My old Home.

As a child I lived in a 2 bedroom house with my parents and older sister. This house was situated in an older suburb and was down a long driveway, and backed onto a reserve that had band practices and marching girls. I think I was about 4-5 years old. My parents moved away to a bigger city and only returned to buy their home when they were near retiring age. Many years later after my Dad passed away , I was visiting my mum and suggested we have a drive passed the old home. I found the street, and the church I used to go to Sunday School at, and the big impressive Catholic Church where as a naughty child I ran into with two of my friends and blessed myself with the holy water. I have since asked forgiveness for that act.!! I decided to drive up the drive and take a look at the house, and much to my surprise, the house was up on blocks ready for removal. On hearing the car approach, a Young man asked what he could do to help us. I explained about living there as a child, I was then in my 40's, and he asked my mum if she would like to go inside to have one last look. So we did and I could remember where the sideboard used to stand and the small black wall clock in the hall. It was a great time for my mum to see the house, and they were removing it to make way for a set of units to be built on the site. It was of course so much smaller to me than I remembered it to be . Then on the last election day, 2008, I was working in a polling booth near the airport, doing special votes , and this woman approached from my old town and when I looked at her address I realized she lived in one of the units that was built 15yrs ago on the very section I once lived. I told her this and she then told her husband. What a very small world we live in, because on election day there were 3 other people this couple could have gone to do have their special vote. So here is my mums chicken pie.

RITAS CHICKEN PIE.

1 unstuffed chicken {its easier} skin off, bones out, shredded into edible pieces.

WHITE SAUCE.
1 packet of white sauce
or make one
2 tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons butter
milk to mix 1/2 teaspoon mustard mild
1/2 cup cheese 1 FINELY CHOPPED ONION.

TO MAKE A ROUX SAUCE.
melt butter gently in a pot, I cook 1 finely chopped onion in the butter until it is transparent. Then remove the onion and add the flour gently mixing until its a paste. Cook for 1 minute, then gently add milk to make a pouring consistency, add cheese and stir again, Put aside.
TOPPING.
2-3 cups fresh breadcrumbs, I use grain bread nicer texture. Rosemary or oregano
2-3 tablespoons melted butter approx.
Mix breadcrumbs with the butter till its a consistency of stuffing. This is the pie topping.

Add chicken and onion to the cheese sauce and place in a pie dish. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the top and dot with 6-8 nobs of butter. Brown top under the grill, watching all the time as this can catch and burn. Serve with mashed potato or kumera mash and peas.

Single Serving or More?

Single Serving or More?

I sit, a mono-linguist at a Pasifika course for T.A.’s.
I learn a Samoan song, warm up with pump boogie,
deliver a five minute monologue, share a writing
task on the Cook Islands with bi-linguals.

We’re stuck with a middle-class school system, but
we cater for multicultural kids – think Polynesian,
suckling pigs, lines of dancers, populous communities.
Think big, food is high on the list!

Gran’s home-grown vege and her chicken eggs tasted best,
but were recipes of the past tediously monotonous?
Monosyllables of beef, pork or lamb? Immigrant
cooking is woking along – food courts zing with
flurries of spices, magazines colourfully test, taste
and prescribe. The monopoly of grandma’s school
kitchen has gone, our generation digested
multinational rations and moved on!


Enough for Two in Small Wok!

Put on half or a whole cup of rice to boil in rice cooker or saucepan.(Are you feeding a man or a mouse?)
Halfway through cooking add 2 teaspoons of tumeric.

In a little oil gently fry a chopped onion and 4 cloves of sliced garlic.
Add a quarter of finely shredded cabbage, half a packet of Mung Beans
and half a chopped red capsicum.
Stir frequently.
Add 1 and a half tablespoons of minced ginger
And when almost cooked 2 tablespoons of Soy Sauce.

Serve on the yummy looking yellow rice and enjoy.

The maid on the Country Estate

During an Aquasize class where the tongues get a better workout than the body, I was talking to an elegant astute, Englishwoman who had been "in service" in England in the 1950's. I had no idea servants were still "in service" , thinking all that had come to an end at the turn of the century. This lady had been a young girl in the 1950's and had the position of housemaid, to a Lord and Lady on a country Estate. The maid lived in as her home was a distance away, and had rostered visits home to see family. We talked as we walked around the pool this way then backwards, about having to retrieve the newspaper after it had been read by one member of the family,and whisked away to have the pages IRONED before the next set of eyes were upon the pages. As we moved in a crab walk around the swirling water of the pool,we talked about how it was her job to iron the bedsheets each day so the beds were fresh to get into at night. Imagine doing that today, I ask you!!!.The beds were changed weekly. There was a dance in the town on Saturday nights at the local hall, and this lady had a scare one night, with dogs barking and chasing her home. The Lord heard about this and from that time on he sent her in the car with the driver and she was picked up after. There was no opportunity for romance while this was happening, but what wonderful, caring people and employers they were. She told me that a pudding on the menu was SPOTTED DICK so here it is ,
SPOTTED DICK
butter for greasing the bowl.
300g / 10oz plain flour 15ml / 1tbsp baking powder
150g/ 5oz shredded suet 75g / 3oz caster sugar
100g / 4oz currants
finely grated zest of 2 lemons 200ml/ 7fl oz milk
Grease a pudding basin. Prepare a steamer or half fill a large saucepan with water and bring to the boil.
Mix the dry ingredients with the currants and lemon zest. Add most of the milk,
until the mixture is of a soft, dropping consistency.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared basin, cover with greased paper and foil and secure with string.
Put the pudding into the steamer or saucepan on an upturned saucer, in the boiling water. The water should come halfway up the sides of the basin. Cover the pan and steam the pudding for 1 hour.
Serve the pudding with lashings of custard and cream. Yum yum.

The 100 year old January 2009

A century, like a roar at a cricket match
deserves a well cut lawn, club sandwiches
threatening a curl, chocolate cake, kept in the
fridge, til the big moment arrives for the
sun wants it just as bad.

Gazebos attempt to reflect mid-afternoon
light, hot sounds rise from the young folk,
who, in an interval, delight. Flowers
border the party, pretty in pink, and Peter
the chief speech maker is up on his feet.
The local reporter’s turned up and the
100 year old is not letting on – nothing
incriminating will be told today, her
version of events is ok.

Wine into water would probably suffice
with fresh lemon to revive, though the
bottled beer is nice. In and out of her
time warped house we trundle, clinking
glasses and circulating plates with an
assortment of slices.

The scorer of a century has had enough
of the singing birthday cake knife, delivered
bouquets and some folk she forgot she should
recognize. Considerate carers wheel her
back: so she survives.

Sugar, minus tongs, sits squarely forlorn
atop a discarded box. In a huge pot, Jenny
makes tea and photographer Yuki pours it
black, refreshing the day with a sugar lump;
plop, in a porcelain cup!

Celebrate January, summer in New Zealand with

Claire's Lemon Slice.

100g melted butter.
Half a can sweetened condensed milk
250g packet of plain biscuits
1 cup desiccated coconut
Lemon rind

Crush the biscuits (plastic bag and a rolling pin is fine)
and add the rest of the ingredients. Turn the mixture into
a square lined tin or swiss roll tin, but we can't seem to find
them anymore in the North Island. The mixture should be about 1cm thick.
Make the Icing by mixing 1 cup of icing sugar, 2 teaspoons of softened butter, a little juice of an orange/orange juice and extra lemon rind to decorate.
When you've spread the icing on the base put in the fridge and cut into squares
when cool.
Very sweet and morish!