In anticipation of summer, we are bottling ginger beer. 

The bug has been growing on the window sill for a week now. Each morning we feed the yeasty mud with some more sugar and ginger. 

Despite the sound of it, it is downright fascinating watching it bubble away.

The first batch is bottled.  Tasting should be in a week, when summer finally arrives.  However,  it feels like I can guarantee rain by simply hanging out the washing.  Hopefully, I haven't cast a jinx on summer in the same way.

The bug is still growing.  One ready to give away and the other ready for round two.

Every spring I start looking at my vegetable garden.  The needles get put down in favour for spades, hoses and time outdoors. Sometimes it hold my attention, other times things get a little despondent by the end of January - lack of water (or watering), white fly and plants bolting to seed.  This is not one of those years. 



So far we have had :

• Peas and potatoes ready for Christmas, if only we had been at home to enjoy them.  
•  Avoided the tomato glut by just planting cherry tomatoes for myself, admitting that I am the only one who eat them
• My first success with climbing beans  - it's true you really do get more than with dwarf beans
• A successful strawberry bed - the answer to millipedes is to plant flowers instead.  Probably doesn't taste any good, but they looked fantastic.

To celebrate the end of the end of the festive season, we made galette des rois.  While the galette baked, we broke down the Christmas tree and boxed up decorations.  We celebrated a few days early this year to avoid a clash with first day back to work blues.  Great food and company made a fantastic end to our Christmas celebrations.

Unlike last year, we had a tiny ceramic charm to bake into the pie.  If you look carefully, you can see her standing on a dollar coin for scale. 

In honor of the last day of Daycare for the year, H and I made sprinkle fudge to give to the teachers.


To make your own you will need:

395g can sweetened condensed milk
100g butter
200g  brown sugar
3 Tbsp golden syrup
180g white chocolate buttons
2 tsp vanilla essence
Lots of sprinkles  - 100s & 1000s, chocolate buttons etc.

1 Combine the sweetened condensed milk, butter, sugar and syrup in a microwave-proof bowl and cook on medium-high power for 7 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes.

2 Mix in the chocolate and vanilla and stir until combined, then beat well until glossy. Spoon into a lined 17cm x 27cm tin . 

3 Sprinkle - gather the decorations and go for it!  Set aside to cool, then cover with cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour until firm. Cut into bite size pieces.

Then the thrifting - I found a breadmaker at a recent garage sale.  At $10 with a "it might not work" caveat I wasn't expecting much.  I found a copy of the manual online and 3 loaves of bread later, the bread maker has more than paid for itself.


Finally, the Christmas - With a surplus of quince meat, 3 pints to be precise,I'm on the lookout for recipes to use it up.  This braided loaf recipe was in the bread maker manual.  I had my fingers crossed behind my back expecting disaster but it was brilliant.  It tasted even better on day 2 and 3, which is a little unusual in my experience of home made bread.


Now I only have 2 1/2 pints of Quince Meat to go, any ideas?

Stir it up Sunday is something my grandmother introduced me to.  Before launching into all the rush of Advent and associated Christmas preparations, we have Stir it up Sunday.  It takes it's name from a 1549 prayer

"Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded;"

While this could trigger all manner of contemplation, this talk of stirring and fruit sounds suspiciously like pudding. Since the 1800's Stir it up Sunday, has been known as the perfect time to be making Christmas pudding.

Gran took great pride in sharing traditions with me.  As she told me all about this day, she smiled conspiratorially, and told me she had already made her puddings.

Given the day and all it's traditions, it could only mean a trip to Grandma's, my mother, for the girls to Stir it Up.

Measuring

Making bread crumbs

Cutting liners

Stiring it Up

And finally - the first cooking

One day I will concoct a dish that uses as many vintage utensils as I can find.  These two followed me home from the church fair.  This little grater was fantastic for grating hard cheddar for over our spaghetti*.  As for the baking molds, I have no idea.  They are not the little shells for madeleines or log like ginger gems.  It appears there are still novelty pastries out there for me to discover.

*The kids were stoked to use the grater, but rather disgusted when they tasted the strong cheese - I wish I had taken a photo to record the foul look I got.

Linking in with Opp Shop Show Off

Sometimes the best places are the ones you find by accident. My sister and I loved Tronheim and cannot rave highly enough about Antikvariatet, the little bar we sought refuge in.  We arrived on a very sunny afternoon, so sunny that the parks were full of sunbathers.  In the evening we headed out and found some where for dinner only to be caught in a series of heavy sunshowers.  Looking at the blue sky above, you can see why we were so well and truly caught out.  Not wishing to be part of an impromtu wet t-shirt competition, we took refuge in the first place we could find.  Dad wisely left the choice of place over to us.  This is how we ended up soaking wet, in the most darling little hippie student bar.

Antikvariatet is in the historic Bakklandet area of Tronheim and if you look closely, it is the red building to the left of the bridge post in the photos above.  It has two bars, Musikkafe and Bokbar.  The walls of musikkafe are lined with music manuscripts and there are stacks of board games to entertain waiting diners.  As we dined, the bokbar was still preparing for that evening live music and not yet open.  We caught a glance of the book lined bar, kitted out like a vintage reading room, only with better beer.  The barman thoughtfully retrieved some for us to try too.




There was so much about Tronheim that intrigued us.  There's the Cathedral, Niadros that has been in a permanent state of rebuild since 1328. The face of archangel Michael was based on Bob Dylan as the sculptor was moved by his pacifist lyrics.  The way the city pours into the working harbour felt very much like Dunedin. 

We left with a lot unexplored and just waiting for us to return next time.

Given a chance my sister would sell her soul to be a professional foodie.  There was no way we were going to Paris without eating ourselves silly. We were duly sent of food adventure with a few tips from our amazing hosts, Grannie Annie and Stuart.

If you are planning on similar adventure there are three things to remember

1 - One block back.  Try not to eat at the restaurants right next to the tourist attractions.  Walk around a little, start looking for somewhere at least one block back from the attractions and look for where the locals are eating.  This is how we found Mad' Cafe, one block back from La Madelaine.  To call this place a hole in the wall might be exaggerating its size.  To be seated, the waiters have to lift the table to let you past, to the wall mounted bench seat.  But what it lacks in size, it makes up for in style and taste.  The duck confit was to die for.  The place was packed and buzzing with people making the most of their leisurely lunch breaks. I would have gladly returned there day after day.

2- Un pichet s'il vous plais - a pichet is a small carafe of house wine just the right size to go with lunch for two. The classy way to know when to say when.  If the pichet is empty, it must be time for coffee.
3 - Coffee Gourmand - A selection of minature desserts served with coffee, or the (tea) gourmand if you prefer.  It is not like each dessert is scooped onto your plate with a little spoon,  instead it is made in a small size.  Think of miniature creme brulee and tiny chocolate mousse.  We are still trying to identify the divine white fluffy dessert that came on our plate at Mad' Cafe.  The closest I can find is something called snow pudding.

"Amy, crazy ladies have been leaving stuff on our door step again*.  I found this casserole dish.." 



It turns out that crazy lady is me.  Mum had passed this dish onto me, finding it had become too heavy for her wrists.  It was on the front seat of the car and I hastily put it on the step rather than drive it around for the school drop off trip.

In all their speckled glory these are sweet examples of New Zealand made durability.  Every home and bach had one when I was a child.  The brand is boldly imprinted on the base  - "Radiation". 
I am gradually accumulating my mother's enameled cast iron.  This blue dish, joins the elegant oval one that is just right for coq au vin or venison casserole.  The lid sits a little loose so care loving care, or copious wine, is often needed if the casserole is to work out..



*We still cling to the memory of a random bag of china left on our doorstep.  Enough people know I cherish old things that they sometimes just turn up.  The random bag was pure confusion.  I had offered to price items for the church fair and when a bag of beautiful crown lynn turned up on my doorstep I thought that was what it was for.  I admired the pieces, adored the jumbo colour glaze cups, admitted I had no space for any more and then I priced it and took it to the church fair. Of the ladies I asked, no-one could remember dropping a bag of, but remembered that one had been set aside for me.  I remained a little puzzled as to where it had come from.  A year later a friend asked if I ever found the bag of china she left me.  She picked up all the NZ made items at left over from the plunket sale and thought I might like them.  I almost wept.

My hand is always high in the air when someone is offering to give away quinces.  While we have a tree, we are years away from bumper harvests.  Above you can see miss H carefully guarding last year harvest of 1.  This year we were up to 3, inelegantly dumped onto the wood heap below by a cold blast.

Despite our own quince famine, I am always on the look out for new quince recipes.  One of the simplest and truly decadent ways to eat quince is poached.  It can be a little time consuming as quince stay wooden for the longest time and then turn to mush in the blink of an eye.  The answer to this is two words - slow cooker. 

The following recipe came about when I tried to adapt Julie Le Clerc's poached quince recipe and ran out of space in our tiny slow cooker.  It turns out I like sugar.  In fact, I like more sugar than any quince recipe I've come across. If you have recently given up sugar, read no further, just look as the pictures.  The following recipe is for a 3.5l slow cooker

Yep, it's that photo again.

To make these heavenly jewels you will need the following:

3-5 Quince (limited by appetite or the size of your slow cooker)
5 cups boiling water
3 cups of sugar
1 cinnamon stick
zest and juice of 1 lemon

Peel and core the quince.  You will need a very sharp knife and pocket of patience for this step.

Pack the quince into the slow cooker

Dissolve sugar into the boiling water and pour over the quince.

Add the cinnamon, zest and juice and set to low heat for about 6 hour.

After about 2 hours, remove excess liquid from the slow cooker leaving just enough to keep the quince buoyant.  This liquid makes a fragrantly squinty cordial if you are that way inclined.

After 6 hours, test the quince with a skewer.  The quince should be dense but pierce able.  Remove the quince from the liquid to a bowl and place lid or plate over to keep in the heat.

Pour the remaining syrup, which should be dark crimson, into a pot and bring to the simmer.  Simmer and reduce for about 20 minutes until thickened.

Pour the syrup over the steaming hot quince and leave to cool.

Serve as desired - over ice cream, with yoghurt or sliced onto hot porridge.

The fruit takes on a very dense almost glace quality.  As I read a little wider, I saw that glace fruit is made by reducing the syrup and letting fruit soak it in repeatedly.  Perhaps I should have called this semi-glace quince.

If you are new to quince, consider a quince & apple crumble.  It's quince with trainer wheels and my kids will even eat it. 

This year I have preserved quince in light syrup to let us have crumble all year and tried to make quince-meat for Christmas pies. I've yet to taste the quince-meat, however the domestic goddess assures me this will be fantastic.  I'm holding out another month before I open one of the jars to test it.

If you can point me in the direction of other favorite quince recipes, I still have bucket of other peoples fruit to use up.

See It, Like It, Buy It.

I have an aunt who travels with this mantra of efficiency and excess.  When Mum and I saw these casserole dishes, in a local vintage store, we just knew they were coming home. In the name of team work one went home with Mum and the other is currently in our fridge, holding the most retro fresh poached quince. They are a brilliant glowing crimson, so different from the pale yellow beginnings.   I imagine myself to be a sophisticated cocktail swilling 1970's housewife as I slice these little jewels of fruit onto my sedate morning porridge.

Today's adventure started with some decorating.  We stamped and typed little paper bags.  H typed beautiful lines of gibberish and E went for terms of endearment.

Sometimes newer isn't better.  This week we made pinwheel scones using the vintage butter cutters.  Granddad was on his way over and we needed something for morning tea.

These wood and wire beauties are made to "rub in" the butter.  Being the modern girl that I am, I  usually reach for the food processor for this job.  I'm considering a change.  Once you get into it, the butter cutters are just as fast and an awful lot easier to wash. They also gave Miss H a chance to have a go too.

Soon enough the scones were ready to go and in the oven.  I would have take a photo of the finished pinwheels, but we were too busy eating them.

linking in again with Op-Shop-Show-Off

I hope your Easter holiday is going well.  We have been having all sorts of adventures. From a  night at the best little inland campground, to Easter egg hunting and feasting on simnel cake.

I love mystery objects. Especially the ones that look really useful, but still keep you guessing.  I picked up the little yellow mystery object a week ago.  I love the worn, optimistic yellow handle.

I certainly have soft spot for wooden handled utensils as you can see from this quick raid of the kitchen drawer.  I love the aged patina the layers of paint get over time and the distinguishing details like twin tone or stripes.  I can't work out if you are supposed to have everything matchy matchy or have mismatched handles so you can always find the one you want.

And in case you were wondering what the little yellow and green items were for, they really are a lot friendlier than they look.   Meet my new peach pitter and apple corer.  Now there is nothing standing in the way of an old fashioned pantry full of glowing jars of golden queen peaches.



*Linking in with Op Shop Show Off
** I'm hugely tempted to use a cheesy post title like - Everybody Must Get Stoned, It's the Pits or just downright gruesome - DIY Pet Neutering Kit.