It’s school holidays again.

We all breathe a sigh of relief that there is a little reprieve in the crazy busy rush that the school term brings.

Ideas are being thrown back and forth as to what we will do over the coming weeks. Catching up with family and friends, park visits, bike rides and maybe a trip to the movies will be on the agenda. One request has been to make sushi at home, another has been to practise skate board tricks at the local skate park. Our littlest guy will just be smiling from ear to ear that his big brothers are home and will try desperately to keep up with whatever they are doing.

One thing for certain is that on any given day we will ride the highs and lows of family life. Negotiating screen time limits, working out what activity EVERY family member is happy to do, managing those who want quietness and space and those who want constant companionship and chatter.

I love school holidays. I love being with my kids. I love less rules and more spontaneity, but does that mean I can expect perfection and every experience to live up to my and their expectations?

Nope. It’s a good thing for this mum to remember that from the outset.

Anyway……apart from my gorgeous boys needing to physically move every single day, they will also EAT more in the holidays too. I will bake a lot to keep up with them and their friends appetites and we will also get to enjoy dinners that are less rushed than usual. I am looking forward to posting some of our holiday cooking adventures in the coming weeks.

I thought I would kick things off these holidays with our middle son’s FAVOURITE biscuits. One year for his birthday he simply requested a plate of these with a candle instead of a cake.

We have made orange ones and passionfruit ones, but this time the fruit bowl was full of lemons and limes. It was just meant to be.

These biscuits are ‘short’ and buttery with a citrus zing.

The melting moment is a very simple biscuit to make, so it’s a great recipe to get kids doing some holiday baking.

The base recipe is from Donna Hay’s MODERN CLASSICS 2 cookbook, but the lemon and lime twist is from my own imagination!

Ingredients

Makes approx 14-16 filled biscuits

Biscuit

175gm butter, softened

1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup plain flour

1/4 cup cornflour

finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Filling

60gm butter, softened

1 cup icing sugar, sifted

finely grated zest of 1 lime

juice of 1/2 a lime

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (160 degrees fan forced).

Place the butter, icing sugar and vanilla in a bowl of an electric mixer (or use electric beaters) and beat until light and fluffy.

Stir in the flour and cornflour until well combined.

Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Roll a heaped teaspoon amount of dough into a small ball and place on the baking trays, spaced evenly apart, leaving a little room for spreading. Slightly flatten each biscuit with a fork or the palm of your hand.

Cook for approx 11 minutes or until slightly golden.

Cool on trays.

Place all the ingredients for the filling into a small bowl and beat with electric beaters until light and creamy.

Spread small amounts of icing onto a cooled biscuit using a knife and then sandwich with another biscuit.

Dust with icing sugar to serve.

These will keep for 2-3 days in an airtight container.

Dreary skies and cold, wet days.

Too many loved ones in pain or in grief, sick or suffering.

My spirit has felt heavy this week.

I look for beauty in daily simple things as a way of keeping my eyes focused ‘upwards’ despite grey skies.

Brighten up winter with lemons in a bowl

My front path. I call this a ‘cheerful mess’ as it brightens my day, until it’s walked all through the house!

Fresh herbs in jars can make lovely table decorations

Imperfect lemons from my tree sit on my table in a ‘slightly off balance’ fruit bowl I found in an antique store and just had to have.

The only flowers I can find in my garden are edible ones, so a bunch of flowering rosemary sits in an old vegemite jar on a table.

And on the days I find myself at home, I light a candle in the day time. I’m not sure of the science behind it, but candles just make people feel better, don’t they?

And I bake.

Oranges from my neighbours tree, if not eaten by the cockatoos, are lying all over my back lawn.

One of God’s gracious gifts in winter time is Citrus. I could not live without lemons, limes and oranges in my cooking and eating at this time of year.

This recipe is from the cookbook Weekend, simple food for lazy days by Banbury and Lewis.

On a side note, not every cake needs or wants to be iced. In this case, a dusting of icing sugar and sprinkling of edible flowers such as nasturtiums and rosemary flowers made this cake pretty as a picture.

Ingredients

175gm unsalted butter, softened

1 cup self raising flour

3/4 cup castor sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup almond meal

juice and zest of 1 orange

3 eggs

100gm pistachios, shelled and chopped

Icing sugar and edible flowers to decorate (use pansies, nasturtiums, rosemary flowers etc)

Method

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius.

Place all the ingredients except the pistachios, in a food processor.

Process until smooth.

Fold the chopped pistachios through the cake batter.

Pour into a greased and lined 20cm cake tin and bake for 55 minutes, (or until cooked when tested with skewer). If browning too quickly, cover loosely with foil for the remaining cooking time.

Cool in the tin for 10 minutes or so and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

This is the kind of recipe that doesn’t need much of an explanation.

Generally, most brownies are a MELT and MIX kind of affair. They are a great start for young keen bakers wanting to learn the basics of measuring, melting and mixing. A basic brownie recipe was one of the first things I showed my eldest son.

Very easy to over cook, it’s always best to set your timer for just under and test to see the brownie is still a little ‘fudgy’ on the inside. There’s nothing worse than an over cooked brownie.

Stating the obvious, there is absolutely nothing good or nutritious about this recipe.

They just taste delicious and are a sure fire way to my boys hearts. The jersey caramels melt a little during cooking and then as the brownie cools, the caramel re-sets, swirled through the brownie with a thick chewy consistency.

Ingredients

175gm unsalted butter, chopped

200gm good quality dark chocolate, chopped (if you use cheap cooking chocolate, you can tell!)

1 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

1 2/3 cups plain flour

200gm jersey caramels, chopped in half

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius, (160 degrees fan forced).

Line a slice tin with baking paper, with some extending over the edge so you can lift the brownie out easily.

Melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave. Do this in 1 minute bursts, stirring in between each minute. Be careful not to burn it at this stage. Cool slightly.

Stir in the remaining ingredients and mix well.

Pour into the pan and cook for 30 minutes, but as every oven is different, check it with 5 minutes to go, in case it’s over cooking. The top should be quite hard and set, but if you inserted a skewer, it would come out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it.

Cool in pan before lifting out and cutting into squares.

This will last for a week in an airtight container in the fridge.

It’s never lasted a week in this house.

This tangy, thick and smooth curd can be made with limes also. It is beautiful either way.

Spoon into tart cases, layer with meringue and cream for an easy dessert, dollop on top of lemon puddings, use in a trifle, spread on toasted sourdough or on top of scones……or sometimes, just eat straight out of the jar with a spoon while standing at the fridge and hope no-one sees you 🙂

It also makes a lovely gift, just pour into a beautiful jar and add a ribbon or tag. If you want some to keep and give away, I would double the recipe.

The original recipe comes from the cook book ‘WILD SUGAR Desserts’, by Skye Craig and Lyndel Miller.

I had a play around and lowered the honey content and added the rice malt syrup. It turned out so well, the original honey content was just not needed, especially if you prefer it to be more tangy than sweet.

Most lemon curd recipes have between 1-2 cups of castor sugar in them, so it’s nice to have a recipe that works beautifully using sweetners that are more natural.

This will make about 400ml of curd (approx 1 1/2 cups).

Ingredients

2 eggs

50gm unsalted butter

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup rice malt syrup (*see note below)

2 lemons or limes, juiced

zest of 1 lemon or lime

Method

Place all the ingredients in a medium heat proof bowl and then place the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water.

Whisk constantly until the mixture thickens. This will take about 15-20 minutes, so make yourself a cuppa to have while you’re whisking. It will seem like it’s taking a while, but keep the water boiling and stay patient and it will thicken all of a sudden.

Remove from heat, cool slightly and then pour into sterilised glass jars.

It will last up to 2 months in the fridge in a glass jar, but I can’t say this for certain as it’s always eaten a lot quicker than that in our house.

* A note on Rice Malt Syrup – this is a natural sweetener made from fermented cooked brown rice. Essentially, it stills ends up as glucose in your body and shouldn’t be consumed in excess, but as it is fructose free, it is becoming a more commonly used sweetener in people who are trying to eat less fructose. Rice Malt Syrup still causes spikes in blood sugar levels, but as it’s very sweet, often the amount that needs to be used in recipes can be lowered to quite a minimal amount.

As a little girl, I would pull up a stool in the kitchen and ask if I could help my mum cook. I remember the first job she would always give me – greasing the tin. I was less than impressed, as I saw this as the most boring part of cooking, mainly because there was no licking or tasting involved!

Thankfully, I progressed from greasing the tin and it wasn’t long till I was helping with an actual cake!

This classic recipe, from the Australian Women’s Weekly, (who, might I add, have been responsible for teaching many Australians how to cook the basics over the years) never ever fails.

For those of you who have only every known packet cake mixes, give this one a go! I haven’t actually timed it, but I don’t think there is any difference in time between throwing this cake together and using a packet mix. The positive about making it yourself is there are less additives like flavours, thickeners, colours and preservatives, which are often present in most cake mixes.

This simple buttery, vanilla cake is perfect for all occasions. As a birthday cake or cupcakes, layered with fancy icing, served warm as a dessert with berries….anything you want really.

The way we love to eat this cake in our house is the way my mum made it….straight out of the oven and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.

Ingredients

2 eggs

125gm butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 cups self raising flour

2/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius

Cream together the butter and sugar using electric beaters

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until a smooth glossy batter

Pour into a greased and lined with baking paper, 20cm round cake tin

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until cooked

Leave to cool in tin for 5 minutes

Turn out onto a wire rack

Cinnamon and Sugar topping

Melt a little butter and spread over the top of the cake with a knife. Sprinkle a mixture of cinnamon and sugar over the top of the cake.