Weekend Cooking: Queen Baking Club

In addition to my baking adventures with Bakeitbox, I have been a member of the Queen Baking Club on Facebook pretty much since it began. This group sets a fortnightly challenge  for it's  members to attempt, and it is another good way to challenge yourself to step outside your normal cooking comfort zone.

A while ago I posted about the challenges I had made by that time.

Since then I have made the following challenges, some more successfully than others. This is the challenge list so far:

1. Classic Queen Vanilla Slice - Joined just after the first challenge so didn't make this one.
2. Banana Caramel Upside Down Cake - posted recipe here
3. Coconut Rough Magic Cake - see the photo here
4. Mermaid Cupcakes - didn't make this one
5. Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake - see the photo here (so good)
6. Creamy Gingernut Cheesecake - see the photo here (made this one a couple of times now!)
7. Strawberries  and Cream Sheet Cake - see the photo here
8. Oozing Eyeball Marshmallow Slice - see the photo here  (and yes, this was for Halloween)
9. Skeleton Gingerbread - didn't make this one.

And now some with pics

10. Easy Vanilla Bean Fudge
11. Baklava Slice - have made this several times and it is always a hit. See the photo here
12. Eton Mess Passionfruit Cheesecake - our Christmas dessert in 2018
13. Chocolate Salami/Soft Chocolate Gingerbread Biscuits - I didn't make the salami but I did make the Gingerbread biscuits (you can see the recipe here).  I have now made this several times.

14. Red Velvet Cheesecake Trifle - love red velvet cake, cheesecake and trifle but  it didn't work for me all together.
15 Classic Queen Vanilla Slice (with a Twist) - I can't remember what the actual twist was. My twist was I made my own rough puff pastry, which I was pretty proud of.

16. Honey Jumbles -based on classic Aussie biscuits. I had never tried them before but after making these I bought a packet. The homemade ones were much better!
17. Raspberry and White Chocolate Pound Cake

18. Gluten Free Fudge Cookies - a big hit with my friends, both those who can tolerate gluten and those who can't
19. Persian Drizzle Cake

20. Rich Chocolate Mud Cake -  I thought I made this one but maybe not.
21. Maple Butter Date Loaf - so good!
22. Vanilla Bean Glazed Hot Cross Bun - didn't make these. Had tried and failed to master hot cross buns around the same time.
23. Vanilla Custard Magic Cake - didn't make this one as I had made a Bakeitbox previously for a similar recipe.
24. Strawberry Cookie Dough Cupcakes - didn't make this one
25. Classic Red Velvet Cake - made the cupcake version of this

26. Pumpkin Pecan Pie Muffins - didn't make this one
27. Vanilla Bean Snickerdoodles - so good!
28. Best Ever Chocolate Cake

29. Double Vanilla  Portuguese Tarts  - possibly my favourite thing to have made so far.
30. Gluten and Dairy Free Brownies - didn't make this one
31. Cinnamon Doughnut Baby Cakes - pretty much mini doughnuts

32. Citrus Syrup Cake - I don't think I made this one as I already have a favourite syrup cake recipe
33. Vanilla, Ricotta and Almond Cake with Poached Fruit - didn't make this one
34. Dark Choc Peanut Cookies
35. Perfect Banana Cake

36. Rainbow Buttercream Cupcakes - mine aren't  exactly rainbow, but I was taking them to work for a pre wedding celebration and the bride's colour was teal.
37. Soft Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies - a repeat but well worth it given how delicious they are
38. Peppermint Oreo Fudge/Festive Gingerbread Fudge - didn't make either of these ones
39. Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies - didn't make this one
40. Tim Tam Fudge - didn't make this one either
41. Iced Vovo Cupcakes - inspired by a classic Australian biscuit these are raspberry and coconut cupcakes

And now we are up to date!

Are there any of these recipes that catch your eye? Have you joined this kind of group with regular challenges? How do you challenge yourself to try new things?

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Statues and silos!

In my post last week I mentioned that we had recently visited a town colloquially known as Cowtown, and all down the main street there were a lot of painted statues of cows.

It got me thinking about the other statues we have come across both at home and on our travels, so I thought I would have a bit of fun by sharing some photos from various locations.

My interest in this kind of thing started with the baby elephant named Mali. Back in 2012 there were 50 painted elephants all around Melbourne to celebrate the birth of a baby elephant named Mali at the Melbourne Zoo. There was a map to help you find all of them, and my goodness, I walked all over this city so that I could say that I found them all.

When my son was in America for college he lived in a small town called Concordia in Kansas. In that town, there is a museum for the Orphan Trains remembering those children that were relocated from the East Coast to the midwest. All around Concordia there are statues representing some of the stories of the children involved. Whilst they aren't painted it was interesting to wander around this small town in Kansas and read some of the stories.

The first time we went to visit him, we had to drive from Concordia from Wichita, and along the way we stopped in a town called Lindborg in Kansas. The town claims to be Little Sweden, and all around the town there are painted wooden horses, known as dala. In addition to being a beautiful little town, there was also an awesome coffee shop there!

In Wichita, there is a large statue called The Keeper of the Plains. It looks amazing on a beautiful autumn day and spectacular when it is lit up at night. At the time we visited Wichita, there were mini versions scattered throughout the city. I say mini but they were all 10 foot tall painted statues. With limited time, we obviously didn't have time to find all of them, but we did find a couple of them.

Just in case you think that this is all about America, when we were in Capetown in South Africa, we stumbled across some painted rhinos at the docks in Capetown. Such a beautiful place.

 Whilst I have been talking about mini things, we have also spent some time wandering around the western part of Victoria looking at the painted silos that are out there. In due course we intend to go looking for more of these all round the country. We have seen maybe 6 silos, but all up there are about 35 across the country, and it turns out that there are 40 painted water towers as well. I feel a road trip coming on to go and look for some more of these

We did stumble across another painted silo when we were in Albany a month or so ago too.

I love these painted silos and can't wait to see more. As you can see from the video below there are some amazing pieces of art out there waiting to be appreciated

Have you come across some fun statues or something similar to the silos either in your home town or on your travels?

Top Ten Tuesday: Oh, The Anticipation

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books On My TBR I Predict Will Be 5-Star Reads.

I think this topic is a good one, but I am not sure I am going to come up with ten. We'll see how we go. Let's start with what I have downloaded from Audible,then what I have on the Kindle, and then what's on the shelves.

So bearing in mind the above statement, here, in no other particular order, are my choices

Rolling with the Punchlines by Urzila Carlson - Urzila Carlson is a South African comedian who now lives in New Zealand and spends a little bit of time in Australia  as well. Every time I watch her she makes me laugh, and I have been lucky enough to see her live which was extremely entertaining!

The Rise of the Magicks by Nora Roberts - The third book in the Chronicle of the One trilogy.

The Moon Sister by Lucinda Riley - For the last year and a bit I have been working my way through the Seven Sisters series by this author. I am really looking forward to this book, when I get to it.

Hearts on Hold by Charish Reid - There was a rave review over at Smart Bitches Trashy Books a couple of days ago and I one clicked that sucker so quick even I was surprised!

Lilac Girls by Martha Kelly Hall -One of those authors that I know that I will enjoy when I finally get to it!

The Vineyard of Champagne by Juliet Blackwell - This is a new release that is right up my reading alley..

The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis - Similar to Martha Kelly Hall, I haven't actually read Fiona Davis, but I am pretty sure I will enjoy her books when I do.

The  Butterfly Room by Lucinda Riley - this is not part of the Seven Sisters series, but I do feel as though I have got the hang of Lucinda Riley's style now.

Beauty in Thorns by Kate Forsyth - I can't believe I haven't read this yet.

Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar - So funny story about this book. I have looked at this book to buy several times over the last few weeks. I had no idea it was already on my shelves! I did find another couple of other books that I didn't remember.

This week...

I'm Reading...

I mentioned last week that I was reading the first book in the Chalk Hill series by Lily Malone. II thoroughly enjoyed that book and have ended up reading both the second and now I am reading the third book which is called Last Bridge Before Home.

I'm not sure what I will pick up yet. I mean Lily Malone has at least four books I haven't read yet so I could keep reading those or I might pick up something completely different. I'll be as surprised as anyone else as to what comes next.



I'm Watching...

On Friday night we watched the final episode of The Good Place, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried. It felt like the series ended in a good way, with all of our characters coming to their own sense of peace and contentment.

From the first episode we have been engrossed in the story of Eleanor, Chidi, Jason and Tehani as they found their way into the good place where they met Michael and Janet, and I will miss them all. Luckily, if we really wanted to, we could go back and watch all of them again.

We loved that The Good Place was a lot of fun, but that it was also smart with the conversations about ethics and how to become a better person. I am, however, glad that the team behind it recognised when the story was done and didn't try to drag it out for longer than necessary.

We did go to the moves on Saturday to see Midway. Whilst I don't think the movie will end up as a classic in any way, it was watchable. I found myself thinking that it was trying to be Top Gun WWII, but it didn't quite make it. It didn't help that there were a couple of scenes that reminded me of Hot Shots either! Sort of middle of the road film for me.

My Kitchen Rules started again last night. We weren't really sure if we were going to watch this year because last year was just so awful but we watched the first episode. Jury is still out, but we'll see how we go. There was some evidence of the bitchy personality based TV, but nowhere near as bad as last year.

In Life...

So I am a month into my blogging comeback, and so far, it feels good to be back. The interesting thing about trying to come back to blogging is that I don't seem to have any shortage of ideas of posts to write.Then again, even when I didn't post for a year I would often think I should blog about that, but never quite got around to it.

What I have found hard is that there are so many people who used to be in the book blogging world who just aren't around at all anymore.. I guess that means that there are lots of new bloggers around and I need to figure out how to connect in the current blogging world. The challenge is how to rebuild connections, readership and working out how important that is in the big scheme of things.

Posts from the last week

Six Degrees of Separation: Fleishman is in Trouble to Spinning Silver
Weekend Cooking:  Mexican Chicken and Rice
2020 Reading Challenges
Top Ten Tuesday: Book Cover Freebies featuring lots of delicious looking baking book covers



I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

Six Degrees of Separation: Fleishman is in Trouble to Spinning Silver

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best.  The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links. This time, I have chosen to use all books that I have read, apart from the starting book

This month's starting point is Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodeser-Akner, a book I hadn't heard of until I saw it as being the starting point for this month. Other than reading the blurb, I have no idea what it is about but the name Fleishman reminded me of ....

Flashman and the Dragon by George McDonald Fraser - I only ever read one book of the Flashman series of books which I summarised as being very politically incorrect but fun at the time. I am a little surprised at myself because I have always been such a stickler for reading a series in order but this is the eight book published in the series, but it is much later in the series if you read it chronologically. Which leads me to

The eighth book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, Written in my Own Hearts Blood, which features Jamie Alexander Malcolm McKenzie Fraser as the Scottish highlander who finds himself caught up in the Jacobite uprising. I hear that we will finally get to read the next book in the series this year to which I say hoorah!

The Jacobite story is one that author Susanna Kearsley explores in many of her books, but for the purpose of this chain I am choosing to use The Winter Sea, a book that is right up there with my favourite ever books.

The next one is perhaps a tenuous link, but I am choosing to jump to Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan, a fairy tale retelling about selkies which in Scottish mythology are creatures that could change form from seals to humans by shedding their skins. I actually could almost have linked to the third Outlander book as there is mention of the selkie legend but instead I am linking to

Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth, who is a master of taking a fairy tale and retelling it in a historical fiction setting. Bitter Greens was the first book by Kate Forsyth that I read, and it is still my favourite. In this book, she gives us a retelling of the Rapunzel fairy tale set in Renaissance Venice mixed in with tales from the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV

For my final link in the chain, I am sticking with the fairy tale retelling theme. In this case, it is Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik which I listened to on audiobook early last year. This is a retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale, with a good pinch of  Polish (I think) folklore.

From here, there are any number of directions the change could go, but that is my six for this month.

Next month's chain starts with Wolfe Island by Lucy Treloar. I think I know what my first link is, but who knows where it will take me!

Weekend Cooking: Mexican Chicken and Rice

Many years ago now I was at my cousin's house for dinner and she served up this dish. The recipe  was written on the back of a blue envelope and I made it a few times but then forgot about it.

Recently we were doing a bit of clean out and we came across the blue envelope again and so we have made the recipe again. There was a photo of the recipe sent to my son so he could make it one night, and to my husband (still getting used to saying that!) so he could  make it another night, and yet, every time we put it on the menu for the week we walk around the house saying things like "has anyone seen that envelope?".

So, in the interests of saving everyone's time and sanity, I am going to share the recipe here.

Now I am aware that this isn't really Mexican, it's more inspired by than genuine, it is easy, and it is tasty so it is on our rotation of meals now.

Mexican Chicken and Rice

Rice
Coriander
Red kidney beans
8 Chicken thigh fillets chopped
2 jars Taco Sauce
Grated Cheese
Sour Cream

Preheat over to 160C.

Cook rice and then mix with the beans and coriander. Spread in the bottom of a baking dish.

Cook chicken in a frying pan. When brown, stir through the taco sauce and heat through.

Place in baking dish over the rice

Sprinkle with more cheese

Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes

Serve with sour cream

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

2020 Reading Challenges

Back in the day I was a sucker for a reading challenge. But when you aren't really reading and you  are most definitely not blogging there doesn't seem to be much point in challenges.

I am, however, going to sign up for two challenges for this year. The reading part isn't actually an issue for either challenge, but the writing a review part is! They might just be mini reviews, there might be no reviews, we'll see how it unfolds.

The two challenges I am joining are:

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - back in the day we used to host this challenge but when we decided to call it a day Amy from Passages to the Past now does a sterling job of hosting it.

Australian Women Writers Challenge -This is a no brainer for me as about half of the books I read are by Australian Women authors.