Peach/Apricot

Some days I feel like peaches.
Some days I feel like apricots.
Some days the planets align and I can have both at once.

This is a Peach and Apricot Cobbler, based on a recipe by Matthew Evans, then translated by the things I had to hand, a few urgent cravings and my general unwillingness to leave anything well enough alone.

There is an amazing thing that happens in this recipe; a chemical liaison, between the melted butter and the final sprinkling of caster sugar that leaves this dish with a caramel-esque chewiness, which is foiled perfectly by the tartness of the slowly baked fruit inside their pillowy casing.

Surprisingly, this leaves off light enough use summer fruits completely guilt free. Furthermore, I've been known to start baking right away after dinner if only to accompany an inexplicable craving for Chantilly cream. This pudding leaves no room for doubt - the cream is definitely the accompaniment.

Peach and Apricot Cobbler

100g butter
1 1/2 cups plain flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
3 fresh ripe peaches
8 fresh ripe apricots
1/3 cup caster sugar

Heat your oven to 180C or 160C fan-forced.

Wash your delicious, orange-blushed orbs and slice each one through the middle in a full circle. Hold the peach or apricot with a sliced side in each hand and twist and pull to halve the fruit cleanly. This will work if the fruit is ripe enough. (Sometimes, if your fruit is over-ripe enough, you will have the pleasure of it squishing all over your  hands) Slice each half into quarters and put aside.

Chuck your butter into a baking dish and pop in the pre-heating oven to melt while you whip up the delicious batter.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl with a pinch of salt. Mix in milk and vanilla to form a smooth batter.

Pluck your baking dish from the oven and pour in the batter. Do not stir it! The butter will squelch all up the sides of the batter but that's all part of the magic. Place your sliced fruit into the top of the batter, then evenly sprinkle the caster sugar all over.

Bake for 1 hour until you can see the edges are all caramelised and the batter has fluffed up around the fruit.

Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve with vanilla ice cream or a big cloudy spoonful of Chantilly cream.

Serves 6 generously with some leftover for breakfast.

Love Em.

Things can get pretty wild around here. The day can drag, and the house can look like a bomb has hit it, and the cubs can get a little testy.

This is a recipe that I turn to time and again to break up the afternoon without resorting to TV or computer games... Not that I don't resort to them sometimes! 

Play dough is super fun, lets face it. But I find that it's also incredibly cathartic for cubs who have had a few too many run-ins with their siblings, a few too many time-out's, or even a few too many episodes of the Upside Down Show. Setting them up at the table with a lump of the good stuff and some playful implements means I can get dinner started without the usual winging for snacks or exclamations of 'I'm Bored!". 

The reason this is advertised as the 'Best Play Dough Ever', lies in the fact that there's no stove side labouring with a big old wooden spoon which suits me fine. But the real secret is in the addition of a few good lugs of some delicious smelling oil of choice - never underestimate the yum factor with the youngens. My kids love bubblegum flavour, or if you're after some peace and quiet, use some lavender and chamomile oils for some secretly calming fun. I pick up little bottles of aromatherapy oils at my local discount store - chocolate's next! 

Best Play Dough Ever

2 cups Plain Flour

1 cup Table Salt

2 tsp Cream of Tartar

1 Tbsp Oil (I use sunflower, but any neutral oil is fine - grapeseed, rice bran, canola etc)

1 Tbsp Aromatherapy Oil 

Food colouring

2 cups of boiling water

Chuck the dry ingredients in a big ol' bowl. Add food colouring to the 2 cups of boiling water - use as much colouring as you wish to achieve the desired hue of awesomeness. Add this to the dry ingredients along with the oil. Stir until it comes together, then chuck on some rubber gloves (it's hot!) and knead the dough until you have a smooth and springy lump of goodness. 

Call in the cubs, stand back, enjoy a cup of something and get dinner on. 

Rainy Day

Today has found us holed up in our cozy den by rain and the odd smattering of hail. It was the perfect opportunity to hammer away at the financials and do some more recipe testing. You can guess which one I'm slightly less enamored with!

Unfortunately banks speak in the language of numbers and I speak in the language of, well, aesthetics. Luckily Matt speaks math fluently so I got to go play in the kitchen. This arrangement is best for everyone.

One thing we've started routinely doing at home is making our own veggie stock from all the scraps and peelings we amass from cooking during the week. We gradually fill a plastic container and keep it in the fridge, then boil it up with some salt, pepper and bay until delicious.

We freeze it in big batches for soups and stews, and in smaller containers or ice cube trays to use in sauces and the like. Once frozen, I put the cubes into a zip lock bag, ready to be plucked out and used to bring a beautiful glaze to a gravy or some extra flavor to a sauce.

Try it yourself, it's awfully easy and tremendously green. There's no real recipe, anything goes. Experiment a bit! In fact, I highly recommend it if only for an instantly virtuous feeling.

Em.

Welcome!

Hello and Welcome to Fox + Cub!


This little blog has only just popped up, right this very minute, as part of the evolution of some of the things that we are so very passionate about.

It's a journal to detail our everyday life in the lovely city that we live in, with the beautiful treasures that are our family, food and friends.

It's a portfolio of our work and the comings together of our little slice of this world, a soon to be cafe and corner store aptly named, you guessed it... Fox + Cub.

We'd love for you to follow along on our little journey where you'll see lots of hands on handiwork, the building of our small but significant empire, delicious treats and the championing of creativity, innovation and inspiration.

We love putting our heads together to come up with something truly wonderful. If you're into that sort of thing, then stick around! 

We'd love to become your favourite skulk of foxes.


Love Team Fox + Cub,

Em and Matt.