Hilda Beatrice (Templeton) Crouch; born 29th December 1915

December 29th would have been Nan's 94th birthday, so here is my top 10 list of memories of Hilda Crouch:

• Nan always made cakes slices for all her visitors on Saturday mornings. The usuals were jam drops (which I sometimes make, according to her recipe) and coconut jam slice.
• Nan would always wear, what she called a 'housedress' when she was at home... if I remember correctly, the brand was always 'Osti'!
• Nan would stand by the kitchen window reading the paper in the mornings, leaning on the bench, rather than sitting down.
• Nan loved to exchange riddles with me, via letters when I was little. 
• Nan used to draw very funny cats and dogs that seemed to be sausage shaped.
• Nan would tell me in every letter, how her cat, Muffy 'followed her around like a dog'.
• Nan liked to win most of her groceries at the club :-)
• Nan was forever telling us the story of how all she got for Christmas one year was... a pair of black socks.
• Nan loved crocheting, knitting and making everyone those knitted lacey coathangers.
• Nan always hugged like she was never going to see you again - so tight!

Wilhelmina Frederika Maria Freke Gressie

Wilhelmina Frederika Maria Freke Gressie

30th April 1912 - 26th October 2009

I think Oma is peeling potatoes in this picture which seems a bit funny, but it is a nice photo anyway. It made me think of how Mum thought it was funny that Oma used to start cooking dinner in the morning (I am sure that was the story anyway). 

 I would only have met Oma a few times. She came out to Australia when I was a baby, and I have been to Holland twice; once when I was 6 and another time when I would have been 13, so I kind of feel like I knew her more from the stories that Dad has told. As I do not speak Dutch, we had never really talked to each other, however I did used to write her occasional letters that Dad would translate for me. She always sent me a birthday card every year as well. I used to look forward to receiving 25 guilders in the mail!  

Oma had not been well now for a while. Mum and Dad saw her again earlier this year on a trip to Holland and now they are back there again for the second time this year, again for a sad reason. Her funeral is today.

Oma and Dad with me when Oma came to Australia

Persistence Pays!

It was an exciting time on Tuesday night when we finally got a phone call from someone who had had Milly for almost two weeks in her back yard! Almost two weeks before, Rex and Milly had dug a hole under the fence while I was at work, in the second week of the school holidays. Dale went out looking for them as soon as he realised, but there was no sign. Little did we know, later that night, that Rex was just three doors up from us at a neighbour's house. He had followed a boy home from school and now had the temporary name of "Pumpkin"! The next morning before work, I put fliers under people's door mats which lead to his return that same day.

Meanwhile, over the next two weeks, I did the following things to find Milly:

1. Dropped fliers into every house in our street
2. Put posters up at 5 different shopping centres
3. Secured mentions in 4 different school newsletters
4. Got a story published on Riot ACT
5. Placed an advert on All Classifieds
6. Placed adverts in the Canberra Times
7. Placed adverts in the Chronicle
8. Stuck posters all over trees, underpasses, school notice boards, bus shelters, sportsfields and fences
9. Spread the word via Facebook and email
10. Published a webpage and wrote the address all over local footpaths in chalk
11. Got Dale and Jenna to put 150 fliers under car windshields at the local sportsfield on Saturday morning
12. Printed A3 posters, stuck them on the side of a cardboard box which was placed at the main intersection in Theodore.

Number 12 finally caught someone's eye... Milly had been in her backyard for almost 2 weeks and this girl had grown quite attached... in fact we were told later that she cried after Milly left (well she is a special dog!) My point is, that persistence pays off and that you can't give up if you really want something to happen... visualise and don't stop!

The Most Dangerous Food is Wedding Cake, James Thurber 1894 - 1961

Well I don't know exactly what he meant by that, but a wedding cake surely is a cake that celebrates one of the most momentous moments of your life... dangerous? Maybe for some, but for Sarah and Brad the quote should perhaps have said, joyous. I was very happy to make their wedding cake, even though I was so exhausted from last week's effort. Many don't realise the hours of work that go into shopping for ingredients, chopping up all the chocolate and butter, lining of tins, the hours of baking, rolling out of fondant icing, covering of cakes, mixing icing, cutting out, moulding and painting the decorations and applying them to the cake... all by hand! Sarah and Brad's appreciation was so lovely.

 

cutting out all of the heart shapes for the sides and wired spray

Here are the cakes with the ribbons and cords applied and the painted hearts put on

Mini Sarah and Brad

The cake set up at the restaurant

And finally... the bride and groom cut the cake! :-)


Check out the link below to see more of my cakes:


Belinda's Cakes

Afternoon Grazing

Nibblies are fun to make and even better to eat.  I planned some lovely grazing and celebrating of the start of the school holidays this afternoon so I thought it would be a good idea to make a nice bit of afternoon tea! To start with, I made some thai chicken balls (Mum gave me the recipe *ages* ago and I had never made them... so good) and some couscous cakes, spiced with cumin and coriander, which turned out pretty nicely as well.

To finish off, we had some rum balls (actually whisky balls) made with some of the off cuts of last week's wedding cake.

Now it's back into the kitchen to get back onto Sarah's wedding cake!

herbaceous |(h)ərˈbā sh əs| adjective of, denoting, or relating to herbs (in the botanical sense). ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Latin herbaceus ‘grassy

purple sage

These are the herbs that I bought at Hall markets today... and can you believe it - I have actually planted them and watered them already, just to prove that buying them was more than good intention. I love growing my own herbs, it is just that sometimes I am not that good at it. I have had moments of unexpected success though. I once grew enough basil to make two huge batches of pesto (which was so good btw).

Apple Mint

We recently moved house and I discovered a huge amount of lemon thyme growing outside near the tap. I think Rex may have spent some time sleeping on it, but it seems to be really quite healthy. Funny story, I asked Dale to go and get some of it the other night and he was about to chop some Diosma from the garden, pink flowers and all. Anyway, the point is that the little patch of lemon thyme inspired me to have a go at growing herbs again :-)

pineapple sage

Lastly, here's a great, easy recipe for basil pesto:


Ingredients - 90g basil leaves, 4 cloves of garlic, 50g pine nuts, 100g parmesan, 185ml olive oil.


Put the basil leaves, garlic and pine nuts into the food processor and process until finely ground. Add the parmesan and mix together. With the food processor running, add the olive oil in a slow steady stream. You can keep this in a jar for some weeks... it keeps even better when you put a layer of olive oil over the top. Delicious with pasta, on sandwiches and with chicken etc.

Cake, cake, cake and more cake

What a week this has been... I don't know why I agreed to make 5 cakes for a wedding in the last week of term, but it seems that I did. If it wasn't for my co-chef (Mum) then I don't think I would have managed, because mud cakes cannot be cooked as much in advance as fruit cakes, so the race was on, starting Tuesday.

Check out the ingredients list in total...

Chocolate - 4.8kg (that's 23 x 200g blocks!)

Butter - 2.56kg

Brown Sugar - 9 cups

Water - 9 cups

Kahlua - 3 cups

Eggs - 20

Flour - 7 cups

Some of the chocolate supplies...

Creating the hearts using flood work and touching up the silver edges...

The finished 3 tier wedding cake...

and with the two matching birthday cakes...

So now that this one has been delivered, next up is a three tier cake with a handmade bride and groom for my friend and workmate Sarah who is marrying Brad next Saturday... thank god I am on school holidays now!

SAX AND OTHER BIZARRE 80S SOLOS

On one of our many trips between Canberra and Sydney we noticed how many bizarre instruments and sax solos there were in my 80s playlist... after you hear a few in a row they begin to sound absolutely ridiculous... maybe they are.

Feel free to create this playlist on your own ipod. Guaranteed enjoyment if you like the classic 80’s sax solo embedded into a little bit of new romantic type pop...

Careless Whisper - George Michael

Rio - Duran Duran

Maneater - Hall & Oates

Abracadabra - Hall & Oates

It Must Be Love - Madness

Gold - Spandau Ballet

True - Spandau Ballet

The Edge of Heaven - Wham!

Wouldn’t it be Good - Nik Kershaw

SHE'S MY BABY

Baby has been around for nearly half my life! She’s a tough old puddy and she’s still cute. I got Baby as a kitten in 1994 and I am pretty grateful that she is still around these days - she’s had a few close shaves! The picture above shows her as she is right this minute while I’m writing. I’m guessing that it was about 1997 when Baby once went missing for 5 weeks. I had spent many hours roaming the street on a bicycle calling out, “Baby... Baby!” and realised fairly soon that I hadn’t picked the best name for being out on the streets calling out! After a few weeks I came home one day and found a message on my answering machine and someone had left me a message. This person had seen my signs around the shops and so on, looking for her and had thought to themselves that perhaps I might like a new cat! I can tell you that I didn’t. I even wondered at times if that person realised how upsetting her message was. After a month I had pretty much given up hope of her being found and it was pretty bizarre to get a phone call from my parents who were feeding Jessie, my other cat (I was away) asking me, “Guess who’s at your place?” She was boney and skinny and not too healthy, but has been around for another 12 years since that.

In more recent times, Baby has gone radioactive, when she had her thyroid gland zapped, has moved house with me at least 10 times (including moving interstate to the ACT) and has accepted a little black kitten who is pretty nutty (Daisy) as a sort of friend, after much hissing and swiping. All in all she’s a champ!

DAVID TURNS 32 TODAY!

I don’t know if David will particularly like this picture, but I don’t have a huge selection handy to choose from! Today is David’s birthday and he is turning 32, so the theme of today’s entry is 1977!

In 1977...

Elvis Presley died

The first Apple II computers went on sale

Popular films were Saturday Night Fever, Smoky and the Bandit and Rocky

Malcolm Fraser was the Australian Prime Minister

Voyager I and Voyager II were launched unmanned to explore the outer solar system

In January the Granville Train Disaster occurred

The Federal Court of Australia was opened

A National Plebiscite was held to choose the National Song of Australia (Advance Australia Fair)

Anti drugs campaigner Donald McKay disappeared

Popular TV Shows Number 96, The Box and Bellbird were cancelled

The Restless Years and Cop Shop began

England beat Australia 3-0 in the Ashes

St George were premiers of the New South Wales Rugby League

Cadel Evans, Chas Licciardello and Shapelle Corby were also born

Australia’s population was 14,033,083

W H A T A Y E A R ! H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y D A V I D !

Tulip Time at Bowral

How gorgeous are these? Tulips are one of my favourite flowers and we saw plenty of them at Bowral on the weekend. I always enjoy a mass of flowers, the lady bugs were out and about and we had a great lunch, photo session and coffee with cakes and gelato.

Jenna and I posed this little lady... the flower she was on, wasn't as pretty!