This is impressive seeing that I didn't actually make it out of my first official Edmonds free day without baking. Damn my colleagues and their persuasive ways.
So I've relented and started a new blog. Admittedly most of the last three days were spent thinking of a new name. I'm not sure that I love it yet but good things take time as they say on the cheese ads.
http://danceswithkumara.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Sunday, November 30, 2008
That’s All Folks
And that’s it. All done. 114 posts in total would you believe.
The end of the Edmonds. 365 days of cooking, cleaning, writing, more cooking , leaving the dishes to accumulate, doing them because the Husband has had a paddy, taking photos, trying to get around to writing, stockpiling ingredients, starting recipes only to find I don’t have the necessary ingredients, trying to find more time to write, turfing the rabbit out of the stockpile of supplies with her mouthful of icing sugar/flour/raisins (you’d think I’d learn), writing lists of what I could cook, writing lists of what I have cooked, writing shopping lists, ticking and crossing off recipes… but now the cycle has come to an end.
Last night we had friends around to celebrate the end of the Edmonds. Naturally I cooked with a little help from my Mum. We had Sardine Savoury, Mock chicken, cheese and egg dip, coleslaw, toadstools (stuffed eggs with tomato on top – see photo), trifle, sponge roll and more. We all dressed up 1966 style. My Mother and Stepmother were in fits over doing my hair. The husband manned the BBQ. I passed around the snacks like a good hostess.
Thanks to everyone who has helped me along the way – sourcing ingredients and cookware, buying the odd bit of baking or preserves, offering advice or support. It’s been hard work but it’s been great fun. Well most of the time!
So I guess now all there is to do is sign off. See you later, it’s been swell.
Love,
Debbie
Friday, November 28, 2008
The Countdown is on…
I am desperately trying to tidy my house for the End of the Edmonds Extravaganza. Well obviously I’m not literally doing that because I’m sitting at the computer typing. Perhaps if I sit here typing for long enough the magical cleaning fairies will come and clean my house. Probably not. I’m still tempted to try it and find out.
To celebrate the end of the Edmonds I’m having a bit of a bash. 1966 style. 1966 clothes, 1966 music, 1966 décor and naturally 1966 food. Unfortunately this means I will need to clean the house. I used to invite people over for dinner purely so I would need to clean the house. Oddly in the last year people have been less than keen to come around for dinner. Can’t imagine why.
It’s been a great year but my god am I going to be glad when it’s over. Think of all the free time. Think of all the normal, interesting, tasty food I’ll be able to cook and eat. Think of all the time I’ll have to get outside and get some exercise and hopefully lose some of the cream and dripping that seems to have found a home around my waist.
Naturally it is always a little sad to come to the end of something. I’ve become so used to being Debbie does Edmonds that I suppose I will need to become something else. Probably nothing on such a large scale though!
I have got quite a bit of cooking for the party tomorrow – I’ve left some of the savories etc for the final bash. I will make a concerted effort to take photos and put together one final farewell post – so sad! Hell for old times sake I might even put a photo of myself up - I would be fascinated to know what peoples mental image of me is, I’ve been relatively careful to keep the actual facts about me to a minimum. So far.
To celebrate the end of the Edmonds I’m having a bit of a bash. 1966 style. 1966 clothes, 1966 music, 1966 décor and naturally 1966 food. Unfortunately this means I will need to clean the house. I used to invite people over for dinner purely so I would need to clean the house. Oddly in the last year people have been less than keen to come around for dinner. Can’t imagine why.
It’s been a great year but my god am I going to be glad when it’s over. Think of all the free time. Think of all the normal, interesting, tasty food I’ll be able to cook and eat. Think of all the time I’ll have to get outside and get some exercise and hopefully lose some of the cream and dripping that seems to have found a home around my waist.
Naturally it is always a little sad to come to the end of something. I’ve become so used to being Debbie does Edmonds that I suppose I will need to become something else. Probably nothing on such a large scale though!
I have got quite a bit of cooking for the party tomorrow – I’ve left some of the savories etc for the final bash. I will make a concerted effort to take photos and put together one final farewell post – so sad! Hell for old times sake I might even put a photo of myself up - I would be fascinated to know what peoples mental image of me is, I’ve been relatively careful to keep the actual facts about me to a minimum. So far.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Honestly, it's Just Marmalade
The more I tell people I’m about to finish the year of Edmonds the more I begin to feel like I have some sort of awful terminal disease. There seems to be a sort of punishing finality to concluding the project. I happened to take a look at my profile just now. I have just noticed that I managed to put a couple of spelling mistakes in there so one whole sentence makes no sense. I’m sure that’s some kind of meatphor for something. Oooo and I also misspelled metaphor as meatphor – that must mean something too.
I have started to think about life after Edmonds. I may continue to blog, if only to keep the two sociopaths who read it at their computers and away from the rest of normal society.
I probably shouldn’t randomly insult my tiny audience. I apologize tiny audience. You know how people say “My Mother always said if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”. Well my Mother never said that. However she did used to say “As I was crossing London Bridge I smelt the smell of kippers, I asked a lady what it was she said she’d pissed her knickers”. Naturally that is completely irrelevant and has had no effect on my social skills or ability to interact nicely with others. I hope.
I made carrot marmalade the other day – it was a very pretty colour. Orange of course. Who would have thought – marmalade out of carrots. I was as shocked as the next person. Except there was no next person. Just me. Oh and the Rabbits – where there are carrots there are Rabbits – we peel them straight on to the floor. Some people have cats and dogs that are attuned to the noise of a can opener – my rabbits provide a speedy response to a peeler.
Do I need to tell people that a marmalade has carrots in it before pass it off to people? I’d feel a bit mean, like when I told all the nice people that the marrow filling was pear jam. Then again I can probably live with feeling a bit mean if it gets some preserves off my hands. The place is lousy with jars of things.
I also made (and burnt) a couple of cakes – cherry cake, ladysmith cake, peanut butter loaf… I used to get upset when I burnt baking, now I’m just relieved that I don’t need to find anyone to eat it.
Speaking of getting rid of baking, the men of the office are starting to look a little nervous. There are now so few baking recipes left that I can count on one hand. Incase you were wondering, despite a rich tapestry of inbreeding in my family I am blessed with no missing or extra digits. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens when they get hungry, I’m thinking it could be like “Alive” without the plane or the Andes.
I have started to think about life after Edmonds. I may continue to blog, if only to keep the two sociopaths who read it at their computers and away from the rest of normal society.
I probably shouldn’t randomly insult my tiny audience. I apologize tiny audience. You know how people say “My Mother always said if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”. Well my Mother never said that. However she did used to say “As I was crossing London Bridge I smelt the smell of kippers, I asked a lady what it was she said she’d pissed her knickers”. Naturally that is completely irrelevant and has had no effect on my social skills or ability to interact nicely with others. I hope.
I made carrot marmalade the other day – it was a very pretty colour. Orange of course. Who would have thought – marmalade out of carrots. I was as shocked as the next person. Except there was no next person. Just me. Oh and the Rabbits – where there are carrots there are Rabbits – we peel them straight on to the floor. Some people have cats and dogs that are attuned to the noise of a can opener – my rabbits provide a speedy response to a peeler.
Do I need to tell people that a marmalade has carrots in it before pass it off to people? I’d feel a bit mean, like when I told all the nice people that the marrow filling was pear jam. Then again I can probably live with feeling a bit mean if it gets some preserves off my hands. The place is lousy with jars of things.
I also made (and burnt) a couple of cakes – cherry cake, ladysmith cake, peanut butter loaf… I used to get upset when I burnt baking, now I’m just relieved that I don’t need to find anyone to eat it.
Speaking of getting rid of baking, the men of the office are starting to look a little nervous. There are now so few baking recipes left that I can count on one hand. Incase you were wondering, despite a rich tapestry of inbreeding in my family I am blessed with no missing or extra digits. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens when they get hungry, I’m thinking it could be like “Alive” without the plane or the Andes.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
With My Own Eyes
Now I'm afraid the project will not be able to reach its full conclusion. I hope this does not come as too much of a shock to anyone. I personally have come to terms with it so I'm hoping I will manage to receive your forgiveness.
The reason is that there are some things that I just haven’t been able to get hold of, and I have tried. A lot. Honest. Thinks like Toheroa for example – I am trying to avoid any legal battles over endangered shellfish poaching. The chapter that has suffered the most from my procurement issues has been the jams and jellies – there have been some fruits that I have just found it impossible to locate. Pie melons and cape gooseberries come to mind almost immediately. So it is with a note of sadness that I finish off what I am able to finish off in the jams section with the last recipe – dried apricot jam.
Now I probably wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. The instructions said to take 1lb of dried apricots, cover in water and leave overnight. I put the lid on and forgot about it. I suppose if I had thought it through I might not have been so shocked. When I looked in the pot all the little dried apricots had rehydrated themselves back to slightly paler versions of themselves. I’m afraid I even occupied that old female fallback position of calling them cute.
Not cute enough to stop me from turning them into jam of course. And not bad jam it was either. Now that I’m nearing the end of the project I’m wondering what the future holds. I’m wondering whether I’ll ever find myself making jam again. Truth is that I have enough jam to last me through a fairly significant natural disaster so it’ll probably be a while before I have to start sterilizing jars again.
The reason is that there are some things that I just haven’t been able to get hold of, and I have tried. A lot. Honest. Thinks like Toheroa for example – I am trying to avoid any legal battles over endangered shellfish poaching. The chapter that has suffered the most from my procurement issues has been the jams and jellies – there have been some fruits that I have just found it impossible to locate. Pie melons and cape gooseberries come to mind almost immediately. So it is with a note of sadness that I finish off what I am able to finish off in the jams section with the last recipe – dried apricot jam.
Now I probably wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. The instructions said to take 1lb of dried apricots, cover in water and leave overnight. I put the lid on and forgot about it. I suppose if I had thought it through I might not have been so shocked. When I looked in the pot all the little dried apricots had rehydrated themselves back to slightly paler versions of themselves. I’m afraid I even occupied that old female fallback position of calling them cute.Not cute enough to stop me from turning them into jam of course. And not bad jam it was either. Now that I’m nearing the end of the project I’m wondering what the future holds. I’m wondering whether I’ll ever find myself making jam again. Truth is that I have enough jam to last me through a fairly significant natural disaster so it’ll probably be a while before I have to start sterilizing jars again.
Nice Firm Arteries and an Expanding Waistline
Ok so I know it’s been a long time. When you’ve got to cook as much as I do something s eventually got to give and seeing that the challenge was too cook everything then the cooking gets priority. If someone wants to come over and do my dishes for a while I could probably get a couple more hours typing in. No? I didn’t think so.
Given that we really only have two weeks left, and naturally I have a bit of cooking to do I’ll just write about a random selection of what I’ve been cooking rather than bore you all with a list. I am conscious that someone does possibly read this and I’d hate to be held responsible for concussions from people’s foreheads hitting keyboards.
And you'll be able to see that the last post was when I had 5 weeks to go. I have therefore been M.I.A. for three weeks. That really is poor form isn't it! I'll start up with the self-flagellation later as I really shouldn't distract myself from the typing now that it has finally restarted.
This project has given me an opportunity to do things I’ve never done before. I’d never made jam before. I’d never cooked offal (probably won’t be rushing back to do that again). I’d never cooked duck before – but now I have.
Duck is one of those things we usually order at a restaurant – most often at thai restaurants actually which seems a little odd now that I think about it. I don’t think I’ve even eaten duck at someone’s house before – the inlaws are compulsive kill it, cook it, eat it types with rabbit, deer, thar, chamois, etc but I’ve never been treated/subjected to duck before.
I had heard that there was not a lot of meat on a duck. Fortunately there is just the Husband and I at home because it turns out that at $24 duck will only really feed two people. Admittedly two people who will, given the opportunity, have the most ridiculously large portion sizes, but still. And you country folk can get back up off the floor re: my paying $24 for a duck. That’s just what we do up here.
The thing that really amazed me was the amount of fat on the damn duck – there must have been more than ½ pint – see I’m completely 1966 now, I even talk imperial. What do duck eat to end up with that much fat? It was obscene, I had put my vegetables into the roasting pan as well and they were slowly deep frying me into an early grave. Gosh I love a good roast vegetable but these were so richly fat soaked and glossy that I was almost physically sick straight after. That might have something to do with the aforementioned ridiculously large portion sizes. I now have fantastically firm arteries.
Now seeing that I was probably never going to cook a duck again – at least not in the near future – I actually thought I would save the duck fat. One of my memories of cooking was the dripping container in the fridge. It was a battered old enamel bowl and all the juices (read : fat) was poured into it after cooking. I can’t for the life of me figure out what we were cooking that kept the dripping container permanently full by that dripping made the best fried potatoes in the world. And now I have a dripping container of my own. And I love potatoes. I think I’m going to be seeing a lot more of my waistline…
Given that we really only have two weeks left, and naturally I have a bit of cooking to do I’ll just write about a random selection of what I’ve been cooking rather than bore you all with a list. I am conscious that someone does possibly read this and I’d hate to be held responsible for concussions from people’s foreheads hitting keyboards.
And you'll be able to see that the last post was when I had 5 weeks to go. I have therefore been M.I.A. for three weeks. That really is poor form isn't it! I'll start up with the self-flagellation later as I really shouldn't distract myself from the typing now that it has finally restarted.
This project has given me an opportunity to do things I’ve never done before. I’d never made jam before. I’d never cooked offal (probably won’t be rushing back to do that again). I’d never cooked duck before – but now I have.
Duck is one of those things we usually order at a restaurant – most often at thai restaurants actually which seems a little odd now that I think about it. I don’t think I’ve even eaten duck at someone’s house before – the inlaws are compulsive kill it, cook it, eat it types with rabbit, deer, thar, chamois, etc but I’ve never been treated/subjected to duck before.
I had heard that there was not a lot of meat on a duck. Fortunately there is just the Husband and I at home because it turns out that at $24 duck will only really feed two people. Admittedly two people who will, given the opportunity, have the most ridiculously large portion sizes, but still. And you country folk can get back up off the floor re: my paying $24 for a duck. That’s just what we do up here.
The thing that really amazed me was the amount of fat on the damn duck – there must have been more than ½ pint – see I’m completely 1966 now, I even talk imperial. What do duck eat to end up with that much fat? It was obscene, I had put my vegetables into the roasting pan as well and they were slowly deep frying me into an early grave. Gosh I love a good roast vegetable but these were so richly fat soaked and glossy that I was almost physically sick straight after. That might have something to do with the aforementioned ridiculously large portion sizes. I now have fantastically firm arteries.
Now seeing that I was probably never going to cook a duck again – at least not in the near future – I actually thought I would save the duck fat. One of my memories of cooking was the dripping container in the fridge. It was a battered old enamel bowl and all the juices (read : fat) was poured into it after cooking. I can’t for the life of me figure out what we were cooking that kept the dripping container permanently full by that dripping made the best fried potatoes in the world. And now I have a dripping container of my own. And I love potatoes. I think I’m going to be seeing a lot more of my waistline…
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Bottomless not the best
Friday night and I’m baking again. It’s almost not worth remarking on anymore. I need to remind myself that in 5 weeks I will have my life back. Just. 5. More. Weeks.
Baking powder bread. This required a small boiled potato. I didn’t have a boiled potato. I used an appropriate amount of dried potato flakes. For some reason I feel guilty about this – the Edmonds is not about substitutions after all. The baking powder bread was fine, obviously not as good as real bread but anything you can cut into large hunks and smother with butter is inherently good…
Wholemeal pastry – I had almost run out of flaky pastry so it was necessary to pull out the trusty old food processer. I have definitely got my money’s worth out of my kitchen appliances in the last year. I used my wholemeal pastry to make a very nice quiche – roast pumpkin and mushroom. Not bad, not bad at all.
Apple pie – I also used my wholemeal pastry to make the apple pie. It was, to my mind, not really an apple pie as there was only pastry on the top, not the bottom. It was however good, especially with a nice bit of frozen yoghurt. Highly recommend the frozen yoghurt if not the bottomless apple pie
Baking powder bread. This required a small boiled potato. I didn’t have a boiled potato. I used an appropriate amount of dried potato flakes. For some reason I feel guilty about this – the Edmonds is not about substitutions after all. The baking powder bread was fine, obviously not as good as real bread but anything you can cut into large hunks and smother with butter is inherently good…
Wholemeal pastry – I had almost run out of flaky pastry so it was necessary to pull out the trusty old food processer. I have definitely got my money’s worth out of my kitchen appliances in the last year. I used my wholemeal pastry to make a very nice quiche – roast pumpkin and mushroom. Not bad, not bad at all.
Apple pie – I also used my wholemeal pastry to make the apple pie. It was, to my mind, not really an apple pie as there was only pastry on the top, not the bottom. It was however good, especially with a nice bit of frozen yoghurt. Highly recommend the frozen yoghurt if not the bottomless apple pie
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