Canberra finds its soul: New Acton

My parents were born in Canberra and I was born just beyond the border so for years I've been visiting the city. I completed my four year teaching degree at the University of Canberra (which was a great place to study, I might add). I do hear many people complaining about the city and I've been known to as well. I don't think I would live there again (I like to be MUCH closer to the beach and the extremes in temperature don't make it appealing to me) but with many friends and some family there we do visit regularly. 

There is much to like about Canberra though. Canberra has a thriving arts community - plenty of music, arts and festivals. You only have to look. You can find good food, great coffee and dozens of outdoors activities for kids and adults. It's an easy city to get around and you can pretty much be across town in half an hour.

Last time we were in Canberra my dearest friend was exhibiting her works from her work at ANU School of Arts. I mentioned this to another creative friend of mine (a retired high school teacher of industrial design, who is also an accomplished photographer) and he recognised the suburb where my art student friend was exhibiting.

New Acton has popped up as an artsy hub thriving with what has been missing from Canberra. The suburb has gallery spaces, excellent coffee (a change from uni students making bad coffee - I know because I was one of them!) and boasts sustainable architecturally designed living with a community vegie garden, two cinemas and pilates onsite. It makes up with soul what Civic (Canberra's centre) lacks. New Acton has created is own soul.

The gallery space turned out to be a new apartment lent to a curator to exhibit what she wanted. What a show! We stopped for coffee at Mocan and Green Grout. The babyccinos were 'up to standard' for the little ones and the coffee a vast improvement from what I remember from my student days!

I 'm looking forward to our next excuse to get to our nation's capital.

 

Disclaimer: Friends/family, please don't be offended by any comments I have made in this post. They are my opinions and just because you live in Canberra doesn't mean I don't value your opinion about the place. And you know how much I love you.

festive chocolate raisin cake

You would think that teaching is quite a social job, right?!

The reality is that for most of the day teachers are in a room with a class of children and they rarely have an assisting teacher or adult to bounce ideas off.

When teachers do finally escape the confines of the classroom it's on the way to find out why a printer isn't working, or collect resources for the next lessons, or to grab a quick cuppa (which is never finished) and never walking! We are always scuttling around like ants in a termite mound.

When we do 'get together' it is for staff meetings and professional development where some of the best sharing of ideas happens.

You can guarantee, however, that if there's a special occasion - resulting in a morning tea- most teachers will ignore the printer issues or the impending lesson to grab a slab of cake and cup of tea. Cake and tea is something that teachers do very well (until they reach Friday evening and they also do wine very well). Of course I am generalising!

This recipe came from a school I taught at in my first two years of teaching. It's a spicy chocolate cake and, although I hadn't cooked it until today (8 years later) its just how I remember it. Chocolatey with that hunt of spice and moist with sultanas scattered through it.

I grabbed a photocopy of the recipe at the time (photocopying - another thing teachers used to do well but which has been frowned upon since we discovered that children don't learn simply by learning by rote and completing 'stencils') and have has it stashed in my scrap book ever since.

Chocolate Raisin Cake

Preheat oven to 180°c.

In a saucepan put 1 1/2 cups of water; 1 cup raisins; 250g butter; 1 cup sugar; 1/2 tspn each cinnamon and ground cloves (I added 1 tspn each of mixed spice and ground ginger); 3 heaped tblspns cocoa and; 1/4 tspn salt.

Stir together and bring to the boil then let simmer for 5 mins. Removed from heat and cool. It's important to make certain the mixture is cooled before the next step.

Dissolve 1 tspn bicarbonate of soda in 1/4 cup boiling water and add to the mixture along with 2 cups sifted plain flour. Stir until well combined and then pour into a greased, lined 23cm cake tin. Cook for 30 mins.

This recipe came from Ronnie Forsyth who, at the time of printing in the SMH, ran the Bonds Corner Deli in Northbridge.

sculptures by the sea

If you missed Sculptures by the Sea (Bondi) here's a synopsis and there's always next year

 

 

North Sydney Produce Market

A few weekends ago we visited the North Sydney Produce Market Spring Fair. What a great morning! North Sydney Produce Markets is held on the 3rd Saturday of the month.

B was particularly taken with a chicken from the Kindy Farm that was visiting especially for the fair. For days afterwards he told friends "I falled in love with a baby chicken and then I cried but I drawed him a picture that I'm going to send him so they can hang it in his cage."

Have you been able to source local garlic? I have had trouble recently but I found a great fresh produce stand at the markets that sells local garlic, bunches of herbs and coloured carrots.

These zucchini flowers were beautiful stuffed with cous cous, feta and parsley and a smidgen of garlic!

We decided we'd have a Greek salad for lunch after the markets so I grabbed some incredible marinated olives and baby gherkins too. There's also a brilliant tomato store with a variety of tomatoes - heirloom, large, cherry tomatoes, romas. Perfect for a Greek salad!

I'm going to do a bit more research into The Big Feed but the idea that it brings young people on the fringes of society together to educate them over food makes sense to me! I'd love to contribute to this organisation in the future. It looks as though there are opportunities to do so so if you have a skill to share or an interest in young people and their welfare have a look and get on board!

Cedars of Lebanon & Mountain Creek

Foodies: when you're in Canberra getting a foody fix visit Mountain Creek health food store at Griffith Shops. As well as a HUGE selection of health foods, cloth nappies and baby supplies, you can find freshly made take-away meals from their kitchen at the back of the shop.

The carob powder inspired me to make a couple of batches of carob and raspberry brownies (substituting carob for cocoa). Mmm.

Cedars of Lebanon is another great stop and not too far from Griffith. At Mawson shops Cedars stocks an extensive range of Middle Eastern imports - halva, nuts, sauces and condiments, curry powders and spices and, my favourite, dried figs. They aren't those gooey ones but the fairly dry chewy ones and they are a good healthy snack!

nose to tail

I tend to 'savour' my Good Weekends. In other words I don't get to them because we are usually racing around 'doing stuff' on the weekends or I'm tending to the kids.

This morning I read the best edition: the Food Issue dating back to February 2012 and it was every bit worth waiting for!

I've added the following blogs to the right hand tab: Whole Larder Love, Lemonpi and Noodlies. Check them out.

Charlotte Wood's article 'The Whole Story' detailing her week eating a cow from nose to tail was compelling.  She quotes Matthew Brown (author of Food & Philosophy) who says that picky eaters "choose a narrow, ignorant path through life." He says that "picky eating is a wilful closing of the mind, denying the possibility that an unpleasant experience might at another time prove bearable or even pleasurable."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/cuisine/the-nosetotail-challenge-20120220-1ti2e.html#ixzz2CX2UUEvX

To cordon off particular foods simply because one doesn't "like" them, he says, promotes the idea that obstacles should be avoided rather than overcome, and prevents a person's growth into an open-minded, generous, fully rounded human being.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/cuisine/the-nosetotail-challenge-20120220-1ti2e.html#ixzz2CX2UUEvX

To cordon off particular foods simply because one doesn't "like" them, he says, promotes the idea that obstacles should be avoided rather than overcome, and prevents a person's growth into an open-minded, generous, fully rounded human being.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/cuisine/the-nosetotail-challenge-20120220-1ti2e.html#ixzz2CX2UUEvX

Wood suggests that not eating 'nose to tail' in our society comes from being able to choose what we eat. In places around the world people eat 'nose to tail' through necessity and because of our choices we generate a ridiculous amount of waste, burden the planet and; are somewhat detached from the animal sacrificed. Committing to 'nose to tail' is a commitment to ecological sustainability.

Over a week Wood cooks parts of the cow I wouldn't 'touch with a stick.' I like the idea of her discussion and it raises important issues but I don't think I could do it. At one stage Wood considers vegetarianism for the first time in her life. I must say that I have considered it myself.

From an ethical perspective how can I deliberately eat meat knowing that the animal was raised to be killed and cut to pieces only for me to choose perfectly fashioned cuts wrapped up by the butcher while the remainder of the animal is... what does happen to the rest of the animal? Is it burned or thrown in to a pit with other carcasses? I have heard of the belief that for a body to rest in peace it must remain intact.

Wood's week of cooking and eating the animal is confronting from the cooking smells, to the textures of the cuts and the tastes of the animal for example, the kidney. She can never quite forget the smell of cow urine from preparing the kidney as she eats it.

It leaves me with a dilemma. I won't be eating offal anytime soon so how can I justify my habit of meat eating?

a wrap up of last week

the weekend: I helped break a world record. We shared the weekend with two families who came over for a BBQ lunch and then an early dinner. One of the families had a sleep-over which meant the kids had a ball and we were able to finish a conversation (and glass of wine) or two over dinner!

Sunday is our swimming day. Both the children have swimming lessons which we believe is an invaluable gift to them and they are lucky that we can give them that gift. This is a brilliant initiative from the Royal Life Saving Assoc and Uncle Toby's to fund lessons for those families can't afford lessons for their children.

Mon: a 30 minute run in the morning then off to the city for Carla's Dino Dig at the Australian Museum. We ate lunch in Hyde Park then crossed Elizabeth St for a visit to the David Jones Christmas window display. Hyde Park always makes me think of Jeannie Baker's book Millicent the illustrations of hitch I used to pore over as a child.

Tuesday: Pilates (for me!) and a trip to our local library to raid their dinosaur book collection. We have reading material for weeks to come!

Wednesday: Playgroup

Peking Duck with fried rice, garlic, fresh ginger, savoy cabbage, carrot, capsicum, coriander and egg.

Thursday: I collected B early from preschool with the promise of some "Mummy-Byron time." We ate ice-cream in Manly and headed to the find a little penguin we'd heard had made a nesting place where we could have a peek from afar.

Grilled marinated (rosemary, garlic, olive oil) lamp cutlets with a roasted potatoes, a chickpea, coriander, carrot, black sesame seed salad, homemade beetroot dip and baba ganoush and homemade naan bread just to soak up all the flavours!

Friday: A work-out in the morning followed by a piccolo at a new cafe in Manly then the rest of the day at home.

(I took this pic in Hyde Park, at the time oblivious to the irony that this Catholic church is at the centre of the controversy of the Royal Commission in to Child Sexual Abuse because of Cardinal George Pell's outrageous defence of confessional protocol.)

mango sorbet (no ice-cream machine required)

It's here! Mango season!!

Yesterday my grandmother and I picked up a tray of mangoes for $17! That was less than $1 each. Mangoes would have to be my favourite fruit and I know I'm not the only one. If you're not from Australia then sadly I have heard the ones we export are not quite the same. I suspect because once they are ripe you only have a couple of days to eat them, they leave Australia's shores unripe and they are refrigerated in storage which doesn't assist with ripening.

I've digressed.

I don't have an ice-cream machine so I decided to attempt Donna Hay's fruit sorbet recipe which can be done in an ice-cream maker but doesn't have to be.

Sorbet

3/4 cup caster sugar
1 cup (8 fl oz) water
Fruit purée of your choice

To make the basic syrup, place the sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat and stir without boiling until the sugar is dissolved. (This was B's job.)

Increase the heat and bring to the boil for 1 minute. Set aside to cool. While the syrup is cooling, prepare the fruit purée.

Combine the fruit purée and sugar syrup in a metal bowl or cake tin and freeze for 1 hour or until just beginning to set at the edges. Best with an electric hand mixer and return to the freezer. Repeat 3 times at hourly intervals or until the sorbet is thick and smooth.

Mango Purée

Combine 2 1/2 cups mango purée (4 x 400g/14 oz mangoes or 950g/2 lb chopped mango flesh) and half a cup (4 fl oz) of lime juice to the cooled basic sorbet syrup.

The result is divine and worth the 1 minute every hour of beating.

guacamole

2 ripe avocados
2 large or 3 small cloves garlic
Juice of 1 lemon
Splash of good olive oil
Pinch salt
Freshly cracked pepper

Optional: 1 teaspoon Sambal (or fresh chillies). I like mine hot!

Serve with corn chips.

Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse

If you find the following post confronting you are not alone. Child sexual abuse is a heinous crime and one thats legacy long outlasts the abuse itself.

There are many alarming statistics on the Internet but the most confronting comes from the Australian Institute of Family Studies paper on The Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect (April 2010) which determines that somewhere between 10-16% of males and 20-40% of females are sexually abused before they are 18 years of age.

It's very important to acknowledge that these statistics are somewhat conservative estimates based on reported cases of sexual abuse and its safe to say that there are significantly more cases that remain unreported.

After mounting pressure our Prime Minister has, last night, declared her intent to hold a Royal Commission into child abuse that has occurred in organisations and institutions including sports groups, and most obviously, churches.

The commentary in today's papers highlights the fact that the terms of reference of this RC should be carefully considered especially as "evidence that is uncovered will be inadmissable in subsequent court proceedings." (Chris Merritt, The Australian Newspaper, 13 November, 2012.)

Others analysing the benefits of a RC have suggested that the costs (especially as it will not be restricted to the Catholic Church) will be huge. I'd suggest that the legacies of child sexual abuse - mental illness, drug and substance abuse, homelessness, domestic violence, suicide; and services such as Sexual Assault services, Suicide Prevention Programs, Drug and Alcohol services, Law Enforcement and Court processes, the departments with the responsibility of the welfare of minors and, Medicare funded psychology sessions place a far greater financial and social burden on our society than this RC will.

There are concerns that a RC will turn into a witch hunt especially in organisations such as the Catholic Church.

I'd say that these concerns about a RC may well be justified but I'd suggest that a RC which, most significantly, will get the nation 'talking' about child sexual abuse will be the most important outcome of all. As a friend said recently "silence is the killer which abusers count on."

For some victims justice is not about revenge or the length of jail sentence or the witch hunt of the perpetrator. Victims speak out to be heard. In this process they will be listened to. They'll be told that its not okay. They'll be told it wasn't their fault. Perpetrators will finally have to accept responsibility (even though criminal proceedings won't necessarily follow, they won't be able to hide).

Governments will use the results of a RC to make changes to legislation in the aim of reducing the instances of child sexual abuse including the development of a national curriculum in child protection. 'Stranger Danger' which was once taught in schools is no longer considered the most effective way to educate children about their personal safety. The statistics state that overwhelmingly children are abused by family members or friends or those known to the victim.

The CEO of Child Wise, in her article to the Sydney Morning Herald editorial, states that the "focus must shift to prevention."

Those with experience with victims say this will be a very traumatic process for them. It will be but  it's unlikely to be any more traumatic than the abuse that's already taken place or the years of shame and guilt and self-destructive behaviour and silence and secrets from loved ones.

It's fair to say that society has failed to address the lurking problem of child sexual abuse. If we don't talk about it victims feel they can't 'break the silence.' In days gone by child sexual abuse was what happened 'behind the white picket fence.' In some way all members of society have a responsibility when it comes to child sexual abuse.

Are you a parent or guardian? Do you have friends with children or contact with children? Even if you're not a parent or teacher you still have a responsbility for the children in our society. They are our future. The more we discuss this issue the less likely it is that perpetrators will 'get away with it.'

To read more about the Royal Commission you only need to google it.

Here are some informative links and websites regarding child sexual abuse.

National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN)
http://www.napcan.org.au/

NSW Department of Education Child Protection Education
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/primary/pdhpe/safe/cpe.htm

Australian Institute for Family Studies
http://www.aifs.gov.au/nch/pubs/sheets/rs21/rs21.html

Bravehearts Foundation
http://www.bravehearts.org.au/

Child Wise Resources
http://www.childwise.net/Resources/fact-sheets.html

Australian Institute of Criminology
http://www.aic.gov.au/events/aic%20upcoming%20events/2003/abuse.aspx

Beyond Blue
http://www.beyondblue.org.au/index.aspx?link_id=6.95

gingerbread cinnamon thingies

Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book 2 came to the rescue again today. (check out that price tag. I couldn't go past it!)

B decided that he simply needed to make gingerbread thingies. I halved the recipe and reduced the amount of sugar. For that reason I have omitted the icing part.

125g butter, softened
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c golden syrup
2 1/2 c plain flour, sifted
2 teaspoons ground ginger (we had none so we used cinnamon)
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Preheat oven to 190°c. Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat with electric beaters until light and creamy. Add the golden syrup, flour, ginger and bicarb and mix to form a smooth dough.
Refridgerate for 10 minutes or until the dough is firm.
Roll out the dough between sheets of non-stick baking paper to 4mm (1/4 inch) thick. Cut out shapes from the dough using a gingerbread man cookie cutter (or giraffe, frog, hearts and stars as we did). Place on baking trays lined with baking paper. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on trays. Makes 25.

meal plan

Each week I make certain I have a meal plan. Whilst I may not stick with it exactly and things tend to come up during the week it helps me to devise (and committ to) a shopping list (and budget) and do a regular inventory of my pantry and freezer.

Our children (1 yo and 3 yo) now eat what we do. I don't hesitate to add chilli and a tonne of garlic to our meals. I tell my son "you love chilli" and his response is "yeah. I love chilli!"

So often I hear parents say, in front of their children, "Oh. He doesn't like that." I believe this reinforces fussiness in eating. A rule we have with our children is that they must try everything. So often they find something they really like - just by trying it.

Yesterday I sat down on my bed, surrounded by a few cookbooks and a cup of tea deciding what we'd eat for the week.

This week's meal plan:

Mon: Peking duck salad. The delicious Peking duck comes from a local butcher- Millin's Fine Food Butcher. With green leaves, crunchy noodles, loads of mint, julienne carrot.

Tues: nori rolls with cucumber, carrot and a small seared salmon steak.

Wed: eggs on toast with asparagus ($1.30 a bunch at the moment)

Thurs: lamb cutlets with veggies or salad.

Fri: pizzas with prosciutto, pesto, feta, olives, marinated eggplant.

I must say that this week seems quite meat heavy. My incredible grandmother came to visit last weekend and insisted she bought me a freezer full of meat from Millin's. Millin's sells meat that is as close to organic without being certified. They sell hormone-free, chemical-free, free range meats. You can walk in and buy a ready-to-cook meal and they'll label it with the cooking time and temperature.

We've continued our running order with Harvest Hub. Each Wednesday a large insulated bag of fruit and veggies (they also deliver local dairy and nut products now too) is delivered to our front door. Over the weekend I can log-in to my order and add or take-away products from my order but if I don't get the time the bagful is always a perfect combination of good quality local seasonal produce.

How do you plan for your meals?

DIY board game

Materials: paper, textas, dice, playing pieces (all different and one for each player).

J remembers making board games with his father and I remember making them with my brothers when I was young. The children and I whipped up a few on a rainy afternoon last week. They are perfect for creativity, 'taking turns' and identifying dot patterns on dice.

wrap up of our week

a homemade dinosaur game: B's creative play. A volcano, a palm tree, a flying dinosaur & a swimming dinosaur

sewing: a reversible hairband. And one for P (more on that later)

mixing colours: children create their own fun

a bag of chook manure: ready to drop off at Giovanni's garden

ask and you shall receive: bread maker from Freecycle

a day's record: 7 chooks = 6 eggs

cooking: little helpers use little fingers to 'clean' the icing bowl. Brownies & another carrot cake (for my husband's work colleagues)

beach weather

afternoon tea: fruit salad with Barambah organic yoghurt with bush honey

Vietnamese mint: the taste of summer

playgroup: activities for everyone

our spring garden: thank you rain and sunshine (in equal measures)

and, of course, a taste of Melbourne Cup bubbles on Tuesday.