Cold day moisturiser

It's a horrible cold, wet day. The Monday of a long weekend. Tragic really. So I  made some simple and lovely moisturiser to cheers me up. (After cream of mushroom soup for Pete, and cheese on toast for Izzy)
In one beaker I combined and melted:
20g apricot kernel oil
20g jojoba oil
20g cocoa butter
15g glycerin
and 1.5 tablespoon emulsifying wax

In a larger beaker I measured 225g water (I used distilled water and added some green tea extract)

I poured the oil mix into the water with a stick blender running. Then gently mixed in some essential oils - clary sage, lemon myrtle, cedarwood, rose geranium and a little palmarosa.

It made four small jars full and smells divine.

REALLY healthy bread

I get the bread-baking bug badly sometimes. In between, my stoic and dependable sourdough starter hangs out in the fridge until I need her. (and then knead her!)
Pete and I are trying a lower GI diet in order to stay healthy and (hopefully) trim up a little. So everything is even more whole grain and less processed and much less sweet. But. Much more delicious. (So says Olympia) We are enjoying it and I do enjoy a culinary challenge.

the dough

the finished loaf

Hence the healthy bread.

the flours:
sourdough starter
wholemeal wheat flour
rye flour
barley flour
unbleached wheat flour

Soaked overnight and roughly ground/pulverised:
whole wheat berries
brown lentils
red lentils
black-eyed peas
amaranth
chia seeds (black and white)
quinoa

And:
honey
salt
a little yeast

I let the dough sit for a long time - nearly a whole 24 hours, until it had lifted a fair bit, then kneaded it again and shaped it into two tins. They, too, sat a long while for the second proof. Then about 45 minutes in a medium to hot oven.

It is a really nice, dense and moist loaf.

Try throwing this lot together...

I have been wanting to try this for ages (see if you can guess what it makes).
I had tried to make some plum paste (you know, like quince paste) and, despite actually following a recipe, it overcooked and now is like a dark mass of caramelly, plummy taffy. So, that was the inspiration for adding these other things to it:

Ingredients
overcooked plum paste (if you don't have any, then you could use golden syrup or brown sugar or even caramelise some sugar yourself)
date syrup
tamarind extract
pomegranate molasses
molasses
malt vinegar
white vinegar
cinnamon quills
cardamom pods
star anise
mustard seed
mace
ground nutmeg
ground tumeric
dried chilli (whole)
pepper corns
salt
garlic cloves
onion
ginger
anchovies


Combine all (sorry I can't remember how much of each, but it is not rocket science)
Heat and then blend coarsely
Pour through sieve, then collect the debris and mix with a little water or vinegar, heat again and sieve a second time to try and get the most out of this pungent, aromatic sludge.
Allow to sit in a covered crock to "mature"
Bottle.

It is, as you probably guessed, Worcestershire sauce. Amazingly delicious and easy to make.

the bottled sauce

Great balls of -!?

We have been extra busy lately developing a new line for our market stall and (more importantly) for festivals. Being veterans of the music festival catering scene, we reckon we need a hearty main meal option on our menu. I mean there were people at the National Folk Festival (Canberra at Easter) that told us they had our fritters five times, but there are only so many times over three or four days that you can eat corn fritters. Even if they are "the best fritters I've ever had" AND "better than Bill's". True quotes.
Anyway, Pete, being the blokey bloke that he is has been on and on with the "Meat, we need a meat dish" mantra. This is ironic because in the R&D stage of said meat dish he suggested we try "meatless May" in order to be healthy and perhaps even shed a few grams. So, here we were cooking all these delicious things and not able to taste them. Thanks must go to Izzy and Olympia for their help.
I can reveal that the meat dish is MEATBALLS SERVED WITH FRESH-BAKED SOURDOUGH FOCACCIA!!!! How does that sound?
Actually it is a pretty damn good feed. Four or five plump and moist balls blanketed in a velvety rich tomato sugo (that's Italian for sauce - thanks Sophie), served in a paper bio-cup with two big wedges of hot crusty focaccia and garnished with some chopped herbs and tasty parmesan cheese.

Sourdough prooving an ready to go

Anthony at the Markets, tasting for us.

New banners.

Fresh focaccia cooked in a gas-fired pizza oven.

More or less what it looks like.