Oh, was this ever delicious. It was last week sometime when a group of us were talking about old-time recipes that nobody makes anymore, and my friend Peggy (I think) mentioned that spice cake is one of those things that’s gone by the wayside. That got me to thinking about it. My mother used to make a great spice cake (not a mix, although Duncan Hines and Pillsbury did used to produce a box mix), but after looking, I couldn’t find one in her recipe box. Found three recipes, though, amongst my cookbooks and to-try recipes. The one with the browned butter frosting stood out.

I made the cake, and our daughter Sara, who came to visit with her family over the weekend, made the frosting. Neither was difficult, but the spice mixture is certainly different. The recipe came from Sunset Magazine in October. Its title is “French Four Spice Cake with Browned Butter Spice Frosting.” That seemed like an unwieldy name, so I shortened it up some. But the recipe is just as it was printed in the magazine and online.

In France, they have a spice called quatre épices. It’s a mixture of spices, including white pepper. Maybe in France you can buy this already packaged (like we would buy pumpkin pie spice). It’s not hard to make – as long as you have white peppercorns on hand, you’ll likely have the other spices (cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg). Although it’s called four spice, it’s actually five. I made a small batch in my electric spice grinder. Just remember that once spices are mixed together, they don’t hold their flavors as long – use the mixture within a month. Also, grind it up well – you don’t want little chunks of white pepper in your cake. You use some of it in the cake and some in the frosting as well.

The cake fills a 9×9 pan, but actually, we got many more than 12 servings out of it – if you served it with some vanilla ice cream on the side, I think it would easily serve 16. Whatever the serving sizes, it’s really good. Comfort food. And the frosting – oh my goodness – it’s rich, but good enough that you could easily lick the beater clean as a whistle! Don’t be tempted to make more frosting (to frost the sides, for instance). You don’t need more. The cake is tender and tasty, but the frosting puts it onto another plane!

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A year ago: Saffron Risotto Cakes (oh, yum, love those things)
Two years ago: Rice Pudding
Three years ago: Cauliflower with Scallop Soup

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After we had our big turkey dinner on Thanksgiving I piled all the bones, a bit of the skin, and some of the meat that I chose not to pick off, into my big crockpot and left it to simmer with a couple of quarts of water. It simmered overnight. By morning I had this lovely big pan full of thick turkey stock. Along with a bunch of little, tender pieces of turkey too (you can see a long strand of it in the left foreground above). After saving the meat pieces, I strained the broth to remove all the bones, skin and some of the little pieces of junky tissue, and it had almost no fat in it.

Going to my to-try file I found a recipe that I’d read on someone else’s blog. I wasn’t so enamored with it as the blogger was (see link in last sentence below). My DH said “you can throw out the rest of that.” Sigh. I haven’t, because I figure I’ll eat it, even if he won’t. It’s rare that I make something my hubby simply won’t eat, but this dish was one. (Not the rice, just the turkey part.)

This reminds me of a story  . . . but let me just say about this above recipe, that I altered the ingredients a little. That sets the stage for my story  . . . years ago I was good friends with a gal who went to college with me. She married the same week I did (this was in 1962), and we ended up moving close to one another (by happenstance). In a matter of 5 years she had a whole passel of children, was a stay-at-home mom of the first order. Cooked everything from scratch, including all her own bread. One day she made a dessert – let’s just say it was a kind of Boston cream pie dessert – and raved about it, and she shared the recipe with me. A few weeks later I made it, but was short on time and I used a box mix for the yellow cake and a package of quick-cooking pudding for part of the filling. I wasn’t so thrilled with the results and mentioned it to my friend [one of my early lessons – if it’s your friend’s recipe, you don’t always tell your friends everything]. She quizzed me about what I’d done. After telling her how I’d changed the recipe to save time, she was hugely annoyed and informed me that if I wasn’t going to make things exactly the way she gave me the recipe, then she wasn’t going to give me any more recipes! It’s now 45 years later, and I still remember her lecturing me! She and her family moved to Oregon in the 1970’s and we’ve lost touch.

So perhaps, because I changed the recipe I made here today, it wasn’t like the recipe I printed out. The blogger would probably scold me for not adhering to her recipe exactly. She had used fresh, raw chicken, marinated it in yogurt and stuff, then flash-fried it. No sauce at all (there’s no sauce in the picture above, just some nuts on top). Me? Well, I had leftover turkey. So I coated the nice tender bite-sized breast meat pieces with the yogurt mixture and flash fried it too (quickly, as it didn’t need any cooking, just warming). The mixture was a tad on the dry side – but maybe it’s supposed to be that way – it’s a rice dish, not a curry or a stew. But it was too dry for me. So with the leftovers of that I added a jar of Trader Joe’s Thai green chile curry sauce. That almost made it worse!

BUT, the rice was fantastic, so I’m giving you that part. It will be made again. And again. Because of the texture of the rice (it’s actually more like a pilaf) and the flavor (saffron). I made a nice big batch of it and will freeze quart-sized freezer bags of it for future meals. It’s a Nigella Lawson recipe.

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A year ago: Butternut Squash Soup with Amaretti Cookie Crumbles
Two years ago: Chocolate Mousse in the Blender
Three years ago: Harlequin Pinwheels

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Usually I wouldn’t write up a separate post about a tree. But I thought this tree was worth a separate story – called a desert oak. It survives in the outback with a bizarre set of DNA. Hmmm, do trees have DNA? Maybe not, but you get my drift. They grow in profusion in the area around Ayers Rock. They’re hardy trees, with a unique method of growing. Once they germinate and grow up a foot or so they almost go in hibernation until they have sufficient rain or a water source to continue growing. If this tree happens to germinate and grow during a drought (the outback’s last drought lasted 7 years) it will sit in its hibernation until it knows it can survive. Meanwhile, it sends down a tap root (one, single root that goes straight down, maybe several hundred feet) until it locates a water source. It may take years for it to reach water as the tap root grows very slowly. (Can you imagine?)

The tree pictured above (about 12-15 feet high, is my recollection) is probably 200 years old. These trees are very slow growing, obviously. Taller ones, up to about 30 feet, are hundreds and hundreds of years old. I just found this entire set of facts about an outback tree so interesting. The leaves are kind of spiny – not soft or frilly at all, but stiff and spiky. Why it’s called an oak, I don’t know.

A year ago: Pumpkin Streusel Coffeecake
Two years ago: Pannettone (an Italian Christmas bread)
Three years ago: Salmon with Maple and Thyme

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The photo above was part of a panorama at the Royal Flying Doctor Service facility in Alice Springs. We visited the site, had a tour with a volunteer docent and watched a movie about the services. Here’s the history, recopied from the RFDS website:

The RFDS began as the dream of the Rev John Flynn, a minister with the Presbyterian Church. He witnessed the daily struggle of pioneers living in remote areas where just two doctors provided the only medical care for an area of almost 2 million square kilometres [that’s about a 75 thousand square miles if I did my math correctly – about the size of Texas x 3]. Flynn’s vision was to provide a ‘mantle of safety’ for these people and on 15 May 1928, his dream had become a reality with the opening of the Australian Inland Mission Aerial Medical Service (later renamed the Royal Flying Doctor Service) in Cloncurry, Queensland.

Until the 1960s, the Service rarely owned our own aircraft. We used contractors to provide aircraft, pilots and servicing. We progressively began to purchase our own aircraft and employ our own pilots and engineers.

Today, we own a fleet of 53 fully instrumented aircraft with the very latest in navigation technology. We operate 21 bases across Australia. Our pilots annually fly the equivalent of 25 round trips to the moon and our doctors and flight nurses are responsible for the care of nearly 270,000 patients! We’ve come a long way from that first flight in 1928 which saw the Flying Doctor airborne at last.

Some of the work is done via telephone – with doctors available to discuss medical issues with the people who live in the outback. If an emergency exists, a plane is dispatched to the closest tiny airport and either the patient is treated on site, or the patient is transported to the closest major hospital. It’s an amazing service provided to the people who live in outback Australia (they do have national health in that country). After our tour we visited the facility’s small gift shop and many of us on our trip purchased something there. I bought a cookbook of Aussie recipes [called Mantle of Safety Cookbook 2] compiled by the Auxiliary of the RFDS. All proceeds benefit the purchase of equipment (planes and on-board medical gear, none of which is paid for by the government).

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Can I just tell you to make this? Just do it, okay? It’s SO good. Mellow. Comforting. Sort of sweet (from the apples). The consistency of mashed potatoes, but tastes nothing whatsoever like mashed potatoes. Parsnips just don’t get a lot of respect, but they’re so worth making. And when you mix them half and half with apples, well, a whole new thing is born!

Our daughter-in-law Karen brought these to our house for Thanksgiving dinner. It’s a Martha Stewart recipe (from the November issue), and Karen made it exactly as directed. I wouldn’t change a thing. You bring the parsnips and apples to a simmer for 25 minutes, mash, add butter, salt, pepper and serve. Delicious! Worth making.

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A year ago: Smoked Pork (in a smoker)
Three years ago: Turkey Tortilla Free Form Soup

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Going to Ayers Rock is kind of like a pilgrimage for many people. Especially those who enjoy hiking. Not only are there flat hikes around much of the base of the rock, but there is a very treacherous rock face you can climb (not rock-climbing, per se, but difficult rock hiking). The path is partly lined with steel poles connected with chain to help the climbers get up the steeper parts. Once up about half way, though, you must continue without aids. Way too many people fall to their deaths there, mostly coming down (on the same path you went up). I didn’t take a photo of the climb area (if you go online you can see several photos of that part of it). We did a lengthy walk around the base, in the warm sunshine. Hot sunshine. The rock above was just one of the sights to see along the way. We also visited a natural springs (origin unknown, but deep underground, obviously). We went early in the morning and there were almost no other tourists. The rock climb is, I think, around the left end there in the photo below. You hike up that steep incline and can walk up almost to the tallest bump in the rock, then return. The aboriginal people own the rock, but it’s in the custodial hands of the national trust of Australia. There’s a fee to enter the park which goes towards the upkeep of the facilities around it. The native people would prefer people not climb the rock, but they don’t forbid it. The sacred area, actually, is around a part of the base (not open to the public). For safety reasons, when the winds are high, the climb is closed, which was the case both days we visited the rock.

Note the second from bottom – the cave drawings. Marilyn, our guide, told us something about what it said, but sorry, I’ve forgotten what it was! The rock is all sandstone which contains lots of iron (hence the red). Centuries of rain have etched the rock and occasionally they do have some chunks that fall off.

In the picture at left you can see a lizard in the center. Head to tail he was probably about two feet long, perhaps. As soon as one of our group moved a bit closer to take a picture he skittered off to hide.

Remember, I love to take pictures of tree trunks. Found this weathered old tree near the base of Ayers Rock that just had so much character to it. Beautiful, don’t you think?

A year ago: Broccoli with garlic and cranberries

Three years ago: Bishop’s Bread (one of my very favorite things to bake at Christmastime – I’ve made it every year since about 1973)

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Part of most Australian tours is a side trip to the Outback. Having been down, up and across the eastern half of Australia, I find it easier to describe it this way: picture the entire island of Australia as a desert, then think about a narrow ribbon around the outside edge, but mainly on the eastern side only. That’s Australia. The center (and most of the land mass, actually) is desert-like outback. It’s not flat sand by any means – it’s beautifully contoured and colorful (depending on the time of year you’re there and the status of drought in the land at the time). It’s red. It’s rocky. It’s flat in many places. There are streams and trees and shrubs of many varieties. And this year, with the drought ended, there are abundant wildflowers in the outback. A welcome change for the hearty people who live there.

Now, think back about that ribbon of green – that’s where most of the cities are, on the edges: Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Perth and Adelaide. We visited all of those except Darwin and Perth. Then you cut across the middle and you come to Alice Springs, kind of in the southern part, center.

We flew into Alice Springs and could see “outback” for 360 degrees. With scrubby shrubs and trees of many varieties. Lots of the aboriginal people live in the outback. They’re assimilated into Australian society. I think our guide, Marilyn, told us that there are very few actual Aboriginal villages anymore. Our group did visit a rural school ( which was mostly aborigines – I couldn’t go because I had a cold and spent the whole day in bed, sniffling). We’d taken some children’s clothing (used) with us and the items were given to the school. There’s not a whole lot to DO in Alice Springs. It’s a quiet little town with a few shops, and several adequate restaurants. Nothing fancy, though. The hotel reminded me of an old Midwestern motel from the 1950’s, actually. Clean enough. Also adequate.

One of the places we visited was the Alice Springs Telegraph Station. It’s outside Alice Springs by a few miles and is the original site of the first European settlement in Alice Springs. It was established in 1872 when the telegraph was first installed in Australia, but this particular connection was from the north (Darwin) to the south (Adelaide), crossing the outback from north to south with 12 similar telegraph stations. British military personnel staffed the station and were generally sent there for an 8-year tour. Our tour guide was Alec Ross, a 74-year old man who was taken from his mother when he was three years old (he was ill and the powers-that-be believed he’d be better off cared for at the Telegraph Station). Alec is a half-breed (half white, half Aborigine). Numerous other half-breed children also grew up at the Station. At the time such children were outcasts. Eventually he was adopted into a white family and grew up a normal child. He’s a very garrulous, handsome man, with a wealth of stories to share about his growing-up years there.

Those are the original buildings of the telegraph station, patched up here and there, with some of the original furniture inside. At the end of our tour Alec picked up a couple of boomerangs and showed us how they’re thrown (he was very good) and let all of us take a turn trying to bring the boomerang back to us. He also had a cattle whip that he expertly cracked, sounding just like gunshot.

The Telegraph Station is now a National Reserve in Australia. It also had a nice little gift shop which many of us utilized. I bought a small, flat fabric purse with an Aborigine design on it. I’ll take a photo of it and post it another day.

This was a sculpture along one of the thoroughfares in Alice Springs. As we all stood there looking at this thing, Marilyn asked us what we thought it meant. Somebody came up with it (not me) – it’s the sign for a “second hand” store (in the background).

This just tickled my funny bone, so I thought you all needed a laugh too.

Two years ago: Banana Bread

Three years ago: Cranberry Vinaigrette (a salad dressing)

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Finally, I got myself back in the kitchen yesterday to actually cook, from scratch. As I write this on Tuesday (yesterday when this publishes) it’s been two weeks since we arrived back home from New Zealand, and then all hell broke loose. Dave is improving some every day, although certainly not fast enough for him! His pain meds are his best friend. He’s able to move around the house with no difficulty, including up and down our different flights of stairs. He can shower himself except for drying off his back. And he no longer carries his red heart pillow everywhere he goes, although coughing is still excruciatingly painful. He was having a problem with edema (fluid retention) but that seems to be getting under control now, thank goodness. He’d gained over 20 pounds in fluid, but as of yesterday morning he was back to his normal weight. Dave is a slender man anyway, so 20 pounds on him is a lot. He can’t drive for another two weeks.

So anyway, with turkey leftovers crowding the refrigerator, I pulled out my old tried and true, favorite Southwestern Turkey Chili recipe that I’ve been making for about 15 or so years. Dave told me I made it too hot this time – I didn’t have Anaheim chiles, so substituted one jalapeno instead – so I’ll need to dilute what’s left to make it more palatable for him. It’s definitely a heart-healthy entrée (instead of butter, I used about 2 tsp. of olive oil). I added just the barest smidgen of salt. I didn’t cook up the beans myself, but used canned ones (which do contain sodium). I don’t oversalt things anyway. I always buy light sour cream, and I did use regular cheddar cheese. I don’t like low fat cheeses, so I just use less of the regular cheese instead.  So if you still have some turkey in your refrigerator, do try this if you enjoy the spicy flavors of the Southwest (cumin, chili powder, ground coriander, oregano).

This soup/stew comes together quite quickly once you chop up all the veggies. Vary the vegetables to suit your family’s taste. I use the fire-roasted corn from Trader Joe’s, but plain corn (fresh or frozen or even canned) works just fine too. Use cheddar or Jack, or whatever you have on hand. The sour cream garnish (to me anyway) is a necessary ingredient – it softens the heat and gentles the flavors. And, as always, it’s much better the next day.

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Files: MasterCook 5+ and MasterCook 14 (click link to open in MC; 14 contains photo

A year ago: how to do a spatchcocked turkey
Two years ago: White Turkey Chili (a different recipe than the one above)
Three  years ago: Apple Parsnip Soup

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One of the benefits of touring Australia with a group tour is that the tour company handles all the bags and makes all the flight arrangements. Only one morning did we have to get up before the crack of dawn and get our bags outside our hotel room door. We’re early risers anyway, so that was never a problem. Everyone in our group was prompt and congenial about it all.

Australia is one BIG country – almost as large as the United States. We flew from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Melbourne to Hobart, Launceston to Melbourne, Melbourne to Adelaide, Adelaide to Alice Springs, Ayers Rock to Cairns, Cairns to Sydney, Sydney to Christchurch, Queenstown to Auckland and from there back home. In the three weeks we were there (three in Australia, one in New Zealand), we saw just the central and eastern part of the country (we didn’t go to Perth, Darwin, etc.). At each new destination, buses were there to meet us once we landed, and our wonderful tour guide, Marilyn, was right on top of all those arrangements. We traveled as a “group” at airports, so often we got into other (much shorter) lines to check in. Upon arrival in Adelaide we took a little side trip into the local foothills and visited a wildlife park (koala above). It was raining, rather drizzling, and quite cold there, but the koala was quite content to pose for the tourists as he nibbled on the ever-ready eucalyptus leaves. Below, some Cape Bretton geese who were willing to take some food from Marilyn, our guide.

Two in our group took a one day (all day) flight to Kangaroo Island, where they got to see lots of the indigenous animals and one paid an additional fee to hold a koala. I’d heard or read mixed reviews about the trip (long day, may or may not see many of the animals, and expensive). So we opted not to go on that adventure. But all the rest of our group was game for a day of wine tasting. Marilyn made the arrangements and we tootled off in a small van to see wineries, etc.

Left to right, top to bottom: a vineyard in the Barossa Valley, a typical country road in the Barossa, vineyards again, colorful trees just leafing out in springtime, Albert Di Palma, the owner of Villa Tinto telling us all about his wine (we bought several bottles and so did nearly everyone else in our group), their winery sign, some delicious kangaroo (roo, they call it) with red cabbage and apples, and a very interesting gnarly tree in which, once upon a time an entire family lived.

The Barossa Valley is a major wine region in South Australia, producing some of the finest wines the country has to offer. We visited three wineries, but only one of them stood out for our group, although I did buy one bottle of a lightly sparkling rose at another winery. As our wine-tour guide explained to us, sometime recently at a major wine tasting, Penfold’s Grange (it’s one of the premier wines of the Penfold Winery, also in the Barossa Valley) was blind tasted with the wine from Villa Tinto. Villa Tinto surprised everyone with being almost a tie.

Now Penfold’s Grange is no wine to sneeze at – we saw it on restaurant menus in Australia from about $400 to about $700 a bottle. Here in the U.S. it can be purchased for $450 or so not including a restaurant mark-up. And I’m very proud to say that Dave and I have tasted one – complements of our friends Lynn and Sue (who recently moved to Colorado, big sigh). Lynn was given a bottle by a generous business associate, and he shared it with us. It was fantastic. It’s a shiraz (in Aussie twang, it’s pronounced sheer-razz, not sheer-raahs, as I thought it was).

Villa Tinto, however, was pretty darned fantastic too. Their price? About $18 a bottle for the Cabernet/Shiraz blend, which was our favorite. Unfortunately, Villa Tinto doesn’t export. They’re a 6-acre, small husband-wife operation (they built the winery from the weeds up starting in 2001) and they sell everything they bottle. It’s a hassle to ship wine, besides. We’re sad, though, since we have just two bottles we brought home. Sue and Lynn? I think that bottle is earmarked for your next visit back to So. California (they read my blog, so I know they’ll catch that!).

As for the “roo,” I didn’t order it. Dave did. Several in our group ordered roo (the delicious 3-course lunch was included in the all-day Barossa Valley wine tour) and all proclaimed it outstanding.

I think these photos are repeats from above, but wider and bigger . . .

One of the evenings we were in Adelaide our group was divided up and visited a private home for dinner. OAT contracts with individual families to host tourists for a home-hosted dinner. That kind of adventure is included in all the OAT tours. The family we visited is pictured below (the two children had gone to bed by then), along with the photo of the beef bolognaise she prepared for us for dinner. She always includes small chunks of carrot in her sauce. We enjoyed some nice Aussie cheese and crackers, the spaghetti with sauce, a green salad and a layered chocolate cake for dessert.

Here are a couple more photos that don’t really have stories attached to them. I love to photograph walls. Interesting walls that have lots of character to them. This one was at an old, old winery we visited, so this wall hadn’t been reconstructed, but it had obviously been patched.

And lastly, I always love to take photos of tree trunks. There’s something about eucalyptus trees that intrigue me – the bark is multi-colored, layered and it keeps peeling off, giving the tree some very interesting views.

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On Thanksgiving Day our daughter-in-law Karen brought over a container of this soup for us to enjoy as we all stood around the kitchen cooking. Her sister Janice had made it (thanks!). It was so delicious. She also sent along the recipe (from Cooking Light, 9/2009). Janice uses soy milk, and says that she is able to buy soy half and half. I’d never heard of it until now. Will have to look for it!

This is the kind of soup that sticks to the ribs. Would be great for a cold night, even New Years’ Eve around the fireplace. You could alter the proportion of corn and potatoes to suit your tastes. You’d swear it has bacon in it and there is none. The natural sweetness of the corn just shines through. I’d make this anytime.
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A year ago: It’s December (a list of things I like to bake most Christmases – maybe not this year)
Three years ago: Cardamom Crumb Cake

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