Welcome back
The first post on this blog is from 2003. Twenty years ago. I only had two kids then and they were both very little. I had a different husband, I had just turned 30 and weighed 72 kgs. I know this because I always know my weight and back then I had been on a major campaign to be thin for my 30th. I found some photos from my birthday party the other day, while looking through photos with Jasper (he wasn’t born then) for his HSC visual arts major work (because he wasn’t born then but he’s finishing high school now. Time, huh) and my God, I was so young. And looked so fucking good. What I remember however, is that I was so annoyed and disappointed in myself because I had desperately wanted to be 70kgs and just couldn’t get there.
Crazy huh. But as I shake my head at how mean and hard I was on myself at 30, I sit here at 50 doing exactly the same thing, but this time with the very real threat of illnesses, ailments, conditions that come home to roost when you hit the big five-oh.
This isn’t even what I was planning to write about. As Hannah Gadsby says, this isn’t a story, it’s a boring list of facts.
Anyway, I haven’t written about life for a long time. Let’s see how it goes.
Pay attention to the weather, to what breaks your heart, to what lifts your heart. Write it down.
Ellen Meloy
Retirement and new starts
I’ve decided this old girl has served me well. For the moment she’s going to relax in the back paddock.
Please come and visit me for all the food I’m making and baking at:
Onward!
Me and bomber jackets are not friends. And other critical matters
The Hot Flush
Season 2, Episode 12
Failed trophy wives, fashion avoidance, dud dads and more.
Onward!
Porridge pancakes
I have been making buttermilk pancakes for a hundred years. Sometimes I swap in yoghurt. Rarely so I make ricotta pancakes because you have to whip the eggwhites separately and, quite frankly, who has the inclination to be doing that early in the day?
But time has passed and my guts have decided that refined flour and sugar are not its friends. Goddammit.
That, combined with the fact the boys seemed to be losing their love of my buttermilk version, had me looking for something more wholesome. Of course, Smitten Kitchen delivered.
I’ve made three changes – I use wholemeal flour, I add a pinch of salt instead of 3/4tsp and I don’t add the honey. I added the honey the first time and while they were deliciously sweet it wasn’t really necessary.
And yes, you have to make some porridge first and let it cool a little. This almost made me not make them (because: lazy and impatient) but in all honesty? Make it, pour it into a bowl, get everything else ready, make a cup of tea and then come back to it. Good to go.
Oh, I’ve taken to making double the batch – the better seems even better the next day!
- Dry ingredients
- 3/4 cup oatbran
- 1 cup wholemeal flour
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- Wet ingredients
- 3 tbsp (45g) butter, melted
- 1 1/4 cup milk
- 1 cup porridge (see below)
- 2 eggs
- For the porridge
- 1/2 cup (heaped) rolled oats (you can use normal or quick, I use normal because i quite like the texture it brings to the pancakes)
- 1 cup water
- Cook on the stove
- Bring to the boil and cook – about a minute for quick oats, five for normal rolled oats
- Pour into a bowl and let cool
- Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl
- In another bowl whisk all the wet ingredients together – all of it, the oats, the eggs, the butter, the milk!
- It won’t be smooth because of the porridge but just make sure it’s all nicely combined
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry
- Mix it together nice and gently. Don’t beat it to death, just nice big turns until it’s all incorporated.
- It’s a thick batter. Don’t panic!
- Heat a frypan over high heat
- Add a knob of butter and then knock the heat down to low. I’ve come to learn (after many many many burnt pancakes) that you can’t cook pancakes quickly.
- Just slow down, be at one with the pancake.
- Add a good dollop of pancake mix – I use a soup ladle, or about the size of the palm of your hand. And yes, I know we all have different sized palms, but you get the idea. (You don’t want a massive one, apart from the face they’re quite filling, you’ve got low heat, so you’ll end up with a very brown middle and very pale, dubiously cooked through edges)
- Then – and this is my tip of the century! – pop a lid over it. It captures the heat and helps cook the pancake evenly. (and – after my comment above about the impossibility of cooking pancakes quickly – dare I say cooks them more quickly than without a lid)
- Give it a couple of minutes, don’t be scared, take the lid off and have a look
- When there are bubbles appearing on the top then you can flip it
- Cook it for a couple of minutes on the other side and you’re done!
- Serve with whatever you like – maple syrup and strawberries are the go in this house. I actually like them plain because, weird.
- They also work a treat at pikelet size.
The Hot Flush
Joy at babies, head shaking at Barnaby (again), fist shaking at the banks (thieving bastards), and bed bugs (not ours) – the lastest edition of The Hot Flush is here.