Emergency Winter Food for Children

After last year, where I took 45 (officially noted) days of sick leave (which felt like double or triple that amount), it has been very busy at work. I have child care constraints at the moment (is everyone in Europe or is it just my imagination?) so I have had to be creative with the last minute pick up from after school care.  With complaining \ hungry \ tired children, getting them fed \ bathed all in time to go to bed at 7 pm is a bit of a challenge.

(How amazing is the colour of this camellia? Instagram and its Bad Photography Concealing Filters love my camellias!)

Fast food is a must.   I am a night before person, which means that I try to  have dinner ready to go in the fridge the day before if I am not going to be there to cook it slowly.  So so much easier that way. 
  
But last week disaster struck - my daughter had a friend coming for a sleepover and the food had been prescribed in advance (spaghetti bolognese, white bread only, Tic Tacs and icy poles because she doesn't like ice-cream) and at the last minute I had neglected to defrost the pasta sauce. So I turned to my emergency bolognese sauce. 

Emergency Bol Sauce for Screaming Children


Ingredients
2 - 4 high quality pork sausages or chipolatas (not with fennel or chilli)
some butter
Splash of milk
A cup of tomato passata
3/4 cup of stock

Method

Squeeze the porky meat out of the sausage casings.   Gently melt the butter in a fry pan, add a splash of olive oil and some crushed garlic if you want.   Fry the sausage meat, breaking it up with a fork.   When the sausage meat is lightly browned and broken into even tiny bits, put in a splash of milk (sounds gross but Italians do it and it keeps the meat moist).  When the milk has bubbled down, add the passata and chicken stock. At first it will be runny, that is fine.  Cook it down until the sauce has the consistency you want. I like my bol sauce a bit runny and not dried out.

Serve proudly with spaghetti and Parmesan.

When I first went to Paris in 1992, my lovely friend Penny took me for hot chocolate at Angelina's Tearooms in the Rivoli.  The hot chocolate blew my mind, so much better than the watery cocoa I had previously had.   There are a number of different ways to recreate proper hot chocolate, but I like this the most.  It is quick and not messy.   I have forgotten where I got this from, possibly Orangette.   Only proviso is that you really do need a stick blender to get it smooth and frothy. 

Semi Authentic Super Quick Hot Chocolate

Ingredients (this serves two, can easily be doubled)
2 cups of milk
2 tablespoons of water
1 1/2 tablespoons of caster sugar
a handful of chocolate chips which is about 1/4 cup.  Or more to taste but these won't melt as well. 

Method

Put the milk, water and sugar in a saucepan.  Heat gently.   Watch it, when milk boils over it is horrible and messy.  When it is just about to boil there will be little bubbles around the edge.   Take it off the heat and put in the chocolate chips.   Assuming your pot has high sides you can do the next step in the pot.  Get your stick blender and whizz away.  The movement and heat will melt the chocolate, and the mixture will become frothy and smooth and thick.

Drink and enjoy.  

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Three Ways with Plums

I was at a meeting this week and someone made a (reasonably tasteless) joke about getting cancer from a power line.  People laughed awkwardly.  So did I.  I looked around at the meeting attendees and it struck me.  No one here knows I have had cancer.  And they can't tell by looking at me (although why they think I would choose to have hair this short I don't know but there are lots of women around with Voluntary Short Hair and they look great).  If there is one thing I have loathed over the last 16 months it is the occasional look of pity or shock or embarrassment I have received when people realise I am being treated for cancer (the wig was a giveaway).   This is a good place to be in, I can tell you.

Something I have done in the last five years which has improved my life by an amount I can even measure in percentage terms (I would say 5%), it would be using one of the duopoly supermarket people to home deliver all my heavy horrible groceries like milk, mineral water and nappies.

In an attempt to further limit pointless driving around I have just started using these people to deliver organic fruit and vegetables to me. The delivery includes a mystery box of what is in season (and presumably cheap).

I think this is something people do perhaps more in the US than here, but I am loving the surprise of it. So what to do with two huge eggplants? Or other vegetables I don't otherwise usually buy like mushrooms. Last time round I got a big batch of plums. Plums remind me of my childhood, I think the plums we had then we a bit different - purple inside rather than orange, but nevertheless, I love their juicy sweetness.

(chopped plums, mint, chilli and spring onions)

The first thing I made was plum tabbouleh, with burghul (ie the traditional way).  The plums contrast very well with the grain.  Lots and lots of olive oil and lemon juice and salt and you can eat a whole large bowl No Problem At All.

This idea came from Nigel Slater' Tender Volume II, which is a cook's guide to fruit.  I have written before about Nigel, and his brilliant cookbooks.  (Nigel is on my dream dinner party list. He would be joined by Anthony Bourdain, Ian McEwan, Malcolm Turnbull, Henri Bernard Levy ands the lead singer of Muse (yes, all men. Why not, it's my dream.)).

Then I made a pudding-ey cakey plum cake with cinnamon and honey.  This was okay but not amazing but I think I may have overcooked it.  A variant on his recipe is here.  

Finally, plum chutney.  Very easy - chopped up plums, onion, cover with splash of water, some malt and apple cider vinegar, mustard seeds and cinnamon.  Cook slowly for an hour. You may need to add more water and check at the end to make sure it is sufficiently sweet \ sour.

Brilliant with pork.

Happy chutney eating to you all. 

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Raw

A couple of years back I did a 5 day raw food retreat at this place in northern Bali.  I am useless at these kinds of disciplines.  I dreamed of charcoal-y beef steaks and oven baked potatoes every night, and convinced myself that white wine was a raw food stuff because surely fermentation is not the same as cooking. 

And if you can't do raw food looking at this all day then one has no hope back in Melbourne.

(Massage hut at Puri Ganesha)

I do like the pristine clean feeling uncooked food gives me.   And if you like salads it is relatively easy to do quite often. 

Sunday night is raw food night.   It used to be omelette night.  Or noodles night. 

I recently bought this book by Kimberley Snyder.  She of the Green Smoothie I have mentioned before. 

Her eating plan is about beauty and skin health.  I am interested in it for overall health reasons.   Her eating plan is also vegan, which I struggle with.  I did vegan once, and lasted about 10 hours. I know.  Hopeless, right?

However, as bizarre as it sounds, her raw cold cauliflower soup is divine.
  

I won't show you the finished soup because frankly it's not that appetising looking.  But here are the ingredients and they look pretty nice before they are pureed.

Put in a vitamiser the following:

• juice of a lemon
• half or quarter of a cauliflower, chopped
• half an avocado
• good splash of tamari
• teaspoon of turmeric
• large pinch of sea salt
• a cup of water

Blend until smooth.  You can adjust the wateriness if you like.  Her recipe involves a teaspoon of miso but I don't have that so I left it out.  I also put in heaps of tamari.  You could also put in some dried chilli flakes. 

This makes a generous bowl for one or small bowls for two. It's not enough food for me so I also have some of her 'burritos' which consist of celery marinated in lemon juice, mustard and savoury yeast, avocado, sprouts and spinach wrapped in a nori sheet.  

Do you have any raw food treats I can try?  White wine counts as raw food.  So does red wine. 

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Good Things Spring 2011

(pearl barley and aduki bean salad with char grilled asparagus and salsa verde dressing)

This salad, adapted from the book pictured below. This book is so amazing, I feel like stopping people in the street to tell them.    Brilliant warm salads, lots of wonderful baked vegetable dishes and everything in between.  You do not need to be a vegetarian (I am not).  But if you want to reduce the amount of meat in your life (I do) and need decent interesting recipes this is the book for you.  

For example, quinoa with parsley pesto, cranberries, toasted hazelnuts and mushrooms, a divine raw vegetable and avocado soup, parsnip and rosemary rolls, baked red onions stuffed with toasted, spiced couscous and oven baked pea, barley and broad bean frittata.  She also has instructions for making your own sprouts from any seed (sprouts are a great super food), labne, yoghurt and tofu.    Buy it! 

This Phillip Treacy hat worn by Dita Von Teese to Derby Day, in defiance of the black and white rule of Derby Day.   I like Dita, but I have to ask: why do we Australians persist in importing celebrities from 'overseas' to the Spring Racing Carnival?  Are we so insecure that we need validation by a non-Australian?  Or does it make it a truly international day?  The imported guests over the years have ranged from a charming Rex Harrison to a very bored Paris Hilton.    The celebritizing of the races generally is part of the reason I gave up our Victorian Racing Club membership this year.  Read Francesca Cumani's take on it here.  

This house at 58 Millswyn Street, South Yarra.    I played in this house as a little girl when family friends owned it. It is now renovated and on the market for (no doubt) A Bomb.

Beetroot cheek and lip tint from Ere Perez.  Yes beetroot.  Better on the cheeks than inside the tummy, raw, I think! Great organic Australian makeup.  I also have their mascara. 

This fondue set.   Doesn't ship to Australia, sadly.

(from Jenna at Etsy)

This artist.  I love her.  She makes me feel like a little girl again.    And who wouldn't like a tame fox sleeping on their head? 

(Marisol Spoon on Etsy)

I think I am officially the last person on the planet to get Etsy.  I have browsed many times of course but never bought.   In a possibly fruitless attempt to de-plasticise my life I have bought some non plastic lunch bags for the children.  And sandwich bags.  And snack bags.   Coming from all around the globe, and all really good value. I will show you when they arrive. 

Oh, one more thing.  The children are obsessed with Star Wars at the moment and in a moment of idle googling I came across many people with a similar obsession. To wit:

(sorry couldn't find source)

At that moment, TK-788 and TR-114 made a pact to never speak of this day again to anyone (from legomyday.wordpress.com)

xo 

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Radish

Yesterday was a lovely day.  We had breakfast here (a place I highly recommend, and I am not the only one who is a fan - there was a queue out the door when we left) whilst the sun shined.  We went to the food market at my daughter's school, whilst the wind was cold and icy.  I came home and cooked lunch and watched a hailstorm begin outside.   The hailstorm then cleared and the the sky was blue.   Later on daughter went to a Halloween themed birthday party and it rained a bit.  And then a bit later the sky cleared up again.  Just a typical Spring day in Melbourne.

I bought these radishes at the market. Something new for me, I have never bought them before.  Ever.  I think I am scarred by memories of the crudites plus dips my mother served at her glamourous parties in the 1970s. Or something.  But they have a wonderful crispness.  

I have been dipping into the new Sophie Dahl cookbook and she has a very simple recipe for radishes.  I had no truffle salt so I improvised with truffle oil.

You take the radishes and slice them very thinly (I used a mandoline).   Layer them in a dish, allowing their ruby rims to show through.    In a little bowl mix up a tablespoon or so of truffle oil, some sea salt and some very finely chopped mint.  Pour over the radishes and let them sit a bit.  Completely divine.  I had eaten most of them by the time lunch was ready!

I know I have been in some weird places this year, medically, but these radishes reminded me of a brain MRI.



I highly recommend the Sophie Dahl book.   If not just for the chipped Granny's bowl and lace tablecloth photography, and lots of shots of Sophie in flowery tea dresses.  Seriously though, she likes my kind of food - soups, salads, hardly any sugar, chicken and lovely picky things to eat.   I feel that she would be a great laugh to have a drink with.    

Here's to another cancer free week.

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Green Sugar Free Breakfast

Breakfast time for me:

(home made sugar free granola with Greek yoghurt* and rhubarb and a green smoothie)

In Mid July 2011 I gave up sugar.  Specifically fructose.   Why?  Well not for weight reasons, and not for anti cancer reasons, although I have read that cancer feeds on sugar.  Really it was for I Wish I Could Stop Falling Asleep At My Desk In the Afternoon reasons.   And I have found that giving up sugar is not one of those annoying life changes where you only feel marginally better, or a diet change where it takes months and months to kick in.  No not at all. I found within literally days that I felt so much better. 

This is how I got there.

First, I have been reading Sarah Wilson's blog for a while.  If you don't know it go there now. It is informative, and inspiring, in a world where the word 'inspiring' is overused.     She gave up sugar for medical reasons, and is about to issue an e-book on her journey.

Second, I became very tired of the sugar highs and lows I was getting from my sugary cereal with fruit juice breakfast, little bun or muffin at morning tea, more juice at lunch time and then chocolate and more in the afternoon and then maybe a chocolate biscuit after dinner. Or ice-cream.  Or, on weekends, lots of ANZAC biscuit mixture on a Sunday afternoon.   The sweet things are not great but the real culprit is fructose.  Read here about David Gillespie, author of Sweet Poison, and his take on sugar.  

Third, I thought how much I would love to have the same level of energy throughout the day.   So I made a plan. Did some more reading. Thought a bit more. The real challenge is breakfast because it is so sugar dependent.   So I knew I had to find something for breakfast which is quick and sugar free.  

Fourth, I made my cereal, based on a Nigella Lawson recipe.    It is very easy.  Turn oven onto 180, spread two cups of oats over a lined baking sheet.  Get two cups of raw nuts and pulse in a food processor until you have half crushed and almost powdery but with some large nutty chunks.  Put them on the tray too, along with a cup of sunflower seeds.  You can also add coconut (but note it will be brown within about 10 minutes so you will need to take it out first), pumpkin seeds, or really any other seed which can be roasted.  No fried fruit (this is a fructose heavy as fruit juice).  Put in the oven for about half an hour turning regularly until the oats and nuts are all toasty and light brown.  

Fifth, I found pretty quickly that I got sick of coconut water for breakfast.  I didn't realise how much I relied on the quenching nature of fruit juice.   I really needed that in morning.   Then I found Kimberley Snyder's glowing green smoothie.   I love this so much.  And she is such a relentlessly 'up' person that I feel just that little bit more perky every time I read her blog.  This drink gives me a complete energy boost until lunchtime and it really doesn't even taste very vegetable-y.   Try it - you will not regret it. 

(looks like a science experiment...)

Do I miss chocolate?  Yes oh yes.  And I am still seriously considering excluding chocolate from my list of sugary foods.  However, on the few instances I have lapsed, I find I get a sugar rush from a tiny bit of cake or biscuit and after my mouth feels weird and sugary.   I have filled the hole with sugar free chocolate which is surprisingly nice.   I am not going all crazy about this.  If I  want a piece of cake I will have one.  However the removal of my staple endless fruit juices and sweet lollies has made such a difference to how I feel that I don't think I will ever be able to go back.   

And to be clear, this is not deprivation territory.  You can still have coffee (lactose is okay), beer (maltose is okay), wine (not sure what sugar is in there but it is apparently okay) and fruit (but whole only maximum two pieces a day).  

Go on y'all.  Give it a try. 


xo


* beware of low fat yoghurt - it is loaded with sugar.  I love this Greek yoghurt which is available in all supermarkets - almost no sugar and just like the yoghurt you get in Istanbul which is where I first fell in love with yoghurt for breakfast.  

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Change

Lately I have been wondering whether the last 8 months have changed me.  Objectively I would expect that a diagnosis of cancer at 42 would change me significantly. 

There is no point dwelling on the nasty changes like increased neuroses or bitterness or resentment. (Mind you sadly there has been a bit of that floating around the house this year).  No, I am thinking more about positive behavioural and personality changes. 

And yet I am still not sure really if I am that much changed inside.  I continue to surprise myself - first, on diagnosis I didn't cry and scream for a week in manner of Bronte style heroine with heart broken by cruel man.  Second, I feel so different physically (much better, in fact) that it is a bit odd that on the outside I appear to be the same person (albeit with some Hair Issues).  

When I finished chemo I got a lot of little booklets from the hospital about how to cope with this new period with no treatment (excluding Herceptin, which continues till next April). 

If all the pundits are correct, this is a hard time, where you feel empty and a bit directionless, and even depressed.   The treatment provides structure and something to think (or even complain and moan) about.  Life with no routine treatment means that a large gap opens up, which is there to be filled with horrible thoughts of the future and possible recurrences of cancer.  Every little twinge makes one think 'arggh shoulder cancer, or stomach cancer or foot cancer or lung cancer or mouth cancer or eyelash cancer..........'  My surgeon calls this hypervigilence and it is very common in post chemo patients. 

In the manner of a controlling lawyer I have developed a 6 point action plan to try to get me through the next little period. I have implemented most of the steps, and it is really helping.  I will post on that next. 

But even then I still have moments when I despair just a tiny little bit, and think why on earth has this happened to me?  But those moments then go, and I look at the blue sky, and think that things are probably okay.

These are the areas where I think that I may have changed. 

1. I smell the flowers.

The absence of picking flowers in my garden has been annoying me for sometime.  But if there is one thing my garden can produce in spades it is Daphne.  Here it is looking flush and smelling lemony.

My husband occasionally said to me during chemo 'please don't rush around' and I would say 'you have no idea how completely incapable I am of rushing around.' And now I am still in a rush free zone. Yes I am busy busy of course isn't everyone, but I am deleting things madly, walking slowly, and smelling the world outside. 


2. I feel more empathy.

I think I have always been a reasonably caring person, but now I can feel others' pain more tellingly.  If you have been pregnant you will recall how the tears start to flow when you see images of famine in Africa or lost puppy dogs on TV.  Well I am like that the whole time now.  This of course is the true meaning of compassion - that feeling of sharing the pain, of connectedness.  I still feel raw to the touch, I think, and that makes me feel things really intensely.

I was given quite a nice camera for Christmas. I have barely used it but am now starting to experiment with super close ups of flowers.

3. I am more aware of how I spend my time.

I am aware every day of how many books I still have to read.  The pile on my bedside table is towering, and that doesn't even include books on my Kindle. 

As an aside, can I recommend another book to you all?  If you read one book this year please make it this one.  In Anti Cancer, Dr David Servan Schreiber talks of his brush with cancer and what he has learned since about leading a life which repels cancer in all ways. This is not just about diet, although that is important (he mentions specifically green tea and turmeric and many more), but about ensuring despair and helplessness (not necessarily stress) have no place in your life. 

So with all these books to read I am trying to rationalise wasted time.  And sadly that does mean less time on the Internet.  I just can't justify it anymore.  I am still visiting you all, just not commenting as much.  I hope you all forgive me.

4. I am less interested in controlling my children's behaviour.

I still have some way to go on this one, but I am learning to pick my battles a bit more.  I have a very strong willed son, and it is exhausting trying to get him to conform all the time.  And what's more, I think it is bad for me and causes me anxiety. 

So now, if they want ice cream for dessert when they haven't eaten 100% of their dinner, then frankly, that is fine by me. 

(son having roll into ball tantrum in the street. One of his specialities)

Do you know what happens when two stubborn strong willed impatient and argumentative people live together?   It is fireworks and that has long been the way for me and my son.  But now, I am trying to learn new ways to manage him.  I am still disciplining him, but trying to be so much calmer in doing so.  

As an aside this is how I get the children to eat meat.  Slit open some little pork or beef sausage and fry gently with some butter and chopped garlic, pressing down with a fork to create smaller bits.  Add half a tin of chopped tomatoes and cook for 15 minutes. Serve with spaghetti and Parmesan. 

5. I want to make the most of things

During chemo I bought a new car. I suspect some people thought that was a bit strange, but once it happens to you, you realise that life doesn't stop just because you have cancer.  You still have to live, work and love.   You can't say 'oh I might die so I had better not do that'.   In fact it is the opposite. 

Next on the list is a little shack with a sea view, something we have always wanted to do but avoided for reasons to do with debt.  Do you know what I say to debt now? I spit on it.  Or laugh at it.  Conservatively and with a fair interest rate of course.

In an ideal world my beach house would be Scandinavian, a bit grey and brooding, salty but with clean lines.  Here is something to really live for:

6. I don't feel as sorry for myself as I used to.

Someone left a comment here about the 'downward social comparator', which is about realising that no matter what you are living with, there is always always someone going through something worse than you.   Like the young woman in my meditation class with three small children who has been told her cancer has spread and that there is no hope for her.  She is on chemo and a drug trial indefinitely, which is of course code for as long as she lives.   Or the woman I met at a dinner with a slipped disc and such chronic back pain resulting from a failed operation that not only can she not lift or hug her children but she cannot even get out of bed without taking 7 painkillers.

To me, these situations make my recent life look reasonably okay in comparison.  And they certainly make my regular Sunday Afternoon Folding And Putting Away 10 Loads Of Washing (something I was a bit apt to complain about) a walk in the park. 



What about you?  Have you been changed by an event? 


(Images (1) Pinterest (6)(7)(8) My Scandinavian Retreat)

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Ice Palaces and Nicoise Salad

Whilst I loathe any family member being away from me, I have to confess that if my husband is away for work, I get just a tiny bit excited about a night at home alone.   It is not that I can't do what I want with him around but I do love the pottering around in silence.  Eating by candlelight by myself. Listening to the sound of the rain if it comes.  Watching a little bit of rubbish television whilst cooking dinner.   Curling up on the couch with Pepper the cat purring happily on my lap.   

He is a non tuna or salmon eater (unless raw), so as if spiting him, I always cook myself some salmon or tuna for dinner.

Tonight, here it is, a tuna nicoise salady thing.  

This is very easy.   So easy it does not even require a recipe but know this:  for perfectly cooked tuna and salmon, put a bit of oil on, pop on a tray, put in a cold oven and turn to 120 degrees. It will be cooked to perfectly medium rare in 25 minutes.  

Tomorrow night will be a salmony rice thing. 

And then, it is important to watch something he wouldn't be interested in watching for the millionth time.  Tonight it is:

I would love to have wallpaper in this image -  I love the combination of yellow with the birch trees.  It still looks modern all these years later.    The truth is I will not get through the whole film in one night.  I am a bit tired at the moment for that.  But even half is better than nothing. 

And of course it has one of my all time favourite scenes:

Did you know this ice covered house was filmed in the heat in Spain? It is not snow at all but white marble dust.  

It's pretty cold here at the moment, and in fact I have a fur hat just like Julie Christie's.  It is made of possum fur though (I bought it in New Zealand where the enlightened government allows the use of possum fur in clothes) not mink or whatever hers is and so is more ethically acceptable.

And of course, I pyjama up, with face mask on.  At the moment, it is this: 

This stuff is brilliant.  6 sachets for $30, and I use only half a sachet at a time.   Such great value and it gives my skin that tingling feeling which is compulsory if you want to feel it is doing any good.  

Weird Chemo Side Effect No 5: my hair is growing back.  Again.  This time, am not counting on it.  I just ignore the way it looks and tell myself I will worry about it in July.  Oh and I have little pins and needles in my fingertips. This is called neuropathy and is quite normal. In fact my oncologist said it is good if I have it it means I am responding to chemo.     Sometimes I think he says things just to cheer me up.  I dread to think what he must say to his really sad patients.     Mostly we seem to shoot the breeze about books and the latest Herceptin research coming out of New York.  I find it hard to talk about myself all the time.   Side effects and symptoms.  So boring and repetitive. I feel like I am complaining.  Weird but there you have it.    

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Royal Wedding Menu Australian style and a White Jacket Rant

Like most of the planet it would seem I will be watching the Royal Wedding tonight.

The Wedding will be telecast in the evening here which makes it ideal timing to watch with an English style meal.  I have been a bit slack and instead of inventing dishes or looking through cookbooks, I just trawled the Internet for some Royal Wedding inspired dishes which are not too hard to cook.

 

First up is a chilled cucumber soup with garlic prawns, in a nod to the very English tradition of cucumber sandwiches.   It is not exactly the weather here for cold soup, but needs must.  

 To me there is nothing more English than lamb and peas.  Which suits me because it is also a quintessentially Australian dish.   I have been eating lots of lamb lately in a probably forlorn attempt to boost my red blood cells.  My favourite way to have lamb is as 
cutlets or possibly a rib eye.  To go with this, the pea dish below, possibly some asparagus (also very English) and some boiled new potatoes with lots of butter and Malden salt. 

This is a dish of peas, mint and salted yogurt (which can be substituted with goats cheese). 

Dessert is a bit tricky.  I have found a lovely recipe by naughty Sophie Dahl for rice pudding with plum compote but I fear rice pudding may just be a bit English boarding school.   Perhaps summer pudding with lots of beautiful berries would be better.  I think the most traditional dessert would be Eton Mess but I am not in the meringue making mode today. 

Finally, to drink.   I don't drink spirits but this is my metaphorical tipple today - elderflower and gin sherbert.     

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Julia Gillard, the Australian Prime Minister, is invited to the wedding.   Ms Gillard is very very fond of distracting, unflattering, flappy white jackets.  It may seem to a casual observer that she just wears the same one all the time, but in fact she has 9 (yes 9) different ones.  Here are two of them.   I think that sometime in the past someone told her she looks great in that white jacket, and she has taken the message to heart. 

So my message is:  Please do not wear a white jacket to the Royal Wedding.  Please.   It seems that this issue is of major concern to many bloggers, perhaps we need to get a life?!  See Mrs Woog's take on it here. 

And before I am accused of being sexist for commenting on a female politician's clothes when I wouldn't on a man's clothes, let me say this:  any professional person should dress in a way which does not distract from the message they are delivering. That applies in all spheres.   Yes, it is easy for men to wear suits, but it is equally easy for women to wear simply stylish non distracting clothes which fit (case in point: Senator Penny Wong).  I am not criticising our PM's taste (although it is dubious), I am criticising the way her clothes don't fit her, and distract from what she does.   And if a male PM wore bell bottoms, a brown suit and a plaid tie with a mullet haircut (which I think is the male equivalent of some of Ms Gillard's outfits), then that person would be equally criticised. 

Enjoy the wedding......

(Images: (1) BBC Food (2) Taste.com (3) Notebook (4) BBC Food (5) Jamie Oliver))

 

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Salmon Ceviche and Babushkas for Christmas

Although my family is not large, this year I am having 20 people for Christmas lunch.   This intimidating number (for me) has had the rather nice unintended side effect of forcing me to get organised in advance.  

I have therefore had rather a lovely time looking at all the Christmas food magazines and pulling out my old Christmas cookbooks to plan the menu.  

My sole criteria is that at least half the food be able to be done ahead of time.  And I always do turkey.   And never an entree.   And given the insane variances of Melbourne weather, I want to have a menu which is traditional with a modern twist (ha, what a meaningless phrase) to allow for the possibility of a 40 degree day (as happened in 1999) and a 12 degree day (as happened in 2007 I think it was).

In between cookbook reading, I have had to attend to the important matters of the Santa List. 

This list was eventually produced by my daughter who initially said she didn't want anything at all. Nothing at all morphed into two pages of hilariously detailed requirements, including a babushka with 11 inside (12 total) (if you want to know where to find these, go here - you are looking at $380 for a babushka of this size) to lots and lots of Sylvanian family items.   

These creatures are called Calico Critters in the US and are made in Japan.  You can buy furniture for them, and houses, and cars, and food, and boats, and a windmill and a tree house. It's endless.   And they just keep creating new families, so it is impossible to keep up.
 

My son had some help with his list.    Somewhat scarily, he has put things on this list he already has.   This may be why the 'Santa won't come' threats are not working that well on him.    He knows that it doesn't really matter either way.  

We are having a small related problem which is that growing up my husband only received tiny things from Santa and presents from his parents.  My situation was reversed, a big present from Santa and nothing from my parents.   I prefer it this way because how can you use the Santa Bribe on the children if they know they are only getting a sparkly pencil or some other rubbish from Santa? 

In this time of rampant consumerism, you should take the time to read this story, about a little girl in the South of the US who received  a pair of shoes and an orange for Christmas.  This story has stayed with me ever since I first read it last Christmas.   

So, to food.
This is what I have in mind so far:

Canapes (all do-ahead)
Salmon Ceviche (see above image but not in those glass)
Corn and chilli cakes with avocado salsa
Blinis with sour cream

Main course
Roast Turkey with chestnut stuffing
Potatoes (plain roast or hasselback am undecided)
Chipolatas wrapped in pancetta
Ham (my mother does this)
Green beans with lemon
Some kind of green salad maybe asparagus with feta

Dessert  (all do-ahead)
Nectarine and Vanilla Trifle
Plum Pudding with Brandy Butter
Icecream Plum Pudding









Look at this trifle, on the cover of the Donna Hay Christmas magazine. Isn't it  divine? 

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