recent extreme case I had of oedema after a flight...

And here they are today....

'

This is the first I've read or heard of any connection between gluten and auto-immune disease!!!   Why?  In 16 years, not one person has ever suggested the connection or told me.  Not one medico/endocronologist, naturopath...not one!!  I've just felt pathetic and insane with my malaise and lethargy.  All of it is explained by a high level of stress in my life...working full time, divorce, financial stress, etc etc. I am seriously hoping it helps.  I know that it's not the only thing I need to do, but it is a start and it has given me the teeniest glimmer of hope for my future health. 

Í've debated long and hard whether to discuss health here on my blog.  I fear I will sound so whiny and miserable and pathetic, but I can't not mention this fact and spread the word.  If you read this and know anyone with auto-immune disease tell them.  They may already know, but they may not and it could be a vital tit-bit of information for them.

In my current exhausted state I've convinced myself that I'm useless at craft and don't know why I'm bothering.  The creative joy has left me.  That is the biggest sign of all that I am sick!  Perhaps writing about it will release my feelings and free me up to snap out of it and get back creating.

Our day in Aix en Provence

Nice to meet you Mr Cezanne! I love the idea of time travel - wouldn't it be fabulous to be able to sit and have a chat with people you admire from history.  Not a new idea, I know, but I love the idea. Perhaps I could have been an artist's muse!  Ha!   I loved "Lost in Austen" and I must see Midnight in Paris before it finishes at the cinema.  Roaming around Aix En Provence I lost myself in visualisation and imaginings of Cezanne in the cafes, walking the streets, echos of voices passionately discussing brush strokes etc....

An exhibition on Australia at the local museum.

Back to the ship for a well earned liquid refreshment to accompany my baguette - the best baguette EVER!  Hiding in the bag is the cheese and fresh raspberries!

When All Else Fails Bake A Cake...

And this is what I use...my ice blue kitchen aid.  It stands proudly on the kitchen bench, knowing it holds a special place in my heart and a key to de-stressing me.  It can sense when I need to don the apron, gather ingredients and fill the house with divine aromas.  It catches my eye and winks and just says..."Suse you know you need me", or "I'll help" or "come on let's have some fun" or "that cup of tea just needs something extra"...  Its instinct is amazing, truly spooky even.  Sometimes it knows the baking just isn't enough - it's a really good rolling on floor belly laugh that's required and it does things like take me through the motions of baking.. to present the biggest fail of a baking episode .....like when we thought a light and lemony angel cake was just the ticket and out of the oven came this beautiful smelling round cake that twisted and covorted and deflated in front of me to look like a dry and wheezened old coconut ring biscuit.  The transformation was jaw dropping!  I disguised "it" as best I could with the icing making it look like an oversized donut! All the time just laughing my tush off.  My 2 baking buddies June and Donna also laughed and laughed at it.  Perfect is just overrated.  Yes there is sheer joy in eating and sharing a delicious cake, but there can be pure happiness is mistakes too.

Crumble Time

After a bout of the dreaded lurgy I was feeling so much better I thought I'd make a special effort for dinner before my girls headed off for 5 nights with their father. Poor luvs! Ah well better them than me!! So a roast with all the trimmings followed by blueberry and apple crumble was the outcome. It just happened to be one of our coldest winter nights as well so it went over a treat. The crumble looked divine coming out of the oven with gooey edges bubbling away. Maybe it's the witch in me..although it was a gleeful chuckle as I proudly displayed and tempted the drooling household!

Long absence

This is one of the reasons you have not heard from me in a while. I was co-ordinating a preserve stall at my daughter's fete. Pretty much for the last few month's there has been a large pot of something bubbling away on the stove. Piles of sugar and jars have been stored in every corner of the house!! The big day was yesterday and I'm so excited it was a big success!

Yours in preserves.......