Utes, Rainy Days and A Very Rich Cake

We are well into Christmas Party Season here at The Farm.  Before I got married and moved to the country, December consisted of high heels, marquees and way too much champagne. The social whirl that is Christmas Party Season on The Farm is no less taxing.

We kicked off last week with Farmgirl's child care Christmas Party.  It ticked all the boxes.  There were things like red sausages and cupcakes.  Santa came and everyone got a bag of lollies.

Santa arrived in our local fire ute.

Practical Transport For Santa

(For those readers who are not Australian, what we call a "ute" is usually called a "pick up".  In Australia a "pick up" is what a single young farmer is trying to achieve when he heads to the pub on a Friday night.)

A ute is an excellent transport choice for Santa.  Practical, all terrain and reliable.  I know from personal experience that you can do lots of kilometres in a Landcruiser Ute, no worries at all. This a great feature if you are planning an around the world trip.   A good ute is also a comfy choice.  They even make ones with air con, which would be a handy extra if you were wearing a red, fur lined suit.

We have several more parties to come, including The Official Farm Christmas Dinner for all our staff.  It will be held at a local restaurant.  Then we will have my work party.  Same restaurant. (It is only a little town...)

Our harvest is held up at the moment by the weather. There was a cool change and it rained yesterday  It was a glass of red wine rain. When our crop is wet it can't be harvested.  Today has dawned bright and clear however, so hopefully things will dry up quickly.

Fortunately the rain doesn't look to have done any damage.  Many farms in NSW and Victoria have lost their entire crop to rain.  This is a so sad.  It is awful to get your crop so far into the season and then lose it (and any chance of a profit) right at the end.

A Soggy Fence Post, On Our Currently Soggy Farm

Farmgirl and I have been holed up in The Farmhouse so we don't get wet.  To fill in time we made Ree Drummond's Chocolate Sheet Cake.  It turned out beautifully.  I wimped out on the icing though.  I thought it would already be very rich.  So I just dusted the top with icing sugar.  Sorry Ree, I just couldn't do that much butter.  It was still amazing though.  I would recommend making this cake - let me know how the icing goes if you do.

Ree Drummond's Sheet Cake, Minus Icing

It would be super yummy as a pudding if you just warmed it up, added some icecream and some berry coulis.

Enjoy your day everyone.

In The Kitchen With The Pioneer Woman - Ree Drummond

Ree Drummond is an American rancher's wife who has a mega blog.  She is known as The Pioneer Woman and is one of the most successful bloggers in the US. She was very much an urban creature until she married "Marlboro Man" who is her stunning specimen of a cowboy husband. He wears chaps.  A lot.  Ree has just published a cookbook.  Earlier this week I decided to grab her cookbook and see just how well her Oklahoma rancher's wife recipes would  go in my Western Australian farm kitchen.

The Lovely Ree on The Front of Her Book

She is pretty honest about the fact that her recipes aren't gourmet and the book is really devoted to home cooking.  Suits me.  I also love the fact that she has taken all her own photos in her own kitchen.  I particularly like the section where she has taken photos of things going wrong and the kitchen looking a mess. 

She has a strong liking for butter and I must admit to baulking at this a little. Often the butter was measured in cups!  I can, however, understand completely the point she makes about cooking higher calorie food because everyone in her family works physically hard.  If you were an office worker though I would have a serious rethink about some of the recipes... The other great thing about Ree is the fact that her husband wears chaps.

All of her recipes contain everyday ingredients which I did really like.  I struggle with Gourmet Traveller and the like as that sort of stuff is just not available at our local, small town IGA.  The layout of the cookbook is very practical and Ree comes across as very down to earth and likeable. And has a husband that wears chaps.

Interspersed with her recipes are lots of photos of their gorgeous ranch, her family and her hunky husband wearing chaps!  The chaps are a high point....

Anyway, I digress.  I grabbed her book and decided that the Comfort Meatballs looked like just the ticket.  The ingredients were basic, the process was simple and the recipe looked like it would produce the sort of meal that everyone would eat.  As I have said before, that's all I am aiming for by dinnertime in my kitchen. (Oh how the gourmet has fallen...)  I must admit to thinking I probably didn't need a recipe but followed it exactly anyway - which I am really glad about.

I made the meatballs with the quick porridge oats and made the topping, complete with bottled tomato sauce.  It was super easy.

I popped the whole lot in the oven and it came out looking like this.

It looked average but everyone ate it.  And loved it.  There was a fight between The Farmer, Farmboy and myself for the last meatball.  They were like tiny, yummy, round meatloaves.  It is definitely a recipe that is going to go on high rotation in our kitchen.  And not just because the cookbook has lots of pictures of cowboys wearing chaps.

Now, after careful reading of her book my next challenge is going to be her famous cinnamon scrolls.  I just need to get my head around the fact that the filling involves two cups of melted butter.  And locate maple essence in Australia. I'm presuming I can't just use maple syrup or Ree would have said so - her instructions are very clear.   If any readers from US or Canada have any ideas, let me know....

By the way, did I mention the fact that Ree's husband wears chaps?