Cantonese Opera performer as the character Nine-tailed Fox

In my novel The Hidden Monastery I used a fox spirit as the antagonist in the story.

These pesky creatures can morph into humans. Here are some foxy tales.

In China there are many tales about Hu Li Jing or Fox Spirits. It is said that they acquired shape-shifting qualities after meditating in mountain caves for centuries. This allowed them to take on human form, the most common of which was that of beautiful young women. They would seduce men, because the ‘yang’ or light energy carried by men would complement the ‘yin’ or dark energy carried by these fox spirits and combine to give them immortality. Fox Spirits often have 9 tails.
There are other stories of fox spirits whose only desire is to experience human emotions such as love and happiness.

The Japanese Fox Spirit or Kitsune also has many tails, the more tails a fox has, the older and more powerful it is. They could grow up to nine tails after having lived a thousand years. In some tales, kitsune were able to take on the appearance of humans, but they would have trouble disguising their tails and often be discovered, especially by suspicious dogs, their mortal enemies.

In Finland, the northern lights was believed to be the result of a fox running on the snow and sweeping its tail so that sparks fly off into the sky. The aurora borealis was also known as Fox Fires.

Strange Tales of Liaozhai written in 1765 by Pu Songling is a much loved Chinese classic. These supernatural folk tales fall into three categories. Some were written to criticize the feudal society of Pu’s time, some to expose the malpractices of the imperial examination system, while others show his dissatisfaction to arranged marriages. He felt that people should marry for love. Pu Songling was a man ahead of his time in China.

My mum’s 85th birthday tea party. If there was sound to this photo you would hear in the background the Collingwood Footy song which my family are all avid supporters of. This is because my grandfather worked at the Victoria market & everyone there barracked for the Magpies.

I was once asked to fill in for a ladies’ tennis competition because one of the team members was sick. After the match was over, the opposition who was the home team provided the lunch. While the main course was unmemorable, the cake was absolutely delicious. It was a chestnut cake, moist, nutty and cooked to perfection. I’m always on the lookout for good recipes so I complimented the lady who baked it and asked her if she wouldn’t mind sharing it with me.

‘No,’ she said, angrily, as if I had asked her to give me her right arm. ‘I learnt this recipe at a cooking class and the teacher does NOT want us to give it away.’

I was speechless. I might have understood if they had lost that day, but her team won, and won well.

My whole family are really great cooks in both Western and Chinese cooking and it would be unheard of not to share this pleasure with others.

So I am going to share my favourite recipes with you. They are all really quick and easy because I don’t have the patience to spend hours in the kitchen away from my writing.

And thank you to Simmone Howell for suggesting me start a recipe blog.

The name of this dessert says it all. It’s so easy, quick, and an all time fave of mine and my family’s going right back to when I was little.

Sorry, but I forgot to take the photo before everyone got stuck into it. This one serving was all that was left. You have to eat it right out of the oven.

INGREDIENTS

1 Tblespoon  butter

1 Cup  castor sugar

2 Tblespoons  Self Raising flour

Juice of 1 lemon

1 Cup milk

2 eggs (separate the yolks from the whites)

METHOD

First beat up the egg whites until stiff.

Cream the butter butter and sugar (I melt the butter in the microwave to save time), add flour, lemon juice, milk and egg yolks. Beat well.

Fold the egg whites into the batter and pour into a 12″ oven proof buttered glass pudding dish set in a pan of water.

Cook at 180 C for 45 minutes or until golden brown.

ENJOY!!

Like stories, food is for sharing

Here is the sky at 6am from my back garden. It only lasted for about 5 minutes. So thankful I was up early. The sound effects were incredible too, amplified on the still Spring air – magpies warbling, doves cooing, a butcher bird carolling, a wattle bird cackling, minor birds squawking.