Just Like My Nan Made

Cordial 101

2012-02-24T10:51:00.000+11:00

When the boys were little I used to make our own 50:50 cordial....and it was lovely. Over the years I have been rather slack and only making cordial for 'special occasions', having settled on the bought stuff. Blehhck!! Now I remember why I made my own. Because it's by far, heaps better in comparison! (and much more healthier too, I'm sure).
I also made a batch of Pineapple Sage Cordial from the flowers of the Sage which you can view here.

Aunty Milly's Lemon Cordial OR 50:50 Cordial
(Aunty Milly is one of my Nan's sisters)

The rind and juice of 6 lemons OR (for 50:50 cordial use 3 lemons & 3 oranges)
4lb (800g) Sugar
1 ounce Tartaric Acid
2 ounces Citric Acid
1 ounce Epsom Salts
1 litre of Boiling Water

Put all ingredients into a basin, Stir well until sugar is dissolved. Strain overnight and bottle. Makes approximately 2 1/2 litres.

Rhonda also makes her own cordials using sugar water. I recently used her method as a guide to make a quick batch of cordial after finding some strained passion-fruit juice in the freezer

Looking at the photo: I just realised I wrote Pineapple...lol
It was definitely Passion-Fruit

Fruit-Cup Cordial
1 cup of strained passion-fruit pulp
Juice and zest of 3 oranges
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 kg sugar
1 litre water

Make the sugar water, by boiling the water and dissolving the sugar. Allow this to cool slightly before adding the other ingredients.
Leave to steep overnight, then strain and bottle the cordial. I recommend storing the straight cordial in the fridge. Dilute to 1:4 or 1:5 cordial to water.

This recipe made just over 2 1/2 litres of cordial.

You bet I will be freezing the leftover pulp for some muffins

I think I might use some papaya pulp from the freezer to make my next cordial

or maybe some mango pulp..........

Do you make your own cordial? What's your favourite flavour?

If you haven't tried making your own,

Will you? Now that you've seen how easy it is?

Aunty Shirl's Tomato Relish

2012-02-23T10:06:00.001+11:00

My hubby loves his Aunty Shirl's Tomato Relish! I have lots of different pickles that I make...but this one would have to be his favourite.

The photos show a triple batch!....If you multiply the recipe, the vinegar doesn't quite get the same multiplication....I used 2 Litres for this triple batch.

Aunty Shirl's Tomato Relish

3lb Tomatoes (1.5kg)
1lb Brown Onions (450g)
1lb Sugar
1 tablespoon Mustard Powder
2 tablespoons Plain Flour
750 mls Brown Vinegar (Malt Vinegar is lovely too) set aside about 1/4 cup vinegar to mix dry ingredients
Salt & Pepper (not neccessary, I never add this)
Salt to cure (sprinkle over the top, then stir through)

1. Peel the tomatoes by scoring a cross in the top of them, then dropping them in boiling water for roughly 30 seconds. Peel them in batches....but allow to cool slightly as they will be very hot to handle.

2. Roughly chop the tomatoes and place in a large plastic or ceramic bowl.

3. Peel and roughly chop the onions and add to the tomatoes. Mix thoroughly.

4. Sprinkle the mix with salt...and stir through. Cover and allow to cure overnight.

5. Once cured, drain the tomato and onion (do not rinse), then put in large pot and cover with vinegar.

6. Add the sugar, and gently boil for 1 hour.
Stirring almost constantly.

7. Mix dry ingredients to the left over vinegar then add to the pot.

8. Stir constantly now for 1 hour. Check for a good setting.

9. Sterilise your clean jars by placing them in a hot oven for 20 minutes.

10. Bottle while hot. Ensure that the rim and seal of each jar is very clean using a very hot wet dishcloth. Place lids on immediately.

11. Allow to cool before labelling. Use Title and date.

We love our Aunty Shirl's Tomato Relish!

You will too!

Things are happening here!

2012-02-21T22:56:00.000+11:00

Wow! What a week we've had here so far.

Hubby has finally found work again....He was originally successful for a similar position at the same mine he was laid off from working at in Mackay...and would be starting soon....but the very next day he received a phone call from Ulan Coal Mining to ask if he was still interested in the Mining Trainee-ship (the one he turned down 3 months ago because he already had a plane ticket to go to Mackay for work). The gentleman said that the Trainee-ship was still available for him...If he wanted it! ...

Of course he was over the moon and accepted it immediately, and to top off the good news.....our neighbour across the road has already arranged accommodation with her best friend. (At least until he finds a house with other work mates)......It just doesn't get any better than this. Thanks Maureen! Thanks Ulan Coal man!

To think it all began like this.........Saturday started with attending the gardening course.....Sunday meeting up with Rose who has her own blog called Greening the Rose, AND is another Down to Earth forum Moderator like me. Rose had a special friend all the way from Cornwall for the weekend.....I have known Pippa for a while now through the same forum, but never imagined I would be lucky to meet her in person.

Pippa, Rose and me

Monday was a total wash for me struggling with pain....but with rest after my new medication was doubled...I was able to cope better. I hate changing medications and trying to find the correct dose....it really upsets all the things I need to be doing.

Tuesday (today) has been a bit of a breakthrough with meds, as I baked Rhonda's Whole Orange Cake into muffin sizes for the community garden...but done a double batch so I had some for home too.

I also peeled and chopped a triple batch of tomatoes and onions for Aunty Shirl's Tomato Relish (another post to come).......

The beginnings of Aunty Shirl's Tomato Relish

.......and that was all before going to our local Community Garden and planting out a bed of Banana Capsicum.....some Apple Cucumber plants and some Strawberry runners....and once home I finished making some fruit cordial......which I will strain tomorrow.......

Fruit cordial

Then preparing tea without going for a lye down beforehand.....

Oh, and after tea....I blanched the beans I got from the garden.

Yes! Today was definitely a good day.......Lets hope the rest of the week is the same or even better!

And the winner is......

2012-02-20T11:29:00.001+11:00

I'm sitting in the doctor's surgery and it hits me that I never announced the winner to that glorious book I decided to give away......so here I am....waiting and typing on my phone......bare with me folks...lol

And the winner is.........
Sherrie from Simple Living!

Congratulations Sherrie!

As to the other wonderful people who I have promised garlic seed to....
I cut the tops off on Friday all set to package....and found the tiny stem on each one was still sappy...so they have been drying all weekend and I will probably package them all up when I need a rest from gardening or housework at the end of the day....

Things are a bit crazy here at the moment...it's also our 13th Wedding Anniversary today...the builder is here starting work on the front veranda.....I need my pain medication adjusted better and am back to having monthly infusions in the hospital....oh and hubby has been offered a job finally and starts in a few weeks...just a 4 1/2 hour drive away this time and not 2000km..... Which is fantastic!

Drying washing on rainy days

2012-02-16T08:56:00.001+11:00

If your new to my blog, check out the give-away I am doing for my blog's first birthday...Time is running out (Friday) to be in the draw to win that fabulous book.

Until I found the blogging world, and began reading about the lives of other people all around the world....I never realised just how many people use a dryer for drying their clothes. Clothes dryers are very expensive to run....I thought it was normal to hang your washing on the line to let the sun dry it. I understand now that some people really do need a dryer.....

But this is what we do when it rains day after day.......

We have a few mobile clothes lines which I hang our washing on under the back veranda; between my back door and mums front door....This is actually a mixture of ours and mum's washing.

We also hang washing in the garage with permanent ropes tied in the rafters. The rope is tall enough to even hang sheets and towels.

If it gets too cold to dry the washing outside on the veranda....we then bring the clothes lines inside and in winter they go in the rooms that are being heated by our gas heater.

Clothes dryers are sooooo expensive, and while I am trying to cut down on our power usage, there's no way I'm planning to use my dryer.....Oh, and I would also have to empty all the glass jars out of it first....lol

Do you use a dryer all the time to dry your clothes?

Is there somewhere you can hang your clothes without using the dryer?

Klumpin' Tomatoes

2012-02-15T09:05:00.001+11:00

If your new to my blog, check out the give-away I am doing for my blog's first birthday...Time is running out (Friday) to be in the draw to win that fabulous book.

I get a kick out of growing the unusual....sometimes the things you can't buy in the shops; I'll give them a go.

So when I seen these on ebay last year, I couldn't resist...I got 10 seeds for $1.00 which also included postage...so how could I go wrong...lol. They all germinated, I shared out 5....I killed 1....I unwillingly shared one with the snails and enjoyed the others (which are all finished now and have all been pulled).....

In their place now I have a bundle of Black Russian tomato plants soon to be flowering if the sun ever comes out.

Klumpin Tomatoes - Chosen for Seed Saving

Klumpin Tomato

Choosing tomatoes for Seed Saving

Now.....I have just 1 plant remaining in my garden, which is doing rather well, considering all the rain we are having at the moment. .........Lots of the garden is either rotting away from being over watered, or the seed I plant is rotting in the soil, because of too much rain and not enough heat.

Do you like to grow unusual varieties of veg?

If so, do you have some spare seed that you would like to do a seed swap with me?

Happy 1st Birthday to Just Like My Nan Made

2012-02-10T18:00:00.000+11:00

Has it been 12 months already? Wow, what a wonderful year it has been. I've been blessed to get to know many incredible people along the way and look forward to meeting some in person this year. I have met some of you, but hope to meet more this year. It's like catching up with old friends. I love all the comments and feedback I receive. Although I don't always have time to answer them individually, it gives me great joy to read them back to my family too.

Seeing I need to make a visit to the post office for the garlic give-away...I thought I might as well add another give-away to celebrate my blog's first birthday!

All you need to do to be in the running for this give-away is to be a follower. If your not one already, sign up and tell me which post you have enjoyed the best, and why! I enjoy feedback, but would also like to know what others would like to see more of. If you have a good idea for a post...let me know and I will see what I can do.

I love my book so much, that when I seen one in an op-shop I had to share it with you......

ALL FOLLOWERS ARE ABLE TO JOIN IN ON THIS ONE,

I WILL SEND OVERSEAS IF YOU WIN!!

And the winner is........

2012-02-06T21:16:00.000+11:00

I hope you didn't think I had forgotten about the Garlic Giveaway!.... It's just been crazy busy around here and I have seriously fallen behind with some of my duties including my blog.

Thank-you to all the wonderful people who entered, it seems that garlic is a very popular food...but I knew that anyway...lol....I loved the creative comments.

In the original post, I said the following:......................

The give-away for 10 lucky readers....

*The best comment will receive a clove of the garlic to use however you wish....(maybe pop it in the ground, or use it in cooking)...

The lucky winner of the clove of garlic is...

*Tracey and Tribe - Congratulations Tracey!!

*I will also choose 9 more comments to send some seed to....This give-away is only offered to Australian residents though..and I will need to check what states I can send it to....So, sorry to those who aren't eligible...I'd still like to hear from you too.....

The lucky winners of the garlic seeds are......

*Sheridan

*Dell

*Donna

*Deb

*Debbie

*Lisa

*Melinda

*Inner Pickle

*Darren (Green Change)

I checked on the seed today, and it's still drying, although should be good to send shortly......

It's still on the heads, so I might separate it to speed up drying some for sending.

By the time I receive everyone's addresses, it should be fine to send on!

Could all the winners send me an email,

npe09777 (at) bigpond.net.au

with their full name and address please

so I can send on your prize!

Award winning Home-brew

2012-01-29T23:00:00.000+11:00

A few weeks ago, a lovely lady sent me an email regarding her working near the HR department within the mining department...we have had computer trouble back and forth since....with bad timing, as I never got to send you a reply...I'm sorry I haven't contacted you, and unfortunately I lost your email as we had to get a new motherboard for our computer.....Could you please send me another email if you read this......

Today's post is all about Hubby...I have to give my hubby a huge big plug..while he isn't much into all the work involved in keeping things simple, he sure does love the good food and all else that comes with the work I do. It takes a team effort to make a house-hold work. It doesn't matter who is part of that team, as long as you all work together and that includes the children, even from a young age....and you will find that within your own team, there will be different skills held by each member.....One of Hubby's many skills is making a good batch of brew.

First Prize - Bitter

While I can make fruit cordials, and Kefir fizzy, and Rhubarb Champagne...I don't have, nor do I need the skills of making beer. That's because my husband makes his own beer. Hubby has been experimenting with brew making for at least 20 years....with that comes experience! For the last few years hubby has been entering his beers in the local show with some very encouraging results.

Second Prize - Lager

Second Prize - Pale Ale

************************
Sponsors for the
home-brew section for
Dapto Show 2012
************************

Longboard

Centre: Hubby with two of the judges
of the Homebrew Section
for Dapto Show 2012
LONGBOARD BEER

Longboard beer

********************************

Illawarra Brewing Company

What a lovely home-brew display at the Dapto Show

........and an even better display at home.....

Seeing the judging took place days before the show, we already knew in advance....and on helping Richard celebrate his birthday on Saturday at the garden course....Hubby gifted Richard with a 6-pack of the Prize Winning beer...which I'm sure he enjoyed....and I made him a birthday cake.

Here is a photo of the birthday cake I made for Richard...of-course it had to be garden related....lol

While we were waiting for the judging to finish and the presentations to begin....I couldn't help but wander a round the pavillion to look at the lovely dahlias which were entered. I took many many photos..but here is just a small taste of what I saw. Aren't they lovely?

Have you ever made your own batch of brew? How did it turn out?

NOTE: Hubby is looking for some Hop Seed to have a go at growing his own hops....if you have any spare, and would like to exchange using a barter set-up...I would be ever so happy to chat with you.

Increasing your strawberry patch for FREE

2012-01-27T23:04:00.001+11:00

If you live in a similar climate as I do...and you have a few strawberry plants...Now is the time to gather your FREE plants...If you look amongst the leaves, you will notice runners that you can turn into new plants.

It's really simple to increase your strawberry plant numbers during this time.....all you have to do is plant the runners on. If your garden bed has the space, nature will most certainly do it for you...but seeing my strawberry bed is a bunch of self-watering pots.....I feel I need to guide nature a little and give my strawberry plants some extra help along the way....Of course, saving these extra plants pays off by rewarding you with lots more free strawberry plants.....Did you know you can get roughly 20 runners off an individual strawberry plant? (I'm not sure if that is the entire life of a single plant)

There are many ways to collect your strawberry runners, but this is the method I prefer to use....I was never told how to do this, but my theory is.....the longer time the runner can be attached to the mother plant, the better the survival of the baby plant, while it is vulnerable and growing. Remember, the mother plant is usually growing in a larger amount of soil AND mulched...which limits the possibility of the new plant drying out while it is setting roots.

Consider it the umbilical chord for the baby plant.

Below, you can see that I use little wire pegs to keep the plant attached to the soil, so the runner can set roots easier. The peg is just a loop of wire, sometimes I use one on each side of the plant, sometimes it just needs one.....

Once they are well rooted, these will be planted out into a new garden bed.
There's plenty more FREE strawberry plants coming along.

Below: I'm also helping out the Barrack Heights Community Garden with their strawberry patch and I gathered these runners last week, and bought them home to grow. Seeing they don't have the mother plant...I will be keeping an eye on them...and once they are well rooted, they will be returned to the Community Garden for a new strawberry bed in the making.

Barrack Heights Community Garden
Strawberry runners

On Saturday at the garden course, Richard demonstrated that you can completely cut the leaves off the crown, along with most of the roots, and they will still grow.....but I had already done these this way.
I still prefer to keep them attached to the mother plant for the health of the new plant, but if/when you are gifted runners to take home....plant them however you feel works best.

In the garage we have/hoard/collect/recycle a draw of electrical wire of all different diameters and/or plastic coated, that is just another form of recycling that we do....Sometimes I strip the wire, depending on what I need it for....but for strawberry runners...no need. (see the red pegs in the picture above)

Here's some light humour for you....

If you think you have removed all the seed from your Pak Choy seed pods

and decide to use the dried pod shells for mulch.......

Be prepared for seeds to pop up anyway. (below)

don't worry; once these Pak Choy seedlings are a bit bigger

they will be moved on to another area in the garden.

Do you save your strawberry runners?

Have you ever used your empty seed pods as mulch?

A glut of tomatoes and my first zucchini

2012-01-23T15:05:00.000+11:00

What a fantastic response so far to my Garlic give-away....the seeds are drying slowly...but there is still time to get in on the action and be a contender for some of the seed, or maybe even the clove of garlic...You never know, and I always say..."You have to be in it to win it!"
* There's also another give-away coming soon for the celebration of my first year of blogging...but you will need to wait a few weeks to see what I have planned for that one.

So...what did I do with my first zucchini? I added it to a batch of preserved tomatoes....This is actually a recipe I made up along the way for a 'ready made tomato base'....you know...for those crazy nights...When you really just have time to brown some mince...or boil up a batch of pasta.....This will be great to have in the store cupboard....It's actually turned out so well...I plan to make more...next time maybe a bit spicier though...and with more garlic.

This all began because I had sourced a 10kg box of Roma Tomatoes for $9...I wish now I had gotten two boxes...one for this, and one for relish...but I'm sure there will be more tomato bargains in the near future.

So firstly...I quartered most of the box of tomatoes (four trays in total).....and tossed some lovely fresh garlic cloves in amongst them....(no oil, and no salt)...along with some herbs from the garden...Baked them until the natural sugars began to caramelise slightly.....(sorry, no photo for this part)

I then put it all in the crock-pot to cook slowly...due to time restraints and energy levels...I wasn't really ready to cook this up after chopping all the other vegetables....but I did chop up the following:

My first eight-ball zucchini....(my first zucchini of any type) which hubby said looked more like a cannon-ball due to the size....lol
Another long zucchini gifted to me by Lee and Alison...
A huge bunch of Ruby Chard (coloured spinach) stems from the garden...of all colours...Yellow, red, pink and the original......

The colour is from the ruby chard...

The beauty of this sauce is that my boys aren't that keen on the zucchini or squash varieties...but they love these sauces....

Now, seeing I had used all the spinach stems for the base I was making....I decided to blanch the spinach tops to be put in smaller blocks into the freezer.....for later use. Don't pour that lovely cooking liquor down the sink yet....but strain it, just to be sure there are no impurities left behind...then use the water as the base to the tomato recipe you are making....this is what I do anyway....no point wasting those nutrients....

Zucchini and Ruby Chard (Rainbow) Spinach

I also chopped up:

1 large red capsicum
1 large green capsicum
1 large yellow capsicum
6 carrots...which I finely shredded with my slicer......
2 kg brown onions

So that all goes into the spinach water to cook up................................

I then put the tomato mixture through my Moulix to remove all the tomato and garlic skins....and seeds.

When you have finished running it all through the moulix,
pour boiling water over the pulp to release more flavour...
and run it through the moulix again.

Adding both mixes together and adding some extra spices and herbs...then allow it to cook for another hour or so...no thickener is needed, because you just allow it to reduce to the thickness you like. This photo shows it about half reduced...

Pot it all up into sterilised jars....and process in a water bath for 45 to 60 minutes....Some went in the Preserving outfit......and some into recycled jars with old lids which were sealed in a hot oven for 40 minutes.

2 from the oven leaked, so they went aside to be used first

Mum gave me advice to check for a good seal...Place a pencil across the lid and clip...if there is no gap...the seal has failed.....they were all concaved...so a good seal was achieved for all of these ones.

After all this work, and attending the gardening course for January....along with other weekend events....Sunday night was the perfect night to test out this base......So tea involved the following:

2 smaller jars of the tomato base
3 sliced up chorizo and quickly fried to release the spicy flavour
half a packet of pasta....boiled on the stove
a big spoonful of crushed fresh garlic...from the fridge

Combined together to make a really delicious meal.....perfect way to end the weekend...

and yes! the tomato base is perfect!

GIVE-AWAY for 10 lucky readers....HUGE GARLIC

2012-01-14T13:00:00.000+11:00

Well, what a year it's been already. Welcome everyone, to 2012....I hope you all had a lovely Christmas break....I'm pleased to tell you that I am back in the blogging world, and have many blog ideas for the year.....Hubby is back home too, looking for another job. He wasn't really given a reason for the dismissal, but we think the company may have lost the contract for the work he was doing. So for now we are unemployed again and hubby is applying for mining work daily.

First up, I want to take time to say hello to all my new readers this year, both followers and lurkers (lol) I welcome each and every one of you. Don't be shy,...don't be a lurker......lol I may not always have time to reply to the comments individually. But I sure do love reading them.

Like many of you, I've been busy with family life this year..and getting back into blogging has been slow going ...until now......This post, I could not hold off....It's just toooooo exciting NOT to share.

Free bounty of Giant organic garlic

Have you ever seen a head of garlic this huge?

Almost 500 grams.....Almost half a kilogram

Almost 500g for one head of garlic

With each monthly drive to my garden course in Jamberoo, I have had my eye on some Wild Garlic along the road....When the bright purple colour of the seed head reaches for the sky amongst the drying grasses...How can you not spot it? I'm one of those people who when driving, can spot a fruit tree a mile away....Hubby reckons I turn into one of those bobble heads on a long drive...
Richard, my garden teacher told me he travels that road very often, but has never spotted it....He told me he drives with tunnel vision...lol...I think he will try to spot it now that I've told him where it was though. I gave him some anyway.

After researching different varieties of garlic, I think this is very similar to Elephant Garlic. With the recent floods in the last couple of years, I can only assume that it was washed down from someone's garden, as it tends to be closer to the little creeks AND Mother Nature has kindly self-seeded the garlic every year since.(just my opinion after observing what is in the soil when digging it up). It will be there for many years to come, I'm sure.

What about just one clove of garlic

weighing 154 grams?

The garlic has a lovely strong aroma and will fill my stores year after year, now I plan to grow it too.

I have saved the seed heads as well, which are now drying out. Richard told me that you don't need to leave them on the plant to dry out, before collecting them.....each little green jewel will dry out to become a seed.

Oh, how I love gathering seeds...especially when I end up with plenty to share out. Some will go to the students in the garden class, and some will be shared with the community gardens in the area....not to mention handing it out to friends and family.

Giant garlic seed
waiting to dry out

If you live near Noosa, you can get your own huge garlic at Super Natural Organic Garlic (SNOG) which will cost you roughly $28 per kilo . They have a lovely informative blog on how to grow your own garlic too....along with some great recipes to share.

Hmmmm lets do the math on this one.......5.6kg at $28 per kilo.....$156.80.....Now that's a huge bounty.

The give-away for 10 lucky readers....

offer finishes at the end of the month!

*All you need to do, is tell me what you would do with some of this garlic ..maybe you have a great garlic recipe to share.

*The best comment will receive a clove of the garlic to use however you wish....(maybe pop it in the ground, or use it in cooking)...

*I will also choose 9 more comments to send some seed to....This give-away is only offered to Australian residents though..and I will need to check what states I can send it to....So, sorry to those who aren't eligible...I'd still like to hear from you too.....

I've already added it to my herb mix or soup starter.....I also have it finely minced and in Olive oil in jars in the fridge.....

I can't wait to read what everyone comes up with.....

Reflections for 2011 & Happy New Year for 2012

2011-12-31T21:47:00.000+11:00

Wow, what a big one...where do I start?.....

I think I would have to say that finding the DTE forum, and starting my blog in February to be up the top of the best things that have happened......I've met some very lovely people along the way, made some awesome friends both here and overseas..and learnt lots of new skills. The enthusiasm here is fantastic and I appreciate and cherish each and every comment left by my readers....If you are one of the 'lurkers' that left a comment for the first time in my last post.....Hello there, It's lovely to meet you and thanks for leaving a comment. I don't always have time to leave comments, but I sure do love reading them.

I also joined a monthly garden course learning local knowledge month by month....which has given me lots of encouragement to try new things. To top it off, I'm getting to know a lovely bunch of people who also love gardening. Joining this class has been the best thing I could have done to improve my gardening skills. You can't get this information from sitting down reading a book, I don't care how good the book is.

Adding flowers (Yes, even non-edibles) to my garden to attract bees has been a major learning curve for me and I say hello to each and every bee I see now. When hubby was home, he took a walk around the garden with me and couldn't believe how much healthier everything is growing.... Every time I plant a new seedling, I also plant a pesticide plant and a pollen attractor if needed; which I also grow from seed or cuttings I've done myself.

My garden areas now have at least trippled and I love the workload.....It's fantastic therapy for both the mind and body, even though this run down body says "Enough!" most days.
I'm also working on a whole new food forest which is in the plans for next year.....The back yard really doesn't have any more room for plants, unless I start lifting pavers, and I've thought about doing that too....lol.

Like life in general, we've had some lows over the year, but with time we've also created some highs.
My oldest has completed his first year of an "Overhead linesman Electrician" which I am very proud of, and being top of the class, he has his sights set on Apprentice Of The Year at the end of his 4 years of training....

One of our lows would have to be a huge change, when hubby and I made a joint decision for him to move away (2000km) from the family home for better work. We are both working towards one goal of paying off the house sooner.....While we all miss him ever so much when he is away, and my heart aches for him to breath the same air, we have grown even stronger than before. I am so grateful for the love we have after more than 20 years...it just grows stronger each week....

This past year has had my oldest niece going through a bitter divorce which isn't finalised yet, and we almost lost her to complications after a tonsillectomy. Her sister went to help with her children and her recovery, so I got to meet my youngest nieces two daughters for the first time; aged two and four....which I might add are darling little girls who love their great Aunty....
Sadly; Hubby's youngest sister has also gone through a divorce and on top of that, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. On the bright side, she is back at work after treatment and also found a lovely new fella.
I'm grateful for the health of all of them....

My mother's health has deteriorated some what, with complications adding 3 new specialists to her list...and she is also thinking of giving up driving, which will be a blessing, but also more running around for me....She is becoming less independent with each passing month....I can't help but wonder what the coming year has install for her.

Overall, I have learn't to take each day as it comes, and I've also learn't to listen to my body, and deal with my pain better.This has cut down on the amount of medication I take by half since this time last year.....and I am doing much more manual work too.....

One thing I like to live by is this: ....."How hard can it be? .....Really .....Give it a go!"
You never know until you try, and remember, anything is easy, once you know how.

Do you have any highs you would like to share for 2011? Maybe you have had some lows too, which you have been dealing with? If so, I would love for you to share some...If you have blogged about them, please leave a link too.

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-12-24T08:59:00.000+11:00

Merry Christmas for 2011

I guess this is my first Christmas post on my blog, but don't worry, I'm pretty sure it won't be my last.....I'd just like to take the time to tell you all how much I appreciate you reading my blog. I have some very regular followers who have been here since the beginning...which isn't that long ago either, but I am coming up to my first anniversary in Feb too...which is also exciting.

If you are a lurker, now is the time to show yourself...leave a comment, and make yourself known. Given my blog stats, I know I have a huge list of lurkers who enjoy sitting on the sidelines, enjoying reading my blog. Don't feel obligated to show yourself though, it really is up to you and you alone. Although I would love it if you popped in and said Hi! No pressure....lol!

Christmas for me is a time to celebrate family and enjoy good food. Food that you wouldn't often eat, but more for a special occasion. I enjoy showing off my cooking skills at Christmas, and like to go the extra mile for a more complicated recipe.....although this year...I don't have anything complicated planned....but I know that my family will enjoy every bite.

I haven't even had time to (or remembered until now) to post about the beautiful Christmas Decorations both Mum and I received in the Down to Earth Christmas Decoration Swap.....

Mum received lots of lovely hanging 'gift' decorations from Lauren which are all handmade. They are stunning Lauren! Thank-you from Mum.

Just visible on the left is one of the
Origami butterflies....it's bright Orange.

My swap partner was Marnie...and I received a very complicated knitted stocking, along with a cute little house made from scraps of fabric....

Looking at all the photos, I didn't capture the Japanese Origami Butterflies,....but I know they are on the tree.....Thanks Marnie for the lovely decorations.

As you can imagine from your own household, things have been rather busy around here......As well as doing lots of baking for the freezer, I've been getting things done in the garden and doing lots of weeding, harvesting and planting too.....

I've even been too busy to publish my Gardening 101 for December post, but I did attend the December course, so I will make time soon to write that post....Sorry to those who have been looking forward to the December post, I will get to it soon after Christmas.

After hubby's flight being 5 hours delayed, I finally picked him up late last night....he had a huge day yesterday to get home for Christmas...the airport was packed to the rafters of all the workers trying to get home to spend Christmas with family and loved ones. I'm so grateful that we get him home for Christmas.

We have been busy tidying up, and I've been stocktaking in the garden to see what herbs I have for different dishes and salads....No herbs had to be store bought this year..which is fantastic!

Although I am organised with meat and other odds and ends...I can't help but look at more recipes......Yesterday, I found some more delicious recipes, and if I get time today, I might try a few of them out.

In the kitchen today I will do some of my salad prep for Christmas day.....All this stores very well for roughly four days in the fridge in press-seal bags....I use the bags, because they don't take up as much room as containers, and they can be stacked on top of each other: all being the same size....Some of my prep today will include the following:

Cooking and draining two types of pasta
Grating a big batch of carrots in the whizzer
Shredding some cabbage
Dicing spanish onions
Making another batch of Universal Herb & Garlic Mix

Remember: any prep you do today, makes light of the time spent in the kitchen tomorrow. All these ingredients will go in bags and be stored in the fridge, ready to make up salads the next day....any prep I can do today, makes things easier and less of a fuss or mess tomorrow....I think I mentioned that....lol....I will also be:

Boiling a dozen or so eggs to have on hand
Making my potato salad...making it the day before adds to the infused flavours of the fresh herbs
Mixing a French-onion dip for nibblies
Cooking my Ham in coke...(see *)....

*Instead of making Nigella's Coke Ham this year, I've found a simple recipe for making a cola syrup to cook the ham in...I think I will double the mixture though....so I will be doing that today too......I think this looks far more delicious than the Nigella version....and a lot healthier too.

Presents are all wrapped, and tonight I will get a small bag of pre-cooked turkey drumstick meat out of the freezer...along with stuffing balls and a few other bits.....all cooked over the last few weeks.....

Stuffing Balls

I've met many interesting and wonderful people since beginning my blogging adventure....and I appreciate all the comments and feedback...Some, I'm sure will be great friends for many years to come...To those who sent me a Christmas Card, I thank each one of you....I'm sorry, I didn't have time to do many cards this year.

I take this time to wish all my readers, friends and family (and even the lurkers hiding in the background)...a very Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous new year. To everyone on the DTE forum; along with all the followers on Rhonda's blog too.......

If you are travelling; stay safe.
If you are out drinking; make sure you have a designated driver.
If you are out partying, don't do it alone, take a friend.

Stay safe, and enjoy your Christmas holiday....I look forward to seeing everyone back here after their holiday celebrations....and I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

Growing Sweet Potatoes

2011-12-20T00:01:00.000+11:00

Until recently, I had never grown Sweet Potato....some also know this root vegetable as Kumera. There are three main varieties or colours of the Sweet Potato, but generally, there is not much difference in flavour.

I am yet to harvest my first tuber, but my plant so far is looking rather healthy. Sweet potato is an excellent source of mulch....it's also brilliant as a clay breaker....and either way; you get to eat the end result.....and if you bandicoot them while they are still growing, you get to have your crop and eat it too. How much better can that be?
This photo was taken almost a month ago, and the tub is fully covered over now with leaves and runners.

Even though I had already planted this lot earlier with beginners luck........After learning how to propagate a Sweet Potato Plant correctly at my garden course last Saturday, I had to have another go. I visited the Barrack Heights Community Garden midweek, and came home with cuttings and plants, along with which was a few runners of Sweet Potato.

You can grow them too if you know someone who is already growing them. You can also plant a young tuber and hope for the best....I have had tubers in a brown paper bag for easy 6 months....and they are just beginning to form eyes on them....so I figure getting some cuttings or a runner off someone is the easier way to go.

Firstly, dig and turn over the soil where you are going to plant the runner.....dig in some compost and make sure there is good drainage in the area you have chosen. You can plant them in raised beds, which is what I am doing, or you can plant them on mounds about 15 to 20 cm high. You can see in the following photo all the tiny new growth, just waiting to prosper.

Use cuttings which are about 30cm long, and remove the side leaves.
Run a slot in the soil, and press the soil over the cutting. Don't forget to leave tip of the cutting exposed above ground.....You should have roughly 5cm of soil covering the cutting.
Water the area well, and often until roots have formed....the rest is just as easy.............

Before covering with soil.

Look at the difference in colour, of the vines.

The green foliage is my original vine,

and the purple is the one I was given the other day.

Hmmm...I wonder if that means they are two different varieties?

Oh, and check out the two hitch-hikers I picked up from the garden.....I found them in the bag along with the cuttings.......I couldn't help but capture their beauty.....
all the while thinking how nice and fat they were....and how very destructive they would be in my garden, had I not found them........I had never seen anything like them before.

Have you grown Sweet Potato before? If so, how did it go?....Would you have a go now, after seeing how easy it is? ........

Have you ever seen these little, but rather big creatures before? I had a look on Google, but couldn't find their exact eye (fake) markings...lots of other Horned caterpillars though.......

Beetroot - the longer variety

2011-12-16T20:27:00.001+11:00

I love home preserved pickled beetroot.

Here are the beets I harvested from my garden the other day....I prefer the longer variety for smaller spaces.

It makes sense....less space, but more slices......

Imagine if you had plenty of space to grow these beets.....I bet your harvest would be twice as big.

Don't forget to harvest the thicker of the stems too.

PICKLED BEETROOT....the recipe I went by

4 large beetroot

3/4 cup water

1 1/2 cups white vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon peppercorns

1 bay leaf

2 cloves

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 cinnamon stick

1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Wash beetroot thoroughly and cook in water until tender......

after cooking the beetroot, remove them and cook the stems too.

2. Cool and remove the skin....wearing gloves prevents your hands being stained.

3. Cut beetroot into slices, dices or julienne strips.

4. Place all other ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil.

5. Simmer for 5 minutes, then strain...keeping the liquor.

6. Pack beetroot into hot sterilised jars, and top up with the vinegar mixture.

7. Using the handle of a spoon, poke the handle down to the bottom of each jar....moving the chopped beet from side to side......this expels any remaining air which would contaminate the final product.

8. Top up each jar again, with more of the vinegar mixture.

9. Place sterilised lids on jars....and heat in a moderate oven for 45 minutes.

10. Turn the oven off, and allow the jars to cool in the oven.

Each jar lid should pop down when touched.

Most will do this during cooling anyway.

If any lids do not pop down, store these jars in the fridge and use them first.

Do you grown and preserve your own beets?

Would you consider growing this longer variety?

On my mind...Thinking of loved ones passed

2011-12-16T09:12:00.000+11:00

Many thanks to Rhonda at Down to Earth for this concept.
This is a Friday photo feature that anyone with a blog can join. To take part, post a photo on your own blog, write a short caption explaining it, and link it back to here from your blog by saying you're part of "On my mind". Please write a new post, don't link to an older one. When you've done that, come back here and add a comment below, with a link to your blog.

I warn you, reading this post, you may need a box of tissues.......
I was going to write about the beetroot I have preserved and the stuffing balls I have made....but after reading Rhonda's blog post today..I think this is more appropriate.......

Christmas is a time when we reflect...a time for celebration yes, but also in many households...a time for sadness. Sadness for the pain of missing a loved one....sadness maybe because you are not where you wish you could be at Christmas. My thoughts go to the people who have recently lost a loved one, or that have a family member who is not long for this earth. Christmas is a time for me, when I reflect how fortunate I am....fortunate to have two wonderful sons, fortunate to have a wonderful husband, fortunate to still have one parent alive....fortunate to have good food at the ready, and good protection from the weather with a warm cosy bed at night.

I am fortunate for the love I am surrounded by.

One Christmas holidays 11 years back, I lost two nephews in the short space of 2 months.

One to each of my siblings....Such sadness, such heartache........

First was new years eve involving my sisters youngest...aged 20; he fell asleep at the wheel while driving home from work.....died instantly in the crash and was buried 10 days before his 21st birthday......

We still miss you David...Your sisters both miss you very much...

You would have made a wonderful priest.

Second was on the 25th Feb, when my brother found his newborn son with no life, in his cot.....they call it Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Donny was just 84 days old.....I guess angels are needed at all ages.....

Donny, your parents miss you very much, and so does your big sister....You have another sister and a brother now, who often think of you too.

Having not met my nephew Donny until his funeral, I held his little hand....and whispered to him...."I'm your Aunty".

Donny had a traditional Kiwi funeral at the house before being buried back in New Zealand beside other family members passed.

Growing up, Christmas memories have not always been the best for me...but becoming a mother has made many new and lovely memories which have replaced the bad ones......

I love my children, and am very appreciative that I have both of them in my life....We've had some extremely close calls where I thought my first born would be taken from me......having had a 'failed cot death' when he was just 2 months old, and a horrible skate boarding accident just a few years ago......

So yes, take time to reflect on your loved ones who are still with you.....and how fortunate you are....
But also give thought to the ones who have passed..........

Over the following weeks.....I will also be thinking about my niece and nephew in my husbands family.....who lost their father in a fatal car crash...at such a young age, not being able to remember him, not having the chance to get to know him........
I know you both miss what you could have had very much....Natasha and Zac, your father loved you sooo much.

Today, take joy in the family you have around you....you may come from a large family...or you may be an only child....you may have children, or you may not.....either way....somewhere.....you have family, because you were born....Think about the family that are not with you now.....especially the family you never met, because you were not born yet when they passed......

Take comfort in the family you do have around you.....
tell them each day, how much you love them......

Prawn & Chicken Sausage Rolls

2011-12-14T10:27:00.001+11:00

We like to enjoy a bit of seafood around Christmas, and I usually buy just a few of the cheaper varieties....Economically, I see the value in buying a kilo bag of frozen prawn meat. The bag comes with the prawns snap frozen, so you can take out and defrost the amount you need to defrost....No one big lump, which is good. I buy my prawn meat at the local seafood shop....they have it defrosted ready for you to use, and also frozen in the 1kg bags. My prawn meat costs me $20 but there is no waste, no scraps, but all meat.

Here is what I have done with this lot of Prawn meat.......

My Prawn & Chicken Sausage Rolls.

From left to right in the photo below....mince your chicken mince...then without rinsing the whizzer, mince your prawn meat....add both to a large bowl.....You can use what ever amounts you wish....it all depends on what you have. In this recipe, I used 1 kg of both Prawn meat and 1 kg of Chicken breasts.

So....Left to Right:

Minced Chicken breast, finely chopped Chillie, bruised Lemon Thyme with cracked pepper,

My Universal Herb & Garlic Mix, 2 egg yolks, Minced Prawn meat.........

Blend it all together.....

Now fry a spoon full, to test for seasoning and flavour....This is a big help before you start wrapping the mix in pastry.....

After tasting the sample....I decided the seasoning and flavour were fine...but I thought they were a little heavy....so instead of saving those egg whites for something else...I whipped them up and folded them into the mix......

Fry to taste again.......much better......yummmmmmm

Now, I used to spoon my mix onto the pastry, but finally lashed out for the real thing last Christmas...and Oh...it is sooooo much easier to use a piping bag.....If you plan on buying one, buy the best quality you can afford.

As in the photo, fold the top half of the bag down over your hand and fill the bag with the mix....Only half fill the piping bag, or it will be too hard to manage.

Twist the top of the bag tight...and begin piping onto the pastry.
Each sheet of pastry needs to be cut in half.............

Use an egg wash as glue...by using on egg, a little water, and a pinch of salt...the water and the salt helps break down the white of the egg..........

Score the tops of the pastry once rolled with a sharp knife...only very shallow though, as you are not trying to cut slits into the tops...it is purely decoration. Then paint each with the egg wash.

To cut each roll into three, first dip your knife into a cup of flour, do this for each cut, and your cuts and edges of your rolls with be much neater.
I was able to fit twelve rolls on a biscuit tray for the oven...in a very hot oven of 240 degrees celcius...bake the sausage rolls for 20 minutes or until golden brown depending on your oven.

Repeat making them until you run out of the meat mixture.....
Both Mum and I enjoyed a few each for lunch, but the rest went into the freezer to be used as a meal for while Hubby is home......

Do you have left over pastry? I had a 12 sheet pack of pastry, and only used 9 1/2...so what did I do to use up the rest of the pastry?......

Fruit Strudel of course.....
In this mix I used....
Left over peaches off our dwarf peach tree
Two green apples, peeled and grated
Strawberries from the garden
Sultanas
Blueberries from the freezer
1 pear grated
a sprinkle of brown sugar

I had enough to make two large ones, and two smaller ones......so into the freezer they went

a yummy dessert fit for a king.....and My King...is home for a few days.

Background: Prawn & Chicken Sausage Rolls
Foreground: Mixed Fruit Strudel

Hubby and the rest of the family are going to love these......

What have you been baking for the Christmas break?

Universal Herb & Garlic Mix - for Every day!

2011-12-13T00:41:00.000+11:00

Imagine having a healthy mix of fresh herbs and garlic, that you can happily add to your menu every day of the week; without the hassle of picking, washing, peeling, slicing and chopping each time you want to use them all........

I've found that happy place....in the Herb Mix that I make on a regular basis...Up until now, I had been calling it My Soup Starter....but it's taken on a whole new meaning in my kitchen lately.

Frankly, I'd be lost without it....(Well, almost, I've done ok up until now..lol)....
It's been raining on and off here for what seems to be forever....but long enough for me not to remember the last time I hung wet washing outside on the line....What I'm trying to get at here is.....I haven't had to run out to the garden for herbs at all. Why? Because of my All Purpose Herb & Garlic Mix!!

It's brilliant, flavourful AND time-saving!!
Thank-you to my niece Shona for the inspiration behind this mix. I have adapted mine to suit my garden, and I am discovering new ways to use it almost every day.....

Depending on what is growing in abundance in my garden at the time, depends on what goes in my Herb Mix. Here are some examples....the method is always the same......Whizz everything in the blender until finely minced, adding Olive Oil to blend easily. Store in the fridge in a sealed glass jar.

1 big bunch of spring onions
a couple of Spanish onions if you have some on hand.
a good cup of minced garlic..I just used the bottled variety (home-brand too)
adding Olive Oil while it is whizzing to make a good spooning consistency.
Store in an airtight jar in the fridge.

1 big bunch of spring onions (from the garden)
1 large Spanish onion
a good cup of minced garlic..(I use the bottled variety because I just don't have time to peel that much garlic)
a big bunch of freshly picked parsley (also in the garden)
a bigger bunch of Sorrel (also in the garden)
a small bunch of Marjoram and Thyme (also in the garden)

Add Olive Oil while it is whizzing to make a good spooning consistency. Store in an airtight jar in the fridge.

2 ingredient pizza dough

2 big bunches of spring onions
2 large Spanish onion
a whole jar of crushed garlic..(I use the bottled variety because I just don't have time to peel that much garlic)
a huge bunch of freshly picked parsley
a bigger bunch of Sorrel
a handful of Rosemary
a medium bunch of Marjoram and Thyme

There was two of these jars.

It really couldn't be any easier....I encourage you to have a go...Make it up and see for yourself, what you can create with it.

Here are just some examples of

what I have used it for.......

Silverside

Herb & Garlic Butter - Mixed

Herb & Garlic Butter - one for now, one for the freezer.

Roast Leg of Pork

Savoury Crackers

Chicken with Cheese Baguette

Roast Turkey legs

Roast Turkey Roll with herb butter and garden salad

HINT: When you only have one tomato, or maybe a few slices of cold meat, AND you have lots of people to feed....how do you choose who gets what on their sandwiches...Simple! You don't have to choose....just chop it all up...and share it with everyone.

Ham & Salad Bread Rolls

That method works so well for any salad sandwich, and it's perfect for people who have false teeth problems. No tomato skins to bite through......or lettuce to tear with your teeth.....

Like I said, It's brilliant!.....here's some more ideas.....

Fresh Garden Tomato Salad with fresh peas

Herb & Garlic Bread

Prawn & Chicken Rolls
(Like sausage rolls, only better)

Base for Pizza

Roast Leg of Lamb

Hmmm, I wonder how I will use it tomorrow? ........

Oh, and I didn't even show you any dressings, sauces, or soups.....

Your time is just as valuable as mine...and If I find a way to save time in the kitchen, I'm sure going to share it with you all.

Is this something you would be interested in making? What meals can you see yourself using it in?

On my mind.....Jumping Johnny's

2011-12-09T00:25:00.001+11:00

Bendigo gold fields

In my family we have a traditional dessert recipe that has been passed down through the generations...and it is called Jumping Johnnies.

I've often wondered where the recipe originated.........

My Nan told my mum that she got it off her mother and hers before her.... It was a great recipe to have on a farm, as, if company arrived unannounced...there were always the staple food items to make a supper of Jumping Johnnies....after all, many a farm had chooks and a lemon tree too. (see the recipe below)......

After turning to Google on and off since its invention with no luck.....I have finally found a few leads.....vague, but leads none the less.

I first found the recipe mentioned here...Source: First Catch a Kangaroo....

So with that lead, I discovered that First Catch your Kangaroo is actually the name given to a letter written by William Howitt to cookery author Eliza Acton in 1853, thanking her for her lovely wisdom within her cookbook.

William goes on to explain the horrors of working and living in the fields in Bendigo while looking for Gold. William also writes that if it was not for her cookbook, he would be eating very meagre meals like the thousands of people around him.

But alas, as shown above in a sample only....I have a full transcript copy of the letter from the library, and I regret to say that the recipe is not mentioned in it at all.

full copy from the Canberra Library

So, I now need to find the cookery book written by Eliza Acton to search for a recipe for which I'm not sure is even included.......I've also looked up the books held at the larger libraries in Canberra, but haven't looked at the NSW State Library here in Sydney.......

How lovely it would be to be able to share the story behind the recipe with the family members who make these Jumping Johnnies. If only a photocopy of the page......

The recipe

Jumping Johnnies (Australian) *(Hmmm I wonder if it is in fact an Australian Recipe)

Source: First Catch a Kangaroo
3 eggs
4 tablespoons of sugar
Grated rind of 1 lemon
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cups Self Raising Flour

Whisk well together eggs and sugar, add grated lemon rind, milk, and flour. Mix well. Fry by teaspoonsful in boiling fat, roll in confectioners sugar, and eat hot or cold. The Johnnies will "jump" (turn themselves) when cooked on one side if there is enough fat.

(They do sometimes need a little help though...lol)

You can also see another version of the recipe in more detail here....

Imagine...only two references to the recipe on the entire World Wide Web. How hard can it be to track down a recipe....?

Did you know that Eliza was the first to refer to a well known Christmas dessert in her book as the Christmas Pudding?

Eliza Acton and William Howitt

I found her book ...."Modern Cookery, for private families" online...by Eliza Acton.....and have not found the recipe in this book......

I also found her other book..... "Modern cookery in all its branches: reduced to a system of easy practice" ... By Eliza Acton..........this was also online....and no luck :(

Having one last search before writing this post...I found her bread book online as well;

The English bread-book: for domestic use, adapted to families of every grade

going by the index in the front of this book....she knew an awful lot about bread and all its forms....I'm going to have a good read of this...It reminds me of when I got stuck reading it at the library in Canberra....Couldn't get my eyes out of the book.

I absolutely adore the way she writes.....and could spend
many hours reading her many receipts....(recipes)

Jumping Johnny's are the yummiest, light deep fried donut you will ever taste...with just a hint of lemon. Traditionally they are rolled in icing sugar...but when my boys were little I rolled them in cinnamon sugar and called them Mummy's special donut's.

If I don't find the recipe in any of her books..I'm really not sure where to go from here, but I'm learning a lot of interesting history along the way............In the meantime...come back after Christmas, and I will publish a photo of them after I make them.

*I'm starting to think that maybe, just maybe....it could be an Australian recipe.....

Have you heard of Jumping Johnny's?

5 roasts in 1 day & other Prep for Xmas

2011-12-07T03:06:00.000+11:00

Dearest readers, please excuse my absence...I am having technical difficulties with my Internet, email and computer as a whole...sure they are fantastic when they are working, but have one break down on you repeatedly...and your in for a whole lot of trouble......like me at the moment. I won't be changing anything on my blog just yet....as time with an internet connection is valuable I would much rather write a post for my wonderful readers.

5 roasts in 1 day
I bet your thinking I'm mad,.....no, just organised.....lol.....For those who are planning ahead these festive holidays....you will understand my need for cooking ahead. I have great news, my husband is going to be home for the Christmas period, and I don't plan to be stuck in the kitchen half the time, preparing meals. I like to serve up cold meats, and salads.
Today's events in the kitchen went something like this.......

I planned on cooking roasts of Lamb, Pork and Silverside.....It's easy really....

*Prep two legs of Lamb and pop in the oven first.....I basted the legs of Lamb with my soup starter...It really is an all rounder...and you will see me use it quite often in my kitchen.

*Then prep and put the two silverside's in the crock-pot........

*Then brown the Leg of Pork on the stove to kick-start the cooking of the crackling.......

rub a small amount of salt into the cut skin...
in a really hot pan, place the pork
turn until brown all over.

Almost ready to place in the oven.......

When the juice runs almost clear in the Legs of Lamb.....bring them out of the oven and let them finish cooking in their own heat...............I bake mine in oven bags. I find the meat stays lovely and moist.

Rub some of the herby soup starter all over the crackling of the pork you browned earlier......

*Now turn the heat up on the oven to about 210 degrees Celsius for about 45 minutes to set the crackling nice and crispy...but don't forget to turn it back down.......
*Remove from the oven when the juice runs almost clear, like the Lamb....cut away the crackling and allow it to cool. When cool, store the crackling in an airtight container. If you are partial to the odd bit of crackling it wont keep until Christmas...but it would if you didn't eat it. Crackling stores pretty well. Now wrap the leg of pork in foil to finish cooking and cooling....
Ok, I confess, we had ours with tea tonight..but I will buy extra skin and make more crackling for the big day....I'm sure to have the oven on again before then.

We enjoyed half of one leg of lamb tonight for tea...and I put one in the freezer along with the Leg of Pork....Marked clearly of-course........

*At tea time I turned the crock-pot off and left the silverside's to cool overnight in the cooking liquor.....This makes the silverside lovely and moist for eating as a cold meat. In the morning, I will remove them from the pot, then wrap them separately and pop them into the freezer too.

And now I have 5 roasts cooked in one day! Told you it was easy.......

*I also made herbed butter..using my "soup starter"......

One for the fridge to use now,
and one for the freezer to use later

Butter and my Soup Starter
blended well.

*I had to make a new batch of soup starter today too, so I made a huge batch which you can see in the very first photo. I picked bunches and bunches of herbs from the garden today for it too along with 3 bunches of spring onions. The soup starter gets used for almost everything these days....

*The herbed butter makes a deliciously yummy spread for salad sandwiches too....or use the starter straight to top savoury biscuits with homegrown tomatoes....A big Thanks for the red ones Rose.......Yummmmmm

I also popped some soup starter on the top.
A lovely flavour and another great way to use my soup starter.

*I pureed a huge Papaya I got from the markets over the weekend....2 for $5 was a good price, even though they had a bad spot on them. This will be lovely added to any fruit beverages I prepare.

Here are some other foods I have been preparing ahead of time and popping in the freezer:

*Mini quiches...in the same rectangular mini muffin/bread trays (above).....I plan on using these as a side dish or sliced in sandwiches. Sorry no photos, but I will take one if anyone wants to see them.

*I also have a batch of Beetroot and Chocolate Cupcakes which I had to hide in the freezer quickly before they all got eaten..........

*I've roasted 3 trays of sweet capsicums and de-seeded them before storing in Olive Oil in the fridge....these are delicious on a piece of toasted bread, or mashed into a dressing.....I wouldn't be bothered with a recipe if it called for them, but when I have them already roasted and bottled...Yep! you betcha I'll use them.

I learnt a valuable lesson here....prepare the sweet chillies before roasting them, it will be so much quicker and cleaner....after roasting, all I would need to do, is slice them possible in half and remove the skin. But nope...I did it the long way around.....but I learnt for next time which is what is important.

Roasted sweet chillies ready to add to Olive Oil
and pop in the fridge.

*I've also got biscuits ready to pop in the oven...Make a double batch...roll them all out into balls until you have no batter left....then pop them in the freezer. Once frozen, remove them from the tray and place in a plastic bag. Back into the freezer until you want a really quick batch of biscuits....They bake up just fine, but you haven't had the trouble of making the batter up.

There's plenty more where they came from....

Other things I would like to prepare...so my holiday is a holiday and I only have minimal salad prep to do in the kitchen include:

*I would also like to get another lot of Steamed Xmas Puddings into the freezer for those last minute gifts....there's only a few left in the freezer for now.

* Some more mini quiche...I think they will be very popular...so add eggs to the next shopping trip.

* I want to have a go at rising bread dough then freezing it....so again, most of the prep is done...Lovely fresh ly baked bread rolls in the oven on Christmas Day with half the effort....It can't get much better than that.

* I also need to prep my Ham, I'm doing Nigella's Christmas Coke Ham...It's delicious....but I plan on looking for a recipe for coke on the internet....so I don't buy the horribly sweet fizzy soda.

* I also need to buy my Turkey legs...we don't bother with the whole huge bird coming to the table...I'd rather have the meat off the bone long before that...and have it all bagged up, in the freezer....and thawed in small amounts at my convenience.

That's all I can think of at the moment...Oh I still have a container of that delicious Apricot Delight I made....so add that to the goodies too.

Are you doing any prep for the big day? Or do you like to prep for a few days or even a week or more, like I do?
If you like something you have seen, or can offer me some great advice along these lines...even recipe ideas....I'd love to hear from you.....
Please leave a comment..........................

2011-11-29T09:40:00.000+11:00

Dear readers.....please bare with me, as I am working on the layout of my blog...I hope to make it a bit more user friendly soon.
Thanking you.

Rhubarb & Mint Jelly

2011-11-28T11:19:00.000+11:00

Well, it seems that if you add enough sugar, anything can taste good....even Rhubarb. It makes me wonder if Nan or Mum ever put sugar in their Rhubarb and Apple....It was far too tart for my liking....and until the other day, I thought I would never like the taste of Rhubarb. I guess it just depends on the way you serve it!

For those who are wondering what book these recipes came from, the book is called ......
"Preserves" by Catherine Atkinson & Maggie Mayhew.
Published by "Hermes House, an imprint of Anness Publishing, Wigston, Leicestershire LE18 4SE"
ISBN: 13 : 978 * 1 * 84681 * 571 * 3
ISBN: 10 : 1 * 84681 * 571 * 3 (sorry for the funny asterix's, the pc was picking up that this was a code if I typed it correctly.)

Here is a photo of the front cover....I picked this book up at a newly opened book store in Warrawong, where all the books were $5.00 each. I think this is a reasonable price for a comprehensive book like this.

Rhubarb & Mint Jelly

Sorry for those who prefer to print the recipe by copying and pasting....this looks a lot nicer, but it is definitely not printer friendly.

After cooking the Rhubarb and beginning to strain overnight.

I was too tired to cook this when it was ready, so I put it in the fridge until the following day.
Then it was time to get cooking.

My Nan and my Mum have always added a blob of butter to settle the scum that forms on the top of a rolling boil jam. This was beginning to make a scum, so I added the blob of butter.....

Going from memory, I thought the butter would dissolve the scum, but it didn't. It did however make it nice and thick and contained in one area, so it was easier to scoop off the top.

I'm sure I have used this method and had the scum disappear before my eyes.....Hmmmmm

Here is the scum that I scooped....but I only took the photo after I had removed the mint, which is at a later step.

Use a latex elastic band to bundle the mint together...
Quicker than tying a string, and re-usable time and time again.

After boiling for what I thought was enough time to be thickening and getting close to setting point..I decided to add about half a cup of lemon juice (from the freezer) to help reach setting point. Lemon juice is high in pectin, which is what is needed sometimes to make a jam or jelly set.

adding the lemon juice

The instructions say to add the chopped mint after removing from the heat...I was weary of this, as I felt that the mint should feel cooked on the palate. So I added the mint once it started to thicken. I'm glad I did, as the fresh mint floated on the top of the jelly in the saucepan. I figured, if it floated in the saucepan, it will float in the jar....Which is not what I wanted.

I'm pleased to say that the jelly soon thickened after adding the lemon juice, I think another 20 minutes did the trick too.
I also cooked the jelly longer to make sure the mint was cooked.....but it still floated....so I decided to wait until it cooled considerably until pouring it into the jars. Having the jelly thicker, I was able to stir the mint through the jelly, and it remained mixed through. (Genius thinking on my behalf..lol)

But now I had another problem.........
The jelly would be too cool to seal the lids....I remembered that Rhonda had posted about canning in the oven with small batches, so I had a read and decided on popping them in the oven for roughly 35 minutes on a medium heat.
This method sealed them nicely once they cooled. It popped those little buttons down as soon as I tried to move them.
Done!
I think I will have to try this jelly on a cold meat like lamb or silverside. It would also be good on toast or a crumpet too. I can taste the rhubarb flavour, then comes the light minty flavour at the end. It's very delicious and very light in flavour, but I'm not sure I will make it again, unless I add the lemon juice from the start of the cooking process to help set the jelly.

4 lovely jars with a delicate flavour of Rhubarb and Mint.

I love how the freckles of mint dance through the colour of the rhubarb.

even after all that fussing, some settlement of the mint on the top still remains....Oh well.

Rhubarb & Ginger Jam

2011-11-26T21:56:00.000+11:00

Yesterday I mentioned that I was making for the first time a Rhubarb & Ginger Jam. Well I have to tell you I was as surprised as Mum when we tasted it. Mum's first reaction was, "Wow, we should have been making that years ago!" So there you go! It is really delicious. The only problem now is that it didn't make enough. Because of the surprisingly delicious flavour of this jam, I am going to be making more for the stockpile.

Rhubarb & Ginger Jam

More Rhubarb recipes to come....Next.....Rhubarb & Mint Jelly................................

On my mind...Rhubarb

2011-11-25T07:29:00.000+11:00

Photo doesn't show how thick they were as well as long.

Many thanks to Rhonda at Down to Earth for this concept.

This is a Friday photo feature that anyone with a blog can join. To take part, post a photo on your own blog, write a short caption explaining it, and link it back to here from your blog by saying you're part of "On my mind". Please write a new post, don't link to an older one. When you've done that, come back here and add a comment below, with a link to your blog.

This is the largest I have ever seen my Rhubarb. It is definitely a good season for Rhubarb. I have a few ideas as to what I will use it all for, but I will also share some with a few neighbours too. This Rhubarb is the very same Rhubarb that was planted at my Nan's house....I have since shared the plants with one of my Aunty's as well. It's also beginning to go to seed, which I will save when it is ready. Another way of sharing out my Nan's Rhubarb.

Yesterday I began two different preserves using Rhubarb, both using 1 kg of the fruit. Both recipes are new to me, so follow along and see where it takes us.

You would think that I have made a bit of a bare patch in the Rhubarb bed now, but you would be mistaken....lol There's just soooo much of it out there, which is great, except I don't like it, Mum does! However, I do enjoy the lovely champage it makes. We make it on and off over the summer holidays.

I haven't tried it in any other form for years, so it may be worth tasting again sometime soon.

Rhubarb and Ginger Jam

................so far so good.

keep an eye out for other Rhubarb recipes coming soon.

What is your favourite way to enjoy Rhubarb? Have you ever made jam from it?

Gardening 101 for December

2011-11-23T12:09:00.001+11:00

Another month has passed since I went to my gardening course. this weekend passed, I almost backed out on going, as I had been suffering with an infection with high temperatures. Had I not attended, I knew I would regret it, having missed out on all that information, so that's why I decided to push through. The weather was so hot, which made the hall almost unbearable. People were topping up their water bottles constantly and I made a paper fan to help keep me cool. I took some notes, but bare with me, as I try to fill you in.

All good students in the gardening course

Richard the teacher

Jobs to be doing now......

Mulch your garden, don't make it too thick...up to 75mm thick, but ideally about 50mm thick. If you use organic matter you may run into problems of too much nitrogen (green plant matter), or too much carbon (dried plant matter). I learn't this lesson with my pumpkin vines. They are looking much much happier now I have removed most of the carbon mulch. Thanks Richard for the advice via my mobile phone.
Look for aphids and thrip and treat any plants which are hosting the nasty insects.
Keep an eye out for the lovely Hoverfly. You definitely want this insect in your garden, as the Hoverfly larvae will eat about 400 aphids in any one day.
Keep a lookout for those horrible slugs and snails, and when you find one, either give it to the chooks or kill it. (I've been clearing my front garden bed to make way for new plants, but also to clear out all those hiding places for slugs and snails.)
Take cuttings of your Natives, Azaleas, Lilly Pilly as well as cuttings from your Sweet Potato.

When harvesting cuttings from Sweet Potato, choose a nice healthy runner of good length. You will see the small nodules near each leaf; this is where a potato will shoot from. Before planting the runner, you can remove the larger leaves, but it isn't necessary. Cover the runners with 5 cm of soil.

Prune your Climbing Roses, and trim your Camellia & Wisteria vines along with your Perennials.
Your lawn should be showing lovely rich growth now and be mowing it more regular. Lift the lawn mower blades one or two notches, to give that nice thick spongy growth. Your children's feet will thank you. (I am needing to mow my lawn every 5 days now)
Keep up with the Liquid Fertiliser each fortnight, but don't fertilise your root crops. Only fertilise your leaf vegetables. (I was fertilising everything in the garden, and the tops of my parsnips were almost to my waist. So the nitrogen in the Liquid Fertiliser was producing lovely lush green tops, instead of the energy going to produce lovely long parsnips.So I trimmed the tops off all the parsnip and added them as a layer for my no-dig garden bed).
Now is the time to be adding wetting agents to your pots. If you don't, you run a definite risk of your potted plants drying out and dying. Keep to the recommended doses though, as you don't want to rot your plants either.

Plant your beans. If you have already, plant another crop for a later harvest. For harvest, it is better to sew a dwarf variety than a climbing runner variety. Picking beans on a bush bean brings on new growth of another crop. This can happen 3 to 4 times.
Tomatoes, Eggplant and Capsicums all need to be caged or staked; and pick off side shoots to allow good air flow.
Check on your Dak Pots to attract fruitfly. They may need a top-up, being careful they don't dry out and become useless.

Purchase some of those old fashioned sticky fly tapes to hang in your fruit trees. If any fruit-fly do go to the tree, they will be attracted to and be stick on the sticky tape. (Unfortunately, they also stick and trap the good insects)
Still time to be planting more seed potatoes. When harvesting potatoes, you could also leave the baby ones in there, and they will shoot when the time comes.
Parsley and Spinach may be flowering now, which will make it sour to the palate. You have the option of allowing it to go to seed, or pulling the whole plant up before that happens. (I have pulled most of my parsley, as I have plenty of seed from the previous year. On harvesting my parsley I have kept back the good leaves to dry in the dehydrator.) Don't keep any leaf from a plant that is going to seed or flowering.

In your garden at the moment, you should be harvesting baby squash, shallots, beetroot, beans from an early crop. Maybe you have some cherry tomatoes becoming red and ripe too. (As soon as there is the slightest colour on my tomatoes, I will be bringing them inside to ripen so not to feed them to the dreaded fruitfly).

Caroline and Jo making their own hanging basket.

HANGING HERB BASKETS

It's probably your last chance to make some Hanging Herb Baskets as gifts for Christmas.....

You will need a hanging basket, preferably lined with plastic.

Cut a hole in the base of the plastic liner for drainage.
Line with newspaper using roughly ten pages thick.
Add some Sphagnum Moss to the base of the pot. This holds moisture very well and will help keep the soil damp. You can buy it at your local nursery.
Choose your herbs, and place taller plants to the side, so you can train them over the side.

Here is the hanging basket which I made in the garden course. I chose a chillie, fennel, thyme, marjoram and mizuna salad leaf. I think it will be fantastic once it gets going. I've been wanting to try fennel too but I'm sceptical at the aniseed flavour of food.

EDIBLE FLOWERS IN YOUR GARDEN!!

Think about adding edible flowers to your menu. You may already have plenty of petals that you didn't think of adding. I add lots of flower petals to my salads..but here is a list of flower petals you may not have thought of. I encourage you to have a go at adding some edible colour to your next salad.

Please note that where I mention a flower, I only recommend the petals, no stamin, no other parts of the flower.

Onion flowers (divide up the head)
Chive flowers (divide up the head)
Borage flowers
Calandular petals
fruit tree blossoms
vegetable flowers (Sacrifice the boy flowers, not the girl flowers; as they produce your crop)
Rose Petals (the deeper the colour, the deeper the flavour and aroma) (lovely on top of an iced cake too, or made into Rose Petal Jam, which I will be doing soon)
Rosemary flowers (use sparingly)
Lavender flowers
Geranium flowers from the scented varieties
Pansies
Violas and Violets and the young leaves
Nasturtium flowers and the young leaves
Society Garlic (only the flowers, never the leaves)
Fejoa flowers
Young tree fern fronds. (Blanched as a salad veg) (use the young spirals)
Begonia flowers
Impatients flowers
Amarynth flowers and young leaves
Snapdragon flowers
Yellow Day Lily flowers (these have a lemon flavour)
Carnations
Chrysanthemums flowers
Banana flowers (after the banana bunch is formed) (look on internet for ideas)
Elderberry flower heads. (used to make cordial and even battered and deep fried)
Elderberry berries. (used to make jam)
Pomegranate flowers
All your herb flowers
Radish seed pods (when they are a lovely swollen pod of juicyness)
Lilac flowers
Hawaiian Hibiscus flowers
Hneysuckle flower (not the berry)
Wild Hyacynth flowers (not the cultivated garden variety)
Marigold
Sunflowers

Wow! what a list....is there any I have forgotten or left out? Will you give your salad a revamp with some of these lovely colours. I will miss my Calandular petals in my salads, but I have plenty of dried petals to experiment with now.

SAVING YOUR SEEDS:

You should also have a few plants to harvest seeds from; for your next crop.

I just harvested seeds from:

Corn Salad Leaf
Tatsoi Salad Leaf
Water Cress.
I also saved for the first time, my Poppy Seed heads....but I'm thinking they are a bit runty to be keeping. Once I work out how to add a photo from my phone, I can show you the huge difference in size.

Richard the gardener, said that they are the same as the ones used for the tops of bread, but I'm not so sure about mine...they are just toooooooo tiny. Ah well, it's all a good learning curve.

I wonder if anyone has had success with saving poppy seeds for the top of home baked bread? Please let me know the details, as I am interested in the process.

Poppy Seeds for planting

When saving your tomato seeds, leave them on the vine for as long as you can. Allow the fruit to get as big as possible and harvest just before it begins to go bad.

Some seed needs to be fresh when planted otherwise they won't germinate. These include Papaya, and Lemon.

***********************************************

In my garden at the moment

I've been working in the garden too, doing lots of clearing and lots of planting. Here is just a taste of what I have been up to since the course.

Drying the last of the Calandular petals
and harvested Apple mint ready for the dehydrator.

Using the layering method with the no-dig method.

What have you been up to in your garden?

Will you be tempted to add some edible flowers in your next salad?

Chicken & Chorizo with Apricot Delight

2011-11-21T00:00:00.000+11:00

Hi there to everyone.....Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and either kicked up your heels or achieved what you wanted to do..........There's heaps going on in the garden here, and I went to my Garden Course over the weekend, so I'll be posting about that sometime through the week as well.

Today I have two really yummy and really quick recipes for you....Chicken Chorizo and Apricot Delight slice. Oh! and at the end, I've shared with you a photo of something new in my garden this year...and that is ........
Purple Podded Peas!
Yep! you heard correct! I'm always up for trying something new and I found the seeds on ebay.

Here is a really quick recipe for the nights when you don't feel like doing much, OR want a great impression from the family. I can assure you they will lick their plate clean. (well, my boys did anyway...lol)

Chicken & Chorizo
Olive oil to shallow fry
Chicken Breasts - 1 to 1.5kg
Chorizo Sausages - 2
Chopped herbs
Hokkien Noodles -1 small pkt...........(see picture below)
Thickened cream - 2 to 3 tablespoons

Cut required amount of chicken breast into strips, (I used 1.5 kg) then sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of cornflour over the chicken strips and mix well.
Shallow fry the chicken strips in 3 batches (see step 3), putting each cooked batch aside for later.
With the last batch of chicken, fry off 2 sausages of Chorizo that you have sliced to about 3mm thick. There will be enough oil from the Chorizo to fry that batch of Chicken.
Now chop up some mixed herbs from the garden and stir through the fried chicken.
Cut the packet of Hokkien Noodles in half and stir through.
Add half a cup of water to deglaze the pan....then add a few tablespoons of thickened cream to make a sauce and stir through.
Serve to the family.

Apricot Delight - My version for my husband. I've made this today as part of a care package I am sending my darling hubby. I know he will be stoked to have some home made goodies from home.

1 pkt of Marie Biscuits
600grams of dried apricots
2 cups of dessicated coconut
1 can of condensed milk
castor sugar to coat the squares

1. In a whizzer, add the biscuits and whizz for about 20 seconds.
2. Add the apricots to which you have cut in half (just to help the whizzer on its way) and whizz for a further minute or until the apricots are finely chopped.
3. Add the coconut to the whizzer and whiz until combined.

4. Then pour the mix into a large bowl or a mixer and add the condensed milk.
5. Mix all the ingredients until combined to a thick dough.

6. Using a teaspoon, scoop mix and roll into balls OR spread into a lightly greased slice tray
7. Cover with a piece of grease-proof or baking paper and flatten out well. (I'm lucky enough to have this sandwich press which I found in an op-shop for $2. (I use this all the time when I make the men's work lunches)

8. Chill in the fridge for an hour or so, then remove from the fridge and invert onto the same piece of paper you used earlier.
9. With the blade of a long knife, cut into rows. Then cut each row into wedges.
10. Now roll each piece in a bowl of caster sugar to coat........

Too Easy! and definitely too yummy!

This lot is for hubby! But I'm thinking I will send him the two largest containers.

Yummmm!

*******************************

And finally here is the Purple Podded Peas I told you about!

Check out the one right up the top towards the right....

it hasn't grown up in all its purple glory yet.

They really are interesting,

I can't recall if the peas inside will be purple or not

I guess I will just have to wait and see.

On my mind...is Snow Flakes for Christmas

2011-11-18T09:14:00.000+11:00

Many thanks to Rhonda at Down to Earth for this concept.

Phew! What a crazy week it's been here. I can't believe another week has passed since I posted, I really need to get more organised. I'm so sorry, I will try to include more in the coming week. I've been rather ill these last few days, not being able to control my blood sugars has really rocked me.....on top of running Mum around to specialists this week, well, I've been really tired.

Stress is a horrible thing, and can really play havoc on your health. I really do put all my little issues this week down to stress, it's been a rather emotional time not having hubby around. I never dreamed it was going to be this hard having him working away from home.

To everyone who has a partner who works away from home, for any reason, be it military, roadworks, mining, along with many others I haven't mentioned....I tip my hat, and give everyone a huge big hug. You are all incredibly strong people and I take inspiration from each and every one of you, that things will get easier given time.I really must stop blabbering on....I have to be out of the house shortly, I'm taking Mum to have an ultrasound on her heart....so back to my On My Mind........

On my mind today is Christmas...Until Nan passed away, we always had Christmas Lunch at her house. Family came from as far away as Gosford, and even Perth occasionally. Every year since, has been rather last minute to where we would be spending the day. The last few years we have just had a quite day spending it together, just the five of us. Which is fantastic! But this year things are different, Which brings me to why it is on my mind today. With hubby more than likely being away this Christmas, things will certainly be adjusted around here to suit for when he is home. Once I know what we are all doing, I will let you know too.

I've been making a few decorations for a Christmas Decoration Swap on the Down to Earth Forum...but don't run over there just yet, as I think entry to the swap has been closed already. When I receive my swap, I will put up a link to the forum so you can check in and see all the lovely decorations that have been swapped all around the world. What a lovely concept! It really brings out the Christmas Spirit to be part of something like this.

I'm not going to show you what I have been making for the swap yet, but I will show you another decoration I have been having a go at this year...

I'm making my own SnowFlakes for Christmas and there not that bad, if I say so myself!....lol

You too can have a go at these. There are plenty of coverage on the Internet for how to make them. I just googled "How to make paper snowflakes" and heaps of great ideas came up. I've tweeked them to my own liking, which you can do too.

How to make a Paper SnowFlake

Step by Step

Firstly, make a square of paper, cut a long strip of paper, this must be lighter weight paper than ordinary printing paper, the detail you can't get from a paper that heavy. I used paper from a roll of paper I was gifted many years ago from a printing factory that was closing down. I still have about 4 rolls scattered about. If you have a printing or paper mill factory there, it wouldn't hurt to enquire about what they do with the end of the roll. There is so much waste when they are working with a roll of paper....The machines can't run all the way to the end of a roll of paper when making say notepads or books of paper. So check it out! They should be free!

Bring the bottom corner up to the top, until it is level with the top of the strip.
Then cut on the vertical and you are left with a perfect square.

Fold your square in half on the diagonal....then repeat

You should have a triangle with four layers now. Bring the bottom two corners up and hold them while you pinch a crease in the top point.

Now with the crease facing north, bring the two outside corners together, to divide the triangle into three equal parts. If you don't make that crease, it's harder to judge the folds because that area needs to be neat to make a nice neat centre of your snowflake.

You should have something like this now....But the back of it looks a little different.......

Flip the whole thing over and use the flat edge as a guide to trip the paper.....

You now have a triangle to which you can start cutting out your pattern. I always make sure I have the fold of the paper to the bottom, this way you know which will be the centre of the snowflake.

Each ugly little mess you make, now creates a lovely snowflake...........

You just have to carefully unfold it, to reveal it's beauty...........................................

I've taken it a few steps further than the ones I found as a guide on the internet, and decided to laminate them, before decorating them. This way they won't tear, and I will have them for years to come.

So carefully line up the cutouts in a laminating pouch. I got my Laminator a couple of years ago at Aldi's, they are pretty cheap now.

After cutting them all out around the outside....punch a hole in them ready to hang on your tree, or anywhere for that matter.

Then decorate with some little stick on diamontes.....add a string or even a bell, Or both....lol
and there you have your first snowflake.

Do you have a laminator, have you ever used it for craft work? if so, what craft do you make with your laminator? I would love to hear about it.

sorry for some blurry photos, but I must rush out the door shortly......

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

I have my gardening course on Saturday again....so look out for a gardening post with loads of info.....coming soon.

Troubles working away & Pumpkin problems.

2011-11-10T09:44:00.000+11:00

Hello everyone...Hubby arrived home late Monday night...it's been fabulous having my best friend around again. We have been rather busy finishing up tasks for while he is home...We had to go to the Solicitors to finalise his Will and Power of Attorney on Tuesday and we've had a few other appointments to keep also.
I'm pleased to say that Hubby fixed the Whipper Snipper after a quick trip to Bunnings. Thanks darl, your a clever man.!

There are a few things that have been happening with Hubby being away that we hadn't planned on
...and they are:

When working, he has a place to stay.
When not working, he has NO accommodation.
When he returns to the house at the end of his 12 hour shift, he has just a 2 hour window to prepare a meal, have a shower & sit down and relax, all before going to bed.

Two hours may seem like plenty of time to prepare a meal, but it's not really, especially if you need to supply everything yourself, keeping in mind that you share the one fridge and top freezer with anything up to 5 other workers. Oh and you have to pack it all up again, ready to move out of the house while your not working. Now it doesn't sound so easy, does it? If you fly home on a regular basis, all that cooking equipment would need to be included in your luggage. Not the best situation to be in at all!

While walking around the supermarket yesterday, Hubby pointed out all the foods he has been eating. I was feeling quite powerless to say the least when he showed me all the pre-packaged/pre-prepared foods he had been surviving on. My husband along with all my family, are used to having foods cooked from scratch. Good wholesome meals! I'm old school, and believe if a man goes out to work all day to provide well for his family, then he should have a good hearty meal at the end of the day to give him sustenance and energy for the next.

I received a lovely email from a lady named Del, the other day offering support for Hubby while he is away from home...Del is a new reader to my blog and we both thank you for your kindness! I have replied to your email and am waiting for you to confirm a convenient time for Hubby to phone you. I'm sorry it took so long for a reply.
Del lives outside of Sarina, which is rather close to the mine that Hubby works at. She has offered support for him along with her phone number....which is more than appreciated! What a lovely lady!

Hubby works 6 days on with 6 days off! We worked a few things out on paper yesterday, and while Hubby is a contractor and not working Full Time, if he flies home every 6 days.....his wage would be the same as from his last employer. So we aren't adding to the mortgage just yet.

We really need to think long and hard at accommodation which is very scarce around Moranbah. We also need to decide if he will take the family car with him, which would involve having one or two days at home before driving the 3 day drive to get back to Moranbah. Lots of big decisions to make in the coming future, but if we can find somewhere for him to live while not working...he will probably fly home once a month. If he gets full time employment instead of being a contractor, I think at least his meals will be provided...but it's early days yet.

******************************

My pumpkin leaves are turning yellow!

My pumpkin plants weren't looking too flash the other day, so I took a few photos, and sent them to Richard, my gardener and teacher of the gardening course I am doing. I knew Richard would be the one to ask what was I doing wrong. I had pumpkins in the front yard, which were turning a sickly looking shade of pale greeny/yellow...and they had slowed down in growth too.

After having the mulch removed and given a feed of Liquid Nitrogen

It puzzled me as to why these had turned yellow, and the ones I hadn't planted out yet, were growing great!

Richard replied to my phone message and told me to remove the straw I had been using as a mulch. It had given the pumpkins an overload of Carbon, and to balance it out, I was to give them a good dose of Liquid Nitrogen.

I'm pleased to say that just 2 days later, I can see them recovering, you can't tell from these photo's, but they are reaching for the sky again, and getting their colour back.

Thanks Richard for your friendly advice!

My pumpkins are looking like they have life again.

Some friendly Seed Saving advice to finish off!

Here is my Corn Salad which has gone to seed, the plant is very fine, and I have been finding the seed scattered on the ground....Easy fix....while they are dying off, I have placed an organza bag over them. This way I can retrieve what seed is left on the plant without it all falling on the ground.

Left Overs on Pizza

2011-11-04T08:54:00.000+11:00

Many thanks to Rhonda at Down to Earth for this concept.

Last night we had home made pizza's, with left overs....I had a few slices of silverside left from during the week, and also about half a cold oven baked chicken. So that is what we had on our pizza's. I have to tell you...they were just as yummy as the last pizza's I made.

Using my new Kenwood mixer...(I've never had a mixer that is hands free...wooohooo) I added 3 1/2 cups of homemade yoghurt......and about 5 cups of Self Raising Flour....and mixed it on a low speed until a dough was formed. I made the dough into four balls.

I'm not getting any credit for showing you my new Mixer, and I have had it for about 2 weeks now...My last whizzer I bought at K-Mart about 15 years ago.....so it has done me well. It's been giving that burnt smell every time I use it for a few months now......So I bid it fair well...and move on..... Move on to bigger and better whizzers that is......I'm excited at all the attachments you can get for it.....and what other kitchen appliance's it can replace.When buying an appliance we try to buy the best we can afford at the time. I think it's no point buying junk...if I buy junk, I usually get nothing but trouble. (Except for my freaky whizzer that went for so many years). If I recall though, back then it was still the best I could afford at the time and it had a huge 2 litre bowl...lol

Back to the leftovers pizza!
For the base sauce, I used my soup starter....adding garlic and lots of herbs is always a good thing on a pizza and this starter is excellent for a pizza sauce.

Now for the leftovers......from top to bottom working from Left to Right.

Cheese
Chicken Stuffing
Capsicum
Silverside
Chicken
Tomato
and beaten egg (from the fridge)

All that, makes this......3 times.

After being in a hot oven until golden brown

and cooked through in the centre..... You get this!

We were so full, I didn't make up the fourth ball of dough...But we will use it for a dessert tonight. The boys have been bugging me for chocolate brevilles lately. So I guess I'll make something similar using the dough instead of bread...and in the form of a roly poly......

I'm sorry I haven't included a photo with this recipe...I don't like doing that....but here is the recipe anyway.......
Donut like dessert with chocolate centres.

Prepare 2 slices of bread by buttering on one side each.....
With slice A, place on bread board with butter side up......then place slice B on top of slice A, with butter side down.
Now on the unbuttered top of slice B....spread Chocolate Spread over the entire piece of bread.
Lift up Slice B and place on the sandwhich toaster...with butter side still down....
Then place slice A on top of Slice B with butter side on top.
Shut the lid of your sandwich maker and bake until golden brown.
After removing your Chocolate Toasted Sandwich from the sandwich maker....
Dip the sandwich halves into cinnamon sugar, then enjoy!

And there you have one of the quickest desserts out there....and oh soooo yummy...almost like a freshly cooked donut with a chocolate centre. They are very yummy, but I only buy chocolate spread once in a blue moon....so it is definitely a treat for us.

These donut like desserts are just as yummy with home-made jam

inside them instead of chocolate spread.

I've got plenty of work to do today....and more seeds to sort....Yesterday, for some silly reason, I decided to change not one but two lounge-rooms around.....so today I need to get more organised...there's stuff everywhere here at the moment...Look what happens when your unattended, no one to answer to and it's pouring rain outside.....

When the boys come home from work and school, I will get them to help me move the longer lounge from the back lounge-room to the main living area and put the couch that is there, in the back lounge.
Why....so I can sit beside my hubby when he comes home...and even lay down beside him with my head on his knee. This will make night-time television nice and cosy.

Rain, Rain, Rain

2011-11-03T09:25:00.001+11:00

It's pouring rain here today....my list of things to do today need to be adjusted because of that....Instead of hanging the washing on the line today, I will bring out the clothes horses and get to it. The house will look a bit messier than usual and although I have a dryer, I don't care to use it...I don't recall the last time we did use it either. I have two large clothes horses and some that hang over a door too. When it rains for days on end, these are all so handy and I know I'm not eating into the electricity bill.

Other things I will do today:
Sort the seeds I harvested yesterday...Mitzuna, Corn Salad & Bok Choy

Bok Choy
sorry it's blurry

I have a huge pile of papers I also need to sort through and some baking to do too. I folded all the washing yesterday and put a load of towels on the line as well. That lot is all soaked now, so they will probably be there for a few days now.

I ran out of my soup starter the other day, and have already made that this morning. This time I included the following ingredients:

1 big bunch of spring onions (from the garden)
1 large Spanish onion
a good cup of minced garlic..(I use the bottled variety because I just don't have time to peel that much garlic)
a big bunch of freshly picked parsley (also in the garden)
a bigger bunch of Sorrel (also in the garden)
a small bunch of Marjoram and Thyme (also in the garden)

Adding Olive Oil while it is whizzing to make a good spooning consistency. Store in an airtight jar in the fridge.

2 ingredient pizza dough

On Tuesday I was given a recipe for a summer beverage that was also good for you...So I decided try it.

To 2 litres of water, add the following:
12 mint leaves
half a cucumber, sliced
a teaspoon of ginger (sliced, slivered or grated)
1 medium lemon, sliced
Leave this to steep for 24 hours or overnight...then strain, chill and drink.

It is rather nice once chilled, although my mother wasn't too impressed, although she likes cucumber, it does seem to take over the other flavours a bit.
Once you strain it, begin again for another 12 hour steep...Now going by flavour, adjust the ingredients to suit your taste. Some ingredients you will be able to use again over a few days, like the ginger and lemon. Remember, there is no sugar in this drink and it is also a mild diuretic. After working in the garden, it was a nice change to chilled water or Kefir water.
When I begin in the kitchen this-morning, I will remove the cucumber, replace the mint, add more lemon and ginger....but it's good either way.

I'm off to hang the washing, (inside)...mop the floors, tidy the bedrooms, then back to the kitchen.......
What are you up to today?

Lawns, Tomato cages & Celery

2011-11-01T12:39:00.000+11:00

Its time here to be fertilising your lawn......Almost two weeks ago is when I fertilised my front lawn.....the photo below actually makes it look rather good, but look closely and you will see that it could be much better....lol

Using Shirley's No17 from Bunnings, I got to work.............and followed the instructions.......

Look how lovely and green my lawn is now....there is a brown patchy area behind the trailer, but that is where the trailer WAS originally, I just need to fertilise that area, and it's all done!

It's the first time I have ever fertilised the lawn....and I'll be doing it again next year when it's time.

I'm really pleased with the outcome.

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Tomato Cages....For the last few years I have had good production of mini tomatoes, but I find in the heart of summer it is a daily chore to be tying them up and supporting them.....This year I hope to at least lessen the time spent tying them up, which will also mean that I reduce the time I spend 'touching' the plants too. The less I 'tend' or 'touch' my tomato vines, the less chances I have of damaging them. Sure, I pick out the new growth directly above the leaf, but other than that....I want my time used in other areas in the garden.

I have always just stopped and stared at the huge prices that Bunnings and other garden centres charge for tied pieces of wire mesh (Tomato cages, and other vine climbing bits and pieces) ....

So while at Bunnings, I picked up two rolls of 5 metres of wire and decided to make my own......

If only I could have sourced the wire mesh at the metal recyclers...they would have been even cheaper. Unfortunately, wire mesh is a rare sight at the recyclers....or it's in a huge roll, way to heavy for me to handle.

Towards the end, it was hard on my hands, but ten cages for roughly $20....is good spending in my books. And, the tomatoes look much happier in their new cages....don't you think?

This year I have decided to give larger varieties of tomatoes a go...

I figure Why Not!

In the garden, I've planted Black Krim, Mortgage Lifter & Ox Heart.

I love the tiny toms, and have a few new varieties to try this year.....

They include: White cherry, Black cherry, Red cherry round, Red cherry pear, Yellow round, Yellow pear and Tigerella mini. I think that's all....Only problem now is all the labels have faded and I don't know which are which in the spare ones I plan to share out.

NOTE: Don't use milk cartons with marking pens (permanent marker) to identify your plants...It fades in the sun....rather quickly too I might add.

I'm hoping for a lovely range of colour in my tomato salads this year, with lots of flavour too.

These have all been planted by seed, and most are in the large tub below. I used the top of an old trellis...and threaded our old clothes line 'wire' (white) back and forth to help give them support.

I'm sure it will help! I will probably need to add more support later though.

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Celery .......Richard from the gardening course will be pleased to know that I have been supporting my celery plants with milk cartons.....I have gathered them from Poppy in Victoria, as we don't buy milk by the carton...You could use wrapped newspaper too if you like, but I was offered these, so I took them. I have plenty of milk cartons now for my celery, even the ones that are still coming along. I'm not sure if they will be large enough, but if I can get the celery to fill the carton..I'd be happy with that too..lol

Celery supported with milk cartons.

Younger Celery supported with toilet rolls.

I hope you enjoy reading about my garden, and what I'm doing......I hope to get some more kitchen posts done shortly....so keep an eye out for them to come.....

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Hey! I don't mind sharing.....but when 'they' take everything in one night...it's a bit rough.....

Here is/was my marigolds planted below some tomatoes to ward off nasty bugs....

and here is the culprit I found moving away from the plant.

This is part of growing with no chemicals...sometimes you share more than you want to...luckily it was just a flower plant this time....last time it was my vegetables.

New Beginnings

2011-10-29T13:55:00.000+11:00

Things have been extra busy around here. I've been putting off an announcement for a while now, which I can't delay any longer. It's like If I don't write about it, it won't happen. But it is happening. It has happened! With good intentions yesterday, I wrote a rough copy which I had planned to publish yesterday afternoon. But alas, I still could'nt bring myself to complete and found other things to be doing.

My husband is/has flown out to Mackay today for a new job he starts on Monday. He will be working at Peak Downs Mine in Moranbah. With Moranbah being roughly 1800km away from home, it will take the whole day to get there via train, train, plane and coach. He will be tired by the time he arrives.

Two years ago Hubby was working in the Steel Industry here in the Illawarra and was one of 38 employees to lose their jobs when OneSteel closed their Steel Tubing Plant in Kembla Grange. It took Hubby 5 months to gain employment with another company. His work involved visiting industries to pick up their waste products to be recycled correctly. The hours were long with non-paid overtime, the work was very heavy and the company had no plans to buy a forklift or a trolley to help manouvre the +200kg steel barrels of waste. There was no room for improvement or promotion to climb the company ladder. My husband is used to being able to excel and grow in the work he does, and this was not the case. OH&S and WorkCover would have a field day at his previous place of employment.
Knowing he could never be happy there, he began training in his holidays to gain the necessary qualifications to gain employment in the Mining Industry.

Many Illawarra small business's depend on the Steel Industry here in the Illawarra and with the news of BHP closing down, they have had to re-evaluate their job security. You only have to turn on the news to see how tough it is at the moment to gain employment in the Illawarra. Hundreds, if not thousands of people will be looking elsewhere for work, and that often means relocating to another part of the country.

The original plan is to:

Travel where-ever necessary to gain employment in the Mining Industry
Once he gains roughly 12 months experience, then he will be able to get work closer to home. (At the moment, the local mines are not hiring people with no experience, so we do what we need to do)

Hubby was originally supposed to begin work last week, but dates were doubled up, and he isn't able to complete the necessary Sight Induction until this week....so we have been extra busy around here trying to complete other things in that extra week together.

On top of all that has been going on, my niece (Sh) fell critically ill with pneumonia while recovering from having her tonsils removed. She lives in Victoria and her sister (M) came from Queensland to help with her children and her recovery. Luckily M was there with her to notice her health deteriorating and got her to the Emergency Department with only minutes to spare. You must be very ill to have your clothes cut off you, so the doctors and nurses can work on you.

I'm pleased to say that Sh is recovering well now from both traumas, but she still has a way to go. While visiting I have also built her a pot garden (pots because she rents) with lots of veg and herbs and flowers. Her back yard is not so empty now, and will look great when the plants begin to grow. I grew most of them from seed here at home and took them with me in the car.

Here is a photo of the Rosemary I planted at the Bookham toilets on the highway to Victoria. I planted them on the way there, then watered them again on the way home...I also scattered Gazania seeds from Poppy's garden. If you have ever stopped there, you will know that the area needs a bit of colour.

Back to my Hubby! This is a whole new adventure for our family. While it isn't our first big change, I'm sure it won't be our last. Plan 'A' involves shifts of "5 on, 5 off". This means he will work 5 days, then have 5 days off, but I really don't expect him back for a few weeks first up, as I know he will take any work he is offered to 'learn the ropes'. He has already been told that he will be offered the chance to train in other areas, so I'm sure he will enjoy any work he gets.

I know the extra income will be a great help with the mortgage and a lot of much needed repairs on the house too. The ideal plan would be to pay off the mortgage sooner, and there's been a lot of talk around here with what to do with the extra income but.......

I'll still be me!
I'll still be doing things from scratch.
I will still do all the things I enjoy.
I hope to have more time to commit to the Down to Earth Forum and my Blog, which I have been so horribly absent from lately....(Sorry Rhonda and sorry readers)

There's going to be a lot of changes along the way,

but I hope you will still follow with me in my/our journey.

Please be patient with me!

People who have made recent requests, I will get to them shortly.

I haven't forgotten about that giveaway I spoke about recently either....

Here are a few photos which brightened my day a little,

after saying goodbye to my husband this morning.

Gardening 101 for November

2011-10-21T11:33:00.000+11:00

I have signed up for a 12 month Gardening Course. You can view previous months by clicking on the month of September and October. It's early days in the course as yet, but before I know it, I will have a whole year of local knowledge up my sleeve....which is Brilliant, I must say.
Richard the Practical Gardener is the best teacher. I always come home with lots of notes, and lots of homework for the following weeks....until we return for another lesson...... If you don't have a similar course where you live, ASK for one...I'm sure if enough people keep asking, something is bound to happen. It never hurts to ask!

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Has it been 4 weeks since the last gardening meeting? So much has happened since then...and not just in the garden either....I sometimes feel like a chook running around with it's head cut off....never knowing which direction I'll be going in next. I've been to Brisbane for a week, and soon I'm off to Victoria for a week...I need to get as much done as I can in the garden before I travel.

My Liquid Fertiliser is doing great......
You may already have one started and not even realise it. Have you got a bucket laying in the back yard, full of the last episode of weeding...and it's rained since.....and it smells as if you are actually avoiding tipping it out, because you know how much it's going to stink.....????

Yep that bucket is full of Liquid Fertiliser.....How many of you have poured your money down the sink or into the compost, then gone to the nursery to buy the same product in a fancy bottle? I know I have tossed a few in my time,....but up until now, I've never been vigilant enough to keep feeding my plants on a regular basis as yet....so at least I haven't spent more money too.
I'm making my own Searles Liquid 5IN1 Plus® which is suitable for all plants, including vegetables, fruits, flowering plants, indoor plants, ferns, orchids, roses, lawns etc......So you can see by the list, that once you make your own, you will never need to buy ANY fertilisers ever again! It covers everything in your garden! .............
I've added to my Liquid Fertiliser ...

some 'ash' (potash) (from the neighbours fireplace)
some 'blood and bone'
some 'manure' possibly sheep, cow and horse (only use the ones you already have)
some 'fish meal' possibly just a fish carcass, (although Lake Illawarra prawns are cheap at the fish market now, so maybe just some prawn shells.)
some 'seaweed' from the beach.....(I have my own seaweed solution)
some 'worm castings' and 'worm tea' from my worm farm
some lime to neutralise the mix so not to burn the foliage
milk thistles on top are supposed to stop the stinky smell....so I'll try that too.

I keep adding my weeds to the mix. It's a good way to USE your Wandering Dew, Onion Weed, Oxalis and other nasty weeds in your garden that you don't want in your compost.
Yesterday I strained a jug of this stinky liquid into a container....(to remove the larger particles, so that it will go through the pressure sprayer). Once strained...I used just over half a cup of 'MY 5 in 1'.....to a 5 litre pressure sprayer. I then went around the entire garden and sprayed all the leaves of all the plants. Even though I can't verify the manures...I can honestly say it is the closest I can get to an Organic Liquid Fertiliser....and it's free!

Macadamia trees
If your Macadamia leaves are looking a bit yellow, it may be lacking in Magnesium
now is the time to fertilize with Epsom Salts by adding 1 teaspoon to a bucket of water
then water the tree with the entire bucket.

Rock Orchids are placed in a container with wet cotton-wool. This allows the roots to develop.
Established plants can now be mounted onto timber for Hanging Displays.
Rock Orchids flower for about 2 months.
The plants only need to be wired or glued until the the roots establish a firm grip to the timber.
THESE WOULD MAKE LOVELY CHRISTMAS GIFTS

PESTS & DISEASES

It's also time to prepare for those nasty bugs visiting in your garden...If you haven't already put up your DAK pots to trap fruit fly....It's best to get it done now. I still have a few more to hang in the back yard.

From an earlier post ......Set up DAK Pots about 2 - meters from your fruit trees to deterFruitFly , use soft-drink bottles and add Vegemite, Sugar & Water. The male fly will hang around the DAK pot trap, and get tired and drown....The female can only lay eggs in your fruit if she is mated....So if all the males are hanging out at DAK City....there's no hanky panky and egg laying.

Molasses, Water & 2 coffee beans..one lady in the class suggested this recipe

as the female is attracted to the coffee.....

Thanks Sonia...I'm going to try both and watch closely.

Vegemite, Honey, Sugar and water....to attract male Fruit Fly.
Coffee Beans to attract the female fruit fly.

These two Dak pots will help the Feijoa tree and the Berrie's bed (hidden from view in this pic)

To deter Cabbage moths on your brassica's...make up a spray by pouring boiling water over leaves of the Pyrethrum plant...and leave to steep overnight.

Decant into a spray bottle and spray both sides of your Brassica (Cabbage family) leaves.

Clearly label your jar and your spray bottle.

The spray won't kill or detract the Cabbage moth, but when the moths' eggs hatch into tiny caterpillars, it is them that will be killed by the Pyrethrum. You need to keep this up fortnightly.

I will also be tackling aphids and scale today.(the sap suckers)..

with a mixture of .........

2 cups of vegetable oil to 1 cup of pure liquid soap, blended two together until the emulsion becomes white. Dilute 1 tablespoon of this to 1 litre of water and spray over

insects such as scale and citrus leaf minor.

It is recommended to only use this in milder weather as the oil film over the plant can burn the leaves.

My Fejoa tree has some scale, so it will be treated appropriately and also a ring of Vaseline added to the base of the trunk...to prevent scale climbing up the tree.

My Rose bush has recently developed a type of powdery mildew and black spot as well.

To treat Black Spot on Roses....use 1 litre of soapy water and 1 litre of skim milk mixed together well. Spray on the foliage every couple of weeks, covering both sides of the leaves and the stems.

To treat Powdery Mildew on Soft leaf vegetables .... mix the following

4 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda

50ml white oil

4 litres water

Mix well, and spray on foliage when needed.

A Garlic Spray can also be used as a general insecticide.

Crush several cloves of garlic and mix with 2 tablespoons of Paraffin Oil. Leave this to steep overnight. In a separate container, mix 500ml water and 1/3 cup of grated natural soap. Strain the garlic mix into the soapy water. Store in a glass jar, preferably refrigerated and clearly labelled.

This needs to be diluted as 10 to 1 with water (1 part garlic/soap mix to 10 parts water) then misted over your plants. If you find this is not effective, dilute it less. It is not a contact spray, as it needs to be eaten by the pests. It can also work as a deterrent.

Here's some other things happening around here at the moment.

New beginnings

Khol Rhabi can be planted out into larger pots before going in the ground.

Don't use the original Vodka bottle like I did.
It's too hard to get the rind out.

Rejuvenated Lemon Extract using fresh lemon rind.
This will make lovely xmas presents
along with my Vanilla Extract

My Lemon Extract has been strained and rejuvenated with fresh lemon rind

My Citrus Cleaner is ready to be strained....so all I do is strain the old peels out of the vinegar, decant that into the container I have in the laundry marked Citrus Cleaner....and begin a new jar.

Here is the bottle of ready made Citrus Cleaner...plus the new jar of citrus cleaner in the making. The lemon juice is frozen in muffin pans which fit half a cup...once frozen, the half cups are added to a plastic bag in the freezer for stockpiling, ready for jam making in summer.

When harvesting worm castings be careful to gather any worm eggs you may find....here is a close-up of what worm eggs look like...they are easy to spot once you get 'your eye in'......also

I'm slowly harvesting my Calandular petals to make tea and my Calandular Cream for cuts and scrapes.....Once the flower is in full bloom, I just pick the petals, leaving the head of the flower behind to grow into a seed head. Every few days I am picking more petals...and I only started with two small plants.

This basket is where I let the petals dry....I just keep it in the dining room near the window....You can see the petals at the back are fresher than the ones in front....When the whole basket is dry, I decant them into a glass jar. I've nearly filled a jar already...and the plant still has a long summer ahead.

My Mini dumpling pumpkins...and Mini golden pumpkins have been planted out. Old Tyres cost nothing at your local tyre store.....I've also collected more tyres to begin another planting of potatoes after harvesting my potatoes a few days ago.

Mulch everything, this helps keep the moisture in the soil on hot days

My Currant vines are only new....as the fruit appears and ripens, I am picking each one and storing them on a saucer in the kitchen....once they all dry out (dehydrate) I will store them in a glass jar to be used later in one batch of cooking....at least I will have a small harvest to use in baking later...rather than just snacking on them while working in the garden. (There's plenty of other snacks in the garden)

Long Beetroot...more slices per root. which is great for smaller spaces

Lettuce can be planted out into larger pots before going in the ground.

Celeriac (root veg)..great for salads or as a mash
Above...the first planting..Leave unused seedlings in a bunch to slow their growth,
and plant them out at a later date for a later crop.

My one Poppy plant is out in flower with another bud on the way.

Are you going to make your own Liquid Fertiliser in the future?

Maybe you have other natural recipes for treating your pests and diseases, that would like to share.

On my mind...I'm joining Hugh's Fish Fight

2011-10-07T02:24:00.004+11:00

Hubby and I are off to Brisbane for a week or so...and I probably won't be blogging until I come back. While away I'll be supporting hubby in his new employment; which I will tell you about at a later date.
So until my return, I'm leaving you with something I think is a good fight.

On my Mind.........I find myself glued to the television by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and his Fish Fight in European Waters.....Six months ago Hugh began the fight to stop the outlandish numbers of discarded fish being thrown overboard.......and while my blog is not usually of the demonstration variety...
I do think he is doing a wonderful job....and that's why I wanted to bring it to your attention.

Did you know that HALF OF THE FISH TRAWLED IN THE NORTH SEA WERE BEING DISCARDED? It was actually illegal for the fisherman who catch these 'discards' to keep the fish on-board their trawlers....No matter how upset they (The fishermen) were about it, the fish HAD be returned to the sea, in what ever condition they may be.

In the footage you can see his passion for the vast waste of fish. When a grown man can proudly display his passion on International Television by shedding tears for the overwhelming numbers of dead loss....well; what else can you do, but support him. You can do this by becoming a fish fighter yourself here.

Hugh's Fish Fight battle continues....and you can read more here.
By supporting the Fish Fight Campaign, your name is added to a letter to be sent to Commissioner Maria Damanaki, members of the Common Fisheries Policy Reform Group, and all MEP's.

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THANK YOU

FOR SIGNING UP TO

THE FISH FIGHT

CAMPAIGN, YOUR

SUPPORT IS

APPRECIATED. TOGETHER WE

CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

HUGH FEARNLEY-WHITTINGSTALL

760,218..... what number are you?

To Commissioner Damanaki, Members of the European Parliament and all member state governments,

I have seen images of dead and dying fish discarded in European waters.

I understand that the current Common Fisheries Policy leads to discarding on a vast scale; for example, half of all fish caught in the North Sea are being discarded because of the current quota system imposed by the CFP.

I want this senseless waste of food to end. I want you to use your influence to stop this unacceptable and shameful practice.

I am supporting the Fish Fight campaign to help bring about this vital change in our seas.

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While I make a list of things to pack for our trip...and wonder where I put the other hot water flask....

I also want to take special time to thank all my readers for their wonderful comments, emails, letters and thank-you's...I truly am blessed to have such lovely people supporting me. I will be back with more recipes, more gardening tips, more stories and even a give-away that I have mentioned in the past. So explore some of the older posts, look around, have a read....and try something new!

Here's hoping everyone has a lovely weekend!

Gnocchi - Gourmet style

2011-10-05T21:51:00.000+11:00

We've had a few visitors lately....and one has stayed for a lot longer than the others. She is most welcome to stay any time......and will probably be moving in with us some time in the future. I have told her she is more than welcome.
I'm talking about my DS20's girlfriend 'K'. K was here for his birthday and has to return home on the weekend to rejoin her family. She loves cooking when at home....and while her mother is pregnant, both her younger sister and herself are the main cooks for the family.

My DS20 and his girlfriend K

While staying with us, K has mentioned several times how she loves to make Gnocchi. On talking more, I realised that she makes it by buying it from the store in packets, which is great, but I had a surprise for her......together, we would have a go at making it from scratch!

K found a recipe here....and I already had some leftovers from a gravy and a lavish tomato based sauce used to make Chicken Parmigiana one night. We'd use these to make up a sauce for the Gnocchi...so it was all systems go....

With her love of Gnocchi making...I new she would like the Gnocchi board I found earlier in the week at a new kitchen shop I discovered...but it wouldn't be at home that she used it for the first time......
You will see them in the photos.....(Well, I had to buy myself one too...lol)

Together we made a double batch of the Potato Gnocchi using 2kg of Potatoes.

Here is all the Gnocchi we made.

To boil the Gnocchi in batches it was best to transfer each batch onto a small dinner plate to drop them into the boiling water.....by the time you had the next batch on the dinner plate....the ones you dropped into the water were beginning to float...It's just that quick.....So have your pan of sauce ready to drop the cooked gnocchi straight in.

After folding the two together, grate some cheese into the Gnocchi and Sauce......We used grated Tasty cheese, as we already had this cheese in the fridge....No point buying the fancy stuff...lol

Ooooh Lah Lahhhhhhh...Gourmet Gnocchi....

light and fluffy

This would cost a fortune in a restaurant!

We served 6 adults....and there's enough to go

in the freezer for another meal.

Will I be making it again?

You betcha!

Special thanks to K for giving me the inspiration to have a go at something new!