Because tonight is the one night of the year pancakes are a totally acceptable dinner. Mmm pancakes! or pönnukökur to be more correct, since the only type of pancakes this house knows is Icelandic pancakes (well and also the Ayrshire pancakes that my maternal grandmother used to make).
There is only three types of toppings pancakes in our family can have and that is red jam (any berry or rhubarb jam) with cream, golden syrup with cream or brown sugar, lemon juice and cream. Yep cream is just as important as pancakes when it comes to pancakes!
This picture though, tells a lot more than just that I had pancakes for dinner but it about the Icelandic pancake pans that Karl brought over with him for my Christmas present in 2008, Grandmum’s narrow metal flip, the paper towel holder that Grandad made and of course a Lotte plate…
Here is hoping that you too enjoyed pancakes at some stage tomorrow and I’m looking forward to eating the leftovers tomorrow 🙂
because then my breakfast would be entirely home made.
This was my breakfast this morning. Home made bread and home made apricot jam with a cup of tea and the magazine from the weekend Australian.
This is the Helen size loaf of bread before I cut into it
Oh it is so very nice and I achieved a very nice translucent crumb which is the goal with slow rise breads.
Did you see the table?
It started off life with me looking like this.
A thorough sanding, a dose of deck clean, some garden furniture oil, another sand then then two more coats of garden furniture oil and it looks like this now. Yes, those are casalas, I searched high and low for outdoor chairs I liked but in the end casalas won me over. Oh so comfy
One day I’ll get round to stripping and painting the legs but that doesn’t need doing just yet.
Also I went to my first auction on Tuesday night and I bid on one item all night and I won it, it was a touch scary. When I arrived I did a quick case of what else was on show then had a quick look at the Countess before sitting down in a position where I could see if anyone else was looking at it … The bidding was between me and one other lady. Oh hello Royal Doulton Countess, I do love  you so. I finally have bowls (and cups and more plates). I’m really quite happy about this win because I got it for a very good price and it means I don’t have to find a seller on UK Ebay who is happy to send bowls internationally.  I may be known for my love of Figgjo Flint Lotte but I share that love equally with Royal Doulton Countess.
Now though, I must fold the washing and get ready for a short work week since Karl and Kata arrive early Thursday morning 😀
The birds reappeared in the Silky Oak this morning. I woke up, looked out the window and there they were; preening their feathers in the early morning light. As per usual it has been about a week since they were last in the garden.
What else have I been up to since then?
Making use of one of my Christmas presents – a jam funnel, thanks Mum!
Using the above leads to this. Mulberry Jam, yummo.
Stocking up on mangoes, then slicing and freezing so there will be golden mango goodness way past the mango season. A whole tray of mangoes for $8 <– that’s my kind of bargain.
Look at all those bags of goodness.
After a few years of umming and ahhing over different digital radios, I finally picked one up. A Pure Elan II, whilst I dearly loved the OrlaKieley and the look of the other Mio radios they didn’t offer a pause feature. If I was getting a new kitchen radio I wanted to be able to press pause and come back to the radio when I’m off the phone/finished shooing away the sales person/bible promoter at the door etc.
I’m loving it, it’s great having ABC Jazz in the kitchen without either having to have the TV on or having my laptop on the kitchen table.
The house currently looks like a cross between a bomb site and a warehouse as Mum packs up as the ticker counts downs the days till she departs, we are almost in the single digits!
I leave you with this.
That’s my attempt at making a Mango Juice Bali style -> mango, ice, sugar syrup. Blend it together and drink up the sweetness.
We have many birds in our yard but on Christmas day there were two special birds in the yard. Â This feather tells all. Do you know what bird this feather comes from?
It’s not from these birds (Trichoglossus haematodus or Rainbow Lorikeet)
and it’s not from these birds either ( Cacatua roseicapilla or Galah)
nor is it from this bird (Egretta novaehollandiae or White-faced Heron)
It’s not from my magpies either (Gymnorhina tibicen), the magpies (and the butcher birds) are something I’m going to dearly miss with my upcoming move from the balcony suite to the master wing, no more will the magpies on the washing line be the first thing I see and hear in the morning.
It’s not from the crested pigeons (Ocyphaps lophotes)Â either
nor is it the Pale-headed Rosella (Platycercus adscitus) who sometimes comes to visit and it is most definitely not from the Blue-faced Honeyeater (Entomyzon cyanotis), it is also most definitely not from the  Noisy Miners (Manorina melanocephala) who think they rule the roost in the front yard.
The feather comes from the birds known as Podargus strigoides, which bird is that you ask? Why it is this delightful creature.
Yes, that is a Tawny Frogmouth, well not just one but two! The above photo was taken on Christmas Day, we were patching some holes in the tent before my departure for Woodford the following morning when I looked up and saw these fellas in the tree. The one at the front of the above photo is a juvenile whilst the mature one is in the background. Mother and I were quite tickled pink at seeing these birds in our yard, if Pabbi was still alive he would have been tickled pink to see these as well, he adored taking photos of the birds in the back yard. On that note I’m sure Grandad would have been chuffed as well knowing we had Tawny Frogmouths in the the yard as well.
The parent bird is watching us.
We weren’t sure how long they would stay in the yard so imagine my delight when I came home from Woodford and saw this face in the Silky Oak. It’s the juvenile! Hello you Tawny Frogmouth.
Oh hello Tawny Frogmouth!
Sadly though, I’ve not seen them in our yard in the last week, each day I scour the trees hoping that at least one of them has returned. I do so hope they make an appearance when my brother Karl and his partner Kata come to visit in February. I am so dearly looking forward to not only finally meeting Kata (she was unfortunately in Russia when we were in Iceland last year in 2010, we met one of her sisters though!) but also to having Karl “home” for a little while. Whilst Kata is going to see sooo many things on their seven week jaunt to Australia as Karl shows they lady who has his heart Australia the country in which he was raised it would just be quite something special if there was Tawny Frogmouths in the backyard when they arrived. I’ll just have to talk to the trees and see what they can arrange.
I remember the first time I saw a Tawny Frogmouth, were were on a pre-school excursion to Coochiemudlo Island and there was one perched in the rafters of one of the toilet blocks. We were ushered in ever so quietly by our teacher to look at it.
Well that is the story of some of the birds who like to hang out in the back yard. Their stories are not quite as adventuerous or humerous as the blue tounge lizard clan that resides over at MMMCÂ but I wouldn’t trade my birds for all the world.
But then I’m not Norwegian, so thankfully I’m not battling a butter shortage whilst trying to make sure I have seven types of Christmas biscuits. I really feel for those poor Norwegians, not been able to make all your normal Christmas baked goods because there is no butter, tragic.
I’ve made Loftkökur, Sugar Biscuits, Christmas Cake Pattycakes, Gingerbread, Rum Balls, Sunshine Balls (Apricots Balls with dried pineapple and mango added as well) and Vanilla Rings.
Loftkökur
This time of year the traffic to my blog goes through the roof as people come for my Loftkökur post from 2006. Four ingredients, some magic and then you have quite possibly my favourite Christmas baked good. Londoneats also made Loftkökur this year and I’ve contributed to the comments thread over there. I’m going to do an updated Loftkökur recipe post next Christmas and will provide spoonfuls of the magic ingredient to Australians who want to try making them.
Christmas Cake Pattycakes
These are new this year and I’ll be making these till the Christmas before I die I do believe. All the niceness of Christmas fruit cake without the dryness or stodginess. I found the recipe in an advert for Lucky Nuts via the Coles magazine (I must say I love the Coles and Woolies magazines, they are the main place I get new recipes these days).
Christmas Cakes
Makes at least 24 muffin size cakes or 48 patty pan size cakes, I suggest halving it)
1 cup roughly chopped silvered almonds
5 cups assorted dried fruit roughly chopped into pieces about thumb nail size (I use sultanas, raisins, dates, pear, peaches, apricots – probably half sultanas and raisins and the rest other fruits)
1/2 cup (at least) of rum, I use Bundy Red and strongly recommend it for all Christmas items. a good shake of mixed spice
250g butter, softened
250g brown sugar
4 eggs
1/4 cup marmalade or citrus jam (I use my Mandarin jam and just realised that I never blogged about it or my other jam making – blame mobile uploads on Facebook, it’s so quick to take a photo on the phone, add a caption and upload it to Facebook)
500g plain flour
blanched almonds to decorate
Combine the rum, dried fruit and spice in a container and leave at least over night, making sure to give it a good shake every so often to make sure that rum is soaking the fruit nicely. You made need to add a little more rum here.
Cream the butter till pale, add the sugar and continue to mix till the sugar is dissolved. This will take some time but it makes all your baking better if you take the time to cream your butter and sugar well. Add the eggs and marmalade/jam in and continue to mix. Then add half of the fruit mix and half of remaining ingredients (flour and chopped almonds) mix it well and then add in the rest of the fruit, flour and almonds and mix till well combined.
Spoon mixture into cake papers, decorate the top with blanched almonds and bake at 150°C until a skewer comes out clean and they are lightly coloured on top (~ 15-30 minutes depending on the size you are making)
Sugar Biscuits
This is the only recipe I’ve ever used for sugar biscuits and can’t fault it. It is easy to double, freezes well and is very easy to make.
Sugar Cookie Recipe number 2
Makes a heap.
1.25 cups caster sugar or white sugar
225g butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (I probably use more like 2.5 tsp of vanilla normally)
2.5 cups plain flour (sifted)
1 tsp bi-carb
1 tsp cream of tartar (If you don’t have cream of tartar don’t rush out and buy it. Over the years I’ve made these with bi-carb and baking powder as well and they are just fine)
Cream the butter till pale and then add the sugar, continue to cream it till the sugar is dissolved and it doesn’t look at all grainy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix again. Add the flour and rising agents and beat till it comes together. Form dough into at least two discs and wrap in either glad wrap or a plastic bag and allow to cool and harden in the fridge (I normally make the mixture one night and bake the biscuits the following night). Remove the dough from the fridge and allow to warm up a little. I normally divide the each disc into about four pieces and work each piece with my hands warming it up and making it rollable. Roll the dough out on a floured surface to an even thickness (I aim for about 5mm) and cut out shapes with your cutters. For best baking results only use one shape per tray or if you must use different shapes you should make sure they have the same surface area because smaller biscuits cook quicker and you don’t want over cooked biscuits. Cook on glad bake lined trays at about 160°C for about 8 minutes. Remove them from the oven just as they start to colour. Allow to cool and then ice with your preference of icing. I’m a royal icing girl. Store in an air tight container and if you find they are a softening in the container put a slice of bread in the container to harden the biscuits back up.
Gingebread
I probably should call this Spicebread, as I do like to be quite heavy handed with the spices.
Gingerbread
150g golden syrup
110g butter
100g brown sugar
375g flour, sifted together with the bi-carb and spices
1 tsp bi-carb
Spices (the more the better but make sure the ratio is ginger heavy)
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp all spice
In a medium size pan, combine the syrup, butter and sugar, bring to a gentle boil and make sure the sugar is dissolved before removing from the heat and stirring in the flour mixture, when the mixture has come together, let the dough rest in the pan for a couple of hours. You don’t need to place this in the fridge, on the bench is fine. I made my mine in the morning before work and left the pan on the bench all day. Roll out to about 8mm thick on a floured surface and cut out your shapes. Bake at 180°C for about 10 minutes or until they spring back when touched. Cool and decorate with melted chocolate or royal icing or just leave as they are.
There we have it. Recipes for all the goods I’ve taken photos of so far. I’m yet to take photos of Rum Balls or Sunshine Balls (probably because I keep eating them!)
I’m now off to start organising the house for Christmas Eve tonight and get things sorted out for Woodford after Christmas.
I’ve been wondering for a couple of weeks if you were able to get holly from the florist at this time of year in Australia, I did a bit of googling but nothing conclusive came up. Last Saturday, I rang the local florist (Northside Flower Market) and asked if they were able to obtain holly at this time of the year. The lady on the other end, politely laughed and said they have buckets of it! This of course meant a happy Helen and a couple of hours later I was in the cold room carefully examining the holly bunches for which had branches that were not too woody (i.e suitably bendy) but also had well formed holly leaves. After some time, I found two bunches that fitted my criteria.
We then had this, yes I picked up some spruce bunches as well, mmmm spruce.
It was then over to Spotlight, which surprisingly was just about empty!!! I know on a Saturday afternoon … I didn’t even have to line up at the checkouts… Crazy. I picked up some steel rings (one which was 400mm in diameter and the other was 350mm) and some floral wire.
The holly then went into a bucket of water downstairs in the cool till last night when I decided it was time to get up close and personal with the holly (read, let’s get prickly). Apart from the prickles it was dead simple to make and probably only took about 30 minutes or so, I was listening to Nightlife and spent some time just listening. The interview with Katy Gallagher (ACT Chief Minister) was most interesting.
The progress shot, uploaded to Facebook.
I arranged the branches round the ring and then went round wiring the branches on, using about three pieces of floral wire per holly branch and then used more wire to make a hanger that is is the same style as on the back of picture frame. I then wrapped a length of red bead garland round the 350mm ring and hung it behind the holly wreath so it “sort of resembles” holly berries.
The final product, hanging above the plates over the stair well. Do you see the the mini candle wreath on the Royal Doulton Rustic England quatrefoil bowl? The plates do not escape Christmas 🙂
