Baking Day

This is what happens when you leave me alone in a nice kitchen!

We have been house sitting for the last week and have until the 10th of January here. Andrew and Emma are friends of Rowan and in turn that is how I am friends with them. They have a house they just built and very graciously invited Siyani and I off our couch and into their home while they visit family in Brisbane. 

The nice thing about new houses is new kitchens and we all know how much I love kitchens. On Wednesday Siyani went to help the brothers dig trenches at the Kingdom Hall as they are laying power lines for lighting in the lower parking lot. This left me on our 2nd day in the house alone with the kitchen, and boy did I do some damage. 

Brownies

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Vanilla Cupcakes

Sticky Date Pudding

and Impossible Pie

Impossible pie is awesome, the easiest dessert and perfect for last minuet guests and get togethers. No method, no complicated ingredients and no real skill needed to make this mouthwatering yummyness. I first had Impossible Pie on my first visit to Australia and enjoy making it when I really get stuck into baking. So here it is, Impossible Pie, make some right now, it is so good. 

Impossible Pie

4 eggs

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 cup coconut

2 cups milk

2 tablespoons vanilla

Mix all this together in a bowl, put into a deep baking dish and bake for 1 hour at 330*. 

Impossible pie creates its own crunchy crust, soft custard inside and pie like bottom. 

Check the other yummies I made as well.

 

Simple Pleasures

A Bunch of Little Aussie things for One BIG Post

Life for the last while has been pretty basic, nothing to out of the ordinary to write home about. Siyani works detailing cars for Avis out at the airport and I go in service, clean the unit and bake. Every now and then though a little something interesting does happen. 

For example:

Siyanis first Aussie spider. 

While not as big as others here, it was the first one Siyani saw. Almost a right of passage for living in Australia seeing your first of many and most of the time bigger spiders.

Iced Coffee: Espresso, Milk, Ice Cream, Whip Cream and Chocolate Shavings.

What I should have gotten was a picture of Siyanis face when this came to the table. We went out when Sam and Deb Clements where in town driving through after Deb's son Alecs wedding. We hit the coffee club and I just ordered for Siyani. I had been dying to get him one of these since we landed but had not yet had the opportunity. His exact words when this was out in front of him were "that's not coffee, that's dessert." The Aussies know how to do Iced Coffee right. 

While pizza is not purely an Aussie thing, being here has allowed me more time to try out recipes. This wonderful creation was my attempt at something Aussies don't have. Perogies.....to be more exact perogie pizza, like what Boston Pizza makes. It turned out really good, and was almost a baby. Let me explain. Back home we used to get together with Taija, Rowan, Shaun and Gina and order pizza from the take and bake shop Papa Murphy. They weigh your pizza after it is made, and one time after doing one of the make-your-own we were told it weighed 6.5 pounds. We of course marveled at the fact that we had just created a pizza that weighed as much as a new born baby. Now every time after we make pizza it usually comes up about whether or not we just made a baby.

Finally, something I really enjoy while being in Australia. Making pumpkin pie and sharing it with the Aussies. The hardest part of making pumpkin pie in Oz Land is not the varied recipe I have to do for the pastry or even the true essence of "from scratch" for the pumpkin pie filling which includes peeling, boiling and pureeing, it is convincing the people to even try a piece. Pumpkin here is either an entree side or a scone, not a pie. Once you get them to taste it though, it is generally a big hit. For the encounter shown above we were invited out to a BBQ with a group from the congregation, as a back up I also took some pumpkin roll. The Aussies ate it up, literally, right down to licking the plate clean. 

Simple Pleasures......Aussie Style!

Finally A Video

YAY I Did It!!!! I made a video. 

I have been teaching myself to edit videos while we have been here. I don't have the most advanced program in the world, which is probably a good thing, seeing as how it took me this long on an easy program. This video is from when Siyani and I first arrived. It starts with us in Brisbane airport, shows the beach just down from Taija and Rowan's unit and gives you an idea of what we have been living in for the past 5 weeks. I know the song is corny but I needed something Aussie and I figured Waltzing Matilda didn't really fit. 

Enjoy the video.