ANZACS

 

From right to left: Gymea Nanna (Dorothy) then Poppy (Ken), who served in WWII.

Travelin' Soldier

Two days past eighteen
He was waiting for the bus in his army green
Sat down in a booth in a cafe there
Gave his order to a girl with a bow in her hair
He's a little shy so she gives him a smile
And he said would you mind sittin' down for a while
And talking to me,
I'm feeling a little low
She said I'm off in an hour and I know where we can go

So they went down and they sat on the pier
He said I bet you got a boyfriend but I don't care
I got no one to send a letter to
Would you mind if I sent one back here to you

I cried
Never gonna hold the hand of another guy
Too young for him they told her
Waitin' for the love of a travelin' soldier
Our love will never end
Waitin' for the soldier to come back again
Never more to be alone when the letter said
A soldier's coming home

So the letters came from an army camp
In California then Vietnam
And he told her of his heart
It might be love and all of the things he was so scared of
He said when it's getting kinda rough over here
I think of that day sittin' down at the pier
And I close my eyes and see your pretty smile
Don't worry but I won't be able to write for awhile

One Friday night at a football game
The Lord's Prayer said and the Anthem sang
A man said folks would you bow your heads
For a list of local Vietnam dead
Crying all alone under the stands
Was a piccolo player in the marching band
And one name read but nobody really cared
But a pretty little girl with a bow in her hair

<3

 

-Dixie Chicks- 

Grafton Nanna's ANZACs

1 cup plain flour

3/4 cup coconut

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup rolled oats

125g butter

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons cold water

1 teaspoon bi-card soda

Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan). Combine dry ingredients well. Melt butter, honey and water. 

Melt butter, honey and water together in microwave or saucepan. Mix into dry ingredients. Roll into small balls and place on greased oven trays. Flatten slightly. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Cool on tray for crunchy biscuits, alternatively remove from trays and cool on wire rack for soft, chewy biscuits.

Image borrowed from Reading Reneessance (no time to bake today!)

 

Conditioner is bet-tor!

I hate to be so lame as to write about something as bland as shampoo... actually, no wait, I take it back. Shampoo is great and shampoo shopping is fun. Who's with me?!

I just bought this stuff and my hair is SILKY I tell you. I was compelled to share because I think most girls have a shampoo obsession thing. And also, sometimes the bottle says it's going to do all these super things and it just doesn't. But this one does.

Whilst I'm here (since this is probably the last time I'll ever write about shampoo) - I bought this Smackers one for a friend recently- I don't know what the quality is like but the smell... is like dreaminess in a bottle. Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum.

Apple Crumble for GOOD Girls

ON tonight's menu was a lovely low fat vegetable lasagne that I was quite looking forward to making and eating. Unfortunately the plan was foiled as the household shopper forgot to bring home three of the main ingredients.

As such - we had breakfast for dinner. I'd be willing to bet this happens in many a family from time to time. With bacon, eggs, baked beans, mushrooms, toast and tomatoes - our breakfast/dinner smorgasbord was actually pretty good, with not a Weetbix in sight.

To sweeten the reverse dinner deal, I threw together my own low fat dessert which I must share because it was so great. I'm calling this recipe:

Apple Crumble for Good Girls <3

(I have to draw the line at taking credit for the invention of apple crumble, but this version was made recipe-less and is extremely innocent as far as desserts go.)

These ingredients are for three people, you can adjust accordingly.

3 medium apples (I used red - whatever you have will be fine)
1/2 teaspoon white sugar
squeeze of lemon juice
2 cloves (optional but recommended)
water
1 cup rolled oats or muesli
Approx. 1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon margarine/butter (I used Flora Proactive)
Approx 1/4 cup sultanas
3 tablespoons low fat natural yoghurt (I like Jalna)
honey, to drizzle
cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 180C or 160C fan forced.
2. Peel apples and slice thinly (5mm slices) and place in ovenproof dish. Sprinkle white sugar over the top of the apples, along with a squeeze of lemon juice and two cloves. Pour a little water in the bottom of the dish (about 1cm depth). Cover dish and microwave for 5 minutes or until apples are soft.
3. Whilst apples are cooking, mix the oats and brown sugar in a bowl. Rub the butter into the mixture until combined.
4. Drain  liquid from apples and discard cloves; divide between 3 ramekin dishes to make individual servings; alternatively use a single larger ovenproof dish. Sprinkle apples with sultanas. Cover with oats mixture; dust lightly with cinnamon and bake in oven for about ten minutes.
5. Top each serving with a tablespoon of yoghurt. Drizzle with a little honey and sprinkle with cinnamon.

I've made variations of this recipe before using tinned peaches and apricots. You could also use plums, pears, or a combination of whatever is in the cupboard or fruit basket. A nice healthy treat for a wintery night. x

A LOVELY STAKE

For the past little while I've been building my own vegetable garden. Today I stomped around in my gumboots, unloading bag upon bag of soil, manure and compost to make my garden bed. You're supposed to leave the newly laid soil to rest for a week before planting.

In the mean time I've been thinking about how I'm going to label my vegies - I am rather smitten with these markers, on sale at Etsy (online home made craft store, for those not familiar) though at a cost of three for $20US it would be a bit of a splurge to say the least! The seller can actually custom-make according to what you need though, which adds to the temptation just a wee little bit.

If only I had a kiln.

Those plastic-y markers are just not going to cut it though, so do not be at all surprised if you end up seeing these little babies in my bed.

You're a PEACH!

peaches come from a can they were put there by a man

in a factory downtowwwwwn

if i had my little way i'd eat peaches everyday

sun soakin bulges in the shade.......

movin' to the country i'm gonna eat a lot of peaches

movin' to the country i'm gonna eat me a lot of peaches

nature's candy in my hand, or can, or pie. 

A little while ago I was sugar-scrubless and went in seach of a home-made recipe. I have already shared the banana one and now I'm here to review the peach variety.

All in all - fragrant, cheap, easy, fun to make and lovely to use. And if you get hungry in the shower, also very useful. I did prefer banana, but you can see for yourself which one you like best.

The hardest part was going to the shops and buying the peach. This is a bit embarrassing, but you know how some people have mental blocks about some things - like no matter how many times you're told something, you'll never get it? 

I've aways had a bit of a problem with peaches, apricots and necterines. They kind of all look the same to me.

Here's the peach scrub recipe from care2.com:

PEACH & BROWN SUGAR SCRUB

1 large very ripe peach, unpeeled, sliced and mashed

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup white granulated sugar

1/3 cup olive oil

Mix ingredients in a bowl and mash together until well combined.

Note: This is the original recipe from the website, but I like sugar scrubs a little less liquidy. Try 1/4 cup olive oil and add more if you think you need it. Less liquid will make for a deeper exfoliation.

Let them eat happy speckled Easter cake

I made this fudge cake recipe and consumed it yesterday with the help of friends. I decorated it with speckled eggs for an 'Eastery' feel. Delicious, if I do say so myself! Well, I didn't write the recipe so I'm allowed to say that :)

Chocolate Fudge Cake

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
250g butter, softened
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
75g dark chocolate, melted

Fudge Icing

200g butter, softened

200g pure icing sugar

200g dark chocolate, metled

1. Preheat oven to 180C or 160C fan. Grease and line two 20cm round sandwich pans (don't skip the lining step!)
2. Place flour, cocoa, baking powder, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla extract and melted dark chocolate in a food processor and process until smooth. If batter is a little stiff, add 2-3 tbsp water and process again (I did).
3. Divide mixture equally between prepared pans, smooth surface and bake for 35-40 mins, until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool cakes for 5 mins, then out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
4. To make icing, place butter and icing sugar in a clean food processor and process until combined. Add melted chocolate and process until smooth. Sandwich together layers of cake with half icing and top with remaining icing.

Recipe from Australian Good Food magazine, August 2009.

Hints

• For the best results and a beautifully moist cake, use dark chocolate with 70% cocoa solids.
• I ran into some problems with my icing - the ingredients 'split', possibly because the melted chocolate was too hot when I added it to the icing sugar and butter mixture. To fix this, I refrigerated the icing overnight, microwaved it slightly to soften, and beat in extra icing sugar (about 1/2 cup) I also added milk (2-3 tablespoons) to fluff up the icing and make it easier to spread.