Goodies from Down Under: At Last...

WHOLEMEAL DATE SCONES

Ingredients 2 cups wholemeal flour 4 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 2 TBSP melted shortening or canola oil 7/8 cup milk 1/2 cup (or more) chopped dates (mix with a little flour to separate pieces) (Preheat oven to 180C or 450F) Sift together flour, baking powder and salt with a fork. Add oil and stir into flour with fork to form crumbs. Add milk and stir into a soft dough. Add dates. Roll out and cut into circular shapes. Make each scone tall not flat. Place on baking paper on a metal cookie sheet and bake for about 15 minutes.

Monday, 11 June 2007

At Last...

Welcome to this first blog. Enjoy the scones in the recipe - they are great with a bit of butter and honey and served with scrambled eggs.
As I continue there will be lots of photos of our trip during last northern hemisphere's winter. We just had our first cold night this week here - and quickly we went to find the electric blanket. Last week I washed all the autumn clothes and got them ready - well - summer temperatures went straight to winter and so I'm pulling out the long sleeved tops and the long pants - not to mention closed-toe shoes instead of sandals. Today was warmer again but the wind is cold.
As you know most of Australia is in the worst drought in a hundred years. Fortunately our area gets lots of rain but the state is planning to pipe it to Brisbane and further south. We had beautiful rain last week and my tomatoes, capisicums, green beans and silver beet are all growing well. There are a few locusts still around but the cat, Shadow, kindly catches them and brings them in to be dispatched (then she hunts around wondering where they have gone!)
A busload of us (mini bus holds 21) went to visit Newstead House, the oldest house, in Brisbane last week. It was interesting. Some of the items in the house from the 1800's were an automatic tea pot - the earliest pumper pot-it looks like a regular china teapot but you pull the lid up and then push it down and the tea comes out of the spout; there was a bathtub shaped like a boot, enclosed and made for soaking in hot water which was poured into a special hole at the top of the front; then there was a copper flask, oblong and curved to fit around the lower back - it could be filled with hot water to ease a sore back.
After our tour the ladies of the foundation which manages the house served us a beautiful lunch on the verandah - sandwiches, fresh fruit platters and sponge cake with jam and whipped cream. Of course, there was hot coffee and tea.
Afterwards we drove around and saw many more old houses and stopped at a viewing spot high on a hill over looking the city, finishing off at DFO, a factory outlet mall.