Post 56: Food

The big event for today was to be a delivery from Romeo’s Foodland between 12.00 pm and 5 pm. I had time to get an email out to the World Embroidery Study Group with a sample of Miao embroidery designs. I’m going to try sending something out every Wednesday, 

I was just emerging from the shower when my phone rang. A neighbour was outside the front door of our apartments with something she wanted to bring up. It turned out to be two rhubarb and apple mini-muffins she had just baked. A kind thought. 

I had just dressed when my phone rang again. It was the Romeos deliverer telling me the delivery was outside the apartments. He had buzzed me but I hadn’t answered. It was just after 11am. I went down and collected it, then rang him back to say that in future, if the delivery was going to be early, I needed to be informed in advance. He said he understood. We’ll see.

It was a good delivery, a fresh ham hock to roast, a smoked ham hock for soup and French cutlets. Parsnips, turnips and swedes for the soup, milk, berries, grapes, mandarins, butter, margarine and disinfectant. I got most of it put away except for the soup ingredients.  I put the ham hock on to boil and pulses in a bowl of water to soak.

While the hock was turning to stock. and after the muffins had proved delicious,   I figured I might as well give the ANZAC biscuits a go. After my last year’s failure, my daughter obviously decided I needed scaffolding. The ingredients were weighed and labelled. I had to supply a tablespoon of water.

The recipe was specific, including a note that I was not to skip the step of pre-heating the oven and preparing the trays. I rolled my eyes, but obeyed.  I was determined that this batch would be the control.
No deviation.

My plan is to make another batch in the coming days using my recipe and methodology.

The dough was  pliable and produced a very promising tray of 20 biscuits. I did heat the oven - and I even used the timer for the first time in case I got absorbed in my stitching as they cooked.

The result was, I must admit, almost perfect ANZAC biscuits. I know because I made coffee and ate two of them.

I turned off my stock and left it to cool while I worked on he Mellerstain screen.  While I was working on this a friend phoned. She worked on the first edition of the Macquarie dictionary and has written a history of that dictionary. She told me of some of the original debates around the dictionary entry on ANZAC biscuits. During WWI, apart from the four basic ingredients, women added whatever they had in their pantries. My next batch might be interesting.

I was well into the rhythm of the squirrel’s branch, but I stopped to skim the fat from the stock, add the pulses and chop the vegetables.

While at the stove, I  cooked a potato, lamb cutlets, tomato and broccolini for my dinner. I finished it while catching up with one of my daughters by phone. 








I have made inroads in the squirrel’s tree. It is becoming more and more addictive. 

My soup is looking good. Tomorrow I'll add tomato and maybe try it. Rain is forecast, so soup might be just the thing.