Flour.

Remember when we had a family day trip to Oatlands just before Christmas? Well, we went there ostensibly to procure this chemical free, Tasmanian grown, ground in the historic Callington Mill flour:

My children adore Italian food and it has to be the one country where they will eat whatever is on their plate - and let's face it it is usually pizza or pasta - with none of the requisite complaining. I must admit to being rather partial Italian food to the extent that when we were there last, and I was pregnant, I used it as the perfect excuse to taste my way around Italy. Let's face it I was going to end up looking like the size of a house anyway. Rome, Naples, Siena - pizza, pasta and at least one if not two gelati a day. My favourite was anything from Grom whereas Kim tried a pear and pecorino from a gelateria in Cortona and was instantly enamoured. He keeps threatening to experiment and make a Roqueort and caremelised apple ice cream?

So, all was good until my next appointment with my French obstetrician who put me on the scales (as he did every single visit) and told me in no uncertain terms that at two thirds of the way through my pregnancy I couldn't put on any more weight. And that I'd have to 'reduce'. There was no mistranslation. In France during pregnancy 10 - 14 kgs is the accepted weight gain over the entire 40 weeks. As far as I know there is no limit to weight gain during pregnancy in Tasmania - I had NEVER been weighed before and as an extreme case in point a friend of mine put on 30 kilos during pregnancy and wasn't chastised by her doctor (can you believe that).

Anyway, I deviate, back to the subject at hand - carbs. Tonight I made the children a pizza. I always use this book for the recipe for dough:

It is insanely easy. or 1 pizza, measure 225g plain flour, then I tip in some dried yeast and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Start mixing and then gradually add 150ml hot water out of the tap. You want a nice, soft dough - add more flour if it's too wet, more water if too dry. Easy. Especially as I use my KitchenAid so you don't even need to get your hands dirty:

Leave it to rise for an hour then knock out the air, fit onto a pizza pan and bake in a very hot oven for around 12 minutes. Trust me  - you need never buy a pizza base again:

Apologies, it was half demolished before I remembered to take the photo.
Then, because I was worried that this post was going to be dull and short I decided to really impress and make pasta. Recipes usually state 1 egg to 1 cup flour yet I find that too dry so I start off with less and add flour until it's the right consistency. We scored the food grinding attachment for my KitchenAid for Christmas so I can inally use the pasta disks I have had sitting in the cupboard forever:

However, it all clagged together and got stuck inside in the rather elaborate inner workings. This one works much better:

Right now I am about to cook the pasta so will hold off publishing this until I can show you a photo.

Ta da, pasta with crab, garlic, chilli, pasta and lemon juice:

Worth the effort?

R

Drive.

This morning for breakfast I cooked this:

It was delicious in the way that sugar, cream, butter, bread, egg and a piece of fruit tastes in the guise of a breakfast. I used a loaf of Summer Kitchen organic sourdough Vienna which I though may have been too heavy, however, it worked perfectly. I found the recipe in this magazine ( p168) which I have never bought before - I was seduced by the front cover. I want to make our deck look like this:

Here's hoping. In case you don't have this magazine and you are tempted, the recipe for Banana and Caramel French Toast is:

1. Make caramel sauce (1/2 cup brown sugar, 50g unsalted butter, 300ml cream) by combining and stirring over medium heat until sugar dissolved. Then low heat until thickened (approx 15 mins).

2. Beat together 5 eggs, 1/2tsp cinnamon and 1/2 cup milk. Dip bread (ultimately 8 slices) into mixture then fry in buttery pan until each side cooked through and golden.

3. Plate up French toast and top with slices of banana (may have been even more delicious with grilled banana?) and drizzle with caramel.

Oops, I forgot to sprinkle with icing sugar yet does it really need it? This recipe says it is for four yet I reckon you could stretch it to serve six!

After breakfast we had a sugar induced frantic hour of weeding. I used the hoe to great advantage and got results.

Then it was time to take my new car for a spin. We drove for about an hour along the Midlands Highway to Oatlands - an interesting colonial township made predominently of sandstone, with of a lake, and this:

The Callington Mill. A restored amd fully operational Georgian tower mill which grinds locally grown, chemical free wheat into flour. You can take a tour with the miller and buy the flour in the visitor's centre. We bought a rather large bag and tested the scones in the cafe:

They were impressive - dense yet still light and a compelling colour. I hope when Mimi and I make scones with our recipe and the Callington Mill flour they have the same consistency and it's not attributed to some secret ingredient belonging to someone's great aunt.

Back to the hot room tomorrow - I'm a tad trepidatious as Thursday and especially Friday were confrontingly difficult.

R