Bread and Butter Pudding

All posts tagged Bread and Butter Pudding

I’m Still Here and Making Pudding

Published January 11, 2026 by helentastic67

I’m Still Here and Making Pudding

Feeling really flat right now. You know those days it’s all too much and people that should love you don’t pick up what you’re putting down. It’s normally these days I don’t blog because I feel it’s a little too raw. So, I can’t make any good humour about things. Just appreciate I’m still here. I’m doing what I can, putting one foot in front of another planning to die healthy one day, a long time from now.

I’ll likely have more friends and beautifully kind people around me than those related to me. It’s weird at 53, the things I ended up being good at, even one-handed. 

Last week I made two puddings the same day. Baked one that day, baked the other the next. Despite not all of Said-Puddings being out of my home, I made another this week. Some of the pudding after trying to deliver to its intended target, twice landed at the post office with the lovely ladies that always are kind and sweet to me. That’s not actually part of their job but I like to reward people with treats I make with love. Just for being who they are. 

A friend took the time to visit yesterday while in Melbourne, was in my home while family dropped in for ten whole minutes. Five of which was spent criticizing me for my life choices, etc. She took me for dinner and while she then used public transport to get the two hours home, she kindly took some pudding and muled some to a friend that lives out near her. 

Got feedback online late today from family about the expired used by dates on foodie treats, ungrateful the lot of them. No thanks for the delicious lemon tart I considered to get for them from my favourite cafe, costing me more than $10, I got myself one also and shared it with my friend. 

I got a message from my friend tonight simply stating feedback on the bread-and-butter pudding. We had touched base earlier today about her arriving safely home and her car starting. For once I got to bed before she got home. Her feedback simply stating, “Your pudding was divine!” 

If I could have everything else in life be as easy and productive as my pudding production, I would be a very happy woman. But none of that it seems in in my control.

About a month ago I arrived at my beauticians with a small container of my pudding and I put it in her hands at her front door. She works from home, she exclaimed immediately “It’s still warm!” I told her to take it to her kitchen and eat a spoonful. She came back a minute later with the washed container in her hands. She had inhaled it, then she stated she had half in one spoonful and she couldn’t leave the rest. Never is there a better compliment.

So, can I tell humans related to me if they can’t eat something with a lot of sugar in it, past its used by date to toughen up and eat some concrete. Asking for a friend?

Eggs

Published March 16, 2020 by helentastic67

Eggs

We think money makes the world go around, but I think EGGS can build a community.

A carer started buying me eggs, I would get a tray of thirty farm fresh eggs for $14.00, then I would give a dozen of them to my masseuse as I don’t otherwise pay her.

I have other ways to pay her which I think she appreciates. The carer who would bring me the eggs had a collection of egg cartons. I started decorating them with a thick black texta in the hope that other people would join in. Add to the drawings, answer the question and posted inside by announcing what they intended to make with the eggs.

Mine stated “Destined to be Carrot Cake or Omelette or Bread and Butter Pudding” (Which needs eight eggs)

After a time, I found my own supplier which was two less things for this carer to do for me in her own time. I do like to be self-sufficient, but my contact has trays of twenty eggs for the same amount ($14). And again, free range and ‘Picked’ that day at 4am.

You should realize eggs don’t grow on trees, but are laid. The eggs are rather big, 800g and ‘twins’ or double yolkers are plentiful.

The issue is, I need to order two trays for my egg guy to deliver for free.

So, I asked around my neighbours and my ‘people’. My first order was two trays, one for me, one for a neighbour. My second order was five trays.

And this is how I’ve been trying to create a community.

Today’s Lunch – 12th February 2020

Published February 12, 2020 by helentastic67

Today’s Lunch

Good Mental Health Day

This week, food made my first bread and butter pudding for 2020!

Also made homemade sausage rolls. They do not look as inviting, so here’s a picture Noelle has found.  The sausage roll is as Aussie as our pies with sauce.

This was Monday’s lunch at home. The quintessential curried boiled egg with lettuce but on pocket bread. Soooo good.

So, hump day has arrived with a ‘Is this week over yet?’

And lunch! Today’s offering is an Azaffarini Arancini with side salad. (Saffron rice/peas and mint) and medicine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those curious? Most fires are out & now we have floods! Not kidding! Sydney is a giant swimming pool!

 

 

Cheers,
H

Today’s Lunch – 12th June 2019

Published June 12, 2019 by helentastic67

Today’s Lunch

Good Mental Health Day

Firstly an apology to anyone that may have been looking forward to my Monday post. We had a public holiday and it makes me smile a little that Noelle forgot to do a post. She said that it felt like Sunday and I confess to say Tuesday was a harsh return to the norm. Off to the city for the monthly committee meeting, a meeting that always leaves me with a migraine. Spent an extra few hours there with some help from Amy at VATT. (my bad. Voice at The Table) I am applying to sit on another committee board. To be continued.

Left after 4pm, realised how tired I was on the way to the train station at Flinders Street. Caught a train to Clifton hill where I normally change to a tram. There where roadworks everywhere! Eventually, a younger guy directed me to a replacement bus stop as there was no one else around and my eyesight did not help me. It was getting cooler and getting towards dusk. (Have I mentioned I can’t see in the dark?) Also lost two of my regular carers today. Sad. I just lost two friends. Eventually, after a bus ride home in peak hour traffic I arrived at my destination safely.
No migraine but can’t really feel my left leg.

Despite my day not going as I had planned, and things being more challenging than I had expected, I still had a better day than a few others.

Today, sending love and respect to a friend Christie who is grieving. You are in my thoughts and to my lovely administrator Noelle. To whom is responsible for the memes we all love, whose day was well above mine on the level of shitty not that I was complaining. On the upside(barely) a parcel is on its way to Noelle today! It’s got a little of this in it.

So, to Christie and Noelle. You both win! Your days sucked more than mine!

Not prepared to navigate the no tram bus after my favourite lunch location to get to acupuncture on the way home my Girl Wednesday and I found a more local place. So, today’s offering, fish and chips. Or as I prefer fush n chups! We had lunch in Fairfield today for convenience.

Cheers

H

Today’s Lunch – 3rd April 2019

Published April 3, 2019 by helentastic67

Todays Lunch

Today’s Lunch

Good Mental Health Day

A few times a year I am fortunate enough to be taken out for dinner. Monday after a rather long day it was once such lucky day. I was taken out by my Boo! (And his Boo!) well, he says he only has one Boo! Everyone says it with me now! ”aaaaawwwwwwwwhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!”

Going to Dinner

Honestly, if I wasn’t lucky enough to have gay men in my life, I wouldn’t have any men in my life!
It is definitely easier to survive as a single barren spinster if you have some gay friends.  We went to a Vietnamese place in Preston I was first introduced to around 15 years ago when it was so well respected it made the cover of the Age. That’s the Melbourne based newspaper and it didn’t make the cover of the Epicurian, the foodie magazine inserts, but the actual Age!

Gay Friends

Doing Vietnamese must include vegetarian spring rolls wrapped in a lettuce leave with a mint leaf or two tightly wrapped inside before dunking in the dipping sauce. I also like the weird drink called three colour! It’s got kidney beans in the bottom, green jelly things and ice with coconut milk? It’s hard to tell but it’s nice.

Spring rolls

The strangest and most important thing about going out for dinner with good food and even better company is I was actually home by 8pm! And with leftovers for tonight’s dinner!  Again, no photos. My bad!

Leftovers

Here’s my second Bread and Butter pudding for the year! Oh, does it look exactly the same as the first pudding of the year? Yes, because it is, I forgot to take a photograph of that one also.

Pudding

I actually had a day at home yesterday. Still dealing with this annoying cough from my cold and then I had a migraine!

Migraine

So, needing a pain free easy day today at my favourite cafe for sure! Today’s offering is the Ortolani quiche with a side salad (Mediterranean vegetables) and my medicine

QuicheLatte

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

H

Today’s Lunch – 27th February 2019

Published February 27, 2019 by helentastic67

Todays lunch

Today’s Lunch

Good Mental Health Day

I’m starting this post as I do late Tuesday night. I’ve had two rather busy days despite only having one or two appointments each day. But I’m knackered! But I’ve got super awesome news to share before I debrief about actual lunch.

Knackered

 

You may recall in the last weeks post, I’ve been mentally and emotionally raw about family putting worth on me and my existence with a cat-pee stained couch, thanks to when Mika coming home last August (I know, it’s been that long) and today over lunch I’ve got plenty of posts to write about my friend Frank, and one of my most hated questions, what is your budget? (Yeah, that one!) so, stay tuned for those! Meanwhile, by the very end of Monday, I had this in my lounge!

New couch

By Tuesday midday Mika was well and truly settled in.

Mika 1Mika 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the way, the new couch, it is rather large. It fits five adult bums! I know this because it took a village to get it upstairs and I insisted everyone sit down.  So, I guess I could potentially do a serious binge TV night, if I wanted to and I mean not all by myself. Still trying to get Mika to be a lap-cat but she now has even more couch at her disposal.

Five on the couch

Today I’ve also delivered most of the first bread and butter pudding for the year.

Pudding

There will be six this year! One down, five to go.

So, today’s lunch is a pancetta quiche with side salad and my medicine!

Pancetta QuicheLatte

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And lastly, a media gag-order has been lifted on a particular topic in Australia. George Pell May you burn in Hell!  I think we all knew what it was about anyway………….

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-27/george-pell-convicted-can-he-be-defrocked-by-pope/10852726

Cheers,
H

Today’s Lunch – 1st August 2018

Published August 1, 2018 by helentastic67

Todays lunch

Today’s Lunch

Good Mental Health Day

Pinch and a punch for the first of the month. Punch and a kick for being so quick! Yeah, where has this year gone?

Pinch and a punch

Got some good news today, which was worthy of a hot off the press Monday but I couldn’t get it together so.

Meet. Mika!

Mika 1

Mika 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Officially, found her last Wednesday in a pet shop that gets its cats from the Neko Cat Lounge. She is less than 2 years old and had kittens before she was fixed. It is awful for such a young cat to have had a litter however, it will mean she will be more settled. After I get her settled in to apartment living that is!

Mika 3Mika 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And because I forgot to include it on Monday? How I make my bread and butter puddings.

Bread and Butter Pudding

Oh, and what Wednesday’s are all about? Today’s offering, this yummy chicken, pumpkin, spinach and feta panini and my medicine!

I’m closer to home today as Young John stood me up!

PanniniLatte

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,
H

Great Day

Death of my Catering Business

Published July 30, 2018 by helentastic67

Death of my Catering Business

The Death of my Catering Business

Possible death of my catering business, if ever there were horror felt with so few words. I’M OFF SUGAR!

Off sugar

What I have largely found is people love trying my goodies when they are free. Turning that appreciation into dollars?

Free food

I love to cook, I love to bake, I love to give things I cook and bake away because I make more than I can consume. Ideally, it would be good to be reimbursed for what I share. So, I can continue to cook.

Love to cook

Size-wise I cook like a Nona, for those who don’t know, that’s an Italian grandmother. Mine pasted away when I was young and I barely remember her but I do remember despite not speaking English she would greet us with warm hugs and then usher us inside to open the fridge and gesture to food or drink to offer to us.

Nona cooking

She always cooked for large numbers of people. So, maybe that’s the wog part in me?

I make a mean bread and butter pudding and I make a huge baking dish full and most of it I then it give away, recent feedback is that they are addicted. This is really positive feedback with the exception that when I handover the pudding I comment “That is diabetes right there!” And so many people these days are quitting sugar. Thus, the death of my catering business before it even gets off the ground.

Quitting sugar

 

Today’s Lunch – 11th July 2018

Published July 13, 2018 by helentastic67

Todays Lunch

Today’s Lunch

Good Mental Health Day

Well, that didn’t happen!

I always look forward to my Wednesday’s when I know what to expect and things come pretty close to how I imagine and I was particularly looking forward to seeing my chiropractor because of how I had been feeling on Tuesday. After my trip to the city on Tuesday, I was feeling seedy at the start of the day, no idea again how I can be hungover when I don’t even drink and wasn’t even near anybody else who was hungover. Yes, I know it’s not contagious and neither was I.

Tuesday

I had my monthly committee meeting of the self-advocacy group I’m part of. Guess what other monthly event it coincided with? Hence the feeling like ‘death warmed up?’ (Subtle enough?) When I go to the city I do a lot of walking and despite feeling like a zombie I still managed 3000 steps. Got home by 3 pm and did a Face-Plant! Rolled over around 4pm and felt motion-sickness settle in.

Death warmed up

Wednesday, everything was going to plan, was up and showered and dressed ready to enhance a small breakfast, harass Young John to ask him to scoop me up and deliver me to my favourite cafe in Cliffy Hill before getting to Chiro just after 2pm, when I wasn’t feeling super-hot!  Ow, for those not familiar with when it’s good to see a chiropractor? Anytime is good, if you are not 100% even more important. So, I arranged with Young John if he could transport me down a little later, in time for Chiro? In the end by 2pm, I was back in PJ’s and back in bed. Eventually I had a cuppa T and a banana muffin for ‘dinner’ around 10pm, and it was the only thing I had all day. Eventually, Wednesday ended and Thursday began and while still feeling particularly seedy I’m again in my PJ’s, lucky today is my cleaning/admin day at home anyway. Have a lovely carer here today and I shared with her another banana muffin and cuppa T, my breakfast, her morning tea.

Feeling seedy

At least while someone was here my bread and butter pudding that was soaking in the fridge since Monday afternoon could get baked. “Which half do you want?” (She looked at me to see if I was serious) Have I mentioned there are a few things that when I make them, I don’t make single serves? I package, freeze, post to my administrator and give away. I’m a classic Nona. “You’re too skinny!” So, here is today’s offering straight from my oven. No, you cannot have the recipe. And while, obviously not being a standard mid-week foodie post sometimes it’s important you are aware I’m not always in the best of health and lack of sleep really takes its toll.

Bread and Butter Pudding 1

By Friday I’ll be able to pull it together again for one day only and rather than neglecting my commitment of 3 posts a week, please take this (slightly delayed) post as a near enough is good enough.

Friday

So, there are times I’m not feeling very well at all and I’ll still pull it together and power on through however, because people only see me when I’m feeling ok it’s assumed I’m always ok and I’m not stay tuned as next week I will be back to normal postings.

Not always well

 

Cheers,
H

Hot off the Press – 18th December 2017

Published December 18, 2017 by helentastic67

;Hot off the Press 1812

Hot off the Press

Monday, off to the city to get shrunk! Ok, I see my psychologist, but it sounds more entertaining to use the other term. I’ve been seeing her for years and still not fixed!

We all know, good mental health is about maintenance. There is no fixing it. It’s ongoing,
scored a great book for free, just because I asked about it. I was informed they couldn’t sell it. So, I was gifted it.

T world

Had a few brief stops to gather more goodies for a parcel I’m sending to Texas, to a blogger friend.
Medicine while getting shrunk! My comic shop, much catching up to do. Tram home and my bag was so heavy I was co pulled to weigh it five kilograms! I don’t understand how I don’t have a fully blown second disc-bulge. Have some symptoms of anxiety and no idea why. Since, I live with a level of anxiety all the time, I just don’t know what I can do to alleviate these symptoms.

Bulging discx

Tuesday, a quiet day at home massage, followed by a kip! Some admin and phone calls and then caught up on some TV.

I hope you saw my Wednesday foodie post? Ended the day with more medicine before my last appointment and this thing…

Chocolate thingy

Made it home and found my carer didn’t take the full bucket of water in the kitchen sink out to water the plants on my balcony. So, I had to, in stages. It was 40 degrees in the shade today and my first hot chocolate Calla Lilly has arrived. So, after watering the plants I had a kip for about an hour, but I just couldn’t make it. After my kip I smashed through all the rest of my chores and admin. Ironically, a friend said a while ago while we were discussing Banksie/life/the universe “back when Banksie was living with him!” What! He told me he went by a different name, let’s say “Fred!”  because it’s been a while. It’s a very small world!
Banksie

Thursday, finally got my shed put up in the car park and funded by the NDIA. So, it has power and get back out on the road. Well, the footpath……..but still. I went up and down so many times to take the handyman down to B1, and collect the woman with the agreement for me to sign. Then had to go let my carer Sana in so we could do some prep work for my bread and butter pudding. Sana arrived in time to help relocate some gardening and cat supplies to the shed, clearing the last of the thing from my balcony and the main bathroom. Things can actually settle now. Thankfully.
Hellonwheels rides again!

Rides again

Friday! Please let this week be over! Have had a little migraine niggling behind my left eye the last two days. Finally got a commitment from mum for the days I would go up to her house for Christmas and when I would come home. Mum has to drive Three and a half hours each way. So, I could finally contact the three service providers to put my services on hold. By the end of the day, I already have to reinstate some of those services. Still trying to get everything done before Christmas! Snuck in a visit to Wilbur today. Bella has been hard to find. But Wilbur is usually sleeping, quite contented on the counter.

Wilbur

The bread and butter pudding has already started going out the door.

It’s already Saturday and I’m not yet off-grid. Not happy! Must quit! Actually, had my phone on over the weekend, but on silent. Megi, my old neighbour visited, and bought presents. Now I have to find someone to re-gift chocolates to. I did the sleep/eat/TV weekend. Very happy I didn’t attempt to do anything more.

Saturday

Starting the week with a rib out and it’s one that will not tickle when my Chiro puts it back in on Wednesday. Counting down to Christmas and going home. There are two fur-kids there of the cat variety. I will share some pictures for Christmas, it I might take a break from my Hot off the Press Monday posts so I can burn off some of my handwritten older posts. Feel free to offer constructive feedback. Definitely hit me with a Like. Have a great week!
Cheers,
H

New week