Today marks the end of week 3 at uni. 10 weeks left of teaching and 8 pieces of assessment to be completed by then. I spent time in the library last night after my class finished whilst I was waiting for Matthew to finish so we could drive home together, picking out books to start preparing for my first essay.
This is a photo that I took at uni yesterday as I walked up out of the free all day parking section towards the bush path leading up to uni. Just before the uni land starts but on the road that only goes to Uni there is a section of probably 40 or 50 free all day car parking spaces which are highly sought after. I have driven to uni both times I have gone this week as I have been recovering from a nasty flu that knocked me for dead on Monday. Both times I have driven I have been lucky to get one of these parks instead of needing to drive round to the free parking that is located further away from uni. Because, we all know that free parking is much nicer than paying $5 for a day pass.
The map below shows where my uni is located, smack bang in Toohey Forest. I quite enjoy going to a uni that was built round the forest and from many rooms, if you look out the windows all you will see is trees as between most of the buildings there are patches of bush. When it has rained (what is rain?) or when the wind is blowing right, you can stand still and breathe in the air that is perfumed with the scents of the various Eucalyptus and Acacia that grow round the place.
The best thing is that since uni is right beside the SE freeway it only takes 8 minutes or so to drive there from the city (15mins during peak time). Then from the city to home is about 15-20mins (25-30 mins during peak time). If I catch the bus though it is 1hr 20mins to uni and 1hr from uni because the bus timetables don’t always work in your favour. I quite enjoy getting the buses to uni but it is so handy to be able to drive when you are going to the library with a big stack of books or are only going to uni for an hour or two.
I first went to type this post the other day but just before I pressed “publishâ€? we had an itsy bitsy power surge which quickly erased my post. I can’t even really remember what most of the filler noise was that I had typed so it mustn’t have been important.
As often happens when I am making something I will wander to wherever Mum is at that time and start offering her my different flavour suggestions. This time it was a string of Blueberry and X muffins. Blueberry and Chocolate? Blueberry Poppy Seed? Blueberry with Sunflower Seed topping? Blueberry and Sultana? Blueberry and insert your own idea? Mum liked the idea of either chocolate or sultana but my mind was going for poppy seed or chocolate, after looking in the cupboard and seeing that there was no chocolate I decided to make half a batch with poppy seeds and half a batch with sultanas.
1.5C plain flour
1.5C wholemeal plain flour
0.75C raw sugar
1.5tsp baking powder
1.5tsp salt
0.5C honey
1.5C milk
4 eggs
vanilla
zest of a lemon or an orange
115g butter (melted)
200-300gish blueberries
poppy seeds, sultanas
Preheat oven to 180ºC, grease muffin pans.
Sift together the dry ingredients in a bowl and put to the side.
Mix the honey, milk, eggs, vanilla and zest together. Pour in the dry ingredients and mix till they are just incorporated. Whilst slowly mixing the mixture pour in the butter till it is mixed in.
Now you can have fun mixing in other things. I placed half the mixture back into the bowl which I had mixed the dry ingredients in and divided the berries between the two bowls. I added probably two tablespoons of poppy seeds to one half and two handfuls of chopped sultanas to the other half.
Cook for 25mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the pans for a while (5 mins) and then turn out onto wire racks to cool.
I am a firm believer in both using what you find in the cupboard when cooking even when the recipe may call for something else and mixing things up to create new things.
I hadn’t planned on posting these biscuits because they are similar to the Helen’s Best Ever Biscuits, you just change the ingredients depending on what you have. However I was eating these Chocolate and Blueberry in Sunflower Seeds Biscuits yesterday in a lecture break when two my uni girls commented on them. After chatting about them for a while I wrote www.helenthura.com on a scrap of paper and told them that I would post the idea. So here it is.
I have a biscuit recipe that came to us as Apricot Wheat Germs and over the years I faithfully made the recipe as it was listed though occasionally it would be Fruit Medley Wheat Germs if we had no apricots in the house.
Fan-forced oven at 160°C.
Cream butter and sugar, add eggs.
Mix in the rest.
Roll into balls and flatten lightly and cook in oven till when a finger pressed lightly into a biscuit does not leave a mark. Makes plenty.
These are very yummy and in the last 10 mths or so I have started playing with the recipe, changing the quantities of the cornflakes, coconut, rolled oats, wheat germ and apricots or replacing them all together with what ever I find in the cupboard.
These changes led to Helen’s Best Ever Biscuits back in February. Then in May there was Sultanas and Dried Strawberries and in July there is Chocolate and Blueberry in Sunflower Seeds. Whilst the same basic recipe provides the base each time, changing the “fillings” provides a totally new biscuit experience each time.
The ideas behind the Chocolate and Blueberry in Sunflower Seeds came in many parts. I was inspired to roll the biscuits in sunflower seeds after thinking of biscuits I had made with Renata (my host mother) when I was in Germany for Christmas in 2002 as well as biscuits I had a little while ago at my friend Leanne’s house. The blueberries came about because I happened to have quite a few packets left in the freezer and the chocolate was because if I left the pack of 85% cocoa in my drawer for much longer it would have been going straight down my throat.
From the basic recipe the Chocolate and Blueberry in Sunflower Seeds did not have the rolled oats or apricots or wheat germ. I increased the coconut and flour, added 80grams of Lindt 85% chocolate, 200gish of frozen blueberries and the sunflower seeds of course. The mixture was quite gooey so I just kept on adding some more of the dry ingredients till it became more user friendly.
Yesterday marked the start of the 2nd week back at uni for me and I am getting used to new lecturers, doing my readings, going over notes and starting to plan my assesment pieces. I am a bit ticked off with one of my classes as the lecturer said at the first lecture last week, that he should have the reading brick put together in the next couple of weeks! Dude, based on the fact that reading bricks are designed to have the readings that accompany each weeks lecture, they should be ready for week 1, week 2 at the latest. grr.
These are three things that I am loving at the moment.
Strawberries. Fresh, sweet and flavoursome Queensland Strawberries. Strawberry season also means that the Ekka is fast approaching and that means strawberry sundaes and fireworks.
Hayseed Dixie. I am a big fan of the cover version and these guys with their “rockgrass” versions of classic rock songs produce some of the best covers I have heard in a while.
The Mountain Goats. Well I have loved these two guys for over a year now and in a mere 20 days their new album Get Lonely is released. I can’t wait to hear the other songs after listening to Wild Sage on NPR’s All Songs Considered.
And this is one thing that makes me so incredibly happy.
West Papuan David Wainggai is finally set to receive a TPV (Temporary Protection Visa) after the Refugee Review Tribunal overturned the original Department of Immigration ruling that granted visa’s to the 42 other West Papuan’s who landed on Cape York in January. I can’t describe how happy I was when I first heard it on the news and later read it in the paper. Justice Comes Ashore. Govt weighs appeal against Papuan visa decision.
After I had done my school work yesterday I sat down and had a little play.
There are some instances in life when I am scared of what the result will be. Each time I get a uni result back I work up the courage to open the email or paper to see what I was given. Sometimes when I receive an email it may sit unread for a little while till I decide whether or not I want to read what someone is telling me. There are times I take a photo and it may sit unlooked at on my computer for a day or two till I decide I want to see if it turned out how I imagined it in my head.
So why I am telling you this? The Friday just gone I spent the afternoon in a flurry in the kitchen making a myriad of things. I made a big batch (11 servings) of Pumpkin Soup to put in the freezer so I can take a packet out when I want soup for lunch, Chocolate Puddings for dessert (Friday was Mum’s 55th birthday) as well as Strawberry Mascarpone Tarts. In addition to the three different types of meringues I had made the night before with the extra egg whites from the Chocolate Puddings.
The Strawberry Mascarpone Tarts were either going to be a flop, so-so or a success I had no idea how they would turn out as there were a few firsts involved in the tarts. First time using Filo pastry, first time using mascarpone and I was really making the recipe up on the fly. In fact they stayed untouched for 42hrs before I took the step to try one. It was soooo nice. Not too heavy but not too light. Not too sweet but still sweet enough. Just Right!
If they were a flop you wouldn’t be hearing about them. Once I had wolfed down the one I had grabbed for morning tea, I rushed round the house getting my camera gear, setting up my little studio and “styling” the shot.
24 days ago I saw a post on Lex Culinaria for Cherry and Lemon Cream cheese Tartlets, I loved the idea of using Filo pastry for the shells. Shortly around this time also, the Filo pastry we sell in the freezer section at work was deleted which meant that the price went from $3.69 to $1.49. I was not going to put off making something with Filo now. The strawberry season for SE QLD started the other week and since it has been quite dry (rain, what is that?) the strawberries are fantastic, red all the way through and sweet. This of course means that strawberries would be the fruit of choice to go with the tarts I was dreaming up in my head.
I am essentially a shelf packing machine at work and I will often be packing something away and my brain will start turning with ideas of what I could make the item. Since I am mainly a shelf packing machine in the Dairy/Freezer section (Dairy Fairy is the correct term thank-you) I have often looked at the ricotta and mascarpone as I have packed it and thought of what I could do. As life would have it, when I was at the shops getting fresh eggs and caster sugar to make meringues, I saw a tub of mascarpone reduced to clear in the dairy. Well that went into my basket and I headed on my merry way home.
This isn’t really a scientific recipe, in fact most of the things I make that are not following a recipe I just add in the amount that feels, looks or tastes right.
Strawberry Mascarpone Tarts
250g Mascarpone
1 egg
1 tbsp caster sugar
2 or 3 tbsp honey
dollop of vanilla
2 maybe 3 tbsp plain flour
4 sheets Filo Pastry
strawberries, cream and icing sugar to serve.
Preheat oven to 160 °C.
Beat the egg and sugar for a few seconds until well mixed. Add the mascarpone and beat till it is creamy. Add the honey and vanilla and beat in as well. How much flour you add really depends on how runny your mixture is, I just added a tablespoon at a time until it had a nicer consistency.
Grease a muffin tray. Lay out the four sheets of filo pastry and cut the stack into squares that large enough to fit your muffin pans. Depending on how large your sheets are you may need more sheets to make enough cases for the tarts. Place the stacks of pastry in the muffin pans and fill with the mascarpone mixture. For me the mixture gave me enough to make 8 tarts.
Place the muffin tray in the oven and cook until a fork comes out of the mixture clean. I have no idea how long these took to cook as I was busy doing other things – I would say 10-15 minutes but it could have been less. Allow tarts to cool on the bench, then remove from the pans and chill in the fridge till serving time.
Serve with cream and strawberries, dust with icing sugar.
Something else you may have noticed, at the bottom of each post I have added a “Print This Post” link which will give you a printer friendly version of the post.
I like rain on a tin roof,
only when you’re deep in my arms.
The sound of rain on a tin roof
reminds me of the beat of your heart.
And I like rain on a tin roof,
takes me back to something I started.
I like rain on a tin roof,
Baby it’s all right, all right,
It’s all right, I’m inside.
– Tin Roof
women in docs
Last night I went to one of the most magical shows I have ever seen. There are two main things that make a show magical for me; they are great storytelling lyrics and lots of band/audience interaction. A band can play great music but if they just rock out on their stage and don’t interact with the crowd telling stories or making jokes the show looses a lot of interest for me.
Last night was purely magical because amongst other things these two things happened with both bands that played.
As part of the Brisbane Festival a series of free 9:30pm concerts have been running in the Spiegeltent after the main concert has played. Last night the 7:30pm concert was the amazing songstress Kate Miller-Heidke which was also broadcast on ABC QLD radio which when I heard it was been broadcast I ran around the house finding a tape and a tape recorder so I could “podcast” the show later. I have listened to parts of it already and am reminded of just what an amazing voice she has. Pure Magic. Just before the live broadcast started Steve Austin mentioned that the 9:30pm concert tonight was The Genes and women in docs and that all those people in SE QLD who could get to the Spiegeltent in King George Square by 9:30pm should. I made a decision that and after waiting so many years I was going to go and finally see women in docs live. I am so glad I went.
The Genes played first for about 1hr and a pretty rocking three piece of two brothers and their drummer. Lots of super cool songs with some great lyrics and plenty of harmonica. One of the songs that stood out was one that was all about surfing and the sequence of events from throwing on the wetsuit and running down the sand to the waves.
Then shortly after 10:30pm a band came on that I have been wanting to see since 1999 when their self-titled debut EP was released and like many others I fell in love with the song “Tin Roof” and the other five superbly written songs on it. I can tell you that since 1999 “Tin Roof” is one song that has always stuck in my head and I often find myself humming the song or when we get heavy rain and I can hear it on the tiles I sing a couple of lines from “Tin Roof”. Due to a number of reasons it has taken me seven years to see them live. Seven years of built up waiting meant that the show meant so much for me. I sat on my seat, clapping, swaying or singing along with the rest of the crowd as magic was created before our eyes.
For a band that got off a plane from North America 10hrs before they played I was more than impressed. From their classics to their newer stuff and some pretty rocking covers during their movie game section they played an amazing set. The movie game section is where they talked about who would play them in a movie of their life, what sort of movie it would be and what the theme song would be. When each of the band had talked about what their choices were, they would play the theme song. The “theme song” that got the most the laughs was when the drummer Geoff Green said he would be played by Hugh Jackman but he had to make a point clear, it would be Hugh Jackman Wolverine style (muscles and beard) not Hugh Jackman Boy from Oz style (maracas) in response to this they played Dancing Queen which definitely not Hugh Jackman Wolverine style.
There was lots of harmonica provided Roz, heaps of laughs provided by both Chanel and Roz as well as some kick ass fiddle and keyboards by Silas Palmer and rocking drums by Geoff Green. There was heaps of talking between the songs about the songs or about past experiences. When they finally finished playing shortly before midnight, I picked up a copy of their most recent CD red wine and postcards and drove home with a smile on my face as I put the CD in and let it play.
You can listen to three of their tracks at OzTrax as well as sample from their first two EPs on the samples section of their website.
