Golden

Recently my parents celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary.  What an achievement.  I haven't managed to get out of bed for 50 years yet, let along spend that amount of time with my spouse.  It was a bittersweet celebration, though, as my Dad has dementia and so lives in a hostel (soon to be nursing home).

Mum pressed on with the celebrations though, and organised a small afternoon tea with the bridal party.  Well, her bridal party. She accidentally sent my uncles invite (he was one of the best men) to the wrong address.  Senior moment? Freudian slip? We'll never know, but we were concerned when they didn't how up. During the afternoon I rang my cousin, who went to investigate, tracking my aunt & uncle down to the tennis club bar. Phew! At least they were OK.

The whole day was very emotional for me because I felt Mum shouldn't have had the celebration (based on my prejudice about their situation), and sad because of the state my Dad was in (he was very incoherent that day and had had a fall in the morning).  I spent most of the afternoon ensuring that Dad was OK and trying not to burst in to tears.)

After we took Dad back to the hostel I took my dogs for a walk along the river (I tried out a new bit of the river near Mum's and really liked it - nice & quiet!) and then caught up with Mum for a bit (and took the dogs for a second walk with Mum - lucky dogs!).  When I got home I found that my husband had cooked a fabulous pork roast (with crackling to die for).  Being cooked for is rare treat and was just the balm I needed. It was a delicious end to what had been a stressful day.

Show Cooking

I quite like cooking.  It's in my blood. My mum is a good cook, as were my nana and grandma. My Mum has done a bit of show cooking over the years, and has won quite a few awards during that time. The most recent being for "My Favorite Cake", for which she used a Stephanie Alexander recipe consisting of lots of currants, a bottle of stout, a bit of flour and some eggs.  Way to go Mum !  So I'm following in her footsteps and have begun show cooking.  The year before last was my first. I didn't win any prizes (not that I was expecting to), but I was happy with the feedback from the judges and with how my cooking looked (except for my after dinner treats - chocolate ganache filled dates, which were then covered in the same ganache and rolled in cocoa powder.  They tasted delicious. But looked like poo. The judges comments went along the lines of "they taste delicious, but presentation needs to be considered") 

This year I'm entering a dark fruit cake (not a rich fruit cake, a dark fruit cake - I'm not sure what the difference is, but obviously there must be one), a carrot cake (using the recipe which my sister cooked whilst she was staying with us in July and was delicious), lemon curd and, possibly, apple jelly.  The good thing about show cooking is that the entries only cost $4 each, so if you decide you can't enter a particular item it's not a terrible loss.  Although the dollars spent practising are wasted! And you miss out on the prizes!

Getting my fruit cake just right has been a journey.  First off I tried the Joy of Cooking fruit cake recipe only to discover, after it turned out really weirdly, that they had left the eggs out of the recipe, and had put too much brandy (for soaking the fruit) in. Thank goodness. (It also might account for why I picked it up as a bargain years ago...)  I didn't think I was that bad a cook and the guys at work dutifully ate the results. 

My mother-in-law was a Show cake judge, so she knows a bit about show cooking as well.  I rang her (after some prompting from my hubby) and she dictated her tried & trusted fruit cake recipe.  The only snag was that she usually cooks it in her wood stove or convection microwave and I don't have a wood stove or a convection microwave. I also wrapped the tin in a double layer of paper (from a butchers paper bag - they're stronger), turned down my oven and didn't use the fan.  Test cake 1 was terrific. Dark, moist, delicious! Test cake 2 was OK (it was a bit light). I think the problem was overbeating the sugar and butter which led to a paler cake than I was after. However one of the guys said it tasted like his gran's cake, which I took as high praise!

So this weekend is get the fruitcake done weekend.  It takes about 4 hours to cook so I'm not planning on going anywhere tomorrow afternoon. I've cut up the cherries (sob, sob, I love biting into a whole cherry, but I conferred with people who know and everyone said cut them, so they're cut) and they're mascerating along with currants, carefully separated raisins, and some lightly crystallized ginger (in place of peel).

So, fingers crossed, my cake is on track to get at least a place.

Yesterday

Waking up this morning I was so happy that I didn't have to redo yesterday.

The chronology of yesterday was:

• Decide to take the dogs for a walk in the morning (now the morning aren't quite so arctic and the sun is getting up a bit earlier) only to have Indi roll in someone's spew down at the local oval. Yuck. So we walked home and she received a bath whilst I dry retched all over her. Gross doesn't begin to describe it. Fortunately she'd just got the vom on her rump so I was able to lift her into the laundry trough without getting it on myself. I just hope the person who left the up chuck had had a good time and their hangover wasn't too bad.  So, no going to the oval until we've had a bit of rain.
• Organised flights, car, accommodation and flowers to be sent all relating to death of my uncle.  The flower people rang me to say that they don't deliver wreaths to private homes. WTF???  Anyhow they have delivered something and my cousin will photograph so I get to see what we eventually got for our money but I was not a happy camper.
• Then in the evening, just as I was contemplating a second glass of red, the phone rings to let me know my dad has been taken to hospital after having another (actually one of quite a few by the sounds of it) fall at the hostel where he is now living.  Off to Freo Hospital I head with my brother collecting Mum on the way from his place.  Mum & I saw him about 10pm and I thought he looked like it was a recurrence of the flu, and mum said he'd been coughing that afternoon.  After that we headed home.

On the upside I cooked a cracking casserole in my pressure cooker.  With polenta and savoy cabbage (which I have only just started cooking with and love). 

 

As I said, I'm very happy to have that particular Monday out of the way.