Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

I’m off on holiday for a couple of weeks. Hubby needs the break since he’s been working long hours. I’m going along to keep him company.

When we hit Sydney, we’re going to see The Munsters at the Capitol Theatre. I can almost hear the theme song now. A theatre visit is a real treat, and I’m looking forward to the show.

While I’m away, I have lots of books that I’m spotlighting. They’ve all appealed to me for one reason or another – the cover, the premise or the characters. I hope you’ll check them out. Some of them have giveaways. And speaking of giveaways, I’m currently doing a contest at Goodreads for a print copy of Tea For Two. Make sure you enter because I’d love to send the prize to one of my regular visitors.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Tea for Two

by Shelley Munro

Giveaway ends June 06, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

I’m visiting Maria Zannini today where my post is about Cinderella Breaking Bread.

My cupcake course was a bit different from what I’d thought it would be. I don’t know why I thought I’d be piping icing. The lesson was with sugar paste and was lots of fun—sort of like reverting to childhood and dabbling with play dough.

These are my materials. I’ve rolled my sugar paste into pea and marble shapes ready to make my snowman.

Here are my final creations. I have a snowman, a pine tree and two roses and a leaf on the cupcake. An octopus on the biscuit. A fish that looks a bit like a tadpole and my cake pop hedgehog. You need to use your imagination with the hedgehog. The photo didn’t do it justice!

I hope to see you over at Maria’s blog.

We’re heading into winter down this end of the world. Our spring bulbs are starting to sprout out of the earth, the broccoli is ready for harvest and the spinach is still going strong. The carrots grew well but they’re all terribly deformed. They’ve grown into very rude shapes! This is caused because the soil isn’t fine enough. The tiny clumps and stones in the soil create havoc, making the root vegetable grow sideways in order to gain nutrients. They still taste good though.

Thankfully, the lemons are almost ripe. We use lemons a lot in our cooking, and we’ve missed not having any during the last two months.

Our cyclamen plants have started to flower. They’re a pretty flower and come in shades of pink, red and white. The other day Mr. Munro popped into the garden center to buy some lettuce plants. He came out with a new cyclamen plant for me—a two tone one in pink and white. Isn’t it pretty?

Mr. Munro planted the lettuce in a container—one we put out on the deck for easy access. I was out yesterday morning. When I arrived home I thought the lettuce looked very flat and droopy. I think Bella, our puppy used it for a sun bed again. I’ve barricaded it now, so we’re hoping the lettuce will recover.

When Mr. Munro and I first married we used to have a lot of house plants. It took ages to water them, and going on holiday was a mission because we had to work out how to keep them alive or organize someone to water them.

After we came back from our overseas jaunt we didn’t replace our indoor plants. At present I have three. Two little palms that can go for a month without water and the above cyclamen. Once the cyclamen finishes flowering we’ll find a spot for it in the garden. They die off and come back each year during the winter, so this is the perfect houseplant for us.

Do you have houseplants? Are you good at keeping them healthy and alive?

Tomorrow it’s ANZAC day (25 April) where New Zealand and Australia remember those who fell at Gallipoli during World War 1.

A few years ago, Mr. Munro and I visited ANZAC Cove and Chunuk Bair in Turkey. We walked from ANZAC Cove up to Chunuk Bair. It was sweltering hot and we were exhausted by the time we reached the top. We didn’t have packs. We didn’t have people shooting at us. I don’t know how the soldiers managed during the heat of battle.

Every year they hold a special service at ANZAC Cove where Australians, New Zealanders and the Turkish people remember.

Here are a few photos. (They’re scanned so the quality isn’t as good as it could be)

This is taken from Chunuk Bair and is of the view out toward ANZAC Cove. You can see the trenches in the foreground.

This is the New Zealand memorial.

This is ANZAC Cove (click to enlarge photo)

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

From Laurence Binyon’s poem For the Fallen, written in September 1914

Please take a moment to remember the fallen from past battles. Without their sacrifices our lives would be very different.

I’m taking a blogging holiday and will be back in early March.

Meantime, why don’t you enter this Goodreads contest to win a print copy of Lion’s Share?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Lion’s Share

by Shelley Munro

Giveaway ends March 20, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Be good!

I stepped out of routine last weekend. After packing my handbag with necessities, including my camera, I went off to be a Cheesemaker for a day at the New Zealand Cheese School.

There were about ten of us on the Dairy course, and we learned how to make milk ricotta, sour cream, cultured butter, yoghurt, quark and mascarpone.

We listened and learned. We made our own cultured butter and milk ricotta. We tasted samples of every type of dairy product.

It was so much fun.

One of the people who ran the course owns her own cheese company. She took a course much like this one back in 2000 and loved it so much, she started her own cheese company. We tasted several of her cheeses (ranging from cow and goat brie to a tasty blue) for morning tea.

Since the course, hubby and I have made our own yoghurt and some mascarpone. I like making things from scratch. They don’t necessarily turn out cheaper, but I can control what goes into my products, they taste good and I get satisfaction from making something myself.

As a side benefit, I have the perfect occupation for my next book—a cheesemaker!

Here are a few photos from my cheesemaking adventure.

Here we’re straining yoghurt to make it thicker – the consistency of Greek Yoghurt. When this is done commercially, milk solids (i.e. milk powder) are added back into the yoghurt to thicken it. This is why most thick Greek yoghurts purchased in the supermarket are higher in calories.

This is cultured butter that we made from sour cream. When I was a kid, we used to separate the cream from the cow’s milk in a machine called a separator. (Funnily enough!) The milk would come out one tube and the milk out another. When we had a lot of cream, we’d make butter in the butter churn. Both the separator and the churn were of the manual variety and used a lot of energy. I remember churning the butter—not an easy chore! The butter above was made using a kitchen mixer. So much easier.

This is me in my cheesemaking outfit – an apron and hairnet. I’m in charge of the milk ricotta. The curds have lifted to the top of the liquid, and I’m placing it in molds. The milk ricotta reminded me of scrambled eggs when I tasted it.

I enjoyed this course so much, I think I might go back at a later date and learn how to make feta and some of the molded cheeses like brie and blue cheese.

Are there any cheesemakers out there? Cheese fans?

It’s definitely summer here in New Zealand with higher than normal temperatures scorching the country. Bella has taken to cooling off by lying on her back with all her feet in the air. I call it her hot, hot, hot! pose.

Later today I’m visiting Not Your Usual Suspects blog where I’m talking about Scarlet Woman—the little book that could!

What are your favorite tips for cooling down during a hot summer?

During my holidays I was thrilled to learn two of my books have received nominations for The Romance Studio’s 2012 CAPA awards. Lone Wolf is nominated in the Psyche Award category and Christmas is Coming has received a nomination in the Ari (Cover Art Award). The winners are due for announcement on 14 February 2013.

It’s summer in New Zealand at present and today we’re sweltering in heat. Yesterday it was so windy we almost blew away, which is not so good for the vegetable garden. Mr. Munro didn’t plant as much in the garden this year since we knew we’d be away for Christmas, and we’re off again in six weeks.

The cherry tomatoes and strawberries started to ripen before Christmas and we were able to eat a few before we left on holiday. The carrots and radishes have grown to giant size and are no longer edible. Our salad leaves are finished too. At present we have cauliflowers, we’re eagerly awaiting our larger tomato varieties (they don’t seem to have ripened early this year since there was a lot of rain while we were away) and the herbs (parsley, sage, mint etc) are flourishing.

We ate some of our new potatoes—Jersey Bennes—for dinner the other night. Boiled until tender and served with chopped garlic and melted butter, they were delicious. Guess what’s on the menu tonight?

The passionfruit vine is covered with fruit, and I’m hoping they ripen while we’re at home. I find I don’t like to share this particular crop!

This year I’ve started running again, trying something different as part of my exercise program. I used to do a lot of running in my younger days (Ahem!). I’m pretty determined and have some excellent shoes, so I have no excuse to give up. Would anyone like to take bets on how long my running will last?

Meet Mr. and Mrs. Goose and their new family. I pass them every day during my bike ride and have watched the bundles of gray fluff grow. Usually I keep a healthy distance because those beaks are lethal. One hiss and I’m out of there!

Happy New Year! May 2013 bring everything you desire.

This is one of our native trees – the pohutukawa tree. It’s an evergreen and bears these gorgeous scarlet flowers around Christmas. Our local council has planted these trees all down our street and in some of the neighboring reserves. They make for a pretty picture.

I wish everyone a happy and safe Christmas. Enjoy your day.