Excerpt from Between the Lines


A memory wavered into his mind, shimmery as heat rising off the road in summer.

He was six years old, and he’d been in Stonehaven no more than a week. He was hollow and lonely, confused. He missed the bustle of Melbourne. He missed the other kids on his street, the whole gang of them and their scampy games. He was stuck out in the bush, all of a sudden, with nobody but Lionel for company. Lionel had spent the first day ignoring him completely, and the last few beating the stuffing out of him whenever he got the chance. So that day, he’d wandered out to the back garden, if it could even be called that- just a scrubbed, flat expanse of hot red dirt with a veil of tangled trees and shrubs behind it.

The bush.

On impulse, he’d taken a couple of steps toward it, bare feet burning on the hot ground. The air was filled with the lemony scent of eucalyptus and the fresh tang of the distant sea. He'd filled his lungs and the two steps had turned into six, then ten, then before he knew it he was running headlong toward the wall of whispering green and brown, pushing all his mother’s warnings about snakes and savages from his head. He barrelled between the first spicy-scented leaves and, to his surprise, popped out on a sort of beaten down track, hidden from view of the house. After a moment’s pause to wonder how many strokes of the belt he’d get for this, he set off down the track toward the most interesting noise he’d heard so far- the babbling giggle of flowing water, and laced in with it, the high, clear notes of a girl’s voice, singing.

He stepped off the track with his heart hammering in his chest, suddenly terrified as he caught side of the wide river bank and the rolling mass of glassy green water.

She was standing there, all right- a girl not much taller than him, skinny as a rake, skin the golden brown of tree bark lit by sun. A cascade of golden curls rolled over her shoulders to skim at her waist, tendrils flicking out here and there as she drew back her arm and lobbed a big rock into the water.

He watched it go, traced the arc with his eyes until it hit the water with a loud splash and was swallowed. She was singing, still, her voice high and clear. She was wearing a white dress that finished at her knees and puffed into short sleeves at her shoulders. He looked down at himself, his grey shorts and jumper coated in jam, dirt and everything else he’d been busy with that morning. He stared at her back with suspicion. She was pristine. The only dirty bit of her was her feet, bare as his.

If it hadn’t been for those feet, he might have thought she was an angel. Or a ghost.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Recipe exchange

I've had one of those recipe exchange emails in my inbox a few times this week, and I'm sorry, guys, but I can't much be fussed with those.

I can, however, be fussed with putting my current favourite recipe up on the blog- complete with a pic of the finished product! Now, how's that for service?

So- I have a recipe book called 500 Cookies with this recipe (yes, and 499 others) in it, and the same recipe appears all over the Internet- seems like it's the original Nestle one. This meets all the criteria for a good recipe- it's quick, it's easy, and it'll give you diabetes in about three bites.

TOLLHOUSE COOKIE BARS

230g butter (1 cup)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

Cream the butter, vanilla and sugar together- the original recipe uses half brown and half granulated sugar, but I'm a brown sugar addict, and I think this is the key to making the bars extra decadent. Mix in the eggs, one at a time, til combined.

2 1/3 cup plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Sift together all dry ingredients- or, if you're like me, just tip them all into the wet ones at the same time and swizzle a bit (g). Mix thoroughly until all combined.

400g chocolate chips- I used a combination of white and dark
(Or, if you must, use about 340g chocolate plus 1 cup of nuts)

We all know I'm allergic to walnuts, so in protest I refuse to add any nuts at all. I just amp up the chocolate. Mix your chocolate (and nuts, if you're using 'em) into the mixture until all combined.

Tip the whole lot into a greased tin about 15 x 15cm (or a jelly roll tin, I keep seeing on US websites). Bake at 190 degrees Celsius for 20-30 minutes, or until brown on top and firm.

The good thing about this recipe is, if you underbake it a tad (as I almost always do) you'll hardly notice- it's classic cookie dough. Anyway- once cooked, remove from the oven, allow it to cool, then try not to eat it all at once.

And I promised you a photo- here it is. Check out the white chocolate overload... Auughhh...


Posted by Claire Gregory at 4:18 PM
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