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orange + maple scrolls

June 28, 2011 By corrie 12 Comments

I don’t know what to call these. The recipe calls them chelsea buns, I think they are scrolls and I’m pretty sure the americans would call them rolls. But whatever you call them, they are good. Really good. I’m a huge fan of PW’s cinnamon rolls and the oh so buttery goodness. But they do use a lot of butter. These orange and maple scrolls are a bit more of an everyday treat with a lot of the goodness coming from the orange and sultanas. The recipe comes from the May 2011 issue of Country Living (British Edition) and tweaked with what I had in my pantry and I’ve also converted for the thermomix. Enjoy. Oh and I’ll still love and make cinnamon rolls but these orange ones will be for the lunchbox!

Oh and set aside a morning or afternoon to make these as you need about 2 hours of proving time for your dough. Use this time to do your housework, hang out your laundry, feed the baby, change nappies and so on. Or read blogs. It goes quickly plus you are so excited to get these out of the oven that is worth the time you put in.

orange + maple scrolls
225g/ml milk
1x7g sachet dried yeast
40g caster sugar
450g strong/bakers flour ( I use this)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
45g butter, cubed
zest 3 oranges
1 egg
filling
40g butter, melted
40g brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
100g sultanas/currants/raisins
about 1 Tbsp orange juice
topping
caster sugar
maple syrup

in the Thermomix

Place orange rind in TM bowl and pulverise for 10 seconds on speed 10. Set aside. Pour milk into bowl and heat for 50 seconds at 90 degrees on speed 1. Now tip in flour, yeast, caster sugar, cubed butter, egg, cinnamon and 2/3 of the orange zest. Mix for 6 seconds on speed 7. Knead dough for 2-3 minutes on interval setting with closed lid.

*Place in clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean tea towel (or wrap in your TM mat). I use glad wrap to cover my bowl btw. Now you need to prove your dough for 1-2 hours. I did about one hour in my oven which I turn on for a little while beforehand then turn off and put my bowl in.

Now add your melted butter to brown sugar, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, remaining zest and 1Tbsp orange juice.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Knock down your dough and roll it out to a rectangle (mine was smaller than my cutting board). Spread with filling mixture and sprinkle over the sultanas.

Roll tightly into a swiss roll (or not which is what I did) and then cut into 2cm rounds. I got a bakers dozen. Place in lined or greased baking tray and cover with tea towel and leave to prove another 15 -20 minutes. Sprinkle with caster sugar. Bake for 20 minutes or so until golden on top. My oven is the slowest in Australia so it took almost 30 minutes. Now pour over your maple syrup and enjoy! The recipe called for brushing with a bit of maple syrup but go on. Drizzle it all over. Brushing is for wimps. It gets into all the little bits and is so much better.

Now if you don’t have a thermomix (and I hope I’m changing your mind that you need one) then zest your 3 oranges and get a little bit of juice out of one orange for the filling. Heat your milk until just scalded then leave to cool slightly until it’s warm. Sift flour and cinnamon into a large bowl and add in yeast. Rub in cubed butter and caster sugar and 2/3 of your orange zest. Separately, beat the egg and milk together. Make a well in the centre of flour mixture and pour in milk/egg mixture and mix until combined. You could do this in your kitchen mixer if you like. Knead until smooth and elastic either by hand or mixer. The recipe suggests 10 minutes by hand. And now follow instructions from * above.

Filed Under: baking, christmas, christmas recipe, country living, recipe, thermomix

what I’m knitting

June 27, 2011 By corrie 13 Comments

Well it’s Monday and a bit of a crazy day and all I want to do is sit down and get back to my knitting. I really got stuck in on Friday night and then the weekend just got away from me. But I did something I don’t normally do. Instead of starting a new project I went through my stash and found something I started last winter. Wow. I’m actually going to try to finish something off. It’s common sense but something that I’m not good at. But I love this pattern and I know if I get my skates on that it will be perfect for this winter for miss keira.

I’m using Luxury 8 ply by Bendigo (of course) and knitting it in Blue Denim rather than grey. And I must admit that I have never done fair isle before so this should be interesting. Or a disaster. The pattern comes from Debbie Bliss’ 9 to 5 book but some lovely facebook readers reminded me that the pattern is available in the latest Family Circle Winter 2011 issue. I picked it up a few weeks ago and then forgot to tell you about it. I loooove Family Circle and it’s such a shame it only comes out twice a year but when it does come out. Wow. So many recipes and craft projects.

Anyway hopefully I’ll get to do some knitting this week and over the school holidays and get this finished for my miss. Don’t you think the pom pom’s are just adorable on the cardy?

Image source

Filed Under: bendigo woollen mills, debbie bliss, knitting, stash

buttermilk scones

June 26, 2011 By corrie 8 Comments

I love scones. So easy to make, no fancy ingredients and so good when they’re warm out of the oven with jam and whipped cream. Keira loves them too. A little too much if yesterday’s consumption is anything to go by. I made some a few weeks ago but they did not meet with her approval. So I decided to try out the buttermilk scone recipe for my thermomix. Success. So good that when I went to get one for my lunch today (yes, scones are perfectly acceptable for lunch) they had all been eaten. Let’s blame retro daddy shall we. He has a habit of eating the last biscuit/piece of cake/baked goodie and leaving the container in the same spot to give the impression there is something left.

440g SR flour

2 Tbs caster sugar

pinch salt

60g butter, chopped

380g/mls buttermilk

jam and whipped cream

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees and grease and flour or line a square/rectangular cake pan. Rub your butter into flour, sugar and salt until resembles breadcrumbs. Add buttermilk and combine until it all comes together and knead slightly in the bowl for less than a minute. The mixture is very sticky so you might want to do this in a food processer/mixer. Just warning you it’s sticky but these are very moist scones. Now form into a round that is about 3cm thick on a well floured board. Cut into 5cm rounds and make sure you flour up your cutter. Now put your scones in your prepared tin and you want them touching each other. This makes sure they are really soft. Then bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly golden on top and hollow if you tap them. Serve straight out of the oven. You should get about 12-14 scones but I got about 10 big ones. They will keep in a container……so long as you don’t live with retro daddy!

Now if you have a thermomix then you want to place flour, sugar, salt and butter into your TM bowl and mix for about 5 seconds on speed 8 but mine took 15 seconds till it represented breadcrumbs. Add buttermilk through lid opening and mix for 5 seconds on speed 5 until it almost comes together. Now 20 seconds on interval speed with closed lid position and you will have a sticky dough then tip onto your floured board and follow the above directions. Too easy.

Filed Under: baking, recipe, retro daddy, thermomix

orange sponge cake

June 25, 2011 By corrie 14 Comments

This is our favourite cake at the moment. It’s really light and tasty and I love that it uses both the rind and juice of one orange. Oh and it’s quick and easy, which of course I love. In the thermomix it takes a total of 1 minutes and 5 seconds from milling the sugar to caster sugar to the last step before baking. Now that is what I call fast. You’ll find the recipe on page 131 of your everday cooking book. Below is the recipe if you don’t have a thermomix.

250g caster sugar

1 orange

170g butter, room temperature

4 eggs

50mls milk

250g self raising flour

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees (mine needs 180 degrees because it’s oh so slow). Grate the rind of your orange then juice it. Place sugar, rind, butter and eggs into your mixer/bowl and beat for a couple of minutes until pale and creamy. Add in your milk, juice and sifted flour and mix for another minute until well combined. Pour into lined square cake tin and bake 45-55 minutes.

see how light and lovely it is! Heaven! You can also swap the orange for a lemon.

Filed Under: baking, cakes, recipe, thermomix

knitted jacket for elodie

June 24, 2011 By corrie 30 Comments

The craft drought has well and truly broken here. I’m back! And knitting! For Elodie. And it feels so good to be making things. I am also determined to stick to my one knitted garment per child policy that I instituted here this winter. I must not fail. But so far this makes two for Elodie so I better get cracking on something for one of the bigger kids next.

Now I’ve actually made this jacket before as a present and it’s a very easy one. The pattern is the Ribbed Baby Jacket from Debbie Bliss Special knits or for free here. That’s nice.

I will probably add a button as it gives the jacket a cute shawl collar but I actually like it as a little unbuttoned jacket to pop over a few layers. It’s knit all in one piece (oh boy I love those patterns so much) and then you add the ribbed border at the end. Too easy.

You could use Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran like the pattern calls for but I love Bendigo (and don’t you already know that!) and used their Rustic in 12 ply. And it costs a fraction of the price which I always like to point out to retro daddy. Since my craft stash is taking over the house. Now the colour is a new one this year called Berry and I just love it. Not your usual baby colour but is still cute. It will also work well with other things in her wardrobe.

I know you’ll ask me about sizing so I knit the 3-6 month size as Debbie Bliss patterns tend to run large. It’s a perfect fit for this miss who is busting out of everything. I may have also only had 1 ball of wool and the 3-6 month size required 200g so I scraped in with a little bit of wool leftover.

And before I go, here is the ‘what you talkin bout willis’ shot. A classic.

p.s you can always find any of my knitting or crocheted projects on my ravelry page . It keeps me honest. This project can be found here.

Filed Under: bendigo woollen mills, debbie bliss, knitting, ravelry

capsicum, cashew and sundried tomato dip

June 23, 2011 By corrie 23 Comments

I know what you’re thinking. Enough already with the recipes and telling us how much you love your thermomix. We get it. Sorry, I do love it. But I just have to share this delicious chunky dip with you. It’s so delicious, fresh and tasty. I also love the recipe as it makes a huge amount which means I can take a big bowl of the stuff out with me and still leave enough for retro daddy.

capsicum, cashew and sundried tomato dip

so here’s what you need:

1 clove garlic

2 Tbsp grated parmesan

1 red capsicum quartered

150g sundried tomatoes, drained

160g raw cashews

40g/mls olive oil

40g/mls white vinegar

Just blitz all the ingredients together in a food processor until you have a chunky style dip. If you have a thermomix this recipe is in your ‘everyday cooking’ book. You just do 4 presses of the Turbo button as you want it chunky. It’s nothing like the teeny tiny containers of dip at the supermarket and you will get at least 5 times the quantity.I ‘ve had it with plain rice crackers, wafer crackers and carrot sticks and they all taste delicious. So give it a go. I normally just make hummus so this is a little bit fancy but definitely worth making.

I’ve put oil and vinegar as grams as that is how they do the recipes for the thermomix as it measures our liquids that way.

Filed Under: cooking, recipe, thermomix

curry vegetable fritters

June 21, 2011 By corrie 15 Comments

Yum. I think I have found my new favourite midweek meal. This recipe calls for assorted vegetables which I read as empty your vegie crisper of those little bits of vegies sitting in there. And so I had half a head of broccoli, a tired looking zucchini, half an onion and a couple of carrots. This was very popular and we ate ours with some hummus and crackers. The recipe is adapted from A Taste of Vegetarian cookbook by Thermomix. And for those with special diets – this recipe is vegan and could be made gluten free if you used a gluten free flour like gram/chickpea flour. And if you have a thermomix you could make that flour!!! I’ll stop now.

Curry Vegetable Fritters

600g vegetables (onion, carrots, zucchini, pumpkin, leek, whatever you have)

2 cloves garlic

50g canned corn kernels (or the corn from 1 cob)

1 heaped tsp curry powder

2 tsp salt

200g plain flour

210ml water

If you have a thermomix then roughly chop your vegetables in 2 lots for 5 seconds on speed 5. Set aside with your corn. Chop garlic for 3 seconds on speed 7. To make the batter, add remaining ingredients to your bowl and mix for 20 seconds on speed 4. Add in vegetables to the bowl and mix for 10 seconds on reverse and speed 3. Heat oil in frying pan to medium heat and fry tablespoonfuls of mixture until golden on both sides.

If you don’t have a thermomix. Grate or chop your vegetables coarsely in a food processor and set aside. Add your corn. Crush your garlic and add to the vegetables. Whisk together flour, salt, curry powder and water and whisk well until it forms a thick batter. Leave to rest 30 minutes or not which is what I did. Combine vegies and batter and fry as above.

The recipe suggests you serve the fritters with sour cream or avocado salsa. The kids were happy with tomato sauce. As children mostly are.

Filed Under: recipe, thermomix, vegetarian

everyday wear

June 21, 2011 By corrie 3 Comments

I’ve discovered polyvore! WOW! I’m learning how on earth to use it but I like! This is totally my everyday style. And if you have $3,500 you can look this good too.

Filed Under: mummy, polyvore

Melanoma : Dear 16 Year Old Me

June 21, 2011 By corrie 13 Comments

Well it’s coming up to 3 months since my Mum left us and a few weeks until her birthday. Not an hour goes by when I don’t think about her and miss her. Not one hour. Recently the lovely Jennie emailed me a link to this video she found on Felicity’s blog. I couldn’t watch all of it as I was crying too much .

But I’ve sinced watched it and shared it on facebook. Tonight a lovely blog reader and customer emailed me to thank me for sharing because she made sure she booked her check up and told her family and it made her Dad go for his check up as a priority. Please watch this and don’t just tell young people. Tell everyone. Get your skin checked on a regular basis. Early detection by a specialist would have saved my mum’s life.

Filed Under: cancer, melanoma, my beautiful mum

more quick change trousers

June 19, 2011 By corrie 19 Comments

These really are addictive pants to make. The fact I’ve made 3 pairs within the week is proof. And part of the fun of making these pants is that you get to go through your stash and try to find the best fabric combo. I always find fabrics that I forgot were in there or those fabrics that I wonder why are they still there. Why on earth did I buy that? But for this pair I settled on some gorgeous fabric from the Hullabaloo range by Urban Chiks for Moda.

These will be for the days we don’t feel like being too girly all in pink and I just love how these pants are reversible. Honestly everything in a baby’s wardrobe should be reversible. Elodie has a darling little habit of bringing up a little bit of lunch or dinner on her when I’m not looking. I only tend to find it when it’s dried on her shoulder or as I’m about to head out the door. Not the best timing. If I could switch around the pants to get me through school pick up before they hit the wash it would save me some time and effort.

Anyway let’s hope we don’t get food down these (I can hope, can’t I). If you’re worried about these pants not being warm enough for winter trust me they are. We just put some little sockies under them, a bodysuit and then our cardy or a little hoodie and we are set to go. And I promise that no child was harmed in this photo, we are still getting the hang of sitting up on our own.

Legs are warm, the pants feel just lovely with 2 layers of fabric and if you live somewhere a bit cooler than sydney think about denim, fleece or flanelette inside. Nice. I would’t mind a pair in mummy size as house pants. Come in the door, put on my reversible quick change trousers and get on with it .

And for this pink pair I’ve used some lovely Flower Sugar by Lecien and then lined them with pink quilters muslin. This has actually made the pants a little lighter than the other pairs but they are pretty and for our pink and floral days.

So if you have Anna Maria Horner’s Handmade Beginnings and haven’t made these pants then you have to to. Go, Now. They are the best! And if you have bubs in cloth nappies make sure you go and read these adjustments on Sew Liberated.

Filed Under: handmade, lecien, sewing

macadamia + choc chip cookies

June 17, 2011 By corrie 6 Comments

Well it’s been one week since I’ve had my thermomix and I’m still giving it a good workout. Tonight I made a delicious dip that I’ll have to share with you soon- capsicum, cashew and sundried tomato. It was so fresh and tasty and might be my favourite dish so far. Everyone else in the house is loving these choc chip cookies. OK, I’ll admit it. I love them too. They were my lunch today on the run and retro daddy was disappointed to come home to find the cookie tin empty. Oh dear. You snooze you lose. If you own a thermomix it’s the choc chip cookie recipe in your Everyday Cooking book with my favourite combination.

250g butter

100g caster sugar

80g brown sugar
1tsp vanilla
2 eggs

350g plain flour

40g self raising flour

1tsp baking powder

200g choc chips (I love all white choc chips or half/half white and milk)
100g macadamia nuts, chopped or crushed

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until thick and creamy. Add in eggs one at a time and then gradually add in your sifted flours and baking powder. Once combined stir in your choc chips and nuts. Place tablespoonfuls on lined baking trays and bake about 10-15 minutes in 190 degree oven. These are a little soft when you get them off your trays so I like to use an egg flip to slide them from tray to cooling rack. Enjoy! I get about 36 or so cookies and they last 24 hours in our house. For something a bit more special go for white chocolate chunks instead of chips.

Filed Under: baking, cookies, recipe, thermomix

retro mummy’s ruby giveaway

June 16, 2011 By corrie 351 Comments

ok well I’ll say it again, it takes me time to draw my giveaway winners. Really need a PA to do that sort of thing for me I think. Kind of like a personal organiser for this housewife. And if you were on facebook you’d know I needed one yesterday as I was having a mini crisis dealing with our first case of nits. Wet weather, backlog of laundry, 5 beds to strip and wash, 3 heads to treat, no idea what I was doing, retro daddy away, teething baby. I took some chocolate as medicine at about 2 o’clock and hope I’ve killed all those nasties. But back to the giveaway, according to random.org May’s winner is number 51 – Patty from a Stitch in Time. Woo hoo Patty! Well done.

And the best thing about announcing the winner is – announcing the next giveaway. So how about a jelly roll and charm square pack of Ruby. The brand new fabric from the clever designers Bonnie & Camille who gave us Bliss. And I’m not sure it’s hit stores yet so you’ll feel pretty special when this arrives on your doorstep. Just tell me what you’ll make with it and you’re in the running to win. Wherever you live in the world and I will draw a winner at the end of the month. Promise.

Filed Under: charm squares, giveaway, moda, ruby

quick change trousers

June 14, 2011 By corrie 21 Comments

Now I know it’s been a long time between sewing projects but look here. Pants. Made for Elodie. On my sewing machine. Yes. Feel free to high 5 me! I was clearing out my sewing room (well overdue) and got very motivated to solve elodie’s current wardrobe problem. She has plenty of good dresses and jumpsuits but is growing out of her everyday wear. The truth is she is growing so fast.

So these are the Quick Change Trousers from Anna Maria Horner’s Handmade Beginnings. So easy to make although they take a little longer than regular pants as they are lined and reversible. So really you are just making 2 pairs of pants and sewing them together. And I have to say her instructions were excellent. I’ve made plenty of pants before but this was a different way of constructing them but it all came together.

And I love that all of the seams are hidden so there is no need to turn on the overlocker! Nice. Sometimes my overlocker doesn’t like to work with me so I appreciated that. And they are also a great way of showing off a few special fabrics. Quick and easy to make. Warm for winter. Reversible. What’s not to love. In fact I’m going to try making another two pairs so little miss can have a bit of variety in her wardrobe.

and can you believe she’s 8 months old already! I really need to make more things for her and use up the mountain of sewing and knitting books and patterns that I have for babies. Plus if I make things for her then she gets to be the cute model that she is.

I know that it’s wrong that I want her to stay a baby but I really do. She’s still super easy going and I just love having her around.

Filed Under: beginner sewing

First loaf

June 13, 2011 By corrie 14 Comments

Oh dear. I think it’s official. I ‘ve turned into one of those annoying people that just want to talk about my thermomix and how great it is. All the time. Oh my goodness I’m going to have to stop going on about everything I’ve been cooking on FB otherwise people will stop reading me. It’s just so amazing. Since my last post I’ve made a delicious tuna pasta that tasted so much like a rich and creamy marinara sauce and the pasta cooked in the sauce not in boiling water, a loaf of bread, more porridge, an apple and prune compote, lots more vanilla custard, chickpea and vegie soup amd cashew and white chocolate cookies. And there are no leftovers. A good sign.

And I’ve told you before that I’m not food stylist. I’m sure the knife should have been at a different angle or the cute jam lid showing. But I just wanted to finish my piece of warm bread, butter and jam. I think if I stick to one slice a morning it won’t be too bad for my health……or waistline.

And something I realised while eating this loaf was just how much salt and sugar must be in the regular store bought bread I normally buy. I’ve made bread before but I really noticed it with this loaf. And while I don’t think I can commit to making all of our bread – I think I can manage a couple of times a week.

Filed Under: baking, cooking, thermomix

barefoot contessa’s kitchen

June 13, 2011 By corrie 15 Comments

I love Ina Garten aka Barefoot Contessa. She is such a natural on her shows and has wonderful recipes. Through pinterest I was able to find her Hamptons kitchen and there are so many things to love that I want to incorporate into my own kitchen design. First up for me is the white cupboards and dark countertops. Classic and stylish. I also love the stainless steel in the kitchen (mainly because retro daddy won’t be buying me a cream aga to go in my dream kitchen), the overall size and layout and that huge island. Imagine how many cute children I could feed seated there.

Now the first 3 pictures are of the recreated kitchen for House Beautiful Kitchen of the Year while the last picture is of her actual kitchen in her Hamptons home. And if you want to take a closer look (I know you do)then here she is in the recreated kitchen talking about it’s design! I think I’ve watched this about 5 times. There are actually 11 videos in total which you can find here.

Do you love Hamptons style? Do you dream of a kitchen renovation or do you have your dream kitchen? And if you have your dream kitchen then I’m officially jealous.

All images from House Beautiful

Filed Under: homes, kitchen