BroNZ Bitz

A House Guest

2012-02-02T20:20:00.000-08:00

Look who wandered into our house today while J napped. (Apologies for fuzzy focus - I didn't download this until it was released.) There is a 1cm gap under our front door and I saw it sneaking across the carpet out of the corner of my eye. I think it may be an aptly named Mediterranean House Gecko. This one is only about 3-4cm long so it must be a juvenile. He or she sure is cute though! We've seen this lime green anole in the gardens here, but this is the first lizard to make a visit.

St Brigid's Day

2012-02-01T12:22:00.000-08:00

Today is Saint Brigid's Day. It brings fond memories of my years teaching at Holy Family School, founded by the Brigidine sisters. When N and I were in Ireland we visited the church at Kildare.This year St. Brigid's Day also brings a tinge of sadness, as I heard this past week of the death of my former principal at HFS, Barbara O'Reilly-Nugent. I haven't been able to pin down details yet, but when we visited NZ in 2010, Barbara was ill and not expected to live long then. I was fortunate to have visited her and said my farewells, but my grief isn't any lesser at the moment. Barbara was a strong, Godly woman, whose faith, leadership and compassion were exactly what I needed at that time of my life. She was part of the reason I decided to study at Regent, and I will miss her.

A Type of Anniversay

2012-01-31T13:41:00.000-08:00

This marks the day, 13 years ago, when N asked me to marry him. He might be down on his knee for other reasons today (feeding ducks with J, adjusting C's carseat, picking up toys in the lounge, praying for sanity) but he's still the love of my life!

Getting Up to Mischief

2012-01-28T11:21:00.000-08:00

A certain 2-year-old has been getting up to mischief today. In the spirit of Olivia imitating Jackson Pollock, he expanded his crayon art to the walls...twice! And he gave C his first solid food, sharing his snack with him. I turned around just in time to see him with a stray finger almost up C's nostril as he tried to reinsert a fruit jube into C's mouth. Thankfully, C's natural instinct is for his tongue to push anything solid back out! Let's just say there have been a number of 'discussions' about sharing, being bigger, and the purpose of paper today.

In other news... C has discovered 'Ollie' the elephant on the change table...

...I made these biscuits. They have a packet of cherry jelly/Jello in them, hence the colour. Yes, they really are this pink! I am not sharing the recipe because despite being the perfect colour for a Valentine's gift they taste like a Valentine's prank!

...And keeping with the Valentine's theme, N & I watched I Hate Valentine's Day recently. It is from the star/writer/director of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Not quite as good, but better than we expected given the reviews. A bit of fluff, which delves into the 'less-Disney-fied' meaning of romance.

3 Months

2012-01-24T13:41:00.000-08:00

C is 3 months old today. He is a big boy, and weighed in at 15lbs at his checkup 3 weeks ago. Compare that with J at around the same age, at around 12.5 lbs. (C grew out of the outfit J is wearing about a month ago!)

From May 2010

So now that he is nearly too big for the sleeper that sits on our bed, he is transferring to the crib tonight (in the sleeper until he is transitioned).

And not be upstaged by his brother, here is J with his friend J2.

And shooting hoops

Love Letters

2012-01-23T19:47:00.000-08:00

Today J was bugging me when I was trying to prepare his lunch. So I grabbed an envelope that was on the kitchen counter, a pencil and a scrap of card that separated the teabags in the latest box. I penned a quick note on the card, shoved it in the envelope and handed it to him. "Look honey, a letter for you!" Once he got the idea of opening the envelope I read him the message. "Dear J..., I love you. From Mummy (heart)." Then I got back to the food. Well, it entertained him for at least 20 minutes and I had to wrestle it off him in the high chair! At one point I was concerned that it was too quiet in his room, so I checked, only to find him whispering to himself as he "wrote" on the envelope himself at his desk. At last, I have dreamed up a use for all those self-addressed reply envelopes that I've saved from my bills! I think some more love letters are in order.

Peaches

2012-01-17T18:49:00.000-08:00

Today I was feeling a bit down, but rather than dwell on all the stuff that makes life not so peachy, I thought I should count my blessings. So in their order of appearance, here are my peaches today:1. J slept through from 11.30pm to 7am;2. The mechanic didn't charge us for resetting the engine light on the dashboard;3. Two new medical bills that arrived were both for less than $20;4. I got a letter from my mum, with a clipping from the Dominion Post featuring my sister and brother-in-law's cafe;5. Both boys fell asleep for about an hour, so I could rest too;6. I made ginger crinkle cookies and reminisced about first making them in out Ferguson St flat when newly married;7. I didn't have to think about dinner because a friend from church brought it to us from EatZi's - delicious!Maybe there are more before I head to bed, but that's plenty for now.

Growing Boys

2012-01-13T12:34:00.000-08:00

Our boys are growing up!Last week saw C go for his (late) 2 month check up. I knew this bloke was heavy, but 15 pounds! No wonder my shoulders are getting a workout. The first round of immunizations don't seem to have bothered him a whole lot, thank goodness.More notably, J turned 2 last week. Again he was overwhelmed with the excitement of gifts and a party. The biggest hit was a desk / easel and stool for his room.

We invited his playgroup friends, and a SMU friend to his party. As a bonus, Auntie April and Uncle Grant from our Vancouver community were both in town so they celebrated with us too. It was a fun, chaotic and loud afternoon!

I made J's cake in the form of Thomas the Tank Engine - fun, but a lot of work on the day!

Not quite 'mine', nor a boy either, it was wonderful to see how Grant has grown with our family, too. When he first joined the community he was pretty hesitant around J, but he offered to hold C in the midst of my doing last minute stuff during the party and was an island of calm in the chaos. C was quite content in his arms. I wish I'd thought to take a picture. The following day we visited Grant's folks and had a fabulous meal, fun with the dogs, and J had fun in the hot tub with Dad and Uncle Grant.

Facing my Foolish Fears

2012-01-11T12:50:00.000-08:00

...or perhaps that should be, facing my fears of foolishness!So I have recently made a foray into hairdressing. Yup, not my usual thing! I have an incredible fear of making the poor souls look awful, and then having to live with my mistakes until their hair is long enough to get a professional to do it properly. And I would feel foolish every time I looked at these persons in the meantime.Anyway, the first victim was J. After having so little hair for so long, his first haircut was a cause for some celebration. Having said that, my Scottish ancestry meant I wasn't about to fork out for someone else to trim 3 curls that were threatening to become rats-tails from the nape of my son's neck! On the night before my folks left to return home from their extended visit with us we decided the boy should be shorn, and by default, I had the scissors. One high-chair, one dad playing finger games with J, one bribe of new pyjamas in honour of the first haircut, one grandma wielding a camera, and more than one tentative snip with the scissors with great concentration... and J was respectable again. :o)

The second was a willing victim. N eventually managed to convince me to use his clippers to wrangle his wild mane (see above) into tamer pastures. Forty-five minutes in the bathroom, terrifying clumps of hair on the floor, and I had a happy hubby to show for it. He, too, looks respectable.Not sure if this will become a regular jaunt, but I'm not about to attack my own hair just yet. The head massage isn't in my repertoire, and that's really the best bit about getting your hair cut anyway. ;o)

Christmas Story

2012-01-03T11:52:00.000-08:00

Before the Christmas season disappears entirely, I thought I'd share a link to a great Christmas poem on Sophie Gray's website. She is NZ's Destitute Gourmet and I love her recipes, and own a fair few of her books. They are also very apt for the PhD budget! Find the poem here.

At the start of a term

2012-01-03T11:38:00.000-08:00

For all those who teach, in whatever capacity (school, parent, boss, friend...), here are some inspirational stories to get you dreaming.1. An offering for teachers from Australian children's author, Morris Gleitzman: Saving Ms Fosdyke2. A poem about what real Christian education should look like, from my friend Jenn, in the style of Wendell Berry: The Mad Students and Teachers Liberation Front

Overwhelmed

2012-01-02T11:59:00.000-08:00

This Christmas I was reminded of the reason for the season - God's unprecedented, undeserved, grace-filled, loving, saving gift of Jesus. It wasn't the carols, or cards, or weather, or advertising, or even church services. It was seeing J overwhelmed at the gifts that kept on being presented to him throughout the day.You see, when we explained in the morning that there was something special for him at the end of the bed, he was delighted to discover the toy car that had fallen out of his Christmas stocking. That would have kept him happy all day! Then we showed him the stocking... and the fun stuff that he could pull out of it. So before breakfast, J had lined up all his stocking presents and went from one end of the small line to the other, picking up each item and playing with it, before putting it down and playing with the next one.When the presents under the tree were delivered to their recipients, J wasn't sure what to do with himself. We helped him hand out a gift to each person and then we took turns opening them. We even had a half-hour break in present opening because he was so flustered with how many gifts he was receiving.Our PhD budget meant our gifts this year were mostly homemade, and we were blessed with lots of gifts (particularly for the boys) from family and friends. Once J opened the dressing gown I had made him, he put it on, twirled like a model, and then continued opening presents. We had to distract him with toys and invent an excuse to get it off him when he got too hot! Our best present was watching his awe and excitement as each new gift was given and opened.My prayer is that I remember God's overwhelming gift of Christ, and that I wear my salvation through Him all day and every day, even if sometimes it makes me feel 'too hot'!

C is for Cheerful

2011-12-28T18:25:00.000-08:00

Christmas seemed to sneak up on us this year. In the hustle and bustle of readying ourselves to celebrate Christ's birth, we did manage to capture C smiling at his dad - certainly he had the proper Christmas spirit. It only took a week of trying to have the camera and smiles around at the same time! But it was worth it, don't you think? :o)

Giveaway

2011-12-15T11:23:00.000-08:00

This week I have been ~~wasting~~ spending my 'free time' perusing the beautiful things on offer at the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day (well, really it's a week). I have found lots of interesting new crafty blogs, even some Kiwi ones, and entered for my chance to win a few of the giveaways. The giveaway closes on December 16th (or the 17th in NZ!) so you may want to check out the goodies and get some ideas. I know I have lots of new projects waiting in the wings.

A Fresh Start

2011-12-10T19:10:00.001-08:00

So... it's been a while since I blogged. My early New Year's resolution is to try to get back into the habit, mostly as a way of keeping friends and family up to date. And a fresh start calls for a fresh look.This design appealed to me because it reminds me of a vision I had before we left NZ. That the changes about to happen in our life were going to be like dandelion seeds - spread wide, falling on fertile ground, and hard to eradicate (in a good way!) That certainly seems to have been the case so far.So here's hoping this resolution is fruitful and hard to eradicate!

Baker's Market

2009-10-12T12:18:00.000-07:00

On a shopping run to Superstore on Saturday, Claire and I were intrigued by the hand-written sign for a baker's market at the side of the street. So we toddled on down, and found the tail-end of a yummy array of foodie delights. We bought a loaf of divine sourdough bread (which was gone within 24 hours) and tasted some salted rosemary caramels. Apparently our "faces lit up" when we asked if sponge toffee was hokey pokey... mostly because the answer was 'yes' and we didn't have to explain what we meant by hokey pokey!

We will be visiting again.

Here's the website: www.bakersmarket.com

Sopaipillas & Posole

2009-01-11T19:18:00.000-08:00

Our visit to the US over Christmas had some pleasant foodie sidetracks. As well as savouring homemade hamburgers for dinner on Christmas Day at April's mom's place in Denver, we had the pleasure of staying with April's friends, Eric and Gentry, in Laramie, WY.

Here we are from left to right: Jada (3), Gentry... holding Eric... holding Macy (under 1), me, April, and Nathan.

They treated us to a special American meal, usually tasted in New Mexico (where Eric grew up). First on the menu was posole, a stew made with pork, green chillies, and hominy (corn kernels soaked in lye).

It was hot and delicious! (Sorry, the photo of Chef Eric was too blurry to keep.)

Gentry was trying to make sopaipillas (soap-a-pee-yas) for the first time and enlisted my help as a baker. We used this recipe, which is much like a scone dough. The dough is rolled out to a few millimetres thickness,

cut into pieces (squares and triangles are common too)

and then deep fried for a few seconds each side until golden brown.

The sopaipillas puff up in the hot oil and develop a crispy crust.

Next you split a side open and squeeze in some runny honey.

Gentry and I felt very decadent as we supped on sopaipillas and posole that night. The sopaipillas certainly help temper the heat of the posole, and they taste great when washed down with Eric's Belgian home-brewed beer!

I have since discovered recipes for both posole and sopaipillas (called Navajo Fry Bread) in a Christmas present I recieved from April's mom; "I Hear America Cooking: The cooks and recipes of American regional cuisine" by Betty Fussell. (Betty is a cousin of April's grandmother, and was featured in the August 2008 edition of Vogue.)

Bron and the Bearded Bagel Baker

2008-10-29T20:29:00.000-07:00

Once upon a Saturday, Bron and her bearded beloved decided to bake bagels for the first time.

The library lent them "Bread: from sourdough to Rye" by Linda Collister. The bagel recipe looked promising (though they didn't recognise any of the recipes supposedly from Australia and NZ in the last chapter!)

They mixed the dough, let it rise, punched it down, then formed it into a dozen springy balls. Next they poked their fingers through each ball, spun it around on their fingers, and made a bagel-ly, doughnut shape. Then they remembered to take pictures for posterity!

After another rest, the dough was plunged into a pot of boiling water and Bron and her bagel baker took turns to deftly flip each bagel with a scoop.

Each doughy tourniquet was brushed with egg white, and some were sprinkled with sesame seeds.

And baked in the oven to golden brown perfection.

It was hard to wait for them to cool down.

Beautiful bready aromas filled the kitchen as Bron and the bearded one waited... and waited...

... and finally gave in...

... smothering their beauties with homemade strawberry jam! MMMMMM!

The Bakery

2008-10-29T19:37:00.000-07:00

Ever since the food course, we have been much more conscious of what we are putting in our mouths, and what food we are buying. More about that in another post - suffice to say that we are now using organic flour whenever possible.

The flour is important because it is the most basic ingredient in bread-making. Our place has begun to resemble a bakery over the last few months as we've hardly bought bread from the supermarket since July.

It started when we returned to Canada in July, and I was home while Nathan did Hebrew at summer school and I got ready for teaching school. Long periods in an empty basement suite were filled with yeasting, waiting, mixing, kneading, waiting, rising, waiting, baking, and waiting while cooling. I tried my hand at a sourdough starter with rye flour and water. It was a bit of a hit and miss affair. I made a VERY dense loaf at one stage (pictured below) and threw a large amount of starter into the compost! The last lot migrated to the compost when I cleaned the fridge earlier this month. It was 'well fermented', shall we say? No recipe for you, as it was probably one of my least successful baking endeavours ever.

I reverted to my trusty basic bread recipe from our awesome Aussie friend, Susannah. Once you've made the plain white loaf a few times you can easily judge if the dough needs more flour or water by touch. If you double the recipe, it makes one large loaf, or two smallish ones.

Susannah's Basic Bread

2 cups of flour
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon of dried yeast
1 teaspoon (or less) of salt [sometimes I put in vegemite/marmite instead of salt]
1 teaspoon of sugar/honey etc
1 tablespoon of oil.

Activate yeast by putting it in warm water with the sugar. When it is frothy, mix it with the dry ingredients and oil. Knead. Allow to sit in warm place, covered with loose cling film. After about and hour, knead again then form into desired shape. Place in cooking pan and allow to rise in a warm place for about 30 mins. Bake in a moderate oven for 20-40 minutes.

I also found success making cinnamon rolls - the Vancouver specialty. Here they are before... and after baking, but without their crown of cream cheese frosting.

Nathan tried his hand at making bread over the recent reading week, and has been bitten by a yeasty bug too... making bread every 4 or 5 days ever since. He experimented with whole wheat flour and decided that a mix of white and whole wheat was more pleasant than the dense rolls he first started with. Next he's going to try using spelt flour.

So, now that we've perfected this recipe, Nath suggested we try making bagels (one of the few bread products we have bought recently). A visit to the library was duly made, and we spent a fun Saturday morning making a dozen bagels to a recipe in "Bread: from sourdough to rye" by Linda Collister (adapted to include more marmite, of course!) My next post will be a photo-journal of our fun.

Church & State

2008-08-19T17:45:00.000-07:00

Church & State... no, not more theology. Just a winery we visited on our way home from Vancouver Island today. It is definitely set up for the tourist market (located on the road to Butchart Gardens) but brought back fond memories of our wine trailing with Rhoda and Phil in NZ and Chile.

The wine itself was good. The sav blanc was quite different from the NZ savs, and the pinot not so rich. We did end up buying the Merlot/Cab Sav and a bottle of Cab Blanc - very moreish!

We dined on the deck with our hodge-podge of picnicky leftovers from the weekend away: hard-boiled eggs, baby carrots, corn chips, bread and butter, yellow tomato, and oranges. How's that for haliday fare? April hasn't yet developed a taste for wine so she graciously accepted the role of designated driver! Thanks, Ape.

P.S. Food Course: Other Resources

2008-08-11T08:27:00.000-07:00

Films

Children's Books

Jam: A True Story - Margaret Mahy
Whose Garden Is It? - Mary Ann Hoberman
Mrs. Moskowitz and the Sabbath Candlesticks - Amy Schwartz
Goops and How to Be Them - Gelett Burgess
Mice Squeak, We Speak - Arnold Shapiro
Stone Soup - various versions of this traditional tale
An Angel For Solomon Singer - Cynthia Rylant and Peter Catalanotto
A Bad Case of Stripes - David Shannon
Blueberries For Sal - Robert McCloskey
Little House in the Big Woods - Laura Ingalls Wilder (and other books in the series, especially Farmer Boy)
Green Eggs and Ham - Dr. Seuss
The High Rise Glorious Skittle Skat Roarious Sky Pie Angel Food Cake - Nancy Willard
The Pipi Swing - Sarona Aiono-Iosefa
Bread and Jam for Frances - Russell Hoban

Websites

P.S. Food Course: Reading List

2008-08-10T22:20:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the most interesting and helpful books that were in our reading list.

Reading List

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: A Year of Food Life - Barbara Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp, and Camille Kingsolver
Food and Faith: Justice, Joy, and Daily Bread - ed. by Michael Schut
For the Life of the World - Alexander Schmemann
Hungry Planet: What the World Eats - Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio
In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan
Much Depends on Dinner: The Extraordinary History and Mythology, Allure and Obsessions, Perils and Taboos, of an Ordinary Meal - Margaret Visser
Mudhouse Sabbath - Lauren F. Winner
The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating (also published as Plenty) - Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon
The Botany of Desire - Michael Pollan
The Hungry Soul - Leon Kass
The Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael PollanThe Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America - Harvey Levenstein
The Rituals of Dinner: The Origins, Evolution, Eccentricities, and Meaning of Table Manners - Margaret Visser
The Supper of the Lamb - Robert Farrar Capon
The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture (3rd ed.) - Wendell Berry

Food Course: Final Day

2008-08-10T21:50:00.000-07:00

Our final day on the food course was a flurry of activity as we prepared to leave, packing and cleaning and scurrying to take final notes from books we wouldn't be able to access easily as we went our separate ways. We had a brief class time where Emily had an opportunity to share about her choice to be a vegetarian, and Loren shared some thoughts and quotes about the communion meal.

The highlight of the day was the outdoor banquet of left-overs from the week, which we began with a simple and informal communion meal. It was a joyful revisit of our previous meals and an opportunity to thank Loren and Mary Ruth with some gifts (a cut-paper picture with an uncanny familial resemblance, and a wood-turned arbutus bowl), and Sarah for her TA work (chocolates). We were all blessed to receive a copy of our very own 'Galiano Cookbook', a collection of recipes used on the course. Then, with tummies full of pie and plenty for our minds to mull over, we packed ourselves off to the ferry and our various homes.

Loren and Mary Ruth celebrated their hard work (and our departure) with a meal at their local French restaurant, and were pleasantly surprised to discover we had all chipped in to pay for their meal!

Pictures from the Talent Sharing

2008-08-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

Food Course: Taste and See

2008-08-10T18:08:00.000-07:00

Our class was really a book discussion on May 15. Our reading assignment was "the WHOLE book if possible"... that is, "The Supper of the Lamb" by Robert Farrar Capon. I had read this book for the Christian Thought & Culture class last year, so this was a pleasant refresher for me.

Capon focusses on the need to be mindful of the world we live in, in order to appreciate God's goodness more fully. He sees our role in the world as priests; making meaning in our actions, living in a posture of thanksgiving to God, paying attention to things for their own sake and appreciating and using them at their best. Our discussion ranged far and wide, bringing together many strands of our previous classes.

The whole book is quotable, so here are some of my favourites that the class picked:
“… let us eat. Festally, first of all, for life without occasions is not worth living. But ferially, too, for life is so much more than occasions, and its grand ordinariness must never go unsavored” (p.18).
“Against all that propaganda for fancy eating and plain cooking, I hope to persuade you to cook fancy and just plain eat" (p.144).
"Man's real work is to look at the things of the world and to love them for what they are. That is, after all, what God does, and man was not made in God's image for nothing" (p.18).

In the afternoon, we had a visit from a friend and farm meighbour of the Wilkinsons, Sherri Koster. Sherri is a clinical counsellor, and we had a helpful Q&A time with her about food disorders from a medical (and Christian) point of view.

Our final mindful meal was centred on a Turkish theme:

We ate appetizers with headscarves on, before Debbie read a New Testament passage about our freedom in Christ. We were then invited to either remove our headscarves, or to eat with them on, in solidarity with persecuted Christians around the world.
Olives, Hummus, and Pita Bread

Roast Lamb, Kabouli Palau, Eggplant Bake, Greek Salad (accompanied by raki/ouzo... much better with water!)

Halva, and Turkish Apricots Afterwards, Ben set up a houka for some to smoke...

and some of us just enjoyed the turkish coffee...or giggled our way through some belly dancing!

The night ended with a little talent sharing... poetry, banjo, piano, story reading... and an impromptu campfire on the beach.

Food Course: The Hungry Soul

2008-08-08T13:20:00.000-07:00

The discussion this day focussed on food disorders: obesity, anorexia, bulimia, and the greatest food disorder, hunger. Mary Ruth explored three basic roots of all these disorders - geographic change, cultural change, and familial change.

The conversation about geographic change focussed on the effects of urbanisation, changes in the size and nature of farms, and the change in how we use our homes (especially how zoning and consumerism 'feed' our lifestyles in the latter). We talked about how cultural changes are shown in the denial of real stages of life (e.g. in fashion, aging or anti-aging, tween culture), conformity to a prescribed beauty, and denial of classic sources of wisdom (family, place, and self are replaced with media influences). Familial change reflected the impact of households where both parents work, changes in food preparation and preservation, and children's schedules that rival their parents.

Some possible small steps we discussed were:

refusing to buy into fads - thinking carefully before we buy/do things
choosing to walk - a way of promoting community, exercise, safety, slowing down...
reducing meat consumption - awareness of animal care issues, sourcing food resulting in intentionality, seasonal eating, meat flavour trumping size
modelling healthy attitudes to food and our bodies - acknowledging that most people hunger for love, joy, acceptance and approval... and that churches ought to be places of healing in these areas too

Our reading was from two books: Harvey Levenstein's "The Paradox of Plenty" and "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. The quote I chose comes from the latter, page 81: “But the industry’s influence would not be nearly so great had the ideology of nutritionism not already undermined the influence of tradition and habit and common sense – and the transmitter of all those values, mom – on our eating.”

Our mindful meal this evening was an Indian meal with a focus on our senses. We started by washing our hands. The meal looked beautiful, as did the spice illustrations. We ate with our hands (even though we tried to use only one - as is traditional). We smelt all the beautiful spices as the group cooked and tried to identify them at the table. We tasted a wide variety of flavours: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, hot... And we heard the crack of poppadums, the crunch of radishes, the gentle whisper of naan scooping up dhal, and the satisfied sounds of diners as they tasted the chai tea icecream!
The menu was:
Appetizer - Poppadums serverd with Mango-Apple Chutney, Lime Pickle, Cucumber Raita, Cilantro (Coriander leaf)-Onion Relish Salad - White and Red Radish Salad Entrees (Mains) - Basmati Rice and Naan Bread with Baji Dhal (East Indian Spinach and Lentils) and Roasted Vegetables Dessert - Chocolate Cake with Chai Tea Ice Cream

This day also happened to be Mel's birthday, so the chocolate cake became a birthday cake...

complete with a hidden thimble - a la Nancy Willard's book, "The High Rise Glorious Skittle Skat Roarious Sky Pie Angel Food Cake" (illustrated by Richard Jesse Watson).

"Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see -- how good God is." Psalm 34:8

Food Course: Food for the World

2008-08-04T15:29:00.000-07:00

On May 13th we started our class by watching some excerpts of the film The Future of Food. It looked at the issues surrounding GE seed modification and patenting (from a negative stance). We discussed "mono-cropping" (only growing limited varieties of limited foods) and how political agendas can affect food supplies around the world.

Soohwan has worked for Food for the Hungry in south-east Asia, so she was an invaluable contributor to our discussion. While she acknowledged the relief that food aid brings to hungry communities, she identified some downsides of foreign (usually western) aid: that the seed supplied was often patented (so local farmers were not allowed to save seed but had to buy it for subsequent crops); the seed provided through aid programs often wasn't appropriate for the local growing conditions; food aid often altered the local diet (sometimes to the detriment of general health and well-being); and that political arrangements sometimes meant foreign food was sold below cost, so local farmers found it difficult to sell what they were able to grow.

I must admit that this discussion got us all a bit glum about world food supplies and how our governments sometimes contribute troubles to those already suffering from hunger. Although I can't vouch for its practices, if you want a free opportunity to contribute rice to an aid programme, click the "free rice" link on the right-hand side of this blog. It takes you to a little game where you can 'earn' rice by correctly identifying word meanings. The rice is paid for by the sponsorship banners at the bottom of the game, and the words are interesting too. My highest vocab level was 46.

Our reading for this class was to browse the coffee-table-book Hungry Planet, by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio. Each photograph showed a family's food for a typical week, and was accompanied by an essay describing the family, their occupations, eating habits and culture. My quote comes from the interview with an Equadorean family from a village in the Andean mountains.

“Has anyone in the family ever eaten fast food?”
“One time, when I was at a course of study in Ambato,” says Orlando. “It was meat on bread [a hamburger]. It was okay, but a bit strange. And I wasn’t able to see how it was made” (p. 116, my italics).

Is being able to see how our food is made an important part of our food culture?

After the heavy discussion, the day ended with a celebration of American culture as another group (all American) presented their mindful meal: Food From the New World. Each dish was accompanied with a reading (myths and legends, information about its source or original development, poems, etc.).

Their menu consisted of:

New England Clam Chowder in a Sourdough Bread Bowl
Mixed Greens (some wild) with Apple Cider Vinaigrette
Haida Sugar Salmon (Wild Pacific Sockeye)
Black Krim Heritage Tomatoes with Herbed Polenta and Goat Cheese Ricotta
Rosemary Roasted Red Potatoes
Steamed Asparagus with Butter, Cracked Pepper and Salt
Apple Pie and Hand-cranked Vanilla Ice Cream
Cafe au Lait with Roasted Dandelion Root

The clams were local and the salmon had come from Siberia. Loren took note of Robert's hand-carved spatula, too. The tomatoes were beautiful and delicious. We were all blessed by this group, who saved the tomato seeds, dried them, and gave us each some. (After a bit of research, I was able to take them (legally) through NZ Customs and give them to my grandad. Hopefully he'll get them to grow this summer!) The asparagus was divine (as it always is)! The "pie a la mode" was great, too, with that beautiful creamy icecream. The dandelion coffee would take a bit of getting used to, if I was to drink it all the time, but the story behind the similar use of chicory root during the Civil War was fascinating.

Food Course: Our Mindful Meal

2008-08-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

One of the assignments for the food course was a 'mindful meal': "students will work together to plan, cook, serve, and present an evening meal to the class. The presentation should include 1) their rationale for the choices of the particular meal; 2) any history they can discover about the food used, the cooking methods, ethnic origin, and so on; 3) the point of origin and transportation details of the food items. In other words, their job is to awake in us a mindful appreciation of and sense of responsibility for what we are eating - AND a delight in food as a gift of God in creation."

My group discovered early in our discussions that we all came from different countries... me from NZ, Esther from England, Matt from USA, Elly from Canada, Claudia from Austria, and Soohwan from Korea. Consequently, we planned our meal around a simple lamb stew. Wanting to bring a bit of ourselves to this meal, we chose to unite 'homestyle' elements of each of our food heritages, in the same way a stew brings together many ingredients to add flavour to one another. Since the majority of our cultures were western, we chose not to include a Korean dish, but instead, to eat our meal in the context of Korean manners, where traditional ettiquette is governed by social class and respect for elders.

Our menu was as follows (sources in italics):

REFRESHMENTS
Beer, Water, Wine
Beer: Matt’s kitchen (with transport via the ferry with Roxy)
Water: from the farm well
House Wine: from the Wilkinson’s cellar
APPETIZER
Spinach Dip in Bread Bowls with carrots and bread for dipping
Spinach: Matt’s garden (again, thanks to Roxy)
Bread: made right here
Other ingredients from Vancouver Island
MAIN COURSE
Lamb Stew with Dumplings, Garlicky Mashed Potatoes, and Green Beans
Lamb: Campbell’s Farm, Saturna Island
Beans: canned by the Wilkinsons last summer
Fresh Herbs: from the Wilkinson’s garden
Other ingredients from Vancouver Island
DESSERT
Topfencreme
Quark: from Foothills Creamery, Alberta, that makes European style cheeses
Other ingredients from Vancouver Island

We each wrote about why we had chosen these foods and how they represented our cultures, and included this information, along with a summary of Korean table etiquette, on our menu sheets. My ingredient was lamb so I wrote about NZ sheep farming and my grandparents' farm. Our table decorations were 'homestyle' too: bouquets of grass, driftwood to sit breadbowls and hot dishes on, and simple candles.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Matt's beer and his spinach dip were great (and I don't even like beer much!) There was enough lamb stew and dumplings for two dinners (Esther and I made it stretch a long way, based loosely on this recipe). Elly's green beans and mashed potatoes were gobbled up quickly. Claudia's topfencreme (see recipe below) was delicious. By far, the most difficult part of the evening was sticking to the Korean manners that Soohwan explained to us - but that made for a lot of laughter, learning and conversation.

TOPFENCREME

250g quark
250g whipped cream (250ml whipping cream)
500g vanilla yoghurt
sugar
mixed berries (fresh or frozen)

Defrost berries if necessary. Add sugar to berries to taste.

Mix quark and yoghurt until smooth. Fold in whipped cream. Add sugar to taste.

Serve cream mixture with berries drizzled over. (Leftovers... if there are any... make a nice topping for sweet pancakes or waffles.)

Serves 4.

Food Course: Food For the Household

2008-07-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

Monday started with a class session discussing gardens, meals, and cooking. Mary Ruth talked about the gardens in The Bible. Eden and the garden where Jesus was laid in the tomb act as bookends to the salvation narrative. (I think the tree of life on each side of the river in Revelation 22 probably is a more fitting bookend). The garden of Gethsemane falls in the middle, a symbol of the opposite of both Eden & the world after Jesus' resurrection, despite its beauty. We talked about the 'more than' essence of Christian life, and the role gardening plays in being more than just producing food.

Meals are a means of celebrating culture, family, history and being mindful of God. Mary Ruth talked about creating a meal culture that cultivates these through table settings, companions, and thankfulness to God.

Our cooking discussion focussed on how we learn and teach basic cooking skills, practice economy, use gardens and make decisions about what we eat (or don't eat). My quote comes from Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food. "To eat slowly, then, also means to eat deliberately, in the original sense of that word: ‘from freedom’ instead of compulsion." (The subtitle is a good summary of his book: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.")

We then went to visit an organic 6-acre farm at the north end of Galiano, owned by Donna and Hans (friends of the Wilkinsons). It is a self-sustaining garden, that produces enough to supply a number of households on the island. Donna runs a CSA-type of arrangement with these families, makes preserves (like her yummy Kiwi, Blackberry & Orange Jam) and sells any extra veges at the local market. This place also reminded me of my grandparents' garden, but Grandad doesn't have to set (humane) beaver traps to protect his orchard!

While most of the class remained to help in the garden for an hour or so, I returned with my group to prepare our 'mindful meal'. More about that next post!

Food Course: Rest, Retreat and Worship

2008-07-26T14:29:00.000-07:00

Sunday was scheduled as a day of rest. People had the opportunity to have family visit (and it happened to be Mothers' Day). We made pizzas (with lots of individual variations), sat and talked, and Anna pulled out her watercolours for people to have a go.

It rained some time, but it was a chance to catch up on reading, do some journalling and reflect on the course so far.

I loved the sound and sight of the rain in the forest area and wrote this poem (Disclaimer: I am not a poet!)

Tin roof timpani

Log trombone with moss mufflers

Slick, lustrous arbutus double bass

Invisibly-plucked fiddlehead strings

Shimmering pine needle chimes

Fern flutes a-flutter

Leafy piano keys fingered by raindrops

I fathom Beethoven's frustration

as I strain for the whispers

of the forest's symphonic crescendo

Food Course: Salt Spring Island

2008-07-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

Our Saturday morning started early. We had a field trip to Salt Spring Island planned. Half of the group rowed 3-4 km across the strait between Galiano Island and Salt Spring Island. The other half drove down to the ferry terminal and caught the ferry from Galiano Island to Vancouver Island, then on to Salt Spring Island. The groups swapped for the return journey, the ferry-ers stopping to shop for the weeks' meals on the way back. I was in the group that took the ferry in the morning.

Our main destination was Salt Spring Seeds. This farm, dedicated to growing food and seed of older varieties of plants, is run by Dan Jason. His 'seed and plant sanctuary' is funded by the sales of his heirloom seeds and the yoga centre on the property. (Some similar heirloom seed and plant growers in New Zealand are Koanga Gardens, Seed Savers, Edible Garden, and Eco-Seeds.) Dan spoke to us about the need to save seed, his philosophy of conservation and farming, the problems associated with genetically-modified seed, and then showed us round part of the farm.

The farm reminded me of my grandparents and their 3-acre farm in Levin, NZ. They have a fabulous vege garden, orchard and flower garden. Grandad enjoys sharing his produce and Heath family Christmasses wouldn't be the same without their potatoes, peas, and salad greens!

After visiting the farm we swapped transport and my group headed back to the boat. (The Wilkinsons use this boat on their summer school boat course each year.) On the way to the dock we stopped at a market day in the settlement called Ganges. There were lots of crafts, preserves and plants from the local artisans and gardeners. The other group had stopped there earlier in the day.The trip back to Galiano took about an hour and a half. It was much more difficult to keep in time with each other than it looked. I'm sure I'd get the hang of it by the end of the boat course, but my fellow rowers may have thrown me overboard by then! There was no wind and......we broke an oar about halfway back across the strait!We got home safely enough, and scrambled up the rocks before reheating some nettle spanokopita (picked by myself and Nathan, and prepared by myself, Joe Ellis and Sarah Crowley before the course started).

Food Course: Day 5

2008-07-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

Our fifth day focussed on the connections between people, food and land. We broke our fast with challah bread and helped prepare the Seder meal.

Our discussions focussed on the gift of the promised land to the Israelites, a restoration of their relationship with God and the land. This was linked with the Passover and jubilee festivals, inaugurated in the Old Testament. We also discussed the implications of the new covenant in the New Testament and the heralding of God's kingdom on earth.

These discussions about people's broken relationships with the land led to a conversation about western farming practices, and how changes in the 1920s and 1930s (particularly in the US) advocated farmers (and farm land) as producers, rather than the established concept of farmers as nurturers of the land. We talked about bioregionalism, and the emergence of the conservation and environmental movements.

Our reading included excerpts from a couple of essays by Wendell Berry, one of Loren's favourite authors and poets. The quote I chose is from Berry's first chapter of "The Unsettling of America", page 12:
"But is work something that we have a right to escape? And can we escape it with impunity? We are probably the first entire people ever to think so. All the ancient wisdom that has come down to us counsels otherwise. It tells us that work is necessary to us, as much a part of our condition as mortality; that good work is our salvation and our joy; that shoddy or dishonest or self-serving work is our curse and our doom. We have tried to escape the sweat and sorrow promised in Genesis—only to find that, in order to do so, we must forswear love and excellence, health and joy."

Seder Meal

2008-07-26T10:28:00.001-07:00

It was a natural conclusion to our days spent talking about biblical foundations for the understanding of food, to have a seder meal, a feast celebrated during the Jewish passover. As you can see, Mary Ruth and Loren really got into the spirit of things as our 'parents' presiding over the meal!We gathered around the specially laid table. Each setting was headed with a small plate of symbolic food, a shell, a wine glass, a bowl of salty water, and a booklet containing a form of liturgy. Here you can see the special Seder plate at the head of the table, which contains the symbolic food:
* a green herb (parsley) to be dipped in salty water - a symbol of new life coming from sweat and suffering in the past
* a lamb shank bone (from the roast lamb) - a reminder of the lamb eaten by the Israelites on the night God passed over their houses, sparing their first-born
* bitter herbs (horseradish, onion and lettuce) - a symbol of the bitter life of slavery under Pharaoh in Egypt
* charoset (a 'pebbly' mixture of apples, nuts and spices, moistened with wine), in which the bitter herbs are dipped - a symbol of the mortar and bricks the Israelites slaves made in Egypt
* an egg (hard-boiled or roasted) - a symbol of the cycle of life, and also a symbol of mourning the destruction of Jerusalem

The liturgy recalls the Israelites escape from Egypt, the goodness of God, and offers praise to God. I helped make the unleavened matzah bread (a bit like crackers - whole wheat flour, oil and water) that was broken and shared. The liturgy also encouraged the consumption of four glasses of wine. Given that we'd spent the previous day fasting (in line with our discussion earlier), we all poured very small portions!

Once the main part of the liturgy was complete we feasted! Chicken soup with matzo balls, roast lamb, salad, vegetables, and Passover cake for dessert (much like a sponge cake made with almond meal).
We were all very full by the end of the evening, as we finished the liturgy with praise and thanksgiving.

Food Course: Days 3 - 4

2008-07-24T10:23:00.000-07:00

Days 3 and 4 of the course were entitled "Biblical Foundations and Themes" and we delved into scripture to explore the ideas of Eden, Passover, kosher eating, feasting, fasting, sabbath, hospitality, justice and Eucharist.

Obviously that was a lot to cover, so here are some notes that have got me thinking:
1. Sabbath: In sabbath becoming Sunday, it loses its deep sense of peace...
* setting aside our own agendas
* appreciating what we have
* sharing what we have
* delighting in what we have
Sabbath is not a legalistic duty but linked to the creation narrative (with all its implications), centred on a meal. Any meal can be a mini-sabbath if it helps us slow down and appreciate God's goodness to us.

2. Eden: Genesis 2:15-17 sets God's agenda for creation and humanity. Man participates with God in the full flowering of creation. The garden is life-giving and comes with a prohibition (and consequences). Death is part of creation before humanity is created (think compost and geological findings about fossil fuels!) How is death as a punishment to be seen then? Sin is ultimately about our choice to separate ourselves from God. The immediate death in Eden is the fear, shame and discomfort that Adam & Eve suffer when they eat the forbidden fruit, breaking their communion with God. Alexander Schmemann, an Eastern Orthodox theologian, has more to say about the sacramental nature of life in For the Life of the World.

3. Hospitality: The covenantal relationships God has with humanity and creation are often sealed and celebrated with a meal (sacrifice or feast). In Genesis 18, Abraham welcomes his holy guests with a meal. In 2 Kings 6:8-23 a meal is the setting in which conflicts are solved. In some cultures (ancient & nowadays) a guest is considered 'family' once they have had a meal, or three cups of tea, or eaten bread... Even in the West today, food is used to break down social barriers, to build relationships, and celebrate people and remembered events.

4. Fasting & Kosher: One way show appreciation for God is to feast and be thankful; another is to refrain from eating certain foods, or for a period of time. This acknowledges that while food is a necessity, it can also become a temptation or idol. How and what we eat is important. In recognising our hunger, we recognise our need for and dependence on God.

The quotes I chose for these days are:
"The first, the basic definition of man is that he is the priest. He stands in the center of the world and unifies it in his acts of blessing God, of both receiving the world from God and offering it to God – and by filling the world with this eucharist, he transforms his life, the one he receives from the world, into life in God, into communion with Him. The world was created as the “matter,” the material of one all-embracing eucharist, and man was created as the priest of this cosmic sacrament" (Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World, 15).

This one just tickled my fancy! "Except ye munch the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves" (Aileen Guilding, The Fourth Gospel and Jewish Worship, 59, [quoting John 6:53, my italics]). No wonder the early Christians were thought to be cannabilistic in their worship of Christ! But surely we would gain more life if we really savour our relationship with Jesus.

"In the eucharist the curse is undone and paradise restored. Instead of the eating that brought death there is offered the eating that brings eternal life. The… Eucharistic bread as the antidote to the forbidden fruit of Genesis 3” (Guilding, 63).

Food Course: Day 2

2008-07-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I haven't been on the food course for the last 2 months, but here is my attempt to begin to catch you up with what has happened (briefly!)

Day 2 was entitled "Eating to Live / Living to Eat" and our lecture and discussion focussed on the flow from the biology... to ecology... to philosophy... and to theology of eating. We talked about the need to eat and how our bodies use food, especially about the misleading analogy of the body as a machine (machines burn fuel, while bodies are rebuilt by the food we consume). We discussed agriculture as a simplified form of a natural ecosystem, which in itself can also be a large threat to the natural ecosystem! The philosophical and theological discussions ended up melding into one discussion but I can't really sum it up in a sentence. We ranged far and wide!

The quote I chose for today was from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (page 10): “I used to take my children’s friends out to the garden to warm them up to the idea of eating vegetables, but this strategy sometimes backfired: they’d back away slowly saying, ‘Oh man, those things touched dirt!’”
Kingsolver's book was an easy, informative, and entertaining read. Her website continues the story from her book, which documents her family's move to a farm in the Appalachian countryside.

Food Course Intro

2008-05-07T20:26:00.000-07:00

I am currently on a course called "Food: Creation, Community, and Communion," held on Galiano Island, one of the Gulf Islands off the west coast of British Columbia. I am one of 25 Regent College students who are privileged to be participating in this course in its inaugural offering. It is being taught and hosted by Mary Ruth and Loren Wilkinson, who have taught me (separately) in other courses I've taken at Regent.

So far, we have had a busy time. Our general daily rhythm is lectures in the mornings and rest or chores in the afternoons. We have 50+ pages of reading for each class and some evenings we watch food related movies.

On Sunday night the class arrived at Galiano Island (rather late) and we had gingerbread for dessert and settled into our places of sleep. I am staying at the Fee/Martin house, about 7 minutes walk from the Wilkinson's farmhouse. It has a beautiful view of the water, looking out on Salt Spring Island.

Monday morning saw us consume crepes and multiple toppings for breakfast, before our first lecture in the Wilkinson's living room. Our scripture reading was from Luke, where Jesus invites his disciples for breakfast on the beach. We then introduced ourselves to the class, saying where we were from (before Regent) and why we had come to the course. It was amazing how diverse and how similar many of our answers were!

Mary Ruth then spoke about the main components of a meal: tongue, table, guests and grace. She read two children's books, An Angel for Solomon Singer and Mrs Moskowitz and the Sabbath Candlesticks, and based her lecture on our two readings (selections from Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner, and Leon Kass, The Hungry Soul). It was interesting to see how aspects of a meal we take for granted are quite significant in "being human."

For lunch we had nettle soup (yes, some of the nettles we picked and prepared, Nath) and "biscuits" (scones). Then my group had a 'rest day' so I read and napped in the afternoon.

I picked my 'daily quote' from the required reading for our class anthology from Visser, page 14: "…(the Maori word tapu is the origin of our “taboo”)…" It formed part of a discussion of the etiquette of cannibalism amongst Maori and other cultural groups! I thought it was particularly interesting, given my understanding of tapu as holy, and its use for conserving resources in local areas.

Dinner was kedgeree. Yum! It was an opportunity to put some 'cultural context' around the food. I know kedgeree as a British breakfast dish, derived from India (when occupied by the British). This was confirmed by our two UK students, Debbie and Esther. I explained this to Soohwan, our Korean friend who has spent a lot of time in Bangladesh, and she laughed: "Kidgeree is a dish made from leftovers or the mash fed to babies! I've never had it with smoked fish."

After dinner there was a showing of a Danish film (with subtitles), Babette's Feast. It explored community, acceptance, gratitude, and generosity. A fine way to end our first day.

Thanksgiving Dinner

2007-10-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-10-06T14:22:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-06T14:12:00.000-07:00

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!

A Call to Cater

2007-09-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

The past week or so has been a flurry of first classes and catering functions. My new job, as catering assistant to the Dean's office, kicked off with a hiss and a roar on the Friday before classes started. With some input from my boss, Lynne, I planned and catered for the faculty and spouses dinner at the start of the academic year. An 'old' friend, April, and a 'new' friend, Amanda, helped me prepare and serve a three course meal. Talk about pressure to perform! Not only my lecturers, but also their spouses, had their first taste of my food, and formed ideas (and expectations) of my offerings for the remainder of the year. I hope the bar hasn't been set too high.

For those who want to know, the menu was as follows:

Appetisers - creamy dip with carrot, cucumber & celery sticks, and pita crisps
- crackers with a selection of cheeses (French brie, goats, & various shades of cheddar)

Main/Entree - chicken thighs, stuffed with roasted red capsicum & wrapped in bacon
- lettuce salad & pasta salad (both laden with vegetables)
- a wild rice medley
- fresh bread and butter

Dessert - chocolate and lemon yoghurt cakes
- vanilla icecream
- fresh fruit platter

All the planning came together smoothly and it was deemed a success by Lynne, my helpers, and the faculty. One of the most enjoyable parts of the job, apart from the good food and great help, was the privilege of interacting with the faculty in a social setting. Another highlight was being hosted in the home of Phil & Polly Long, having free reign in their kitchen and access to all their beautiful (possibly antique) dinnerware and their handmade pottery servingware.

The food must have made an impression because it resulted in an 'on the spot' request for me to cater for a library function this past week so a lemon and a chocolate cake were duly dispatched. This then expanded to an order for 120 chocolate chip cookies, advertised as the incentive to attend library orientation for new students! Apparently they were well received also.

When the cookie order was placed the caveat was "no nuts please". Thinking chocolate chip cookies and chocolate chip biscuits were one and the same, this came as a bit of a surprise. Further research, however, revealed quite a difference in recipe and result. I used this recipe, and found the accompanying story rather sweet. Be warned: the recipe yielded 3 dozen cookies, not the 4 dozen promised... thank goodness I had enough extra ingredients!

These two extra jobs have been perfectly timed by God. The money was provided just as we had to purchase a new electric kettle/jug. We discovered the stove-top kettle was rusting from the inside out, so two days of boiling water in a pot for the numerous cups of tea we (well, one of us) consumes was getting a bit tiresome!

My more regular catering duties were also fulfilled during the week too. The faculty meeting coffee & dessert consisted of baby lemon meringue pies and chocolate zucchini muffins. The faculty at coffee break enjoyed savoury zucchini muffins and cheese and crackers left over from the faculty dinner. As you may have guessed, there were a few zucchini left over from the dinner too!

Some more focus on the actual reason for being here (i.e. study!) is needed now, as my call to cater has eased off for a wee while at least.

Coconut Cupcakes

2007-09-03T21:22:00.000-07:00

This recipe was adapted by our friend, Tien, from an online coconut cake recipe she found. She made cupcakes instead, and they're scrummy! We had them with fruit-salad-icecream from the Filipino bakery around the corner from Tien's place.

2 c all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 c butter
1 c sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla flavouring
1 c coconut milk
1 c flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350ºF (175ºC). Prepare cupcake cases in muffin tins.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt together, and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Mix in vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and coconut milk, mixing well between each addition. Fold in flaked coconut.

Spoon batter into cupcake cases. Bake until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. The original recipe for a cake says 1 hour, but start with 15 minutes and check after that.

Bible (Edmonds Version)

2007-09-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

Being a New Zealander, living on a student budget in Vancouver, Canada, has a tendency to lead one to nostalgia for familiar food. Not that Canadian food is that much different overall, but the influences of Quebec and U.S.A. are obvious to me! Croissants in a can, anyone?!

The first item to enter the suitcase on the big move over was not my Holy Bible (shock! horror!... a theological grad student without a Bible?) because I knew I'd be able to find plenty of those when I got here (and after 8 months we have 5 versions). It was, in fact, my Edmonds Cookery Book - the NZ cooking bible. This wise decision was verified not long after we arrived when, within a week of meeting them, two different Kiwis over here exclaimed, "You have your Edmonds! Can I borrow it?"

This lead me to thinking... I wonder if it is online in any form? and Can you order it from Amazon, etc.? A quick search reveals an even better gem than my 1999 edition - the 3rd edition from 1914 - facsimiled and typed out at an online archive here. I haven't tried anything from it yet, but it reveals the change in NZ culinary history when compared to my copy.

My edition has been put to use tonight. I made the short pastry for a bacon and egg pie that isn't really a pie. It doesn't have a pastry lid so it's more of a quiche. Then again, the eggs aren't beaten with milk, just cracked over the onions and bacon and topped with grated cheese. We've come to the conclusion that it could be a 'piche'. It isn't that glamorous to look at so there isn't a picture, but N did have seconds so it can't be bad.

Spice Square

2007-08-20T22:26:00.000-07:00

This is my Grandma Thomas's recipe. Nathan requested it this week (thanks for emailing it to me, Mum). I had a desperate moment when, partway through making it, I discovered that the half-jar of jam in the cupboard... the only jar of jam... was very mouldy after a warm summer break! Read the variation below to see how I solved this dilemma.

4oz butter
4oz sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp golden syrup
1½ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp cinnamon
raspberry jam (jelly)
raspberry or strawberry jelly (Jell-o) crystals

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and syrup. Sift together flour, baking powder and spices, and add to creamed mixture.

On baking paper, spread or roll out dough to twice the size of a sponge roll tin. (It will be thin!) Spread half the dough with raspberry jam. Use paper to fold dough in half, enclosing the jam. Trim paper and slide into tin. Bake 20-25 minutes, at 350ºF.

When cool, ice with plain butter icing and sprinkle over jelly crystals. Cut into squares.

Variation: if jam is unavailable, reserve jelly crystals for sprinkling on icing, then sprinkle the remainder of the packet on the dough in place of the jam. This makes a thinner, slightly chewier filling than jam, but tastes much the same!

Raspberry Bars

2007-08-18T13:04:00.000-07:00

(adapted from Taunton’s Fine Cooking Magazine – Dec 2006)

Yields about 4 dozen bars.

375g unsalted butter at room temperature (plus more for pan)
1⅔ c granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3½ c all-purpose flour
2oog hazelnuts, toasted & chopped (1⅔ c)
2 c raspberry jam

Heat the oven to 350ºF. Butter a 9x13-inch baking pan.
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour and mix just enough to incorporate. Add the nuts and mix until just blended.
Press about two thirds of the mixture into the prepared pan. Spread with raspberry jam, then crumble the remaining dough on top. Bake until the top is lightly browned, about 1 hour. Cool and cut into squares.

Yummy as a dessert, served warm with icecream!