Interlude

I have so many ideas, so here’s a little interlude for a planning session.

With Christmas coming up, I have ideas for Christmas Cake blogs, I am working on one for a history of Christmas Cakes, and Mum will make a Christmas cake for the family. I want to make some strawberry and cream-cheese ‘Santas’, plus, our yearly Christmas trifle is inevitable.

Over the summer holidays, I would like to make semifreddo – I have my heart set on raspberry. Every year Mum and I go raspberry picking just before Christmas (so we have fresh raspberries for the Christmas trifle), and we go picking again in early January. Fresh raspberries for the semifreddo would be best, as the taste is far more delicious than frozen berries.

Red velvet cake or red velvet cupcakes (or both) are on the list; I want to experiment and try making ‘pineapple flowers’ (don’t they sound interesting?); and I have a lovely looking recipe for a Chocolate mint loaf cake using a box of After Eight mints for the icing.

What is brown and sticky? The correct answer to the joke is: a stick. But in this case the correct answer is self-saucing chocolate pudding. The family recipe we have used for years is in Mum’s blue recipe ringbinder. This was her first recipe collection book, and every recipe is handwritten. Our family recipe for self-saucing chocolate pudding is like a chocolate scone mixture cooked in one big bowl, with chocolate sauce. To break with family tradition, I would like to try something a bit more cakey, and dare I say it, something sweeter and richer.

Mum’s recipe books would be interesting to write about too as she has moved away from handwritten, and is now into scrapbooking her recipes.

I intend to write something about wine. Mum lives in a prime grape growing region with some fantastic wines. I think we take it for granted and I am too busy drinking it to write about it. So I will make a special effort to try more wines (that should be difficult!!) Ciders are on the list too, and I have a special local favourite, Kingston Fusion (granny-smith apples and passionfruit), I will try not to be biased, but it will take a lot to top that one.*

Mum and I are growing Edamame Beans for the first time, I have some at my house and Mum has some at hers. The experiment is to see how easy they are to grow, what they turn out like, and also to see what a distance of approximately 160 kilometers between us does to affect their growth rate. I’m betting that Mum will have beans before I do as she lives in a warmer climate. Then we will be into the feijoa fruiting season (at long last), and Mum and I think this is the absolute pinnacle, the highlight, the uncontested fruit event of the year.

This is only a small portion of ideas….. to be continued!

*Available from The Filter Room Ale & Cider House.