Upside down pizza

There are upside down apple pies, upside down pineapple cakes, etc etc.

So, why not an upside down pizza?

I was actually stuck for dinner ideas on the weekend.  I didn't have much in the fridge and somehow I had to make a Sunday evening dinner.  It would have been sad to just present pumpkin soup on the table.  I was going to just bake some butter rolls to go with the soup, then I had an idea.

I fried some onions, paprica, and olives with olive oil.  I sprinkled some shredded cheese and covered the pan with the bread dough.  I baked it in the oven till the top of the  bread was golden and tipped the whole thing over a plate.  Voila!

Seviile Orange Marmalade

Up until now, I have managed to only post "baked" creations in this blog in accordance with the name I gave this thing.  But how could I resist this beautiful sunshine in a jar?

It was when we first moved to the Blue Mountains 5 years ago, I went to the local market and met the "Jam Lady" who appeared at many of the markets around the mountains selling her jars of jams and marmalades.  She had several marmalades and I asked her which one I should try.  She said of all the marmalades she makes, her favourite was the Seville Orange one.

Who am I to argue with the Jam Lady?  I bought a jar off her and I never looked back.

What I did was to look up Stephanie Alexander's recipe for Seville Orange Marmalade and cooked dozens of Seville oranges for the next few years.

Seville Oranges in Australia are available in the month of August.  Not all green grocers have them, so you may need to ask your local one to procure some for you.

Last year, however, a fellow jam maker (otherwise known as a friendly witch) in the mountains told me to cooke the whole fruit in water for a couple of hours before chopping them into small strips.

This makes chopping much easier and I will never make marmalade any other way.

I like the jelly in my marmalade, so I always put plenty of liquid in my marmalade.  Sometimes this requires more time, sugar and pectin, but the results are worth the trouble.

This year, I cooked 10 Seville Oranges and made about 24 jars of a standard Bonne Maman size.  I have already given some away.  Some of my friends and family are waiting for their supply for the year.  I should have just enough left for our consumption until August next year.

trying to be croquembouche

For my birthday a few days ago, to cheer myself up, I attempted to make a croquembouche for the first time.  I have made profiteroles dozens of times, so I knew I could do that part easily enough.  If it was just the matter of constructing a tower with the profiteroles, how hard could it be?

It was just going to be just for me, my hubby and our little girl, so I knew that it would be unwise to make a huge one.  Not because we wouldn't be able to eat  the whole thing, but because we probably would eat the whole thing.  

I baked 28 smallish choux buns.  Actually I baked more, but some disappeared.

I used a frozen puff pastry for the base.  

I filled profiteroles with custard and used caramel as glue to build a tower.

A circle of seven at the base, then six, then five, etc etc.

The final touch was to spin caramel around it.

I had a lot of fun pulling and stretching caramel.  That really was the best bit, except for eating the individual profiteroles.   

I had this notion that I dislike profiteroles with too much caramel around them.
I seem to recall hurting my mouth with shards of caramel and that is why I only used caramel as glue to hold the tower together.  And of course as decorative spun sugar around the tower.

Now I think that as long as I'm making croquembouche for enough people to be eaten in one sitting, ie.,  may be 3 profiteroles each, more caramel might be desirable.

I certainly had fun making it and enjoyed eating it even more.  Thank goodness I didn't make a huge one.  My jeans would have 'shrunk'.