Little Homemaker

Little Homemaker is not me ... yet I am giving it a go.  I have been baking.  Last weekend, s well as my chewy Anzac biscuits, I successfully baked a chocolate torte.  It was quite delicious!  (As for the Anzacs, speak to Spud about those.  He was like a starving lion in a butcher shop).  I even followed the recipe and was very diligent to measure my cake pan and line it properly with baking paper. On the subject of cake pans however, I wish to voice a concern regarding the number of cake pans one seems to have to hand to be a successful Domestic Goddess.  Every time I try a recipe, it needs a cake pan of a different dimension.  What is that about? 

Despite my pathetic attempts to lose a couple of kilos pre-half marathon, I enjoyed two wafer-thin slices of said torte and put all thoughts of the butter, sugar and chocolate ingredients to the back of my mind.  

Today, I've just pulled a tray of Louise Cake from the oven.  It's a New Zealand recipe I bought home from the Land of the Long White Cloud.  Basically, it involves jam, meringe and biscuit base.  I can assure you that It Will Be Quite Delicious.  I would photograph it but I've got some photographic "issues" occurring with the size of my photos so that when I tried to put all my NZ holidays snaps onto a CD, it took EIGHT CDs!  I've done something wrong, but have not yet stopped to work out what it is.  I've not done a lot of things.  In fact, I am quickly realising, again, what a procrastinator I am.  I have a huge pile of filing to do but I just can't bring myself to do it, so keep putting it off in favour of baking.  Ha.  Hang on, here we go with the camera on my 'phone.  And here is the book from whence this recipe came.

I've just spent a slight exhausting weekend with my mum, who is the World's Most Energetic Woman.  She is constantly active.  She has about ten projects on the go at any one time.  I've now realised that I am a little the same, although not as productive as her.  She paints and draws, learns French, builds gardens, trades shares and researches other projects every day. Her filing system is just as tragic as mine, involving lots of pieces of paper everywhere and when cooking, she has been known not to have all ingredients to hand, but unlike me, she goes ahead anyway, using substitutions that sometimes don't really work...  I've often wondered if I am just defective in that I find it very, very hard to relax, but now I think it's a genetic mutation.  Or possibly we both have Attention Deficit Disorder?  At least I can see what I will be like in another 20 years and Spud has stated that he is prepared for the challenge and is willing to hang in there.  When mum's partner Pete was alive, he used to tell mum that he felt very sorry for Spud...  How rude!!!  At least life will never be boring!!   

Here is another shot from the Queen Charlotte Track, on Good Friday.  See how exhausted we are?  It was so great though.... I am missing New Zealand +++