At our last morning tea Annette made a delicious tray of caramel popcorn.  Here is her recipe:

2 tbs vegetable oil
115g (2/3 cup) popping corn
215g (1 cup) caster sugar
100g butter
60ml (1/4 cup) golden syrup
60ml (1/4 cup) pouring cream
 
Line the base and 2 long sides with non-stick baking paper, allowing the sides to overhang.

Heat the oil in a large heavy-based saucepan with a tight-fitting lid over medium heat. Add the popping corn. Cover and gently shake the pan. When the corn starts to pop, hold the lid and shake the pan occasionally for about 3-4 minutes, or until all the corn has popped. Uncover and set aside to cool.

Stir the sugar, butter, golden syrup and cream in a medium saucepan over low heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Bring the mixture to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, without stirring, brushing down the side of the pan occasionally with a pastry brush dipped in water, for 10 minutes. Set aside until the bubbles subside.

Pour the caramel over the popcorn. Use a large metal spoon to toss until the popcorn is coated completely. Spread the popcorn mixture over the base of the prepared pan and set aside until set. Break into shards.

Next time
At the next morning tea Kelly is going to be making potato scallops.  They sound really delicious!

On the 9 Feb we had a wonderful morning tea to start us off for the year.  It was great to see so many new faces.  David showed us how to make butter in a butter churn and Libby demonstrated how to make lavender scones and buttermilk scones using the buttermilk from the churning.  It was very exciting seeing the cream change consistency and go lumpy.  Libby's scones were just so delicious.  I will attach the recipes for Libby's scones here. 

Once again we had a very interesting homegrown and handmade swap.  There were lots of fresh herbs, eggs, mango chutney, soap scrubbers, a fabric pot stand, passionfruit and coriander seeds, just to name a few.   

We had another very successful morning tea last weekend. It was great to see some new people come along.  We even had David Illife from ABC radio come along to do some interviews.  Hopefully they will be going on air this week.  To begin the morning we had a mango ice-cream demonstration.  James, David's son, helped me to make the ice-cream using an ice-cream maker.  The ice-cream was delicious. My friend, Rhonda, gave me the recipe which you can find here.

It is always fascinating to see what people bring along for the swap.  This time we had sauerkraut, laundry liquid, christmas cards, lemon grass, silverbeet, tomato plants and eggs just to name a few.  We will now be having a break over Christmas and January, so our next morning tea will be the second Saturday in February.

Michelle brought along some tumeric.  If anybody knows how to use fresh tumeric please let us know.  Quite a few of us are going to plant it so it would be great to know what to do with it.

Kay brought along her finished rag rug.  Doesn't it look fantastic!  I love how she has used some strips of fabric around the edges to make a frill.  Well done, Kay!

Last Saturday we held our first Simple Living Morning Tea.  Nine people attended and it was a huge success.  To start with Lilly helped me demonstrate how to make a four minute chocolate brownie.  This fantastic slice is so versatile, quick and easy.  As well as being used as a slice, it is a scrumptious dessert when you add strawberries and cream or blueberries and custard.  The trick of the slice is that it takes four minutes in the microwave or about 10 minutes in the oven. Click here for the recipe. 
After the demonstration we shared in a delicious homemade morning tea and inspected all the goodies on the handmade and homegrown swap table.  We had such a variety of items including lettuce, potted herbs, freshly squeezed lemon juice, handmade soap, knitted dishcloths, a bunch of lillies, wooden garden ornament, strawberry jam, a loaf of gluten free bread, rhubarb, beaded coathangers, tea cozy, little newspaper pots of mondo grass and the list goes on.  I was a little unsure of how this would work but it worked beautifully!  Everybody just strolled around the table and when they spotted something they liked they took it off the table.  A lot of discussion was also held around the table about the different items and how they were made.  The one big item that was discussed during the morning was homemade soap and the variations between bran oil and olive oil.
Overall I was so pleased with how the morning went and we are all definitely looking forward to the next one.