Busy… November 19, 2009
Posted by Sarah in baking, christmas, custom order, draft snake, home made, jam, soap.3 comments
I’m redefining industrious here at casa craftyllama.
These are my homemade soaps all packaged up and ready to go. I’ve wrapped about 12, and have another 50 or so to go. It’s fiddly work with just one pair of hands, but I’ve finally got the hang of it. No teeth involved.
Speaking of teeth, the Endodontist says I need to have my root canal redone. How lovely.
I’ve made about 50 jars of homemade jam.
I’ve candied around 1 kilogram of organic orange peel.
Currants, raising and said peel are soaking away in Brandy for my Christmas Fruit Mince Pies.
Tomorrow, I’m starting on my 4 custom-ordered draft snakes.
So, yeah, you could say i’m a little busy. An excited, happy, purposeful busy. I’m so glad I left my job.
PS – our new camera has arrived, so expect the photography on this blog to improve dramatically in the next while. Woop!
Chewy oatmeal and date cookies October 7, 2009
Posted by Sarah in baking, butter, dining in, food, fruit, home made, recipe.add a comment
The weather here in Sydney has taken a sudden dive. All of a sudden our picture perfect not-winter has turned on us, reminding me that this city does indeed have seasons. Albeit slightly irrational, fleeting ones.
I’ve been so cold this afternoon at home that I made a batch of these delicious cookies to warm the house, and our bellies.
I used Deb’s recipe for thick, chewy oatmeal raisin cookies. I didn’t have any raisins in the house so I subbed them for chopped dates, and subbed the walnuts for a mixture of pecans and macadamia nuts.
They’re so delicious, I hope there’s some left for Joh when he gets home….
Book goodness September 4, 2009
Posted by Sarah in Craft, baking, book, bread, butter, cake, chocolate, gift, sewing, soap.5 comments
Garage sale beauties August 24, 2009
Posted by Sarah in baking, dining in, flowers, food, garage sale, markets, recycle, tea towel, vintage.2 comments
Miss Maree and I headed to the Eveleigh Markets on Saturday for a spot of shopping and munching. We stopped at a garage sale along the way for a peak at what they had to offer. I snapped up these adorable old plates for next to nothing. The whole lot cost me just $10. The lady that I bought the plates from told me that she was very pleased to see a young person buying the plates, as they have been in the family for years. Joh made scones for breakfast on Sunday and we ate them off these plates. Perfection!
Self employed July 20, 2009
Posted by Sarah in baking, bread, cake, cheese, chocolate, food, vegetables.5 comments
I did my first paid catering gig last week. The company requested round food to go with their theme of “The Wheels on the Bus”.
Rosewater meringues, chocolate brownies, chocolate cupcakes.
Oatcakes with blue and cheddar cheeses.
Falafel with yoghurt dipping sauce, and lamb meatballs with tomato dipping sauce.
Chicken and watercress crositini, and tomato and dijon tarts.
My business cards are ready and so am I!
Photos by my good friend Elizabeth Clarkson.
Sunday lovely Sunday January 4, 2009
Posted by Sarah in baking, bread, cheese, dining in, food, knitting, organic, vegetables, wool.3 comments
Joh and I had the most lovely day at home today, pottering around the house. We had three separate offers to go out to see our dear friends for afternoon drinks, but we decided to stay here and spend some quality time with our house (and each other, of course!!)
For breakfast we had the last two slices of our sprouted rye bread with organic avocado, tomato and fresh coriander from our garden. Half way through mine I decided to try out some of our new alfalfa sprouts, and they were delicious!
I can’t wait for our deliveries from Lettuce Deliver to start again. We’ve been shopping at Fratelli Fresh while the Lettuce family are on a much needed break. The quality at Fratelli Fresh is some of the best in the city, but it still doesn’t even come close to our beautiful organic deliveries. We did pick up some Tasmanian walnuts, which I cracked with my monster of a mortar and pestle. I’ve popped them in the freezer until I decide what to do with them.
I did a bit of knitting, finishing off a monolith of a blanket that I’ve been using for months in it’s incomplete state. Photos and gory details to come in another post.
Joh and I had some cheese in the fridge that needed using, a Polish style cottage cheese. Joh made a wonderful organic wholemeal bread dough and left it to develop for a few hours. I made some organic caramelised onions while the dough did it’s thing. Joh kneaded and rolled the dough to a wonderful carpet of carbohydrates on the kitchen bench. Then we scattered olive oil, caramelised onions, polish cottage cheese, parmagiana reggiano, olives and basil leaves. Joh rolled the whole thing into a log, and then we decided it would be best to slice and cook the pieces individually, kind of like the broiche dough we used to make when I was a cook in Auckland. They worked beautifully! We cooked half of them on our pizza stone, and half in muffin tins. The verdict? Joh prefers the look of the muffin tin variety, while i like the more rustic feel of the pizza stone cooked rolls. Either way, they are delicious, and will make a great lunch for us tomorrow.
Buttermilk peach cake November 15, 2008
Posted by Sarah in baking, cake, dining in, food, recipe.1 comment so far
For breakfast!
Today I woke up with the knowledge that there was a small container of buttermilk in the fridge that had to be used today or thrown out. But I also knew that I had used the last of the eggs yesterday, and whatever I cooked first today had to be something I could do in my pyjamas. I sat down at our trusty computer and searched for eggless buttermilk recipes and eventually found this recipe. I was all excited and about to get up and start creating when I found that the recipe did in fact have eggs! Upon scrolling through the comments I found that there was indeed an eggless substitute, one that a commenter had left on the site. The recipe goes like this:
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 stick butter, melted
1 cup berries
Sift dry ingredients together, add melted butter and buttermilk. Pour into a tart dish and top with berries. Bake at 180 degrees celcuis for 45 mintues.
I melted the butter and then let it cook for a few mintues longer to caramelise. I strained it before I added it to the cake batter. Heidi’s origional recipe calls for wholewheat flour but I used white flour and it came out fine. I used half white sugar and half brown sugar, because that’s what I had on hand.
I went to the markets specifically to buy peaches for jam yesterday (4kgs infact!), so they became the topping in place of the berries. Before baking I sprinkled the top with pink salt and brown sugar.
I just happened to have some peach jam in the fridge that I made yesterday, so I used that to glaze the tart/cake.
Delicious! I still can’t decide if this is a tart, or a cake, or a pie. I think when it cools it will be quite a different beast.
nom nom nom March 24, 2008
Posted by Sarah in baking, bread, butter, dining in, food.add a comment
Recipe for the best hot cross buns:
4 batches of dough (48 buns)
300g homemade butter
16 hungry people
Countless cups of tea and coffee
Lucky we checked… March 22, 2008
Posted by Sarah in baking, bread, dining in, food.add a comment
We quickly checked the dough tonight and found this:
So we double-bagged them and now, 5 hours later all seems well.
Sarah is… hoping very much the dough doesn’t take over her fridge tonight March 22, 2008
Posted by Sarah in baking, bread, dining in, food.1 comment so far
