Tiramisu

I love anything coffee flavoured. Coffee ice cream, coffee cake, coffee (obviously), and tiramisu of course. I do like the cake version but I prefer it as a trifle. However, I generally have huge trifle issues. No jelly, ever. No soggy bits. Eat as soon as possible after assembly and I can't bring myself to eat a trifle someone else has made. I don't know why but it makes me sweat even thinking about it. I'm pretty much the same with tiramisu so the recipe I give here is made my way but you could soak the biscuits more or leave it overnight. Your choice.

I make the traditional raw egg version and it really is the best thing. If eating raw egg creeps you out, stop reading now. This recipe makes enough for 6 generous serves, but probably should be served to 8 (or 10)! It is a very simple and forgiving recipe so I'm never precise but will give you the approximates I use. Feel free to experiment. It will still be awesome!

1 pkt Savioardi sponges
1 cup strong coffee
big slurp of coffee liqueur (3 tbsp?)

200 - 250g mascarpone, depending on the package size you can get
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup caster sugar
more coffee liqueur
200 mls thickened cream, whipped

cocoa

With a hand mixer, whip egg whites til foamy and gradually add about 2 tbsp caster sugar. Beat until glossy.
In another bowl, beat remaining sugar with egg yolks until fluffy, pale and doubled in volume.
Beat mascarpone into yolks and add liqueur to taste.
Fold whites gently into yolk mixture.
Finally, fold whipped cream in.
Taste. Taste again. Taste again. Panic that you won't have enough mixture to make the dessert.
In a shallow bowl, mix coffee and liqueur.
Dip Savioardi into coffee - soak them for a second if you want. I don't.
Add a layer of Savioardi to your serving bowl - the one I use is about 20cm and 8cm deep. It takes 3 layers.
Add a third of your filling and gently smooth.
Continue until everything is used, finishing with filling.
You can eat it straight away like I do, or refirgerate it overnight.
Just before serving, dust liberally with cocoa.

Let's have a closer look :

Really simple, really yum.

My Garden

I've never had a garden before. We lived in houses when I was growing up but I never really noticed the gardens. I've lived in flats for the last 20 years and have been lucky to keep a pot plant alive.

We moved into this house in January this year and it has more garden than you could ever want. Nobody had lived there for a while and it was a pretty hot and harsh summer, so it was a bit sparse but we weeded, pulled up dead stuff and watered and watered and watered. Winter came and everything was so lovely and green but I'm not a gardener and didn't really know what was planted there.

This spring has been awesome. Every day, something new appears. It's a bit of a hodge podge but I really love it.

We have these :

And these :

And some of these :

And tons of these (I love them) :

And we also have one of these :

Yes, that's my porch roof. Yes, I sit under it every day. Yes, that's my lounge room right through those doors. Yes, my kids leave the doors open every time they go out. Yes, it's September. Yes, snakes are supposed to be hibernating.

We might move back to a flat this summer. Still deciding.

Philoperous

My boys love Harry Potter and Jarvy's favourite book is the Philoperous (philosophers) Stone so you can imagine my delight when I realised he was a bit of a Philoperous himself!

Me : What is the meaning of life?
Jarvy : Huh?
Me : Why are we alive?
Jarvy : Because nobody killed us yet.

Me : If a tree falls in a forest and there is nobody to hear it, does it make a sound?
Jarvy : Mum, ask me serious questions.

Me : Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?
Jarvy : Ummmm ... the Chicken.
Me : But how did the chicken get there?
Jarvy : It walked of course.

My boy is certainly a deep thinker.

The Christmas Layby. Never Again.

I have always been most organised with my Christmas preparations. I keep an eye out through the year for the perfect gifts for my family and friends. I’ve always finished shopping by September and usually have everything wrapped by October – I buy cards and wrapping in the New Year sales. I keep spreadsheets for shopping and referencing previous gifts.

This hasn’t happened the last few years as I’ve had the two children (instead of one or none!) and last year I even had to send the husband out on Christmas Eve as I had forgotten so many things. The gift wrap did not match and it all made me feel very itchy. I vowed it could never happen again.

Last year started off well. In June, the major stores all had their mid-year sales and offered Christmas lay-bys. I’d never noticed these before but they seemed just the thing for me. Do all your shopping in one go, have six months to pay for it and not have to store everything at home.

So I organised a babysitter and headed off with my marked catalogues. Just like every other person on the planet apparently. The stores were chaotic, the good stuff was sold out (the cynic in me wondered if it ever existed), the staff were rude and frazzled and the lay-by lines were loooong. But I persevered and filled a trolley for November birthdays, stocking fillers and tons of other stuff. And then I waited in line. For a really long time. Luckily, that made my fervour for the Christmas lay-by cool down enough to realise that not everyone I know would really want a Christmas gift from Big W. Let alone from the Big W Mid-Year Sale-a-Thon. So by the time I reached the check-out, my trolley was almost empty.

A few days later, when the trauma wore off, I felt slightly smug that I had at least a portion of my shopping done, and someone else was storing it for me. All I had to do now was make my fortnightly payment. And do the rest (the majority) of my Christmas shopping – but I was a bit in denial about that.

But that was in June. Then in mid-October and I only had $8.00 left to pay. I couldn’t figure out how to stretch that out over 5 more fortnights, so it looked like I would be storing the junk after all. Why junk? Well, in June Ben-10 and Batman were the heroes of the day. By Christmas, they were dead to us. So I essentially had a trolley load of unusable DVDs, pyjamas, underwear and books. And I still had to do the rest of the shopping.

Not sure what this year's plan of attack will be ... am I thinking about this too early?

I Confess ...

Not sure if I'm enough of a bad-ass to make this a regular feature, but we'll see how I go.

A couple of the blogs I browse puport to be 'Confessional'. Ooooh, juicy. Or not. I'm not going to out them (they're awesome) but when I think of confessions I don't think about Oklahoma sunrises, Frito-smelling dog paws or the cutest two-year old you ever met.

Before you get excited, I won't be confessing anything that will ruin my marriage or send me to the slammer but I do have a few things I need to get of my chest. It's all about closure baby.

Many, many years ago, we had a milk bar near where I lived. Teenagers went there after the movies for milkshakes and sometimes, if we were lucky, we bought hot chips after Brownies meetings. What I remember the most though, was the endless glass-fronted cabinet full of lollies. We would walk up and down and choose one of those, one of those, one of those and they would go into a little brown bag. Lollies used to be two for a cent, so I'm guessing twenty cents would have filled one of those little bags and lasted me all afternoon. Were lollies bigger then or was my mouth much, much smaller? There were also bigger white bags but I realised even then that I would never be the recipient of a white bag full of lollies. It would have made my head explode.

Anyway, around the same time we had a girl at our school, who I will call Justine - partly because of the Duggar reference I am about to make but mostly because it was her name. Now, obviously, Justine was not a Duggar. It was the late 70s - Michelle was still a cheerleader and Jim-Bob was just a young Christian looking for love. But Justine could have been a Duggar : super long plait, Liberty print smocks, sensible sandals, weird. And on top of the Duggar similarities, she smelled like wee. A lot.

But (and here's where the story heats up) while looking like a Duggar and smelling like a nappy, Justine arrived at school several times a week carrying a bag of lollies from the afore-mentioned store. Not the brown bag, the white one. Full. In the morning.

I'm not sure how the next bit happened but somehow I had to ask her why she always had the lollies, how much they cost etc. And she told me that her parents owned the shop and she lived there. Lived there! And then she said I could come over after school that day and have as many lollies as I wanted. I was in, no matter what it cost in social-standing.

I could barely wait for school to finish and as we walked from school through the shopping centre I was dreaming of what I would eat first and if I might be able to take some home, and maybe whether I could fill a bath tub with cobbers and float in it. I know that Justine was talking to me but I couldn't tell you what she was saying.

When we got to the shop, she walked past it and I thought we must be going in some secret entrance round the back but she kept walking. I asked her why we weren't going in and she told me she didn't really live there, she stole coins from her mum's purse most mornings and bought the lollies.

I stood there, in the middle of the Homer St afternoon rush, flicked my Farrah Fawcett fringe, turned and walked away without a word.

And I've felt awful ever since.

If this is the lamest confession you've ever heard, I would suggest you stop reading my blog asap as there's plenty more where this came from!

Lashes

I wasn't sure if Fletch was cute enough when he was a toddler, so I made him wear false eyelashes.

I didn't really. These are his. He certainly doesn't get them from me.

School Holidays - YAY

School's out. And I have a week off. I haven't been this excited about school holidays since ... well, since I was at school. I had a week off last holidays but we went on a massive road trip so it was pretty hectic. This week, we have nothing on. Except swimming lessons. Every day. An hour away. In peak hour. But except for that - nothing.

I get to spend time with him :

And him :

Wait. Sorry. I mean these guys :



It's just that when I look at them, I still see babies. It was only five minutes ago, wasn't it?

But babies, toddlers, boys or teenagers (that's what they think they are), I can't wait to do nothing with them for the next ten days. Except swimming lessons. Every day. An hour away. In peak hour.

Cousins

My brother always copies me. I had a baby. So he had a baby. So I had another one. Aren't they divine?

Then he had one of these.

I will never have one of these. I think he might have won this round.

Blackberry Madness

Anyone have a Blackberry for work? I lusted after one of these babies for the longest time. And then I got one and it was definitely the most treasured thing I had ever owned – sorry boys, just keeping it real. Apart from looking very important next to a decaf skim latte, it revolutionised my life. I experienced the joy of an empty Inbox on a Monday morning and had the luxury of mentally preparing for the challenges for the week ahead. But like all obsessive relationships, things began to turn sour. I realised I was working 90 hours a week. People knew I was ‘on-line’ so they started sending me inane emails – ‘sorry to bother you at home, my break’s not til 11.00 but I really need to go to the loo …’ Catastrophes I could do nothing about played on my mind all weekend, robbing me of my former blissful ignorance. I would cry myself to sleep at night as the emails rolled in. I was in Blackberry Hell. My Assistant had become my Master.

And then we went on holidays and I had no reception. I had a nervous breakdown. But the world didn’t stop and nothing bad happened. So I made Blackberry rules :

- Only check once a night
- Set Auto-Off for 10pm
- Only check twice a day on weekends
- Stupid emails get ignored
- Really stupid emails get a sarcastic reply (with a smiley face to take the sting out).

My Blackberry and I made a truce, but I missed the heady romance of the early days. Then I discovered a feature they don’t put in the Handbook and I need to share it:

1. Make a cup of tea – blackberry if you have it.
2. While the kettle boils, glance at your Blackberry and loud enough for everyone to hear, exclaim ‘Oh no’ or something to that effect, but more dramatic.
3. Ask your husband to keep an eye on the kids because something has ‘come up’ at work (trust me, he won’t ask what. He doesn’t care).
4. Take your tea and your Blackberry (and maybe a cookie) outside and shut the door.
5. Drink your tea and play Sudoku in peace for half an hour.
I call this Blackberry Bliss. And yes, I am in love again.

Next up ... how obsessed can one person be with their iPhone? Yes, I have one of each. Be afraid.

Chocolate Crackles

Because we just had our school fair, I have been only been making kid-friendly, sellable items all week and have some fun recipes to share over the coming weeks. To start off my bake-sale-o-rama, what could be better than the humble chocolate crackle?

I am a huge fan of foods that remind me of being a kid. There is comfort in knowing that life changes, but yumminess doesn't. Some foods are totally acceptable to eat throughout your life and some foods should probably be left alone after your 10th birthday. Like these chocolate crackles. That's why I'm so glad I have kids now. I have an excuse to make (and eat) these all the time. Now all I need is an Atari 64 and some episodes of Wonder Woman and I can pretend that it's 1980 again and I don't have bathrooms to clean.

Chocolate Crackles
4 cups Coco Pops
1 cup icing sugar
1 cup dessicated coconut
2 tbsp cocoa
250g Copha

Stir all the dry ingredients together. Melt the Copha slowly in a small saucepan and pour into the dry ingredients. Stir it all together and divide between 24 patty cases. Refrigerate until firm. Eat. Swoon. Eat again.

I have been finding that at kids parties, these are usually eaten first, by all the adults. As perfect as they are in their pure (huh?) form, I have taken to making an adults version as well. Just add a handful of crushed peanuts, a handful of mini marshmallows and some chopped glace cherries to the dry ingredients. If you really want to go all out, you can add about 150g of dark chocolate while you're melting the Copha - you'll need to work fast with the mixing and filling the cases as the chocolate set quickly. These are like a rocky road chocolate crackle and just so good.

The other reason I love making these is that it means there's half a box of Coco Pops left - also best left in childhood. But who's going to let them go to waste? Not me. And I would never let my kids eat them for breakfast.

Just Like any Other Monday ...

So today was just like any other Monday. Except it wasn't. Every Monday, I go to work and the boys go to school. We're all pretty happy about that. I think. Today was no different ... except ... we had our school fair on the weekend and I spent a heap of time in the kids' environment. Apart from the odd birthday party, I never see their friends, haven't met most of the parents, miss the playdates etc. Even though I was aware that they had a little life (well, most of their life actually) away from me, I didn't realise it might be an issue for me.
When they were in daycare, I was involved in every little detail. The centre was in my building, I saw their teachers every day, had coffee with the mum's before work, was involved in every social activity and had the hour's drive home to catch up the news of the day. Now? Nothing. By the time I get home from work, homework is done, playdates are over, they're fed, bathed, pyjama'd and not too interested in talking about their day. I can count on one hand the times I've seen Fletch in his school uniform all year. Tragic, yes?
So anyway, today I felt a little different when I left for work. I'm suddenly properly aware of what I'm missing.
Like this :

And this :

This is something I'm really going to have to think about. Soon.

Second Attempt

So I'm back. I started this blog years ago and posted religiously, and cried religiously that nobody was reading. I ignored the fact that I absolutely kept the blog a secret from anyone I knew and also didn't link back if I ever commented on someone else's blog. I don't know where I thought readers were going to come from!
Anyway, I linked a recipe post onto Tasty Kitchen one day, and it got mentioned in the comments of PW's main blog on best Tasty Kitchen recipes and I got visitors ... and comments! And I freaked out. And removed my posts. And went on a blog break. I'm a weirdo. This also happens to me if I diet. As long as nobody notices, I'm fine. The second someone says 'have you lost weight?', I gain 5 kgs on the spot and the diet ends.
Not sure what I'm going for now. Maybe it's going to be just for me. Maybe I'll dip my toes into the blogosphere. We'll see.