1-12-2004

Corky the corky reindeer, cutting him out hurt my thumb!!!!

• I am Cooking: Vegetables later on
• Labradors Spotted: A learner Guide Dog!!!

Peri went to the Vet and had an exuberant and rowdy time. She made happy noises and leaped about onto the bench seat and all the other people patted her because she was so happy. Dr Tim said she was at the Vet on December 2 nd last year for the same thing. She had an injection and has some drops to go into her eyes. She is so happy today. Harki sulked yesterday but she is happier today as well.

I have just managed to take a wafer thin slice of skin off the pad of my thumb with the extremely sharp Stanley knife. Ow. I have stuck the bit of skin back on with antiseptic lotion and wound it up shroud like in a swathe of stuff. It is doing that throbbing thing and no doubt will be in the way of everything I want to do for the next three weeks. I was cutting up the corks to make 21 Corky the Reindeer for Karen’s class. You need 5 ordinary corks and a champagne cork. Cut a slanty piece of one top edge of 4 corks. Cut another in half and then do the same. Cut one little piece in half to make ears and use one other for the tail. Cut a slanty piece of the bulbous end of the champagne cork too. Now, glue gun the legs together in pairs, with the slanty pieces on the outside, them glue gun the pairs of legs together. Glue the body on top. Add the tail. To make the head, make holes in the head and add twig antlers, then the ears and finally pin or glue on sequin or bead eyes. Glue the head to the body. You can add a halter/reins and a bell and a tartan ribbon blanket. These are very cute and easy to make if you can do all the cutting without actually cutting yourself!!!

Recipe of the day….

Swirly Shortbread

You can process the mixture all at once, or cream the butter and sugar and stir in the rest – you choose!!

Shortbread

90 g butter

110 g caster sugar

185 g plain flour

1 egg

Filling

¼ cup almond meal

2 tbspn brown sugar

1 tspn cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar, mix in egg, then flour. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes and then roll out into a rectangle with a thickness of about 5mm ( ¼ of an inch??)

Mix the meal, brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over the dough, roll up tightly and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Make 1 cm thick slices and bake at 180 C ( 160 fan-forced) for 15-18 minutes.

I think you could add anything to sugar and meal , like choc chips, or slivered almonds, lemon rind etc.

My thumb has stopped hurting now I am not thinking about it. I have been quite busy today, in relative terms!! I have printed out my Christmas Card list to go into my new Christmas book. I am typing up the recipes I usually use and adding them, also lists of what I cook each year etc. I have 10 things and some are new, but still Christmassy. I am writing with my lovely new pen, it is black as there were no proper smudge proof ones at the newsagency, an Elite Uniball Vision!!! It writes smoothly and with no effort which is what I wanted. I have about 16 more cork bodies to make too. I ant to make the Santa brooches for people as well, so I will make a little production line. I must buy beads and some white felt.

The Harry Potter 3 movie with the bonus Lego bus has been sent and should be here soon. We had a lovely time last night although one person didn’t turn up, but she is having a career crisis. I had the fish, yum, and a glass of bubbly and 2 cups of tea. I was home at 9-40 and in bed by 10-30 pm. The Labradors have all had drops, Peri in her eyes and Harki had pretend ones in her ears. She sat on the bed pleading for some medical attention!!! I hope the postman comes soon as I want to get a parcel, I need a parcel and there should be 3 things coming from the Ebay. It has all been rather exciting and I do want to go to the book shop to get some new books but I am far too sleepy : if I can’t control the Stanley knife, I shouldn’t be driving!!!

30-11-2004

Mud, mud, glorious mud, there's nothing like Nelson for heating the blood!!!

• I am Cooking: Mud Cake for the Vet

At last it has rained and so I won’t have to water the broad beans!!! It has cooled everything down, it was 16 C at 7 am , no wonder we were hot. Peri has an appointment at the Vet at 4-30 pm so I am cooking them a mud cake. She has had sore little eyes before and just needs ointment.

Mud Cake

250 g butter

150 g dark chocolate

1 1/3 cups hot water

1 tablespoon instant coffee

440 g sugar.

Melt all this, stir till smooth and cool.

260 g plain flour

½ tspn baking powder

¼ cup cocoa

2 eggs

Whisk in rest of ingredients. Pour into 20 cm square lined tin.

Bake at 160 C ( 140 fan-forced) for 1 ½ hours.

I have caught up on last week’s Alias and only have this week’s to go . I have not done any WW or DS9 taping though. The cricket has been played and won. I think we won by a whole innings really. We had a walk this morning, and then I went to pick up my printer cartridges. It only cost $23 to refill both the colour and black cartridges. It is a very cheap printer to run. I have printed out the sewing Christmas Cards and put a gold bow with green sequins and a gold Merry Christmas on the front. They are drying and ready to be put in an envelope.

Brendan Nelson has instigated his inquiry into the teaching of reading. What a waste of time. The general population of schools is as , or more, able than previous ones. It is a small hard core of non-readers who pose problems. These are most likely children who never will, or would have, learned to read. In fact many of them may never have progressed past primary school 50 years ago. Now the system demands children stay ay school till they are 18. Only a small percentage of these children will go onto tertiary education. The rest are just marking time and keeping the unemployment figures looking good. If Nelson gave schools, especially primary schools, the proper amount of money, staff and resources, then schools would be happier places. This is not to say that sounding out words would help all non-readers read. Some people will never read to what is considered a high level. It is necessary for politicians to recognise individual differences. Everyone is not expected to qualify for the Olympics, or sing at the Opera House or paint like Rembrandt – although that is now in question ( see yesterday’s post!!!) so why do they expect some ideal and unobtainable high standard for everyone to reach in Maths and English. I am the first to have high and achievable expectation for children in relation to learning, but all Nelson and his cronies are doing is teacher bashing. Let them manage a classroom for a year and see how hard it really is to provide a great learning environment, maintain discipline and cater for all areas of the child’s development with little funding and fewer and fewer resources. They would not last 5 minutes.

I have surprising little to say today. I am still suffering the after effects of the heat. This doesn’t mean that I will not have twice as much to say later, but I am feeling a trifle weary and I might lie down and listen to the language talkback.

29-11-2004

The West Wing, soon will be having another run.The West Wing, 20 more eps and I will be done!!!!

It has been a Herculean task, but out of 22 episodes of West Wing I have found 20, and 24 out of the 26 episodes of Deep Space 9. It is s good day!!! I have labelled them all and they are in order and I have commenced the mammoth taping task. I think I will tape and then watch as I can do other things and now and save this for the hot summer days. There is a new Buffy Planner Diary thing out. I am so excited, I might live for more years if there are new planners!!! I am watching it on ebay, but I am hopeful of finding one or more in Target as thy stock the Buffy things. There is the www.minotour.com.au website though and I have found another Blake’s 7 audio that we don’t have. This is very exciting too. I also Googled some Star Trek : Enterprise calendars that are only $12-73 Australian from the USA. Here they are almost $30. Darn GST. I am feeling somewhat better today. We slept till about 9 and it is cooler so I feel calm. I have eaten proper food and had cups of tea. Last night there was an excellent show on the ABC that shattered my illusions ( not hard, apparently), it was called ‘David Hockney : Secret Knowledge and I quote from the ABC website : David Hockney, one of the world's most celebrated living artists, theorises that cameras were instrumental artists' tools 400 years before the birth of photography; demonstrating how artists may have traced projected images. He showed how the artists used curved mirrors and/or lenses to cast an image onto the canvas and then they traced it. I am devastated. They just didn’t learn to paint better at all , they learned to TRACE. It was very good, it had practical demonstrations using models the same as the actual paintings. It was a good investigative show.

I am half way through ‘Exile’s Return’ and I have had an email reply from Fiona McIntosh re ‘Bridge of Souls’. She says that even though she has finished Book 1 of her new trilogy, the publisher won’t publish till this time next year, but at least by then all 3 will be finished. Don’t publishers understand the need to read? Obviously not. They know not hat they do. What recipe shall I add today? It seems that this has become what I do, add a new recipe each day. Today it shall be…..

Rocky Road Brownie

200 g dark chocolate

250 g butter

1 ¾ cups brown sugar

4 eggs

1/3 cup cocoa

1 ¼ cups plain flour

¼ tspn baking powder

60 g pink/white marshmallows

½ cup nuts you like!!

Melt butter , chocolate and sugar - cool slightly. Whisk in flour, baking powder and cocoa, and then the eggs. Finally stir in 60 g of halved pink and white marshmallows and ½ cup of nuts of your choosing.. I would also add some chopped white/milk chocolate.

Pour into a lined 20 cm square tin and bake at 160 C ( 140 fan-forced) for 45-50 minutes. It should be just set and will be squishy, but it comes away from the sides of the tin slightly. Trust me, no more than 50 minutes or it goes too hard and burns. Cool in tin and then slice. This freezes very successfully.

It must be earthquake season : we had one, East Timor, NZ and now Japan. We are thankful no-one here was hurt. It is not one of the plagues of Nature we endure here. We are pretty lucky, we have floods and wind and bush fires. People insist on trying to call bush fires wild fires, but that is an American term and we like to call out fires bush fires as they are in the bush. Australian slang, or Strine as it is known , is not widely spoken in its extreme form. We do used Australianisms, like arvo for afternoon, and Hooroo for goodbye, noggin for head etc, but we don’t all speak like the Crocodile Hunter. I like to think I speak well, and I liked to set an example for the children at school. I have a telephone voice though!! An especially polite voice for answering the phone. The spell checker recognises arvo!! I must have made it learn. NZ are not following on in the cricket, we are batting, hoping to get a second innings lead of 500 or more runs, while resting the bowlers.

I should go now and plan my Christmas cooking and make a list of ingredients so I can start cooking when the weather is cool. I need the list for gingerbread and for the Stained Glass biscuits too. Peri is resting now, she was sick last night but seems to have recovered. Harki has had a big play with the giant tennis ball in a plastic bag and is sleeping as well. We will wait for the postman and see if he brings us anything.

28-11-2004

I don't like TV, oh no, I love it!!! ( and this is a cricket song too : Bonus 10CC!!)

• I am Cooking: Pasta, Melting Moments
• Books I am Reading: Bridge of Souls by Fiona McIntosh
• TV /DVDs I am Watching: Taping stuff , not watching anything

I met the outgoing Mongol hordes of Christmas Parade watchers on my way into town. They did not want to move and I was nearly skittled by prams. I managed to get a parking place near LC so it was only 2 blocks. On the way through the book shop I accidentally bought Fiona McIntosh’s new book, the third in a trilogy, ‘Bridge of Souls’. We had lovely brunch/lunch and James, who is 4, took a liking to me and we sang songs and chatted for the whole 2 hours, James will only wear his Spiderman suit, with its padded muscles. I must admit he took the pressure of me!! Everyone smiled and commented about him in a nice way and no-one noticed I was all in green!!! When I cam hope I slept from 2 till about 5. Then it was too hot to sleep so I had roast chicken for tea and then read ‘Bridge of Souls’ till midnight. Then it was cool enough to sleep. The book was good, it tied up all the ends and you really did not know quite how it would end. It does have a happily ever after ending though, not one of my favourite kinds, but it is how her books end. She is writing a new series set in Percheron for next year, so I can’t wait.

TV is looking good this week and for the holidays –

Crossing Jordan

NCIS

Threat Matrix

Alias repeats ( eps 3 and 4)

Spy master

Coupling

The Office

Firefly

Joan of Arcadia ( not sure 100% about this)

L&O Tilty headed man

The Dead Zone NEW Stargate SG1

Jeremiah

L&O Ornery

Little Britain

Voyager

Trial and retribution

Rosemary and Thyme

William and Mary – Martin Clunes!!

Spooks

And that is without Dr Who and other small things.

I have decided that for Sewing I will make a different little card and give people some melting moments – 3 or 4 in a little bag. Here is the recipe –

180 g soft butter

¼ cup icing sugar

1 tspn vanilla extract

1 cup plain flour

¼ cup cornflour

FILLING

60 g soft butter

1 cup icing sugar

2 tspns grated lemon rind

2 tspns lemon juice

Cream butter, sugar and add vanilla. Mix in flours. Place in fridge till cold. Roll into small balls and flatten with a floured fork. Bake at 180 C ( 160 fan forced) for 12-14 minutes, till golden.

Beat all the filling ingredients together and use to sandwich the cold biscuits.

You can use lime or orange as the flavours, or omit the lemon rind and juice and use chocolate ganache

( 100 chocolate, 50 ml cream melted, mixed till smooth and then cooled)

I also like to add some grated rind to the lemon biscuits.

Today I am doing house work and washing and I think I will make pasta for tea. I have not had breakfast yet – too hot – I will have to write a new verse for the sewing card and make the cards as well, not like my proper Christmas cards either.

I mus go and see what the labradors are growling at – maybe the black and white cat.

Oh and the cricket is on and we are giving NZ another hiding so far!!!

It's very clear, our muzzy is here to stay.

• I am Cooking: Pasta
• Books I am Reading: Feist - Exile's Return
• TV /DVDs I am Watching: The Tupperware doco

It has been one of those days when I feel muzzy. Neither really tired, nor awake ; not a true headache, but not clear either. I have pottered around and made a dent in the work but I haven’t really eaten anything except for some Shapes biscuits. They are not a proper meal so I am going to make cheese and parsley sauce and cook some vegetables, then make pasta later on. I should have a nap in between too. I have Blackjack: Sweet Science to watch but I have just about caught up on everything else. There is an episode of an historical ‘dark ages’ doco on at 5 pm, and then nothing really till ‘The Debt’ at 8-30.

The Labradors have had a similar day ; too hot to play and run, they have slept on the cool slate floor or on the polished boards in the breeze of the window. We are all slightly not quite right today, which is not unusual. In the cricket it looks as though NZ will have to follow on. This is very good!!!

I shall have a strong cup of tea, Earl Grey I think, and some sugar which I try not to have all the time either.

I have the new Guy Gavriel Kay book and the new Feist books to read. I must choose one …. The Feist, I think. I am sad to see my review is not up on the Library site as yet. It has been 5 weeks since they added a review – very slack.

27-11-2004

All of my friends love shortnin', shortnin', all of my friends love shortnin' bread!!!

• I am Cooking: Honey cured bacon and eggs!!!
• TV /DVDs I am Watching: What not to wear the genuine one!!!

I have made, iced and written on the mud cake, I have been for a walk and watched ‘What not to wear’ and I have been missing the real Trinny and Susannah one. I thought it was the terrible Australian one!!! Here is the recipe for the Honey Cinnamon and Nut shortbread.

250 g butter

2/3 cup caster sugar

2 tspn honey

1 2/3 cups plain flour

1/3 cup rice flour

½ tspn cinnamon

55 g nuts

Cream butter and sugar until it is very pale and thick , add honey. Stir in flours and cinnamon and bring dough together with your hands. Knead on a lightly floured bench rill smooth. Press into a lined 16 x 26 cm tin and smooth with the back of a spoon ( a warmed spoon helps) Cut into fingers then press nuts into each one. Sprinkle with extra sugar. Bake at 160 C ( 140 fan-forced) for about 40 minutes or until it is a pale golden colour but not browned!!! Cool in tin for at least an hour.

I also like to cut shapes out, like stars or trees, and bake those as they look great in a little box or a cellophane bag.

It was so warm last night and I am having one of my “I should rest but if I sleep I will have a headache” days!!! I am religiously slathering on the sunblock now and wearing my hat when we go for a walk as the UV rating is 10 which is very high. Here in Tasmania, although we have temperate weather, we have very high UV and people are often surprised by the strength of the Sun’s rays and are burned.

It is the Christmas Parade in town today. I am going in an hour for very late brunch or early lunch. I hope there is a parking place!!!

26-11-2004

Slow down, I do too much, gotta let some big tasks pass - Yeah!!!!

• I am Cooking: Mud Cake
• TV /DVDs I am Watching: Ha! In my dreams!!!

I have finished the Nativity. This morning I wrapped all the 25 things, labelled the little set of 25 drawers, wrote little poems for each item and then put each in the corresponding drawer. I also made a card for Alex, cooked her some double chocolate biscuits – recipe follows and wrapped her 6 LipSmacking lip gloss thingies!!! The I went to Karen’s school and made Wild Dolly Peg Angels with a group of boys and then used my Voucher from the Trivia night at the specialty butcher shop. I bought an organic Nichol’s chicken, honey cured bacon, chicken, lamb and beef sausages and some bones for the Labradors. Oh and I edited and proof read Karen’s school reports.

Double Chocolate Biscuits

Cram ¼ cup butter (60 g) and ½ cup brown sugar ( 110 g)

Then add one egg,

Fold in 1 cup of plain flour,

½ a teaspoon of baking powder

25 g cocoa and a teaspoon of vanilla extract or strong coffee.

Then stir in ½ cup white chocolate, Bits or chopped and

½ cup of dark or milk similarly!!

I find it best to refrigerate then roll tablespoons of mixture into balls and bake at 150 C in a fan-forced oven for 10-12 minutes. Cool on a rack!!!

You could leave out the cocoa and just use white chocolate, caster sugar and craisins, or macadamias!!!

I haven’t really watched Kath and Kim as I was very tired after going to Di’s for tea. I put a tape in for Jeremiah and went to bed. Tonight I plan on eating my chilli plum sausages and stir fry and then go to bed. Oh I have to make a mud cake. I will have a nap and then get up and make it when it is cooler. The last Glass House in on tonight – and Carnivale is coming on December 19 th. Now I have to make some shortbread and a decoration each for 8 people in the sewing group. A plum pudding or a wreath?? Honey, cinnamon and nut shortbread I think. That is all for now!!!

25-11-2004

Sugar, Ah honey honey - you are wicked man - the man from NYPD Blue!!!!!!

• I am Cooking: Mud cake
• Books I am Reading: Exile's Return by Feist
• TV /DVDs I am Watching: CSI MIami Vice/CSI YMCA crossover episode

Wow, last night on NYPD Blue there was a highly unusual use of the squeezy bottle of honey!! I thought for a minute I was watching SBS!!!! Here is a really easy recipe for truffles to give as a gift at Christmas :

500 g chocolate

180 g unsalted butter

2 tspn flavouring.

The flavouring should match the chocolate , eg

• white choc and vanilla or Cointreau
• milk chocolate and Coffee liqueur or strong coffee
• dark chocolate and brandy or Galliano

Line a thin bar tin, or a small square tin with baking paper.

Chop butter and chocolate and place in double boiler over simmering water ( I use a heatproof Pyrex glass bowl) Stir constantly till melted and smooth. Remove from heat and add flavouring. Chill at least 3 hours. Cut into cubes. It can be dipped in toasted coconut, or silver cachous for the white, rolled in cocoa or drinking chocolate or brown sprinkles, eg for the darker ones. Cut into squares – makes about 24.

An update on the knitted nativity – all the figures are made and I have only one arm left to sew on before I can add all the accoutrements. There is hair, there are turbans ,veils, beards, lanterns, caskets and all kinds of things. I intend to add some beads and feathers etc too. They are very cute.

I am making a chocolate mud cake for Pauline’s brother’s birthday. I will make 2 smaller ones and join them together rather than one big one as it is more difficult to cook the larger cake evenly. Mud cakes must be moist and squishy!!! I have to write ‘Happy Birthday Richard’ in white chocolate too!!!

My new ‘jogging’ radio is quite good, it receives the ABC AM station way up at the dam amidst all the hydro technology and giant gorges and dam walls. There is a little interference, but it means I can listen to AM the show and Tim Cox and not miss out on the political news!!! I also spent a good 20 minutes looking for the new secateurs, which I couldn’t find as they were still upside down in the packet!! I did 15 minutes of blackberry and ivy pruning!! ( Blackberries are like British brambles I think, I don’t know what they are in America) The Labradors played and we emptied the paddle pool and refilled it with clean water and they had a frolic under the hose too. They are worn out as they had a play AND a walk all before 9 o’clock. I am so tired of the mobile people messaging me that I have recharged my phone early. It is $30 for 6 months on my prepaid mobile phone. This is incredibly cheap. They introduced the new rate for people like me who hardly ever use their phones. At one stage before this I had over $100 in credit so this is much more economical. Tonight I am going to Di’s for tea as Mark is in hospital and Amanda back on the mainland. I might make her something with a coffee flavour as she like this and no-one else does. I must remember to put in a tape for Kat & Kim as it is the last episode. I am feeling very tired and pale lately. I might start taking the multi-vitamins again and see if that help. I was quite pale on Tuesday. At the Hospital they said you can tell I have dogs as when I check to see how pale I am I look at my gums, just like you do in a dog. Another cup of tea then , and back to the Nativity!!!

Here is my Hover Car Racer review I posted on the Library site!!!

Think ‘Hover Car Racer’ : Think ‘Spy Kids’ ; Think ‘Star Wars’ : Think ‘Alex Ryder’. This exciting book by Matthew Reilly combines all the best elements of these fictional stories. In the near future all cars are powered by magnetos drives, harnessing the magnetic forces of the Earth, and a huge racing industry and spectator sport has grown up around these hover cars. Jason Chaser and his mysterious brother, Bug, own and race one such hover car, the ‘Argonaut’. Despite losing a qualifying race, Jason and Bug are offered the chance to attend the International Race School ( a school which owns Tasmania!!!) He meets a new nemesis, Xavier Xonora, and a challenging mentor, Scott Syracuse, along with feisty Mech Chief Sally. Together they take on not only the race school, but the world, all the time battling sabotage and hostile competitors. Jason and his friends soon learn that just being the best isn’t enough. This book was originally written as an 8 part e-serial online, but it loses none of the excitement or suspense, reading like a non-stop action comic. Although obviously targeted at a ‘young adult’ audience, anyone who has already enjoyed Reilly’s other books will thoroughly enjoy reading ‘Hover Car Racer’ and finding the in-jokes and allusions.