Nan’s Mayo

My Nan never flew on a plane.  She didn’t drive, ever use a computer or live to see mobile phones.  And I don’t think she ever ate real mayonnaise.  And she had no time for any of that nonsense.  She was like that, and I loved her for it.  To that end, I don’t think I ever had real mayonnaise, not out of a jar, until I was in my 20′s.  And my impression of real egg mayonnaise?  Meh.

Don’t hate me, I’m just being honest.

The thing is my experience of mayonnaise was my Nan’s mayonnaise.  This was the stuff that taught us to enjoy salad vegetables and iceburg lettuce, and prawns…not necessarily together, like a 70′s style prawn cocktail…just a big lettuce leaf folded around a dollop of this mayonnaise, or likewise a spoonful of mayo on your plate to swish the peeled prawns through.  Mmmmmmmm.  This mayo was so good, it inspired the first piece of work I ever had published that wasn’t in a school magazine.

This mayo is pure nostalgia, too easy and made straight from the pantry cupboard.  Yes, it probably is a Depression-Era recipe, sure to have been originally written on the inside of the condensed milk label, and Nan would have been the type to peel it off and slip it into her own handwritten recipe book that was ubiquitous with all housewives back then.  No, it is not real mayonnaise, not even close.  But I love it, like I love tinned Asparagus Mornay.  I love it like I love cupboard cheese.  I love it like I love fake Lemon Meringue Pie.  I just love it.

Nan’s Mayo

Ingredients:

1 can sweetened condensed milk.

1/2 to 1 cup vinegar (to taste)

1 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp sugar

salt and pepper to taste.

Mix together and taste until it pleases.  Cover and chill before using so flavours meld.  Stir before using to blend.  Will keep, covered in the fridge, for quite a while.

Disclaimer:  Stepford Husband hates this (shocker!) and indeed anything else that contains vinegar as an ingrediant.  He probably decided he didn’t like it when he walked into the kitchen and saw the vinegar bottle out on the bench.  But just to safe, start cautiously adding the vinegar a bit at a time until you get the blend you like.  This is a thoroughly flexible recipe though, as long as you start with minimum amounts initially.  If, however,  you’re the type of person who likes your fish ‘n’ chips doused in vinegar, you should have no problems whatsoever.  Plus it would be perfect for 70′s style Prawn Cocktail!

This post is linking with the lovely Beach Cottage.

My Favorite Things: San Francisco

You know it’s time to re-remember your exciting trip overseas when you bump into friends who had no idea you went.  My sister and I travelled to the United States of America in late April of this year.  It affected me profoundly.

Mostly because it was the first time I had ever spent so much time without my kids since I first got to know them.  All I had to think about was what I wanted to eat and when I wanted to eat it.  I still had to find public bathrooms at unexpected and random times but, hey, they were for MY needs not anyone elses dammit!

So, in no particular order, my favorite things I experienced whilst visiting San Francisco were:

1.  Airport security calling me ‘Miss’ and showing interest in me after an eleven hour flight, with a very precious 18 month old seated next to me.  Of course.

2.  Riding on the outside of the Mason/Powell Cable Car – even from between the knees of a German tourist who had mostly a view of my crotch until the Fisherman’s Wharf.

3.  Clam Chowder in a Bread Bowl mmmmmm.

4.  Real Margaritas.  Real BIG Margaritas.

5.  My sister enjoying said Chowder & Margaritas.

Isn’t she cute?  She should know better than to let me take photos of her.  That’s one of the reasons I love her.

6. Bristol Farms – how good is that place?  I love supermarket shopping in foreign countries.

7.  Fillmore: We found a secondhand clothes shop “Crossroads” and I was in heaven.  I love op-shopping in foreign countries.  Also, tiny hole-in-the-wall Sushi shop ‘Maruya Sushi’ where we were nourished with amazing spicy tuna rolls while we giggled at our incredible good fortune.  Then ‘Browser Books’ where I purchased M.F.K. Fisher’s ‘A Stew or a Story’ and where I secretly hid a copy of my own book ‘Chooks in the City’, so that I know I left my book in San Francisco.  It’s kind of like my heart.  Don’t judge me, I know I’m crazy.

8.  The Benefit Brow Bar in Macy’s: every girl traveller needs nice brows.  It’s true.

9.  Smoked Salmon, onion, salad and cream cheese on Rye at the Jewish Contemporary Museum.  Oh, you didn’t realise that this trip was all about food?  Really?  This sandwich was good, enjoyed in the sun outside the Museum and only one stop in a food laden day.

10.  Sitting on top of a ‘Hop on/Hop off’ double decker bus on a very chilly day to see the Golden Gate Bridge with a tourguide who looked like Keanu Reeves from his Parenthood days.  Seriously.

 Nanna Em loves the Golden Gate Bridge.

 I can’t feel my nose.

11.  Defrosting with a couple o’ scotches at Dirty Martini, Fisherman’s Wharf.  Mmmmm.

12.  BBQ Beef Sandwiches at Lefty O’Douls…this is SO not what Australian BBQ is like, I loved every chin-wiping, lip smacking, finger-sucking bit of it.  Seriously, this may have been the first time we two sisters were silent at the same time, and awake!

13. The DeYoung Museum would surely have been on this list, had I known it was only closed on Mondays – our last day in San Francisco and the day we chose to visit it.  Instead…

14. The Haight!  Op shops, Taquerias (Hola Taqueria El Balazo!), Mendel’s Far Out Fabrics, very friendly, interesting people…what’s not to love?

I left the Haight-Ashbury area with a full tummy, 6 metres of fabric, 3 pieces of oilcloth and a very big smile on my face!

15.  The Mission: where I was offered a special kiss by a lovely man who was half my height and twice my age in such a courteous way it made me smile, where there are MORE op shops, and where we found a wonderful small publishing shop: Little Otsu Publishing who had the cutest bookmarks, notecards, diaries, index cards that I wanted to put the whole shop into my pocket and take it  home!  BTW, I did NOT take the man up on his offer.

16.  Philly Cheesesteak.  I don’t know…is it supposed to be a Philadelphia thing?  I wasn’t going there in body, but I thought perhaps I could go there in spirit by eating a Philly Cheesesteak Sub from Subway.  I think maybe I did.  It was good because it was bad. You know?

17.  Remnant shopping at Britex.  Oh Britex, you sure know how to woo a girl.

18.  Hanging at Union Square Park, with ‘Cola’s'…phew I sure didn’t know what I was doing trying to order two Cokes.  The girl gave me such a look.

19.  Martin Luther King Jnr Memorial.  A beautiful day, a beautiful park and actual serenity.

 

“No. No, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream’  Martin Luther King, Jr.  Washington D.C. 1953

20.  Travelling around San Francisco with my sister.

 So classy.

Thanks San Francisco; it was an absolute pleasure visiting.

Therapeutic Sweet Potato Pie

OK.  I’ve gotten to that place where you remember that no matter what’s going on in your world, time and life still tick on.  Sometimes, all the things you don’t want to deal with come tapping on your forehead at the same time, whether you like it or not.  And when that happens, you can cry, you can wear the same favorite jumper for 5 days in a row and you can become a hermit – but you can also make something sweet to eat.  Especially something easy and cheap and comforting and smooth and eggy and pretty to look at.  This is so much simpler to make than you might think, especially if you have a pie case from the shops.  It’s really all about therapeutic pricking and mashing and then soothing stirring.  Perfect. Although I have cinnamon and nutmeg in the ingrediants, I usually use a little more of one or the other instead of both.  Next time I’m going to delete the cinnamon and nutmeg and try powdered ginger instead.  I have a ginger thing at the moment.  I should apologise now that the need to bake preceded my thought to photograph exacly how pretty and mood altering a Sweet Potato Pie can be.  Regardless, enjoy.

Sweet Potato Pie

1 unbaked pie shell (9 inches)  or your favorite shortcrust recipe
2 medium sweet potatoes
60 grams butter (1/4 cup)
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon rum (optional)

Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees (moderate oven). 
Prick sweet potatoes with a fork and roast them on an oven tray until tender, about 1 1/4 hours.  Leave to cool. 
Turn oven up to 200 degrees (hot oven, 400 F) and place a shallow baking tray on the bottom rack to preheat.
Scoop the flesh from the sweet potatoes into a bowl and throw away the skins.
Mash the flesh with a fork until smooth.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the sugar.
Add the butter mixture to the sweet potatoes with the milk and beat.
Add eggs and beat well until smooth.
Whisk in remaining ingrediants until you have a smooth liquidy mixture.
Pour filling into pie case.
Carefully place on heated oven tray and bake for 40 minutes or until filling is just set. 
Place on pie rack to cool.

Serves 8

Try it and tell if you like it.