TheBanyanTree: Cooking72

[Pam Lawley]

Interesting...  I've found that I'm not terribly good with 'food'... I can
follow a recipe to a tee and it just doesn't come out very tasty.  But, I
can whip up some scrumptious desserts quite successfully!  :)     And there
doesn't have to be an occasion for 'cake' - like breakfast or dinner or
whatever...  One can eat cake anytime!!!   And I find baking fun, soothing,
relaxing...

So this fall, I took a course at a local community college's Culinary
School for Pastry Certification.  Not that I have any plans for the
Certification - I'm not going into business or looking for a job at a
bakery - I just wanted to learn new stuff!   It was a very intense class!
 We spent three hours, two nights a week, moving!  Luckily we were
partnered up (and I had an awesome partner, we worked together perfectly!!)
so while one was mixing something the other could be at the stove heating
something else!  Time just flew by and we had some delicious rewards for
our efforts!  Oh, and yeah, we had a few failures to show for our time as
well - but then we just went home and tried again in the comfort of our own
kitchens!  :)

But what a learning experience!!  For example, I learned how super-easy it
was to throw some ingredients into my mixer and just turn it on, take it
out and let it rise, and viola!, I had bread!!  I've made it several times
since.  Of course, I also learned that I will probably NEVER  master pie
crusts...  :D  (It's important to recognize one's limitations!!!)

My point to all this was, sitting her in eastern North Carolina in the USA,
that I had NO clue what a "slice" was!   So I googled it!  And it appears
to be what we would call a 'bar'...  For example, I saw a photo of "Lemon
Slices" which look exactly like a "Lemon Bar" - a crust, a filling, and a
topping!!  Yum!!

Thanks Roger - I'm still learning, and now I'll have to make some
'slices'!!  :)


On Tue, Dec 27, 2011 at 7:23 AM, Roger <woodcatau at gmail.com> wrote:

> Six months ago Robin and I moved from one extreme to another - biggish city
> with many malls and shopping centres to tiny rural settlement with none!
> The reason? Our landlord put the house we were renting up for sale and
> friends near the village offered us a house to live in. We had notice of
> when it would happen and time to make our own plans, it wasn't done
> sneakily or anything like that. So a particular day in June saw us arrive
> in the beautiful Araluen Valley, southeast NSW, with our worldly
> possessions and our menagerie - seven chooks, four cats and a dog (since
> increased to two dogs). Whilst I have been semi-retired for some time Robin
> was and still is an assistant professor at the University of Canberra so
> she commutes each week and boards with a friend and some of her research is
> done at home. All well and good but not a long time had passed when I
> realised that whereas before I met Robin sixteen years ago I had
> practically existed on soup, I had had such good food since meeting her,
> and got used to having it, that I would have to learn pretty quickly how to
> cook. Something I had not even tried to learn let alone master in my 72
> years.
>
> We are both vegetarians, she on principle and I for practicality's sake,
> and after producing an excellent vegetable and soy stew for dinner, I
> decided that provided one treated the ingredients of main meals with
> respect, did not hurry the preparation and cooking time, and generally took
> great care in judging what went with what, one could cook just about any
> main meal offering. Biscuits and slices were something else again however.
> So on the basis that 'Life is uncertain, eat dessert first" that was the
> area I began my true cooking lessons in and, to date, that is where I have
> stayed. Muffins and suchlike are not my strength but I do love making
> biscuits and, even more, slices. In the doing I have learned many things.
> Like, for instance, when the recipe lists the ingredients they are not
> generally in  the order of preparation; cooking on a slow combustion stove
> as we do is vastly different to cooking on a gas or electric stove whose
> oven can be set to switch on and off at specific temperatures; and words
> such as combine, fold, beat and sift have precise meanings which must not
> be forgotten.
>
> It still amazes me that putting different substances together in the manner
> described in cookery books and exposing the mixes to heat for varying
> periods of time does usually produce a yumminess though possibly not the
> one expected by the recipe's author. However, in terms of the following
> recipe I would have to say without any doubt whatsoever the yumminess
> achieved is fantastic!!
>
> *Fresh Berry Slice*
> 1/4 cup softened butter
> 3/4 cup white sugar
> 1 egg
> 2 cups self-raising flour
> pinch of salt
> raspberry jam, for spreading
> 1/2 fresh raspberries, blueberries or blackberries
>
> *Topping:*
> 1 cup white sugar
> 1 cup dessicated coconut
> 1 egg
>
> Preheat oven to 180C (try THAT on a slow combustion stove!). Lightly grease
> a 19cm x 29cm slice tin.
> For the base, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in egg,
> sifted flour and salt.
> Press mixture into tray, spread thickly with jam and sprinkle with fresh
> berries.
> For the topping, mix all ingredients together and spread evenly over base.
> Bake for about 20 minutes. Cool before slicing (makes 24).
>
> (from the Biscuit and Slice Bible copyright Penguin Group (Australia) 2007,
> published by Penguin Group)
>
> Wishing you All the Best for 2012
>
> Roger
>