Thanksgiving Dinner

Here is our Canadian Thanksgiving dinner before: And after:We had roast chicken with cranberry sauce, roast sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and green beans. For dessert we had pumpkin pie with whipped cream (sorry, I forgot to take a picture).

As you can see from the first picture, I got the cranberry sauce from a can, and a ready-made pumpkin pie from the supermarket bakery. I had not intended to do this. Being on a budget, however, I was surprised to find that it was cheaper to buy both these items rather than to make them from scratch. Even cheating - by making it with pumpkin pie filling in a can - was more expensive!

Apparently, the North American art of baking is being lost. It is rare to find someone who has the time, budget, and inclination to cook from flour, sugar, butter, etc (except in food blogs - see links). Maybe this is why the faculty are gobbling up my baking so readily! It is generally accepted that cookies come from a tube of dough, frosting comes in a can, muffins are packet mix with milk added, pie crusts are not made but bought, and afternoon tea for guests is bought at a bakery on the way home. This is a tragedy! (Can you tell I'm calling for a counter-cultural revolution?!)

The tragedy of packet cooking aside, the other possible tragedy of big dinners is wasted leftovers. So the chicken and veges were made into potato-topped pie and the pumpkin pie was happily consumed in the following days. My one dilemma was what to do with the cranberry sauce because most of the can was leftover. After a stint in the freezer as I deliberated, the sauce was drained of excess liquid and became the filling, along with a red eating apple (skin on), for a cranberry & apple shortcake. Here it is with some apricot yoghurt, before being devoured.

P.S. Check out the library blog my mum contributes to here. It is a great resource for teachers and lovers of children's books. She is 'Lynn, P. North', and you can see a picture of her display "Kikorangi Blue" there too. Well done, Mum!

What's Black and White and Red All Over?

Homemade pizza of course!

This was the glorious result of using up the leftovers in our fridge. The toppings included tomato paste, fresh tomato, bacon, red capsicum, cheddar cheese, cream cheese, and mushrooms (which I forgot until the last minute, which is why they are on top!) All this was served with fresh salad leaves. Yummmmmmm!

Not quite 'black, white and red,' but not far off, is a discovery of our friend, Claire. She brought these 'cookies' over last night to share with us and compare with the NZ biscuit.

So our conclusions are: Dream Puffs are two-thirds the size of Mallow Puffs, have a lesser proportion of marshmallow, are very sweet, and the raspberry is a bit like the 'deluxe' versions available in NZ at present (e.g. jaffa). Worth a try, but not quite the same!

Trapping and Triumph

In the latter end of summer we have had a problem with those pesky little fruit flies that always seem to come home with us from the greengrocer! They wouldn't be a problem under usual circumstances, but the fact we have insect screens over the windows and keep the door closed to keep cool, means they are trapped inside our home (and multiply)!

Since fly spray would circulate through the air vents to our upstairs neighbours, this wasn't really an option. Our friends, April and Claire, shared a simple way to trap these pests, and humanely release them outside (though my instinct was to squish them mercilessly). A slice of banana (or another strongly scented fruit) is put in a glass. The glass is then sealed with plastic (Saran/Glad) wrap and small holes pierced in the top. (This was reminiscent of bugs brought to school!) The flies were attracted by the fruit, worked their way into the glass through the holes, and then couldn't make their way out (thanks to the stretchy, clear properties of the plastic). This ingenious solution caught 10 flies within 24 hours, and over the following days, 'netted' the rest. Isn't it great when simple, cheap solutions work just as effectively as the usual quick-fix?!

On another note, I got some jam and made another two batches of Grandma T's Spice square, with better results than last time (see here)! Some was used for a faculty coffee break and we consumed the rest. This time I doubled the cake part of the recipe so it was thicker overall. Our various guests over the last week have all given it a thumbs up!