whole orange cake

This cake is sweet and contains a fair amount of butter so may be best served as a dessert.

1 whole orange, cut into quarters
220g butter, softened
150g raw sugar
3 eggs
260g SR Flour
40g shredded coconut

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºc. Grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin.

2. Place the orange and butter in to the mixing bowl and mix 7 sec/speed 8.

3. Add the remaining ingredients and combine 20 sec/speed 4.

4. Pour in to the cake tin and bake for 40 mins.

a visitor from outer space

According to B an alien was in our bathroom today. Oh. So that explains the purple hand prints.

winter games

An icy wind has descended on Sydney.

I've managed to sort out our play room and gather a few cool weather activities. This afternoon we're 'puzzling.' 

What games do you play when the kids are inside? 

mandarin marmalade 2

You may remember two years ago (one of my first blog posts) when I used Stephanie Alexander's recipe to make a large batch of marmalade - using the mandarins from a friend's tree in Port Macquarie.

I hardly made a dent in their crop last week when I brought home a box for some more marmalade-y goodness!

Needless to say, my kitchen has a lovely glossy, sugary sheen about it and the clean-up continues!

This time, with the Thermomix, I didn't need to spend hours julienning mandarin peel. I whizzed them up on sp 7 / 3 secs and they were done. That saved time.

This time I trebled the recipe so Stephanie Alexander suggests 2 kilos sugar per 1 kilo mandarins. I just couldn't bring myself to those quantities of sugar so I made my marmalade with 1 kilo sugar per 1 kilo mandarins. It was sweet enough and with the TM I could use organic raw sugar, whizz it in to caster sugar (without the processing) thus making it (slightly) healthier!

I had everything ready to go but couldn't find my muslin cloth stash so had to sacrifice a (pretty old) hole-y tea towel which did the job of pip holder!

 If you're going to make jam or marmalade this gadget is preferable to a sticky kitchen bench

magic bean cake

The first food I ate from a Thermomix was a slice of Magic Bean Cake from the Clever Cook. A friend brought some on a park outing and had me guessing for a long time about it’s ‘secret ingredient’ which I now know to be kidney beans. I was cooking in a kitchen with an oven I wasn’t familiar with – which had one setting – fan-forced but I managed to tweak the cooking temp. and time. At about 170ºc I checked the cake at 30 mins and gave it another 5 mins. 

The cake was MOIST, perfectly MOIST, and delicious! I substituted the cocoa for some freshly ground cacao powder (which I whizzed up from cacao nibs.)I didn't have any vanilla extract so I added 2 tspn mixed spice.

Served with a dollop of cream this went down well. And no one suspected it was healthy… until I mentioned it!

magic bean cake

by clever cook

ingredients
420g can kidney beans, drained
1 tablespoon water or coffee
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
70g unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon GF baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
125 g Butter OR oil (for GF)
5  eggs
180 g sugar


method
In your TM puree the beans, water/coffee, I egg and vanilla until smooth. SP 7. Set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar SP 5 30 seconds

Add the remaining eggs & beat for 20 seconds SP 4.

Add bean mixture SP 4 5 seconds.

Add the cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and blend SP 4 10 seconds.

Pour batter into greased ring tin pan and bake MOD oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

prawn masala curry

I think I just discovered my favourite Thermomix recipe. Oh my!

Having bought the TM Fast and Easy Indian Cooking cookbook recently I hadn’t had much of a chance to use it so with a husband home (and not away for work) and being on holidays I had an opportunity. The prawn masala recipe calls for a coriander, garlic pesto-type marinade and the tomato based paste forms the base for a dry(ish) curry in which to cook the pre-marinated prawns. Fortunately the Hastings River Fisherman's Co-Operative in Port Macquarie had a good supply of locally caught, giant, gorgeous king prawns and they were my pick for this dish.You can use chicken for this dish but if you can get fresh local prawns go for them instead.

If the word “curry” makes you salivate then this is a curry to try. It’s hot, pungent and so tasty.  I imagined it chasing my cold away and if THAT many garlic cloves can’t do it I’m not sure I believe garlic and chilli cures a cold!

If you have a food pocessor I'm sure ou could make the marinade in that - or even in a mortar and pestle. The paste could be made on the stove too, but you'd have to be there to keep an eye on it.

prawn masala curry 

from fast and easy Indian cooking

ingredients

for the marinade 
10g garlic, peeled
10g fresh coriander
2 fresh green chillies, tops removed
juice of 1/2 lemon or juice of 1 lime
50g tiger prawns person, peeled, heads and veins removed (I left the tails on)

for the masala paste
15g garlic cloves, peeled
80g onions, peeled and quartered
10g fresh coriander
2 fesh green chillies, tops removed
40g vegetable oil, plus extra for frying
400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tblsn tomato puree or sun-dried tomato puree
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp salt
50-200g water, depending on consistency desired for the sauce

method
1. For the marinade: drop 10g garlic plus the fresh coriander and chillies onto the running TM blades at sp 8. Scrape out into another bowl. Add the juice and prawns. Stir to mix. Place in fridge and marinate while making sauce.

  marinating prawns

2. To make the paste: mince the garlic, onions, and fresh coriander and chillies by dropping them onto the running blades at sp 8. Scrape down the lid and sides of the TM bowl. Add the 40g oil and cook 3 mins/Varoma/Sp spoon/measuring cup off. During this time, open the tin of tomatoes and measure the tomato puree, turmeric, cumin, ground coriander and salt on top of them so they are ready to pour into the TM bowl after the 3 mins.

Pour the tomatoes, tomato puree and spice into the TM bowl. Add the coriander and chilli past. Scrape down the lid and side of the TM bowl with the spatula. Cook 20mins/Varoma/sp 1/measuring cup off. When it starts to spit, replace the measuring cup.

Add the water and cook again for 10 mins/Varoma/ sp 1. While the sauce is cooking, stir the prawns and marinade ingredients again. 

masala curry paste

3. To cook and serve: Heat a heavy based frying pan until very hot, then add a little oil. When the oi is shimmering with the heat, add the marinated prawns with enough of the sauce for your curry (you may want to retain some for a later meal). Stir and cook until the prawns turn pink all over. Serve immediately with steamed rice.

my favourite books

There was much discussion on my Facebook page about favourite children's books. Some feature on my list but there were some I hadn't heard of. It's always interesting to hear which books influenced children - right into their adulthood - and spurred on a love for reading. I'd LOVE to hear your favourite books and books that influenced you. You can comment on this post and search for my Facebook page: MissMayBlossom.

There is much written about the mechanics of learning to read but I think I'll keep that for another post!

A few days into a school year I let my students in on a secret. I make certain everyone is listening and ready to hear by leaning forward so they lean in towards me. I widen my eyes and I ask in a hushed voice "Are you ready to hear my secret?" "Yes," they whisper in anticipation. Then I tell them... "I love books."

So, it's not a BIG secret but it is a very significant moment in my classroom. At home my love of books and reading is evident by the overflowing bookshelves... and side tables, the dining table, my recipe book collection (which is also under my bed. Don't tell J!), the childrens' beds, the car.... The children had about 100 books before they were conceived. You can never have enough books or access to books. Reading is the thing we do in our house when there's a dull moment. It's the thing we do while we wait at the doctor's surgery. It's the thing we do in cafes.

"You can never have enough books." is something I commonly say. It reminds me of when my grandmother was helping me move when I was at uni. She was carrying (of her own volition) a heavy crate of my CD's and questioned "Do you need all of these?" My response was "Yes. They're all different." The same goes for books. You can learn so much from one book and they are all different. I'm not just referring to learning the 'surface' information - storyline, characters or information about birds, for example. I am referring to the skills learned from interacting with and responding to a variety of texts.

My kids see me read recipe books, the newspaper, crosswords, sewing patterns, maps and picture books. Text is everywhere but there's something more authentic about 'holding' a physical text than just reading from a computer screen, after all, you could be doing anything. When you are holding a newspaper, looking like you're reading, Kids can see that you are probably reading the newspaper. It's unambiguous. That's not to say reading online isn't valid. It's just a different medium. My kids also see me reading blogs.

Children (and adults) learn best when a purpose for their learning is evident and it is presented in a fun way. For example, the best way to teach a child to read a recipe is to follow the recipe and make the dish. Clearly, by cooking something they'll eventually eat (probably not fois gras), thus relating it to their interests and real-world experiences, they'll gain more from the experience.

My children are two and four. Neither of them can 'read' in the conventional sense although I do think B (4) would pick it up quickly if I taught him. I have made a conscious decision not to teach B to read. I know he'll learn to read words at school and that will be a huge focus of his first year at school. In holding off, I believe I've also given the children a few skills they may not have developed otherwise, and that will help them tremendously as they do learn to read. We read our kids a few books each day but they read piles of books on their own, simply by examining the illustrations. 'Reading' illustrations is a skill that helps children decode text, simply by giving the text a context. If your child doesn't learn to read before school (which used to be the norm) or you are wondering whether or not to teach them, you might like to consider this, along with giving them access to many and varied forms of print.

There is much discussion in education about the best way to 'teach' reading (especially to boys who, it appears, are our most reluctant readers). I'm not waiting until my children are at school so that I can outsource to a teacher to teach my kids to love to learn and love to read. Role modelling is key to developing a love for reading and that doesn't just mean role-modelling reading text messages from our mobile phones. It is so important to have uninterrupted and dedicated reading time. This time depends on the family and might be after brekky or before bed, with Grandma after school, or Dad after work. The important thing is that this is the time when you can all read together, lose yourselves in the world on the pages and not be interrupted by an abrupt 'ping' of an incoming text or phone call.


I've decided to compile list a few of my favourite books. Once I decided I'd do this I realised just how difficult it is to choose 'just a few.'

Books about Reading
The three titles below are books I have lent to parents who would like to know more about teaching children to read.
* Reading Magic by Mem Fox
* the Reading Bug by Paul Jennings
* Rocket Your Child into Reading Jackie French

Picture Books & Books for Young children
It doesn't matter how old my primary school aged students are I don't stop showing them picture books. Everybody can learn something from the. They can be so visually stimulating and the best ones can be interpreted on more than one level, thus making them appealing for young and old readers alike. 

Text-less Books 
One lunchtime, in my first year of teaching, I dashed out of my school to grab some food and couldn't resist a wander through the local Angus and Robertson bookshop. It was on the shelves of the kids book section that I spotted some familiar illustrations. Moonlight (1) was the book and it wasn't until I opened it that I realised it's sister, Sunshine (2) was the reason it was familiar. Sunshine was a favourite book of mine and I do remember the illustrations from 'reading' it at a very early age. I am guessing this would be a pre-5yo memory. 

Moonlight and Sunshine, like The Bear and the Fly (3), are text-less texts and so, a perfect way to introduce children to the concept of story-telling. The reader makes up a story based on the illustrations. Sunshine is such a beautiful story - one that families can relate to - getting ready for school and work, sleeping in, burning toast. 

Sunshine by Jan Ormerod

Picture Books
There's something appealing about rhythmic text but contrived rhyme i.e. rhyming words for the sake of it, is something I find particularly irritating. Children don't seem to mind though! The Very Cranky Bear (4) is a good example of a book with  'appealing' rhyme and I can't go past the favourite Hairy Maclary (5) books either.

I'm a bit partial to a good non-fiction text for children. In my recent haul of books at a Lifeline Book Fair I bought books about skeletons, thunder and lightning, space and the human body. Little people are sponges for information and it never ceases to astound me when I hear a child repeating a fact they've 'read,' or heard being read, from a book, sometimes months before.

The Three Little Bush Pigs (6) is a hilarious take on the classic, The Three Little Pigs. With the use of good Aussie slang the story starts. "Deep in the Pilliga Scrub lived the three little bush pigs who were as keen as mustard to leave home." They must outsmart the dingrel, who had a head like a twisted gumboot, so when the first little bush pig insists he build his house from prickly pear his brothers reckon he must be off his rocker!

In some cases I generalise about a collection of books by the same author. I love picture books by Alison Lester, Jeannie Baker and  Graeme Base for their own reasons. 

The Boy Who Painted the Sun (7) I picked up a copy of this book at an op-shop at some point during my four-year teaching degree. It's ratty and falling apart but I just love the illustrations. The story follows a boy who lived on a farm only to move to the grey city where he misses the farm. The boy buys a paint box and sets out to paint the farm he yearns for and the city in colour.

Ice creams for Rosie (8)
As a child, there's something exciting about reading about ice-cream and lollies (think Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (9)) and this book is a treat (get it?). My students have loved this book - as Rosie gets her revenge on Ol' Bill Coley (who has a voice like thunder) - when he refuses to bring a supply of ice-cream to the island where she lives.

Ice Creams for Rosie by Ronda and David Armitage

We're Going on a Bear Hunt (10) was P's favourite book and for some months she had two covered copies and one 'board book' copy in her bed. The book contains onomatopoeia, rhyme and a  reminds me of a song the way it builds to a crescendo. The beautiful illustrations (alternating colour and black and white) also make it a highly appealing book. 

Where the Forest Meets the Sea (11) Given to me around my 7th birthday, this book (and others by Baker) has always enthralled me. I am fascinated as to how a three-dimensional scene of the Daintree can be created and then communicated in 2D. I love the timeless environmental message that forms the basis of the story - the destruction of our environment and development in its place is a short-term decision that can't be reversed and is one that affects us into the long-term.  

In My Backyard (12) is a simple text which, when read without the illustrations, would seem to describe a jungle. Alongside the illustrations we can see the book is about a concrete jungle, the city. I have used this book a lot with students as a tool to get them to consider the juxtaposition.

Here are a few others that couldn't go unmentioned:
Tikki Tikki Tembo written by Arlene Mosel and illustrated by Blair Lent.
The Rainbow Serpent by Dick Roughsey
The Meg and Mog books Jan Pienkowski
Picasso's Trousers by Nicholas Allan (I have to admit that I am a sucker for a book that introduces kids to art and concepts of art.)

 Sunshine by Jan Ormerod

Read-alouds 

There are books to be read and books that can be read-aloud. Not all books sound right when they're read aloud. The Wishing Chair (17) and The Enchanted Wood series (18) are two of my favourite books for reading aloud to young kids. We have also read the Tashi series (19) and the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (20) to our children.

1. Moonlight by Jan Ormerod
2. Sunshine by Jan Ormerod
3. The Bear and the Fly by Paula Winter
4. The Very Cranky Bear by Nick Bland
5. Hairy Maclary by Lynley Dodd
6. The Three Little Bush Pigs by Paul Dallimore
7. The Boy Who Painted the Sun by Jill Morris Illustrated by Geoff Hocking
8. Ice Creams for Rosie by Ronda and David Armitage 
9. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
10. We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury
11. Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker12. In My Backyard by Nette Hilton and Anne Spudvilas
13. Tikki Tikki Tembo written by Arlene Mosel and illustrated by Blair Lent.
14. The Rainbow Serpent by Dick Roughsey
15. The Meg and Mog books Jan Pienkowski
16. Picasso's Trousers by Nicholas Allan
17. The Wishing Chair by Enid Blyton
18. The Enchanted Wood series by Enid Blyton
19. Tashi by Anna and Barbara Fienberg
20. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

making dough

While I don’t tend to eat a lot of bread we always seem to have it in the house. During our week away I made bread rolls and a loaf of organic wholemeal - both in the Thermomix.

The bread rolls were for burgers which were made by mixing a teaspoon mixed spice, a chopped onion, three minced garlic cloves, 2 tablespoons freshly made breadcrumbs, an egg, 500g organic beef mince and a huge handful of parsley in the TM. 

Served with fresh tomato, some locally made tomato sauce and avocado they were more like sliders – and perfectly sized for little hands.

The loaf was for sandwiches and brekky - vegemite toast. 

 

pantry is overflowing

There are things I simply can't live without. Having just returned from a week away we seem to have surplus 

* organic soya sauce

* cumin seeds

* ground coriander, and

* coconut oil. 

What can you simply not go without? 

(First world problem, I know!)

Oh and I may have committed myself to a week in the kitchen (not complaining) after making hardly a dent in a friends mandarin and grapefruit crop! Marmalade here I come! 

pear and ginger holiday cake

So - we are on holidays. J has 6 days leave and we're staying at a friend's holiday house in Port Macquarie. Do you remember my mandarin marmalade from 2011? A four and a half hour drive from Sydney, the climate is glorious. I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt and it is the middle of winter!

The thing about holidays is that while there are two parents around there's more time to cook. I brought my Thermomix and we made nasi goreng for last nights dinner. Fortunately our holiday house has an oven (& a much better kitchen than my own at home).

Today I just couldn't help myself. I discovered an organic supermarket in town - Organic Belly - and grabbed some rapadura sugar (& organic teas). 

The two descriptors I like to read about a cake are "moist" and "fluffy." Incredibly this cake is both those things - light and fluffy on the top and moist with peary goodness on the bottom. 

I could only operate the oven as fan-forced so you may need to cook it for longer if you're not using fan-forced. I'd check it at 45 minutes and cook for longer, checking (with skewer) at 5 minute intervals. I doubt it will need more than 60 minutes. 

Here is my recipe for Pear and Ginger Holiday Cake.

ingredients

6g fresh ginger 

160g rapadura sugar

125g unsalted butter, diced

250g organic sr flour

1 tspn baking powder

2 tspn mixed spice

310g milk

1 egg

2 Beurré bosc pears, cored, peeled and diced

method

Preheat oven to 180°c. Line a 20cm round cake tin with greaseproof baking paper. 

Place ginger in the TM bowl sp 6/3 secs. Scrape down sides of the bowl. Add the butter and sugar. Cook at  90°c/5 min/sp 2. 

Add dry ingredients, milk & egg, mix speed 4, for 4-5 seconds until flour is just combined - to keep the result light and fluffy.

Add pear pieces, mix reverse sp 2/ 3 secs. 

Cook for 45 mins (fan-forced) and check from 45 mins for a non fan-forced oven. It probably won't need more than 60 mins.