My Mum

One of the reasons why I started this blog in 2011 was as a tribute to my Mum. She was in late-stage Parkinson's Disease and there were things I wanted to say and remember about her which I couldn't say in person. Her ability to communicate and comprehend was greatly diminished because of the dementia associated with this horrible disease.  She was slipping away from me, and there were things that I wanted and needed to remember.

Food and craft were always a big part of our lives.  My favourite times with Mum were spent watching and helping her in the kitchen. She loved to cook, especially for dinner parties and big events. All the recipe books would come out and she would nut out menus on her old portable Olivetti typewriter. She loved a challenge, and I particularly remember helping her squeeze 70 handmade meringue cases filled with strawberries and cream into the fridge for my Grandfather's 80th birthday party.

Mum kept up with all the food trends. While the rest of Australia was eating meat and two veg in the 1970s, we would be dining on cheese souffles, proscuitto and melon, and stir frys. She had an incredible repertoire of desserts, and loved all the old favourites like lemon meringue pie, apple pie, and bread and butter pudding.  The family favourite was shortcut dobos torte, which was the topic of my very first post on this blog. She also loved to bake, and our lunchboxes were always filled with cupcakes, fairy cakes, rock cakes, fruit and nut biscuits, and slices.  She inspired my love of baking, and I still use her recipes to this day.

Mum was also an expert knitter, and her winter evenings were spent making jumpers, mainly for my Dad who refused to wear anything else. She had learnt to knit as a child, and gave much of her early work to the Red Cross to send overseas during WWII.  I didn't inherit the knitting gene, but Mum and I bonded over a love of handmade things. We used to go to all the craft fairs, we'd ooh and aaah over antique lace and fabric in museums, and we both loved a handmade card.  Mum also loved flowers, and I think would have liked to have been a florist.  She had an amazing eye for balance and perspective and could whip any bunch of flowers into an interesting arrangement.

Mum always supported my craft and cooking endeavours, and kept most of the things I made her over the years. There were times when this disease got the better of her, but she was always interested in what I was doing and delighted when I made her something.  A few years ago, I did a sour dough bread making class and I popped into see Mum and Dad afterwards so they could taste the results. Mum wasn't feeling well that day and was lying down. However, she summoned my Dad into the bedroom and told him to say something nice about what I'd made. Even in these challenging moments, she was always thinking of others. Her selflessness and resilience over the years was truly inspirational.

Mum died on 20 September 2013 after a 14 year battle with Parkinson's Disease. She got a chest infection which turned into pneumonia, and her little body wasn't able to fight it off. Mercifully, it was quick - just a few days in hospital.  While I am devastated to lose her and am finding it difficult to imagine a life without her, I am relieved that this terrible disease cannot harm her any more and she is now at peace.

Walnut Pie

When I was overseas, I ate a lot of cake.  We're talking industrial quantities, but it was all in the name of research.

This was my high tea experience at The Ritz.  

Best scones ever, served warm at the table with strawberry jam and Cornish clotted cream. They had a good crust and a soft, smooth centre, which is very difficult to achieve. In addition to the three tiers of carb goodness, I managed to fit in a mini strawberry verrine and a slice of citron cake. All of this was washed down with the Ritz Royal English blend tea. One of the highlights for me was the pianist who played both of my requested songs. Cole Porter seemed appropriate for the room.

Another nice room, but this time with a view, was the cafe on top of the Reichstag building in Berlin. I had a very nice slice of lemon citron layer cake as I pondered world history.

My favourite cake was the very simple Nusstorte, or walnut pie, I bought from Hanselmann's confiserie in St Moritz, displayed nicely here in the take-away container.

It has a biscuity, almost shortbread-like crust, and a sweet caramel and walnut filling. I've done my best to recreate it here using a recipe I found on Epicurious, although there lots of other recipes out there. The one adaptation I made to the Epicurious recipe was to add an extra egg to the pastry as it was a little dry.

It doesn't look or taste quite the same, but it is pretty close. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to recreate the view of St Moritz in my backyard.

Quirky things

When I was overseas, I saw a few quirky things. Quirky things were not limited to any particular country-they were everywhere. My favourite quirky thing was the potato offerings left at the grave of Frederick the Great at Sansoucci Palace in Potsdam. He introduced the potato into Germany and people are still thanking him.

This is the refreshments trolley on the Bernina Express train in Switzerland. Enough said.

The Swiss just love their mountain goats. Here are a couple more:

This is a bucherwald or book forest in suburban Prenzlauerberg, Berlin. People put books they no longer want into the bookcase and you can take them home to read.

Street art of the random blue plaque variety in East London.

Alfred Hitchcock's head at the Gainsborough Studios (now apartments) in Shoreditch, East London.  It's big.

And last, but not least, life size plastic corgis sporting blue balloons in the Selfridge's window to celebrate the birth of Prince George.  I wanted to take one home with me.

Market Colours

I haven't dropped off the face of the earth.  I have just got back after six weeks in Europe, and the weeks leading up to it were crazy busy, hence no recent posts.  However, I am feeling refreshed and inspired and have a few posts in the germination stage.  A few holiday snaps to start with, to get back into the swing of things.

I was in London for nearly two weeks, and spent four weeks in Switzerland, Austria and Berlin.  The food, oh the food.  Beautiful fresh produce, amazing cakes and pastries, and the best chocolate I have ever eaten. I loved the ritual of having coffee and cake in the afternoon, always served with a glass of water in Austria, a tradition which goes back to the old coffee houses of yore.  Strudel in Austria is served with creme anglaise and cream, which was such an indulgent joy.

Cake buffet, Roseg valley (near St Moritz), Switzerland

And then there was the icecream, of which I ate copious amounts. Haselnuss was my favourite flavour in all the countries I visited, but I do need to make special mention of the honey and ginger icecream I had in the Cotswolds.

It was also berry season while I was away, and I took full advantage of that, particularly raspberries which are such a luxury in Perth. In Berlin, there were strawberry huts dotted around the place selling baskets of strawberries. There was one near my hotel, and every day I would get wafts of strawberry as I walked to and from my u-bahn stop.

Strawberry hut, Berlin

I also visited a lot of markets, which were full of colour and atmosphere.

Umbrellas, Borough Market, London

My local supermarket seems so clinical and soul-less after what I experienced overseas.  More markets are popping up in Perth, which is great, but we will never be a city where people do their weekly shop at a market. We like good parking and air-conditioning too much.  Here are some of my favourite market snaps:

Strawberries, Lucerne

Raspberries, Lucerne

Sunflowers, Lucerne

Fruit loaf I don't know the name of, Salzburg

Mushrooms, Naschmarkt, Vienna

Summer fruit, Naschmarkt, Vienna

Rustic bread, Brixton Market, London

Despite the six week food frenzy, I was walking for nearly eight hours a day so there have been no long lasting effects that require drastic low-carb action, thank goodness!

Paper Wreath

They call me Mello Cello.  Well, actually they don't as my musical abilities are quite lacking.  However, Mello Cello is the name of one of the pieces of music from Albert's Album of 14 Modern Waltzes, a book I used to make this paper wreath.

The wreath also features pieces from Chappell's Song and Dance Album when I ran out of paper.  These songs came with ukulele accompaniment.  Both books were originally 2'6, and I got them for 50 cents each at the Save the Children book sale last year.  That's not quite true.  My Dad was going to the book sale and I sent him on mission to find old sheet music, which he did, and he bought a whole pile and generously donated them to the paperbakesew cause.  Dads are so good like that.

Wreath-making is time consuming, but ultimately very satisfying.  I started with a 15cm foam ring from Spotlight, and covered it with small pieces of modern waltzes.  I cut pages of sheet music into 4cm squares.  I put some glue on the bottom of each square and then rolled each side into the centre so it looked like a double cinnamon quill.

I then started glueing each 'quill' to the bottom of the wreath and slowly built up layers around the ring.  It was a tedious process as I kept running out of quills and had to keep cutting more and more paper and using more and more glue.  The paper was also quite fragile and would rip and tear if I wasn't careful (or even when I was careful), which led to more cutting and glueing.  I have to admit there was a moment when I felt like frisbeeing the wreath across the room. However, I overcame my frustration and continued glueing until there was no more room on the ring. To finish off, I glued some quills around inside the centre of the ring.

I then neatened the back of the wreath with some washi tape (I am always looking for an excuse to use it!) and then glued a ribbon to the back. For extra strength, I pinned the edges of the ribbon into the foam.

The photos don't really do the wreath justice as it has texture and character, history and interest.  This post doesn't really do the wreath justice either as, in spite of my earlier comments, it made me very happy to give new life to a discarded book of sheet music.

Kittens and such

During the 1977-78 Christmas holidays, I went to on a family holiday to Sydney.  We did all the sights, the Bridge, the Opera House, the Rocks....and all the child-friendly places that poor Mum had to take us to, like Taronga Zoo and Luna Park.  At Luna Park, I went on the Big Dipper after my brother bet me 20 cents I couldn't do it.  Never one to knock back a challenge or money for that matter, I did it and Mum, the trooper that she is, came with me.  I spent the whole time with my face buried in her arm screaming "I want to get off".  We all needed a little sit down after that.

Seeing Star Wars was another highlight.  The movie completely blew our minds, and my brother and I immediately had to go searching for merch.  Which leads me to Tom Kitten.  We went to the David Jones toy department looking for R2D2s and C3POs, when I happened upon a kit for making Beatrix Potter figurines out of plaster.  As I am a cat person, I bought Tom Kitten. I am also a Jeremy Fisher person but my pocket money did not extend that far. When I got back home, I made up young Tom and painted him in his traditional colours.

As you can see, he is a little worse for wear as he's had a few moves over the years.  He now sits safely in a cupboard at my parent's house with my other childhood treasures.  Looking at him now, I notice he has crazy eyes. I hate to think what I would have done to Peter Rabbit.  A realistic case of myxomatosis, I suspect.

And why am I mentioning Tom in 2013?  Well, I was at the Post Office the other day and discovered that Australia Post has issued a 60 cent stamp to commemorate the 110 year anniversary of Peter Rabbit.  The stamp comes in a special folder with other stamps of Beatrix Potter characters.  These other stamps do not have a value and can't be used on actual letters.  However, they are soooooo cute and I just had to have them.  Unfortunately, I can't reproduce them here as they are subject to copyright.  However, check them out at the Australia Post website.  Tom looks a little startled in his portrait, so perhaps the eyes I painted do reflect the original.

Tissue Paper Flowers

My childhood home was a 1930's Californian bungalow in the heart of suburban Perth. I loved that house. I loved the bay window and the marigolds my Mum used to painstakingly plant in front of it every year. I loved the verandah, the lead light windows and doors, the high ceilings and the wooden window sills. But I especially liked the front garden, with its fifty year old camellia trees, heritage rose garden, huge blue hydrangea (which I used to call the cabbage bush), and array of azaleas. As a child, this garden was my supermarket. I used to collect dropped flowers to make colourful 'salads', which I served with soil steaks. I cooked these steaks in an old, battered frypan my Dad had found, and on a little white wooden stove made by Dad. My kitchen was the side of the house. It was a dark, narrow, damp space with a little path going from the front to the back of the house. I would spend hours down 'the side' cooking up a storm. It was my space.

Over the past few weeks, I have been transported back to that garden by making tissue paper flowers. These large flowers remind me of hydrangeas because they are so cabbage-like.

To make the large flowers, you need tissue paper, floral wire stems (one 18 gauge wire for the main stem, and two 22 gauge wires for the leaves), floral tape, craft glue, narrow binding tape (ironed flat),and opaque Japanese paper tape. I am using two types of tissue paper to create a variegated flower.

First cut six 8 inch by 12 inch sheets of tissue paper.  I am using inches as my cutting mat is in inches and it is just easier that way.

You fold the tissue paper up concertina style, in folds of one inch.

Cut the edges into a round shape as this makes the petals nice and round.

Bend the 18 gauge floral wire around the folded paper and twist to secure. How far you bend will obviously determine the length of the stem.

Carefully unfold each layer of paper.  I say carefully as tissue paper rips easily so you need to be light of touch.

Make the leaves by cutting a leaf shape.  Glue the 22 gauge wire along the length of the leaf and place the other leaf on top.  Repeat.

Place the leaves into position on the main stem and twist the wire along the entire length.

Cover the stem with floral tape.

As I am paranoid about sharp edges, I also cover the stem in binding tape, paying particular attention to the bottom where I fold over a little pocket. I usually use a narrow, black binding tape but, as I had run out, I've used a thick white binding tape which works just as well.  Glue the binding tape to the top of the stem, wind around, and then glue to bottom. You only need to glue the top and bottom as the sticky floral tape keeps the rest of the tape in place.

I then cover the stem with Japanese paper tape to complete the 'paper' look of the flower.

Once you know how to make these flowers, you can use them in so many ways.  I made this posy of small flowers for a friend using tissue paper from an old dress pattern.

You can also make stemless flowers to decorate gifts.  Just fix the centre of the flower with some twine.  For this gift, I made a large and small flower, again using tissue paper from an old dress pattern, to create a cake-like effect.

I always get a little nostalgic when I make things, which is why I like doing it so much.