Kids Favourite Snack

For some reason we've ended up with about four litres of yoghurt in the fridge, and some of it is getting close to its use by date.

Miss 6 won't touch yoghurt in its liquid form.  However, freeze it, and she'll eat nothing else :)  To make my frozen yoghurt drops I simply cover a tray in baking paper and drop teaspoons of yoghurt onto it.

That's about 200ml yoghurt

I stick this in the freezer, and a couple of hours later take it out and put the frozen drops into freezer bags.  She will even force herself to eat bolognese sauce to get one of these :)

Of course the leftovers had to be put to good use by me :)

Arvo tea

Aftermath of the Disaster + Salad dressing

Following the serendipitous seed disaster of April which forced me to kick-start the vege patch, things have been growing nicely in the garden.  So well, that I spent the morning thinning out the rows of seedlings.  Normally I wouldn't have planted so many seeds, but in this case I was trying to get whole packets into the ground, so there is a lot of thinning out to be done.

Thinnings have a very mild flavour, so I collected the ones that were culled, picked them over and turned them into a salad.

Thinnings: Turnip, beetroot and lettuce

Dressed them with a perfectly lovely dressing

5 tsp Maple syrup (can use honey)

3 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp rice wine vinegar

 A perfectly lovely dressing

And lunch is served...

Well, this was the entree

Twice Burnt Seafood Pie with Singed Leeks and Celery

Oh Gourmet Garden, you had no idea what you were getting into when you sent me some herbs and suggested that I cook with them and blog about it.

I wanted to be a chef once, used to do dinner for six, twelve and even twenty-five if the mood took me.  But then I had children. The cooking part of my brain disappeared when I was pregnant and never, ever came back, and now regardless of what I serve up, it is invariably declared 'disgusting' by Miss 6.  My will to cook, wavering after endless sleepless nights and an ill-fated attempt to cook rice cereal with my own breast milk, has gone entirely.

For this I apologise.

So, I shall call today's creation Twice Burnt Seafood Pie with Singed Leeks and Celery.  If I was one of those food bloggy types I'd call my leeks and celery, over caramelised.  But I'm not. I'm just tired.

Ingredients are thus...

2 tsp olive oil  (glug of canola from bottle, couldn't find olive due to earlier plastic bag avalanche in pantry)
1 leek, thinly sliced, washed, drained (grew my own *smug grin,* also we may define 'thinly' slightly differently)
2 sticks celery, chopped (I went 1 stick, yes, living on the edge, me)
2 tbsp plain flour
1 cup reduced-fat milk (I just poured it in until the flour got to the right stage of gluey-ness)
200 g smoked cod, chopped (also remove skin and check for bones esp if cooking for kids)
300 g skinless salmon, chopped (as above)
12 individual king prawns, peeled (don't forget to pull out the poo-chutes)
1/2 cup frozen peas, (wow, peas, I had no idea they were needed in this recipe)
2 tsp lemon rind, grated
1 Tbsp Gourmet Garden Thyme (see, plug, admit it, I'm a marketing dream)
1 Tbsp Gourmet Garden Basil (more plugs, its like a sink around here)
Reduced-fat puff pastry, just thawed (thawed?? hmm, that would've helped)
1 medium egg, lightly beaten (I used milk, the Ladies's eggs are not to be wasted on glazing pastry)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 220°C or 200°C fan-forced.  (Is anyone actually this organised?)

Heat olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. (Turn stove onto full, put on pan, add oil of choice, ignore unless the smoke alarm goes off)

Add leek and celery and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until softened. (Pah, add leeks and celery to dangerously hot oil, turn stove down, get distracted by cutting up fish and de-poo chuting prawns, smell burning, swear, add cup water, scrape burnt bits with wooden spoon. Get distracted by dog, children, husband, twitter, facebook, ebay etc...  Repeat from 'smell burning.' Congratulations your pie is now twice burnt.)

Add flour and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. (If you can stir the resulting sludge then you are a better cook than me, but it is easier to see the burnt bits now)

Gradually add milk and ½ cup (125ml) water and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until sauce boils and thickens. (Turn down heat, desperately add more milk, and stir like mad to stop the whole thing sticking and burning even more, when it looks like glue and stops bubbling, you're there)

Reduce heat to low (oh, NOW you tell me)

Add cod, salmon and king prawns and cook for 5 minutes or until just cooked through.
Add frozen peas, lemon rind and herbs, stirring to combine.  (I put in herbs ages ago, so I could pretend burnty bits were actually herby bits)

Spoon seafood mixture into prepared ramekins. (But what if you can only find one ramekin? I have four, I do. But just never all in the same place at the same time)

Cut pastry into 4 squares.
Brush edges of ramekins with egg.
Place pastry over filling and trim edges, pressing to seal.
Brush tops with remaining egg.
Using a fork or skewer, lightly pierce tops to allow steam to escape.
Place ramekins on a baking tray.

Bake for 25–30 minutes or until puffed and golden. (Don't forget and burn the pastry, just sayin)

Taa Daa
Twice Burnt Seafood Pie with Singed Leeks and Celery

End result...

Verdict
Hubs: Loved it
Me: Actually it was really nice, the prawns and the salmon saved it
Miss Nearly 8: I'm not eating that (she ate the lot)
Miss 6: Disgusting (she ate the pastry)
Louise Next Door: Smells lovely (she dropped in too late to eat any ;))

Next stop Masterchef...

Exciting News: Drive Me To Distraction

My New Years resolutions for this year, made very close to midnight on Twitter, were three things.

1. That 2012 be my year of writing
2. That I'd wear nail polish on my toenails
3. That I'd drink gin

Interestingly, I've stuck to the first one, and totally bombed out on the second two.  Well, I ran out of gin, and am working my way through the alcohol cabinet before I go out and start buying new bottles of anything. I sound like a complete alcoholic now, don't I?

Anyway, without further ado, I'd like to take a deep breath and announce that I've contracted Drive Me To Distraction with Momentum Books, the e-publishing arm of Pan Macmillian.

Which means, I'm going to be a published author again.

OMG, I'm going to be a published author again!!! :D

Its been a long time between novels for me.  

After Secret Intentions was published I was diagnosed with a scorching case of Post-Natal Depression.  I made a decision, at that time, to step back from publishing (hell, I was such a mess I could barely make myself a cup of tea, let alone market a book).  In any case, I found my anti-depressants totally squashed my creativity, and writing took more energy that I had to give. 

I let it go.  

Well, to a degree. I never stopped blogging!  But what I wrote about became what was happening in everyday life. Not fiction.

A year passed.  I found my feet and with the help of a brilliant counsellor and the anti-depressants, I slowly recovered from PND.

Then the wonderful Trisha Telep asked me to write a short story for The Mammoth Book of Special Ops Romance (The Grey Man) and the popularity of that led to a big jump in sales of both Running Scared and Secret Intentions.  The writing spark began to flicker once more.

18 months after my diagnosis, I stopped taking the anti-depressants.  Still wary of putting myself under to much pressure, and dealing with Miss (now) 6, who as it turned out, had Aspergers syndrome, I did not dive right in, but instead started to write.  The stories were stories of my heart; named Drive Me To Distraction, The Bunker, Running With The Hunted and Fat Chance.  They followed no rhyme or reason, or structure or rules.

And then in early 2012 I decided it was time to start submitting again, just to see what would happen.  By mid February I had five full requests from seven query letters, and things were looking pretty exciting.

Which brings us to today.

I have read and signed the contract.  Sent it on its way, and am filled with a huge sense of satisfaction and anticipation.  My story will be out by the end of the year, and I am so excited to be back.  

:)

Enduring The Insanity and Rhubarb & OJ Ice Blocks

Yes, yes, I've been watching River Cottage again.  Its school holidays, and I have the whole entire family in the house all day, every day.  I'm teetering on the brink of sanity at the best of times, but now...?

River Cottage is happy and calm, everyone is nice, no one demands breakfast then spits it on the floor, or refuses to eat anything but cup cakes.  The garden is neat and tidy, not a desolate chook poo covered wasteland, nor are there avocado trees glaring accusingly from where they sit, unplanted, in their pots.  The kitchen is clean, no maggots in the scrap bin, no mildew growing in the grout on the sink splash-back.  And everyone seems content, not having a screaming fight with their sister because its 12 hours before another room unlocks on pet hotel.

So yes, I have been watching River Cottage, and in a fit of deluded enthusiasm decided to renew my quest to get Miss 6 to eat something other than white bread and honey.

No I didn't seriously think I'd get her to eat anything with rhubarb in it.

So, Rhubarb and OJ Ice Blocks... RECIPE HERE

Rhubarb from the garden
Ignore the strawberries, I spotted them when I was getting the rhubarb
Orange from California, sigh (WHY COLES WHY??)

I cooked 5 sticks of rhubarb with the juice of the orange, some honey and brown sugar until they were soft.

Then into the whizzer to get rid of any chunky bits

And the rather lovely end result

Hubs and I loved our, Miss 7 liked hers, but it was too rich for her to finish, and Miss 6 refused to have a bar of it, except for digging hers out of the ice-block maker with her finger and eating it that way (is that a win? Maybe a win the battle, lose the war, kind of win, or the other way around. Hmm)

Now I am not usually one to tease, but I have news, big news, but I'm not saying a thing about it until Monday.

Thus the insanity continues.

Whole New Meaning to a MacChicken

Next-door's dogs dug under the fence this morning and caused there to be much squawking and panicking (chickens), swearing and bellowing (me), and running about and barking (the dogs).

No harm done, but when I came back inside I found this refugee.

At least she didn't poo

Now do you see what I must overcome to blog!!?!!

She let me pick her up and put her outside, and is now back in her coop with the others and some breakfast :)

Easter Miracle & Home made Strawberry Ice-blocks

So, as all you wonderful lovely fabulous regular readers know (I love you guys, I surely do :)), I lost my blogging/gardening/cooking mojo a while back, then got injected with copious amounts of B12 and It All Came Back.

Hurray.

River Cottage and its plethora of TV shows and books have been around for a while.  In the miasma of the last few years they sort-of passed me by.  But, recently, I've become addicted -  the food and the cooking encapsulate everything I was taught as a child by my English Grandparents, Aunt, and Father.  All of whom had/have the dual aims in life to either be outside in the garden growing stuff, or inside in the kitchen cooking it. So, not surprisingly, River Cottage truly resonates with me.

I was watching River Cottage Everyday (Fruit) yesterday, and HFW made some sublime Strawberry Ice-blocks.

In our much neglected garden, the Strawberries have had a late summer burst of activity.

Got 250g worth!!

Tossed the 250g of strawberries into the blender with 25g icing sugar

Into the whizzer

 Then poured the mixture into our ice-block making thingy

This is a zoku
It is utterly brilliant
Makes ice-blocks in about 5 minutes

 And result...

Home made strawberry ice-blocks

One of my many aims at the moment is to try to get Miss 6 to broaden her diet (presently it's white bread with honey, and apple juice). And this was a total win (once she got over the presence of strawberry seeds, and I suppose a better mother than I would've sieved them out).
She then turned around and ate a banana, at which point I fainted with delight.
And THEN she ate some frozen yoghurt drops.  Well butter me up and call me a Sayo, its an Easter Miracle.

Yeah, it'll be back to white toast tomorrow, but for today I'm grabbing my glimmer of hope with both hands.

Stuffing Self with Yumminess

I was going to title this post Yeast: Potato + Rosemary Pizza and Hot Cross Buns, but I didn't feel it covered the full extent of the gorgeousness that's going on in my kitchen today.

We had some pizza dough leftover from the other night.  We just stored it in plastic in the fridge for four days, and it rolled out and cooked beautifully.  For lunch we just wanted to grab things from the fridge, and ended up with a Potato and Rosemary Pizza and a vege one.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/16481/potato+rosemary+and+parmesan+pizza

Hubs was cooking

I've also put on some Hot Cross Buns 

Ingredients in the breadmaker tin

My previous post about this recipe is HERE, with links to the recipe.

Pancake Day...

What A Day.

It began early. Very early. With a meeting at school to discuss Miss 6 going on camp next week.  The upshot of it all was that I shall be loitering incognito in various locations around Sydney next week, ready to put Plan B (grab child, hurl in car, drive away quickly) into action should the plot become lost at any point.  Just between us, I know Miss 6 will be fine on camp.  Its the coming home excited out of her brain that triggers the meltdowns, and that'll only be shared between us and a block or so of neighbours.  You know. Discreetly. Our specialty.

Hubs and I then headed off to a cafe for a restorative coffee, and thence to Hornsby for another restorative coffee - yes, yes, we were suffering.  Only to have the phone ring... Miss 6 was lying on the floor complaining of a sore throat, and needed to be collected from school.  Now Miss 6 was rather poorly over the weekend, a rather nasty 40+ temperature resulted in an afternoon at Hornsby Hospital in the company of wonderful Nurse Jess and awesome Dr Hamilton.

Poor Miss 6

Neurofen, panadol and a dose of steroids finally saw things improving, but Miss 6 hasn't been 100% since.  So we hot-footed it back to school to collect the invalid.

And that was all before 9.30am

The rest managed to include sausages for lunch, two trips to the supermarket, capturing escaping chickens, inspecting a fallen-down branch, editing and rewriting, a trip back to school to fetch Miss 7, afternoon tea, homework, and then dinner...

I'd promised pancakes.  So when Sandra at $120 Food Challenge posted this link to Chocolate pancakes with berry sauce, AND we had all the ingredients in the cupboard, I knew that it was serendipity at work - and serendipity should never be ignored.
 

Stirring the batter

Cooking - look its a smiley face

Twelve perfect pancakes

With berry sauce and ice-cream

End result

:)

Bow Wow Chow

I agree, that was the worst post title ever.

A while ago I was doing a huge stock-up shop in Aldi and grabbed their cheap-as minced beef, instead of the low fat stuff. I've tried to cook with it twice. The second time being last night. After I poured over a cup of fat out of the 750g I was cooking, and the resulting meal was still greasy and vile, I admitted defeat.

 Today I turned the last of it into dog food.

Dog Food ingredients

 I have been using Down To Earth's dog food recipe for years. Sebby loves it, its a great way to use up ends of packets of pasta, its cheap, its so much better than bought stuff, and its very easy.

 Recipe here

Lots of vegies - I was doing double quantities

Into the stockpot

Yummy

And it turns into this...

Super extra Yummy

That'll keep Sebs going for months.

I appreciate the thought...

Hubs cooked dinner last night...

Strawberry Mousse - And Clawing Back The Routine

Dessert last night... after a slow-cooked leg of lamb and somewhat firm vegetables because the oven died again (le sigh).

A great big bowl of Strawberry mousse
Strawberries from the garden - eggs from the ladies that morning
Sugar from Coles, origin undisclosed
Low fat cream from Coles and seething in chemicals (yums)

Anyway, quit your salivating, I have important news to announce.

The Routine (the one I'm clawing back) is... working.

Oh dear LORD, are you reading the right blog? Could this be true? Are you about to fall over with delight?? (well I am, about to fall over, with delight, but also because I've got an inner ear infection and my world is going up and down, up and down, ug giddy).

Anyway.  I really thought the routine I was trying to establish was a bit ambitious - but the kids have taken to the change with a good natured willingness that really surprised me.  Of course now its been going for a week or so there is resistance amongst the ranks, but I am squashing the dissent with all the tools I have at my disposal...
This is NOT a democracy, I say, this is a Dictatorship, and anyone, ANYONE, who does not do their chores does not get to open Granny and Grandad's Smurf package on the weekend.

Yes, denial of Smurfs, I am a cruel and heartless monster, this has been pointed out.

Anyhoo.  The routine / chores / indentured servitude still need work, but the first steps have been taken and are a success.  Huzzah.

Next up is tackling the sodding budget, so we have some hope of actually paying off the house before it falls down from old age (or we do), and getting through Christmas with no creddy cards or nervous breakdowns. Yes, I aim high. I know this.

:)

Strawberry Jam

Saw this sign...

Jam Strawberries - who could resist?

A few hours later they looked like this

The kids were my able assistants

And by that night...

3kgs of Strawberry jam

:)

~~~~~~~

Have you liked my Caitlyn Nicholas facebook page??  I post all the odds and ends that don't make it onto the blog there... like photos of hubs in a turban at last night's Bollywood thing :)

Kitchen Alchemy - Sourdough (again)

Sourdough starters and I do not get on.  I invariably end up with with a bowl of glue.  Glue that smells of yeast. But, glue.

So, being a glutton for punishment, and in the mood for a spot of fermentation, when I came across this recipe for a starter at 52 loaves, I decided to give it a try.

After fermenting my apple for a few days, I gathered the ingredients...

The Ingredients

 And stirred them all together...

Oh look, glue

This was done a week ago, and since then I have been faithfully feeding my starter, caring for it, loving it, talking to it, and even sniffing it.

And I am now proud to announce that, I have a bowl of runny glue that smells of fermenting apples.  No, that baby is not going to be raising anything, it can barely produce bubbles.

FTW. sigh.

Back to the packet yeast.

Pesto update

So back at the end of March I posted about my bulk pesto making efforts.  Instead of freezing the pesto, I elected to keep it under oil in the fridge.  And three months later this is what it looks like.

Mmmm, so very very yummy

Yes, bit of a mess, and this is after I'd scraped off the brown crusty bits on the top.  It had gone brown down the sides of the container as well.

So, lesson gleaned; Pesto keeps beautifully for about a month under oil in the fridge.  If you are planning on keeping it longer my advice is to freeze it.

I picked out the still green bits, smeared the over the base of a veggie pizza and fed it to hubs.  Thus far he has shown no ill effects, but I am watching closely for any adverse reactions.

:)

Cake in a Mug Friday

I loves a challenge, and when Rach over at Ramblings of a Romance Writing Mama issued a cake baking ultimatum that involved chocolate, I was all Hell Yes.

I'd heard of these microwaved cake-in-a-mug before, but never actually tried them.  So when the kids got home from school this afternoon we gave it a shot.

Mixing ingredients

Eating - it didn't even make it out of the cup

Not the most elegant presentation I'm afraid, but small people were tired and crabby after a long week of school - its nearly the end of term as well - so it was wisest to let them dig in without any delay :).  Was rather amazed at how easy and how yummy they were.  See Rach's blog for the recipe etc.

Have had a day in the kitchen, dealing with the apples we picked up at Bilpin a few weeks ago.

Two batches of blackberry and apple jam (about 7kgs in total, which cost me about $30 in total - largest expense being the 3kgs blackberries which I bought.  That's around $1.36 a jar)

I'll do a batch of strawberry jam when they come into season, and that should see us jammed-up for the year.

I also made a second batch of apple pie filling.  So I've now got the equivalent of 12 apple pies in the freezer (no pastry).

Knackered now, and yes I peeled all those apples (but do have a brillo mixer that has a slicer attachment which does all the slicing for me).

Yawn.

Strawberry Guava Jelly

Mumndad have a magnificent strawberry guava tree/bush/plant.  Right now its loaded with ripe fruit which is just begging to be made into jelly.  Strawberry guavas have lots of really hard little pips, so they'd be awful as a jam.

As always my greatest challenge with making jams and jellies is getting the damn things to set.  You see I refuse, I just REFUSE to use jamsetter.  I see it as an additive, and if my English Grandmother could do without it, then so can I.

Strawberry guava jelly is notoriously difficult to get to set.  Being a life long adherent of Doing Things The Hard Way, for my first batch I ignored all the people on the internet and made the jelly in the usual jelly making way with just the guavas.

It did kind-of set, and it is delicious, but you sort of have to fold your toast in half and eat it in one mouthful if you don't want it down your front.

Batch 2 set like a dream because I added apples (so its strictly guava and apple jelly).  Adding apples sets almost anything because of the high amount of pectin they have.

Strawberry guavas about to be transformed

Ingredients:
Strawberry guavas
Apples - half the amount of guavas you have (eg 1kg guavas then 500g apples)
Lemon zest
Sugar - 3/4 to 1 cup of sugar per cup of juice you end up with (eg, 4 cups juice needs 3 - 4 cups sugar)

Method:

• Wash guavas, chop apples
• Put in pan, cover with water
• Boil until fruit is mush, squishing with spoon
• Strain juice through two layers of muslin, or a teatowel or whatever, just make sure it doesn't let any bits through
• Give left over fruit mush to chooks
• Add sugar
• Boil until it reaches 105 degrees celsius - this could take a while, and don't stir too much
• Let cool slightly
• Pour into warm sterilised jam jars and seal

Ready for afternoon snacks on toast, and gifts for friends

Total cost: $1.97 for the sugar, $1.50 for the apples

:)

Growing old Sucks & A Balm For My Sole

Growing Old Sucks

Growing old sucks.  I mean it really sucks.  Grandad was doing well, really well, he came out of hospital a few weeks ago and has been at a rehab hospital.  He was doing so well that tomorrow he was supposed to go his little unit with the OT person and talk over the realities of living on his own again, and if he could cope.  Then, last Wednesday, he had a mild heart-attack, which has of course, set him back, big time.

I was visiting today, I took him a flat white and some anzac biscuits, much appreciated, thankyouverymuchindeed!!  He was asleep in the sunshine when I got there, so I just sat and kept him company and knitted. 

I couldn't help but overhear the conversation in the bed next to his - everyone is deaf so all intimate details are bellowed, and therefore there aren't many secrets!!  The elderly gentleman was being told that he could not go home, and the next stop would be a high-level-of-care nursing home - I don't know his full story, but he is permanently attached to an oxygen mask. 
He was desperate not to go, "But I'll die there," he kept saying.

The doctor was calm, but firm, and was very positive about the move.  Clearly he'd had this conversation a thousand times before.  The gentleman's daughter was there, and was gently backing up the doctor.  Her phone rang and she stepped outside the ward to talk, and the gentleman turned to the doctor when she was out of earshot...
"Everyone is so kind," he said. "But you don't realise my family is trying to kill me."
"Your family is trying to help you, they are trying to do what's best," said the doctor.
"They just want to get rid of me, they just want me to die."

My heart broke for the thousandth time, just then.  For the gentleman, so helpless and 'fighting against the dying of the light.' For his daughter - who looked as exhausted and stressed as my mother is at the moment - and who is so obviously trying to get her father the best care she can. And just for growing old.


A Balm for my Sole: Choc Mint Balm
When I've got a lot of stuff going on, I tend to take refuge in the kitchen.  So expect a lot of making-stuff posts in the near future (the great parsley wine experiment is imminent, I kid you not!!)

Today I rolled up my sleeves and made some of Jackie French's Choc Mint balm.  Mostly its for hubs cracked heels (or The Horror - no photo, would not do that to the internet), but it can also be used on skungy elbows and even cracked lips (though I personally wouldn't, all that peppermint essential oil is a bit too minty).

Ingredients are:
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon beeswax
2 teaspoons chocolate
1/2 teaspoon mint essential oil

Warm the olive oil and the beeswax until melted
Stir in the chocolate.
Skim off any brown scum.
Add mint oil.

Its messy to use, but smells divine, and the olive oil doesn't do cracked heels any harm (not particularly dramatic results either, mind).

:)

Post number 802: Pesto

YAY this is post number 802!!  Was planning on doing a bit of boasting when I got to post 800, but then forgot about it. sigh.  Story of my life really :)

We've got a bit of basil about the place at the moment, so I decreed this weekend to be pesto making weekend...

I used Stephanie Alexander's recipe in her Kitchen Garden Companion.  We ended up with about 3 cups of basil; picked, un-bugged, de-leafed and washed by hubs.

Being fundamentally lazy I fling it all in the blitzer - none of this mortar and pestle business, no siree...

Then I blitz it...

And then blitz it some more. We like our pesto smooth not chunky - well the kids do, and as they actually eat it, and it is green, I am happy to do it their way. 

Check out that awesome colour :)  That is around 600ml.  I was intending to freeze this lot, but then Ms Alexander said you can just cover the pesto with oil and keep it in the fridge and it will last until you get the next lot of basil in the spring.  So, with some trepidation, that is what I am doing.

Barring unforseen disasters (and oh yes, I'm sure there will be something) we should have enough basil in the next month or so to make another big batch, which I will freeze, just in case this lot starts to ferment on me.

We used the stuff that wouldn't fit in the tub to make homemade chicken pesto pizza.  This is easy to do, and to die for...
1. Make pizza dough, roll out
2. Cover with tomato paste
3. Chop raw chicken breast into small pieces, fling in bowl, stir through as much pesto as you think fit
4. Arrange artfully on pizza
5. Sprinkle with a little bit of cheese (mozzarella)
6. Bung in oven, cook until you are SURE chicken is cooked through - takes a little longer than usual we find
7. Guard your two teeny weeny slivers from voracious children and husband - use any means necessary, you have my permission.

I do have to say that I am now, officially, sick of pesto.

Well for today.

Cake Friday: The paltry remains

Wasn't fast enough with the camera, this was all that was left by the time I found it and the memory card (in different places as usual). 

This week I did a sponge, with a filling of Dad's strawberry jam and icing sugar on top to cover the burnt bits (curse my fan forced oven, curse it to hell).