Life is better with cheddar

It's Alfie's birthday today.

Birthday's in our household are a bit spesh. There's always cake, a little present and something fun to do that day.

Today Alfie woke us just after 5am. This has been a pattern for the last ten days (and counting - I'm shitting myself about daylight savings).

He opened his presents and played with them while I cooked brekky.

I asked him what he wanted to take for lunch to the zoo and he told me: "cheese and crackers". His favourite (who doesn't love cheese?)

So while he slept I filled the house with the savoury, spicy smell of cheese as I made Rhonda Hetzel's Cheese Crackers. For those who haven't heard of Rhonda, you need to read her blog or invest in her books. This woman knows ALL THE THINGS about making a home. Plus she lives in Maleny, Queensland, where I was born, so she has the best knowledge drawn from hippy roots.

I reckon these are going to be a hit once he wakes up. I think they're also going to taste pretty fucking delicious with our pumpkin soup this evening (thanks be to one rad neighbour who had an out of control pumpkin vine this season).

Super easy. Even my kid could make these.

Give 'em a go! You will never eat Cheds again.

Easy Cheese Crackers / or Zoo Crackers
Rhonda Hetzel

125g grated cheddar cheese
125g grated parmesan
80g butter at room temp
1 cup plain flour
2 tablespoons or so of iced water

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.
Mix cheese, butter and flour in a food processor.
Add enough water to bring the dough together - like a shortbread dough.
Ball up and wrap in glad wrap and pop in fridge. Leave for around 30 mins.
Roll the dough thinly and cut into shapes. I used Reggie's whiskey glass, but you can use whatever you like.
Place on baking tray and make a couple of fork holes in each bikkie. I added black sesame seeds to mine to make them look like I've tried hard.
Bake for 10 mins. Check at this point and see how golden the biscuits are. If they are golden, bring them out. If not, leave for another minute or so. Keep checking, these babies cook fast.

Whack them on a rack to cool. Serve with dip-o-choice.

Perfect zoo crackers,

Enjoy!

City House, Country House

It only takes a few weekends away in the country to get that sweet air into your lungs, enough to inspire me to sell up the rad inner city pad and purchase a run down wreck of a Federation palace with a wrap around verandah deep within the bush, living off the fat o' the land and collecting eggs for my breakfast in the morning.

Oh the dreams.

Before Ali Webb from Melbourne there was Alison Murray from Yackandandah. A kid from the scrub who was raised on 10 or so acres, jumping into dams from the trampoline, helping mum bake bread, pod peas, collect eggs, shoo rabbits, water the orchard, feed the cow, milk the cow, pick the veggies for that night's tea and so on. You could say we were self sufficient.

So when I called mum the other night to squeal with excitement about baking my own bread, she laughed. Of course she did, she's been doing it for years.

But what a sense of achievement it is to make something for yourself. This week it was bread, pesto and hummus. All from scratch, every ingredient accounted for and the only numbers on the recipe was for quantities rather than preservatives.

While explaining this to mum in Beechworth over the long weekend, she got it straight away. "I could have told you all about this years ago, honey. But you wouldn't have been interested," she said. Mums are always right.

I'm sure I'm not the only person out there who has had a swift change in plans, craving the space and air of country living and that trendy little two words we keep hearing today: slow. down.

While a shift to the country might be a pipe dream at the moment, there's no harm in treating our city house like a country house.

We've chocked up our vegie patch out the front with snow peas, broccoli, eggplant, chillis, herbs and more. We've got seeds from Diggers on their way. A blob of bread dough is slowly rising on the bench and this evening Alfie ate the last of the strawberries straight off the plant.

Yesterday I traded some fabric for wool with my neighbour and I've already commenced a little crocheted blanket for my friend's babe.

Yes I know, all these things take time, but how nice is it to use your time making a lovely home for your family.  Insert smiley face.

It's excellent.

I didn't even swear once in this post. Perhaps all this country air has changed me.

Fuck,

Ali xx

My bread

Easter  Parade in Beechworth

Every country town must have a man with a cocky on his shoulder or a trolley full of ferrets

MY pesto and hummus smashed on Turkish bread