Crimbo treats in PNG

So, it's nearly Crimbo. And this year is my first away from my family. Sure, I've collected a new tribe up here, but it's times like these that make the normally-quiescent homesickness flare up.

I've said before:

Traditions are wonderful things. They link us to a group. They hold out memories in their fabric of sameness and comfort. But like everything, they have to evolve. Not change, so much as evolve. Like Mater Beige's AMAZING Xmas pudding. It was her mother's recipe of WW II, when many "traditional" ingredients were unavailable. That particular recipe has now become the tradition for myself and my children.

My Crimbo normally looks like this. But this year it's going to be different. Many of the ingredients my family use for our traditional Crimbo table simply aren't availabel up here, or are horrifically expensive.

Rice four is not to be found (for shortbreads), copha (for White Crimbo) is nonexistant, 6 glace cherries cost me AUD$8, and the only sweetened condensed milk I could find in all of Lae was chocolate flavoured. Dried fruit (for mince pies and Crimbo pud) was AUD$7.50 a bag, candied ginger was nearly $11 a bag. An Home Brand Crimbo fruit cake (which you break down with brandy and orange juice, re-form into balls, top with a dollop of white chocolate and a glace cherry.. making mini Crimbo puds) was AUD$18. A bag of white chocolate buds was about the same... meaning my tiny mouthful puddings would have come in at about AUD$1.50 each.

A box of Cadbury mini-assortment (for the centrepiece  Crimbo tree.. pinned on a bit of tree-shaped foam ) was about AUD$30

Erm, we're also still under an alcohol ban, so brandy for custard, butter, macerating fruit, etc is unavailable, even on the Black Market.

Let's also factor in that it's about 31C with 81% humidity today (9.30am). Weather NOT conducive to working with chocolate or copha anyway. Speaking of weather, Sunday is forcast to have tropical thunderstorms and a high of 39degrees.

If I chose to have a local Crimbo, I could feed 10 for about AUD$20.. mangoes are in season, as are mud crabs. I can get a couple of free-range chooks for about AUD$3.00, a whole 2kg schnapper for about AUD$7.50, chako lif for salads for AUD30c a bunch.

But I WANT Crimbo trimmings. I want Aunty Linnie's apricot balls. I want Mater Beige's chocolate spiders. I want my family's punch and honey toffee and cauliflower cheese and prawn crackers and Santa jelly mould and threepences in my pud.

And the fact I can't have them makes me feel so much further away.

Bake A Difference this Xmas

Every year, the lives of thousands of disadvantaged Australians are transformed by the support of Mission Australia. This Christmas, please join with CSR Sugar to give others a fair go by baking gifts for your loved ones, friends and co-workers and donate the money saved from buying presents to Mission Australia.

In return, CSR Sugar will match your donation, dollar for dollar, up to a total of $100,000.

“With everyone’s support we could raise a massive $200,000…” says Toby Hall, CEO of Mission Australia

“… that would go a long way to help transform the lives of so many people”.

All money raised will go directly to support Mission Australia’s key services helping individuals, families and communities in need. Mission Australia strives to transform lives and create a fairer Australia.

“We really want everyone to get involved in this great cause…” says Tim Hart CEO of CSR Sugar “…from kids cooking a sweet gift for Mum or their teacher, to friends who just want to give a gift that is made from the heart and helps those less fortunate. It’s very simple Bake a Difference and donate the dollars you saved to a great cause.”

Everyday is a time of giving but even more so this Christmas. The GFC is over and even though the interest rates have gone up again, many of us are the still the fortunate ones. There are many that are homeless or have little money to enjoy and celebrate this festive season.






So, this Christmas pop on an apron, grab a whisk and bowl, and get baking a gift your loved ones are really going to love. Make sure you’re a part of CSR Bake a Difference for Mission Australia.


The very delicious Jeroxie is hosting this event,

You don’t have to be a food blogger to join in. Just as long as you have a blog, you will be able to post your recipe. As with all events, there are a few simple rules to follow:




Please cook/bake or create a dish that includes sugar and also embrace the Christmas theme

Add a link back to the host, Jeroxie (http://jeroxie.com/addiction) and also to the donate page on CSR Bake a Difference (http://www.bakeadifference.com.au/Donate.aspx)

Include CSR Bake A Difference logo in the blog post. Please copy and paste the HTML code provided.



Please submit your post by the deadline of 14th of December 2010 and also send your entries to events [at] jeroxie (dot) com with Bake A Difference in the subject line and the following details:



Your name

Your Blog Name/URL

Your Post URL

A photo that is 600px X 400px

Your mailing Address (for the thank you package)

All participating bloggers will receive a THANK YOU package from CSR Sugar as a form of appreciation. And a round up of all the creations will be showcased both on Jeroxie's and CSR Sugar Facebook page

Traditions #3

Traditions are wonderful things. They link us to a group. They hold out memories in their fabric of sameness and comfort. But like everything, they have to evolve. Not change, so much as evolve. Like Mater Beige's AMAZING Xmas pudding. It was her mother's recipe of WW II, when many "traditional" ingredients were unavailable. That particular recipe has now become the tradition for myself and my children.

This year is the third without our beloved Hobbit. And will be the first of a new tradition of just lunch with Mum, my family and my brother's family. Other family members are off starting other family traditions with other families, and I am only too aware that this may be my last Xmas in Melbourne for a very long time.

So this year is going to be the best Xmas lunch EVAH and I have been given the best Xmas present of all time... darling Mater Beige has handed me the responsibility of the vegetables this year.

Now, it mightn't seem a big deal, but I can assure you it is. Mater Beige keeps telling me that my turn will come.

I have been champing at the bit, to get my hands on cooking the Xmas lunch. I lie awake at night planning and plotting. Subbing the glace cherries in the pud for 1/2 and 1/2 dried cranberries and glace ginger. Sneaking a small ramekin of brandy butter onto the table. Doing a 2 cavity stuffing of sage and chestnet puree for a real whole bird.

**sigh**

The possibilities are endless.

So, I need to keep traditions alive (potatoes, cauli and cheese, string beans) while giving these humble veggies a pg twist!

So my plans are:

Kipfler potatoes cut lengthways, roasted in duck fat with chunky-cut Speck, sea salt and garlic.

organic cauli with Gruyere and nutmeg sauce.

blanched organic green beans with balsamic glaze and toasted slivered almonds.

What say you, dear reader? Any other suggestions on how to keep the veggie traditions alive, yet improve on them?

Traditions

It's the first Saturday of Dec. Traditionally the day that my father, The Hobbit, would gather us all together and put up the Xmas tree. My father LOVED Xmas. For a man so usually restrained and classy and self-assured, the Silly Season took hold of him in ways that I can't account for. It gave him permission to let his inner Tacky Consumer out for a run. Mum and Daddy-Oh's house was filled with bells that chimed "Silent Night", Nutcrackers which performed voice activated electronic renditions of "Sleigh Bells".

This the man who instilled in me a love of museums, art and architecture, but had "Hooked on Christmas" on loop for the entire month of December. One day I will blog about the Furtive Santa.

So today is the first time since he died that I have been able to get out my Xmas tree.

I must be his daughter in all senses, as my xmas tree is a tribute to tack.

It's a revolving, purple fibre-optic tree.

And I love it.

I love it more because My Dad bought it for me. We saw it in Target in Aug 2002 and both gasped with sheer wonder at the complete cheap tawdriness of it.

I proudly confess to assembling it on the August Saturday and displaying it a full FOUR months before anyone else.

I have had people knock on my door at night, breathless with the shlock frowziness of my tree, asking where I got it from.

So in about 1/2 an hour, Mater Beige is dropping by, we're going to have a coffee and dress my tree.

And talk about how much Dad would have loved it.

Will post photos when it's up.

Off to pop "Santa Baby" on loop.

Dis-Ease.

There's a trendy new one coined every day, or so it seems. Road rage is SOOOO last millennium.. the latest too-have disease is Phone rage. Wanting to reach through the receiver and rip the jugular out of the pillock on the other end, wanting to tell you all about the benefits of their new mobile phone plan.

Ha!!

What about ADHAD?

No, not the REAL disorder related to hyperactivity.. I mean Advertising Heightened Audio Disorder. The syndrome by which you just KNOW that ads are markedly louder than the preceding programme, but are unable to prove it.

Or PCOS?

Nothing to do with ovaries.. it's People Chatting out of Setting.. a disorder daily put up with by receptionists and check-out chicks everywhere, by which the sufferers actually thing you MEAN it when you ask "so, how's your day?", and proceed to tell you. In excruciating detail.

I discovered this weekend I am afflicted by the most heinous of these new syndromes.

Tolerance Intolerance.

As you might remember, dear reader, I have given up the smokes.. 8 weeks now and counting. My desire to bite the heads off live toddlers a-la Ozzy is waning. I no longer stalk smokers around my local shops, madly sniffing their wake like a scent hound... or a crazed middle-aged psychic reading their aura.

BUT.. I am still a little needy. A little snappy, if you will. A little quick to anger. To bridle.

And it's Xmas. My most un-loved holiday of the year. And I recently took a nasty fall and am dealing with a fractured rib.

So while traipsing around The Glen, looking for presents for people I don't actually like, spending money on things that I wouldn't personally be caught dead with, dealing with my desire to furtively lick the neck of the not-particularly attractive older male smoker in front of me, I decided that I am most definitely a suffer of Tolerance Intolerance.

I don't wish good will to all men. I am more likely to wish you "Happy Eugenics, and thanks for removing yourself from the gene pool". Silent Night? I don't think so, Bubka.. You ever tried living on a main road in "Drunken Idiot leaves Xmas Party at 4am and thinks he's Fangio" season?

Away in a Manger? If only, but Furry got retrenched last Friday, so it will be more like "Away in the Lounge Room" for OUR holiday this year.


We Three Kings From Orient Are, in our house, We three Gift Vouchers from K-mart Are.

Bah Humbug.

So when you ring me/email me/ send me a holiday card, and I reply like Doberman with 'roid rage, please remember.. it's not me. I am just suffering an acute and seasonal form of Tolerance Intolerance.

And depending on the lag between the festive bunting coming down and the East Eggs going up, it could be a few months before my syndrome is under control.