Tinkerblue

Summer by the Sea. Baking by the Book. Ciambellone.

I'm house and dog sitting for friends for two weeks.  My favourite place to hang out is their backyard. A gazebo, pretty fairy lights, and a comfy chair.  

 

 

Earlier tonight I was enjoying a glass of wine, a good book and the dog at my feet. 

 

 

The book, Summer by the Sea by Susan Wiggs is an easy summer beach read.  Light and fluffy, it's the story of star-crossed childhood loves.  I'm only half way through but I'm pretty sure girl will end up with boy.  (If they don't then the book will surprise me). While I am enjoying the book and I will read more by the same author, what's got me about the book so far is the delicious sounding recipes. The girl, Rosa owns an Italian restaurant by the sea hence between chapters there are Italian recipes.  I shouldn't have been reading the book before dinner.  The recipes just made me hungry.  

I can't pronounce this...Caimbellone...but it has lemon in it.  Lemon, I like.  A lot. I had to stop reading to bake.  

 

 

 

Yep, I put the book down, delayed dinner and baked.  Lucky for me, Andrea and Sean had all the ingredients in their pantry.  (I need to go grocery shopping and restock).

 

 

It's an easy recipe. But messy.  Starting with 4 cups of flour in a mound on a board.  I skipped the board and just used the (clean) counter top.   Then alternately add the wet and dry ingredients, mixing and kneading with your hands. Told you it's messy.

 

 

The recipe said to add extra flour as needed.  I found I needed to add 1/2 a cup of flour for every 1/2 cup of liquid.  So I added 1 cup of milk in 1/4 cup increments, alternating with a 1/4 cup of flour. Same with the oil.

 

 

It was quick to make.  The dough didn't require a lot of kneading, the hardest part was getting the flour amount correct.  I formed the dough into two fat rings as instructed, next time I'd braid the two rings. Just to make them prettier.

 

 

The kitchen smelled awesome while the rings were baking. The dog pretty much sat in front of the oven.  Waiting the 40 minutes for the Ciambellone to bake was torture.  Although I did eat dinner and wash up in that time.  

 

 

Then I had a huge slice of warm ciambellone straight out of the oven.  It's pretty good. Would be better with a cup of coffee for breakfast.  If I only I knew how to operate Sean's fancy coffee machine. Or if I had a bottle of Frangelico so I could make the Caffe Frangelico. Frangelico is hazelnut.  Hazelnut, I like.  A lot.  Lemon (in the Ciambellone) and hazelnut (in the Caffe Frangelico) together?  Yes please. Yum.

 

All the recipe from Summer by the Sea are here.

 

15 Funniest Travel Books Ever Written

I love to read.  I love to travel.  I'm not so keen on reading about other people's travel...only because I get jealous.

 

CNN recently posted a list of the 15 Funniest Travel Books Ever Written.

1. The Sex Lives of Cannibals by Peter Moore
2. The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson
3. Coasting by Dick Flinthart
4. Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman
5. Out of Sheer Rage by Geoff Dyer
6. Queenan Country by Joe Qeenan
7. Are You Experienced by William Sutcliffe
8. Into the Heart of Borneo by Redmond O'Hanlon
9. Westward Ha! by S.J. Perelman
10. The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
11. The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
12. A Supposedly Fun Thin I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
13. Holidays in Hell by P.J. O'Rourke
14. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

How is it that I have only read 3 books on this list? I've read hundreds of travelogues but only three of these.  Of course there are many that I've read that are not on this list, starting with:

• The Ridiculous Race by Steve Hely
• In a Sunburnt/Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
• Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks

Any other recommendations for funny travel stories?

 

Silent Night by Pentatonix

It's day 2 of the advent calendar, or it was. I'm a little late posting this.

I've been updating my Christmas music. I've added two new (to me) albums to my Christmas playlist...

That's Christmas To Me by Pentatonix.  They have an amazing rendition of Silent Night, which is my all time favourite Christmas carol.

 

 

 

The second album I downloaded?

Under the Influence Holiday Edition by Straight No Chaser.  Text Me Merry Christmas just cracks me up. I especially like the Vanilla Cinnamon Baileys.

 

 

 

What are you listening to this Christmas?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jaffa Jelly Slice

I warn you this is going to be long winded.

Have you seen the show on telly, Upper Middle Bogan? It's hilarious? If you're not an Aussie or haven't spent time here you may not get the humour. Take my word for it, it's very funny. 

In one episode we watched one of the characters mentions she used the New Idea recipe for satay chicken lasagna. 

 

 

 

Jo immediately decided we needed to make it. But no amount of googling could find a New Idea recipe for Satay Chicken Lasagna. So Claire volunteered to bake one.

I was assigned dessert. Jo informed me it couldn't be an ordinary dessert it had to be a classic with a twist just like mixing lasagna and satay. Ummm okay.

We thought about jelly slice with chocolate frogs in it but every kid in Australia has had jelly slice with chocolate frogs for a birthday at some point. That wasn't twisty enough for Jo.

 

 

We love Jaffa pudding. When I was home in March we ate our weights worth of Jaffa pudding. But it's not sold in Tassie anymore! How dare they! Don't know what a Jaffa is? It's a ball of chocolate covered in a hard orange candy shell. We always bought a bag of Jaffa when we went to the pictures (movies) as kids.

 

 

So Jaffa Jelly Slice it was. I couldn't find a recipe but let's face it Jelly Slice is not exactly a complicated thing to make.

 

 

Base:

• One packet of girl guide biscuits
• One packets of Jaffa
• Hunk of butter 
• Crush biscuits and Jaffas together
• Melt butter
• Mix with biscuits and Jaffas
• Line bottom of pan with biscuit mix
• Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes or so

 

 

Middle Layer:
One packet of chocolate mousse mix
Milk (tells you in the side of the box how much you need)
Make mousse according to instructions on side of mousse mix box
Pour mousse on top of biscuit layer
Refrigerate, again.

 

 

Jelly layer:
One box of orange jelly crystals
Make jelly according to instructions on side of jelly box (told you jelly slice isn't hard to make)
Cool jelly in fridge for a bit and make sure the mousse has set.
Pour jelly on top of mousse
Refrigerate for 4 hours

 

 

Cut with a hot knife and serve.

Verdict:
Claire and I both found the chicken satay lasagna to be good but a little heavy. Jo loved it and a week later is still eating the left overs. We all loved the Jaffa jelly slice.

 

Catalina Island - Catalina Casino

 

We visit Catalina Island once a week.  Since I joined the ship we've been to Catalina 4 times, but yesterday was only the second time I was able to get off.  A lot of crew don't get off here because it's a tender port and that can be a bit of a hassle.  But from my two visits I really like Catalina Island, or what little I've seen of it so far.

 

 

The most prominent building in Avalon is the Catalina Casino.  Yesterday I took a behind the scenes tour of the Casino.  Did you know that in Italian the word Casino means "place of gathering" or "place of entertainment".  The Avalon Casino is a place of gathering and entertainment but it is not and never has been a gambling casino.  

 

 

The Casino took 14 months to build.  Construction took place 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  1500 men worked in 8 hour shifts. The cost to build the casino was $2 million dollars.  The Casino is huge. It's about 12 storeys high, and houses a theatre, ballroom, dressing rooms, projection room, a bar, a private viewing room and a musuem.

 

 

The casino was built by chewing gum owner William Wrigley Jr who also owned the Chicago Cubs baseball team. The Chicago Cubs stadium used ramps instead of stairs allowing large numbers of spectators to move quickly to their seats, Wrigley used the same ramps in the Avalon Casino.  

 

 

The theatre is on the lower level of the casino.  It seats 1184 people.  At the back of the theatre are the VIP seats - they have the best acoustics.  In the centre there is an echo, and if you talk while in those seats the whole theatre can hear you.  Don't tell your secrets.  And if you're there to watch a movie avoid those particular seats.  

 

 

The theatre also has it's original pipe organ that was used during silent movies. It's still played today during silent movie festivals and on weekends.  It's one of 4 remaining organs of it's type.  

 

 

The walls and domed ceiling on of the theatre are covered in a John Gabriel Beckman mural.  He also did the 9 panel paintings at the entrance to the casino. The ceiling is covered in sterling silver and gold leaf. It's one fancy theatre.  Unfortunately I won't get to see a movie here, as we always sail before the movie times!

 

 

The lobby of the theatre is black walnut and the wood alone is worth $4 million dollars.

 

 

Above the theatre is a private viewing room for the Wrigley family and the projection room. The projection room still houses the original two projectors plus a modern digital projector.

 

 

On the top floor of the casino is the 20,000 sq ft ballroom - the world's largest circular ballroom. The casino building is so well designed that there can be 3000+ dancers in the ballroom and they cannot be heard in the theatre below.  

 

 

The Tiffany lighting fixture can be lowered to waist height for cleaning.  Hidden behind the lighting is a huge wooden fan. 

 

 

The ballroom is surrounded by a balcony with views over Avalon, Descanso Bay and the Pacific Ocean.

 

 

 

The tour I was on lasted about an hour and included admission to the Catalina Island Museum. The cost was $25.00.  I really enjoyed it but then again I like learning useless trivia and history.  I didn't make it to the museum because I needed to get back to the ship.  I'll save the museum for another day. 

 

 Catalina Island Casino 

 

 

 

 

Aboriginal Storytelling Festival

Thursday night there was an Aboriginal Storytelling Festival at the Sechelt Nation Band Hall.  I thought it might be interesting and it was free.    The participating authors were:

Nicola Campbell - Interior Salish and Metis, author of 3 childrens' books.

Zaccheus Jackson - a guerilla poet/slam poet

Michael Kusugak - Inuit, author of mulitple children's books

Diane Silvey - Member of the Sechelt Band, teacher and author

Richard Wagamese - Member of the Ojibway Band, journalist and author

Prior to the event I thought I didn't know any of their writings.  I was surprised to find that I do. Diane Silvey wrote The Kid's Book of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada.  Michael Kusugak wrote T is for Territories, The Littlest Sled Dog and cowrote  A Promise is A Promise with Robert Munsch.  All of which I've sent overseas as gifts to friends. 

Richard Wagamese was part of the line up for the 2012 Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, and the author of Keeper 'N Me, a book that's been on my to read list for a while now. 

Nicola Campbell and Zaccheus Jackson were completely new to me.  

Each author spoke about what story telling meant to them and their culture or told a story or performed poetry they had written or all of the above.  For me, Zaccheus Jackson, Michael Kusugak and Richard Wagamese were the most engaging and interesting speakers.  I could have listened to any of them for hours.  I've added more books to my never ending "Books to Read" list.  I love learning about new to me authors and finding new books to read. It was a good night and I'm glad I went. 

Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers from The Looneyspoons Collection

I eat a lot of this tricolour quinoa from Trader Joes.  So I'm always on the lookout for different ways to use it.  Of course, The Looneyspoons Collection has a recipe I wanted to try - The Right Stuff.

 

 

I had most of the ingredients on hand.  The recipe is from the "Eats Without Meats" section so it listed reduced sodium vegetable broth. All I had was reduced sodium chicken broth. Still tasty but not vegetarian.  I didn't have shiitake mushrooms, just plain old white mushrooms. I didn't have any frest mint leaves either. 

 

 

This was an easy recipe to follow and make.  The full recipe is in the book, but basically it was cook the quinoa with the broth and cumin, coriander and curry powder.

 

 

Cook onions, peppers, garlic, mushrooms and spinach in a skillet.

 

 

Mix the cooked quinoa and veggies with  sweet green peas, feta, mint, lemon zest and black pepper.

 

 

Spoon fillling into peppers.  Place peppers upright in a baking pan. Cover and cook.

 

 

The recipe makes 6, I halved it and made 3.  I ate one for dinner right away and kept two in the fridge to eat later in the week.

 

What I liked - tasty, could be served as a side or a main, has an okay amount of protein (9g) per pepper, has lots of veggies.

What I didn't like - takes some time to prepare - 15 mins for the quinoa and another 15 mins in the oven,  creates too many dishes - a pot for the quinoa, a skillet for the veggies and a baking pan.

Would I make again - yes. 

Chicken Cordon New from The Looneyspoons Collection

Yep another recipe from The Looneyspoons Collection, and more to come.  One of the side affects of not working is I have a lot of time to cook.  

I made this recipe a few weeks ago. The recipe makes 4 servings, I halved it and dinner for two nights.

 

 

The recipe calls for an egg, honey dijon mustard, whole wheat flour, salt and pepper, multigrain crackers, Parmesan cheese, fresh thyme, boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced smoked ham, light swiss cheese, butter and olive oil.  

I didn't have any fresh thyme, so I had to use what I had - thyme in a bottle.

 

 

Two things I need to remember for next time...

I didn't finely crush up the crackers, mine were far from fine.  My chicken was sparsely covered.  Finer crumbs would have gone futher.  

Secondly I didn't pound the chicken out enough. It was too thick, which made it hard to roll up, and it didn't stay rolled up very well.

 

 

These were messy to make and required a lot of dishes, which meant a lot of cleaning up. Roll chicken around ham and chese. Dip in flour. Dip in egg. Dip in crumbs. Cook in a skillet on the stove top. Bake in oven in a baking dish.  Maybe I should have just put the skillet in the oven and saved a dish.

 

 

They may have been messy, but they were easy.  And the ingredients are things I would normally have in my kitchen, expect the fresh thyme!   Normally chicken cordon bleu is high in fat and a restaurant treat. Never occured to me I could make a relatively healthy version myself at home.

 

 

I would make this again.  In fact I already have.  

 

Related articles

Dilly Beloved from The Looneyspoons Collection

No Weigh, Jose! Mexican Lasagna

Dilly Beloved from The Looneyspoons Collection

The Looneyspoons Collection is fast becoming one of my favourite cookbooks. Yes, partly because all my others are in a box in a storage locker. Way to much lifting involved to get to them.  Looneyspoons is the only one I have with me on the Sunshine Coast.

 

 

I eat a lot of chicken. I don't really know different ways to cook chicken. I usually just grill a breast and that's it. So now I'm working my way through the "Chicken Worth Pickin'" chapter.  I made the No Weigh Jose Lasagna a while back. Okay so I used ground beef not ground chicken, but the recipe was from the chicken chapter.

 

 

The Dilly Beloved recipe looked easy.  10 ingredients. Many of which I already had in the pantry. I'm not going to give you the full recipe, you'll have to buy the book for that.  But the ingredients are maple syrup, honey dijon mustard, fresh dill, lemon juice, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon zest, garlic, salt and pepper and the chicken.

 

 

The recipe called for 4 chicken breast. Instead of halving the recipe, I made the full deal and had enough for dinner for the rest of the week.

 

 

I served it with quinoa and oven roasted brussel sprouts.  It was quite tasty.  The maple syrup and the honey dijon mustard made it just that little bit sweet.  This was really easy to make. The hardest part was waiting for the chicken to marinate. I'm not a very patient person.

 

*** I didn't have any fresh dill, and the spice jar that said (dried) dill had rosemary in it. Hence my Dilly Beloved Chicken was actually Rosemary Beloved Chicken!"

 

No Weigh, Jose! Mexican Lasagna

 

I picked up this cookbook at Costco a ways back.  The Looneyspoons Collection by Janet and Greta Podleski.  I need to start eating at home more and I'm very uncreative when it comes to preparing dinners. More than one friend recommended this cook, so I thought it was worth a shot.

 

I'm staying with friends in Vancouver this week and I found the book in the boot of my car where it's been since I bought it.  Yeah, it's getting a lot of use. So last night I broke The Looneyspoons Collection open for my first attempt at cooking a recipe from it.

 

No Weigh, Jose! Mexican Lasagna.  Umm yeah, in the time I spent in Mexico I don't think I ate lasagna once.  Oh well. The recipe called for ground chicken, but I used extra lean ground beef.  I also couldn't find any cumin or chili powder in the pantry, so I used oregano instead.

 

This recipe is really easy to make.  Ground beef, red onion, green pepper, black beans, tomatoes, corn, pasta sauce, salsa, herbs and spices, corn tortillas instead of pasta noodles, and cheese. 

 

Then garnish with green onions, and servce with sour cream and guacamole. 

 

Says it serves 10.  That's about right. Three of us ate it for dinner last night, two going back for seconds. I had a serve for lunch today. Four of us ate it for dinner tonight. I'm not normally a fan of leftovers but I think it was even better tonight.

 

Yummmmmm.  I'll be making this again. You should try it.

Related articles

Chicken Cordon New from The Looneyspoons Collection

Dilly Beloved from The Looneyspoons Collection