Pictures from the Book: Page 4

This morning I was honoured to be the guest-speaker at a book club connected with Wyandotte Winery (they recently read "Flying Over the Rainbow"). As part of the Q&A, they expressed the desire to see colour versions of the photos in the book. I'd been thinking about that myself, and so, YEAH! Why not?!?!

There are LOT of photos in the book - over 70 - that's too many to put up all at once, but the beauty of having this blog is the fact that I CAN show you colour photos. We'll start with page 4 - a photo of Cockatoos sitting on a park picnic table:

(Click on the image to see a larger version)

She'll Try Anything Once - Twice if She Likes It

(side note: finally, FINALLY, computer seems to be straightened out, so I can post again!!!)

Avian bodies are not really designed for lactose, but a little taste every now and then isn't harmful. We were having breakfast, which on that morning included rockmelon (aka cantalope) and Greek yogurt. Laka was sitting on her t-stand next to the table - clearly very interested in what we were having. I gave her some melon, which she happily licked over and gobbled.

But she wanted more, fascinated with the white substance I was transferring via spoon from the bowl to my mouth. She leaned toward the spoon, swinging her body to follow my hand each time I took a bite.

I finally gave in, scooping up about 1/4 of a teaspoon of yogurt onto a spoon and handed it to her.


Oh, yes... it was a big hit. First she licked the back of the spoon, carefully getting every little molecule, her face showing intense concentration. Then she deftly turned the spoon over and went after the inside of the bowl, managing to get some on the bottom of her lower mandible in the process:



After extracting every little bit, she flipped the spoon end-to-end and inspected the handle (no joy there, the yogurt was GONE!).



Once she was satisfied that the delectable white stuff was gone, she summarily dropped the spoon, enjoying the loud CLANG! it made when it hit the pan under her stand.

The Bain of all Bloggers...

Computer problems - my usual machine is down...

I'm on a clumsy laptop using wifi and pulling my hair out. I'm using some pretty choice language right now... with this machine... I think it's possessed... It's taken 30 mins to type this much. I'll get to the bottom of this (or beat this laptop with a hammer...) and put something worth reading up in a day or so.

Apologeeeeez......

Angel Food Cake - Part 2

Last month, I mentioned my plan to introduce my Aussie friends to "Angel Food Cake". I'd planned to do it right away, but somehow managed to procrastinate until this week - but I finally did it.

I am part of a group of women who meet one afternoon a week to play mahjong. They are a great bunch of gals and fairly adventurous, so I decided they were the ideal ones to try this out on.

I got a Duncan Hines angel food cake mix from an American food store here in Melbourne - and located an angel food cake pan via eBay. The cake mix turned out to be amazingly easy - certainly easier than attempting this from "scratch". Everything needed (including the eggs) was part of the mix; all I had to do was add water. I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical that the cake would turn out correctly - but it did!

The cake pan is non-stick, so I had to be extremely careful in how I loosened the cake from the sides. My plastic spatula worked well for out outer edge, and the cake came away from the sides easily.

The inner tube part was trickier - I used a butter knife for that (and managed to get the job done without scratching the pan).









Worrying that the cake would adhere to the pan's bottom, I lined it with wax paper before pouring in the batter. It's a good thing I did; I'm convinced the cake would never have come out easily, esp. after seeing how it was clinging to the sides.


Voila!



It turned out perfectly. The texture, colour, flavour - all if it was exactly what angel food cake should be. And what did my friends think of their first taste of angel food? Well here's the unanimous verdict:

(the ladies, from left to right are Joan, Phyllis, Jill, Jenny, Dianne, and June.
In front are Jill's grandchildren, Caitlin and Thomas, who came home from school just in time to be offered a slice)
They were pretty surprised at how tall the layer was, and by the texture, which they compared to sandwich bread. Most of them remarked on how sweet it was - which surprised me, as I don't think of angel food cake as being particularly sweet. I don't eat cake often (almost never, really) so I'll have to get some the next time I'm out for a coffee and make note of how sweet it is.

Anyway - angel food cake is a hit in Australia!