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. 

Aussie Delight-Vanilla Slice

Vanilla Slice

I enjoy making desserts as anyone who actually knows me can attest to. One of my favorite "Aussie" desserts is Vanilla Slice. I call it an Aussie dessert because Australia is where I first was introduced to this divine treat and Australia is where I make it most often. Enjoy the pictures and maybe take whack at making this yourself. The best part of making this in Australia is the passion fruit icing, because I can get passion fruit here. It is so delicious and very light. Creamy custard between flaky pastry topped with a tart fruit and sugar. 

• Ingredients

• 2 sheets (25cm x 25cm) ready rolled frozen puff pastry, thawed
• Melted butter, to grease
•  (3 cups) milk
•  (1 1/2 cups) thickened cream
• 8 egg yolks
•  (1 cup) caster sugar
•  (1/3 cup) plain flour
• (1/4 cup) cornflour
• 50g butter, chopped
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
•  (1 1/2 cups) pure icing sugar, sifted
• 2 tbs canned passionfruit in syrup
  
  
  
  
  Preheat oven to 220°C. Line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Place 1 pastry sheet onto each lined tray. Bake in preheated oven, swapping trays halfway through cooking, for 20 minutes or until pastry puffs and browns. Remove from the oven. Cover pastry with a clean tea towel and use your hands to gently push the pastry down to flatten. Set aside for 15 minutes to cool.
  Brush  square pan with butter to lightly grease. Line base and sides with foil. Place 1 pastry sheet, flat-side down, in base of prepared pan.
  Meanwhile, heat milk and cream in a heavy-based saucepan over medium heat until mixture just comes to the boil. Combine egg yolks, sugar, flour and cornflour in a heatproof bowl. Whisk until thick and pale. Gradually stir hot milk mixture into egg mixture. Place in a clean saucepan over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, for 5 minutes or until custard comes to the boil and thickens. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla essence until combined. Pour over pastry and place remaining pastry flat-side (unpressed side) up on top. Place in fridge for 1 hour or until custard sets.
  Place icing sugar and passion fruit in large bowl and stir until smooth and glossy. Turn slice out onto a large chopping board and remove the foil. Spread icing over the top of the slice with the back of a spoon. Set aside for 20 minutes or until icing is set. Use a serrated knife to cut the vanilla slice into 16 pieces.Recipe from http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/12569/vanilla+slice+with+passionfruit+icing 
  Enjoy, it really is so very yummy and as Rowan says every time he sees it in the fridge "I'm gonna get sooo fat" which translated means "Ohhhh Yummy" 
  

  

  Siyani enjoying his first taste of Vanilla Slice

  
  

A little Music a lot of Baking

Music Makes the Food Better

This evening is Cruise Night. Every Thursday night Taija and the other import car owners get together to talk shop and drive around. Siyani is now the proud owner of an import so he took his new Skyline out tonight with Taija and Rowan. I stayed home for two reasons. 1) I was invited to a lunch tomorrow with some of the other sisters in the congregation and wanted to make something nice to take. 2) I feel a little out of place with  all these knowledgeable car people as the best thing I can offer is an "oohh pretty" if someone pops the hood of there car. 

So I stayed home to bake 2 pumpkin rolls and 1 orange poppy seed cake. Seeing as I was by myself I put on Jango and went to the Broadway Show-tunes Channel. I was having such a ball singing along I just had to share some of the songs that played. Also I felt this was an appropriate time to share a quick belief. 

The Right Music Makes Food Taste Better.

Why? Because the right music puts you in the best mood and when you are happy pure love goes into cooking or baking and how can anything be bad when it is made with pure love. 

Enjoy the musical selection, emphasis on the "musical" 

Mmm.....Kangaroo

CC and the Kangaroo

Not long after being in Australia I was informed that I was about to enjoy a meal uniquely Australia, Kangaroo. It is a lean meat that has a hint of sweetness to it, because it is cooked for a shorter amount of time than beef it does not get tough at all. The bottle you see positioned behind the plate is Bundaberg Ginger Beer ( think a nice Ginger Ale ) so far since being here I have consumed a number of bottles. I myself quite enjoyed the taste of Kangaroo but I can see why some would find the taste hard to adjust to. 

The Wonderful World of Oz

Everyday Life in Australia

Megan's View:

Being here has brought a lot of changes, who knew it would actually be tough not working. Trying to figure out what to do with your days when you don't have a job or any real form of transportation other then your own two feet makes it a bit of a challenge. It's not that I don't like walking to where I need to be, it's that between the distance and the heat it isn't always a viable option. Thankfully, the sisters of the congregation we are apart of have been wonderful in making sure I have a ride to service on Mondays and Wednesdays and that has been a true blessing. I love Monday service because it is the day everyone "goes out country" and I usually end up spending most of the day away from the unit. Fridays have become my baking and cleaning day which is a good distraction from the biggest change of all. Siyani works 10 hour days and being apart from him for what seems like forever is really hard. Coming from a job where I saw him everyday throughout the day and where we had lunch together almost everyday to a situation where he is gone before I wake up and away for such long periods of time has been a real challenge for me. I have Taija 3 days a week to hang out with and that is great, but you don't realize how attached you are to a person until you don't have them around as often. I always knew CC and I were weird with how much we love spending all of our time together but I guess I never really realized just how real it was. It's not a change I love but one I am learning to live with (mostly cause there is no other option). One of the best changes this move has brought is our reliance on Jehovah and each other. We try harder here in every aspect, we try harder to pre-study, to get to the meetings and to make the most of the time we have with each other.  Change isn't always easy but right now it is really good. 

A little ocean view from us to you

Siyani's View:

Australia has its differences I wont deny it, but other than the fact that the humidity in the air fuzzes my hair there is nothing I can really complain about. As Megan mentioned there are things that we are having to adjust to. I am now working ten hour days, which entails getting up at 6:00 in the morning and not getting home until 5:15. Choice of food while similar has its differences and even things like yogurt are slightly different. One of the biggest changes of all is driving on the opposite side of the road to what we are used to but when my job is cleaning cars that I at times then have to either drive to a storage lot or to the stalls we park the cars in at the Airport, it is a change I have had to adjust to fairly quickly. Even though we are approaching our third week in the country it feels as though we have barely been here a week. Working ( so far ) six day weeks and dealing with the process of buying a car along side day to day life has made things go fairly quickly. I have thankfully been adjusting to the heat fairly well although it is going to get 5-10 degrees warmer so we will see how I am doing once summer fully hits. I do however find that once you hit 30 Celsius anything over that doesn't feel that much worse and while everyone asks me how I am finding the humidity I don't even notice it. In fact I much prefer it to be hot and humid to the dry heat we often get in Canadian summers. That and living next to the Ocean means there is generally a mid day cool breeze that brings with it a pleasantly sweet aroma. Overall I am very happy to be here alongside Megan. I look forward to embracing the changes and taking in all the experiences and lessons that Australia has to offer us.