‘Legs 11’, calls the Bingo leader.

11 days down means only three full days to go, after today.

I couldn’t tell you the last time I played Bingo, but yes, I have. When I was working as a Customs Officer in the mid-late 80s, a group of us used to regularly go to Granville RSL in our lunch hour and play Bingo. I have no idea why we did it, but we loved it and used to have a great chat to all the oldies, have a cheap lunch, win the occasional prize and from memory even usually enjoyed a drink or two. There’s no way that would be allowed anymore, especially in full uniform!

Who likes to play games?

Board games? Drinking games? Electronic games (like the X-box)? Mobile phone games?

Not long before we went to Thailand on holidays, I restarted playing the game ‘Words with Friends’ on my phone. I used to play it against my Mum before she died, and I hadn’t played it for at least seven, nearly eight years. My sister Katrina is an avid player, as is Pamela, as well as some others I know. It’s really just an interactive version of scrabble and apart from my friend Gill, all my opponents are random unknown people. Both Katrina and Pamela are excellent wordsmiths, so at this stage I’ve decided not to set myself up for more than likely defeat.  I am finding it a great way to turn my brain to other thoughts beyond work or COVID-19, which can both be all-of-mind consuming. I am definitely improving, and find myself waking in the night thinking of great words. That’s got to be better than waking up worrying about viruses!

Sunday is the one day of the week I would likely spend most of at home, even if we were not in isolation. I started the day giving the place a thorough vacuum (turns out it’s great exercise), swept all the hard floors, mopped the bathrooms and cleaned the toilets.  I actually don’t mind cleaning, but in my usual life I just don’t have enough time to do it all. Most weeks I get help with the cleaning, but isolation = no visitors so it’s down to Dave and I. Dave has full control over the laundry (best husband ever!) but the house was getting a little dusty so it’s good to have it back into a super clean state.  I even wiped all the skirting boards!

The highlight of my day so far is a phone catch up with my very dear friend Jules. Yesterday I heard that another friend of mine lost her Dad and it really hit home for me the extent and sheer horrible-ness (made up word I know) of this situation. To say that no one is exempt from the impacts of this virus is an understatement. Everyone is hurting in some way or another, it’s just the level of despair that varies. Jules is one of those amazing friends who knows just what to say and when to say it.  I am so grateful for all my friends, and while I can’t cuddle you all right now, which is what I desperately want to do, I thankfully feel very supported and connected and close to you. Perhaps even more so than normally. A text, a phone call, dropping something on our front doorstep, or even forwarding a funny meme on messenger is incredibly helpful. I’m trying to do likewise and make sure all my friends are feeling loved and connected, just without the visiting them part.  Imagine how hard this would have been before the internet or phones!

How happy was Dave to have chocolate milk dropped on the doorstep by Karl yesterday!

The other part of today I have really loved involves my cutlery drawer.  As I mentioned the other day, I recently got a new set of cutlery at a charity auction. Yesterday, a replacement expandable cutler drawer liner arrived from Myer online, to replace the slightly damaged one I had.  How great does the new holder and new cutlery look together! I keep opening the drawer to admire it 🙂  

The Spinach and Feta Gozleme I made yesterday turned out very well, so I have included the recipe below.  It was surprisingly easy, only need a few ingredients and those ingredients are quite inexpensive. The negative was that they taste best eaten straight away – so therefore I ate too many 😉

Last night, we tucked into the lamb shanks that had been cooked sous-vide for two whole days. I removed them from the Cryovac bag and placed them on a baking tray into a pretty hot oven (230°C). While they browned up and became crisp, we mashed some sweet potato; squished the peas (that had been cooked with butter, salt, a little sugar and a pinch of bicarb) to make mushy peas; and reduced the liquid from the cooking bag with a little gravy to make a really tasty sauce.  Dave says he feels strange every day saying, ‘this is the best meal I’ve ever had’, but I have to agree with him, I’ve never had lamb shanks as good. Not only were they super melt-in-the-mouth tender from the long cooking, they were also incredibly flavoursome and still held their shape even though they were so tender, meaning they presented really well on the plate. I used my favourite blue shallow bowls, and given it was dusk when we ate them on the deck, they were quite a sight. Almost (but not quite) too good to eat!

When I was typing up yesterday’s list of ‘favourites’ I asked Dave what some of his were. Kate and Rob (and others!) will know his favourite food is undoubtedly chocolate cake. I don’t make it for him too often, more in the interest of his health than for any other reason. He sometimes actually asks me not to, as he just can’t help himself and not eat it all in one sitting. We are in unique circumstances, and so, despite the fact it will be devoured quickly, I made him a chocolate cake today. So many people have a favourite chocolate cake recipe. Mine is the type where you add boiling water as the last ingredient.  I would love you all to share your favourite chocolate cake recipes! Getting your school age kids to cook at the moment seems like a fantastic idea to me. ‘Food Technology’ classes can easily be taught from home, even in isolation, and cooking is a skill that in my opinion will add more value to your child’s future than algebra or trigonometry. (Not that I don’t see the value in those also – sorry if I’ve offended my maths teacher friends (Vicky) 😉 )

Tomorrow I’ll share my chocolate cake recipe. Please send me yours!

But for now, the Gozleme recipe I promised.

Take care friends and stay safe!

Sara xx

Spinach and Feta Gozleme (makes 4)

n.b. Recipe slightly modified from one Lee shared with me here. Credit to recipetineats.com

Ingredients

Pastry:

• 2½ cups (375g) plain flour
• ¼ cup (85ml) olive oil
• ¾ cup (185ml) water
• ½ tsp salt

Spinach & Feta filling:

• 300g baby spinach
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 300g Danish feta
• 1 cups (100g) shredded mozzarella cheese

Method

1. Fit a stand mixer with the dough hook. Add all dough ingredients and mix for three minutes on medium speed until smooth. Dough should be a pliable, smooth ball, not sticky.
2. Cover and rest for at least 20 minutes.
3. Sprinkle work surface with flour. Cut dough into four even pieces.
4. Roll dough into a rectangle, approx. 35cm x 20cm. The pastry should be quite thin.

Filling:

1. Place spinach, garlic, egg and pepper in a bowl. Scrunch/massage with hands to reduce volume and make spinach soft.
2. Crumble feta in and stir through.

Making Gozleme:

1. Spread filling on half the pastry, pushing to the edge. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
2. Fold the other side of pastry over to cover filling. Press down edges, pressing out excess air pockets trapped inside as you go.  Seal the edges by pressing with your fingers.
3. Sprinkle flour on a round pizza paddle (if you have one). Slide Gozleme onto paddle.

Cooking:

1. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium/high heat.
2. Slide Gozleme into skillet. Cook, lightly pressing down (including edges), until  golden and crispy – about three minutes. Flip and cook, pressing down lightly, until crispy.
3. Cut into wedges and serve while hot.

Photos in order:

Apart from my KitchenAid stand mixer, the most useful tool in this recipe was my rolling pin. I got it last year in Tasmania. It is smooth, a perfect length, evenly weighted and is just such a delight to use!

PS: Sourdough stater seems to be coming along. I’ll try to use it in a recipe tomorrow: