The BB cafe

[Kazzl]

The BB cafe is open for business!
Welcome all to a new chill and chat place for everyone on the forum.

The BB cafe is whatever you want it to be. There are comfy sofas, tables and chairs, coffee machines, a kitchen stocked with everything. There's a pool outside, a bbq area, an annexe with comfy beds for a quiet sleep, tv, dvd, books and whatever else you would like to have here.

Most of all, it's a place to meet friends and fellow travellers for a bit of company. Talk over problems, tell jokes, share your day, escape into a world of your making. Grab a coffee and pull up a chair ... 

So, with a nod to the wonderful Carole King (Hard Rock Cafe) ...

Now if you're feeling just a little bit lonely
Don't sit at home just mopin'
Come on down to where the friendship flows freely
You know the door is always open

At the BB cafe
Come to the BB cafe
They will help keep your blues at bay
At the BB cafe

Important Message from ModSupport: 
The main intention of the BB Cafe is to encourage light conversation. Please look after your fellow community members by nuturing the BB Cafe as a place to escape some of the more pressing issues in life and save those conversations for personal threads. 

[HappySheep]

Greetings all,

Hi Paul, I've never seen Crimson Peak, thanks for the tip.  These days I rarely watch TV or movies even though I enjoy them (if I'm sitting on the couch I'm generally playing videogames!) so I miss all the good stuff.

As this cafe is full of discussions from fabulous cooks, I shall share my cooking efforts of yesterday.  I have a kaffir lime tree that produces prolifically.   For those who aren't familiar with the fruit, you can use them like regular limes but they are stronger and more bitter and full of seeds, so not used in bulk. The leaves are fabulous to flavour rice etc.  So I had a freezer full of limes and found a recipe for kaffir lime marmalade.  So, I'm simmering a kilo of limes and sugar but, because they were old limes out of the freezer, the marmalade was yellow/brown instead of a lovely green.  In a momentary lapse of sense, I thought 'Gee, I should splosh a drop of green food colouring in here to make this lovely tasting marmalade look better' - so splosh I did.  OMG! Note to self: Don't ever do that again! My marmalade turned a hideous, halloween green, so, in a panic I sploshed a bit of red food colouring in to tone down the green.  I now have 1.5 litres of fabulous tasting but completely inedible black/rancid green marmalade.   😞

Today's chore: make a new batch of marmalade.

[Fiatlux]

Hello and Happy Monday everyone,

Oh, HappySheep I love lime flavoured anything, especially marmalade. The only one I have purchased from Woolies is Rose’s Lime Marmalade, imported from New Zealand. It’s so good.

I suppose make note to self, doesn’t matter what it looks like as long as it tastes good.

last time I made any jam or marmalade was about 10 years ago. Mother in law has a few Kumquat trees so my daughter helped me with this. I love a little tartness and it was lovely. I wouldn’t do it again however. My parents had quince trees so my dad would make quince everything to get rid of them. They can’t be eaten raw either. 

I personally love kaffir lime in my Thai food, my son however isn’t a fan. I have a dwarf lemon tree in the large pot and pick the lemons when they are green if I don’t have limes.

Yesterday I decided to use up 1/2 kilo of ground poppy seeds that have been in the fridge since December. They are imported from Hungary so I prepared them using a Hungarian recipe. Then I simply used frozen puff pastry sheets and made sweet poppy seed puffs. I have to be careful not to eat them all once.

Paul, I can certainly understand agoraphobia. I hate even going inside a supermarket. I don’t mind outdoor farmers markets and the like, but If I must go inside the supermarket I grab what I need and can’t wait to get through the checkout. I am going to admit that the furthest I ventured outside last week was to grab a lemon from a tree in the front yard. 

I can’t understand why I avoid contact with people more and more lately but it’s becoming a problem. I am grateful for my son, who picks things up for me that I can’t get online and delivered. I used to enjoy going to the green grocer, bakery and butcher so I could pick out the best things.

Saturday I made up over 2 kilos of beef ragu, so I haven’t had to cook yesterday and not again tonight. It feels liberating actually.

Have a bright and sunny day wherever you. Fiatlux 🙏🏼

[HappySheep]

Oh wow, Fiatlux, I was not familiar with poppy seed filled pastries so I went Googling. How could you refrain from eating them all!?

I don't make a lot of jams because I don't really eat jam. But I hate seeing food go to waste so I have been known to make chutneys etc. from whatever friends have growing in their gardens.

Made my second batch of marmalade just in time to use some as a marinade for some chicken breasts for dinner last night - marmalade, water, coriander, salt, pepper. I did tofu for me - it was the best marinaded tofu I've ever made. So juicy and tasty.  Good thing I now have jars of lime marmalade.  I wish I could post you some Fiatlux!

Paul, I feel for you. Agoraphobia's so debilitating isn't it? Not something I've experienced until a few months ago when it took every ounce of courage not to run screaming every time I stepped in a supermarket.

I hope everyone has a good day today.

[Fiatlux]

Hi BB Cafe Friends,

Hope everyone has had a lovely relaxing day. I for one didn’t get up until 2pm, because I was getting hungry. After watching the Anzac Day parade on the ABC from Melbourne, I hit the shower and it was already 3pm when I finally made it to the kitchen for something to eat. I had some fresh sesame seed encrusted bread rolls and made myself a ham and salad roll. Hmm it felt good going down. 

Strangely, today feels like a quiet Sunday except that I get to do it all again in a couple of days.

HappySheep, I did scoff down the last poppyseed pastry with my coffee today, but I realised that I have a small quantity of the poppyseed filling leftover in the fridge that I will use up on Saturday. After I read your post about googling poppyseed filled pastry, I discovered a website called eurofood.com.au which isn’t too far from home and guess what, they sell ready made poppyseed filled for pastry. And all this time I have been doing online shopping from a place in Sydney and paying heaps for delivery. I am going to go through their site and do some shopping today.

If you have never tried poppyseed pastry before, if you are familiar with Acland St, St Kilda, there are several European Patisseries that have a Baked Cheesecake with poppyseed. I recommend sharing a slice with a friend as it’s rich and generous. Back in the day, we would visit Acland street frequently for coffee and cake. 

If you are adventurous try the Polish style Maka Makowa which is a Polish style poppyseed filling with candied citrus rind and sweetened with honey. I have tried this in the past and it’s moorishly good. I could eat it with everything. Poppyseed loves citrus.

The raw but pre ground poppyseed that I had, I prepared to a Hungarian recipe the way my mother used to make it. It’s a lot simpler than I thought. However you need to be confident in making Crème Anglaise. Once cooled you can add vanilla bean paste and as much lemon zest and lemon juice as you like. Poppyseed alone is flavourless and needs proper grinding that a food processor can not achieve. 

So between the Asian pantry website and now Euro foods, I can get more adventurous with my cooking.

I am planning on making stuffed capsicum this weekend again to a Hungarian recipe. Unfortunately I don’t have a vegan version but the mince pork could always be substituted with minced mushrooms. It looks almost identical and the flavour and textures are similar.

Have a lovely evening everyone and enjoy your some NRL or AFL , I am. Fiatlux 🙏🏼🫶

[HappySheep]

Happy Friday!

Fiatlux, glad I could help.

I am familiar with Acland Street and would love to pop into a cafe for pastries.  Unfortunately, I live several States away and it would take me three days driving to get there! 😉  Ironically, I am planning to move to Victoria later in the year so that gives me something to look forward to, as I'm dreading the winters.

Coming from a strictly Anglo-Australian culinary background (lamp chops, potato and peas, or sausages, potato and peas), I dabble a lot more in south or east Asian cooking than I do in European cooking. However, you have me inspired to attempt middle and eastern European cooking to add to my range.  Hungarian sounds like it would suit a Victorian winter!

Have a great weekend.

[Fiatlux]

Hi  BB Cafe friends,

I have had a busy day in the kitchen this Sunday, rescuing fruit and vegetables.

3 eggplants that I planned to do something with during the week, but now they’ve been turned into homemade eggplant dip. I refer my homemade recipe to the store bought stuff.

5 very ripe avocados are also a delicious dip or sandwiches which we can use up during the week.

Of course I had basil that was made into a batch of basil pesto. Waiting to be added to pasta during the week.

Last but not least, basil and chilli stir fry with coconut rice. I over did the chilli so I found some palm sugar in the pantry. That’s been living in my pantry since I don’t know when but I remember buying it with my daughter for a high school cooking assignment. Palm sugar has no used by date. But I am glad I remembered it was there to balance out the heat with fish sauce and lime. 

I am now watching football, the Melbourne Derby and it is great match so far.

 Cleansed the palate with some delicious frozen yogurt. Yum.

Have a wonderful Sunday evening wherever you are. Fiatlux 🙏🏼

[Fiatlux]

Hi everyone and happy Thursday,

I won’t post about food today except that I made myself the most delicious dinner last night…

Today I am so frustrated with new technology and old technology and their incompatibility.

I still need to print out documents and accounts so I invested in a new printer earlier this year. Fantastic it doesn’t need cables as it didn’t come with any except the power cord and plug. It should work over wifi… and it does most of time except when you really need it to work!

The printer fires up like it’s getting ready to work and then decides it doesn’t want to work today. 
I get so excited when it prints out 1 page and I think great. Now I’m going to print a 2 page document and it just doesn’t want to do it… 

The printer is connected to the wifi and sits on the desk next to the computer but they don’t want to talk to each other. I do a troubleshooting and everything appears fine. This is why printers get thrown out the front door in frustration. The thing is less than three months old and has been a lemon. It plays with my sanity as soon as I get on the phone to tech support it doesn’t to work…

Thats my rant for the day… my new garage door has the ability to be open and closed via an app if and when it is connected to wifi… which I am not going to do. The remote control access is fine if that works but silly thing can’t be opened manually, not even if the power goes out. It’s stuck down. I discovered this issue recently. Goodness gracious if we ever had to evacuate in a fire! 

Maybe cos I am getting older but all this new hands free keyless entry into buildings and even homes is frustrating. Yesterday I had a discussion with a guy who wants keyless entry installed in his new house. Actually it’s an older house but he is willing to replace perfectly good doors as the old timber doors are not compatible with new technology.

Are we getting too far ahead of ourselves, not wanting to use keys and locks anymore? 

Have a lovely tech free day and read a book, is my plan for this evening. Peace and love to all. 
Fiatlux 🙏🏼

[sbella02]

Fiatlux, I find the same thing with printers! They can be so temperamental.

Just on the topic of giving fruits and vegetables new life if they're extremely ripe, I made banana bread with a friend of mine this week! It was very delicious and was gone within a day. I also made dairy-free macarons, which was a challenge but fun.

Has anyone ever tried vegan croissants? One of my best friends is vegan, and we're always looking for yummy little vegan treats and desserts. Obviously since croissants are not at all vegan, we've been looking around for a vegan alternative but can't really find anything similar. I wonder how they'd make them? What would be the substitute for butter? Maybe something plant-based?

[Eagle Ray]

sbella, a substitute for butter could be one of the olive oil based spreads, such as Nuttelex with olive oil and I think there’s a few other brands. I eat dairy free now since finding I was allergic to casein, so I’m looking for substitutes too. The banana bread and macaroons sound delicious 😋 I have oranges on my tree at the moment so I’m planning to make some orange cake 🍊 🍰 

[sbella02]

That's what I thought too ER, Nuttelex would probably be a good choice! Orange cake would be amazing, fruit in desserts is almost always a great idea in my opinion. Raspberries and chocolate brownies, blueberries and strawberries in cheesecake... yum.