Funny Fruit

July 26, 2017 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

Some days you just have to be silly.

Half way through cooking yesterday’s dinner, I felt it was incomplete. It need a little something extra. Something light and fresh. By the time I thought this, it was already dark outside. I didn’t feel like picking a salad in the dark, so I thought I might make a fruit salad.

But neither the bananas, nor the pears in the fruit bowl were ripe yet, and that left just apples and mandarines. Pretty boring fruit salad.

How could I make plain old apples exciting?

Turn them into swans, of course!

I found instructions for these fun little fruit birds on the Curious Little Kid blog. Hers are much prettier than mine, but mine got a laugh at the table all the same. They turned boring apples into an exciting side dish.

Spring is Coming

July 25, 2017 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

Last weekend we were hit by a major winter storm. The weekend before, another storm dropped snow almost to sea level. A third storm is forecast to blow in over the next couple of days.

But John Snow needs to change his tune.

Spring is coming.

No question about it.

I’ve felt it.

The plants have felt it.

The birds have felt it.

Spring is coming.

Get ready.

Spring is coming.

Homemade Oreo Cookies

July 24, 2017 / Robinne Weiss / 1 Comment

I’ve had a hankering for my ice cream sandwich cookies for weeks, but it’s midwinter—who wants to eat ice cream sandwiches?

But yesterday I had an idea. What if I turned those same cookies into homemade Oreos?

Oh. Yes.

I took my ice cream sandwich cookie dough and, rolled it out a bit thinner than I do for ice cream sandwiches. Instead of cutting it into rectangles, I cut circles with a cookie cutter. I baked them for 8 minutes at 190ºC (375ºF), and then let them cool completely on a rack.

When cool, I stuck them together with the following icing:

60 g (1/4 cup) softened butter
60 g (1/4 cup) Olivani at room temperature (shortening will work, for those in the US)
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups icing (confectioners) sugar

Beat butter and Olivani until smooth and light. Add vanilla and beat thoroughly. Sift confectioners sugar over the butter mixture and beat until smooth.

The icing was too soft at first and tended to squeeze out of the cookie when we bit into them, but it hardened overnight into the perfect Oreo filling consistency. I found this quantity of icing perfect for the number of cookies, but if you like double-stuff Oreos, make twice as much filling.

It has been decades since I last ate a real Oreo cookie, so I can’t say whether they are exactly like Oreos or not. But they are FANTASTIC!

Cinnamon Biscuits

July 23, 2017 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

The line between biscuits (in the American sense of the word) and scones is a blurry one—add an egg and little sugar to a biscuit and, hey presto, you’ve got a scone! Take away the egg from a scone and, voila, you’ve got biscuits!

This morning, wanting scones but facing an egg shortage, I found myself improvising. The biscuit variation I came up with was absolutely marvellous, particularly when eaten with a dollop of honey.

This is a giant Sunday morning quantity of biscuits—enough for breakfast for four, plus extra snacking through the day. Easily halved, if you’re not feeling like Sunday decadence.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 Tbsp brown sugar
125g (8 Tbsp) cold butter
1 1/2 cups milk

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Stir in milk. Briefly knead dough, just until smooth. Roll to 1.5 – 2 cm (1/2 – 3/4 inch) thickness and cut into squares, rounds, or whatever biscuity shape you like. Bake on an ungreased sheet at 210ºC (425ºF) for about 15 minutes, until browned.

They’re here! They’re here!

July 21, 2017 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

Never mind it’s been raining heavily since 2 am, and the garden is half underwater. The seeds have arrived! I can sort and file them, plan where they’ll go in the garden, and dream of sun-warmed tomatoes as enjoy a cup of tea by the fire this evening.

Stories of a Rock

July 19, 2017 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

You sit in my hand and tell me stories.

I am not as I appear

Stories of ice and fire.

My colours fade here, away from my home

Stories from deep within the earth.

Only anoint me in the sea and you will see my true self

Stories of heat and pressure,

Once smooth, featureless, grey

Of torturous change,

Violence tore at my very structure, squeezed me until I wept

Of slow cooling,

My tears still glisten, and trace my scars with brilliance

A condensation of minerals,

I glow with the translucence of accumulated stress

The story of your journey from crucible to mountaintop.

The angles of my fractured existence plain upon my face

The story of your tumbling fall to the sea.

My pain worn smooth from repetition

Tell me your story.

Let me rest now

Your whole story.

Soothed by abrasion

So like mine.

Slowly giving up my identity to the sea

Nostalgic Baking

July 17, 2017 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

I made Irish soda bread to go with dinner today. As I mixed up the dough, I remembered making soda bread back when the kids were preschoolers. The recipe I have is easily quartered, so I would make a full batch, and each of the kids would make their own quarter-sized loaf. It didn’t even require any calculations—I simply gave them a smaller measuring cup (1/4-cup and 1/4 tsp to my one-cup and 1 tsp measures) and they could follow the recipe just like I did.

They loved baking their very own loaf, and then seeing it next to their plate at the dinner table.

Of course, these days, the teenagers are less keen on baking the bread and more keen on eating it, but I reckon one day they might make their own Irish soda bread again and remember making mini-loaves with Mum.

The recipe I use comes from Beard on Bread, by James Beard. I don’t know if this wonderful little cookbook is still in print, but I encourage you to find a copy—if you’ve never made bread before, Beard will walk you through it. If you’re a seasoned baker, Beard’s comprehensive selection of recipes will give you plenty to riff off as you experiment.

3 cup wholemeal flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
2 cups buttermilk

Combine dry ingredients. Mix in enough buttermilk to make a soft dough. Knead on a lightly floured board for 2-3 minutes. Form a round loaf and place on a buttered baking sheet. Cut a cross in the top with a sharp knife. Bake at 190ºC (375ºF) for 40-45 minutes.

Trying New Things

July 15, 2017July 14, 2017 / Robinne Weiss / 1 Comment

I regularly check out cookbooks from the local library. I enjoy trying new recipes and getting inspiration for new dishes.

I’ve gotten some fabulous recipes from library books.

I’ve also gotten some duds.

In winter, I gravitate toward the baking books, so when I saw the book, 500 Cupcakes on the library shelf, I checked it out without even opening it.

The first recipe I scribbled down and tried was mint chocolate cupcakes. Everyone in the family loves chocolate bars with mint, so why not a cupcake?

I had my first misgivings as I was mixing up the batter. The recipe called for only 1/4 cup of cocoa. Surely a chocolate cupcake should have more cocoa, I thought.

But I don’t bake with mint often, and I decided to trust the recipe on quantities—I would hate to get the balance off and not be able to taste the mint over the chocolate.

Unfortunately, I should have gone with my gut feeling on the chocolate. The resulting cupcakes are simply not chocolaty enough to stand up to the strong mint flavour. They’re not awful, but after the whole family weighed in on them, I wrote “meh” on the recipe.

Oh, we’ll eat them all. They’re not that bad. But I won’t be making them again, at least not by the recipe.

Still, it wasn’t a wasted exercise. Every time I try a new recipe, I learn. That’s worth eating some lacklustre cupcakes now and again.

Pear Crisp

July 14, 2017July 14, 2017 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

We’ve run out of our own frozen and bottled fruit from summer, so when I found a tin of pears in the cupboard yesterday I immediately decided we needed dessert.

Commercial tinned pears can be overly sweet, so I ‘pimped’ my usual crisp recipe to enhance them. The result was truly spectacular.

First, I tossed the pears into a shallow baking dish and squeezed an entire lemon over the top of them.

Then I made the topping. I mixed:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour

scant 1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp each cloves and nutmeg

Into this mixture I cut 1/4 cup of cold butter

Then I mixed in 1/2 cup of finely chopped walnuts.

I spread the topping over the fruit and baked it for 30 minutes at 190ºC (375ºF).

I served it warm with a dollop of unsweetened yogurt and a dollop of lemon curd (which ended up looking like a fried egg…).

The sour lemon and yogurt and the bitter walnuts beautifully balanced the sweet pears.

Tinned pears never tasted so good!