Sri Lanka Dreaming

Sri Lanka

Day 1 - Negombo

Arrived around  10:30 pm Sri Lankan time, so about 3 am Sydney time and out of the airport without any hassles.  Met by the very nice Hasintha and off to the hotel.  Nothing open on the way there so we had no idea what to expect.  Our hotel Rani Beach Hotel is ok - nothing great but clean and fine for the $.  

Up early (yes a bit jet lagged) and down to breakfast - great view of the beach out the front with the square rig outriggers going out prawn fishing.  

After breakfast we have stuff to get sorted - SIM cards were easy, then took a tuk tuk to the medical centre to get my broken tooth fixed.  Yes, not great timing on my part to break a tooth the night before leaving....  anyway the outside of the clinic looked ok so in we went.  Bit of a wait, then they took me out the back to a ‘shed’ in the car park!  Oh well too late to back out now so in I go.  Well the equipment was pretty archaic, and I’m not sure about their hygiene practices, but after a clean, new filling and a lecture on my bad practices (cleaning teeth too vigorously) I wobble out 1 hour later and $60 poorer.  It’s a bit rough, but will do till we get home.  

From there we did a bit of a walk around Negombo town, had a great fruit juice each and  got a new battery for Joes watch.  I’m fading by this time, so got a tuk tuk back to the hotel.  There was a little kid in the back in his school uniform who we thought was the drivers son.  Anyway, we headed down a side street where the driver stopped, jumps out and says he’ll be back in a minute.  Hauls the kid out of the back window and carries him acrosss the street.  Kid wasn’t his but a passenger - did we pay for his ride home?  Back to the hotel for a swim, few drinks, early dinner and in bed by 7:30!

33: Fathers Day dinner @ Pheebs & Pat's Sultana Pudding Recipe

Really it was just an excuse for a bit of a get-together and catch up on each others news,  and to try some new (and old) recipes. 

Mitch and Lins were on nibbles, Pheebs and Mandy (& Joe on the barbie) did the meat & salads, and I was designated dessert.  Pheebs put in the request for one of her Dad's favourites (it being Fathers Day) so the choice was obvious - Mums Sultana Pudding!  Peter may not be a big sweets eater, but he has been known to eat bucket loads of this.

After a slight panic about not having the recipe at Marrickville (this is normally a 'farm' recipe), I found it filed under 'Caramel Pudding' & written in my high-school writing & pre-metric measurements - yikes I had to google metric conversions before I could get this baby underway...

Pat's Sultana Pudding
Syrup                                    
3/4 cup brown sugar                
1 1/2 cups water                     
60 gms butter 

Pudding Batter                       
60 gms butter                                            
1/4 cup brown sugar                                            
1 egg  
vanilla      
1/2 cup sultanas                           
1 1/4 cups SR Flour 

*  Put all the ingredients for the syrup in a saucepan and bring to the boil for 5 mins or so
*  Cream butter and brown sugar, add egg and vanilla.  
*  Fold in sultanas and sifted flour.  
*  Mix well to a fairly dry batter - add a little milk if it seems too dry (you want it to stay in 'clumps' when you drop it into the hot syrup, rather than a spreading consistency)
*  Pour the boiling syrup into a shallow baking dish.  Drop batter in spoon-fulls into the hot syrup.
*  Bake for about 35 mins at about 180- 200 degrees.

Just out of the oven

This is a triple quantity and baked in a large corningware baking dish - I don't think I have ever made just a single quantity - just wouldn't go far enough, and the recipe seems to handle it OK (unlike some cake recipes where the texture goes weird).  What you're looking to achieve is runny caramel sauce under a nice sultana-ery cake, with a crisp top. 

It seemed to go down quite well...
In the unlikely event that there is some left over for the next day, you'll usually find that the sauce is absorbed by the cake- but it's still good.

I also made a chocolate / coffee self saucing pudding from Donna Hay's 'Seasons' cookbook, using a pudding bowl instead of baking it in a frying pan.  I had to make a few other variations because of my lack of planning, so left out the almond meal from the pudding batter.  I also didn't have instant coffee, so made strong 'plunger' coffee and added a slurp to the batter, and used the rest instead of water in the syrup - probably the reason why the syrup is so dark!  Tasted good though!

For the non-dried fruit eating member of the family

And to finish off, Lindsay had spent the afternoon making salted caramel macarons - I am full of admiration for her patience! 

Lindsey's salted caramel macarons

32: ANZAC Day 2012

This post is dedicated to my Dad who passed away in 2010 - he was in the army as a young man but was lucky enough not to be called up for active service overseas.  He's the one in the middle with a couple of his Army mates.

ANZAC Day, the 25th April, is one of Australia's most important days, marking the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.   This passage from The Australian War Memorial website is a really good summary of the history of Anzac Day:

The Australian and New Zealand forces landed on Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders. What had been planned as a bold stroke to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915 the allied forces were evacuated, after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000 Australian soldiers had been killed. News of the landing on Gallipoli had made a profound impact on Australians at home, and 25 April soon became the day on which Australians remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in the war.
Although the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives, the Australian and New Zealand actions during the campaign left us all a powerful legacy. The creation of what became known as the “ANZAC legend” became an important part of the identity of both nations, shaping the ways they viewed both their past and their future.

So on Anzac Day we all need an Anzac Biscuit - long associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) established in World War I.  It's been claimed that the Anzac Biscuit tradition started with the wives of soldiers sending them to their husbands abroad - the ingredients were cheap and easily obtainable, and the biscuits kept well during transportation which could take several weeks.  There are now many variations on the recipe, but the original recipes were quite basic and didn't contain eggs which were scarce during the First World War after most poultry farmers joined the war effort.  There is also some debate about whether an Anzac should be chewy or crisp - my preference is for crisp and I used the following receipe from Taste.

1 1/4 cups plain flour, sifted

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup caster sugar

3/4 cup desiccated coconut

2 tablespoons golden syrup

150g butter

1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

*  Preheat oven to 170°C.

*  Place the flour, oats, sugar and coconut in a large bowl and stir to combine.

*  In a small saucepan place the golden syrup and butter and stir over low heat until the butter has melted.

*  Mix the bicarb soda with 1 1/2 tablespoons water and add to the golden syrup mixture.  It will bubble whilst you are stirring together so remove from the heat.

*  Pour into the dry ingredients and mix together until fully combined.

*  Roll tablespoonfuls of mixture into balls and place on baking trays lined with non stick baking paper, pressing down on the tops to flatten slightly.

*  Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown (mine took slightly longer)

*  Leave on the tray for a few minutes to firm up when they come out of the oven, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

  

Dry ingredients added together

Melted butter, golden syrup, bicarb & water
mixed into the dry ingredients

Ready for baking

Just out of the oven

Ready to enjoy with a cup of tea

This one's for you Dad - miss you

28: Our UK walk itinerary and accommodation links

Day 1     St Bees                
http://www.fairladiesbarn.co.uk/

Day 2     Cleator / Ennerdale Bridge              

 http://www.expedia.com.au/Cumbria-Hotels-The-Shepherds-Arms-Hotel.h2113413.Hotel-Information

Day 3     Borrowdale/ Stonethwaite

http://www.lakedistrictletsgo.co.uk/knotts_view.html

Day 4     Grasmere

http://chestnutvilla.com/Home.html 

Day 5     Patterdale          

http://www.coast2coast.co.uk/thewhitelioninn/

Day 6     Shap                     

 http://www.coast2coast.co.uk/thehermitage/

Day 7     Orton                

http://www.scarsidefarm.com/ (Joe and Jenni)

Day 7     Orton*   

http://www.sherpavan.com/accomm_booking/queryhotels.asp?location=Orton/Raisbeck&trail=CC (Peter & Mandy; Narelle & Phoebe)

Day 8     Kirkby Stephen

Castle View - castleview21@live.co.uk

http://www.thejollyfarmers.co.uk/

Day 9     Keld                      

http://www.butthousekeld.co.uk/

Day 10   Reeth                   

http://arklesidehotel.co.uk/

Day 11   Richmond

http://www.coasttocoastguides.co.uk/accommodation/pottergate/index.htm

Day 12   Danby Wiske     

http://www.coast2coast.co.uk/theoldschool/

Day 13   Ingleby Arncliffe

http://www.somersethousefarm.co.uk/?id1=1

Day 14   Great Broughton             

http://www.wainstoneshotel.co.uk/contact-us.html

Day 15   Blakley Ridge    

http://www.lionblakey.co.uk/  

Day 16   Egton Bridge     

http://www.postgateinn.com/

Day 17   Robin Hood’s Bay

http://www.robin-hoods-bay.co.uk/html/where_to_stay/the_villa.htm

31: My hopefully prize winning recipes

This week I have entered two recipe competitions! 

You know how sometimes you are browsing through websites and something in particular catches your eye - well this week competitions seem to be my thing. 

Somehow I clicked on a link that took me to JustB and wow - they have a competition to win a Kitchen Aid stand mixer - you have to submit your 'very favourite Delicious Treat kinda recipe' and tell them why you love it - well this is my entry.  I've added some photos to this version...

This is my Mum's 3 Minute Chocolate Cake - a tried, tested and treasured family recipe.  This recipe was used for many a birthday cake - when my brother & I were really little it was the chocolate layer of a rainbow cake, but often it was just iced with chocolate icing (just icing sugar, butter and a little hot water beaten together) with candles stuck in the top and we thought we were the luckiest people on earth!
 
When we were teenagers, there were often hoards of friends who would descend on our place - we had a farm so there was plenty of room to ride motor bikes and later we would go water skiing and come home tired and starving - we had a tiny kitchen, but Mum was always able to produce the most amazing home-style food to feed us all, and this cake often featured.  I'm sure she knew the recipe off by heart & could probably have made it blindfolded! 

She passed away just over 20 years ago and I still miss her every day - but this recipe is one of those favourite little recipes that have such fond memories attached to them and the smell of this cake baking brings me back to that tiny farmhouse kitchen and a very special childhood.

And, it's quick, simple and economical!

Pat's 3 Minute Chocolate Cake

2 cups Self Raising Flour

2 tablespoons Cocoa

1 teaspoon Carb Soda

pinch Salt

125 gms softened butter or margarine

1 cup Caster Sugar

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1 cup Milk

1 Egg

*  Sift flour, cocoa, soda and salt into large bowl.
*  Add butter, sugars, vanilla and milk.
*  Beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes.
*  Add egg and beat 1 minute.
*  Pour into a greased and lined cake tin - I generally make it in a 20 cm square pan, but I've made it in all kinds of other pans and also as cup cakes and in muffin liners.
*  Bake in a 180 degree oven for about 35 minutes - a bit less if you are making it as cup cakes or in a couple of small tins (eg 2 small loaf pans).  Test with a skewer to make it sure it is cooked - the skewer should come out clean.

I make a chocolate icing with about a cup of icing sugar and a couple of tablespoons of cocoa sifted together, then beaten together with a large knob of soft butter.  Add a little hot water to get the consistency you like - if prefer it quite thick.  I have also iced it with 'bought' chocolate frosting or fancier recipes using chocolate instead of cocoa, but I keep going back to the simple icing Mum showed me how to make as a little girl.

Mixing up the cake batter - don't you love the vintage
Sunbeam Mixmaster - an "over the fence"
gift from my neighbour John.

Just out of the oven - I baked this batch in
nifty little muffin liners and it made 10 quite large ones.

I used the small bowl of the mixmaster to make the icing

It's Australia Day - so these are going to be Lamington Inspired
little cakes.  I'm icing them with the chocolate icing,
then dipping them in shredded coconut.

And now my finished little beauties -
a tribute to Australia Day & my Mum!

The second competition I entered was for Taste's 5th Birthday and I submitted my Lemony Tuna Pasta recipe - this is a great mid-week dinner recipe - really quick and easy as you can adapt according to what you have on hand or feel like on the night.

1 large can Tuna (I generally use the chunky tuna in oil, but springwater is OK too)

1 med Red onion - diced

3 -4 cloves Garlic

1 bunch English Spinach (or two if you want to stretch the meal a bit futher)

2 - 3 tablspoons chopped preserved lemon

Pasta - whatever shape you prefer

*  Drain tuna and keep oil - try to keep the tuna as chunky as possible (ie don't break it up too much)

*  Put pasta on to cook in boiling salted water. The pasta will probably take longer to cook than the other ingredients, so get it on to cook first.

*  In a large frypan, fry chopped garlic and diced onion in a little of the drained oil from the tuna, or a little oil or butter if using tuna in water.

*  Add your finely diced preserved lemon and heat through - these were the lemons I received as a bonbonierie at the very gorgeous Mitch & Lindsey's wedding in November.

*  Chop English Spinach roughly - I generally chop through the whole bunch in 5cm intervals. Wash well (it can be gritty), shake dry and add to you pan. Cook over medium heat, tossing to make sure the spinach wilts evenly. We like it just wilted, not really soft.

*  When your pasta is nearly ready, add the tuna to the pan and stir through carefully (I like to try and keep the chunks intact, but some brands seem to flake easier than others). You can add a little more of the tuna oil or a squeeze of lemon or lime juice if you think it needs a bit more liquid to coat the pasta.

*  The tuna only needs to heat through, so will only take a couple of minutes and you're ready to drain the pasta - either stir the sauce through the pasta, or put on the top of your cooked pasta.

Depending on what you have in the cupboard or fridge, or what you feel like on the night, you could add some finely diced chilli, sliced semi-dried tomatoes, a dollop of natural yoghurt or sour cream or shaved/grated parmesan.   This recipe is easy to add to if you have a couple of extras for dinner - just add another can of tuna or another bunch of spinach and the leftovers are great heated up in the microwave for lunch the next day!

Hopefully one of these will be a winner and Joey and I will either be off on an "ultimate gourmet trip for 2 to Thailand" or I'll be the proud owner of a KitchenAid and my poor old Mixmaster can go into well deserved retirement.  Wish me luck!

30: Metaphors for life

We walked up these gorgeous 'pack pony' steps when we did the UK Coast-to-Coast walk last year.  The steps are actually an ancient, stone flagged pack horse road put in place for pony's to carry stuff from the village to the monastery.  It was a deceptive path - it didn't look that steep, but it was quite a climb, the stones looked slippery, but they were really quite stable underfoot. 

Everytime I go back and look at this photo I see a different metaphor for life:

• a path well-trodden before me
• mmm  looks slippery ahead - tread cautiously...
• one of those days that look like they might be long and difficult, but run quite smoothly

I'd love to know what you see?

29: Christmas Holidays 2011

I always look forward to the Christmas / New Year break - I love to spend that week or so on the farm at Ebenezer with the friends and family that inevitably gather.  People seem to come and stay for a few days, then move off to their next destination. 

I had the Friday before Christmas off work and Joe and I spent the morning doing the last minute shopping - we picked up a fabulous ham from the Black Forest Smokehouse, fruit and Veggies from Banana Joes and a few other bits and pieces, then back home to pack the car and set off.  Saturday was spent getting the house ready for guests and doing as much of the prep for Christmas day as I could.  Dave, Lucinda and the fast growing Baxter arrived with a ute load of gifts and Joe's mum Penny arrived later in the afternoon, also with armloads of gifts to be put under the tree we finally put up!

We had a lovely Skype session with Mitch and Lins on Chistmas morning - still on their honeymoon in italy and enjoying their first cold Christmas. I'm loving seeing Mitch's photos on Facebook every couple of days.

Then a lovely relaxed lunch - not the full Chistmas shebang as we'll be having that later in the day - but some nice finger foods and a few glasses of bubbles,

followed by the ritual exchange of presents - Pheebs I love my key - I'm thinking that it might be at home above the back door.  Later in the day, Joes kid's Christoper and Jay arrived with their partners Sophie and Chris for the kind of traditional Chrismas meal - well we had the baked ham, roast chicken with bread sauce, roast potatoes, but then some cold salads instead of the full hot dinner.   We did finish off with Chrismas pudding and hard sauce (thanks Penny) - the pudding recipe I used this time was from Not Quite Nigella and is Queens Elizabeth's Christmas pudding recipe!  

Boxing Day was quiet - we all needed a recovery day - playing cards and Pheebs new Cranium game. 

My project for the week was to strip the wallpaper off my childhood room - lovely pink and green daisies from the early 1970's - a little tired and dated...  Have been dreading tackling this job after reading up on stripping wallpaper on various blogs, but it was actually quite easy.  I just sprayed it with warm water, waited a while for the glue and paper to soften, then scraped it off.  Lucky for me there was only one layer of paper over the plasterboard which seemed to have a slightly shiny finish - a bit of a scrub with a scourer and sugar soap and it was all gone!  I sealed the ex-papered wall with 2 coats of 3-in-1, and got one coat of gloss white on the windows, skirting boards and wardrobe, and 1 coat of colour on the walls - well not much colour - I chose Dulux Antique White USA.    Will try and post some pics as I go along...

We also had a lovely visit from one of my besties - Miss Mimi - who arrived in her usual style in high heels carrying boxes of chocolates and bottles of bubbly!  We had a great couple of days chilling on the verandah, reading (her), cross stitching (me), gossiping and drinking T2 French Earl Grey tea (us).  Of course we had to introduce Mimi to the gorgeous Murray - ever thirsty and keen for his bottle. 

Watching Mimi feed Murray and fend off his butting in her heels in the long grass was so funny I almost fell over backwards!

Our final project for the week was to wash the three dogs:
Lily was very well behaved

Sparky gave us the 'this treatment is SO beneath me' look

Baxter was a nightmare - this may have been his first time in the tub and fitting all of his legs in at the same time was somewhat difficult!  He paid us back by shredding yet another cushion!

  

27: Home and a great weekend with friends

Well now the holiday is over, I thought I'd like to keep the blog going with other bits and pieces of things happening around me...

This weeked was a busy one - One of my favourite people in the whole world, my friend Sue from Adelaide was coming to visit to join in the X Block Reunion.  When I first left high school, off I went to Wagga to go to Uni and I had signed up to live on campus, but in a 'self catering' style residence where you cooked your own food, but shared a communal kitchen and bathrooms - there were quite a few of these 'blocks' on the south campus & I'd been allocated to X Block.  Sue and Sandra Kelly were the first people I met as I arrived as a nervous kid embarking on their first day of the rest of their life - and we been friends ever since. 

I've kept in contact with Sue and Sandra, but not any of the others, but last year somtime I got a Facebook message from one of the others there and over the past few months we've tracked down quite a few other X Blockers.  We met at Kathy's in February and promised to keep in touch and meet again - hopefully with a few more.

I picked Sue up from the airport on Friday night and of course we stayed up late catching up, then on Saturday morning, off we went to the shops to stock up on all the party essentials, plus a few other bargains we spotted along the way (like boxes of xmas baubles for $3 each which I plan to make a xmas wreath with, and some cute little ballet flats - 2nd pair half price so we go a pair each), then home to cook and get the house into party mode. 

What a great night we had - our first party in our half renovated house in Marrickville.  Sue came over from Adelaide, John flew in from Beechworth, Yvonne & Brian from Taree, Linda from Coffs Harbour, Sanda drove up from Wollongong (& decided she wanted to stay longer, so we found a bed for her), and Sydney siders Cathy and Jude, Margaret, Barbara, Margaret & Olu. 

Here some of us are in 1984?

 

 and now in 2011

So on Sunday after everyone had left and I had tidied up and had a rest, it was time to make my xmas wreath.  Of course I'm always in a hurry and didn't take the advice of others to glue the little tops of the ornaments onto the ball, and yes they do pop off (annoyingly). 

I untwisted your standard wire hanger from the drycleaner and bent it into an approximate circle (possibly could have been a bit fussier with this as well), then threaded my KMart baubles on.  I'd bought two tubes of red and 2 of green and each one had shiny, matt and glitter balls in them ($3 per tube and the balls are about 3cm), and I threaded 1 shiny of each colour, 1 matt of each colour and 1 glitter of each.  I'd got half way through and realised there were more matt than anything else, so if might be worth sorting your baubles first so that you get an even distribution of colour and texture. 

Then all you do is thread them on and adjust slightly so that they sit neatly together and hide as much wire as you can.  Then you twist the hook back together - I got Joe to help me with this and he cut a bit of wire off to make it neater, then I tied some ribbon around it and Voila!  here it is...  a little tweaking of the shape is needed, but not bad for first effort - might go back and get some more and make another to give away...

26: The last few days of our holiday...

We caught the Roisy bus back to the airport - very uneventful passage through immigration etc - the bird at the desk so busy chatting to her friend that she didn't even bother looking up at us while she stamped our passports.   So off we flew to Singapore (7am arrival) - again an easy exit and on the the MRT to Lavender to check into our hotel - luckily they had a room available so we had a nap for a couple of hours before setting off back into the city.  

It's been about 20 years since Ive been to Singapore and things have really changed - so much development and so many shopping centres - but the prices - there are not too many bargains to be had here anymore.  

We bought tickets for the open topped bus and did a few rounds of the city to get oriented - hopping off at various points of interest.  The skyscrapers here are amazing - I think they must have had some contest to come up with the weirdest concepts for building designs - the cruise ship on stilts (Marina Bay Sands) probably has to take the prize!

We stopped for a drink in the Singapore equivalent to Darling Harbour - again we were shocked at the drink prices - that was until the drinks arrived and we saw the size!  Now this is a Mojito!!!

Do not talk to me, or stand between me and my Mojito!

Of course, when you are in Singapore you must go to Raffles for a Singapore Sling...

25: Versailles

Finally, we found a really helpful woman at the metro who gave us a great little çheat sheet' on how to get the train to Versailles - just a list of the stations where you need to change and the symbols for the lines that we needed to follow - a really good simple idea that worked perfectly.

We bought our entry tickets at the Info Centre - the queue here seemed less than the place near the station or at the actual gates - very impressive they are too!

Wow this place is really big - 2000 hectares and so much to see -  room after room of paintings, sculptures, furniture, mirrors - a pity there were so many other people there trying to see it as well, and a pity many are so inconsiderate [read rude] about pushing in front of you when they want to look at something you might happen to be looking at. 

We spent a couple of hours inside the palace, then headed out into the gardens (for a loo break and a bit of lunch), and then down to Grand Trianon and Petite Trianon.  It was nice to see that the parklands are open (for free) to the public for picnics, cycling, etc.  There were lots of Parisians out enjoying the sunshine. 

Yes Joey, this is a really big hedge!

Joey doing a bad impression of a topiary

This couple were having their wedding pics taken outside the Grand Trianon.  The poor bride was melting a little in the heat - very cute kids though!

The other Noble/Clegg party were also at Versaille on the same day, but got there an hour or so after us - the place is so big we never managed to catch up with each other!

We finished up a really great day with the Musical Fountain Shows - it was interesting to hear that Australia is not the only place with drought issues - at Versailles they have restricted the use of some of the fountains due to water shortages.