Good Friday breakfast

I'm still trying to establish some Easter traditions in our little family across the ocean and Good Friday breakfast is one of them.  Luckily we don't have Friday morning commitments or the non-public-holidayness of the day here in the States might get in our way.

I have managed to perfect my sourdough hot cross bun recipe after another practice batch last weekend and took the ingredients to work yesterday so they would be on their final rise in the fridge in time for breakfast this morning.  I think they were the best batch I've made this year - lots of spice, plenty of raisins and fruit, and ready just when I wanted them to be - but I had some frozen ones from last weekend's batch just in case they didn't work out.  Although I swear by the sourdough method for the flavour and texture of the bread, I haven't established my method enough to the point that I trust it will work when I want it to.  I am very happy with the starter I'm currently using, I hope I can keep it alive.

For a savoury dish I made a Julia Child quiche, sans pastry.  The name she gave the recipe is Quiche Lorraine (cream and bacon quiche) - a traditional French style quiche.  Thank you Mrs. Child for introducing me to cream in my quiche.  The cream made it so light and fluffy, we didn't notice the lack of pastry.  I highly recommend baking your eggs and bacon in a quiche over cooking them on the stove top for breakfast.  It takes longer but it's far less stressful and they've baked together so they are ready simultaneously.  You can also get a large portion of your dishes finished while you wait so your kitchen is relatively tidy while you eat.

Pink grapefruit and tea were lovely accompaniments to this breakfast. 

The sale of a car

My parents have been storing Jbird's Toyota Corolla in their garage since we've been here - we sold my Ford Festiva to my mum before we left.  We used Jbird's Toyota the first summer we went home but didn't want to bother registering it and getting its WoF* the next summer.  My parents were about ready to get their garage back so Jbird's parents tidied it up recently and sold it for a nice little sum.  That was pretty nice of them if you ask me.  Now we're officially car-less.

We're not stuff-less though, we have a lot of stuff.  We have a house full of furniture and items here, and another garage full of items at Jbird's parents place.  Two beds here, two beds there, a viola here, a viola there, a piano here, a grand piano there.  I feel like a double person.  I like all the stuff in NZ more, it has more sentimental value, items from when I was a little girl, all our wedding presents, and my own viola which is special to me.  The stuff here is perfectly comfortable and functional, but I would say it doesn't really tie me here.  I could pack up and leave tomorrow and not be very devastated about leaving most of it behind. When it gets down to it, though, the stuff in NZ is more pretty, but I'm surviving pretty well without it.  Thanks for storing it all, folks.  I'm going to be a happy girl the day we set up a house in NZ. 

*Warrant of Fitness

The illicit cake

The thing is, I haven't asked the happy couple if they'd like a cake, nor have I been invited to bake one.  I'm just baking it and taking it.  I figure it may not be the Wedding Cake.  It certainly won't be iced in any kind of fancy way.  It may not even be liked by many people - I've only met two Americans who like fruit cake and they are in their 70s.  But Andy will like it.  He will eat a good portion of it.  And it's for him.

While I was looking for ingredients, I also wanted to find a proper cake tin.  Preferably spring-form.  Though Target ended up having all the ingredients I settled on, I had a feeling that $20 was more than I needed to pay for a tin.  At K-mart they were $10 but I still wanted to find a lower price.  America is great for deals and I wanted mine.  So I asked some friends to take me to Walmart.  Low and behold, I found three for $10.  !!! 

I'm still nervous about baking New Zealand recipes with American flour so I bought cake flour.  Instead of using measuring cups, I weighed it.  In fact, for the first time, and on Julia Child's advice, I weighed all my ingredients.  This cake is for a wedding, after all, even if it is an illicit cake for an unexpected wedding, it should still be as good as possible.  Of course, it won't have six weeks to mature but Jbird suggests I spend the week aggressively soaking it in rum to make up for it.  

It will bake for three hours at 300 degree Fahrenheit.  It's a tricky medium, I don't want to burn the edges, dry it out, OR leave it uncooked in the middle.  But I have two layers of brown paper and then baking paper thickening up the edges to help slow the outside down.  There are many intricacies to consider every time I do this.

A midyear fruit cake

I know we revisit this topic often but my brother's favourite cake is fruit cake.  I mean all-time favourite.  When we were flatting together, he once bought a Christmas pudding thinking it would be like fruit cake.  I remember him coming home from the supermarket with all grocery shopping really really pleased with himself.  Look at what I got, Anna, one kilogram of fruit cake! And it only cost a dollar!  School had started so it must have been February and the supermarkets were trying to get rid of their Christmas stock.  I pointed out to him that it wasn't actually fruit cake, it was Christmas pudding.  He told me they were the same and asked if I would like some.  I declined.  In my opinion, Christmas pudding is the worst idea known to man kind.  Well, it's a close second to trifle.  Ew.  He ate quite a bit of it that night and was sick the next day. 

In her absence, my mother has asked me to bake him a fruit cake.  Yesterday I went around to all the stores near us looking for the ingredients.  Red glacé cherries were not available, nor were currants.  I have made do with the small amount of mixed cherry stuff I had left over from Christmas, orange peel, yellow raisins, brown raisins, cranberries, and slivered almonds.  I couldn't find blanched almonds so I blanched them myself and picked out all the peel by hand.  Jbird called it a special kind of torture.   If you ask me, yellow raisins are nothing like sultanas.  Nothing.  They're just a different coloured raisin.  Perhaps if they don't add to the flavour, they'll add to the aesthetics.  I thought about adding dried strawberries but things were getting a little bit pricey by then. 

I have those puppies soaking in a mixture of marmalade, brandy, and lemon juice and I'll bake the cake tomorrow. 

An unexpected expected wedding

My brother is getting married in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Saturday.  Surprised?  Me too.  We've been waiting to hear the date for a while but we all thought there would be more time than a week to prepare.  Unfortunately, it means my family will not be able to attend.  Instead, they will view it via the amazing faculties of the interweb. I was selfishly looking forward to their physical visit as I would have been able to show them around our little town too, but I'm trying to be grown up about it all and enjoy the celebration.  It's amazing really, our friends told us they could lend us their car next week.  I thought: oh well, we're really too busy to make use of it but we won't say no.  Then my brother told us we could visit that weekend.  Then he told us it would be for their wedding.  So it has worked out well - for us, at least.  I'm sure there will be more wedding related posts to come.

Big School Girl

It's my niece's first day of school today.  It's such an adjustment, starting school.  I taught new-entrants for a week last year, it was a crazy week, I don't know if I could do it on a regular basis.  I wish I could see her walking hand in hand with a classmate as they follow their teacher around the school.  I wonder what her new teacher is like?  I wonder if she'll make a friend today that she'll keep for the rest of her life?  I have one of those friend.  I wish I had the privilege of picking her up from school one day this week, walking her home and making her an afternoon tea snack while she tells me about her day.  Kia kaha, lovely girl.

We're having a Soiree

One of our major fundraising events at home are a series of house concerts at my parent's house.  Mum and I have gotten quite good at organising these, we try to have fun while we do it.  I make fliers which we use to shamelessly invite everyone we know AND drop around the immediate neighbourhood.  We have a regular menu which we like to play around with each time, adding new items, taking others away.  I normally bake some bread and mum makes some dukkah to dip it in.  I'm in charge of tart bases with lemon curd filling and/or something savory.  She has a great recipe for miniature cheese balls.  She makes fairy cakes, and one of us fills them with full cream.  Together we put together sweet platters and savory platters, organise tea, coffee, and juice.  Rearrange furniture and clean clean clean.  Low and behold, three house concerts are on the cards.

It was nice to have Mum's help at his last recital too.  At Peabody it was common practice to offer a small reception afterwards.  Then Dad took us all out for dinner and we all had mussels and ribs, it was a memorable meal. The mussels were miniscule, the ribs ginormous. 

 

Jbird's IU solo recital is coming up on the ninth of this month and as part of his last moment preparation, we put on a house concert here.  It was a small affair, but very manageable for my catering skills. It's not as much fun though, without my co-caterer, and our Auckland friends. 

He sounded great, I was really impressed by his level of comfort for the repertoire he will perform.  He is definitely ready for the big one!  Are you as excited as I?  I wish you could be there.

Gang of Four

Gang of Four is a fun card game which title alludes to the four leaders closely associated with Mao Zedong of China's cultural revolution.  It's a game that I have a love/hate relationship with.  I tend to lose, with a terrible score, but I'm highly competitive so I find it hard to brush the many losses off my back.  I don't know if it's a lack of skill or a lack of good hands but I'm determined to improve so that Jbird can stop grinning across the table at me.  Anyone for a hand?

Happy Birthday to me

It has been a happy birthday.  There was a bunch of great food: chocolate delicacies coming out of our ears (please read yesterday's post), a madebysomebodyelse coffee cake that didn't taste like coffee, tasting instead more like blueberry muffin in cake form, belgian waffles, blue cheese and pear, some mighty fine coffee...It snowed prettily all day - not so much to keep us indoors but enough to enjoy watching the flakes dance.  I got some pretty nice pressies.  AND I had two of my favourite people to chill with all day.  

But do you know what the very very best bit was?  The Bloomington KiwiBirds bike gang.  

It is the most fun when the three of us bike together at night.  It was chilly but we were bundled up in our warmest clothes, and we didn't have far to go.  There were a few up-hills and a lot of down-hills.  The snow was still clean and pretty, covering the yards.  The flakes were flying at us, landing in our mouths, as we whizzed down the hill, breathing hard.  The. Most. Fun.

Snow and Chocolate

It didn't snow for Christmas but it did for my birthday!  It snuck up on us when we least expected it.  We three Bloomington kiwis are pretty happy about this because we haven't had much snow this winter.

I got the book: Intensely Chocolate out of the library yesterday so we planned a chocolate baking party this afternoon for some pre-birthday fun.  We made mocha-walnut cupcakes with dulche de leche frosting, bitter-sweet chocolate multi-flavoured buttons, cranberry-walnut semi-sweet chocolate bark, and semi-sweet chocolate mousse with blackberry compote parfait.  Yumbo.  A lovely way to spend a flurry afternoon.  

A Desire for Security

When I face a crisis in my life, particularly with close relationships, I often use some kind of personality descriptor to find out why I have been so affected.  I'm not dedicated to doing the tests or remembering much of what I learn but I do find it helpful when getting through the crisis.  After a recent 'crisis', my mother and I were perusing the Enneagram types.  I've never before been able to pinpoint my number, even after taking a test, but my mother pointed out she thought I was a six, which I found I was able to relate to a lot.  

Number sixes, in particular, desire strong boundaries and organisation, within which we find a sense of security.  I'm probably more flexible than I used to be but if boundaries are continually broken, I begin to find it difficult to operate happily and comfortably.  It was nice to know this, as Jbird and I tidied up a certain aspect of our relationship.  In the tidying, I felt in control again and my sense of self worth grew.

I'm no self-help writer.  Just interested.  I'm also glad that we're all different yet are still able to function together.

Uh Oh, she's losing it

I had a moment in Walmart yesterday where I wanted to be that bratty kid, lying on the floor, tantruming.  It was pretty sad.  Do you ever get like that?  To make matters worse, I didn't get it under control and actually hopped out of the car at the lights and walked for a bit.  It helped me let off some steam but made Jbird feel pretty stink, I'm sure.

Since then I have been thinking about the privilege of having people, and how I sometimes take that for granted.  Day to day life is not always going to go my way, no matter what I do.  Other people are involved too, luckily, and it's actually much nicer to live life with people.  Like the schools of little fish in the stream that I bike passed on the way to the supermarket - it's better to swim against the current with the school, growing bigger and stronger together, than to stay in the shallows remaining small, weak, and alone.

At this time of year, I bet there a bunch of people who have to be alone but I have friends and family to be with.  Lucky little me.

In the folds of family

We have started the four day wedding weekend.  I drove down to Taranaki/New Plymouth today, sitting between HarryBarry and I'm-not-madsta-I'm-Mad-e-LINE.  Two Stakkas in the front seats. The scenery was superb.  Dense green New Zealand bush, full of pungas and palms.  Ocean views, white cliffs. Sheep, cattle, goats and alpacas.  The kids played I-spy-with-my-little-eye-something-purple, doctors, and cameramen.  They were gorgeous.  Lunch in a cafe on the way down was delicious.

There will be dinners, afternoon teas, nail painting, make-up and hair.  Car cleaning, house cleaning, place name marking.  We have plenty of black shoes to choose from and my relocated dress is safe and sound on a hanger.  THE dress has been revealed, I can't wait to see it on the bride-to-be.  Dad's picking Andy up from the airport and they'll bring down those votive candles I brought all the way from Indiana.  There will be high tension and drama, what would a wedding be without it? 

I'm glad.