Santa Parades, Swimming Pools & Pineapple Sorbet

Well today finds me standing on the doorstep of Solstice *Yippee*

For the record I'm Pagan so we celebrate on the 21st not the 25th, but that's tomorrow and I was going to write about yesterday .. You see it was our towns annual 'Santa Parade' which I've boycotted for the last 7 yrs, yet still feel guilty about .. I'm sure my son would enjoy it, and I think(?) it would be good to show support and connect with my little community, but at the same time I'm anti it on principle (as is my daughter) .. We both rather despise 'Christmas' in general actually, from decorations to carols - except candy canes .. Candy canes are good, lol ..

But seriously, I mean no offence to any Christians, I think it's great you have your faith and celebrate your holidays! But the commercial aspects, the hypocrisy of non-believers and families that hate each other getting together and pretending to get along for one day each year is just too much for me to witness, not to mention the greed, pressure, stress and expectations .. Christmas is the time of year when mental hospitals are overflowing and suicide statistics peak :(

And that's no coincidence ..

I know I sound like a Scrooge, though in all honesty, sharing the bounty or taking the time to connect and remind our loved ones how important they are to us has my total backing .. As does creating a bit of fantasy and magic for a child .. But making someone dress up in fur in the middle of summer and throwing candy so that kids scamper and push each other to eat it off the street - well it makes me shudder ..

Anywho that's enough of that, and again I really don't mean to offend anyone as I truly respect we each have our own perspectives on the matter and I'd like to wish each and every person who reads this a wonderful 'whatever' tradition YOU have this time of year!

Sooo, being that I was feeling guilty I always end up making sure my son has a super fun day while the parade is going on elsewhere .. Being that it was a hot and muggy one we headed to the school pool for a swim .. Well I swam, the boy practised his jumps, and the girl sat on a picnic table txtíng friends and playing with my camera (she took these):



Look my dreads are red again!

In the afternoon we played puppets (fantasy play with soft toys), watched Scooby Doo & The Addams Family, and I made pizza from scratch and tweaked another recipe, this time for Pineapple Sorbet:

60gm sugar (blitzed to icing sugar in THX, 10sec, speed 9)
add 3 thick (2cm) slices of frozen pineapple and 1 tray of ice-cubes, 20sec, slowly increasing speed to 10 and then add second tray of ice-cubes

again increase speed to 10 until you can hear ice is crushed - use spatula to scrape down sides - total time to make = less than 2min!

I didn't think to add mint until I'd finished but it tasted great sprinkled over top too :)

Homemade v's Store Bought

In case no-one got the connection of why I showed photo's of our pet chooks yesterday, it was because of the ice-cream I mentioned making .. You see I've never made ice-cream from scratch before and wanted to try using the Thermomix to make some as it's the simplest way of making a custard base you could imagine, heating and stirring unattended while you go about your day ..

So there's a Basic Vanilla recipe in the book it came with (which I read online was 'too sweet') so making a few adjustments and tweaks here and there I went about creating my own Rum & Raisin version .. My reasoning with the flavour was that I always choose this when I get a scooped cone (a twice a year occurrence) as R&R is only available commercially in New Zealand, or at least I've never seen tubs/punnets of it being sold anywhere ..

Ingredients: 500g Cream, 500g Milk, 4 Egg Yolks, 150g Sugar, 1.5tspn Vanilla Paste (made with whole beans/seeds), 2tspn Rum Essence, Pinch of Salt, and 200g Raisins

* Put everything but the raisins into the Thermomix and cook for 5min at 80°c on speed 4
* Pour into (preferably chilled) stainless steel bowl, mix in raisins, and put in freezer until semi frozen
* Once set scoop chunks back into the Thermomix and churn for 20sec on speed 9, then for 10sec on speed 4
* Return to freezer until firm enough to scoop ..

I love how you can see the specks of Vanilla throughout, and only wish I'd had some real Rum to try instead of the essence ..

The Verdict: Perfecto - I'll never buy ice-cream again!

Other Daily News: I'm still sick with a (6wk) lung infection and now everyone is making hay so my allergies have been stirred up too .. I shouldn't complain as I'm heaps better but my energy is still very low and I'm getting frustrated at having to pace out everything I do garden wise .. I water all the pots in the courtyard and then I'm exhausted, sneezing, coughing etc .. I really hope I can shake this off before New Years ..