Under The Pear Tree

I've got plenty of crafty things to post, but there are more important things afoot. We knew when we first rented our little 1950s museum house that it would eventually be knocked down to make way for 34 soul-less townhouses and apartments. The time has come.

Before we move I want to write more about the garden and how important it is to me but for now I am going to write about afternoon tea under the pear tree.

About this time is the perfect time of year for doing pretty much anything (other than sun baking) under the pear tree. It's about 50 years old and enormous. So, when it finally bursts into bloom, after a cold winter, it provides the most glorious shade, perfect for sitting under. It's our favourite spot to go to when we're hanging out in the garden reading, eating, knitting, just sitting, drinking beer, whatever.

So, I invited some of my lovely friends who share my appreciation for my beautiful pear tree and treated them to afternoon tea. A last little hoorah for 'my' beautiful pear tree.

Homemade Neenish Tarts ( a Sadie specialty), Blueberry Honey Cakes, Bourke Street Bakery Pork and Fennel Sausage Rolls (complete with homemade puff pastry - bit excited by that) and (accidentally) Burnt Caramel Custard Puddings. And my lovely friends added scones and mini quiches to the mix.

After a couple of weeks of glorious spring weather, we were defeated by windchill and raindrops so we abandoned the pear tree and retreated inside to my very messy, cramped dining room.

We set up a sheltered workshop, hand sewing for G's kids' school fete. G is the Yoda of school fete crafting. We chatted. We ate the (accidentally) Burnt Caramel Custards. Accidental because I didn't mean to burn the caramel. Lucky I did though. 

All in all a very fitting last hoorah to a beautiful old tree, even if we only sat under it for fifteen minutes.

Meringues, but not as you know it

Thanks for all the birthday wishes for the resident three year old Smurf. He has already requested another birthday. I told him he could have one next year.

One of the hits of the make your own lolly bags was the meringue rings. Inspired by what I now know to be a piece of jewellery (I have no idea where I originally saw it, but I bookmarked the photo and now I've googled the image and realised it was jewellery!)



So, armed with the piping bag I piped out a bunch. It's quite simple really. Pipe the circle for the ring - thinking about the size of the intended finger - and then pipe a star on the edge of the circle. Gently sprinkle sprinkles on the star. Bake as per normal meringues.

The kids went straight for them after the pink cake candles were blown out. They fit perfectly on little fingers and were nibbled straight off.



I had loads of meringue - even after a batch of actual meringues and meringue rings so I started to have a play around. I switched to my thinnest piping nozzle and started to pipe the kids names. I got happy with the sprinkles and baked them alongside the rest of the sugary eggwhite.



They turned out fab. But in my haste to admire them I cracked each and every one of them as I lifted them off the tray. So, if you try these, here are some tips:

- Err on the side of thicker when piping
- Look out for skinny parts of letters (see beginning of the 'm' in Sam below)
- Make sure you leave them to completely cool on the tray
- Use a flat spatula to very carefully slide them off the tray.



Also, only invite kids with short names to your party - less risk of breakage with less letters.

The Little Merchandise Obsessed Cowboy

The Smurf is three! Yep, I can hardly believe it myself. This year he was quite opinionated on how his party should go. Pink cake (which at times morphed into a rocket cake - which I now know can be not necessarily what it should be), everyone dressed as cowboys and all cousins invited.

So I kept to my brief and attempted a bit of cowboy related stuff....sort of.

But what the Smurf really meant was he just wanted to be Woody. But what that really meant at a 3 year old birthday party is, well, come as you are. Or as you want. Or as you decide after you've eaten lunch and you don't want to wear what you're wearing anymore. Whatever.



Apparently one of our friends used to do facepainting. I never knew. Yes of course I'd love you to bring your facepaints. The kids chose their own thing to be painted and here's my confused Cowboy/Puppy Smurf. Bless.



Who cares about themes anyway? Although, my nephew was spot on and my favourite - chose the moustache himself.



Canberra turned on the most amazing day, sunshine, blue skies and warm weather. The garden even popped up a bunch of new flowers for us to admire and the fruit trees started to blossom.

We sprawled all over the backyard on picnic blankets and lazed the day away eating homemade dolmades, sushi, mini pies, mini sausage rolls, soft tacos with pulled pork or greek chicken and corn salsa. The kids ran around making their own fun - apart from a ridiculous effort at Pass the Parcel.

Then it was time for the pink cake.



And meringues, neenish tarts, meringue rings, pink cupcakes, choc chip biscuits and DIY lolly bags!







Before we all headed back out to the backyard for more lazing about, ready for the big "Cowboy Shoot Out" organised by the 5 year old moustached nephew - in collaboration with Gang Gang (Grandad). The rules were even taped to our back door and all cowboys were required to sign that they had read the rules. These kids are the best!


"Rules of Cowboy Shoot Out. Held at Murphy's Party at 2.30pm. You will NOT punch, kick, bite. Signed ...."

So Happy Birthday my beautiful, crazy, always amazing 3 year old Smurf. Daddy and I love you more than words can say.

PS I'm devastated that I decided to get your haircut, although I'm happy I thought to ask you how you wanted it cut - even if you did decide on short!

Book Pimp

I'm a book pimp. Seriously. Mostly it's this book. I know I've told you about it before, but I can't help myself. I'm gaining quite a reputation among my friends. I make bread for them when they come over for dinner. Then I blab on and on about it's virtues and thrust the book into their hands as they leave, to take home and try out for themselves.

But they all love it.

So, yeah, book pimp -but the good kind OK.

Good times with Sadie

Sadie's been visiting, and when Grandma visits there's usually some kind of special little something pressed into my hand with a glint in her eye and an "I know you'll appreciate this, no one else is interested in a 60 year old knitting needle/old spoon/old book of crochet patterns (insert crafty thing here)".

And she's right, I am always in awe of that little piece of Grandma she shares with me. I treasure my spoon and every other little amazing treasure she has pressed into my hand over the years.

The treasure this time was different. It came in a bag! There was no sweet pressing into my hand, (actually there was one very, very special thing, but I'll tell you about that another time) no this time the bag was ceremoniously tipped on to the bench to reveal all manner of baking related GOODNESS!

Beautiful, faded old bottles of food colouring (maybe 40 years old or so) with amazing labels, artificial flavourings in incredible little bottles that look like old medicine bottles, an entire collection of piping nozzles of every shape and size, boxes of vintage birthday cake candles in the orignal boxes, un-opened - photos all to come.

But the piece de resistance, words-cannot-describe-how-amazing, was the handcarved, hand decorated "Old Time Train Set Candle Holder" - in ORGINAL box, thank you very much (see above photo).





Of course no visit from Sadie is complete without me pestering her for some tutorials on her secret recipes she's famed for in our family. This time round we did Chocolate Eclairs (I'm no longer a choux pastry virgin) and gem scones.



And I love that the Smurf is just as excited about the baking tutorials as I am.

Toddler Distracting 101 - Freckles

Here, my friends, lies the secret to distracting a toddler - homemade Freckles. It's a winner two times over - the making and the eating. But you've all done this one before, haven't you.

Step 1:


Melt some chocolate. There's no science to this, if you melt more chocolate you get more freckles. Feel free to use some expensive couverture chocolate if your toddler appreciates the finer things in life.

Step 2:


Spoon the melted chocolate on a tray lined with baking paper. If you're brave, let the toddler do it. If you're a little more on the anal side, let the toddler watch and then start on the next step while you keep dolloping chocolate on the tray.

Step 3:


Toddler's turn. Let them loose with a spoon and a little bowl of sprinkles. They can sprinkle until their heart's content.

Leave them on the tray to set - or put them in the fridge if the toddler you're impatient.

Step 4:


Eat and enjoy the peace, or use for bribes as required, whatever you need to get you through the day.

When there are egg whites

Make meringues! My freezer is full of egg whites at the moment, courtesy of the fun we're having with the new icecream maker I got for Christmas. My standby (and the laziest) recipe calls for 4 eggs yolks (and 1/3 cup sugar, vanilla, 200mls cream, 200mls milk) , so I carefully separate the eggs and put the whites away in the freezer - in pairs.

We did a little casual BBQ-ing today which was the perfect occasion to reduce the egg white supply. It was also a perfect occasion to test out my piping skills, which I'm quite pleased with.

It was also the perfect occasion to give the three tiered vintage cake stand a whirl.

And because it had three tiers and I had two types of meringue (fairy and plain) a tier of white chocolate, almond blondies was required. Shame about that. Good gawd those things are awfully delicious.



The stand was hiding away, flat, in my Mum's cupboard because it was missing the piece that screws the bottom layer into the stand and holds the thing together. She'd had it for years and apparently it was my Uncles' Mums', but she didn't want it anymore. I just visited the hardware shop where the helpful man opened about 15 little packets of screws before finding one that fit.

And now we can have 3 tiers of cake. And a tupperware container full of left over meringues and blondies. Lucky us.

Happy New Year

I've enjoyed my blogging break. Have been keen to come back here but there was so much fun, food and festiveness over the break that I wasn't sure where to start. Instead, I'm sharing some highlights in mosaic form.

1. Chow Down, One piece of meat at a time.
2. Hey You, The New Police
3. Pudding Time, Sadie's recipe this year, Yummo. Success and made with Grandma's pudding cloth this year.
4. Smurfs!, for the Smurf
5. Beach, it's where the sun, surf and sand are
6. A pub with a view, Best view from a pub on the East Coast. Apart from that bin. And it's like stepping back in time. Shame it's falling apart and destined for "development".
7. Sydney Sky January 8 2010, Hello sky from our backyard.
8. Keyboard Playing Cowboy, The title speaks for itself. The Smurf requested a Cowboy Hat, a Cowboy Shirt and a pink car from Santa. Santa's workshop struggled with the pink car, but eventually managed to make all toys according to order.
9. New Bikes,
10. New Bike,
11. For Santa, Salt and Vinegar Chips, Beer and a carrot (teeny homegrown) and water for Rudolph. Just like it was when I was a girl.
12. Gingerbread House - First ever, So happy with this, despite the wonk. I've been wanting to make one of these for years but always worried about the humid weather. Don't know why I waited so long!
13. Gingerbread House - First ever,
14. Gingerbread House - it's where the biccie boys live,
15. Wrapped, We downloaded wraps and gift tags this year. It was the best. Thank you Auntie Cookie and freebie gift tags (can't remember your link).
16. Summer Salad 3 ways Before, After being vego for almost a decade there are always multiple salads on our table at a BBQ.
17. Summer Salad 3 ways After,
18. Time to Celebrate, A special celebration for a special friend with a craft day spent under the frangipani tree sipping champagne.
19. So funny Time to down needles and cut the cake birthday girl.
20. The Toy Society my Toy Society Christmas Drop; 10 toys on a tree!
21. The Toy Society
22. The Toy Society - someone finding!
23. The Toy Society - Back 2 hours later and they were all gone.
24. The Toy Society - a finder with her new toy on a trip to the zoo.
25. A Picnic Quilt Built for Two.

And on resolutions, like most I don't do them - as such - but you know, be more .... fill in your blank here.

Hots and Not

I'm playing Loobylu's game again.

What's Hot?

Christmas is hot! This year is the first year The Smurf really gets Christmas and we've been having great fun around here teaching him all about Christmas.


Christmas Tree Ice cream Sandwiches for dessert and my first go at royal icing! Success.



Wonky homemade Christmas Advent




The Smurf getting up every morning to check the advent calendar. Every morning he squeals with delight "Christmas time Christmas time!" "I have a lolly?". Then he gets his advent card out for the day and when asked what it says, he tells us "Christmas Card".


First ever homemade mince tarts. First time ever baking, first time ever eating. I leaned on some locals for their input. Approved, apparently!


Christmas Parties in the backyard (and see first photo, which was some time after the photo above!). Good friends, good food, fun times. The most amazing Christmas Ham, 3 kinds of salad, mango salsa (which I forgot to put on the table!), prawns wrapped with pesto and proscuitto. Double chocolate tart and icecream for dessert with fruit mince tart chasers! And a jar of homemade chilli tomato jam for everyone to take home.


Decorating the Christmas Tree.


Enjoying the aroma of the fresh Christmas Tree and lights and decorations.

Backyard cricket in your undies (The Smurf) with the main blokes in your life.


That's all, no nots this week.