Struan Farm

LYS

Today was my last day in the LA area before heading down to Dana Point. I went down to Redondo Beach and had lunch with Karen at L'Atelier to get updated on all things knitting. L'Atelier was my LYS when I lived in the area and where I really learned to knit almost 20 years ago. (Beyond the basics my grandmother taught me.) They helped me become fearless and not pattern bound as a knitter, but rather to measure and "do the math."

And yes, I did manage to pick up some yarn, but let's not tell John, shall we? Two small skeins of hand dyed Art Yarns cashmere and two different Bergere de France yarns for designs in Origin Book No.3. Didn't I exercise exceptional restraint?............

More Postcards

Found some reprints of great vintage postcards, plus Grace made dog biscuits for the Pasadena Humane Society today (can't wait to make some for Clifford, I've got the recipe!) And yes, she's wearing her Piopio tee shirt:

I'm off to the Huntington Gardens with my knitting in tow. Leisure!

Quick Postcard from LA

I know I'm on vacation, but I'm having a great time in Pasadena with the Olinskis and thought I'd post a few pics. Gentle yoga classes at Yoga House, the South Pasadena Farmers Market, and making raspberry rhubarb crumble from The Free Range Cook for Laura, John, JP and Grace............

JP's making dinner in his official Piopio tee shirt (of course everyone got Piopio tee shirts!), with my warm crumble to follow.

You can't see it in the photo, but the sign below the huge vase of flowers at Yoga House says " Serenity Preservation Zone-- No cell phones, please!"

Yep, definitely on vacation!

From Queen's Birthday to Fourth of July

 
Today is our Queen's Birthday holiday in New Zealand (but not technically the Queen's Birthday, which is in April). I am taking an extended break to head overseas, will be back blogging July 4th, Independence Day in the USA. Rather appropriate under the circumstances to span the two holidays.

Part of my time will be spent with friends in Los Angeles and Orange County (Pasadena and Dana Point, to be specific). In the LA Times recently Hector Tobar published a list of ten guidelines on "How to be a True Angelino." Having lived there for over 16 years, the list helps get me in the right mindset for the trip:

1. Don't fawn over celebrities
2. Use your turn signals
3. Barbeque, garden, enjoy the outdoors-at all times
4. Be cool with ethnic diversity
5. Know your shortcuts
6. Appreciate Vin Scully (if I need to tell you who he is, you don't know LA)
7. Acknowledge and respect local traditions, like calling the freeways by their names rather than numbers, and events like the Doo Dah Parade
8. Don't ever say:" LA doesn't have any seasons," cuz it does
9. Don't wear your civic pride on your sleeve (but know it's there)
10. Define it your own way

The full article can be found  here. While NZ is definitely my home now, I'm excited to be heading across the Pacific for a visit. I've got a knitting project plus lots of books I've been wanting to read to take with me, the Yoga House class schedule printed out, and deep tissue massages booked at Burke Williams.

I'm sure you'll cope without me for this wee short while. And p.s. I still use my turn signals even if I've been driving on the wrong side of the road. Hasta la vista!

 

 

Just Desserts #6

Herewith the final installment of "Just Desserts." As promised, "Chocolate Berry Tiramisu" from "The Free Range Cook." The recipe calls for either fresh cherries or any other frozen berries, so I used raspberries. 

 

In honor of the occasion, I dug out a decent crystal bowl to serve it in, a wedding present from my former landlord in Manhattan Beach. The bowl doesn't normally make an appearance during the year, it comes out for Christmas and Boxing Day. 

Now to figure out the rest of the dinner menu around what for us will be an incredibly rich dessert. (Perhaps just a salad?!) It's a fitting finale to "Just Desserts." And we're both back to our low carb eating regimen, at least I am. As much as I like to bake, I can only sample a wee taste here and there, which is what I've done this week.

Just Desserts #5

I'm back to "The Free Range Cook" to try "The Ultimate Chocolate Cake" along with her "Chocolate Ganache" recipe. I'm going to make two smaller cakes rather than one large one so I can use one to make "Chocolate Berry Tiramisu" for John's return tomorrow.

The cake was easy to make (no spillovers in the oven, phew!). It looked like it would be moist, which it is. The ganache is made by heating cream and then adding good quality chopped chocolate, I had a nice chunk of dark Calibaut chocolate that I used.  It is chilled once made, but I found I had to soften it in the microwave before I iced the cake.

 
This is a seriously rich dessert, so much so that I decided to cut the intensity of the chocolate with a raspberry coulis. I think I would make just the cake next time, skip the ganache, and serve it with fresh fruit and a dollop of yogurt or whipped cream.

p.s. trust you can see from the posts this week that I'm a (somewhat) normal, busy working person who likes to cook, so not a food stylist. I guess the message is that if I can make these recipes, you can too.

 

 

Just Desserts #4

Next in line was "Wholemeal Ginger Crunch" from "The Tin Goose Cafe Cookbook." (I'm moving back to The Free Range Cook for my last two desserts in this series of posts.)

 
This is what we commonly call a "slice" in New Zealand (or "bars" in the USA), so probably more morning or afternoon tea fare. The base, which has nuts, flour, sugar, butter and ginger is baked, then iced while still hot with a mix of melted butter, golden syrup, ginger, and icing/confectionary sugar. Toasted chopped pistachios are then added as garnish.

These are seriously good, wow. Quite rich, but definitely something to add to the repetoire. I've saved a few for John, but they're going to the office tomorrow to get them out of the house!

 

 

Just Desserts #3

For my third attempt this week I decided to make "Rocky Road," also from "The Tin Goose Cafe Cookbook." This is probably more afternoon tea fare than dessert, but could work with coffee after dinner.

I'm not a big fan of this sort of sweet confection generally, although John likes white chocolate so I thought I'd give it a try. The recipe looked simple too, although I had to make a few calls to friends to figure out what one of the ingredients, fruit puffs, were. (They're marshmallows.) At first I thought it was some sort of puffed cereal, and went searching that aisle of the supermarket. Customer Service didn't know what they were either, so it may be one of those South Island terms we don't use up in these parts. (This adventure proved that even after years of living in New Zealand, I still have the odd translation problem!)

Melted white chocolate, pistachios, coconut, chopped marshmallows and dried cranberries are mixed, put in a foil lined dish, and then put to set in the fridge:

 
Very easy, and very good. Even I like it. So much so that I stashed a piece or two for John and then trundled off to the neighbors with the rest of it!

Just Desserts #2

Second off the rank this week is "Lemon Yogurt Cake," again from "The Tin Goose Cafe Cookbook." See my previous post on how to order the cookbook. The Tin Goose is a cafe in Central Otago, on the South Island (or "Mainland") of New Zealand.

 
My book is starting to look a bit well used, which from my vantage point is a good thing. Also good that I'm cooking from something else other than "The Free Range Cook" for a change of pace, but I will use at least one of Annabel Langbein's dessert recipes this week too.

Lemon Yogurt Cake was very easy to make. It's mixed in the blender or food processor. Eggs, oil, sugar, lemon juice and yogurt are mixed together before adding self raising flour, then into a cake pan for baking 1 1/2 hours. The icing has butter, cream cheese, lemon, icing/confectionary sugar and lemon curd.

A simple, elegant cake, the icing seems to make it.

 
The only real problem I had with the recipe was that the size baking pan wasn't specified, it simply said to use a round tin, so I used a standard 23 cm pan. Unfortunately, the batter when baked rose out of the pan, all over the oven, so I had to intervene to scrape burning batter off the bottom of the oven while the cake was baking. (Frequent readers of this blog will know that I've had to do this before under somewhat more dramatic circumstances, so this one didn't phase me at all.) It took a wee bit longer as a result. Next time I will use a deeper pan.

The recipe says to garnish with strawberries or spun toffee, I found some California strawberries in the market this week so used those, in honor of my pending trip to LA, where I'll eat more than my fair share!

Yet another thumbs up, with some notes added to the recipe about the pan.