A New Year and a New Earth
         Here’s the good news; the increased CO2 that is heating our planet will also help plants grow more strongly.
         The bad news, of course, is that the much of the planet’s trees will die as the weather gets hotter, or more extremes of heat and cold and storms, or floods.
         The good news: other areas will get wetter…possibly far more of the planet will grow trees than now. Other good news; humans are very, very good at growing in all sorts of conditions.
         The Copenhagen talks failed, no matter what spin they put on it. No government it seems today is going to tell their major power producers and manufacturers to stop or radically change
         The trouble is that in the past 100 years we’ve come to think of the government as all powerful. Governments are in charge of education, health, police, defence – all the major things in our lives.
         Or are they?
         Most caring for the sick is still done by families; we only have enough police – or not enough police – to cope with major crimes and a bit of road traffic and other education.  Society still runs because we work together, as families or as neighbours or as givers and volunteers.
         If the governments of the world won’t act on climate change, it doesn’t mean it can’t be stopped, or even reversed.
I’m serious. Yes, we need to cut down on the amount of CO2 produced…and governments may help with a bit of that. But basically what this planet needs is a way to soak up the excess CO2, to lock it back in the earth again, as it was once in the coal and oil under the ground.
         We need a new earth.
         If we can double the amount of green leaves on our planet, we’ll not only stop global warming, we’ll reverse it.
There’ll be other benefits too: humans are just plain happier with greenery around them – less vandalism, less illness, in areas where trees have been panted and parks established. There’ll be places for kids to play, and local food that hasn’t lost its taste in freezers.
         How?
1.          The first is the big one – we need research to find local species that will recolonise areas lost to water rise, bushfire, and heat.  But it’s not really a very big question. The earth still has abundant species, and yes, many don’t burn well, and others grow in water and tolerate being flooded in fresh or salty for weeks or months at a time, not just mangroves but even varieties of avocado, for example.
         There are already workable techniques to roll seeds in dirt with powdered milk to stop them rotting, and pepper to stop ants and birds eating them, and broadcasting them from aircraft to colonise many, many square kilometres. If they are the right plants for the right area, that’s all they’ll need – to be there. We often forget the earth has changed climate many times in the past. Our planet is good at repair jobs.
2.          A local council change; every high rise building to have half its area as green space, whether it’s floors of hydroponic plants, or walls covered in greenery, like the tiny tillisandias  that collect their own moisture from the air and grow on desert rocks, or even vertical gardens, computer controlled watering and fertilising and harvesting. Once more, the technology is there, and the prototypes work.
3.         Another local council change: every new development to be half green space, either parks or community gardens or community farms.
4.         Earth covered roofs, covered with sun loving succulents –we have them growing in piles of rooks on our place, and they survive with almost no soil, temperatures of over 50C – they are hot rocks. The only problem here is that the wallabies eat them in bad droughts. But they grow back. And there are unlikely to be wallabies on your roof.
         No more tiles. No more colourbond: roofs will be either greenery or solar panels. This alone, should take up about 10% of Australia’s CO2 – and we are one of the great CO2 emitters per head of population.
5.          Plant. But not any old tree. The trees we need – or shrubs or vines- need to be ones that last for hundreds of years, or ones that can be used for wood that will last hundreds or even thousands of years. Huon pine and red gum will do this, and there are others. (Pinus radiata lasts a few decades of you are lucky). While young growing trees capture the most co2, the old trees- or their timber- need to be preserved to keep that carbon ‘sequestered’ so it doesn’t get back into the atmosphere.
         Our family has a ‘negative’ global footprint. We are responsible for more CO2 being locked up in trees than we produce(Partly because we lead slightly different lives from most Austrlians, and so don’t cause as much le co2 to be released  in our daily lives, too.) .
         This could change in half an hour if our place is burnt in a bushfire – all that carbon stored in trees gone into smoke. But our land would be covered with trees again in a few years, the co2 recaptured.
         So that is my New Year’s resolution. To plant even more trees that will last hundreds of years; ones that will regenerate after a bushfire, locking up the same amount of carbon again- or even more.
         Another resolution is to eat more ‘tree crops’ and less grain and annuals – no hardship. My morning ‘muesli’ is based on nuts, with added cranberries and goji berries, booth low in sugar, and bowlful had I think every vitamin, amino acid, flavonol and mineral and vitamin etc needed for the day.  It’s also entirely delicious and keeps me going the rest of the day.
         Our protein increasingly comes from nuts, or veg and is increasingly from perennial bushes, or fruit from ungrafted trees that should still be here – even if regrown from their deep underground roots after bushfire in hundreds of years time.
         It can be done. A new earth – adding what is basically another system of ecosystems to the existing ones. Enough to lock up the CO2. Enough to give us, well, paradise. 
PS. My rule of thumb, when considering new bit of law or fashion, or even what to do tomorrow, is to think: will this make life better or worse for wombats, in the long run?
As a way of choosing the right answers for the planet, it’s pretty good.

Wombat News
         December was the driest ever here. For the first time I had to put out water for the animals. Not that Mothball was grateful. For the first time in nearly 14 years she launched a full scale attack at Christmas, reaching up to gnaw the doorknocker, flinging herself against the front door, trying to eat the doormat.
         But Bryan had replaced the doormat with a metal and fibre one, which hurt her teeth. So instead she tried to climb up onto the garden chair to launch herself through the window and onto the sofa where we were watching DVD.
         Luckily wombat legs are short and not meant for hauling up 40 kg (at least) wombats. So we never did end up with an enraged wombat on our laps.
         I started putting out food again, for her and Bruiser and Bounce, who has moved back too. The ground was bare – no grass, just dust – for a month, and although there is a bit of green pick now, it’ll dry again as soon as we get a couple of hot days.  As I write this the wombats have been happily vacuuming up the grass in the way drought stressed animals do – eating every bit within reach before taking a step, instead of mooching around for their favourite bits. But when it dries again – which it will within a fortnight – they’ll remember food can come from humans, and Mothball will be at the door again.
         She is elderly for a wombat – at least 15, and the oldest I’ve known in the Valley has been 14. I don’t want to wait till she’s starving before I put out food.
         And anyway, she might just work out how to dive through the window.

Book News
Coming February 1: The Tomorrow Book
Illustrated by Sue de Gennaro…a look at the paradise we could create, maybe just tomorrow.
         This is a special book. It’s closer to my heart than anything I’ve written, and Sue’s work is inspired: funny, whimsical and extraordinarily beautiful. It’s what happens when the king and queen retire and go off in the campervan, and leave the kids in charge, finding the solution to each of the world’s major problems in their library, and creating…tomorrow.
         Every one of the solutions really does exist – and the possible tomorrows are very, very good indeed.
PS. Sue created the extraordinary artwork in collage, using materials she found in her kitchen, from tea bags to labels. It is too magic to even have words to describe it.
School for Heroes Book 1: ‘Lessons for a Werewolf Warrior’
         This is the first in the new series, A School for Heroes, and it’s funny, made even more so by Andrea Potter’s fabulous drawings of the Ghastly Greedle and Gloria the Gorgeous (Gloria’s not just gorgeous, she’s drop dead gorgeous. Or she was 80 years ago. But, hey, it’s nothing that a bit more lipstick can’t fix.) Andrea’s Dr Mussels – he’s a headmaster, a monkey and can do fearsome things with a well-thrown banana – is on the cover.
         The School for Heroes is located in a volcano, (the heat is good for their arthritis) staffed by the retired heroes from Rest in Pieces – old heroes never die, they simply rest in pieces. And for Boojum Bark, student hero and werewolf, there’s a lot to discover.
         Where is the library hiding today?
         Exactly what is Boo Fu, taught by Mrs Kerfuffle, the librarian, who’s deadly with a well-thrown dictionary?
         Why does Princess Sunshine Caresse von Pewke get so upset when Boo sniffs her bum?
         How do you face giant Rabbits, Trrroooolls, Ogres and other Bogeys armed only with a zombie sausage?
         What does the mysterious Yesterday want with the school garbage?
         And where do flying pigs get their little jumpers?
         ‘Lessons for a Werewolf Warrior’ is a big book. There are lots of hilarious short books around.  But the trouble with a short book is that just when you are really getting into it, it stops.  If kids can find a two and a half hour movie fascinating, why not a big book? Often it’s the big books – the entrancing ones that kids don’t want to stop reading – that really turn a reluctant reader into a book guzzler. A short book can be a giggle for a while – and it’s tempting when you don’t like reading and you’re told you have to read a book. But the books kids read, and then reread, are usually the long ones.
         ‘Lessons for a Werewolf Warrior’ is crammed full of universes, where Rabbits are deadly predators (almost as bad as budgies) and fairies bite and zombie spaghetti may be the most fearsome weapon of them all.
The Night They Stormed Eureka
A fresh look at the history we thought we knew.
         Are the history books wrong? Could the rebels have succeeded? Could we too have seceded from Britain, like the USA?
         This is the story of Sam, a modern teenager, thrust into the world of the Ballarat goldfields, with the Puddlehams, who run the best cook shop on the diggings and dream of a hotel with velvet seats, ten thousand miners who dream of gold and rebellion, and Professor Shamus O’Blivion, who tries not to dream at all. But there is a happy ending for Sam, who discovers that when you stand together, you really can change the world – and your own life, too.

Schedule for the Next Few Months
I’m sorry I can’t accept every invitation – there are always many more than I could fit into a year. But as I have family in Brisbane and Perth I always love an excuse to travel there... or anywhere that might involve a stop-over in Perth, too. New South Wales bookings are done by Lateral Learning. Queensland bookings by Helen Bain at Speaker’s Inc, and for other bookings contact me at jackiefrench72@gmail.com. I can only do one trip away from home a month though, and that includes trips to Canberra, so I mostly only speak to groups of more than 200, and where it will take no more than six hours travel each way (except Western Australia).

January 28: Create a picture-book workshops, one for kids and one for adults at Marymead, Canberra. These are aimed particularly at the foster parents and kids in Marymead’s program, but do contact Marymead as there may be places for others, too.
March 17, 18, 19: Somerset Festival, Gold Coast, QLD. Sue de Gennaro and I will be launching ‘The Tomorrow Book’, about how tomorrow can be good.
April onwards: Sue de Gennaro’s artwork for ‘The Tomorrow Book’ will be at the Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre.  Contact the Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre for more details.
April 27, 28, 29, 30: Talks in Brisbane, as well as an address at The 3 R's - Reaching Reluctant Readers Conference. Contact Helen Bain: helen@speakers-ink.com.au.
June 18-19: Talk with Bruce Whatley, the genius who created those incredible images of the wombat in ‘Diary of a Wombat’ and ‘Baby Wombat’s Week’, at the NSW Children’s Book Council Conference, Sydney.  We’ll launch our next joint book, ‘Queen Victoria’s Underpants’, the almost entirely true story of how Queen Victoria revolutionised women’s lives. (It is rumoured that Victoria and her Albert may actually appear at the cocktail party, but I don’t know about the underpants).
July 7: Sydney, National History Conference.
July 14-17: Whitsunday Literary Festival, including a public gardening talk, Mackay, Qld.
July 30: Seymour Centre, Sydney. Opening night of Monkey Baa Theatre for Young People’s incredible play of Hitler’s daughter. I’ll be there, with knobs on.
August 2-7: Talks and workshops at the Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre, contact the Centre for details or bookings.
Late August: Probably a couple of days of talks in Sydney. Contact Lateral Learning for bookings.
September: Trip to Yorke Peninsula, SA. No dates or details finalised yet. Contact Carole Carroll at c.carroll@internode.on.net for more details. I may also spend a day or two talking in Adelaide.
October 27: International Children’s Day. I’ll be speaking at the awards in Canberra in my capacity as ACT Children’s Ambassador, and probably giving a talk somewhere else in Canberra that day too, if previous years are anything to go by.
Early November, probably the first weekend: Open Garden workshops at our place. Contact the Open Garden organisers for bookings, act@opengarden.org.au. If you want to make a weekend of it, there are lots of places to stay, from cheap pubs to luxury B&B’s close by. Look at the Braidwood web site. We also have a cottage that we rent for weekends sometimes – with very limited tank water, a healthy population of snakes and lots of wildlife who’ll ignore you and go on munching
Note: as I write this we are deep in drought. If we don’t get winter rain we won’t have the workshop. The garden will still be here (I hope) but the native grass will be too fragile in the hard ground to cope with lots of people walking around here. It takes a couple of months for it to recover from a workshop weekend even when it rains sometimes.
November 20: Eurobodalla Slow Food Festival at Moruya, NSW. I’ll be giving a series of talks during the day, on everything from fruit trees to wombats, and launching the festival once again as its patron.
The January Garden
         This isn’t a time to plant, unless you’re pretty sure you’ll get rain. But if you do have young plants, it’s amazing how many young plants survive sharing four buckets a day from your bath or shower. Don’t use this on vegies through, in case of pollutants, and don’t use too much in any one area because you’ll risk clogging up the soil with soap or other residues. We soap ourselves down out of the shower, rise off quickly, then catch the water that is relatively soap free.
         If you are one of the places in Australia that has water (or even far too much water)… plant. Wet times are precious. I go on planting binges now whenever I’m pretty sure I’ll have water for the next three months. And as I said, it’s amazing how much survives on a share of the shower water.

A Heck of a lot of Recipes
         I like to cook. (I like to eat, too). Which means that there was so much food at Christmas that we are still eating it now…and will be for at least another few weeks, if not months.
         Some of the female Christmas guests asked for my cook book, assuming that somewhere among the 140 odd books (they’re not all that odd) there’d be a cook book.
         There isn’t, though some, like The Best of Jackie French do have recipes. But I decided as a post Christmas gift to write a short book of easy to make recipes, the sort that could be made in ten minutes by someone who hasn’t be taught things like how to make gravy or cheese sauce or biscuits that are crisp, not tough.
         So here it is. I’ve called it Six by Six – basically six ways to cook a variety of easy to obtain cheap things, plus a few recipes for the food we shared at Christmas…or at least the meat bits of it.
         This isn’t a book about the food Bryan and I eat, which is based pretty much on what’s in the garden, not what’s in the supermarket, and we eat very little meat, and that mostly from feral or home grown animals.(Look for a collection of the food I love best later this year.) 
         This is for young meat eaters (though there are non- meat recipes too) with not much time to put meals together or hunt for ingredients.
         So merry post-Christmas, with my love.

The Six by Six Cook Book
Sixty good meals in six minutes (plus a few others)
         Four decades ago every girl learned to cook.
         You had no choice: food came in sacks or metal meat trays carried in by the butcher  or bought from the back of the dusty fruit and veg man’s ute. It needed skill and experience to turn it into meals.
         Girls absorbed cooking technically by watching. The only place to do your homework was the kitchen table, and anyway you had to stir the gravy while Mum changed your brother’s nappy.
         Then came freezers, and cheaper canned and frozen food, and take away. Women were out at work, not making lamingtons at home.
         But somehow there is still a legend that any woman can cook…or is supposed to.
         No man can change a tyre without someone showing them how. They don’t expect their kids to swim by throwing them in the pool either. (I hope)
         But somehow the myth survives…
         Women can cook.
         But most ‘easy’ recipes - like roast lamb and gravy, roast chicken, scrambled eggs, chocolate chip biscuits - really need someone to show you how it’s done; exactly how much and when to stir, and what it should look like. Women try them, and it doesn’t work, so they think they can’t cook.
         They can. But not without a cooking lesson.
         To be honest, I didn’t learn how to cook from watching my Mother, though I did learn how to roast meat and make gravy from Grandma. I learned how to cook because I could only afford the cheapest food from markets as a student, things like dried beans and rice, and then later because I had no money to buy food.  I had to learn how to cook the food I grew or gathered or hunted - and luckily there was still an older generation around to show me what to do. 
         I can’t teach you how to cook most of the food I prepare  without a TV camera, or even better, you watching in the kitchen. There is an art to grilling steak, making and baking biscuits, rolling pastry so it doesn’t turn tough, even cooking sausages so they aren’t either hard or raw.
          But the recipes below don’t need lessons. (They are also, of course, for blokes too.) They are truly simple ones.
         If you:

• have the right ingredients
• the right equipment
• and take it slowly the first time you make it, you’ll be fine.

Once you have made it the first time it’ll be VERY fast the next time - and faster still the time after.
         Cooking is easier than driving - mostly because it’s just you and the food in the kitchen and no other idiots to get in the way. (Note: remove all onlookers from the kitchen before you cook these for the first time, unless they are experienced cook who’ll help).         If you can drive you can make these, and they are all good.

Essential Kitchen Equipment

1 big wooden spoon, flat on the bottom if you can find one rather than rounded
1 frying pan:  a big one, made of thick ‘non stick’ metal. These aren’t really ‘non stick’, as a tiny amount of oil is usually needed, but they work better than thin aluminium teflon coated ones, as the thin teflon ones burn food more easily, don’t cook evenly, and the teflon soon flakes off leaving you with stuck food or bits in your tucker.
1 big metal oven baking dish – deep and rectangular
1 deep pottery oven dish
a large bowl
a potato masher- it has a metal head with small squares
a large saucepan
a large metal casserole  that can be used in the oven or on top of the stove, though at a pinch the metal baking dish can be used for this
a rotary hand beater for whipping cream, and maybe egg whites

Also useful:
A hand held blender

You don’t need:
a bread  maker (bread making is as easy in a bowl if you really want to make your own)
an ice cream machine…all the cheap ones don’t work terribly well, and you are better off using a blender and your freezer. I own an expensive ice cream machine because Bryan eats a lot of ice cream in summer, and won’t eat the bought stuff. But if you just want to make a sorbet or ice cream once a month or less, you don’t need one.
A large electric mixer or beater…. These overbeat biscuits and cakes, so the biscuits are dry and the cakes are tough. Trust me - it takes longer to wash the damn things and put them away than it does to whip cream or egg whites with a rotary hand beater - and the latter produces much better stuff.
What you can make with the equipment above.
         Until the last two generations, all food was with the equipment above - or less. As long as you have a stove (or a fire) and a fridge (or freezing nights) you can do all this with no other equipment:
make butter
dry vegetables and meat for jerky
make bread
freeze ice cream
make beer
distill wine into brandy
roast fresh coffee beans, grind them and make coffee
bottle fruits and vegetables
make jam, chutney, vinegar, wine, dry home grown tea leaves and a thousand other things, with no specialised equipment, most of which doesn’t work terribly well and is marketed at the person who’s never done these things before, so  thinks they need special equipment.
Actually none of these are in this book, but I’ve written about them elsewhere, so if you ever get a hankering, I’ll do Book 2. 
         Invest in really good knives, a good steel saucepan and fry pan, a few big bowls and platters you love, and don’t bother with the rest. You only need knowledge to do everything from butchering a sheep and turning it into roast lamb and lamb sausages, to making cheese.

The Fastest Meals I Know

If I’m home late, too bushed to cook, I have a few very fast meals… much faster than buying a take away, and better tasting.
1.  Fillet of fish - usually salmon - baked in the oven, served with boiled asparagus or salad and home made oven chips. Time taken: five minutes to prepare, ten in the oven…about the time it takes to get served in the take away.
         This is our real ‘fast food’ standby, but it depends on really good fish and really good greens i.e. fresh, plus having lemons or limes on the tree. The other secret is not overcooking the fish, or it turns dry, and not overcooking the greens, or they turn soggy. See recipes. 
2. Stuffed curried egg salad, served with a spud from the oven for me and mashed potatoes for Bryan, with salad or asparagus or some other boiled green …the egg goes wonderfully with any green veg.
3.  Fried chicken breast, with one of the sauces in this book, boiled (or steamed) greens and mashed potato.
4.If I’m by myself (Bryan likes meat/fish and potato for every meal), one of the ‘blender’ sauces served on a couple of baked potatoes.
5. Also if I’m by myself - grated potato cakes.
6.Again, if I’m by myself, chilli beans with cabbage, but this can turn into a meat dish if you add mince or chicken.
7. And again, just for me Stir fried whatever veg are in the garden. Once the veg are fried I break an egg oin top, and leave on low till  the white isset and the yolk still runny.

Six ways with Stuffed Eggs

Note: ours taste good because they are fresh eggs from chooks that feed on scraps, so the eggs taste far better than supermarket eggs. But  while omelettes and scrambled eggs need good tasting eggs, the curry in these disguises much of the egg flavour, so supermarket eggs are okay Plus this recipe is much easier than either am omelette or scrambled eggs- it needs experience and teaching to make good scrambled eggs or omelettes.
How to Boil a sot boiled egg  Egg
         Cover with water. Bring to the boil. Boil three minutes. Take off at once and eat.
         A soft boiled egg can be wonderful if it’s from backayrd chooks, so it had a good flacour, and if you serve it with toast made from good bread. If the bread has good flabour ie a sour dough loaf, all dense and crusty, it doesn’t need butter. A commercial packaged loaf bread needs butter to give it flavour.
         I scoop the egg out and eat it on bread or toast. You cana lso cut the toast into ‘fingers’ and dip them in the yolk, then use a teaspoon to scoop out the white.

Stuffed Eggs
I usually serve these if we need to sit for a long while drinking before we are going to eat, but they are also good for dinner by the TV, with a salad. You need hard boiiled eggs for this.
You need:

• One dozen eggs. (If you have your own hens, these need to be at least a week old. Very fresh eggs are hard to peel.)
• Half a jar or bottle Praise fat free mayonnaise, or full fat if you
• One tab Keens curry powder, or any other curry powder or curry paste you like.
• Paprika, powdered

Plus:
Water
A Bowl
A plate
A large spoon
A fork

Put the eggs gently into the saucepan. Cover them with water. Turn on the heat and wait till they boil. Boil them for ten minutes then tip them and the water into the sink to drain.
When they are cool, crack them against something hard and peel the shells off.
They can now be left in the fridge for up to 24 hours until you want to do the next bit.
Cut the eggs in half long ways and scoop out the yellow yolks into a bowl.  The whites will look ragged and uneven. Don’t worry- they'll look okay when filled.
I throw out about half to a third of the egg yolks, but you can use them all if you like - it'll just make the filling richer.
Put the whites of a big plate, so they are only just touching.
Put the yolks in a bowl. Add the curry powder and mayonnaise. Mash with the fork till smooth.
Taste. You may need to add another tab of curry powder, or even two more. Curry powder loses its taste as it gets older, so you will always need to keep tasting till the mix tastes good.
Use a tsp to scoop the egg yolk and mayonnaise mix into the eggs. It should be a small mound up over each egg white.
Take a pinch of paprika, or scatter it from the jar, a little bit onto the top of every egg.
Decorate the edge of the plate with a spring of parsley or coriander.
These are okay for about six hours out of the fridge. Otherwise they'll keep for 24 hours in the fridge.
Don't try to store the leftovers though if they have been out for more than two hours. After 24 hours in the fridge throw them out - but I've never had to, as they have all vanished.

Stuffed Egg Sandwich
Mash stuffed eggs and serve on bread, or between two pieces of bread, or rolled up with lots of crisp iceberg lettuce in a pita wrap.
Stuffed Eggs on Toast
         Mash with a fork. Pile up on hot buttered toast.
Stuffed Egg in Lettuce Cups
Take ‘cups’ of iceberg lettuce, several thickness deep- you need lots of crunch. Fill with mashed stuffed egg.
 Stuffed Egg on Asparagus
         Snap asparagus in the middle - throw away the tough end. Take off rubber bands. Cover with water in a saucepan. Boil five minutes. Pour off water at once.
Serve hot or cold with a big blob of mashed stuffed eggs.
Stuffed Egg Salad
Allow six stuffed egg halves and two cups of salad per person, more if they are very hungry.

• Stuffed eggs, mashed a bit
• Iceberg lettuce, chopped
• Cucumber, finely sliced (leave the skin on if it’s a long Lebanese cucumber with thin skin)
• Finely sliced radish - optional
• Finely sliced and deseeded capsicum - optional
• One chopped and deseeded chilli - optional
• Chopped parsley - optional
• Chives, chopped – optional

Mound all the salad stuff into a big plate. Pour the chopped egg mix on top, like snow on a mountain. Let everyone serve themselves from the platter.

Six Cheat’s Delicious Dips

One carton mascarpone cheese. Mix in:

• One tab Thai red curry paste

or

• Half a bunch of chives, the juice of half a lemon, a few grinds of black pepper

or

• Three tabs hot, sweet chilli sauce or chilli jam. Add a chopped capsicum or chopped parsely for extra colour

or

• Three tabs fruit chutney- any sort, from apple to mango

or

• Two tabs Thai seasoning and 1 bunch chopped fresh coriander

or

• One tsp powdered cumin, 2 mashed boiled peeled carrots

         Mash together with a fork or spoon.  Place in a small bowl or heap on a saucer and surround with crackers.

Puff Pastry by Six Plus

Cheese Straws
         These are nibbles to have before a meal, but ones with more on top become ‘cheat’s delicious pizza’ later in the book.
Time taken: about 20 minutes the first time, 10 minutes once you’ve done the recipe once before.
You need:

• Frozen puff pastry…the sheets, not the solid block
• Parmesan cheese…you can use the prepared stuff, but if you buy a hunk of parmesan and grate it, it’ll taste much better
• Optional: curry paste or curry powder

Note: you can make cheese straws with any yellow firm cheese, like cheddar or Edam or blue vein cheeses too. It doesn’t work so well with brie or other soft cheese, and don’t try it with white cheeses like ricotta, mascarpone, cream cheese and cottage cheese. These can be great in cooking, but it’s more difficult.
Cover baking trays with baking paper, or line your oven baking dish with baking paper. This is so they don’t stick to the dish.
Spread out the pastry on baking trays, with the blue paper base that separated each sheet peeled off. Allow about one sheet per hungry person.
If you want the cheese straws to be spicy, use a knife to spread the curry paste as thinly and evenly as you can over the pastry sheets. It should just be a smear.
If you are using curry powder, mix 1 tsp of curry powder into two heaped tabs of grated cheese.
Scatter the cheese on top evenly. You don’t need much-about three tabs, just enough so the pastry is almost all covered.
Put the oven on to the highest setting.
While the oven is getting hot, use a knife (any knife) to cut the pastry into strips, about as wide as chop sticks.
Place the trays in the oven.
Peer into the oven after five minutes.  If the pastry is risen and the cheese and edges of the pastry just starting to turn brown, take them out. If not, leave in for another five minutes…or another five after that if they need it.
Serve straight away, while they are still crisp, as they go soggy after a few hours. They are not much good cold. But if you want to make them a few hours before, cook them till they are only a very pale brown, then put them in a hot oven for 3 minutes to heat up again, then serve.
Not Pizza
One sheet puff pastry per person
 And per person your choice of:
         .

• Half cup grated cheese, your choice (even feta or ricotta or brie work well. Different, but good)
• Half cup chopped lettuce
• 2 tabs anchovies
• Half cup sliced ham or thinly slices salami
• Half cup artichoke hearts, cooked or canned
• 6 slices tomatoes or half a cup canned chopped tomatoes. (Buy the canned chopped tomatoes; don’t try to chop ordinary canned tomatoes).
• Cooked or canned asparagus spears

Place pastry on baking paper on baking traps. Turn oven up as hot as possible.
Brush the tomato over the pastry. Add other ingredients sprinkling on the cheese last.
Place in the oven. Don’t try more than one at a time - too many cools the oven down too much, and steams it up too.
In ten to 20 minutes the edges of the pastry will be puffed and dark brown and the cheese browned too.
Take out and eat.
Fetta and Cherry Tomato Tarts
Lay out pastry as above. Cut into small squares. Top each with

• Crumbled fetta.
• Cherry tomato halves

         Bake as above.
Parmesan and Anchovy Tarts
         As above, but cover with grated parmesan cheese and a few anchovies draped on top.
Potato Tarts
As above, but spread each small tart with a tiny bit of curry paste. Place one tab chopped cooked potato (not mashed) on each tart. Cook as above. You can sprinkle one tab grated cheddar cheese or one tsp grated parmesan cheese onto each if you want it to be more pizza- like.
Pies
         These can be big i.e. half a sheet folded over, or tiny ones. Cut sheets in half or in to about ten squares.
On each place your choice of cooked meat from any of the meat recipes, or stir fried veg or any  cold cooked poato with a bit of curry paste or chopped fresh coriander leaves.
Fold one edge over to the far one. Press edges together firmly. Bake as above till puffed and brown on top. Eat hot.
Fruit Tarts
Arrange pastry as for the small tarts above. Top with thin slices of raw apple, or peach, or apricot, or nectarine, or lengths of rhubarb, or mango, even very think slices of pineapple. . Sprinkle each with one tab of castor or other sugar. Bake as above.
NB: the fruit slices must be THIN
Cream Cheese tarts
         As above, but spread a layer of cream cheese - about the amount you’d put on a sandwich- on the pastry before adding the fruit.

Six Bung-in-Pot Soups

Pea Soup

• 500 gram ham or bacon bones
• 6 large carrots
• 3 large onions
• 2 large spuds
• half cup split green peas
• lots of water

         Bung everything in a saucepan; cover with water; put the lid on and simmer for two hours or so. (A simmer is where it is only just bubbling- very tiny bubbles.) If it boils - large bubbles- things may stick and burn on the bottom of the pot.
Stir with a wooden spoon every 20 minutes to make sure it doesn't burn on the bottom. Remove bones and large shreds of meat. Mash or blend. Put back meat. Give the bones to the dog or the kids if they're not splintery. (The bones that is, not the dog or the kids). Reheat. Keep in the fridge for up to ten days, and eat it for lunch with toast, or dinner with even more toast and a salad.
Chicken and Vegetable Soup
Note: do not give these bones to the dog, as they will be sharp and may hurt him.

• 1 kilo chicken legs
• 2 cartons Campbell’s chicken stock
• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 potatoes, peeled an chopped
• half a head of celery- throw out the tough outer stems and all the dark green leaves.

Wash celery and chop all the rest of the soft pale green celery and pale green leaves OR use 3 leeks, with all the tough outer layers thrown away and the tough green tops cut off. Chop up the white bits and soft green leaves. Wash well as they may be gritty.

• 10 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

Put all this in a large saucepan. Put on the stove. Turn on to a low heat. Cook for an hour on simmer i.e. just tiny bubbles, not big ones.
Turn off the heat. Cool. Use your hands to take all the meat off the bones. Throw out the bones and any floppy chicken skin.
Heat the soup again to eat it.
or
Add 1 large can chopped tomatoes and half a bunch of basil chopped. Heat and you have a good tomato soup.
or
Add 1 tab curry paste; heat and you have curried chicken soup.
or
Add 1 cup of any kind of pasta or dried spaghetti . Simmer till the pasta is soft and you have chicken noodle soup.
Chicken and Corn Soup
Check that everyone likes corn soup before you make this. Some people don't. This is good if you have a cold or flu - very soothing and doesn't have a strong taste.
This serves four small bowls, or two hungry people if it's all you are having for dinner.

• 1 can creamed corn. Don't use corn kernels or salt free: it must be creamed corn.
• 1 bunch spring onions, chopped into small pieces
• 2 large cartons Campbell's chicken stock
• 1 or 2 chicken thighs, chopped into small pieces

Boil everything for 15 minutes. Serve.
You can also add:
the juice of a lemon
or
2 tsps chilli sauce
or
1 tsp soy sauce...and then boil and serve.
Pumpkin Soup
         This soup is creamy, without any cream added.
Bung in a pot:

• 1 hunk pumpkin- the chunks sold in supermarkets- peeled and seeds removed
• 2 carrots, peeled
• 1 potato, peeled
• 1 large box chicken stock.

Boil 10 minutes. Use a potato masher to mash, or a hand held blender.
To make it richer: add 2 tabs butter
To make pumpkin/tomato, add 1 small can tomatoes
To make it even creamier, add half a cup cream and reheat just before serving, then sprinkle each serving with grated nutmeg or finely chopped parsley or coriander.
To make it meaty: add half a cup chopped ham
To make it spicy: add 1 chilli
To make it even spicier: add 1 chilli and 1 tab curry paste or Thai spice paste, then sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves just before serving.
Potato and Leek Soup
Again, creamy without cream. Also fast.
Bung in a pot:

• 4 potatoes, peeled and sliced
• 3 leeks, tough green bits chipped off and tough outer layers removed. If you have blender, don’t chop. If you don’t, chop as finely as you can
• 1 large  container chicken stock
• optional: 2 peeled and chopped carrots

Boil ten minutes. Mash or blend.

This can be served hot or cold; each bowl can be sprinkled with finely chopped parsley can also add a splodge of cream in the centre of each bowl just before serving.

Carrot soup

• 4 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 large potato or two small, peeled and chopped
• 1 large carton chicken stock

Boil ten minutes. Blend. If you don’t have a blender, chop the onion finely; otherwise, big chunks are fine.
You can sprinkle the top with summer savoury - a great herb, but you need to grow your own, or chopped coriander.
Variation: add 1 tab curry paste: I prefer it this way, though I suay ?? make my own curry mix. Coriander is especially good with the curry version.
Variation: add a splodge of cream in the middle of every bowl before serving, sprinkle with parsley.
Variation: toss in small squares of buttered toast just before serving.

Six Ways to use Supermarket Dips

Pesto
Boil pasta, then top with dip instead of sauce
Bake potatoes, top with sauce.
To bake the spuds, wash well, slash with a knife six times so the skins don’t explode, and put in an oven on the highest setting for 10-15 minutes. They’ll be slightly browned when ready. Put them in the top part of the oven- it gets hottest. If you are in a hurry, cut the spuds into chunks. If in a real hurry, cut into chunks and threat onto metal skewers- the metal conducts the heat and the spuds cook in half the time.
You can also fry a chicken breast on both sides till brown, then top with dip.
You can also serve with baked fish.
Tomato and cashew; Coriander; Tsastiki and Sun-dried tomato; Guacomale dips
 As above, Also very good on grated potato cakes.
Humous and Baba Ganoush
 These are both good on baked spuds; the texture is wrong for pasta - both too slippery.  Serve with a crisp salad for a texture change.
Humous is good with meat balls; or put a meat ball or two on good fresh bread, and top with humous.
Note: all the dips above - and the home made ones below– are very good on fresh bread or bread rolls. Add chunks of iceberg lettuce in rolls for added crunch, or chop iceberg lettuce first before adding to sandwiches.
The dips are also good on tabouli, which can be home made, or bought from the supermarket.

Home Made Tabouli
 Soak  1 cup cracked wheat in 1 cupw ater till softish- about half an hour. Don’t elave it too long or it will be mushy. Drain well.
Add 1 bunch chopped parsley,  the juice of 1 lemon, 1 chopped clove garlic, 4 tabs extra virgin olive oil.

Six ways to make your own ‘Supermarket’ Dips        

These are MUCH cheaper, better tasting, and will keep in the fridge in a sealed container for up to a fortnight. Throw out if they start growing  fuzz or change colour or smell odd.
These are also lower in calories than the supermarket versions. Don’t be put off by the oil: even more is in the supermarkets ones. These are still lower calorie, cheaper and better for you than the equivalent red meat or chicken.
You need a blender and a large bowl for these. I use a long deep container. If you use a bowl it may splash as you blend, so do it in the sink and wear and apron…or take off your top. It’s easier to clean skin than wash a blouse.
Note; if these are hard to blend, you can add more oil or a little water.
Pesto
This dip can be frozen. Freeze it in portion sixes in freezer bags, so you need only thaw enough for one night’s dinner.  
Blend

• about half a cup parmesan cheese, cut into chunks: don’t buy prepared parmesan; it’s really styrofoam in disguise. Note: parmesan can be frozen
• 1 cup nuts: pine nuts, walnuts (if you love walnuts, otherwise avoid - walnuts do make this very walnutty) macadamias or cashews.

Smell nuts first and taste them. If they taste rancid i.e. the flavour lingers in your mouth, they are slightly off. Throw them away. Nuts go ‘off’ very fast, and they need to be fresh.  Note: the nuts can either be raw or roasted. Roast gives you a richer flavour; raw may be slightly better for you. The lowest calorie nuts are whole or flaked almonds. These are also high in calcium.

• 1 bunch basil or coriander
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled (can be omitted, especially for Bryan)
• half cup extra virgin olive oil (note: light olive oil is not lower in calories, and it isn’t as good for you as extra virgin olive oil, which is anti-inflammatory, helps lower cholesterol and helps absorb vitamins minerals anti-occidents flavonols and other good things. The ‘light’ just means lighter in flavour. 
• juice of two lemons or limes

Note: you may wish to add a tsp of salt. I don’t. Taste when blended and add salt slowly to taste.
Tzatziki
Blend

• 1 small Lebanese cucumber, washed but unpeeled
• 2 cloved garlic, peeled
• 1 carton natural yoghurt. This can be fat free, but the dip will be watery. A full fat one is best - remember that ‘full fat’ is still made with reasonably low fat milk.

Salmon Dip
Blend or mash:

• 1 small can pink or red salmon, drained
• 1 carton mascarpone cheese
• Optional: 1-4 chopped red chillies, 1 bunch finbely chopped coriander or parsley.

Coriander and Cashew Dip
Blend

• 1 cup roasted salted cashews
• 1 bunch coriander leaves
• half cup extra virgin olive oil
• juice of two limes or lemons

Sun Dried Tomato and Almond Dip
Blend

• 1 cup sun dried tomatoes, with their oil
• 1 cup roasted almonds
• 2 fresh or dried chillies

Optional: juice of half a lemon
Rocket and Cashew Dip
Note: only make this if you know you like rocket. Rocket is slightly bitter, and many don’t like it. A small amount of this dip goes a long way. It’s especially good on nibbles and things like spuds, or baked fish.

• 1 bunch rocket
• 1 cup salted roast cashews
• half cup extra virgin olive oil

Optional: half a cup parmesan cheese
Guacomale
Mash
. 1 avocado
.juice of 1 lemon
.1-3 chopped fresh chillies, seeds removed, or 3 tb sweeet chillie sauce(The sauce makes it sweeter- I much prefer the chillies but many much prefer the sauce).
. 3 tb extra virgin olive oil

Optional: 3 tb mayonnaise
.3 tb tomato puree
half a cup finely chopped coriander
Note: A commercial tasting avocado dips is made with equal amounts mashed avocado and marscapone cheese, with added  sweet chilli suace to taste.
Main Dishes

Six Easy Ways to Roast a Chook

Lemon Chicken
Time taken to cook: about 40 minutes, but add another half an hour the first time you make it. You'll get quicker with practice.
Serve with: Mashed potatoes, salad.
This looks complicated, but once you have done it once it's easy. (Which is the case with any meal.)
It won't taste quite like mine, as I use home grown herbs that you can't buy, like winter savoury and garlic sage, plus home grown lemons that have lots of flavour, and fresh garlic that tastes a bit different from supermarket garlic too.  I also use organic, free range chicken that has more flavour than supermarket birds. But it will still be very good.
I have changed the recipe slightly to make up for the things you won't be able to get unless you are making it here.
You need:

• 1 small  chicken, fresh or frozen i.e. size 10-12. If you are using  size 14-22, use twice as much of everything else. (But make a small amount before you try the larger one).

• 1 large carton Campbell's chicken stock, not salt free

• juice of three large lemons, but have another three on hand in case it doesn't taste lemony enough
• 2 heaped tabs of brown sugar
• 1 bunch fresh thyme (You can buy this at the supermarket in the herbs section)
• 1 bulb garlic, each clove peeled - at least 10 cloves
• 1 tab cornflour
• half a cup water

Melt the chicken in the sink overnight or during the day if it's frozen.
Turn it on its breast - the meaty bit - and cut it in half along the backbone. You can do this with a bread saw or other serrated knife, or kitchen scissors or ask a large male to just bash its backbone for you till it snaps.
Spread the chicken out in an oven pan, with the skin on the outside. it'll now be a large flat chicken. This helps it cook much faster, and be more tender and not as dry. It also allows the flavour to seep in.
Lift the chicken up again, and put all the cloves of garlic under it.
Put the oven pan with the chicken and garlic in the oven. Turn it onto the highest setting.
Cook for half an hour.
It should now be darkish brown on top. If it isn't, cook till it is. If it's black I'm sorry - you have a very hot oven and it may only have needed 15 to 20 minutes.
Turn off the oven. Use an oven mitt or a tea towel to lift the pan and chicken onto the top of the stove.
The chicken will have stuck to the pan with brown burnt like bits. Don't worry. You want this - it gives flavour.
Pour in the other ingredients except the cornflour and the water.
Put the whole pan, chicken and all, onto low heat, and stir every minute or so, trying to scrape up the chicken from the pan and all the crispy bits. They’ll gradually get loose as they soak in the liquid.
Keep stirring and simmering for about 20 minutes. If it goes dry at any spot, add more stock or water. It should be at least as deep as the first joint of your thumb.
By now the garlic should be soft; it more or less dissolves in the gravy. Don’t worry if it’s not quite dissolved - a few bits taste good.
When the chicken is loose and about 20 minutes has passed, mix the cornflour in the water. Add it quickly to the sauce, stirring fast. This will thicken the sauce. You can now fish out the bunch of thyme, or leave it there.
Turn the stove to as low as possible.
Take a spoon and taste the sauce.
Add the juice of another lemon if it’s not lemony enough.
Add another spoonful of brown sugar if it tastes too lemony or sour. You may like to add half a tsp of salt if it tastes insipid.
When the white from the cornflour turns transparent and the sauce is thickish, it is ready.
You can now keep it in a tupperware container with the lid on in the fridge for up to five days.
To serve, put in a casserole at 200C and heat for 20 minutes. Otherwise serve it as it is: or turn off the heat, keep the flies off by putting it back in the oven, then turn the heat on in an hour or two when everyone is ready to eat.
Roast Chicken with veg and gravy

• 1 chicken, thawed
• 2 onions, peeled
• 1 bulb garlic, unpeeled
• and
• 1 spud per person, peeled or not
• 1 hunk pumpkin per person, seeds removed, peeled
• 1 parsnip per person, peeled
• ½ sweet potato per person, peeled

Put the onions and garlic inside the chicken.
Put the chicken in a roasting pan. Arrange the veg around it.
Put the roasting pan in the oven at 200C.
Cook for an hour. Wiggle the leg with tongs. If the chook is browned and the leg brown feels like you can pull it out, it’s done. If not, cook longer
When cooked take pan out of the oven. Pour off any fat - not into the sink, or you’ll block it. I pour onto stake bread to give to the chooks. Otherwise pour into an old mug, let solidify, and throw away.
Mix 1 tab cornflour with 1 large carton chicken stock. Put the tray on the top of the stove, pour in the stock, stir a bit so the flour doesn’t sink to the bottom. As it boils, stir up the bits from the bottom. When the gravy is thickish and transparent – you’ll see what I mean – serve out the veg and cut up the chook. Pour the gravy over it and the veg.  Or just pile it all onto a giant platter and let everyone help themselves.
Note: this all reheats well in gravy.
Rosemary Chicken
As above, but put two big bunches of rosemary at the bottom of the oven. Their fumes will flavour the meat and veg. Don’t add them to the dish- too strong.
Yoghurt Roast Chicken
Place chicken in a deep oven proof casserole.
Mix:
1 large carton natural yoghurt- not low fat- mixed with tab cornflour and 3 tabs curry paste.
Pour over chicken.
Put on lid
Cook at 150 C for 2 hours.
Lift lid and serve.
Thai Spice Pot Roast Chicken
Place chicken in a deep oven proof casserole.
Place in oven and roast for 1 hour.
Mix 2 tabs Thai paste with 1 large carton stock and 1 tab cornflour.
Pour into pot.
Put pot on stove and bubble till the stock is reduced by ½.
Serve hot with rice or pasta or potatoes. Can be reheated if kept in the fridge.

Six Sticky Chicken Wing Recipes
(1 gigantic meal or 3 smaller ones)
         These are all sticky, sweet chicken wings, the sort you need to eat with your hands.

Five Spice Treasure Chicken Wings

• 2 kilos chicken wings (or legs)
• half cup soy sauce
• half cup honey
• half tab 5 spice powder
• 1 cup water
• 1 tab cornflour in 4 tab water

         Place wings in a baking dish. Pour over the water and soy sauce. Dribble over the honey. Sprinkle on the five spice.
         Put in the oven at 22C. Bake till brown- about half an hour. Turn them over. Bake about 20 minutes till brown on the other side.
         Mix cornflour into the extra water in a cup till it's smooth. Pour over the chicken and stir till it's mixed into the sauce. (This will thicken it). Bake another ten minutes. Turn the wings over in the sauce a few times so they are well covered.
         Eat hot or cold
Barbeque Chicken wings
As above but bake with ½ cup barbeque sauce and 1 small carton chicken stock mixed with 1 tsp cornflour  and ¼ cup honey. Turn wings over several times as they cook.
 Chilli Chicken wings
As above, but cover with half cup sweet hot chilli sauce, 2 tab soy sauce and 1 small carton chicken stock mixed with 1 tsp cornflour. Turn wings over several times as they cook.
Lemon Chicken Wings
As above, but mix with ½ cup honey, juice of four lemons, 1 small carton chicken stock mixed with 1 tsp cornflour, 3 tabs soy sauce.
 Honey and Thyme Chicken Wings
As above, but mix 1 cup honey, 1 small carton chicken stock mixed with 1 tsp cornflour, and the leaves from 1 bunch of thyme- posy size if you pick your own, or whatever comes in a bunch at the supermarket. 

Six Ways with Chicken Thighs

Orange Chicken
Very easy and good
Serves 4

• 8 chicken thighs or 16 legs
• 2 cups orange juice
• juice of three lemons
• 6 cloves garlic, crushed or sliced
• half cup soy sauce
• half cup honey
• 2 tab cornflour in 4 tab water

Place the chicken in a baking pan. Pour over the other ingredients except cornflour and water. Bake for 40 minutes at 200C. Mix the cornflour and water in with the sauce. Bake another 10 minutes till it thickens. Stir it well so the sauce covers the chicken.
Eat hot.
This is good with rice.
Lemon Chicken

• 8 chicken thighs or 16 legs
• juice of three lemons
• 6 cloves garlic, crushed or sliced
• 3 tab brown sugar
• 1 large carton of chicken stock
• 4 tab water mixed with 1 tab corn flour

Place the chicken in a baking pan. Pour over the other ingredients except cornflour and water. Bake for 40minutes at 200C. Mix the cornflour and water in with the sauce. Bake another 10 minutes till it thickens. Stir it well so the sauce covers the chicken.
Eat hot.
Chicken Curry

• 8 chicken thighs or 16 legs
• Pour on two cans of Singapore curry sauce and 1 can water.

Bake for 1 hour at 200C
         Can be reheated.
Creamy Chicken Curry

• 8 chicken thighs or 16 legs
• 3 tab curry paste
• 1 large carton chicken stock
• 1 cup cream mixed with 1 heaped tab cornflour

Cover chicken in a baking pan with stock and curry paste.
Bake 40 minutes at 200C.
Take out of oven. Add cream and cornflour; mix well; put back in the oven for ten minutes.         Stir and serve.
Tomato and Basil Chicken

• 8 chicken thighs or 16 legs
• 1 large carton chicken stock
• 1 large can chopped tomatoes
• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped- optional
• 4 chillies, optional
• 4 peeled and chopped cloves of garlic- if you have them
• 1 bunch basil, leaves torn and stems thrown away
• 4 tab water mixed with 1 tab corn flour

Cover chicken in a baking pan with all except the water and cornflour and the basil.
Bake 1 hour at 200C. Add water and cornflour; mix well; add basil; mix well. Bake for another 10 minutes. Serve hot.
Chicken Chile con Carne

• 8 chicken thighs or 16 legs
• 1 large carton chicken stock
• 1 large can chopped tomatoes
• half cup sweet hot chilli sauce
• 2 cans red kidney beans
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped

Optional: 1 bunch chopped coriander
         Bake all except coriander for an hour. Add coriander. Serve.
Note: instead of the chilli sauce, I sauté - cook slowly in 6 tab olive oil- 4 red onions, sliced, 10 red chillies, slices and seeds removed (Wash hands well as soon as you have fished and don’t touch eyes nose or other sensitive areas0 and 20 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped, till they are soft and the onion is transparent, and add this to the dish at the beginning of cooking. I often also add 1 chopped red capsicum as I sauté it, or leftover roasted capsicum. I then add 2 tab brown sugar to the dish as it cooks. It makes the dish much better, but adds about 30 minutes to the preparation time.

Six ways with Baked Fish Fillets or hunks or whole fish

1. Take any fish - fillets or whole fish.
Spray or wipe on olive oil on both sides of the fish or the fillets.
Place baking paper on an oven tray.
Put the oven on to high.
After 10 minutes put in the fish.
Bake till a bit flakes away. This is about 5 minutes for thick fish fillets; 15 minutes for salmon steaks.
I cook the fish on the lowest rack of the oven while the chips cook on the top one. But this takes a bit of practice so make the chips by themselves first.
Serve with lemon juice or bottled tartare sauce and salad.
2. As above, but wipe fish with a thin film of curry paste.
3. As above, but serve with avocado and coriander salsa.
Slice 4 tomatoes, then chop each slice into bits.
Slice 1 onion then chop into bits.
Chop 1 bunch fresh coriander
   Mix. You can add salad dressing if you like, or 1 tab fish sauce mixed with 3 tabs olive oil and 1 tab lemon juice.
4. Garlic and Thyme fish.
Chop 1 clove of peeled garlic for every fillet of fish. Add to 1 tab olive oil, 1 tab lemon juice and 1 tab fresh thyme.
Place fish on baking paper; pour over the mix; wrap fish and bake as above.
5. Fish and potatoes
Peel and thinly slice 4 potatoes
Spread 1 tab oil in a baking dish.
Add slices of potato.
Pour on 1 cup of cream or one cup of chicken stock or 1 cup vegetable stock, made by boiling ½ head of celery, leaves and all, in four cups of water with 2 chopped tomatoes and 1 chopped onion, peel and all, for half an hour. Strain off liquid.
Place potato in the oven bake half an hour at 200C or till  just turning brown.
Put fish on top. Cover with baking paper. Bake 10 minutes more or until the fish flakes away with a fork.
6. Fish and tomatoes with olives
          Place 2-4 pieces of fish in a baking dish.
Pour on 1 large can chopped tomatoes.
Mix in 3 tab of chopped basil, or 1 tab fresh thyme or tarragon.
Mix in about 20 chopped olives, black or green.
Two tabs added olive oil makes this richer, but you can leave it out if you are watching calories.
You can also scatter on 2 tabs grated parmesan cheese - buy the real stuff, not ready grated because it tastes and feels like plastic. (It possibly is plastic. An edible one, of course.)
Place in oven. Bake 20 minutes at 200C.
Eat hot or cold, with salad or asparagus.

Rice and Vegetables

         We eat lots of veg. They are cheap (free if you grow them), and good for you. Even when you add a bit of olive oil or even cream or bacon or ham, they are still lower in calories (and carbohydrates if you avoid potato, corn, carrots and sweet potato) than meat and pasta.
         It’s worth adding the luxury fats to make you want to eat more veg instead of other stuff.
How to Cook Rice

• 1 cup rice
• 3 cups water

         Boil till the rice is tender, and drain. This may take 10-20 minutes, depending on what sort of rice it is. Different rices absorb different amounts of water, so check it isn't going to boil dry till soft. If it looks gluggy put it in a sieve and run hot water over it till some of the gluggy starch washes away.
Asparagus
You need about 6 asparagus spears per person as a side dish, and about 20 if it’s the main dish for dinner.
         Bend the asparagus till they snap about a third of the way along. Throw away the tough part.
         Place in a large saucepan and just cover with water. Bring to the boil. Boil for two minutes. Drain off the water then put the lid on the pan about five minutes while you put the rest of dinner out. The asparagus will keep cooking in the steam in the hot pot, and be soft but not as mushy as if you boiled them longer, and they will have more flavour to        
         Serve hot or cold with salad dressing, or with a dish like meatballs that has lots of sauce.
         If you want to serve asparagus as a first course, or as the main dish for dinner, make the stuffed eggs from ‘starters’. Mash them up and pile small mounds of the mashed egg and stuffing onto each plate of asparagus.
Asparagus and Cheese sauce
         This is good as a main course. Leftovers keep in the fridge for up to a week, so make extra to heat up again.
Asparagus, cooked as above.
Cheese sauce (for 4 people)

• 3 tabs of cornflour, stirred into
• 1 cup of milk, or half milk and half cream if you want a very rich dish
• half cup of cheese, either grated or cut into small pieces if you don’t have a grater. You can use your favourite cheese for this. If you use a strong cheese, like parmesan, you only need 1 tab of cheese.

         Put the asparagus in an oven proof dish.
         Put everything else in a saucepan. Stir well with a wooden spoon so the flour has dissolved.
         Turn the heat onto low under the saucepan. Stir all the time while the sauce heats. If you don’t it might burn on the bottom or go lumpy.  Keep stirring till it turns thick. This will take about ten minutes.        
         You can leave the sauce to cool now, and use it later, or keep it in the fridge for up to a week.
         If using it now, pour it over the asparagus
         Put the pan in the oven. Turn the oven on to high. Cook until the cheese sauce is bubbling and slightly brown- about 10-15 minutes.
         Serve hot.  Keep in the fridge for up to a week, but not if it’s in metal- if you have used a metal baking dish, scoop leftovers into a plastic or oven proof pottery container. Reheat in the microwave.
Variation:
add 1 tab chopped ham per person when you add the cheese
Zucchini in Cheese sauce        
This is delicious.
3 small zucchini per person, or 6 if it is the main dish. Very small zucchini taste better and are less watery than big ones.
Cheese sauce as above.
Thinly slice zucchini longways or crossways. Place in an oven proof dish. Pour on cheese sauce. Put the pan in the oven. Turn the oven on to high. Cook until the cheese sauce is bubbling and slightly brown- about 10-15 minutes.
         Serve hot.  Keep in the fridge for up to a week, but not if it’s in metal- if you have used a metal baking dish, scoop leftovers into a plastic or oven proof pottery container. Reheat in the microwave.
Choko in Cheese sauce
(I’ve added this in case someone – like me- wants to give you lots of chokos)
         Do the same, but with peeled and thinly sliced choko.  Peel the choko first, cutting out the core, and boil the slices till soft before cooking with the cheese sauce.
Stir Fried Veg
You need
Any vegetables
A frying pan or wok.
The veg should take up no more than a third of the space in the wok or pan.
Optional:

• 1 tab of soy sauce for every two people
• 1 tab of soy sauce and 1 of sherry for every two people

• 1 tab of soy sauce  and 1 tsp of grated ginger for every two people
• 1 tab of soy sauce and 1 tab of chilli sauce, or even better, chilli jam, for every two people
• 1 tab of oyster sauce for every two people
• Olive oil

         Take any veg at all, and cut them into very small pieces, each about the same size.
Try: onions, garlic, peeled carrots, pumpkin, sweet potato, choko, zucchini, eggplant, capsicum, fresh chilli with seeds removed, chopped celery, spring onions, beans, peas, corn kernels. If you are going to add leafy veg, like chopped cabbage, silver beet, spinach or Chinese cabbage or wong bok. Chop them finely. You may want to cook the other veg first and add them at the last minute, as they only take a minute to cook if the pan is hot, and become soggy and stringy if you cook them too long.
Put the stove onto high. Heat 1 tab of olive oil in a large frying pan or a wok. (You need about the same amount of oil for a large amount as a small amount, as the oil needs to coat the pan).
         Throw in the veg. Stir with a wooden spoon while the vegetables fry. You need to keep stirring them or they will steam in their own juices instead of frying crisply.
         Some people like them crisp – cook for about 2 minutes.
         Others like them soft – cook for about five to ten minutes.
         If you are adding sauce –and they do taste much better with one of the sauces above- cook for 3 minutes, then add the sauce. Cook for another 2 minutes.
         If the veg are still too crisp for your taste, add 1 tab of water and keep cooking. Repeat till the veg are as soft as you like them.
Variations
Break an egg into a bowl of cold stir fried veg. Heat in the oven or microwave till the egg is set- about five to 10 minutes.
Buy a cooked chook, and add the turn up meat right at the end of cooking. Add some chopped ham or bacon to the veg.
I sometimes add a drained can of red beans to the stir fried veg and chilli sauce         - it makes a good, quick, delicious and low calorie meal.
Frozen Veg
         Frozen veg keep forever, and you don’t have to worry about trimming them, but most are soggy and not worth eating. Frozen peas though are a good standby, and if you are really desperate, frozen beans, but they’ll need something added so they don’t just taste of freezer.
         If you are boiling the peas, add 1 tsp of honey per person to the water before you boil them. You can also add a few outside lettuce leaves. I know this sounds odd, but it adds flavour. Fish out the limp leaves before serving.
And you can of course add 1 tab butter once you have drained the peas, though this adds calories as well as cholesterol.
Peas with ham or pancetta

• Ham, bacon or pancetta
• Peas
• Water or chicken stock

Optional: chopped onions
Optional: chopped capsicum or chilli
You need about 3 tabs of frozen peas and 1 tsp of chopped ham, bacon or pancetta per person. If you use onions too, you need about 1 tab of chopped onion per person. If you add capsicum, add ½ -3 tabs per person. If you add chilli, 1 chopped chilli is good for about 4 people. The chilli adds heat; the capsicum adds colour.
         Put a very slight film - about a tsp- of olive oil in a frying pan or large saucepan. Add the ham, bacon or pancetta and capsicum, chilli or onions if you are using them, and cook on the lowest heat you can for about 5 minutes. Stir all the time so the meat doesn’t stick.
         When the onion is transparent, or the meat is crisp, add the peas, and just enough water or stock to half cover them. Put the heat onto high and boil till almost all the moisture has gone. Stir near the end so the veg and meat don’t stick.
         Serve hot, at once, or put in the fridge in a sealed container for up to a week, and reheat in the microwave.
         It’s worth making a lot so you have leftovers to reheat.        
Potato Gratin
Time taken: 10 minutes to put together, 1 hour to cook.

• 1 large potato per person
• 1 carton of cream for every four potatoes
• 1 tab cornflour (optional)

         Peel the potatoes. Slice them thinly. Arrange them in slices in an oven proof dish. It’s best if there are only two or three layers, though I sometimes make deep ones.
         Pour the cream slowly over them, so that they have all had some cream on them. Bake in a slow oven - about 150 C- till the top is brown and crisp, about 1 hour. Serve hot.
         You can make this earlier in the day, or the day before and reheat it at 150C for 10 minutes.
A large gratin: if I am making a deep gratin for many people, I mix I tab of cornflour with the cream before I pour it on. If I don’t do this the cream can separate into cream solids and butter during the long cooking. This is still delicious, but doesn’t look as good, even if your pour off the butter before serving.
Variations

• use half potato and half sweet potato slices
• add 1 tsp of chopped ham for every potato
• add a layer of defrosted frozen spinach between the layers of potato. (Only do this if you love spinach).

Mashed Potato

• 1 medium potato per person
• 2 tabs of milk for every potato, or 2 tb cream and 1 tb butter

The milk makes an okay mashed potato; the butter and cream a fantastic mashed potato.

• Black pepper

         Peel the potatoes. Cut into slices. Cover with water. Boil till the potatoes are soft- test by poking with a knife.
         Drain off the water.
         Add the milk, or the butter and cream. Press down with your potato masher till it’s all mashed, then whip the mix with the masher round and round a few times to lighten it. Add a grate of black pepper and serve hot.
         This mashed potato can be kept in the fridge for up to a week and reheated in the microwave or oven. I usually make a big pot, mash it with butter, and let it cool, then heat it up with the cream when I want to serve it.
Variations

• add half a carrot for every potato. They look great mashed together.
• add half a carrot and 2 tab of frozen peas for every potato, and mash together. Looks and tastes great and you only need one pot for your veg.
• use half potato and half pumpkin
• use half potato and half sweet potato

add finely chopped chives or spring onion as soon as you have drained off the water, so they partially cook in the heat. I add about half a tab per potato.
Idaho Potatoes
Wash spuds.
Don’t wrap in alfoil. It just makes them soggy, and you lose the nice crisp skin. The alfoil recipe was just a cunning marketing idea to sell alfoil. It helped turn turned a generation into eating pasta instead of potatoes.
Bake at 200C - 40 minutes for small ones, 60 minutes for large ones. Test by cutting one open if you're not sure if they're cooked.
Serve by themselves, or open the alfoil and slice open the top and dab on light sour cream.
Oven Chips
Peel spuds.
Cut into slices one way, then cut those slices into chips.
Spread 1tab oil onto a baking tray or spray with olive oil.
Turn the oven onto its highest setting.
Place the spuds on the tray. Roll them over in the oil or spray them well with olive oil.
Bake till golden brown in the oven. This will take 10-25 minutes depending on how hot your oven can get and what sort of spud they are. Check after 10 minutes and then every five minutes.
If you cook two trays at once wait till the top tray is brown then change places with the bottom tray, as things don't brown well on the bottom of the oven.
Use an oven mitt or folded tea towel and beware- hot chips and fat are easily spilt.
Sprinkle with salt before serving.
I use ‘rock salt’- it s a chunky salt that tastes even more salty. I often blend the salt with spices, but you can buy spiced slats too. Native Spice salt is one of the best, and so is Siam salt.
Optional: sprinkle on ground chilli before you cook, or 1 teaspoon rosemary or thyme leaves, or place 6 cloves of garlic, unpeeled, aroudn the chip tray to add a good garlic flavour.
Parsley Salad
     Over the past 6 years or so of drought our veg garden has been reduced to  the great survivors- plants that may wilt and look a bit dusty in the heat of the day (don't we all), but perk up at night without even a swim in the creek and a nice cold cup of crushed lemon in their hands . Tomatoes, beans, spuds, chilli, as they all put out more roots up their stems if you mulch them right up to their leaves, and the more roots they have the more moisture they can forage. Add some nice plants that have evolved in deserts of barren baking islands- zucchini, watermelon, pumpkin, apple cucumber…and you've got a pretty good menu for dinner.
 As for greens- red stemmed Italian chicory, unkillable Warrigal spinach, an Australian native that needs cooking in two changes of water as it's high in oxalic acid, red stemmed silver beet…but most of all, lots and LOTS of Italian parsley.
Curled parsley might look nice as garnish for a pair of lamb chops, but it's all prickly in the mouth unless you chop it French chef finely. But you only need to grab a bunch of Italian parsley in one hand, scissors in the other, and gently snip it into a bowl, and you've got the basis for a totally superb salad. And then...well, there are dozens of variations. I'd add something for texture, something for colour, and a damn good dressing. Ring the changes according to what's on hand, and what you feel like.
Dressing

• 3 tab olive oil (or macadamia)
• 1 tab lemon juice, or white wine or raspberry vinegar
• Half tsp salt (optional) or half tsp grainy mustard
• half tab chopped oregano OR 1 tab chopped blue cheese
• 1 clove chopped peeled garlic

For texture

• slices or chunks of creamy avocado
• whole macadamias, or walnuts, or sliced almonds
• chunks of cucumber
• very finely chopped fresh dates (Surprisingly delicious in a salad, especially with cucumber)
• lightly cooked asparagus, beans (especially long thin snake beans) or broccoli or brocollini

For colour

• sliced capsicum
• finely chopped chilli if you like it hot
• big chunks of baked salmon or tuna (Stunnning)
• hard boiled eggs- especially tiny bantam eggs
• sliced or better still, chunks of tomato or whole red tom thumb tomatoes or tiny yellow pear shaped ones, halved.
• a little very very finely grated raw beetroot
• a few- very few- craisins
• chunks of white fetta cheese, or whole tiny bocconcini, or blue vein cheese, or crumbled ricotta
• hunks of cooked chicken breast or cold lamb
• chunks of baked or boiled new potatoes, or kipfler potatoes or one of the new red or blue fleshed spuds, or yellow fleshed Tasmanian pink eyes.
• cooked chick peas or red kidney beans or mixed cooked beans

       Serve on one very large bowl and let every help themselves. It takes about ten minutes to mix. You shouldn't need anything else, and it's so healthy you can pig out with giant helpings. And if you think growing your dinner takes too much time – time yourself next time you're at the supermarket. Where would you rather be – picking parsley in the dusk with the scent of ripe tomatoes, or standing in the checkout with nothing but a stand of New Idea and chocolate bars to look at?
Salad Dressings
Standard Salad Dressing

• 3 tabs virgin olive oil
• 1 tabs white wine vinegar
• 1 crushed or chopped clove of garlic
• quarter tsp salt
• half tsp French mustard

         Shake together.
Savage Salad Dressing

• 3 cups balsamic vinegar
• quarter of a cup virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 heaped tabs French mustard

Fish Sauce Dressing

• 1 tab fish sauce
• juice of 1 lemon or 2 limes
• 4 tab peanut oil or extra virgin olive oil

Optional: 1 bunch chopped coriander leaves
Avocado Sauce

• 1 small or half a large avocado, mashed
• two thirds of a cup virgin olive oil
• 1 third of a cup white wine vinegar or lime juice (lime juice is best)
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp French mustard
• half tsp salt
• half tsp brown sugar
• good grind black pepper

Optional: 2 tabs finely chopped parsley or coriander
         Throw it all in a glass jar. Put the lid on. Shake well. Keep in the fridge for up to a week.
         Pour over shelled prawns, yabbies or cooked salmon. Makes great hot potato salad- boil new spuds; stir in a little sauce. Serve at once. Not bad on pasta either, with a few prawns, yabbies or semi dried tomatoes.
Put all in a jar. Shake it each time you w ant to use it, till the mustard dissolves. 

A few other recipes for food I sometimes serve around Christmas: not as simple as the ones above, but easy once you get into it.

Bloody Mary Soup
(Adults only)
Chop: 1 stick of celery. Cover with vodka.
Put in a saucepan:
4 chopped ripe tomatoes
half a litre tomato juice
1 tab Worcestershire sauce
1 tab balsamic vinegar
half tsp Tabasco (or more on really cold days)
Juice of 1 lime or half lemon
Heat.
Pour into 4 bowls or 1 large thermos.
Add marinated celery and vodka.

Meatballs in Tomato and Basil Sauce
Mix

• 1 kilo pork and beef mince- ask the butcher to make it up for you. If you can't, then use pork mince.
• 2 cups Tandaco stuffing mix (breadcrumbs) if you have to- I use 2 cups grated rye bread(Light rye, not dark rye), with 3 tab fresh thyme leaves and 6 chopped peeled cloves of garlic. But the stuffing mix is fine if you’re in a hurry.
• 1 small can condensed milk
• 1 tab worstershire sauce

Roll into egg sized balls.
Easy option:  bake balls on baking paper till light brown at the edges in the oven.
Better option:
Fry in olive oil on both sides till brown.
Remove baking paper if you have used it. Otherwise pile meatballs into a casserole or baking pan. Add 2 cans crushed tomatoes with onions and herbs to the pan you cooked the meatballs in- there’ll be lots of good flavoured crispy bits to melt into the sauce. , Add 2 cups chicken stock.
Simmer i.e. on a low heat, for half an hour.
Add 1 tab cornflour mixed with 4 tab water if you want to thicken it, then simmer for another 5 minutes to take away the taste of raw cornflour. I usually don’t thicken it.
Add half chopped basil or 1tb fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried oregano for more favour bout 5 minutes before you want to serve it.
Baked ham
I cook this but don’t eat it – I don’t eat pig meat–  but am married to a man who loves it. 
Note: the ham you buy is already cooked, but these days most hams are pumped full of water and nitrates, to give them their taste and colour. The baking cooks out a lot of this water, and adds a flavour that ordinary commercial hams don’t have.  But you can, of course, eat the ham without baking it first.
If you have killed a wild pig, freeze the meat first for a couple of weeks, then soak it in water and salt- ¼ bucket salt and half bucket water, then add the ham. Cover, and leave for a week in a cool larder, then hang up in the chimney (if you have one) where it will be smoked for a week, or up to three months if you want a very hard textured very smoky ham that will keep longer.  Then cook. Wild pig had much less fat.
This year I baked our ham on the barbeque, in a baking dish.

• 1 leg or shoulder of ham
• 1 cup honey (different flavoured honeys will give a different flavour to the meat).
• 3 cups orange juice: don’t use the juice of navel oranges, as it turns bitter after ten minutes
• Half a cup whole cloves

Peel off the hard brown skin. Use your fingers to wiggle off most of the fat. Put the lumps of fat in the baking pan. The skin can be cut into thin strips and baked till crisp, then sprinkled with slat, if you are fond of the taste of fat and salt. Otherwise, throw out o feed to the chooks, but don’t give them too much, as it will be salty and too much salt can kill them.  You need about 6 chooks to eat the skin from 1 shoulder. If you have fewer chooks only give them a slice a day and keep the rest in the fridge or freezer.
Place ham in baking dish. The fatty slide should be uppermost.
Press the whole cloves into the top half. Cloves have pointy ends- these ends are easily pressed in.  I first do a row own the middle, then rows next to it, so that it eventually forms a pattern.
Pour over orange juice.
Pout over honey.
Place in oven.
Turn oven onto low, about 150C, or the BBQ onto its lowest setting, then put the cover on so it’s like an oven. Every half an hour take a big spoon, put on oven gloves, and ‘baste’ –  scoop up the fatty sweet juice and pour over the meat, making sure it’s all covered. Then close oven.
Cook for 2-4 hours, till shiny and dark brown, but not blackened.
Ham covered in plastic sweats and goes bad more quickly. That’s why ‘ham bags’ are used- an old pillowcase works as well, or wrap in alfoil.
Slice thinly. Serve cold.
 Leftovers:
Sandwiches with English mustard
Serve with a hot white onion sauce: the cheese sauce with no cheese. Instead, sauté 1 onion or every cup of milk or cheese in 1 tab butter or olive oil till soft, then add to sauce.

Quiche without a crust Mix

• 1 cup chopped leftover baked ham (or supermarket ham, or chunks of cooked chicken or turkey)
• 1 cup cream
• ‘Half cup grated cheese
• 4 eggs

Place into a baking dish, or into four coffee mugs. Bake at 200C till set and light brown on top - about 40 minutes for a big dish, half an hour for the small mugs.
Vladimir’s Grated Potato Cakes
These taste surprisingly meaty. I was given the recipe by an elderly man who had spent his teenage years shepherding Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler across a mountain and then swimming them across the river over the border. When he came home each morning his mother- who pretended she didn’t know what he was doing - always had these waiting for him.
Mix

• 3 large raw potatoes, grated. You can peel them- I don’t if by myself, but do if serving to others.
• 4 chopped peeled cloves of garlic
• 3 heaped tab plain flour
• 3 eggs

Optional: 1 grated red peeled onion; half a bunch finely chopped parsley or coriander; 2 peeled grated carrots; 4 tab grated raw yellow sweet potato; half a cup finely chopped small tender celery leaves; half a chopped, seeded red capsicum; 1-10 chopped fresh red or green chillies, seeds removed. Nb. Wash hands after chopping or use gloves- the juice can seriously burn eyes, noses and other sensitive bits. Once use to torture captives, so treat it warily.
Heat a fry pan on high for two minutes; turn the heat down to medium and add 2 tab extra virgin olive oil.
Drop big spoonfuls of the mix into the oil; press down so they are about as wide as your hand. After 3 minutes wiggle a spatula or egg slice under them to stop them sticking, but if the pan w s hot and oil covered they shouldn’t stick.
After five minutes turn them over. If they are brown on top cook the other side for five minutes then turn over and over, til both sides are brown. By then the inside will be cooked.
Serve hot but I also love them cold. Good with just about any sauce, even bottled tomato sauce or sweet chilli sauce.  Commercial chilli jam is excellent too,
Optional: I add half a cup chopped ham to the mix for Bryan, and sometimes half a cup leftover baked fish. 
Beef or Feral Goat Stew
Good with rice, pasta, spaghetti
Place in a saucepan or casserole

• 2 kilos chopped beef or goat
• 1 cans tomatoes
• 6 peeled and chopped carrots
• 6 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 large carton beef stock.

Add half a cup red wine if you have some left over. You can also add chopped celery, parsley, peas, broad beans, or the white and pale green part of leeks. If it’s an old tough goat, do add the wine; I’d also add 3 chillies to counter the goat effect.
Put the lid on. Simmer for 1 hour.
Add 1 tab cornflour mixed with 4 tab water. Mix well
Add 1 tab basil, thyme, marjoram or oregano at this point if you have any. (Use a quarter of that amount if the herbs are dried)
Simmer for another 10 minutes.

Kebabs
Take chunks of chicken, lamb or beef fillet or rump steak, or very small slices of very young goat leg.
If you want to you can marinate them in half a cup of olive oil and a quarter of a cup of lemon juice with 6 chopped cloves garlic and 2 tsps herbs overnight. Or don't bother.
Thread the meat onto wooden or metal skewers.
Grill on one side till brown. Turn over. Grill on the other side.
If you want to make this more fancy alternate the meat chunks with slices of onion, and or cherry tomatoes, or pineapple pieces, or bay leaves.
Eat the kebabs by themselves or a sauce of:

• 1 carton natural yoghurt
• 2 cloves chopped or crushed garlic

You can also add a little grated cucumber if you want to.
Stir Fry
Heat a little oil in wok or fry pan.
Fry small pieces of meat- lamb beef or chicken- at a high heat till brown.
Add chopped garlic, onions, capsicum, celery, carrot, broccoli, cauliflower or whatever.
Keep stirring while they cook quickly.
After 5 minutes add 3 tabs of soy sauce and 3 tabs of sherry. Sizzle for 1 minute.
Turn off the heat. Eat.
PS. If you are cooking a lot of meat take it out while you cook the veg, then add the meat with the soy sauce and sherry.
If you don't have sherry soy sauce by itself is okay, though not as good.
If you want to add tomatoes, add them with the soy sauce; otherwise they make it all too liquid and the stuff stews instead of stir fries.

Desserts

More Than Six ways with Fruit

Fruit Salad
Chop:

• 1 rockmelon
• 1 pineapple
• 1 large banana
• add chopped peaches, apricots, nectarines, cherries, oranges to taste
• add the pulp of 6 passionfruit
• add half a cup sugar
• add 6 torn mint leaves if you have them.

Mix well.
Leave in the fridge for an hour or two for the flavours to mingle before you serve it.
Always cover fruit salad or the fridge will smell of rockmelon and the fruit salad taste of other things in the fridge
Peaches in Champagne

• Slice peeled peaches into wine glasses.
• Fill the glasses with champagne. Serve at once.

Canned grapefruit and fresh lychees mixed together are also good with champagne.
Grown Up Iceblocks
(Good for kids too...and really excellent as a dessert at a barbeque)

• 1 cup pineapple, chopped

• 1 cup rockmelon, chopped
• 1 banana, chopped
• half cup cream
• half cup sugar
• half cup water OR Champagne or good white wine
• juice half a lemon
• 1 tsp mint, chopped, optional OR 1tsp ginger root, peeled and chopped, optional
• half cup grapes, optional
• half cup paw paw, chopped, optional
• half cup strawberries, chopped, optional
• half cup lychees, chopped, optional

You will also need: iceblock moulds or plastic or disposable cups
iceblock sticks or tsps
Boil sugar and water or wine with the mint or ginger (or no ginger and mint as you prefer) for 5 minutes. Cool.
 Add the fruit. You must have pineapple and banana and preferably rockmelon too, but other fruit can be added from the list.
         Take long iceblock moulds, or plastic cups or even disposable cups. Pour about tab of cream into each, then carefully add the fruit mixture, so that the cream stays mostly at the bottom, and doesn't mix through it too much. Poke an iceblock stick or tsp into each one; freeze, and eat.
Raspberry and Blueberry Jelly
(looks stunning)
Serves 4-6 unless you're greedy

• 1 packet frozen raspberries
• 1 packet frozen blueberries
• extra strawberries, peaches or other fruit
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 cup castor sugar
• juice of two lemons
• half cup water
• 2 sachets gelatine

         Use a no-stick cake tin or line a cake tin with plastic wrap. Place sliced strawberries or peaches in the bottom; empty in the blueberries and raspberries.
         Heat all other ingredients except the gelatine till nearly boiling; take off the heat; add gelatine. (Mix a little with some of the liquid first so you don't get lumps). Pour liquid into the cake tin. Leave till set...it will take several hours.
         Turn it out onto a plate. If it won't come out easily dip the base of the tin in hot water in the sink for about 30 seconds- make sure no liquid gets into the tin though! This will loosen the jelly enough for it to slide out.
         Serve slices with cream, or ice cream.
Note: if that amount of gelatine doesn't form a well set jelly, the whole thing can be slightly warmed and more gelatine (mixed with a little of the warmed liquid first) can be added. For some reason sometimes more is needed- possibly this depends on the ripeness and juiciness of the berries.
The Five Minute Wonder- Fried Bananas

• 4 bananas, thinly sliced
• 4 tsp butter or margarine
• 4 tab golden syrup
• 4 tab rum

Optional: 4 rings of fresh pineapple, cored and chopped
Melt the butter in a frying pan on a very low heat; add the fruit and fry on both sides for three minutes; add the golden syrup and the rum and  keep cooking till thick- another 2 minutes or so.
Serve with thick cream, ice cream or yoghurt.
Grapefruit and Lychees in Champagne
(A cheat's dessert)

• 1 can grapefruit segments, drained
• 1 cup fresh lychees
• 1 cup green grapes(can be peeled and seeded if you feel energetic; I don't bother)
• 1 bottle champagne
• 1 tsp chopped mint OR two dashes bitters

Drain the fruit; place in glasses with the mint; cover with cling wrap and chill. Add champagne just before serving.
Note: if using fresh fruit, mix with a syrup of half cup water boiled with half cup sugar and the juice of half a lemon for two hours or overnight before draining and adding the champagne
Chilled Oranges

• 4 oranges, peeled and sliced and membrane removed
• 4 tab orange zest
• 4 tab Cointreau
• 4 tab castor sugar
• 1 tab water

         Place sugar, zest and castor sugar in a pan; bubble till it JUST turns golden. Take off the heat. Add to oranges and Cointreau. Chill with cling wrap over it. Serve cold. You can serve with cream or ice cream- and very good it is too- but it is also a wonderfully light but sweet dessert after a rich meal.
Fruit Crush
You need a blender to make this. It is extraordinarily fresh and good and fruity.
1 cup sugar

• 1 cup water
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp tartaric acid
• 3 cups ripe fragrant strawberries (quarter them if they're large) OR
• 3 cups ripe fragrant pineapple, chopped (def not canned) OR
• 3 cups squishy ripe mulberries OR
• 3 cups very ripe raspberries (pick out all beetles)

         Freeze the fruit FAST i.e. don't bung it in a crowded freezer, or all bunched up together. Place fruit in a plastic freezer bag and freeze in a single layer. Use with two days or the fruit will lose a lot of its fragrance. If possible, use as soon as it's frozen.
Boil other ingredients for five minutes. Refrigerate till very cold- semi frozen is even better.
Throw fruit in blender. Add 1 cup of syrup; turn on blender and process. Add more syrup only if the mixture is too thick for the blender to process.
Serve at once. It will be semi frozen, and slightly liquid; eat what you can with a spoon and slurp up the rest.
PS a few mint leaves go well with the pineapple; a little orange zest added to the syrup when it's cooking is good with strawberries.
Strawberry and Passionfruit Crush

• 3 cups strawberries, as ripe and sweet as possible
• half to one cup passionfruit pulp- about ten - twenty passionfruit, or use strained canned passionfruit
• 1 cup crushed meringues- this is one time commercial ones are fine
• 1 cup cream, whipped
• 3 tab castor sugar, optional- if the fruit is sweet you won't need it
• 1 tab cointreau... leave out if kids are going to eat this…and if they are around, they will.

Whip cream and sugar and cointreau. Cover and leave in the fridge for up to 8 hours.
Hull and chop berries; add to passionfruit. Leave covered in the fridge for up to 8 hours.
Just before serving, mix them both with the meringues. Serve in glasses or glass bowls- the pink, gold and cream colours are divine. So is the taste.
Ease of making: simple
Serves: 4-8
Time taken: about 5 minutes. You can prepare most in advance but assemble it just before serving.
Calories: not as many as you'd think, as the cream is whipped- far less than say a serve of sticky date pudding
 Stewed Apricots or Cherries
fruit, with or without seeds (Seeds need to be spat out, but they do give extra flavour)

• 1 tab castor sugar for every cup of fruit
• 1 tab water for every cup of fruit.

Optional: 1 tab cointreau, or kirsch for every cup of fruit. A tab of port can be used with cherries, in which case add it with the water.
    Place sugar in pan; add water then fruit. Simmer at a VERY LOW heat, stirring often, till the fruit just softens. Add cointreau or kirsch.
     That's it. Don't add more water, unless it's scorching, or more sugar unless the fruit has no flavour, in which case make something else.
The Great Australian Crumble
The USA has pies, the English have tarts…but in Australia we gently crumble....which cries out for a poem starting: Do not grumble at the crumble, but don't have time right now to finish it....

• Equal amounts of brown sugar and SR flour i.e. a cup of each
• butter

Mix flour and sugar. With your fingers rub in 1 tab butter, and then add more slices of butter till it's all crumbly...like soft breadcrumbs. Don't worry if you add a bit too much or too little- a crumble is very forgiving.

• Fruit

 Easy option: a can of fruit especially pitted cherries, but with only about a third of the juice
or:
stewed apple
stewed apple and almost any berry (Don't precook the berries- just add to the stewed apple)
stewed quinces
stewed or baked rhubarb
lightly cooked cherries (I put two layers in the baking dish, bake for ten minutes, then add the crumble topping)
apricots cooked like the cherries above
sliced peaches ditto
Note: you don't have to sweeten the fruit much, or at all, as the crumble will add the sweetness.
Scatter the crumble crumbs onto the fruit. Pop into a moderate oven. Cook about ten minutes till the top is JUST starting to turn gold...if you bake it too much your crumble will turn into a material suitable for the foundations of a 20 story building.
 Eat hot or cold...probably best is tepid i.e.  pop it out of the oven  as you serve your main course and it'll be waiting for you, crumbling gently, when you're ready for something sweet.
PS. The world is divided into those who eat their crumble with thick double cream, custard, single pouring cream, natural yoghurt, or plain for breakfast. I'm an ice cream girl.. there is something fascinating about eating hot crumble and cold ice cream with just a little melted about the edges. And these days you can even eat no fat soy ice cream, which is almost virtuous....
Plums in Port
Note; also good without the spices, if you only have port sugar and a can of plums.
This looks superb in clear glass bowls, or serve it in wine glasses- a very quick, simple dish that looks and tastes sophisticated enough to show off at a dinner party.

• 1 can plums, drained, or 16 fresh plums, halved
• OR pears, quinces, a mix of granny smith apples and dried apricots…in fact even old doormats would probably taste pretty good in this stuff
• 1 cup port
• 1 cup water
• 6 whole cloves or 10 whole cardamom berries
• 1 stick cinnamon
• half cup sugar
• juice 1 lemon

Optional: half a washed orange, sliced, peel left on.
Place all ingredients in a stainless steel saucepan. Simmer fruit gently till soft- anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour for fresh plums, or three minutes for canned plums- just long enough mellow the alcohol taste of the port. Fish out the spices and orange. Serve either hot or cold. Keeps for several days covered in the fridge.
Recipe for Cross Husbands
(from an old farm recipe book)

• 1 fresh pear, peeled
• 2 cups cream
• half cup castor sugar, or half and half brown and castor sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla (or violet flavoured sugar)
• 4 eggs
• sprinkle nutmeg

Place sliced pear in an oven proof dish. Beat the other stuff with a fork and pour over. Scatter ground nutmeg on top. Bake at 22C for about 45 minutes or still the top is set. Serve hot, but also good cold.

Six Delicious Baked Pots

Lemon Pie without the Pie
Mix

• 1 cup cream
• half cup lemon juice
• 4 eggs
• half cup vast or sugar

Pour into small oven pots or coffee mugs. Bake at 200C till set- about 10-30 minutes depending on the shape of te mug. (Thick ones take longer)
Eat hot or cold
Mandarin or tangelo pots
As above, but use mandarin juice or tangelo juice instead.
 Baked Custard

• 2 cups cream
• 4 eggs
• 8 tab castor sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla paste- comes in a small jar

Mix in a bowl.
Place in an oven proof dish.
Bake at 200C for half an hour or till firm. This takes from 10 minutes to 30 minutes- ten minutes if you divide into four and bake in coffee mugs, longer if it's one big custard.
Fruit Custard
Place  1-2 tab of cooked fruit (or canned) in each pot or coffee cup, then add the baked custard mix. Bake as above.
Rum and Chocolate Custard
Grate 4 tab of dark chocolate. Add that and 1 tab rum to the mix instead of vanilla. Bake as above.
Bread and Butter pudding
Cut the crusts of a piece of white bread or fruit bread. Spread with butter on both sides- just a smear, not too much. If you love marmalade you can cover with smear of marmalade too, or your favourite jam, like cherry jam or strwverry.
Cut the bred into eight pieces
Place 2 in each pot.
Pour over the basic custard mixture. Cook as above.
Optional: add 1 tab raisins or currants. These can be soaked in rum in a sealed container overnight or for a day before adding if you want a rum bread and butter custard.
Good with cream, vanilla ice cream, or natural yoghurt.

Another couple of old favourites
Caramel Tart
Prepare pastry for pie, tarts, or cover baking tray with shortcrust pastry or biscuit mix. Cook.

• Caramel
• 2 400g m (or near enough) sweetened condensed milk
• 1/3 cup golden syrup
• 125 gm butter
• 2/4 cup cream

Place in saucepan. Stir on LOW heat all the time for about 10-15 minutes till it's thick and lightly golden. Pour onto biscuit crust, or into tarts or pie crust. Leave to set.
Topping: press in macadamias, pecans, walnuts, crushed peanut or macadamia brittle or crushed butterscotch lollies, or just before serving top with sliced bananas, either raw or lightly fried in butter, and then whipped cream.
Passionfruit tiramisu
The problem with tiramisu is that
a. it's so full of coffee that you can't sleep after eating it
b. it's so delicious that you do eat it anyway, and
c. it looks totally gloriously tempting but kids can't eat it either because of the alcohol and coffee.
So here is a family friendly tiramisu, extremely good, incredibly simple to make- in fact great for kids to make too.

• 1 pkt sponge finger biscuits
• 1 carton mascarpone cheese
• 1 cup canned passionfruit juice, minus the seeds
• a punnet raspberries or frozen raspberries or sliced strawberries
• half cup grated chocolate, preferably dark bitter stuff

Optional: 3 tab cointreau to mix with the mascarpone if you really want an adults only version
Take a glass dish. Layer in half the biscuits. Pour over the juice, spread half the mascarpone, scatter on the fruit. Now layer the rest of the biscuits, spread the rest of the cheese, and scatter on the chocolate. Leave for about 2 hours for the juices to soak into the biscuits. Serve in slices.
    This is okay the next day if you keep it covered in the fridge, but best made a few hours before serving.
PS. And yes, of course you can make your own sponge fingers, and use fresh picked fruit. But if you use fresh passionfruit you may need to add a little sugar, and in which case don't bother removing the seeds – just use half as much juice again. King Island cream can be used instead of mascarpone.

Biscuits and Cakes

Choc Chip Biscuits

• 125 gm butter
• 1½ cups brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup SR flour
• 2 cups dark choc chips
• 1 cups of your favourite nuts (roasted salted peanuts, sliced almonds, or macadamias)

Cream butter and sugar. Mix in egg, then flour, then everything else.
Preheat oven to 200C. Place on non stick trays or grease them first. Place tsps of mix on the trays- they'll spread. Bake about 10 minutes. They should be pale brown and still softish – they'll crisp as they cool.
Store in a sealed container.
Serves: about 30 biscuits
Ease of making: moderate... easy enough for kids to make as long as you watch to make sure they don't burn their fingers on the trays.
Optional: add 1 tab grated orange rind and use sliced almonds for orange and almond biscuits
or
add 1 tab very good cocoa for double chocolate biscuits
or
add chunks of violet crumble bar or chopped after dinner mints instead of choc chips.
Jackie's Christmas Biscuits (invented the Friday before Christmas 2009)
These are delicious – an Aussie biscuit crunch with the colour and tradition of old fashioned Christmas goodies.

• 125 gm butter

• 1½ cups brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup SR flour
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• half cup dark or white choc chips
• half cup of your favourite nuts (sliced almonds are good, or macadamias)
• 3 cups finely chopped glace fruit, or just glace cherries if your prefer, or glace ginger

Optional: 3 tab candied peel
Or
2 tsps ground ginger or mixed spice
Cream butter and sugar. Mix in egg, then flour, then everything else.
Preheat oven to 200C. Place on non stick trays or grease them first. Place tsps of mix on the trays- they'll spread. Bake about 10 minutes. They should be pale brown and still softish –  they'll crisp as they cool.
Store in a sealed container.
Serves: about 30 biscuits
Ease of making: moderate... easy enough for kids to make as long as you watch to make sure they don't burn their fingers on the trays.
For gluten free I'd add a little more butter, as they may otherwise be a bit dry, or rather reduce the gluten free flour by about 2 heaped tab. Add more of the chopped apricots instead of the oats.
Almond Delicious Biscuit
Note: this recipe is gluten free; also crisp and divinely delicious. The nuts are far better for you than wheat.  This recipe is also low in cholesterol- no butter or egg yolk. You'll find this biscuit satisfies your hunger in more ways than one: a snack to keep you going as well as happy.
Note: you can double or triple the recipe and divide it so you make several flavours.

• 1 tsp honey
• 250 gm ground almonds
• 3.4 cup castor sugar
• 1 cup icing sugar (not icing mixture, which contains flour)
• 2 egg whites OR 1 egg white and

Flavouring:

• 1 tsp orange zest and/or 1/2 tsp cointreau
• 1 tsp lemon zest and 1/2 tsp lemon juice or a dash of bitters
• 2 drops almond essence
• 1/2 tsp instant coffee
• 1/2 tsp rum

Extras to put on top:
half a cup sliced almonds
or
1 cup chopped macadamias
or
halved walnuts
or
100 gm chocolate, melted
Beat one egg white till firm and fluffy. Gently mix in honey and your choice of flavouring, then gently mix in almonds and castor sugar. Cover and leave in the fridge overnight.
Next day preheat the oven to 160C.
Beat the second eggwhite, and add half of it to the biscuit mixture – again, very gently.
Take teaspoons of the mix. Roll into small ball then roll each ball in egg white then icing sugar.
Place balls on a greased tray or a tray covered in baking paper. Leave a good space between them. Press balls flat with a glass.Top with nuts if you want them.
Bake for about 20 minutes. They should be just pale golden brown. Be careful not to overcook them so they are too dark. They'll turn crisp as they cool.
If you want choc covered biscuits brush over melted chocolate when the biscuits are cool.
Store in a sealed container for up to three weeks.
Ease of making: medium
Time taken: 10 minutes to mix, 12 hours to rest or overnight, 20 minutes to bake
Serves: about 25 small biscuits.
Chocolate Ginger Slices
These are so irresistible I haven't made them for five years- but will again this Christmas. They make stunning presents, and last for weeks, but wrap them up with lots of ribbon or the scent may tempt you to scoff the lot.
I ate something like them about 35 years ago, and experimented till I came up with these- much better than the original. I was living in a shed with no oven at the time, and needed a goodie that didn't need baking.
Warning: these are seriously edible, and not at all good for you – except that sometimes a small nibble of pleasure is very good indeed.

• 1 pkt biscuits, about 250 gm – any plain biscuit will do, but they give different results. Milk arrowroots or Nice are good.
• 125 gm butter
• 1 heaped tab powdered ginger
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 heaped tab cocoa
• 1 egg
• 1 or 2 cups sultanas
• 1 or 2 cups walnuts or macadamias or sliced almonds

Optional: 1 cup crystallised cherries
Icing

• 2 cups icing sugar
• water
• 1 tab cocoa
• 1 tab powdered ginger

Break biscuits into crumbs- fingers work best, in a large bowl.
Put butter, sugar, cocoa, ginger and sultanas and cherries into a saucepan. Melt butter on low heat, stirring all the time. This will take about 3 minutes. When all is mixed add the egg, stirring well for about a minute. It should all be like a gluggy caramel.
Scrape mix into the biscuits and mix well with a large spoon.
Press mix into a greased tray and leave to get quite cold.
Now make the icing: mix icing  ingredients with a little water- it's best to add a very little at a time as it's easy to make it watery.
Spread icing over the slice. Now AT ONCE scatter on and press in the nuts. The whole of the top should be studded with nuts, pressed down firmly into the icing.
Leave to set.
Cut into SMALL squares. Store in a sealed container for up to a month.
Serve: 1- 30 (depends how large you make each
Ease of making: very simple.
Nutty Floozies
or One Two Three Biscuits
I think these may have originally been 'Nutty Oozies', as they do spread a bit, then become gold and crisp. But they've been floozies in my kitchen for decades. They were the first biscuit I ever made, and are so good that one friend's boyfriend got up and left when he discovered there weren't any in the biscuit jar when they visited. Okay, he was a pig, and she soon got rid of him…but they are a good biscuit.

• 125 gm butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tab golden syrup
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/1/2 cups plain flour
• half cup chopped nuts: peanuts, walnuts, almonds, macadamia...
• half cup SR flour: or two cups plain flour: will be a bit tougher
• 1 egg

Step 1. Put everything except the egg in a saucepan on a low heat. Mix when butter is melted.
Step 2. Take off the heat and beat in the egg.
Step 3.Put flattened tsps full on a greased tray (or covered with baking paper) and bake at about 150C for 15 minutes, or till light gold. (Not dark brown).
Take out…they'll crisp as they cool.
Store in a sealed container for up to a month.
Ease of making: very very easy
Feeds: makes about 40 biscuits
Time taken: 2 minutes to mix, 15 minutes in the oven.
Sweet Potato Rock Cakes
The sweet potato makes these moist and naturally sweet – as well as good for you, as it includes sweet potato, olive oil, blueberries, dried fruit and nuts. The only villain is the sugar, which you can reduce or even leave out if you're used o a low sugar diet it's used for sweetening in this recipe, not texture, and the fruit and sweet potato will add natural sweetness. It's also healthier made with whole wheat instead of white flour.

• 125 ml olive oil
• 1 cup castor sugar plus 2 tab extra
• 1 cup SR flour
• 1 cup gm mashed sweet potato, peeled then boiled, microwaved or baked
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries OR currants
• 1 cup macadamia nuts or other nuts (optional but good for you)
• 1 cup sultanas or 1 cup chopped dates

Possibly needed: 1 egg, or a little water, low fat milk, yoghurt or cream or sour cream
Put the oven on to 200C.
Mix everything except the extra sugar and the 'possibly needed' liquid.
The mixture should be moist enough to drop down from the spoon in big glops. If it's too dry to glop, add the egg or a drizzle of liquid till it glops properly. (Some blueberries, sweet potato mash and some flour are moister than others. If yours are very dry then some extra liquid may be needed. But you probably won't need it.)
          Grease a baking tray or line with baking paper.  Take a tablespoon and put heaped spoonfuls (about 1 glop) of the mixture a little way apart on the tray.
Sprinkle each 'cake' with a little of the extra sugar.
Bake for 10- 15 minutes or till firm to touch or a skewer comes out dry.
Take out of the oven, cool then place in a sealed container. They are best eaten the same day, but still great for the next three or flour days. If you've used blueberries the rock cakes may start to grow whiskers of fungus or go bad after this time. If you have used currants they'll last longer.
Serves:  12- 20
Ease: very easy
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

• 100 gm dark chocolate
• 125 gm butter
• 125 gm chunky peanut butter
• 1 and a half cups brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• three quarters of a cup SR flour
• half cup plain flour
• half a cup milk, or light sour cream, or buttermilk

Turn the oven on to 200 C.  Line a cake tin with baking paper.
Melt butter and chocolate; take off heat when JUST melted and beat in sugar, then peanut butter, then the eggs one by one. Now add the flours and milk and mix gently- don't overbeat. pour into the cake tin and bake for 45m- 1 hour, or till the top springs back when you gently press it and the top is mid brown, not pale or black!
Take from oven. Leave in the pan for 20 minutes to cool a little and firm up, then tip out and peel back the baking paper. When cool ice with plain chocolate icing, or caramel choc icing:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 tab melted chocolate
• 1 tab caramel topping

Enough milk to moisten enough to mix...add a tsp at a time so you don't make it too moist.
Murderess's Apple Cake
         This cake was baked by a French mass murderer in the 1850's and 60's in the apple growing area of Normandy. It was so stunningly delicious that no one could resist it, arsenic and all. She even took it around to the grieving families of the deceased, who ate it in their turn all unsuspecting.

• Absolutely no arsenic what so ever (This is important)
• 1 tab sultanas or seedless raisins
• 1 tab calvados or rum or apple juice at a pinch
• 100 gm butter
• 100 gm castor sugar
• 2 eggs plus one yolk
• 225 gm SR flour
• 2 tab mixed peel or marmalade
• 2 tab chopped almonds (or other nuts)
• Pinch cinnamon and nutmeg
• 3 apples, peeled cored and sliced at the last moment or they'll turn brown
• 2 tab brown sugar

Soak the sultanas in the rum overnight or for an hour or two.
Butter and flour a cake tin, or line with baking paper.
Cream butter and castor sugar; add eggs one by one then the extra yolk, then fold in the sultanas, marmalade, nuts and flour. Pour into a cake pan- a wide lamington pan is perfect, as the cake should be about the height of your little finger. Now press the slices of apple into the cake, sharp end downwards. Sprinkle with the brown sugar and spices. Bake at 180 C for about an hour and a quarter. It's ready when a skewer comes out clean. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out to cool.
White Christmas Cake
This cake is superb: rich, buttery and moist. But make sure you don't use all self raising flour, or it'll be too dry.
     You can eat it plain; pour on hot lemon syrup and make it a lemon syrup cake; or serve it in slices with stewed apricots or stewed cherries.
       If you're serving it  at an 'everyone sit at he table and admire the food' type meal, try slicing the cake on a platter, pouring on the apricots of cherries, then drizzling the whole lot with thick King Island cream, or mascarpone cheese mixed with pouring cream, or creamy natural yoghurt.

• 200gm butter
• 2/3 cup castor sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cups plain flour
• 3/4 cup SR flour

Optional:

• 1 cup red and green crystallised cherries, and /or
• half cup ground almonds or
• 1 cup chopped macadamias

Beat butter and sugar till soft. Add eggs one by one- don't add another till the first is well beaten in. Gently mix in the flours and other ingredients.
Line a large cake tin (or two smaller tins) with two layers of baking paper. Pour in the batter. Bake at 150 C for 1 hour.
Lemon or Lime syrup

• 1 cup lime/lemon juice
• 1 cup castor sugar
• half cup water

 Bring to the boil when you take the cake out of the oven. Leave the cake in its tin. Simmer 5 minutes while you poke holes in the cake.  Pour the hot syrup on the still warm cake. Leave it in the tin to soak up syrup for at least half an hour.
'Maybe' Cake
A healthy nut and vegetable based cake.  (Also moist and quite delicious).
NB even the fussiest kids won't realise there are veg in this cake.

• 1 cup SR flour
• 1/2  tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
• 1/2 tsp ground coves (optional)
• 1 cup brown sugar Or 1 - 1/12 cup finely diced dates
• 1 1/2 cups grated raw carrot, OR sweet potato, OR pumpkin OR beetroot OR pineapple, fresh or canned
• 1/ 2 cup sultanas OR currants
• 1/2 cup sliced glace ginger (optional)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, or pecans, or macadamia nuts, or almonds
• 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, OR peanut oil; OR macadamia oil; OR sunflower oil
• 2 eggs (optional- but the cake will be a bit crumbly without them)

Mix well. Line a cake tin or a loaf pan with baking paper. Spoon in the mix. Bake at 160 C for 1 hour. Check at 40 minutes if you are using a wide shallow dish, as it will cook faster.  It's done when the top springs back if you touch it quickly with your finger or poke in a skewer- if it comes out dry, it's done.

The cake can be iced, but doesn't need it. It's also good served hot with cream or ice cream.   It lasts about a week in a sealed container. It’ll still taste fresh then, but may start to grow whiskers. Throw out if it begins to look mouldy or tastes sour. 

The Wow Factor Chocolate Cake

• 3/4 cups brown sugar
• 4 tab butter
• 1/4 cup cocoa OR good dark chocolate
• 3/4 cup cream or natural yoghurt
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups SR flour

Heat oven to 180 C.
Line a cake tin with baking paper.
Place everything except the egg and flour in a saucepan. Heat very slowly, stirring, till it boils. Take off the heat and let it cool.
Now stir in the egg, then gently mix in the SR flour. Pour into the tin and bake 30 minutes.
If you are using a very large tin the cake will be flatter and take less time to cook.
Adults only extra:
          Now sprinkle 2 tab of kalua over the top of the cake.
Topping: raspberries and cream, or cooked dark cherries and cream with more grated chocolate, or chocolate icing.
Chocolate icing:  2 cups icing sugar, 3 tab cocoa or melted chocolate, milk or more kalua. Mix till stiff but spreadable.
PS. If the cake is for kids don't add the kalua, but try jelly snakes curling around on top of the icing. 
Serves: 8 good slices, but will stretch to 10-12, especially with cream and fruit or jelly snakes
Ease of making: easier than most cakes- suitable for a novice.
Time taken: ten minutes mixing, but 3/4-1 hour from getting the ingredients to eating the cake.
Christmas Cake
 (Very rich and good)
The secret of a great cake is long soaking of the fruit, so it’s soft and tastes of the alcohol, and long slow cooking, NO OVERCOOKING, and lots of rum and or whisky.
Most people who don’t like fruit cake have only eaten packaged ones, or overcooked dry ones, or ones that have been made artificially dark with ‘browning’ essence, or ones without enough rum.
A good Christmas cake should still be moist and delicious in mid-winter.  It is a most excellent thing to have in the larder; you only need small pieces and you always have something extremely good to serve to guests.  Even better, Christmas cakes leave a very nice crumby detritus every time you cut them; this of course is the prerogative of the cook.  (It is a well-known fact that only intact slices of Christmas cake contain calories; crumbs and left-overs are calorie free.)
This is a delicious cake - moist, rich. PS.  If you adore ginger, crystallised ginger can replace all or part of the pineapple.

• 1 cup rum, or half rum and half whisky
• 3 cups sultanas
• 1 cup currants
• 2 cups chopped crystallised cherries
• 2 cups chopped glacé pineapple or glace ginger or more sultanas if you can’t get the glace fruit
• half a cup pineapple or apricot or cherry jam
• 3 tbsp grated fresh orange rind or lemon rind or both mixed
• 1 cup brown sugar
• juice of 1 lemon

Place in a bowl and cover [with plastic wrap]. Place in the fridge. Leave for at least 3 days... 3 weeks is even better!
Now melt 250 grams butter; take off the heat and mix in five eggs one by one then add half a cup of ground almonds and 2 cups of plain flour and the fruit mixture. Mix gently but well. Don't keep beating though once it's all amalgamated.
Line a deep tin with 2 layers of baking paper.  Pour in mix. It should quite touch the top of the tin. Place in the oven, and put a layer of baking paper on top. The paper will sag, which I why the cake shouldn’t be too near the top, so the paper doesn’t touch it.
I place whole almonds in a pattern on top – not needed but looks good.
Bake at about 150 C for 2- 4 hours.  The amount of time will vary according to the size of your tin, the state of your oven and even the type of flour and the weather – I’m serious.
You’ll know it’s done when the top is light brown, not dark brown, and when you press it, it springs back. But don’t overcook. Two hours may be all it needs.
Take it out of the oven. Now AT ONCE while still very hot, drizzle over another half cup of rum.   A lot of the alcohol will evaporate at once, but some will remain, so leave this step out if you think kids will have large chunks – but they may not, as they may well not like the taste – it’s a bit strong for most kids. Don’t worry about the alcohol added before cooking, as the cooking will destroy the alcohol. But the taste will be there, so if serving to anyone with an alcohol problem use orange juice- not from navel oranges as they turn bitter – instead of rum and whisky. And add 1 tspn mixed spice to the mix. 
Cool in tin before turning out. Wrap in alfoil and keep till Christmas. I make more of the rose mixture and dribble a little on the cake every week.
Note: if you make many small cakes instead they make excellent Christmas presents.  In this case cooking time will be less.  You'll have to sniff, poke and see i.e. as soon as the cake has been filling the house with good spicy fragrance for about half an hour, dip a skewer or even a knife in and see if it comes out clean, or if the top springs back when you press it lightly with your finger.
Note: these can be made with gluten free flour, but will be dryer. Use only half the flour, and substitute almond meal for the other half.
I sometimes add candied cumquats to this cake, but only because we have a lot of cumquats.
Sue Tranter’s Rhubarb or Apple Gluten Free Cake
(can be made with ordinary flour)

• 2 eggs
• 125gm butter or margarine
• 200 gm castor sugar
• 250 gm gluten free SR or ordinary flour
• 2 large grated apples and a dust of cinnamon
• or
• 2 cups stewed rhubarb, with half a cup chopped glace ginger added as it stews. I stew ours in orange juice.

Cream butter and sugar. Beat eggs in well one by one. Fold in other ingredients. Bake about 1-11/2 hours at about 150 C. It's ready when the top is light brown.
Stunningly moist, delicious and full of flavour.
Serves about 12
Ease: medium
Time taken: 20 minutes to mix, 1/ ½  hours to bake
Ultra-moist Double Apple, Apple Cake
(With thanks to Grandma, who made the perfect one)
This is the moistest, most apple-y cake I know. It keeps for two weeks in a sealed container the fridge; about a week out of the fridge. The cake stays fresh longer, but the apple grows green whiskers. Throw out of it does.

• 180 gm butter
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup plain flour
• 3/4 cup SR flour
• 1 cup grated apple mixed with the juice of a lemon
• 2 apples, peeled and sliced
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, mixed spice or cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar. Mix in eggs one by one. Beat well and don't add the next till the previous one is mixed in perfectly. Fold in the grated apple and flours.
Place in a greased and floured cake tin OR line it with baking paper. Now take the apple slices; slide them in narrow side down into the cake. The tops should be just level with the top of the cake mix. You’ll be surprised how many slices you can fit in.
Dust the top of the cake with the spaces.
Bake at 150C for an hour, or till a skewer comes out clean, or the top is brown and the cake springs back when you press the centre.
Leave the cake to cool for about ten minutes in the tin before you turn it out.
Serves: 12
Ease of making: medium
Time take: 5 minutes to mix, 1 hour to cook.
Lemon Syrup Pound cake (Possibly the best cake in the universe)
Keeps: in a sealed container for at least a fortnight, possibly longer
Variations: add 1 tab poppy seeds, or caraway seeds OR grated orange OR lemon OR mandarin rind OR 1 cup finely chopped pistachios OR 1 cup grated dark chocolate

• 250gm butter (must be butter)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 room eggs
• 1/2 cup SR flour
• 1 cup plain flour

Cream butter and sugar well- must be smooth and pale. Beat in eggs one at a time: lots of beating, or it will curdle. It won't be as light if it curdles, though still superb.  Gently add flour. Place in a greased and floured tin or line with baking paper. Bake at 180C for 1 hour. As soon as you take it out pour on the hot syrup. Leave in pan to cool and absorb the syrup.
PS. This cake is still good without the syrup, and can be iced for a birthday cake, especially the chocolate version.
Ease of making: medium
Time taken: 1 hour to cook, half an hour to make
Serves: about 40 slices
Syrup

• half cup lemon or lime juice
• half cup castor sugar

Bring to the boil slowly, stirring so sugar dissolves. As soon as it boils pour over the hot cake SLOWLY, so each bit of cake gets a good wetting.  You may like to poke a fork into some of the crusty bits so that the syrup really penetrates into the cake.