Tag Archives: Ria Loader

Golden comfort food

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Potatoes

Potatoes with Onion Relish and corn

 

One of my favorite comfort dishes is tiny potatoes pan fried in a wok with herbs, accompanied by fresh-made onion relish. For a 3 pound bag of golden potatoes, I use only one stick of butter. It takes only ten minutes to chop everything, and twenty minutes to fry up the potatoes and then the onions. Drain the potatoes in paper towels in a bowl while you fry the onions at the end.

Ingredients
3 lbs of potatoes – golden baby potatoes
Herbs – Herbs of Provence, or fresh rosemary from the garden
Butter – no salt, a swirl of olive oil to stop the butter from burning
A teaspoon of olive oil
Greek yoghurt with honey (optional finishing ingredient to smooth out the flavors)

Pan
A non-stick wok, stir with a wooden spoon

Heat – High

Onion relish
Use the left-over browned butter in the bottom of the wok
Add chopped onions at high heat, stir constantly
A cup of raisins
Chocolate balsamic vinegar (regular white balsamic otherwise)
Two tablespoons brown sugar
Tiny chopped tomatoes
Finish off with a dollop of honey yogurt

It is a dish with no salt, and the sweet and sour onion relish is perfect with it. Better than going out to a restaurant any day.

Coloring and Activity Books

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Colleen and I tend to stir up mischief, in this case it’s making coloring and activity books for Halloween. Not satisfied with purely kids Halloween, we followed up with lined journals with a spooky theme. We started to wonder about turning gothic fantasy figures into full pages for adult coloring. Why not? Coloring is fun. That’s led to rather more children’s activity and coloring books, and then adult journals.

In for a penny, in for a pound, as our Nan used to say.

We have a batch of Australian animal images because Colleen instigated us learning the art of digital coloring from photographs. We found our images in the wild and paid for commercial use (well-credited to the lovely photographers at various image providers). Making beautiful or quirky things is a great way to distract from stress.

Take a look at our growing page of adventures in print, and we hope some will wander home with you.

Have fun, and share what you color.
Here is where to find us on amazon

Sweet shortcrust pastry

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pastryballSweet Pastry 101

Colleen tells me that shortcrust pastry gets its texture from shortening the gluten strands with a fat. This makes it melt-in-the-mouth. In Seattle, the humidity in the air requires attention to the texture of the mix and you may need to add or subtract flour to get the desired end. A light hand is needed to avoid overworking the pastry.

Sweet pastry should be able to stand on its own, and for Colleen’s preferred recipe, it can be sliced up and served as shortbread.

Ingredients

1.5 sticks of butter at room temperature
2 cups all purpose flour
1 large egg
2-3 tablespoons of water
80 grams (1/4 cup) of baking sugar

Equipment

A large bowl
Plastic wrap or wax paper (either is good)
Rolling pin
Measuring cups
Pie dish or dishes
Pastry weights (this can be rice or uncooked split peas)
Oven preheated to 400F

Making

Cream butter and sugar together using your hand.
(heat of hand helps melt butter)
Add one egg and mix thoroughly.
Gradually add the flour until pastry forms a ball
(you may not need all the flour)
Add a couple teaspoons water to help make pastry workable (it does not break)
Pastry should leave sides of the bowl clean and not be sticky

Wrap in plastic or wax paper and put in fridge for half an hour.
This allows the gluten strands to relax and not be stretched,
creating the desired ‘shortness’.

Using pastry

Take out of refrigerator and place between two sheets of plastic or wax paper.
Use rolling pin to roll out to the desired size and thickness.
Remove one side of the paper or plastic and roll loosely around the rolling pin to lift it.
Roll out over pie dish, pastry side down.
Ease pastry into the corners without stretching.
Finish the edges by pinching between finger and thumb to flute edges.
Use parchment paper as a barrier for the weights. Add pastry weights to fill base evenly.

Blind Baking

This will prepare the pastry and cook it partially so it does not become soggy when you add a wet filling.

Place in oven and cook for 15 minutes.
Remove the weights and parchment paper (dough will still be moist on bottom).
Cook for another 5 minutes to dry the bottom of the pastry.
The pastry is now ready for filling.

Children’s stories in the Australian Bush

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Australian animals by Ria Loader

Billabong Flats animals by Ria Loader

These are modern fables, tales of the ordinary acts of kindness and friendship, of discovery and adventure. Purely invented, they come from memories of childhood. They occur at the intersection of seeing the animals in the wild, and imagining what their lives would be like if they could tell us stories.

Billabong Flats is a mythical place in the Australian Bush. It is somewhere on the Eastern part of the continent, in the hills, between Sydney and Melbourne, thereabouts. It is also in another fictional world at the same time. Billabong Flats shares virtual space within my love affair with other imaginary places like the Five Acre Wood, the Peace Rock, and the abode of Ratty and Mole. It is just as real as you’d like it to be – no more, and no less.

In my stories, the animals dream the world, as much as the world creates them. The Land speaks through them. They welcome all, no matter how different they may be, or what native languages they may speak. When they come together, they can all speak the same tongue. The voices become that of friendship and accord, where all can have adventures together.

“Each according to their nature,” says Flying Fox, who likes to have fun.

“Each according to their means,” says Koala, who is wise in such things.

The first adventure occurs when Koala organizes the First Billabong Flats All Creature Race. The letters are all in capitals, because it’s a Very Important Thing.

There is a sense of fair play at Billabong Flats. Friendship is as important as winning, though winning the race would be a fine thing, if only there are not too many distractions. It’s an opportunity to get together and have fun. Koala is the organizer. She is a busy and industrious being, when she is not sleeping, which is most of the time.

I wrote this first story during the American election in 2016. My sweetie was annoyed at the shenanigans of the election, and the story was written for his internal eight year old, the child inside him. He loved fairness and justice; this one is for you my Raven.

When the world gets too noisy, and there is discord and strife all around, come visit the world of Billabong Flats and have some fun.

THE BIG RACE LINK

Food: DIY protein snacks and bars

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chocolatechipsHealthy snacks for people on the go

This lovely little oddity comes to us courtesy of a food co-op in Madison, Wisconsin some 30 years ago, along with the slogan, “Power to the Beeple”. My sweetie told me about these “beeple bars”, and with a little experimenting, we reinvented the recipe. It’s basically a nut and protein bar with protein powder, honey and lecithin to bind it together. There are endless variations on a theme, some with more or less sweetener. If you want to go with peanut butter, no-salt peanut butter is best, especially the grind-your-own from PCC, Whole Foods or your local co-op grocer.

Ingredients

  • Nut butter – peanut, almond, macadamia
  • Whey protein powder
  • Cocoa powder, and maybe some chocolate chips
  • Binding agent – honey, lecithin (not sweet), molasses or agave syrup (lower sugar)
  • Optional – dried fruit, coconut flakes (unsweetened)

Making

  • Blend the  nut butter with honey and lecithin
  • Add WPI protein powder (chocolate flavored is good, or plain), and cocoa.

Use your hands to smooth it all together . It’s all kinds of messy and gooey, but by hand is the best way to mix all the ingredients. Keep mixing until it has the texture of a moist dough, all stuck together.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Tips

  • If it’s too dry, add more lecithin
  • If it’s too moist, add more protein powder

Finishing touches

  • Take the ‘dough’, make a one inch ball, roll it in coconut and refrigerate.
  • Roll out a bar, add some raisons, wrap in wax paper or foil, keep in the refrigerator until ready to add to your day pack.

Variations

  • Add chocolate chips
  • For a desert treat, dip in chocolate
  • For some ‘snap’ add rice crispies
  • I particularly like blending a couple of nut butters together like peanut butter/almond butter or macadamia/pecan

These snacks are tasty and nutritious, and best of all, you know all the ingredients that went into them.