Orange & Almond Cake

Let’s cook!

Something sweet, indulgent yet quite nutritionally dense. Orange & almond cake. It’s gluten free for those that seek such recipes for their diet.

This is a very easy recipe and doesn’t use as many eggs as traditional Jewish recipes I’ve seen over the years.

Orange & almond cake.

Orange & Almond Cake

3 oranges

3 eggs

1 cup caster sugar

300g almond meal (ground almonds)

1 teaspoon baking powder

extra 3/4 cup caster sugar (approximate measure, you might need less)

Grease a 22cm cake tin. (I used a large loaf tin)

Pre-heat oven to 170° Celsius.

• Place whole oranges in a saucepan, cover with water, bring to the boil then simmer for 15 mins.
• Drain & repeat.
• Chop 2 of the oranges & remove the pips.
• Place those oranges into a blender or food processor. Process until smooth.
• In a large bowl, whisk the eggs & 1 cup of caster sugar until thick and creamy.
• Add in the processed oranges, almond meal & baking powder. Gently fold together. (Mixture is often quite runny depending on how large your oranges are. If it’s too runny, you can add some plain flour.)
• Pour mixture into prepared tin.
• Bake at 170° C for 1 hour. (Should be golden brown, and an inserted skewer should come out clean when cooked.) (My cake today took 1 hour & 15 mins.)
• Allow to cool initially in the tin. Be careful when tipping out on to a rack.

Whilst the cake is cooking, here’s what you’ll do with that remaining orange & extra sugar:

• Remove the peel from the 3rd orange in strips.
• Put peel in saucepan, cover with some water & boil for 5 mins.
• Squeeze in the juice of the orange.
• Add the extra sugar, up to 3/4 cup. (I use less than half that.)
• Stir until dissolved and thickened.

• When cake is cool, use a knife or skewer to make slight holes in the cake. Drizzle over the orange syrup. (Note” you may not actually need to use syrup if cake is very moist.)
• Serve in small slices.

I find this cake is excellent to freeze. It also seems to be a little less wet if I refrigerate it.

I find I can use a small slice of this cake as a meal replacement and not irritate my GORD (GERD). Acid reflux sufferers it may be worth experimenting with this if you’ve not tried it before. Thanks to all that almond meal the cake is very filling. Enjoy!

The flood of 2010

About that rain mentioned in an earlier post. It began on the 7th January and continued to rain for four days. The Todd River is usually a dry, sandy river bed. It filled. With water. And began to flow.

Fast. Deep.

It flooded.

Whilst not quite the catastrophic event here as it would be in other towns in Australia, a flooding of the Todd River in Alice Springs is still quite exciting and entertaining for tourists and locals alike.

Roads were cut. Highways were cut. And if the local power generation station did not open its access gates to the general public people on my side of town would have been isolated from the main part of town where the hospital and shops are.

As I type a thunderstorm has rolled in and over us. More rain. We’ve had more than half our average annual rainfall in a mere four days.  127.4mm.  Not bad.  Especially as last year we only received a total of 77mm.

Taffy Pick crossing

Taffy Pick bridge

Road closed. Taffy Pick crossing.

Todd River flowing hard and fast near the Tuncks Rd causeway

The causeway near Olive Pink gardens (Tuncks Rd)

Tuncks Rd/Barrett Drv area of the Todd River

Still rearranging the furniture

I chose a different theme. Again. I like the customisation of this one. It’s called iNove. I like the fonts and the calendar layout. I don’t have to play around with too much to achieve the look I want. This may be it. The look for 2010. We’ll see.

Redecorating

Don’t mind me, I’m just doing a bit of redecorating. New year new look. I’m experimenting at the moment. I think I like this theme (Andreas 04) but it might need a bit of tweaking here and there to get the blog to look just right.

Will be popping in and out to open the curtains, shut them, rearrange the furniture. You know how it is when you feel the need for a fresh, new look!

It rains!

What more can I say? It’s raining! Has been off and on all day, since last night. Sometimes heavy, ofttimes lightly. But wet. Very wet. The roof of my verandah leaks. A lot in some places. So does the carport roof. I guess they’re good at keeping the sun off but not so good with precipitation.

There are puddles! On my very damp verandah.

Popping in to say hello

I haven’t blogged for a long while, sorry about that. Have been busy coping with some painful health issues and the heat. It’s also nearing the end of the year and I’ve been trying to tidy up my computer and online life. Toying with Tumblr, trying to work out the “right look” for me there. And then that leads to a reassessment of my blogs, new themes, new ideas. And it all takes up so much time. Throw in the health issues and it takes up even more time.

If you want to know what I’m up to, visit me at twitter http://twitter.com/desertgirl_2  I tweet from a personal perspective so you get to read what I’m doing, reading and what’s firing me up.

Christmas will be quiet in my house this year so very likely I will pop back in here on the day and quietly blog away. Until then, take care, and may you all have a very merry Christmas season.

Roast Vegetable Tikka Masala

Roasted vegetable tikka masala.

That’s what I had for dinner last night. Yes, it was very tasty thank you.

The smell brought back fond memories of the restaurants in Muscat, Oman that served various tikka masala and tandoori dishes. Chicken tikka was very popular with my family back when I still ate meat. But a vegetarian version is scrumptious too.

Can’t show you a photo because we … err, ate it all.  But here’s the recipe.

• Potatoes
• Butternut Pumpkin (Squash)
• Kumara (Orange Sweet Potato)
• Carrots
• 1x 400g tin Chickpeas
• 3 tablespoons tikka masala paste (I used Patak’s)
• 3-4 tablespoons tomato purée or pasta sauce
• 1 tablespoon oil (I use grapeseed oil)
• Green beans
• Baby Spinach
• Rice (Jasmine is nice)

Pre-heat your oven to 180C.

Chop your root vegetables (potatoes, butternut, kumara and carrots) in to chunks. I don’t bother peeling anything except the butternut pumpkin.

I always par-cook my potatoes and carrots in the microwave prior to roasting.

Drizzle the oil over the vegetables and spread out on to a baking tray.

Roast the vegetables for roughly 20-30 mins. You want them to be almost cooked but not quite in readiness for the next step.

Add the tikka masala paste to the tomato purée and stir well. You’re looking for a very thick pouring consistency that will coat the vegetables.

Drain chickpeas & rinse.

When the vegetables are showing signs of being almost cooked (I judge by seeing when the potatoes are just starting to puff up and turn golden), remove from oven. Don’t turn the oven off yet.

I tip the almost-cooked roast vegetables in to a very large bowl. Add the chickpeas now if you don’t mind them well roasted. Then add the tikka masala sauce and stir well to coat the vegetables. Turn the lot back on to the baking tray, spread out and return to the oven for 15-20 mins.

You may need to cover them with foil if the tikka is turning too black for your taste.

If you prefer your chickpeas to remain moist, hold back a little bit of the tikka sauce and coat the chickpeas, leave them to sit. Add them to the roasted vegetables when serving.

Cook your green beans in the manner you prefer. I use the microwave and minimal water and minimal cooking time on high – a minute is enough. Toss in the baby spinach leaves and either let wilt in the residual heat or further cook for 15 secs.

I must admit I only do the greenery because I’m required to eat leafy greens. I’d be happy to omit the beans and spinach. Also, rocket leaves or other salad leaves would suffice.

Cook your rice.

Everything’s cooked so serve it however you like.

Happy eating!

I am NOT a climate change denialist

I don’t believe an ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme) is about saving the planet from climate change.  This does NOT make me a climate change denialist.

No, I believe an ETS is all about money and preserving high-carbon polluting industries such as our coal and power generating industries in Australia. Those industries have a lot of political clout. And they’re very good at lobbying the government. And then there’s the risk of high unemployment figures if those industries have to cut their carbon emissions drastically. Those in the business are fearful of lost profits. Those who work for them are fearful of losing their jobs and not being able to pay their mortgages.

This short piece, by David Bonnici over at Group Think , whilst very cutting, pretty much sums up what I think of the ETS.

Having said all of the above, I am resigned to the likelihood of an ETS being introduced in Australia. Sadly, I don’t think it will result in any great reductions of anyone’s carbon footprint except  those who are keen and committed and willing to make an effort.

It feels like everyone is breathing a sigh of relief. An ETS will save us, we just pay more money and we can keep driving our petrol hungry cars and burn up as much electricity as we like. Ditto big time if you’re a coal-fired power generator.

To me, an ETS feels like a fake economy, a new stockmarket to play in and make big profits.

Whilst all the political kerfuffle rages on around me, I shall keep doing my little bits and pieces to reduce my own carbon footprint.

My electricity usage is 15.83kWh per day. My power bill tells me that for the past 80 days my carbon emissions for electricity comes to 862kg.

 

Bugger me it’s hot today

The north wind is tossing the leaves

The red dust is over the town

The sparrows are under the eaves (or, in this case, the galahs are under the trees)

And the grass in the paddock is brown

Those words are taken from an old Australian Christmas song written by Bill James (WG) and John Wheeler in 1948. But I think they’re appropriate for describing Alice Springs today.

Dust in the air & grass doesn't grow anymore

On the lush lawns of the Alice Springs casino & convention centre

Too hot to fly, too hot to sit in the trees

On the well-kept and watered lawns of the Alice Springs Casino & Convention Centre on a hot day you will see birds taking refuge from the fierce and scorching heat.  If there are any puddles of water lying about (from the sprinklers not rain), the galahs will be spotted splashing about in an attempt to keep cool.  I was driving past at lunchtime today and saw these galahs and a couple of parrots resting and panting in the shade.

Here’s a link to a short video I made today earlier this afternoon.  Apologies for the audio – sound of the camera focussing and the wind interfered.

It was 41 degrees celsius at lunchtime today.  We got to 43.

An artistic life

I love looking at artists’ blogs & websites.  Apart from the beautiful images often posted therein, I enjoy the insight I get in to their minds and their art. I find it can be as relaxing as a slow meander of an art gallery on a quiet afternoon. It can also be incredibly inspiring, firing up my own creative synapses, presenting me with ideas I’d like to explore.

No matter what medium the artist works with, be it photography, painting, sculpture, text or film (to name but a few), art does have value. Art for art’s sake, not just as a commodity. (Although, to be paid for one’s art is very nice feedback for one’s endeavours.)

The internet makes it so easy for artists to share their work with the world. It’s great and I appreciate it.

I’m quite a fan of people using their blogs as a form of text-based creative exploration. They might be discussing any manner of topic, but the fact that they’re writing and putting it ‘out there’ on the web for all to see, makes it creative. I also enjoy those who post video monologues to achieve the same end, a discussion on a topic, expressing thoughts and maybe exploring different options as they talk. I do love it when a writer uses the web in this way as one means of exploring and creating.

I have a great love of photography. I’m not a great fan of digital manipulation although I appreciate the skill and artistry. I prefer the thoughtfully composed (or luckily composed!) simple photograph. Landscapes, the urban jungle and fine art nudes are my favourite themes.

I find paintings and drawings fascinating. Possibly because I don’t draw very well at all. I love to look closely at the details, to see the brushstrokes and colours. That’s easier done when you have the painting in front of you in a gallery or studio. But I get a lot of enjoyment from reading what the artist has to say about how a particular painting came about and what they were trying to express. Again my favourite subjects are landscapes and female nudes. I like nudes that show women’s beauty within. This is something I look for in photographs of women too.

Artists who work with film or performance challenge me. Often the material they are presenting makes you think, sometimes about issues you’ve not given thought to before. I like that.

Anyway, here is an assortment of artists whose sites have given me much delight this weekend. Some of them have been ‘Favourites’ for a long time, some recently discovered and a few recently re-discovered.

Note: Some of the sites may feature some nudity and/or sexual imagery or discussion thereof. Not all. Just a few. It’s art. It’s relevant. It’s worthwhile.

Mattographer

xobs – and do read her ‘about’ page

Kate Hughes

Just A Perfect Day

Wolfcat

If Not For You Then Who – play a couple of the videos

Faceless-Music – this group are exploring “Dead and Desirable”, life on the internet.