Quiet Winter Days

Having survived (and enjoyed) our 

big family gathering on Saturday,

I'm now looking forward to some 

quiet winter days.

Today was the first really quiet day.

From Saturday until Monday

we had my nieces to stay.

My girls' favourite companions.

Parks, trampolining, eating,

movies and craft were enjoyed by all,

and chatting went on late into the night.

Today it was just me and my girls.

Nowhere to go,

nothing pressing to do.

Lovely.

A little housework,

a little baking,

some music lessons,

some bible reading together, 

a little walk in the sunshine

a little snooze on the sofa.

The girls spent much of the day

googling new craft projects.

not always in the most comfortable of positions,

I noticed ...

Looking forward to more

keeping-warm-doing-craft-enjoying-the-quiet

kind of days

over the next two weeks

of school holidays.

Ohmygoodness! - Gluten-free Pastry & Sausage Rolls!

A breakthrough.

Gluten-free, dairy-free pastry that works.

That doesn't fall apart when I lift it off the bench.

Despite the softness of Nuttelex margarine.

And then the deliciousness

of sausage rolls.

Something I haven't eaten for about a year now....

No, they're not like bought ones.

Different.

More satisfying.

The pastry has more bite to it

and I know what's in the filling!

Recipe from Indulge by Rowie Dillon

which is already looking loved

in my kitchen

after just 24 hours.

See?  They almost look as good as hers.

Kind of.

The secret?

I think it's the quinoa flour.

Expensive, but worth every cent.

Instead of using three types of mince in the filling

 I just used lamb mince.

Next time I might go for a more 

"sausage-y" filling adding breadcrumbs.

But this is working for me right now.

Oh yeah.

Menu indecision

Tomorrow we have a big family party here

to celebrate Mum's birthday.

Not only is it the first time that most of them will see our new upstairs

(so the house needs to look super-clean and great!)

but I also need to feed them all.

I'm not 100% sure of numbers but it looks like there might be 20 or so of us,

coming and going at different times.

And then to complicate things

there is my Failsafe, gluten-free/dairy-free diet

and Dad's new FODMAP diet.

I've been doing my head in trying to find foods 

that Dad and I can both eat,

which are tasty for others to enjoy too,

while considering other factors

like oven space

cooking times

microwave times

etc.

Yikes!!

Anyway ..... thinking I've got it all figured out now,

thanks in part to the new cookbook

I bought yesterday.

Indulge by Rowie Dillon

A big splurge,

but I wanted a pretty cookbook with food that I can eat!

(With a little dairy-free tweaking and other substitutions.)

A cookbook for ME !!!

('cause it's all about me, you know ....)

I love that this book has lots of different pastries, cakes and breads.

So there have been some last-minute changes to tomorrow's menu.

All inspired, I started baking cupcakes last night, 

using the Fairy Cake recipe.

Bland while warm out of the oven,

but much better later on.

They are in the freezer now and will be iced and decorated 

tomorrow morning.

For the birthday cake we will have

the Lemon and Saffron Teacake,

so I'm off to buy some quinoa flour

and a million other things for today's shop,

with more to buy tomorrow.

Don't get me wrong,

I'm really looking forward to 

having my family here.

But it sure was easier in the old days

when we could all eat everything ....

Cast Iron

Everyone's been talking about cast iron in blogland lately.

And since I've long been suspicious of teflon, 

and even heard that it's going to be outlawed in future, 

I've been looking out for cast iron cookware.

A few weeks ago I bought a grill and a deep pan with a lid from Target.

And I've been waiting for Aldi to sell their cast iron range again.

Well, today's the day!

The girls and I headed out early and came home with

a dutch oven, a frypan and a trivet. 

All in red to match the cast iron I bought earlier

and some ceramic casseroles I already own.

Laura and I tried out the frypan with some fried eggs for lunch.

Yum!

The girls are home today due to a teacher's strike.

An unexpected bonus before the real holidays next week.

We just ducked out to the op shop

and found $5.00 jeans for Em,

a fun game

and a gift for a little friend

all for a grand total of $7.50.

Now we are snuggling in front of the heater 

before we head out to a flute lesson soon.

And then tonight,

methinks some steaks

cooked in cast iron

will go down nicely.

Hope you are enjoying the winter weather in your neck of the woods.

Thrifted Pitcher

A lovely blue pitcher

for just $5.00 

is making me happy.

(As is the stack of suitcases in the background!)

Cold, Cats and Cutting-In

Another very chilly day here.

I am dealing with the cold by turning the heater up,

occasionally turning the airconditioning on, also,

cooking soup for lunch,

and by shutting the hall door

which stops the heat from escaping 

to the front rooms of the house.

I can tell this is working, 

because when I go into the front of the house

I am greeted with an icy blast.

Brrrr!

Later in the day I will turn on the oil heater 

in my piano teaching room

in time to heat that up for my afternoon's teaching.

In the meantime I'm painting the stairs again,

and am finally on the downhill stretch,

with most of the third coat done.

This is the first coat of Antique White USA gloss,

and a second coat will complete it,

maybe this afternoon, but more likely tomorrow.

To help the time pass and distract from

all that pesky cutting-in

I'm listening to excellent talks from

here and here.

Well recommended.

And on another topic,

this morning at 4.00am 

we were woken by the howling and yowling

of cats.

Shrieks, meows and thumps.

This morning around our carport were clumps of fur

and large drops of blood.

But thankfully, no corpses.

Ick.

Any ideas for repelling the neighbourhood cats

from our yard??

Soaking up the Winter Sunshine

Yesterday was a beautiful winter's day, 

 so we headed out for a picnic.

After a bit of googling I found a new park we hadn't visited ...

Castle Hill Heritage Park.

Just beautiful.

Open space, trees, climbing equipment, walks

and no crowds.  

We loved it.

Today we woke up to a very chilly house, only 9 deg inside and 0 deg outside.

Church was pretty cold ... 

in a school hall with no heaters!

Back home after church

it was so cold that even with the gas heater on "high"

I stood so close that I burnt a hole in my skirt!

Oops!

Once again this afternoon we were outside, finding some sun.

Some badminton on the front lawn 

and some walking warmed us up.

* * *

Loving the sunshine

and loving being together.