I have made a little pact with myself to *try* not bake anything for the next 3 weeks because, in 4 weeks, I have to be able to fit into a wedding dress and not look like I eat cupcakes every day. What?! No! Okay...most days. Especially when my students do cooking in Home Ec and bring me the delicious things they bake (especially especially especially chocolate chip filled muffins that I am totally getting the recipe for). It's bad manners to turn down cake.
So, to avoid any wedding day wardrobe malfunctions-bulging out in weird places-back cleavage scenarios, I have got to lay off the baked goods.
Which actually makes me sad, not only because I will be missing out on my daily sugar binge but because I LIKE to bake. It's my thing. Right now I seem to have very little control over many aspects of my life - my transfer, the wedding guest list, moving house, my timetable - but the one thing I can control is how many chochips and how much buttercream.
To fill the void in my oven I am trying out a few new savoury things that are hopefully healthy as well. Tonight was Chicken Kofta. These probably didn't live up to my expectations because Lamb Kofta is just heaven on a stick. That said they were still delicious, I just had higher hopes. Fortunately a drizzle of sweet chilli sauce really helped boost them along.
Chicken Kofta
1/2 brown onion
1 garlic clove
1/3 cup pinenuts
1 tsp cumin
a collection of herbs...coriander, parsley etc..
600g chicken mince
1 egg
1/2 cup couscous
Whaz the pinenuts into little chunks, dice the onion and combine with the garlic and the cumin. Fry this mixture on low heat until it smells delicious.
Whisk the egg in a large bowl, add the chicken, herbs and nut mixture and the couscous and mix to combine.
This will be a fairly sticky mixture but try the best you can to make sausage like shapes out of similar sized chunks of the mixture. Obviously you want them to cook evenly so similar size is good. Mine were about 10cm long. Lay the sausage shapes on a tray and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
This gives the mixture some time to become less sticky so once they are done take them out and reshape it you need to. Insert a skewer into the centre of the chicken sausage shapes and then grill. I actually put mine on a sandwich press which worked great and then popped them in the oven for about 15minutes just to ensure they were cooked through.
Serve with salad, greek yoghurt and sweet chilli sauce. - These also work amazingly for lunch the next day on a pita wrap.
It's my mister's birthday. That means wrapping paper and presents and surprises and cake.
I love cake. I love tiny cupcakes that are like little pieces of love wrapped in paper. I love the smooth creamy decadence of cheesecakes. I love bold warm chocolate cakes. I love buttery fruitcakes. I love silky red-velvet cakes. But most of all I LOVE the almost-smokey, dense deliciousness that is caramel mudcake.
It all starts with the sensual goodness that is melted butter and brown sugar. Swirl in vanilla and golden syrup and.......wait for it....... yes, that's right - white chocolate.
I understand if, at this point, you need a moment to sit and stare in awe at those words. It is the most inspiring collection of delicious things combined in one wholesome warm saucepan of happiness.
But it doesn't end there. There is more, so much more. The lashing of white chocolate cream in the centre. The drizzle of caramel frosting over the top and the strawberries to compliment the entire glorious combination of flavours.
This is perfection for me. The delicate balance between melting and burning, simmering and boiling, whisking and combining. I promise it is worth the wait.
Happy Birthday My Love!
How to do it
200g butter
1 cup brown sugar
200g white chocolate
180ml hot water
2 tablespoons golden syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup plain flour
1 cup SR flour
Heat the butter, sugar, water, golden syrup, vanilla extract and chocolate in a saucepan until melted and well combined.
Let this mixture cool to room temperature (I placed mine in a sink of cool water to help speed this up). Once cool, whisk in the eggs. Sift in the flours and gently mix until combined.
Pour the mixture into a cake tin (at this point I divided mine in half and cooked each half separately so that I could sandwich the two halves together with white chocolate cream). As usual, bake times always vary. I could say 45-60 minutes or I could say until the smell of your kitchen makes you smile and the top of your cake bounces back.
Once out of the oven you MUST let it cool. This is the part I always struggle with. Self control and cake should never be said in once sentence but at this point it is necessary and to help pass the time make some ganache and white chocolate cream
White Chocolate Cream
100g white chocolate
250g cream
Melt the chocolate and let it cool down. Add the cream then mix with beaters until there are soft creamy waves beginning to take shape. You might want to eat this directly from the bowl spread the cream between layers of your cake or serve it on the side with some strawberries. Or do both of these things.
Caramel Frosting
I always struggle with frosting.....always. 125g of butter and 1 cup of sugar melted. Add 1/3 cup of milk and bring to the boil. Let cook for a short time and then allow to cool. Add enough icing sugar to thicken....this took a long time for me and I feel as though the universe was just against anything thickening for me at the time I did this. Eventually I got bored with mixing and waiting and just tipped it all over the cake, which was delicious messy.
Today I ripped the innards our of my classroom. I'm talking 6 garbage bags full of stuff. It was a great feeling and thankgoodness Mr Maths was able to help me carry it all down to the bins!
I have been blog hopping and seeing so many beautiful classrooms on teaching blogs. They all have bright colours and adorable matching themes. They are classrooms that people are proud to take pictures of and put on the internet! My classroom looks like a cave - well...an empty cave now!
I have potato sacks on the windows as curtains. I have a whiteboard that has been dented in several places and covered in stickers in other places. I have a book case that looks like it was made from weetbix. My computer area has bare floorboards and you can see through to the concrete below. Sometimes lizards get in. The whole room hasn't had a lot of love but it is still mine and I like it. I just wish that I had access to some things to make it nicer - like an Ikea and a Bunnings and an Office Works!
I need to think of a classroom theme for next year - any suggestions?
We are going on an excursion tomorrow to the library....I'm very excited.
So, as predicted, week 1 of living like a caveman has been tricky, jumbled, confusing and delicious. As I'm new to the caveman neighbourhood it was necessary for me to investigate other cave dweller recipe collections.
It seems that every "expert" out there has a different idea about what exactly constitutes a paleo diet. Some gave sweet potatoes the thumbs up, others said NO to all tubers (....I also had to look up what a tuber was, is this an American word or am I just extremely ignorant about vegetables?).
One very enthusiastic paleo displayed an array of muffins, pancakes and delicious baked goods created with many obscure and exciting types of flour (that were unable to be located at my meagre grocery store). Some cave people even claimed to enjoy luxuries such as sundried tomatoes and coffee!
Here are some of my thoughts
1. Nobody really knows what cavemen ate. It was a long time ago. Very few cave people updated their statuses, "Just slaughtered wildebeest, enjoying coffee by the fire." Sure, mummified remains have been discovered to have grain fragments found in their gut and there's that whole "the real purpose of an appendix" conversation but, really, I don't feel anybody could accurately pinpoint the exact diet of paleo people.
2. Evidence indicates that in the time of cave dwellers, our plant and animal systems were exceptionally more diverse than that of modern day. Plants and animals were also much more plentiful so, surely a true paleo diet would have been far more diverse than we could ever imagine.
3. Enough people in general talk about the health benefits of fresh fruit and vegetables, meats, eggs, nuts. As these make up the staples (and practically everything else) of the paleo diet a lot of it seems to come down to just good choices and maybe actually being brave enough to cut out the certain sugars, carbs and other elements that are probably unnecessary in a "typical diet".
All opinions aside, the common elements in all paleo tips and tricks were meat and eggs. Add in some fruits and vegetables (tubers and/or non-tubers) and I think I'm more or less on the right track. With that in mind, here are some of the things that I have enjoyed creating and eating this week.
Some hardcore paleos may shake their heads in disgust but I am trying and, short of actually dredging up my own Encinoman (who else loved that movie?! go 1990s Brendan Fraser), I can only work with the mismatched information I am given and the supplies at the grocery store.
The recruitment officer rang me during the week to ask about my teaching preferences for 2013 so ....fingerscrossed! I'm holding out for a nice little school on the Northside of Brisbane and a comfortable English & SOSE position in the lower secondary department.....is that so much to ask!?
I have received approval from my principal to teach the "To Kill A Mockingbird" unit instead of "Worldshaker". I am so thankful for this opportunity and amazed at the amount of faith my boss has in me to produce a unit from nothing that will align perfectly with the National Curriculum.
Finally, in a bid to lose every centimetre of body fat to shift some excess weight, I am tentatively considering the paleo eating plan. I have spent several hours today looking through information and I feel it is something I could realistically do and would open up some new options in the kitchen which is always exciting.
So that's my plans for the weekend. I'm actually very excited - hope you're doing something nice!
I'm beginning to realise that I'm very interested in what other teachers are doing and a great way to find out is through blogs. I recently stumbled across {6th Grade} All-Stars. It's always helpful to see what others teachers are experiencing and share the wonderful things that happen in classrooms across the world. I thought I would impart my (limited!) wisdom...
1. I teach in a very isolated outback Australian community. Our school has about 160 students enrolled from prep to grade 10. I teach in the secondary department. I teach grade 9 English, grade 8 English, grade 7 English, Study of Society & Environment and Science. However, for the past two years I have taught grade 6 (all key learning areas).
2. The best advice I received in my first year of teaching is "Don't be afraid to get it wrong". As teachers we often seem to think we have all the answers but (while we do have most of the answers!!) we do get stuff wrong. The most important thing is to learn from whatever mistakes you make and don't be afraid to acknowledge that things aren't working and be brave enough to try something different to fix it!
3. #1 - your planning - obviously you need to know what you are doing!
#2 student desks - I start off with a bit of variety of rows, groups and single desks just until I get an idea of the students (I also explain to them on the first day that they can choose their own desk but it may change)
#3 my desk - this is a surprisingly important area and must be managed to suit your needs to avoid a paper avalanche 5 weeks into the semester. If you have a filing cabinet - USE IT! Have lots of basic stationery and sticky notes. Sometimes an "inbox" can be helpful for anything important (which you will find is most things!)
#4 digital resources - make sure your laptops/computers/interactive whiteboard etc is all hooked up and ready to go
#5 environmental print - posters, classroom rules, curriculum materials - spend the time to make your classroom look the way you want it to look...but you MUST leave space for things that you and your students create together!
4. I think it is important to have "a nice spot"! This might include a rug, some beanbags, a pot plant, fish tank...it's just a place to sit and read or listen to quiet music or talk. I've only just realised how important a spot like this is. Other imperative things are reading materials that kids actually enjoy (a nice mix of books, magazines, comics, newspapers etc).
5. Classroom rules display- it is so important to set expectations. Being clear from the first moment means that everything else flows easily. It's about establishing transparent guidelines so that nobody is confused about what they are doing. Displaying the rules gives you the opportunity to refer to them as necessary and also gives you an opportunity to introduce the rules and expectations easily on the first day. A good way to do this is with WWH (what are we doing, why are we doing it, how are we doing it).
you know when you feel like your moving at a thousand miles an hour but everything else is going so slow? It feels like you're listening to Little River Band, "Friday night it was late, I was walking you home..." but at the same time like your listening to every dance song you ever rocked out to in a night club when you were 19?
this is my reality and it's beautiful and confusing at the same time.
the wedding keeps creeping into my every day dialogue. that's right. I'M GETTING MARRIED! .........and every time i remember that i feel like eating copious amounts of fried chicken. not that i don't want to get married. and (of course) i am terribly organised, right down to the last flower petal. i think it's just the fact that i am so far (2500kms) away from where i am getting married. i feel so far away from the wedding itself (even though it is only a mere 58(??) days away!!) that i still can't quite comprehend it.
it's birth month. My soon-to-be Mr is turning 27! i think this is the first time in 3 years i have actually put in any effort to acknowledge his birthday. packages are arriving, the fur-kids have even contributed to the gift pile.
my practicum student is arriving soon. i love this! i get the opportunity to teach someone else to be a teacher which is always a valuable reflective tool and gives me a break from some parts of my job but also opens up another (sometimes more complicated) part.
we are off to Borneo soon to spend some time with orangutans.
i am in the process of organising a year 9 English unit on "12 Angry Men" and attempting to gain my Digital Pedagogical Licence.
my transfer application has been approved and I find out where my 2013 teaching location is in 48 days!
in amongst all of this i am apparently 'winding down'........yet i still feel like i'm going too fast to even stop for a second.
best feeling ever!
