30 Reasons to Love Winter

While I sit in Mid-Winter here in Australia, the blogs I read keep talking about the lovely hot weather they are having in their Northern Hemisphere summers.  Sigh.  And because of my contrary nature, I yearn for what I don’t have.  Pink of Perfection’s Sarah makes me yearn.  In Aussie Summer, she writes a list of Winter wonderfulness that leaves me longing for the cooler clime, and then in the middle of our coldest season she has me desiring the steamy summer sidewalks of New York.

Thus my inspiration.  It’s important to find the joy in the moment, and the moment is coldish and puddley.

1.  Hot chocolate, hot mocha and great tea.

2.  Finding hand crocheted lap rugs in the local thrift shop.

3.  Wearing wonderful chunky knits.

4.  Layers – in clothes, cakes and pasta dishes.

5.  Seeing the snow on the Brindabella Mountains from my kitchen window.

6.  The frosty paddocks around our house that look like snow if you squint your eyes.

7.   The crazed ice surface on the water of the horses trough.

8.   Scarves: making them, wearing them, finding them in Vinnies, it’s all good.

9.   Sitting in front of the fire listening to music and drinking a scotch and soda.

10.  The smell of orange peel on the fire.

11.  Finding your favorite but forgotten gloves in the pocket of your winter coat.

12.  Slipping your Uggies on as soon as you walk in the door.

13.  Bare root fruit trees and roses.

14.  Sweaty gardening work in light drizzle.

15.  Regular rain on the tin roof.

16.  Finding my electric blanket on and waiting for me, after I’ve driven in from town late at night. Mmmmmmmm.

17.  The promise of bulbs peeking through the soil.

18.  Reading inside with the howl of the wind beyond the window.

19.  Hot bubble baths.

20.  The thick velvety winter coat on my horse.

21.  The repressing silence of heavy fog.

22.  The waft of meaty, savoury food cooking in the slow cooker.

23.  The crisp clearness of a wintery blue sky on a sunny day.

24.  Heating the house up with baking.

25.  The color grey…wearing it, watching it outside, with all its different hues and shades.

26.  Guilt free early dinners and bedtimes.

27.  Enforced indoor weather.

28.  Justifying a little extra weight.

29.  OK, I’ll admit it…Cuddling for warmth.

30.  Mulled wine and any occasion that calls for it.

Mellow on

Here’s a song that makes me happy just to hear it.  Especially when I hear it on my Ipod Shuffle while I’m cooking Chorizo and Spinach Lasagna and drinking a beer called “Little Red Hen”.  This is my perfect Saturday night, so get your mellow on with me and enjoy. 

So, what song lightens your life?  Come on, inquiring minds want to know.  Well, I do, ‘cos I’m nosy. 
You knew that, right?

 

*Edit – SH is ruining my mellow by telling me this isn’t working on his ‘puter.  It’s always something.  It works perfectly on mine but I’m going to add another one just to see.  Please let me know if it doesn’t work for you.  I hate it when I’m all loved up by a song and then I can’t play it to share.

A recipe book of one’s own

Everyone should have their own recipe book.  A resource for writing the recipes that are loved, that work; the ones that are tempting but will never be found again if you don’t write them out now; the recipes that are clipped from papers and magazines that will otherwise be thrown in the bin; the recipes that are in Aunty Gwen’s head, that she never wrote down because her memory is sharp as a tack at 82, unlike your own. 

I have a book I started at 17, which I consult still for things like Asparagus Mornay, Cob Loaf Dip, Honey Baked Chicken and that popular classic lunchbox favorite: Chocolate Weetbix Slice.  Now I am starting one each for the kids so that when they say “I particularly liked that dinner tonight, Mum, I’d love to learn how to make it myself,” (HAH!  This is merely what I’d imagine they would say if the whine factor was tuned out of their voices) then we can write it in and I have proof they do like Pea and Smoked Ham soup for the next time they try turning their noses up at it!

My mum found this recipe book at an Op Shop, and gifted it to me for my birthday. 

 It is rather wonderful, and for people like myself (and, I imagine, Gillian at Food History) a really romantic find as it is a window into a lady with beautiful copperplate writing and her life and interests.

 The recipes are all usable, with the ability to convert old fashioned weight measures. They show the economy of the times.

 Filled chock-a-block with cuttings of popular magazine and newspaper recipes, and the recipes from the backs of flour bags and the like.

  A bonus for me is that all the cuttings appear to be from Australian media…and the artwork – love that vintage artwork.  And the ads :

SPECIAL NOTICE

Don’t fail to try “Agee” Brand Garfish

packed in the latest hygenic glass containers.  It’s delicious.

Agee Meat Preserving Co., Sydney

Mmmmm love that garfish, hygenically packed in glass??

 But the best thing is the notes she has added, like: best made before lunch and heated for dinner, from Aunty Leah and From Betty at CWA morning tea and Uncle Barry loves this. I also love the recipes she hand wrote in or the ones xeroxed with the purple ink.  Remember?  It still has that funny vinegary smell too.

  My personal recipe book wouldn’t hold up to leaving my house, hence my need to recreate it three times (I am a madwoman) for the children, let alone change hands as this one appears to have done and wait in an opshop unil it came to me 30 – 40 years down the track.  But I’d be lost without it.  And I have a small tinge of sadness at wondering what happened to this woman and why her family doesn’t have this book.  Cooking and family is so intertwined for me, that I feel the need to adopt this lady as an Aunty, and so incorporate some of her recipes as ‘family ones’.  I’m thinking “Cocoanut (sp.) Flake Crisps” or maybe “Wine Finger Biscuits” hmmmm intriguing.  But here’s a beaut that uses standard pantry staples and the fibre that we all grow to need if not love: “Apricot Betty”.

Apricot Betty

Ingrediants:

2 cups dried apricots
1 lemon
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried cinnamon powder
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup all-bran
1 1/2 cups white breadcrumbs

Method:

Wash and soak apricots in cold water overnight.  Drain and stew fruit in 3/4 cup of the liquid for five minutes, then drain.  Mix breadcrumbs with melted butter, place a layer in buttered piedish, and add a layer of drained apricots.  Sprinkle wih sugar and spices and a litle grated lemon rind, repeating layers to fill the dish.  Add strained lemon juice and syrup from apricots, cover with bran, dot with butter, and bake in moderately hot oven for about 30 minutes.  Serve hot or cold with custard or cream.

Tell me if you try it, so we can compare notes, otherwise how will we know if it worked or not?