Ice and Rain. Batch Cooking.


It’s a full time job keeping up with the weather these days.

On Saturday, Sydney was draining its freezers of ice cubes during the day and decamping to the beer fridge at their local bottle shop when the sun set.

I purposely went out for a walk in the rain, minus an umbrella.  Did you feel inclined to do the same?
Whilst this morning, the temperature dropped around 10 C, the humidity by at least 75% and the rains came.  All of which made everyone feel much more human.  It also meant we could all get our afternoon naps today to make up for a sleepless Saturday night in the heat.
Weather fluctuations notwithstanding, it’s been a weekend of batch cooking.

I started with a bit of baking.  I made these oatmeal cookies to freeze and bring with me to hospital. Because you know how I feel about the current state of affairs with hospital biscuits.  It’s the first time I’ve baked with flaxseed meal and brewer’s yeast.  Together, they made for a very wholesome baking experience.  Brewer’s yeast can be hard to come by.  I finally found a supply at About Life in Rozelle the other day.  According to Google, the secret to the recipe is to not substitute for either the brewer’s yeast or the flaxseed meal.
Instead of choc chips, I chopped up a block of Lindt Coconut Intense Dark Chocolate.  I also added some slivered almonds.  
The kitchen smelled delicious from the brewer’s yeast in the batter.

And it smelled like a bakery when I got around to baking the cookies.

A single recipe makes around 4 dozen cookies.  Taste wise?  Put it this way, regardless of what they do for milk supply, I’d be happy to eat my way through the entire lot based on their taste alone.  The yeast added a ‘healthy richness’ to the cookies and I did the right thing by using fancy dark chocolate.  Perhaps it’s the endorphin rush from the taste that explains how these cookies work.

I had a bit of an adventure with the curry I made afterwards.  I somehow managed to burn half the bottom of my much loved red Le Creuset casserole pan.

It’s almost back to new thanks to a long soak in a cold solution of very dilute bleach (2 caps of White King in a pot full of cold tap water did it for me).  I think there is an official Le Creuset cleaning solution for situations like this but I’ve yet to find it in a store.

I really need to get started on some Christmas-ification of SSG Manor.  I’ve seen everyone’s trees and decorations on twitter, instragram and blogs and your houses are all looking spectacular!  I’m biding my time this weekend by having a couple of Heston’s fruit mince pies for afternoon tea.  Will I be able to stop at two?

Have a lovely evening!


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