Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

 

An early Christmas get together...

We celebrated Christmas early with Gus's side of the family on Sunday...

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We planned to have it outside but the weather was so changeable, we decided to set up inside.

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The cousins had a great time during the day, playing quoits, boules (petanque), basketball and backyard  cricket...

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Then it was time for lunch....

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We had potato salad...

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Watermelon salad from http://www.juliegoodwin.com.au/christmas-salads 

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This was a new salad I made - very yummy!

1 can of three bean mix

 1 can of corn

1/2 red capsicum

2 stalks of celery

3 spring onions

finely chopped parsley 

3/4 cups uncooked pasta - cook as normal

Dressing is 1/4 cup white vinegar 1/4 cup olive oil 1 tsp curry powder.

 Make day before for flavors to develop.

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Wendy's Creamy Pasta Salad -  http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/creamy-pasta-salad.html

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A rice salad by my sister-in-law - browm rice with corn, bacon, cherry tomatoes, celery, snow peas, mushrooms. Not sure of the dressing... 

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Gus cooked some yummy coconut prawns and chilli chicken...

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Family banter around the table...

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Brianna made an epic pavlova (as usual) which was delicious...

I made a big trifle...and I bought a small pudding which we also had. Food overload!

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We spent the rest of the afternoon outside then ordered pizzas for dinner (no one seemed to want to go home)!

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All in all a lovely family day.

Do you do two or three Christmas Day's to catch up with family?

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We will be having lunch with my family on CD then heading to Adelaide to be with Bri for dinner.

Cheers - Joolz xx

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Loafing around...

I mixed up a small batch of dough last night then baked this morning. Love it!

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Cheers - Joolz xx

 

Sally success!

So on Friday, I left you with the dough rising from this...

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...to this!  It went right up to the top of the bowl but deflated a bit as I took off the shower cap.

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I plopped it out onto the floured bench...sprinkled with flour then just folded it in on itself a bit, left to right, top to bottom...

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I decided I'd make a loaf shaped in the cane banetton...

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...and the other half into 12 dinner rolls.

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They turned out great...

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The loaf was lovely and crunchy...

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I am having trouble with the dough getting stuck in the floured banetton so the top had a very rustic, I got stuck look to it!

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When I cut it, it had a nice crumb to it, quite coarse.  They say each loaf will be different so I will experiment with more kneading and less...

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It toasts up beautifully and I enjoyed it with butter and Vegemite.  So much for trying to cut down on bread consumption...

 

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with it!  :)

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Next time I might halve the recipe to 150gms starter to 500gms flour as I probably don't need to make both loaf and rolls each time. We are empty nesters, after all!

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Cheers - Joolz xx

 
 
 

 
 
 
 

First batch of Sally Sourdough...

I chose to mix the dough in my stand mixer as its a large mix - 1kg flour, 300gms of starter and 550gms water.

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It only got mixed so it just comes together as a shaggy dough...

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...then it rests for 30 minutes.

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Once rested, I gave it a quick mix for a minute then tipped it on the floured bench to form into a ball.

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I put her to rise in my big mixing bowl...

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I bought a shower cap to cover the bowl, saving on lots of cling wrap.

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I'll be back this afternoon to see how Sally is behaving.  She smells nice snd yeasty so I hope she has doubled in size by this evening.

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Cheers - Joolz xx

 
 
 
 

Waking Priscilla ...

...now renamed Sally the Sourdough starter! (Celia asked that we rename her)

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I placed the crumbly Sally in a large bowl...

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Add 1/4 cup bakers flour and 1/4 cup boiled, cooled rain water...

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8.15pm

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Added another 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup water - 3.40pm
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10.30pm - we have action!

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I added 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water. Good night, Sally! We'll see you in the morning.

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7.20am - Sally is good to go!  I have given her another 1/4 cup flour and water and I will make sourdough rolls later this afternoon.

Added: On reading the figjamandlimecordial recipe for knot rolls, I am best to get the dough rising late tonight as it can take 3-10 hours to rise then I can bake them first thing in the morning.  Otherwise I could mix the dough up in the morning and bake tomorrow afternoon...
Lots of planning has to go into this sourdough bread business!

Cheers - Joolz xx

Hello Priscilla!

Celia at http://figjamandlimecordial.com/ has kindly gifted me some of her dried sourdough starter, which she affectionately calls Priscilla!

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In the next few days, I will get it up and running and make some bread rolls (my freezer is empty!).  I do hope I have some success!

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Cheers - Joolz xx