a recipe for a long easter weekend

happy easter, kids!

spending the easter holiday at home wasn't too bad after all. considering that jesus died to save me, so i can spend the rest of my life not worrying about God's wrath for my sins.

months ago, tristan and i were raving about the upcoming easter long weekend and how we're gonna drive to sydney and spend a couple of nights there. then came february and upon initial assessment of our fiscal assets, sydney can't happen. we're still recuperating from the aftershocks of the wedding expenses and bills are just coming in rapid succession, it feels like being hit with an automatic. credit card. car repayment. mobile phones. petrol. insurance. car registration. weekly groceries. fortnightly gym membership. it goes on.

plan B is to drive down to daylesford and just relax. daylesford can't happen either, not without forking out around $1grand for accommodations, petrol and food. and there wouldn't be any point going there if we can't at least have a massage. so we said adios to plan B.

a three-day drive down to sorrento and cape schank was plan C. watching the news on wednesday morning, petrol prices have gone up to $1.60/liter. and that drive will damage us around $250 on petrol alone. and i can't very well pitch a tent and forage in the bush for food. so i said forget it and let's just get domesticated.

thursday night after work we drove to jb hifi and purchased a video game. waking up late on friday, first thing we did was pray and read excerpts from luke, matthew and john about the crucifixion of Christ. that was about the best we can do to observe good friday as the catholic church near home was closed, and we haven't found a church yet. veged on the couch for most of the day then reluctantly drove down to mornington to get fish and chips.


(larger image)

1 tristan, me and jay (backseat drivers)
2 me, tita, nick, john, tahlia, jackson and jay inside yabbie's
3 mornington peninsula town proper on good friday
4 a giant tree and a little me

we then spent the whole saturday playing lost odyssey, and i love it! i would have wanted lesser fight sequences though, as the game tends to drag on because of the number of times kaim and his party runs into enemies. guess that's the retribution for the eight years that was spent to create the game.

and driven by the desire to not have idle hands, i made a sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce that everyone loved. to quote nick, "lei, without a doubt, this has got to be the best sticky date pudding i've ever had in my life." and he's 51. hah!

sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce

wanna give it a go? here's the recipe.

sticky date pudding:
1 1/4 cups (200g) seeded dried dates
1 1/4 cups (310ml) boiling water
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking powder)
50g butter, chopped
1/2 cup (100g) brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour

butterscotch sauce:
3/4 cup (150g) brown sugar
300ml cream (thickened cream if possible)
80g butter, chopped

preheat oven to moderate (around 180degrees celcius), grease a 20cm cake pan and line the base with baking paper. soak the dates in water and stir in the soda. let stand for 5-8 minutes. if you have a blender, well and good. as you need to blend or process the date mixture with butter and sugar until pureed. if not, good luck. if you have a hand mixer, that will do. just make sure that you wear an apron. learn from my mistakes. add eggs and flour, mix until just combined, then pour the mixture into the pan. reduce heat to 150, then bake uncovered for 1 hour. cover it with foil if the pudding starts to overbrown. let stand for 10 minutes then turn onto a serving plate. serve warm with butterscotch sauce (combine ingredients in a saucepan, stir over low heat until sauce is smooth and slightly thickened) and whipped cream (or vanilla ice cream would be very nice too if you want more pounds in your plate).

that's it, pancit. signing off now, and finding other ways to keep my penny-pinching self amused. may the easter bunny be generous to you.