Samson House

Samson House is virtually never open, but it was on Mother's day.
So, as a present to my darling mum I dragged her along to have a sticky beak.

It's run by the National Trust having been transferred from the Western Australian Museum to whom it was bequeathed by the late owner Sir Frederick Samson, Mayor of Fremantle.

The right hand bedroom, used by the various mistresses of the house (if memory serves). Prior to the extension, this room was the drawing room. 

The left hand bedroom, belonging to the various masters of the house (again, if memory serves).

Originally the dining room, this became the sitting room when the extension was built. Given the fine oil painting  of Michael Samson hanging above the fire place and delicate furniture, this room would have been an official entertaining room. 

This was a picture hanging on the wall of the extension corridor. It is a view of Perth city from Mt Eliza, made in the 1850s. 

Originally the house was just a little bigger than the average Federation house built in and around Fremantle at the turn of the 20th Century. Built in 1888 to a Talbot Hobbs design, it consisted of a central corridor flanking two bedrooms with bay windows, a dressing room/nursery behind one and the dining room and sitting room behind the bedrooms, thereby creating a basic 2x2 structure. The kitchen rooms and bathroom were beyond this, only partially attached to the main part of the house. 

With a young wife and son, in 1899 Michael Samson decided to expand the house to accommodate a new dinging rooms and drawing room, tower, bathroom and cellar beneath the extension. 

The new dining room. Not nearly large enough for a proper dinner party, though the faces in the table leg were charming. 

The corridor of the extension, leading to the stairs of the tower. 

The new Drawing Room. It is hypothesised that the little bay window was thus designed to enable the children to have a 'stage' for their performances and recitals. 

Though typical of the time, and partially due to the louvers and scrim in the windows, the rooms were ridiculously dark despite being a bright autumn morning. The three photos of this room were all taking with flash.  

Possibly originally a side door out into the rose garden, this stain glass door now hides a dilapidated movie theatre. in the 1950s Frederick Samson closed off part of the veranda, and using seats from the defunct Fremantle trams, set up his own personal movie theatre.

Looking down the corridor from the back door towards the front door. 

Outside the back door -pre-extension (now inside the back door) is a 20m deep well, complete with hand pump.

The kitchen (because I always photograph the kitchen). My mother tells stories of a similar free standing stove in her childhood home. The cat's favourite spot was underneath it where it would absorb the warmth of the oven (as cats do) and eat spaghetti with her paw.

The new tiled and marbled bathroom outside the new drawing room. It was fun wandering around with Mum, who is just old enough to remember some of the features of the house being present in her own childhood home before it was 'renovated'.

The Rose Garden and Lilly-Pilly Tree with the Tower in the background. 

At the back of the house is a row of out houses, now used to showcase the laundry and workshop and display some of the other artefacts that were too interesting or typical a component of a house/lifestyle to go into storage.

The laundry was rather standard: your copper, wood pile, laundry basket, wringer, washboard...

however there was one contraption (to the left) which we couldn't quite place. It wasn't an early washing machine as the hatch was on the side and most likely not water tight, and it wasn't a wringer (to the right). So was it a spinner?
The labels indicate it's a 'The Vowel 'I'' by 'F.Lassetter & Co', but that didn't help much.

The workshop.

Storage/Originally a man servant's room.

Experimentation towards Indulgence (Brownie-based Cheesecake)

Recently I undertook a carb-free eating plan. This meant not only were you expected to avoid your normal complex carbs, but all your sugars as well.

No Sucrose
No Glucose
No Fructose
No Lactose.

For someone who quite literally lives on sugar such a suggestion was untenable (also for those I live with) and so I quickly began scouring the internet for dessert recipes that contained none of the above.
The result was a cheesecake with a butter nut base and strangely unsweet flavours.
It didn't take long to discover that Matcha without the milk and sugar wasn't Matcha, and pumpkin is really only marginally tolerable when combined with your typical pumpkin pie spices. Even then it was an acquired taste. Lemon Cheesecake worked as it tasted like Greek yoghurt which meant it was great for breakfast (not the first time I've eaten dessert at breakfast), but didn't really help with finding something to fill the sugar void.

Life without chocolate was proving difficult, so I'll admit it may have been one of the first things to be re-allowed.
From there, cheesecakes became alot easier, though Dad did admit to finding them just a little too dark and bitter even for his liking.





In the process of all this though I found a fool-proof, adaptable cheesecake recipe that worked with pretty much anything.
So, the next change (by now well and truly eating normally again) was to the base.
Why use a nut/biscuit base when you could bake a whole brownie and dump the cheesecake on top of that?
So, one rich chocolate brownie, baked and compressed, a layer of sour cherries or blackcurrants, topped with a very simple vanilla cheesecake later...

**I haven't made this in ages so it may need updating. However from memory the recipe is as follows...

Cheesecake Top
1 packet philadelphia cream cheese - softened
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp honey or 2tsp vanilla essence
1 egg

1 670g jar of sour cherries or blackcurrants (drained) or equivalent in weight of fresh sour fruit.

Brownie Base

½C sugar
½ C/100g butter
3 tbsp water
1½ C choc chips/chipped chocolate
1½ tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
1¼ C flour (plain)
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
optional: 1½ C choc chips or nuts

Brownies
Preheat the oven to 150ºC
Combine the sugar, butter and water and bring to a boil in the microwave.
Add chocolate and vanilla. Stir until choc is melted and mixture smooth.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg.
Gradually blend in the combined and sifted flour, baking soda and salt
Spread half the mixture into a lined springform tin. (The brownie will rise and you only want it to be about an inch thick when cooked).
The remainder of the mixture can be cooked as a normal brownie.

Bake at 150ºC for 30 minutes. You want it to look relatively cooked all the way around and in towards the centre. If it is slightly gooey its okay as it will firm up as it cools.
When you pull it out of the oven turn the oven up to 180ºC
As the brownie cools compress it with the bottom of a glass or mug.

Cheesecake top
Whisk together the cream cheese and milk until smooth and lump-less. And the egg and honey/vanilla and Whisk well until well combined.
Sprinkle the drained cherries/fruit on top of the cooled brownie (leave a 1cm border where there is no fruit). You want the fruit to be hidden completely between the brownie and cheesecake if possible.
Pour the cheesecake mixture on top. 

Bake at 180ºC for 20 minutes. The edges should look set but the middle still gooey.
Allow to cool and set in the fridge overnight.

Pinning down a new hobby.

Dress-making runs in the family. At least I like to think so.

My Grandmother and her sisters made their own clothes, each one assigned a different part of the process depending on their skills and eye for style.

My aunt makes beautiful outfits when she has the time - not to mention knitting the most delightful personalised toys for the children and grandchildren in her life.

My mother made all my sister and my clothes, bar our prettiest frilliest party dresses and has more than a few handmade pieces in her own wardrobe.
And my sister has just bought herself a sewing machine and is teaching herself, on the other side of the world with her own set of patterns.

Now its my turn, and it's an interesting learning curve.
My first attempt was years ago, before I'd determined my style and so although it resulted in a muslin summer dress and Jane Austen dress, it wasn't the perfect start.

Recently I've tried again.
In this venture, I'll admit, I probably began at the wrong end of the process, trying to replicate existing clothing in my wardrobe, or museum-worthy gowns depicted in my fashion history sources as opposed to starting with patterns and gradually adapting them to meet the level of striking-ness expected by their creator. Having fought my way through two items I started using a pattern and oh it was good. So simple. So easy in comparison.

First, the bodice of one of my favourite sun dresses. It's a wrap-around. No zips, no buttons. How hard can that be?
Throw in my impressive bust measurements and it's an entirely different ball game. 2x20cm (each) darts later and the blouse is a breeze.


Second, the recreation of one of my grandmother's gowns: a polka dot shift dress with a double frill plastered down the centre from neck to knee. Not impressed with the idea of enhancing my bust even more with a ruffle I decided to move it to the back.


 

Now I know why it was at the front; the back is easy to fit. The bust/waist ratio in this family is not.

With the remnants of that fabric I made a pencil skirt that I subsequently ruined as I reached the finish line. So fourth and fifth are even more vibrant pencil skirts, one following the pattern, the other not in the strictest sense.
That was when I discovered the joy of fitting invisible zips, without an invisible zipper foot. Several jaunts across town, two zipper foots and the discovery I had the wrong type of invisible zip later, the zip is in and looking invisible enough to meet my declining expectations.




Now to the hemming and if its not the bust that's causing problems it just has to be my uneven hips. Oh joy of joys. How is it that an even hem suddenly gains two centimetres in length, on one side only, with the blink of the eye (wiggle of the hips actually)?






The pencil skirts are now complete, so I can return to an earlier attempt, neatly folded and almost forgotten in a corner of my desk. Its a beautiful piece of raw silk cut from a length of sari silk.

Researching Rome

This cover depicts the Santa Croce in
Gerusalemme Basilica

I've started writing a new novel, one set in Rome in 1880 and so in order to understand the setting I'm consulting the guide books and maps of the time. I want to know what had been discovered, what had been built, how did English tourists travel, where did they stay, where was church... and its proving very interesting.

Rome was a popular destination, away from the cold misery of the English climate, a place where there seem to have been less social restrictions, and where the more intellectually inclined could review their classical education or perfect the art of painting sunny vistas and picturesque ruins.

With the guide books no longer under copyright I've loaded up my kindle and am slowly compiling lists of attractions and relevant quotes regarding them. For while I know what intrigued me on my visit, these places were not necessarily available 130 years ago; they may not have been created as a state-of-the-art museum collection,  or may still be being preserved by the build up of 2000 years of Roman soil.

Thanks to these marvellous books I know that like the Count of Monte Cristo, English tourists preferred to stay in the area around the Piazza di Spagna - the square at the bottom of the Spanish Steps. It was here too that the artists' models would wait for work, lounging upon the sunny steps.

Cooking up a storm... again.

I find cooking a relaxing hobby.

It's a little strange perhaps, but it is something to which I can give my full attention, ignoring the stresses of life and allowing my mind and body to focus on the task at hand. This in itself acts as a form of meditation whilst at the same time feeling more productive than meditation or yoga.

 

The only down side is that the food prepared needs to be eaten and is often in the form of cakes and biscuits, the majority of which a small family of three has no possible chance of finishing themselves. Then of course there's the added bonus of suitable praise being heaped upon the cook when the outcome of the cooking is shared with family and friends.

I'm joined in this love of cooking by my sister and Claire and so occasionally we join forces and whip up a feast or two that family and friends are then co-erced into eating. The first occasion was a good few years ago now, an Algerian feast prepared over two weekends and eaten in appropriate style, on rugs and cushions piled around a long table placed on the floor and covered with food.

 

With the sheer amount of food we plied people with, it wasn't surprising when a number of guests settled down for a snooze in order to digest their mains and prepare themselves for the dessert course.

It's a dreadful habit of ours, but with a delight in feeding grateful people, we organised another feast; this time for the members and partners of our Playwriting group.

The menu for this evening wasn't extensive but then we only had 24 hours to prepare it as opposed to the two weekends of previous occasions, and we only had 12 people to feed.

Kale and Fetta triangles

Kale and Fetta filo quiches

Saffron Chicken with Tah Dig (Crunchy Rice), Salty Salsa and Herb Salad

Goat Curry

Chinese spiced Roasted Pork Belly

Cauliflower puree

Roasted pumpkin and beetroot

Beans with mustard cream
Bread

Chocolate Mousse Cake

Chocolate Truffle Cookies

Tea Biscuits

Devonshire Tea
Fruit platter

(This was augmented with a Bloody Mary Casserole and a
delightful selection of nibbles and drinks provided by our guests)

Raw Ingredients. 

We'd started marinading the pork and cooking the goat the evening before to ensure more intense flavours

.

Grinding the saffron for the chicken.

Arguing with the filo pastry for the triangles. Each piece should be cut into three and then
 rolled to created filled triangle parcels. Provided the filo behaves correctly...

Goat Curry, complete with marrow bones.

Claire and I have both been given the Flavour Thesaurus for our birthday by friends and this marinade evolved from the combinations therein. Bay leaves, peppercorns, juniper berries, coriander seeds, star anise, soy sauce, Chinese rice wine vinegar.



Not being a fan of potatoes the roast veggies were restricted to pumpkin and beetroot. Ready to go into the oven.

Whisking up the chocolate cake: eggs sugar...

cocoa powder, lots of chocolate and butter. 

Worth it!

The chocolate mousse cake is a tried and tested French recipe with no flour, just a lot of chocolate, butter and eggs. Pure decadence. I had been hoping to flavour it with cardamon, but the powders I found in the kitchen were so old they'd lost all association with the spice. Next time.

Tea Biscuits

The tea biscuits are supposed to contain Earl Grey or Lady Grey tea, pulling in the citrus and bergamot flavours. I didn't have any though so I used a combination of herbal tisanes floating around the house. What it resulted in were beautiful 'hippy' biscuits flavoured with chamomile, lavender, mint, white pear, rose petals and lemon balm.

At 16:00 two of our guests arrived for a political discussion with scones (and jam and cream) to be joined a few hours later for the main meal and program of entertainment.

On a previous occasion we resorted to small amounts of alcohol to ensure our guests mingled properly as opposed to remaining in their own small little groups.

On this occasions no such 'persuasion' was required.

Dessert

The only dis-satisfied guest. 

It was a delightful evening. Now to determine the theme for our next feast...