A prayer for QLD

From the safety of hundreds of kilometres away, we have wept for the loss of life and utter devastation in the state of QLD. The stories, news reports, pictures and video coming from those regions are truly devastating. With sadness in our hearts, our prayers tonight are for those who have died, some of whom were mums and young children caught in cars, and entire families washed away in their houses, still missing. I am praying also for those that are tonight evacuated. As I type, thousands more people are being evacuated and many areas are facing unprecedented damage and devastating loss as more rain falls and the flood waters rise to levels that are beyond belief. I pray for the SES workers, defence personnel, medical staff and all the volunteers assisting, saving and caring for the victims. God bless you.

In the coming days I will be preparing some items for auction to help raise a little bit of money for the Flood appeal.
I hope you will all get involved too.

The single best giveaway for the new year!

There's a fantastic giveaway going on that I'd truly love to win.
But maybe, if you know about it too you could win it instead. ;)
Leona's Quilting Adventure
She's giving away these fabulous things:
Fast and Fun Pillow kits.

Pic from Leona's Quilting Adventure

One Thimble Blossoms Dainty Table Topper pattern.

Pic from Leona's Quilting Adventure

Eleven, I repeat Eleven(!!) Gorgeously Pink fat quarters.

Pic from Leona's Quilting Adventure

I followed, I blogged, I tweeted and I shared I hope you do to!

A New Year means Croquettes & Oliebollen

We celebrated the arrival of the New Year with 2 of our favourite Dutch treats. Garry's parents are dutch, His mum emigrated here when she was a young child and Garry was born in Australia. I am not dutch, but I am just trying to keep up some of the traditions he grew up with.

Start 2011 off with deliciousness!

This year we bought a deep fryer to make our own Croquettes!! I used this recipe from Curious Orange.
Only I changed it a bit - I only cooked the meat mix for an hour not 2 but i used a pressure cooker to do it and It was so tender and yummy it would be just great as a stew the way it was! I also added fresh thyme to the cooled meat mixture as it was being wizzed up in the food processor. Also we didn't have time to wait for them to freeze firm before coating them. They were only in the freezer long enough to be cooled down and just enough that the glad-warp sausage we made held together when cut and crumbed well as long as you didn't hold them too long while they were being being floured, egged and crumbed.
We served them with baby carrots, peas and par-boiled diced potatoes browned and crisped up in a frying pan in olive oil, chunks of lemon zest, smashed garlic and tossed with fresh rosemary and thyme.
Garry likes his croquettes with mustard, I like mine with mayo & mustard mixed together to dilute the mustard;) Totally forgot to take photos! But they turned out ace!
And then, the best Dutch treat ever shown to me...We finished off the evening with Oliebollen (Dutch donuts). I first met these delicious treats one new years party with Garry's aunts, uncles and cousins before we were engaged!

They were not really this dark in real life its the camera!

These were absolutely delicious and Garry said, "These are just like my Oma used to make". Which just felt like a great thing for him to say to me and my pride is over flowing! Even though he did all the frying part, because i'm equal parts scared of the fryer and not wanting to learn how to use it on principle ( not that I've said this aloud to anyone yet) 2011 is going to be my big get serious-kick start those ovaries I want to have a baby one day-get-healthy diet/serious exercise plan year. A deep fryer in the house can not be good for that plan or my hips. so, I promise it wont be used very often.

So here is the only make it once a year  and really really enjoy it oliebollen recipe. ;)
15g cake yeast.
1 cup warmed milk.
2 1/4 cups plain flour.
2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup raisins soaked in warm water for 1 hour.
50g Glace cherries.
1 Granny smith Apple chopped into small pieces. (Tart green cooking apple)(optional we didn't have one so you can leave it out and its still awesome)
Oil for deep frying, we used canola oil because it has no taste.
Icing sugar for dusting over, or we used castor sugar instead.
Instructions:
Break up and stir the yeast in the cup of warm milk until dissolved.
Put flour & salt in bowl add milk/yeast mix and egg and mix until smooth.
Leave batter in a warm place to double it's size. (It took only 30 mins here but sometimes it's taken an hour.) The batter should be double the size, smooth and thickened.
Gently mix in the drained raisins, cherries and apple pieces.
Heat oil to 190 degrees C (375degrees F)
Use two metal spoons to shape batter into a ball and drop into the hot oil. (We did no more than two in our fryer each time.)
We fried them for 3-4 minutes until brown, any longer and they get weird.
Drain on paper towel.
Sprinkle all over with icing sugar or castor sugar.
Eat while hot.
Delicious Delicious!