Rosewater, cardamom and pistachio slice

During the month of November, SBS Food was asking for food lovers(that would be me), to get creative in the kitchen by putting a multicultural spin on Australian favourites. I am always up for a challenge in the kitchen and this slice was the result for the #BringBacktheClassics campaign. 

This is basically a differently flavoured version of vanilla slice. 

Vanilla Slice is my hubbys most favourite slice in the universe. I was a little worried he wouldn't like this new take on it, but he loved it and ate most of it! Good thing that, because my belly doesn't need any extra jelly. Don't get me wrong, I ate my fair share. It was delicious!

Slice ingredients
2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup custard powder
1 1/2 cups cream
2 cups milk
1/4 heaped teaspoon ground cardamom
1 tablespoon rosewater essence

Icing
2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp butter/margarine
1/4 teaspoon honey
1/4 cup crushed pistachio nuts


Here's how...

Preheat oven to 220 degrees.
Place puff pastry on lined oven trays. Prick with a fork all over and bake for 10-15 minutes.

In a saucepan, put sugar, custard powder and cream. Stir over medium heat until it starts to thicken.
Add cardamom, rosewater, then add the milk 1 cup at a time. Whisk until the the custard is thick.
Let everything cool a little.

Using a 22cm square tin, place one pastry sheet on the bottom. Depending on what shape tin you are using, you may have to cut the pastry to fit.
Add the custard and then the other sheet of pastry on top.

Refrigerate while you make the icing. Mix all icing ingredients together and spread evenly over the top of the slice. Sprinkle the crushed pistachios over the icing, and you are done!

Refrigerate the slice for at least three hours before you dig in. It is best left for 12 hours though if you can wait that long.

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Red Rock Bay

We stayed in Pelican Point for a couple of nights this weekend just gone. Saturday we headed to Mount Gambier for the annual Christmas pageant, and this is where I would usually show you photos of the many floats and characters that make up that event.

We settled in to our positions in front of Fasta Pasta on Commercial street, our usual vantage point for watching the pageant. I reached into my handbag for my camera and turned it on, only to realise at that point, that the SD card was not in it, and at home in Millicent on the computer desk.

I then came to the realisation that I'd also left my back up camera, my phone, on the kitchen bench in Pelican Point! So no photos of the pageant this year.

Before we returned to our holiday house, I ducked into Big W to get another SD card, so I could at least capture something of our weekend.

On Saturday arvo after the pageant, we tried our luck fishing at Red Rock Bay, between the Cape Banks lighthouse and Carpenter Rocks. We caught no fish, but did loads of exploring.

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November garden

The weather has warmed up here. We're having a mini heat wave and it is wonderful.

The garden is at it's best at this time of year and I went out this morning to capture some of it to share.

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The 141st annual Millicent show

Our local show was held over the weekend.

Every year before the show, our Gymnastics Club, where I am a coach, and committee member, pack down our entire gym to hand over the youth hall for the show's indoor exhibitions.

It's been a busy few weeks, as we hold our end of year concert before pack down.

I don't have to tell you, how quickly the end of October/November has rolled around, it has been hectic. Somewhere in between we also squeezed in Halloween.

With all that has been going on, I didn't have time to get together a lot of show entries. I did win a first and second in photography(mind you, I was the only entries for the black and white section of 'people or portraits'). A first for cut flowers, and a first for a bunch of parsley. I like the parsley bit, because there's an old wives tale that says, 'It only grows well in a garden, where the woman is the boss!' I won second for my mixed herbs.My total winnings was $8. It went on a bottle of wine.

 
Summer did well. Amongst her produce(broad beans, eggs, and parsley) she got a first for her parsley bunch. Her flowers she got firsts in sweet peas, purple flowers, and cut flowers. One of her cut flowers received best exhibition, and she won a sash. I can't remember if she won anything for her white flowers.

She was so elated, telling everyone with so much pride and excitement. The same went for her first, in the honey crackles section.

The icing on the cake was a first, and best exhibit for her chocolate crackles. She was even more amazed and excited. This kid is so full of awe and love for life. Her winnings totalled $22. It's in an envelope in the filing cabinet! She also won a pair of kiddy gardening gloves for her efforts.

I was so proud of her, for her two light blue best exhibit sashes. Her first ever. As we picked up our entries and winnings on Saturday, she danced around with her sashes, carefree. Oh to be five, nearly six again...

What was even more important, we were supporting our local show by entering in the first place. Local shows need entries to keep them going. If not for normal people like us putting in entries for classes such as cooking, produce, photography, art and flowers, there is no show.

You never know your luck!! 

It was a fantastic show. The fireworks display was better than ever and the entire weekend was a credit to the new committee. 

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