TheSilverThimble

Lattice Slice

This slice has been a popular one at our retreats.  Eva has kindly given me the recipe, so you can all enjoy!

LATTICE SLICE

2 pkts lattice biscuits, 125g. soft butter, 1/2 cup caster sugar, 250g cream cheese, 1 tspn. vanilla, 2 tspns. gelatine and 1 tblspn hot water.

Beat all ingredients except biscuits, water and gelatine.  Add cooled galatine/water to mixture.  Line lamington tin with glad wrap.  Cover with lattice biscuits, spread mixture over biscuits and top with more biscuits. Press down to even mixture - cover with glad wrap and freeze.  Cut into fingers when hard.

Enjoy!

Terriann's Toffeed Capsicum...

This is a very tasty sweet/savoury "jam" to serve with cream cheese and savoury biscuits.

2 tins diced capsicum

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup brown vinegar

Place all ingredients in saucepan and simmer slowly until jam consistency.  Watch closely and stir often.

Have been meaning to add this recipe to the list for ages.  It's very mooooor--ish!!

Sandy.

CURRIED BROWN RICE SALAD

One of the joys of Retreat weekends, is to taste all the lovely food that is brought along - from biscuits and slices, to quiches, salads and the hot pots.  This time, everyone wanted Sue C's recipe for

Curried Brown Rice Salad.

2 cups cooked brown rice, 1 stick celery, 1/2 small green capsicum,  1/2 small red capsicum (all chopped), 1/4 cup sultanas, 1/4 cup raisins and 1/2 cup walnuts (or cashews)

Dressing: 1 tblspn lemon juice, 2 tspns curry powder, 1 tspn grated ginger, 3 tblspns salad oil, 1 tblspn chutney, S & P.

Mix lemon juice in jar with curry powder, ginger, S & P. till smooth.  Stir in oil and chutney, cover and shake well.  Chill.

Place rice in bowl with chopped celery and capsicum, add sultanas, raisins and nuts.  Pour dressing over, toss and chill for 1 hour before serving.

Delicious!!

 

Tried and tested recipes for you...

This was a favourite at the recent workshop held at the Cultural Centre.

 

JUNE'S DATE SLICE

230g butter,

2/3 cup sugar,

500g dates,

1 pkt Marie biscuits (broken up into about 8 pieces),

1 egg and 1 tspn vanilla  (mixed together)     Coconut

 

METHOD    Melt butter, sugar and dates in a saucepan, add broken biscuits then egg/vanilla mix.

Put coconut on the bottom of a slice tray, put mixture in and press down, cover with coconut.  Place in fridge and cut in squares when cold.

 

Natalie spoke of this one and made us all wish we visited her regularly!!

 

BAKED QUINCE PASTE CAMEMBERT

1 sheet puff pastry

100g fig or quince paste

1 x 250g wheel camembert cheese (or Brie)

1 egg yolk lightly beaten with 1 tspn melk

 

METHOD  Place pastry sheet onto a baking paper lined tray.  Place slices of quince paste in the centre roughly the same size as the cheese.  Place camembert on top and enclose in pastry, pinching sides together.

Brush with egg and bake 200c for 25-30 mins.    Allow to cool slightly.

Sounds yummy!!

 

Treats from Retreat...

One of the real bonuses of a retreat weekend, are all the goodies in the food department, that you simply have to taste!  Jean bought along not one, but two special slices.  Everyone must have liked this one, 'cause it was gone in the blink of an eye!!

 

NO BAKE BISCUIT SLICE

1 pkt arrowroot or plain biscuits (crushed), 4 tblspns condensed milk, 1/2 cup chopped nuts, 125g butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tspn ground ginger.

Method.  Combine butter, condensed milk and brown sugar in saucepan.  Stir over low heat until melted, then add ginger, chopped nuts and biscuits.  Mix well and press in to 11 x 9 inch tray and refrigerate.  Cut into squares.  (can be iced with lemon icing)

 

CASHEW CARAMEL SLICE

BASE 1 cup plain flour, 1 tblsp cocoa, 3/4 cup desiccated coconut, 125g butter, (melted) 1/2 cup caster sugar, 1 tspn vanilla.

CARAMEL 395g can condensed milk, 125g butter, (chopped) 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup golden syrup, 2 tspns vanilla, 2 tspns finely grated orange rind, 1 cup chopped (unsalted) roasted cashews or nuts of your choice.

Lightly grease an 18cm x 28cm slice tray.  Line base and sides with baking paper.   Sift flour and cocoa into a large bowl.  Add coconut, butter, sugar and vanilla.  Stir until combined.  Press mixture over base of prepared tray.  Cook in a mod. oven for about 15 mins or until lightly browned.

Meanwhile, to make caramel, combine condensed milk, butter, brown sugar, golden syrup and vanilla in a medium pan.  Stir over heat until butter and sugar are dissolved.  Bring to boil then simmer, stirring constantly, for about 10 mins, or until mixture turns light golden brown.  Remove from heat and stir in rind and nuts.  Pour hot caramel over hot base, tilting pan to spread to edges.  Return to oven for about 15 to 20 mins, or until dark golden brown.  Cool slice in tray, then turn onto chopping board to cut into triangles.

These were just two of the tempters, there were many, many more!!

A couple of months back,  Dee wanted to make a scrappy quilt but wasn't sure which one to choose.  I'm a huge fan of a scrappy bargello, so she bought down her box of bits and pieces and we played for a while, sorting the colours into groups etc.  With the addition of only a few FQ's from the shop, the result was stunning.

Due to a couple of medical appointments for Bruce this week, there will be no Tuesday or Thursday late night sewing.  Maybe I'll get some more posts on the blog if I'm home more often!!

Talk soon, Sandy.

 

 

 

Passionfruit Slice...

Photo courtesy of www.taste.com.au

 

Base 1 cup SR flour, 1 cup Desiccated Coconut, 1/2 cup caster sugar, 125gm butter (melted)

Topping  395g tin Condensed Milk, 1/2 cup lemon juice, 1/3 cup passionfruit pulp (3 or 4)

Method    Preheat oven 180 o.  Line an 18cm x 27cm tray with baking paper.

Combine flour, coconut and sugar, stir in melted butter.  Mix well.  Press evenly into tray. 

Bake 15 mins.

Combine milk, lemon juice & passionfruit pulp in a bowl, beat with wooden spoon till smooth.

Pour mixture over hot base & bake further 15 minutes until set.

Cool & cut into squares.

 

Marg W. bought this along to our recent retreat - it's delicious! (and very mooorish!)

Winter cleaning on a Spring like day...

I've spent a fair bit of the day at the shop today - doors closed and moving things around!  Something you just cannot do when you're open for trading, at least I can't anyway.  There's a whole lot of new fabric coming late next month, so I needed to be ready for it, plus with all the preparation for the Bargello weekend, things got a little bit neglected "out the front".  "Amy's Loose Change" is on the bed, along with a few new cushions and things are much tidier now.  I still have some fabrics to move into the $10 shelf which was almost emptied out.  Yes, that's a whole lot of new Specials!  Some of them have quite a bit of metreage, so would make great backings at that price.

Finally, finally, the Bushfire quilts are ready to go, packed in their boxes and ready for addressing.  (Didn't have it with me today or that would have been done too.) There were several tops to be quilted, bound and labelled and this has taken quite a while, along with everything else.  There were 18 in total, some of them quite large.  Thanks again to everyone who participated.  I heard on the radio today, that the maximum temp. in the bushfire area on Sunday, was 4 degrees along with a blanket of fog until 4 pm!  So glad, I live in a generally warmer climate!!

 

I have been having a bit of a love affair with white lately.  That's white fabric, mixed with other colours - and the more, the merrier!  So totally unsuitable for my house, and probably definitely not a good colour for my family, however sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do!  And white is the go at the moment, for me!  A sneek peek at something I'm working on at home...

 

These are some lovely fabrics that I received for my never ending birthday, so I'm sure someone will be very pleased to see that they have been used almost immediately!!  And they will have quite a bit of white mixed in.  All will be revealed just as soon as I complete it - well maybe at the pinning stage, 'cause I'll have to take it to the shop and use the big table.  I even like the look of those wonky squares as a quilting design.

 

One of the highlights of our retreat weekends is the food!  Generally, more than we can ever eat and all delicious.  A special treat was provided by Marg W. in the form of a decadent chocolate sauce, in which you dipped fresh fruit before devouring!  A good way to get your daily intake of fresh fruit and dairy all in one!  Sssshhh about the calories!

Marg's Decadent Chocolate Sauce

150g chocolate, 50g butter, 500mls cream, 80g brown sugar and 20g cocoa powder.

Combine all ingredients and allow to melt over a low heat until the mixture is smooth.

Note:  This is a great sauce to have on hand even if it's just to have over ice cream or as a dessert sauce.  It will go quite firm in the fridge but it can be warmed back to it's sauce consistency.

Way to go, Tressie!!

Having been brought up on mutton as a kid but living on beef for the last forty or so years, I still love a feed of tender mutton.  Mary brought along a leg for cold meat -delicious!! - and I got to bring the remainder home.  Spoilt!!  All I needed, was a jar of my Aunty Edna's Green Tomato Pickles but alas, it's years since I made any of that.  So I was thinking of you Aunty Edna!!  Enjoyed the mutton just the same, thanks Mary!

Mary also gave me a gift from The Silver Thimble, ALASKA.  A cute little fat eighth and a calendar.  I have emailed my thanks to the owner of the shop.

Special thoughts for Fiona (the ever so quick on the draw, for the extra Amy Butler strips) who is tackling a bit of a health issue at the moment.  Thinking of you and enjoy your sewing with the "happy" fabrics.

Talk soon, Sandy.

Jean's Macadamia/Chocolate Biscuits

One of the favourite treats at the recent retreat were Jean's biscuits.  No wonder they were so yummy!  Silly me, didn't realise that they had choccy in them!!

INGREDIENTS

150g softened butter

150g castor sugar

1/2 tspn salt

2 eggs

250g plain flour

1 tspn baking pwdr

250g white chocolate

100g macadamia nuts

METHOD

Beat butter, sugar & salt with electric mixer until pale and creamy then beat eggs in, one at a time.  Sift the flour and baking pwdr together in a separate bowl.

Chop the nuts and chocolate finely.  Fold nuts, chocolate and flour mixture into butter mix.  Turn mixture onto floured board and form into a 30cm log.  Wrap in cling wrap & regrigerate until firm.

Preheat oven to 190degrees C, cut the log into 5mm slices and place on a lined baking tray, leaving enough room for spreading.

Bake for 15 - 20 mins or until a pale gold colour.  Cool slightly on tray before transferring to rack.  Store in airtight container when cool.  Makes about 4 dozen.

Thanks Jean!

Marg and Lionel's Bikkies

These were the favourite bikkies from last weekend's retreat, so as before, I'm keeping it as a separate post.  They work best, when you've got Lionel to check the oven!

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats, 4 cups cornflakes, 2 cups desiccated coconut, 2 cups caster sugar, 1 1/2 cups pl. flour (sifted) 2 cups sultanas, 250g butter, (roughly chopped) 1/2 cup golden syrup, 2 teaspns. bicarb soda and 1/3 cup boiling water.

Method

Preheat oven to 180c.  Line trays with baking paper.

Combine oats, cornflakes, coconut, sugar, flour and sultanas in a large bowl.

Combine butter, golden syrup, bicarb. soda and water in a small saucepan over low heat.  Cook, stirring, for 4 mins or until butter has melted.  Stir butter mixture into dry ingredients.  Mix well.

Place spoonful of mixture on tray - allow room for spreading.  Bake 12 to 15 mins.  Cool on trays.

Thanks Marg and Lionel, they were great!

Sandy.

Eva's Carrot Cake

INGREDIENTS

1 cup edible vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 cups plain flour

1 tspn each,bi-carb soda, baking powder, mixed spice, cinnamon and salt

3 cups grated carrot

1 cup chopped walnuts

Beat together oil, sugar and eggs until well combined.  Add carrot then flour and spices then walnuts.

Pour into lined tin (10" or 25cm square)

Bake for 1 1/2 hrs in moderate oven.  Allow to cool in tin for about 10 mins, then onto rack to cool.

Cream cheese icing

4ozs cream cheese

1 tspn vanilla

1 1/2 cups sifted icing sugar

a little milk to mix

Beat cheese and vanilla until creamy then add icing sugar.  Beat until light and fluffy.

Thanks Eva!