todayiamadaisy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
todayiamadaisy) wrote2016-09-12 03:23 pm
todayiamadaisy) wrote2016-09-12 03:23 pm
A Teacher of Love
I walked through Target at lunch time, and they have a shelf of Christmas baubles for sale. So festive. So early.
Here is a meme, stolen from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
theapink a while ago:
Name ten of life's simple pleasures that you like most. Try to be original and creative and not to use things that someone else has already used.
1. Watching cats wash their face and paws. The concentration they put into it! I don't wash my ears nearly that thoroughly.
2. There are very few things in life nicer than hot buttered toast and Vegemite.
3. Looking at knitting/cross-stitch patterns and thinking of all the things I could make if only I could knit or sew much faster. Much, much faster.
4. On a cool day, having a drink that is just the right warmth for it be drunk in one go and feel it warming up your insides. And vice versa with a cold drink on a hot day.
5. Filling in forms, particularly ones that require neat writing, one letter per little box.
6. Looking at diaries and calendars. I start around this time of year, getting ready for next year. Each year I have three calendars - one hanging in the kitchen, one on a little easel next to the computer and one on my pin-board at work - and a diary. This year's dilemma: should I get a work one? I won't need it to start with, but then, if I get a job later in the year, how would I cope without one, hmmm? Oh, decisions. At least I needn't worry about Advent calendars. I've already got two. (Not chocolate ones. I don't do chocolate ones.)
7. My lithops. Most of the year it looks like a rock, but every now and then it bursts open and I never know what will come out. Sometimes it will grow a single yellow flower. Sometimes it will grow two new leaves to replace the old ones. Sometimes it will divide itself and grow two new plants. Over six years, my one lithops has turned into three. It has also survived a possum trying to eat it and throwing it to the ground in disgust. A slow life, but no shortage of adventure.
8. The Bureau of Meteorology's rain radar. I have this bookmarked on my desktop, my laptop and my work desktop. I like to know what's coming.
9. Something I am trying to do this year as brain exercise is memorise more poems, and I find I enjoy reciting them as I drive. (I do a lot of driving alone.)
10. Stamping things with official stamps, particularly if the stamp also has a rolling date or a little space for me to initial it afterwards. I will miss my work collection of PAID, APPROVED, COPY and ENTERED stamps very much.
And now, what this entry is really about. By popular demand: the recipe for the chocolate and ricotta brownie I made over the weekend.
Chocolate & ricotta brownie
Ingredients
BASE
185g dark chocolate, chopped
45g butter
2 eggs
¾ cup castor sugar
½ cup plain flour
¼ cut self-raising flour
few drops vanilla essence
½ cup chopped walnuts
FILLING
60g butter
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
185g ricotta
¼ cup castor sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons plain flour
Method
Grease a 20cm square cake pan. Pre-heat oven to 180C.
FILLING
Beat the butter, essence and ricotta together in a small bowl until mixture is creamy. Add sugar, beat until fluffy, add eggs one at a time, beat until combined. Stir in sifted flour. Set aside.
BASE
Melt chocolate and butter over boiling water. Cool, but do not allow to set. Beat eggs in a bowl with electric mixer until thick, add sugar gradually, beat until sugar is dissolved. Stir in sifted flours, vanilla and melted chocolate mixture.
ASSEMBLE
Spread half the base mixture into the prepared pan. Top with the filling, then cover with remaining base mixture. Run a knife in a zig-zag pattern through mixture and sprinkle with walnuts. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool in pan before cutting. Store in refrigerator until set, then cut into squares. Keeping time: 4 days.
From: The Australian Women's Weekly Cakes and Slices Cookbook (My copy is the 1987 original. So vintage.)
Here is a meme, stolen from
theapink a while ago:Name ten of life's simple pleasures that you like most. Try to be original and creative and not to use things that someone else has already used.
1. Watching cats wash their face and paws. The concentration they put into it! I don't wash my ears nearly that thoroughly.
2. There are very few things in life nicer than hot buttered toast and Vegemite.
3. Looking at knitting/cross-stitch patterns and thinking of all the things I could make if only I could knit or sew much faster. Much, much faster.
4. On a cool day, having a drink that is just the right warmth for it be drunk in one go and feel it warming up your insides. And vice versa with a cold drink on a hot day.
5. Filling in forms, particularly ones that require neat writing, one letter per little box.
6. Looking at diaries and calendars. I start around this time of year, getting ready for next year. Each year I have three calendars - one hanging in the kitchen, one on a little easel next to the computer and one on my pin-board at work - and a diary. This year's dilemma: should I get a work one? I won't need it to start with, but then, if I get a job later in the year, how would I cope without one, hmmm? Oh, decisions. At least I needn't worry about Advent calendars. I've already got two. (Not chocolate ones. I don't do chocolate ones.)
7. My lithops. Most of the year it looks like a rock, but every now and then it bursts open and I never know what will come out. Sometimes it will grow a single yellow flower. Sometimes it will grow two new leaves to replace the old ones. Sometimes it will divide itself and grow two new plants. Over six years, my one lithops has turned into three. It has also survived a possum trying to eat it and throwing it to the ground in disgust. A slow life, but no shortage of adventure.
8. The Bureau of Meteorology's rain radar. I have this bookmarked on my desktop, my laptop and my work desktop. I like to know what's coming.
9. Something I am trying to do this year as brain exercise is memorise more poems, and I find I enjoy reciting them as I drive. (I do a lot of driving alone.)
10. Stamping things with official stamps, particularly if the stamp also has a rolling date or a little space for me to initial it afterwards. I will miss my work collection of PAID, APPROVED, COPY and ENTERED stamps very much.
And now, what this entry is really about. By popular demand: the recipe for the chocolate and ricotta brownie I made over the weekend.
Chocolate & ricotta brownie
Ingredients
BASE
185g dark chocolate, chopped
45g butter
2 eggs
¾ cup castor sugar
½ cup plain flour
¼ cut self-raising flour
few drops vanilla essence
½ cup chopped walnuts
FILLING
60g butter
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
185g ricotta
¼ cup castor sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons plain flour
Method
Grease a 20cm square cake pan. Pre-heat oven to 180C.
FILLING
Beat the butter, essence and ricotta together in a small bowl until mixture is creamy. Add sugar, beat until fluffy, add eggs one at a time, beat until combined. Stir in sifted flour. Set aside.
BASE
Melt chocolate and butter over boiling water. Cool, but do not allow to set. Beat eggs in a bowl with electric mixer until thick, add sugar gradually, beat until sugar is dissolved. Stir in sifted flours, vanilla and melted chocolate mixture.
ASSEMBLE
Spread half the base mixture into the prepared pan. Top with the filling, then cover with remaining base mixture. Run a knife in a zig-zag pattern through mixture and sprinkle with walnuts. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool in pan before cutting. Store in refrigerator until set, then cut into squares. Keeping time: 4 days.
From: The Australian Women's Weekly Cakes and Slices Cookbook (My copy is the 1987 original. So vintage.)