On the day of the Solstice (and a full moon! and a lunar eclipse!)

I made gingerbread trees for our table. I love making  gingerbread and trees are fabulous for an edible centrepiece. I make mine with spelt for an extra special nutty texture and flavour.

Spelt gingerbread
185g butter at room temperature
1 egg

450g plain spelt flour
170g brown sugar
1tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp ground ginger
1tsp ground nutmeg
1tsp garam masala
190g golden syrup

Place all of the ingredients in the bowl and mix together for 15 seconds on speed 4. Close the lid locked and knead for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and knead for another 30 seconds. Tip the dough out onto a silicone mat and knead together into a ball. Wrap in the mat and rest for half an hour. Roll out (I use a wooden rolling pin but you can use two pieces of baking paper if you like. I go for about half a cm (5mm) in thickness. Cut out 3 stars in 5 different sizes, place on the baking mat and bake at 180C for 10-12 minutes. Place on the cooling rack to cool.

To assemble a tree - melt 100g of chocolate (I use white but you can use milk or dark). Put the three largest stars together on the bottom, askew from each other, using the chocolate to cement them. Let it dry for a few minutes, then do the same thing with the next 3 sized stars and onwards upwards. Decorate with drizzled chocolate leftovers, or cashous, or icing sugar.

On the day before Solstice my Thelma gave to me (eleventh)...

So it's day 11 today and Solstice is tomorrow. I've been asked a lot recently about my plans for Christmas which is funny because it is a day of rest in the Thermocauldron household! We volunteer in the morning and then have an open house in the afternoon for waifs and orphans who would like to be somewhere other than alone, at home, or with relatives. We watch Colin Firth - it's the highlight of my year.

I say that our celebration happens a little earlier than Saturday, and that we have a big dinner with lots of seasonal stuff, and presents, and so forth. Amid cries of "You'll deprive Thermochild of Things! And Stuff!!" I explain that no, she's little and won't get it, and no she's not deprived either - her present pile this year is the biggest. Plus seriously - people enjoy our before-Christmas Solstice event because it's before Christmas.

What I do love about Solstice this year is that I get to do my cooking in 2 days, rather than 2 weeks. This is the menu and how Thelma is going to be working hard:

• peach/champagne cocktails
• fruit punch
• tuna dip
• hommus
• avocado dip
• dukka
• crackers
• raw veges for dipping (ok that's not Thelma-assisted)
• baked veges (the seasoning is Thelma-made)
• rum balls
• chocolate cake piled with whipped cream, cherries, flaked chocolate and strawberry sauce
• fruit sorbet (pina colada aka pineapple/coconut with rum to make it not set as hard)
• chai
• trifle (cake, custard, jelly)
• shortbread tree

Mains are on the bbq as brought by guests, as are salads - but of cours a beetroot one will be in there ;). I don't have any allergies in the guests coming so it means I can make things in rapid succession too with minimal cleaning. 

So today I'll:

• make the trifle cake and put it out to dry a little before soaking it tonight
• make the dips
• make the rumballs
• and the chocolate cake
• and the strawberry sauce
• and the flaked chocolate
• make the spices mix for the veges (as it's also a present)

which won't take me long at all! I think shopping for ingredients, picking the best strawberries and cherries and avocadoes, will take longer.

On the tenth day of Solstice, my Thelma gave to me

Well actually Lori at My Kitchen Robot gave me this idea. At her house on Friday she had a tea that had been gifted to her - a lovely coconut chai. It was delicious and I was inspired to make my next one coconut flavoured! Here's the recipe:

Coconut chai for 2
1/2 quill of cinnamon
0.5cm piece of ginger (or a small amount of ginger in a jar)
2 cardamom pods
3 cloves
A few gratings of nutmeg
3 peppercorns
2tsp black tea leaves
1T coconut shards or pieces or similar (not dessicated)
1tsp raw sugar
300g water
200g milk

Put the spices (not the nutmeg) and sugar, and half of the coconut into the bowl and process for 10-15 seconds at speed 8. Add the water and milk into the bowl. Insert the bowl and put the tea and the coconut into the bowl. Cook for 8 minutes on speed 4 at 80C only. Taste and adjust the sweetness with honey if you like, before serving!

On the tenth day of Solstice my Thelma gave to me

A listing on a great website! Lookit! Super Kitchen Machine has listed this here blog on the list of Best Bimby blogs and Thermomic sites! With a teeny "new" label and everything! But not as many exclaimation marks as here!

Thankyou to MKR at My Kitchen Robot for the heads up about this - a text messag while I was at work in retail the week before Christmas really cheered me up! It's very exciting to be "noticed" by other people but it also means I need to get my finger out and blog here more consistently and more often.

Perhaps some photos as well?

On the ninth day of Solstice, my Thelma gave to me

10 great gift ideas! This was inspired by a post I saw on a blog where the suggestions seemed a little bit off my radar - truffle oil? Why would I want that? I use it to drizzle on eggs or add it as an extra to a dressing or dipping oil, rather than an ingredient in things. Maybe I'm using it wrong?

This was actually inspired by a post over at My Kitchen Robot, not the one that I originally linked to but as Helene has commented about this post not the other one, I've just crossed out of what I wrote. Capiche? I'm confused, I don't know about you.

I've made a few of these as well ;). Here are 10 things that you could make with a Thermomix:

1. Raw truffles, truffles, rumballs, apricot balls, etc etc. So many options so you can find something that suits people who are gluten intolerant, nut allergic, dairy reluctant, low fat, high chocolate.
2. Vanilla sugar. There is a recipe in the EDC but mine was to use 3 vanilla beans and 600g of raw sugar, processed at speed 8 until it resembled sand. Bottle, label, share, use.
3. Lemon butter. Again, there is a recipe in the EDC and I did post about it when I made a lot of it.
4. Spice mixes - so many options to try! Sweet (cinnamon and cloves and sugar), spicy (chilli and pepper and cardamom), warm (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger), lemon salt rub, garam masala style, Moroccan.
5. Spicy tea mix - chai perhaps?
6. Anything that would freeze well, and fill someone's freezer with goodness. It could be sorbet, or some stroganoff, or something else yummy and your signature dish!
7. Vegetable stock concentrate is often requested and I can usually trade a jar for a dozen eggs, or a small favour.
8. Dukkah! I love it and the EDC recipe makes a lot but I use it as a rub for vegetables and meat as well.
9. Spinach pesto - use the last of the spinach in the garden to make, instead of basil, to bottle some
10. Jam or sauce with whatever fruit is around. Citrus, berries, stonefruit are all in season and so suited for bottling! You can also preserve it under a sugar syrup, if you want to use the Thermomix but want to use the lovely fruit whole.

On the eighth day of Solstice my Thelma made for me

Cake

A lot of things! I got up at 6am this morning (ugh) and made chocolate cake for my housemate's birthday. I made a double batch of the chocolate cake out of the EDC so I could make cupcakes for TheHusband as well, and it really wasn't a huge batch of cake. Which was odd given the huge amount of butter in it. It was a delicious cake though, with a simple ganache over the top (also from the EDC).

Biscuits

I then made biscuits. I used the chocolate chip recipe out the EDC but put 100g of seeds in with the sugar so that they got creamed in with the sugar and butter. I then added 100g of sultanas at the end and made do without chocolate chips, which I don't like much anyway. I did end up overprocessing the biscuits which had two effects - the butter started to melt so the texture was gross when handling them, and it made the biscuits almost shortbread in texture. Interesting.

Bread

I then put bread in to rise.

Bread recipe that's the best one so far
270g warm water
1 small palm sized collection of raw sugar
15g olive oil
Pinch of salt
500g bread mix, bread flour, flours
2tsp yeast

Assemble in that order in the bowl. Mix for 30 seconds at speed 4-5. Lock lid and knead for 2.5 minutes. I'm not sure if mine needs this long because it's an "ancient grains" mix so lower in gluten, but without this kneading it's like a brick. Leave it in the bowl until it peaks out of the top hole (or set aside in a warm spot to double in size, if you need the jug!). Lock lid and knead for another 2 minutes. Shape into a loaf and put into a cold oven, set to 200C, for 30 minutes or until baked (sounds hollow when rapped on the bottom). 

Vanilla sugar

and playdough
I packed up after mixing the dough, and went to the amazing My Kitchen Robot's house to make things and hang out with my mama tribe. I can hardly call it a "mothers group" when it's more of a tribe than a group. It's the best part of my week most weeks and this time we met at a house. I whipped up vanilla sugar (3 very dried out beans, 600g raw sugar, whizz up and voila! another gift done!) and then made faildough, which was made (a) with the same recipe (b) at the same time and (c) within metres of MKR's deliciously soft and doughy dough, and mine was like, well, putty. Nearly dried out putty. Though I did use different flour, and I used tartaric acid rather than cream of tartar, so that's probably the reason. I'm going to make ornaments out of mine today I think.

Soup

After that, I whipped up soup for 8+ people in 20 minutes. I used the Moroccan Lentil soup but didn't have lentils so added a large tin of 4 bean mix and it was delicious!! It was nommed up with gusto by children and adults alike, and went well with the bread I made while the soup was souping.

So you can just see my car can't you - 3 bags of clothes for someone who's expecting a babe in the new year but didn't get to the clothes swap the other week, a jar of lemon butter to swap for eggs, my picnic basket with flour, food colouring, an onion, premeasured spices for the soup, a tin of beans, two of tomatoes, bits and pieces, Thelma all gravid with proving dough, my bag, my camera, Thermobaby's acoutrement (she travels light though), a sling or two, hat, water bottle etc etc. It might have looked like I'd left home and was moving in.

At least I brought food!

Though TheHusband tells me that when he got home and there was no wife, no babe, and no Thelma - he momentarily thought the worst! That I'd left home and taken all that was important with him ;).

The view, sounds and energy of two dueling Thermomixes on My Kitchen Robot's benchtop was a sight to behold though. It was momentarily confusing to hear one working away, and the other chiming completeness, and both MKR and I had confused looks because we could hear/see our own working but were compelled to answer the chime as well! Mr MKR wasn't sure what to make of it all though when he got home, but I think seeing a happy MKR and fed people made sense to him.

On the seventh day of Solstice...

My Thelma suggested that I post 10 gift ideas for someone who has a Thermomix, because one could suggest that it is the smallest kitchen ever so what more could one want? This was inspired by a post I saw on a blog where the suggestions seemed a little bit off my radar - truffle oil? Why would I want that? I use it to drizzle on eggs or add it as an extra to a dressing or dipping oil, rather than an ingredient in things. Maybe I'm using it wrong?

ETA: Helene of Super Kitchen Machine has commented on the original place that I wrote this comment, to say:

Dear Emma: So sorry that my list was a little off your radar -- but glad to hear it did inspire this list of yours ;-) (thanks for the link, btw!) . The truffle oil was mentioned as something special that I would want for myself. I have never had truffle oil in, or anywhere near my house! It's just too 'precious' for someone as frugal as me. And yes, I agree -- I too would use it oh-so-sparingly to add just a drop or two of flavor to something special. Reason I thought of this is because I had an outrageously good pizza a while ago that was quite scant on the toppings but rendered impressive by the drizzle of truffle oil on top. Gourmet pizza is so easy to do with Thermomix and I am wishing that someone will gift me with a tiny amount of the oil to experiment with. I hope that all your Christmas dreams come true and that you have a lovely time with your little family. I love keeping up with your Thermomix adventures, so have fun and keep up the great work!

But here are 10 things that I still use lots, if not more, now that I have Thelma in my life:

1. A good grater to take the zest off things. I get a lot of use out of my Tupperware one as it has a serrated edge on it that just takes the zest off.
2. Silicon baking mat! Really important for baking things that come out of the Thermomix.
3. Large storage containers because once you have a Thermomix you buy flour, sugar, spices etc in bulk. I like Tupperware ones as well for the 5kg ish of flour I buy at a time.
4. A good bread tin for baking the bread that they can now easily make.
5. Something from your own kitchen! Because a baker likes nothing more than to be gifted something to say that they can have a break in the kitchen now.
6. Vanilla essence, paste or beans. Buy some delicious indulgent ones and tie them with a bow.
7. Jars, bottles, tins or similar for storing the things they make! Or a big cookie jar, bread tin, 
8. Tea cups  or coffee cups! I love Bodum double walled ones which are great for serving hot and cold dishes.
9. A nice apron, tea towel, oven mits combination perhaps?
10. A knife and chopping board. I bought an extra special handmade wood one and a lovely knife, because I used them a LOT more now that I have Thelma.
11. I lied - there's an extra one that comes to mind. Dip bowls and platters would also be great!
12. And another! Help! Stop! The ideas are flowing! Cookie cutters? They'd be great!

On the sixth day of Solstice my Thelma gave to me...

A recipe for a great summer salad! MKR over at My Kitchen Robot requested salads to trial and adapt to Thelma and here is my recipe. Pop over to her blog to see photos, the changes she made (including adapting it to quinoa so it was gluten-free!) and some great ideas for subbing mango for what's on hand and local! I've copied her adaptation method here though to show how you can take a recipe and Thelma-ise it.

My tastes like summer salad recipe would be great!

1 cup Israeli cous cous (or other small pasta)

1 cup good vegetable stock

1/2 cup water

300g-500g green salad leaves

100g goats cheese or feta

1 mango

1 small chicken breast

1 tablespoon spices such as chilli, cinnamon, coriander seed, cumin, salt and pepper

1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon olive oil

Mix spices together and rub on chicken. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes. Place stock in a saucepan and bring to simmer. Add cous cous and then the water - it should just cover the cous cous. Simmer covered for 10 minutes or until the cous cous is soft. Drain, reserving the stock. Toss the oil and lemon juice through the warm cous cous. Pan fry the chicken with a splash of oil and 1/2 cup of reserved stock, covered with a lid so it almost poaches. Remove from pan and leave to cool a little before shredding.

To assemble salad, cut up the mango and cheese then put the greens in a bowl, add the chicken and mango and tomatoes and cheese, then the cous cous. Toss gently to combine. A sprinkle of chilli is perfect on top if you want extra kick. 

To adapt to gluten free, sub cous cous for quinoa. Vegetarian - swap tofu for chicken. Dairy free - swap the cheese for avocado and/or toasted nuts (pine nuts, sliced almonds, cashews). Add fresh herbs to compliment. 

Serves 6 as a salad or 3-4 as a main.

Thelma adaptation from My Kitchen Robot

1. Add spices to TM bowl, toast on Varoma temperature at speed 1 for 5 minutes. Grind on speed 9 for 1 minute to turn the spices into powder. Coat the chicken breast in with the spice mix and a little olive oil and the. Put aside for 10 minutes.
2. Fill the bowl with water up to the 1 litre mark and add the stock concentrate. Add the chicken to to lower level of the Varoma steamer and spread the quinoa on the upper tray. Steam for 20-25 minutes, until both the chicken and quinoa are cooked.
3. While the chicken and quinoa are cooking, wash the salad leaves and tomatoes and slice the peaches.
4. Once cooked remove the chicken and allow to cool before slicing. Dress the quinoa with the lemon juice and olive oil while still warm. To assemble the salad, put the greens into a bowl, add the sliced peaches, tomatoes, chicken, quinoa then crumble the feta over the top. Toss gently to combine.
Serves 6 as a side salad or 3-4 as a main.

On the fifth day of Solstice my Thelma celebrated tomatoes with me!!

Oh yay for tomato season! And herb season! So easy to whip up soup and here's mine from dinner.

Tomato feta soup
1 onion
20g oil
6 tomatoes
100g pureed tomatoes
1L water
2T sweet chilli sauce
4T vegetable stock concentrate
1 bunch of herbs
2 spring onions, sliced (oh no! You will have to use a knife! Or process first, remove and then make the soup)
200g feta, cubed

Skin and quarter the onion. Add to the bowl, add the oil, process on speed 4 for 10 seconds. Turn up to 100C for 5 minutes on reverse on speed 2. Add the tomatoes and process at speed 6 for 10 seconds. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for 10 minutes at 100C on speed 2. Taste and adjust seasoning. Put a small pile of feta in a bowl then ladel soup over.

Oh the fourth day of Solstice my Thelma made for me...

Strawberry sauce.

So easy. And great when you have something like donuts or chocolate/fruit that needs something extra. It's so quick and instant though that it's easy to whip up to store! You could freeze it as it won't keep in the fridge for long, and always have strawberry sauce/flavour.

Strawberry sauce
100g strawberries
4T icing sugar (about 70-80g of raw sugar, blended down)
1 dash of vanilla
1 squeeze of lemon

Pull the tops off the strawberries and throw into the bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients. Blend down on speed 3 for 10 seconds then up to 6 for another 10. Taste and add more sugar if it's too tart.

On the third day of Solstice, my Thelma made eggy custard for me!

Anyone else struggle just a bit with how "eggy" the EDC custard is? I do. I don't mind it but given that TheHusband and I eat a whole serve of it, that's a whole egg each which does seem to be a lot of egg. And even with less cornflour the custard is still really eggy.

So next time I'll reduce it to:

Vanilla custard
1 egg
500mL full cream milk
80g sugar
1/2tsp of the best vanilla paste possible
35g cornflour

Put all of these in the jug. Cook for 8 minutes on speed 6, at 90 degrees. It will change tune a couple of times and that is really awesome to listen to!

On the second day of Solstice my Thelma made (muffins) for me!

Oh how I love muffins. Once upon a time I was muffin on the precursor to chat because I (a) adore muffins and (b) make really good ones. Here is my adaptation for the Thermomix. Keep in mind that this is a very "loose" recipe. In this case, I adapted what I was making to what was in my fridge and the flours I was using. The recipe in the EDC is pretty good so don't be afraid of using it if you can't follow this or don't have some of the ingredients.

Apple and sultana muffins
2 apples (I used Granny Smith), cored and quartered
50g sultanas
150g raw sugar
150g plain white flour
170g plain spelt flour
2tsp baking powder
175g milk
2T yoghurt (I used Greek)
2 eggs

Put the apple in the bowl. Add the sugar and process for 4-5 seconds on speed 6 until the apple is in slivers. Add everything else and process on reverse on speed 5 for 15 seconds. Do not over process as it makes the muffins chewy! Have a peak at it as it goes around - it should look like Bircher muesli / oatmeal at this stage. Add a bit more milk or yoghurt if it needs to be thinner, and a bit more flour if it's too runny. Spoon into muffin cases and bake at 190C for 12-15 minutes (check a skewer is clean on skewering them before taking them out). Cool on a rack or eat them hot!

Oh yum. So good. Good to freeze, will keep for a week in an airtight container, and easy to adapt. Swap the apple and sultana for another fruit. Add spice. Add chocolate chips. Enjoy!

And now for my second love - savoury muffins. There is nothing quite as good as these to take for lunch, for having something savoury at a party instead of bread, for splitting in half and stuffing bits of cheese into etc etc. Again, a very flexible recipe - I've done tomato and capsicum, ham and cheese, salmon and dill, and so on. These freeze really well and I make giant ones when I'm on placement so I can take one or two with me as well as a tin of tuna or something protein-y. Now that I have a Thermomix I can do it quickly and easily.

Spring onion and cheese muffins
100g cheese (I used tasty but anything hard would be fine)
2 spring onions, cut into 2" pieces (trim off the root end)
150g plain white flour170g plain spelt flour
2tsp baking powder
200g milk
4T yoghurt (I used Greek)
2 eggs
1tsp seeded mustard

Put the cheese in the bowl after cutting it into 1" cubes. Process for 3-5 seconds on speed 6 until it's in 1cm pieces. Add the spring onion and process for a few more seconds. Add the rest of the ingredients and process on reverse on speed 5 for 15 seconds. Do not over process as it makes the muffins chewy! Have a peak at it as it goes around - it should look like Bircher muesli / oatmeal at this stage but probably won't as you haven't got the sugar in there. Add a bit more milk if it needs to be thinner, and a bit more flour if it's too runny. Spoon into muffin cases and bake at 190C for 12-15 minutes (check a skewer is clean on skewering them before taking them out). Cool on a rack or eat them hot!

On the first day of Solstice, my Thelma made for me

On Forum Thermomix I posted:

I have 14 very juicy lemons...
So please, lend me your lemon recipes!!! for things that I can preserve. Or else that's a lot of lemon butter Wink Grin.

So I've used up a few things:
14 eggs
7 lemons
Lots of sugar
More butter than you need to know about

= 10 jars of lemon butter so far. Plus some extra for a smidge of a jar that is in the fridge for me. I really hope that this will help spread a bit of Solstice cheer around my lovely friends.

To sum up my approach to this season, here's a post I put elsewhere:

We hold our traditions strongly - celebrate the Solstice with food and candles and wishes for the new year, then Christmas day we volunteer in the morning as a family, and have an open house for waifs and orphans in the afternoon/evening with lots of food and drinks, and a Colin Firth marathon starting with Love, Actually. 

Probably the least "trad" way of celebrating but we've done it 5 years running now and love it. Low cost, low stress, genuine and sincere celebration of what Christmas means to us, and uniquely ours ;). This is my daughter's first and I can't wait to share it with her.

Part of it is also to cook and make many of the gifts we give at this time of the year. This year it'll be a lot of Thelma-assisted ones too.

Forgive me, Thermocauldron Demonstrator, for I have sinned

This is a "guest post" from TheHusband.

Who confessed to me last night that he had gotten cocky with the instructions for making a beetroot salad.

And went 1 second over the recommendation. I wasn't home to discuss this at the time. 

And so instead, we ended up with beetroot mush. Which was tasty. And colourful and edible. It was just mushy.

He sent my friendly demonstrator a note to this effect as well.

When I told her today her suggestion was, of course, "Add a block of cream cheese and you'd have dip!". I'm not sure it would have suited the fish we ate with it though.

Where for art thou, Thelma?

We went on holidays! Sorry for the abrupt transmission ceasing but I didn't really want to advertise that we were away. Because I'm not that dumbarse to invite people to come into my house.

So we went away to the beautiful Second Valley here in South Australia. We rented a cottage that had 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, a small lounge, a toilet and bathroom and that was it. It was walking distance to the beach, and a little shop that sold some bare necessities. We took Thelma with us and made lunch salads, and dinner each night.

Some learnings:

• mince smells foul when it's off as we discovered on the first night
• home blended taco mix works really well in the Thermomix
• if the sauce is too thin when making any dish where you can fish the meat out of the bowl, add a forkfull or two of plain flour, whiz for 15 seconds on speed 4 and voila! a thicker sauce!
• pack vege stock, plain flour, an onion or two, some veges and fruit and a beetroot and you can make a lot of meals while you're away!
• buy meat while you're in the area rather than trying to take it with you