Hello! That’s Friday done and dusted for me!
Last night there was a lot of thumping on the back veranda, suspected wildlife, so took my camera out with a torch.
The first possum practically fell out of the tree (pictured above). Happily stayed put long enough for a snap. A few seconds later another one streaked out of the tree and away! (No snap)
Then there was a pademelon (small wallaby)
Also getting fat on our apples. There was another one in next doors paddock. This one panicked a bit with me out there, went charging all over the veranda then went bouncing all through my herb garden!!! I went back inside and left them to it. It was running into the fence in a blind panic at one point and didn’t want it ripping itself to shreds.
I wonder where it sleeps during the day?
It was a rain-sun-rain-sun day all day. Ended up in the kitchen.
Depipped the plums I cooked the other day and ‘mooleyed’ them. (Basically squashed all into pulp) Hopefully will make into sauce or jam tomorrow
Then I decided to get on and use some of the cucumbers and made a double batch of my Nanna’s cucumber relish (Recipe in previous post here)
It’s fitting to use Nanna’s old scales when using her recipes!
After boiling all the apple, cucumber, sugar and vinegar (er and supposedly the onion which I forgot about until I was almost ready to spoon it into jars!!!) then you add in the spices and thickener (I use cornflour)
I rectified the onion problem and started to fill my jars
(Jars have been sterilised in the oven)
All done
Again – this is pretty good on all meats and sandwiches.
Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend planned!
Cheers!
All scraps put through the ‘gee-whizzer’ to give to the compost worms
Hello!
It was time I updated you on a few things in Ruby’s garden. I haven’t been doing much there – rain, shoulder, more rain, cooking a million plums…
Anyway, I made myself popular with Ruby & Margie by taking down one of the choc-raspberry-ice-cream-bites for them to sample.
It was well received indeed!
Ruby has been doing a LOT in the garden. She was really keen to give me the tour and show me. So off she charges – then had to come back for her ‘walking stick’ (you know, whatever is at the back door handy – this time an umbrella!)
And then charges back up the garden path
At less than half her age, am I supposed to be running to catch up shouting ‘wait for me!!’ ???
She has been busy sitting on her milk crate pulling up literally a few barrow loads of weeds – mostly the ones lining the pathways
I got her to stop long enough to pose with one of her barrow-loads full of her handy work!
‘Walking sticks’ are handy to point out all the places one has weeded! (In this case – see all the bits that aren’t green?? That’s the parts she has also cleared!
Pausing to admire the runaway pumpkins. All these have grown from Ruby’s haphazard approach to composting.
Huge zucchini plant!!
Ruby also has a bit of a seed collection hanging in one of the sheds. Broccoli and lettuce.
I shooed her back inside so she could have lunch with Margie while I tackled the remaining potatoes in the potato patch.
With all the family upsets towards the end of the year, the watering got a bit neglected and the potatoes hadn’t done as well as they could have… but there is certainly enough to keep Ruby going for quite a while.
I was also trying to pull the seedy grass and get up what oxalis (mumble mutter grrrrr) that I could
One little quirk of Ruby’s that makes me chuckle is her obsession with making sure her rubbish bin is full to the brim for collection day. Since she pays for this service via her rates she feels she needs to get her moneys worth every week and a partly empty bin is an opportunity wasted!
Since she doesn’t really make enough household waste herself – she is dead set determined to fill the bin up with garden waste!!!
My job done
Lovely potatoes. I brought Ruby out to show her and she was extremely pleased! What I don’t have is the photo of her helping me take them into the shed!
“Here – you take the black bucket and I’ll take a side of the green one”
!!!!!!
So, hands full and (nervously) watching Ruby carry half a bucket of potatoes I was unable to get what would have been a sweet action shot!!!
Hothouse is doing well – not as lush as last season but producing enough cucumbers and tomatoes
Outside tomatoes… if we are lucky, we will get some colour in them yet!
Of course, when all is done and I have washed off a ton of dirt, I get to come in and have a cuppa and a natter
I picked the right day! Ruby, not only weeded everything in sight, but also baked bikkies!! (Biscuits) (Quick translation for my North American Readers. We call crackers and cookies, biscuits. What you call a biscuit is a scone to us.) 🙂 (I love translating English into English)(I could go on with jumpers, peppers, the boot of the car, lollies, daks, cozzies & fairy floss etc but I would be here all night)
Anyway…
Ruby was telling me about a couple who came to visit Tasmania quite some time ago. They had a little girl with spina bifida. Ruby said she would take care of the little girl and her brother while the parents took a rare break and had a little trip around Tassie.
Apparently the travel agent didn’t do a very good job of booking them into sensible places for an efficient and comprehensive look around in the time they had.
Boy, did Ruby sort them out! I was laughing so much hearing how she got them to cancel the bookings and reorganised the whole thing! I interrupted her to say “My gosh Ruby, you were such a bossy-boots!” She had a really good chuckle at that. I looked at her and said “Actually you still are a bossy boots you know!”
She cheerfully admitted it but also fessed up to not being as good at it anymore!!
I love our afternoon stories and laughs! (not to mention the fresh baked biscuits!)
I hope everybodys week is going along fantastically!
Hello! I was going to try and do nothing today.
I am not actually very good at doing nothing.
Happily the kitchen that I destroyed yesterday got sorted out though!
Below is the recipe for the Plum-Worcestershire sauce recipe for those that are keen.
Sorry – a mix of imperial and metric measurements – just to keep you on your toes!
Step One – Find a whacking great pot.
INGREDIENTS:
3lb dark plums
3lb white sugar
2lb brown sugar
3 X tins of treacle (1 tin 850g)
7 pints vinegar (OK – thats 4.2 litres)
1/2lb garlic (Its ok to put more)(Chop small or whizz-up)
1 oz (30g) white pepper
1 oz allspice
1 oz whole cloves (I only had ground and ended up putting in 8 teaspoons.)(Seemed ok 🙂 )
1/4 oz Cayenne pepper
1/2 oz ground ginger
2 Tablespoons salt
METHOD:
Put everything into your oversized pot together and bring to boil. This took a looooong time for me.
Don’t let it boil over. Really. Don’t.
Let simmer until the stones leave the plums
Strain pips and skin (And whole cloves if you used them)
Reboil for an hour.
Sterilise bottles (a LOT of bottles) in your oven, (I put mine in at 100C/212F) when too hot to touch I take them out and pour the sauce in – pop the lids on and voila! Lasts for ages.
Wonderful in your home made hamburgers/rissoles. I like it in spag. bol. sauce and usually splash some in casserole dishes as well.
Finally a day that seemed more like summer!
And I, insanely, spent all day in the kitchen! Its 11.30pm and I am STILL not finished and I think I am a little over it!
It was the Plum-Worcestershire sauces fault. I only make it once a year and the quantities are rather large and everything has taken an eon to do.
Plus, once you have boiled over a sauce that has three tins of treacle in it and had it ooze all over your kitchen, you get totally paranoid about it happening again (The clean up was horrendous) so I had to stay close all day.
First things first. Lets wrap up the choc-rasp/ice-cream bites thing.
Melted the chocolate and got most of the squares dipped before the chocolate went doo-lally on me and wouldn’t go runny again.
Mine didn’t turn out magazine worthy, however…
A hasty photo before Jeff and I taste tested and pronounced a success!
I think next time I do this I can just use my recipe of ice cream, bung some fruit in and do the same – into a square tin, cut and dip in chocolate.
So – onto the buckets of plums and the sauce
Luckily I have my super garlic stash upstairs, as this recipe calls half a pound of it! (I use a bit more)
And it takes a looooong time to peel that much garlic
Happily you can just chuck the plums in as is – no messing about with taking pips out or skinning
I also set another big pot of plums to cook…. will sort them out tomorrow
You also need a lot of spices – about an ounce of each kind.
The house smells a bit amazing – although its incredibly strong when you are near the mixture
A LOT of treacle!
Also three pounds of white sugar, two pounds of brown sugar and 7 pints of vinegar! (over 4 litres) (Why you need a massive pot!!)
This whole thing took a couple of hours to come to the boil!!!
In between hovering over my sauce I sorted dinner and crocheted a few more granny squares!
Once the stones leave the plums, you need to strain it then reboil.
I was bottling it up when I realised I didn’t have enough bottles ready, so right now I am just waiting for the next lot of bottles to sterilise before finally finishing this marathon!!
A brief foray into the garden
Hope everyone else has managed to move more than ten feet from their kitchens today for more than 15 minutes!! 😀
Cheers!
Hello!
I did a nice healthy pick in the garden yesterday – I see some more tomato relish and sweet chilli sauce coming up! (Not to mention a boat-load of cucumber relish)
I am a little disappointed I didn’t finish my ice cream project today. Seems the mixture needs WAY more than 4 hours in the freezer before I can finish off the final steps
I saw this fabulous video-recipe pop up on my facebook page and decided that I needed it in my life.
I can’t add videos here, but will share it on my facebook page for those who are interested. I will certainly write down the instructions but the video made it look incredibly easy.
So – a 395g tin of sweetened condensed milk into a pot and stir in a pack of white chocolate melts – 225g
Once melted and mixed, pop it into the fridge for 15-20 minutes to chill
While it was chilling I went to scavenge what was left on the raspberry canes (Seriously – be nice of people to share this stuff at the BEGINNING of the raspberry season!!)
Not much but enough
Take mixture out of the fridge and add in a 250g pack of Philly spreadable cream cheese (I am sure any spreadable cheese will suit)
This went into the mixer until smooth then I added 300ml of cream and kept beating until fluffy
I threw in the raspberries and mixed them in by hand. I then added some of my frozen ones just because I could
I lined a square tin with baking paper, put the mixture in and added a few strawberries into the top layer
Even a heart shaped one – I just noticed it has ticked over into Valentines Day here 🙂
Anyway, enough of the romance.
I put this into the freezer which was supposed to be ready in 4 hours for the last step.
Nope – A short while ago I stuck my finger into the very soft mixture and decided it could stay there until tomorrow.
Basically you take it out, cut it into squares, dip each square into melted chocolate and bung them back into the freezer. (Like thats going to end well… haha)
Anyway, can’t wait until I finish these off, re-freeze and taste test!
Then I will have to get off the frivolous cooking train and get my sauces made!
Jeff & I ducked out yesterday for a drive to visit our cousins Fiona and Paul. One of their sons Beau is (hopefully) house sitting for us when we go for our hike across Cradle. They are keen bushwalkers and campers and have kindly lent us a few very handy items. (Bushwalking tent for one which will cut down on weight and volume significantly!)
They have a beautiful bit of land – lots of natural bush, plenty of wildlife and peace and quiet!
Fiona has been working hard – splitting and stacking wood!
Heading up the hillsideMisty views
Such a lucky find! A Black Cockatoo feather!!! Fiona found it but gave it to me! I love the Black Cockatoos… they fly over us often and they are loud and funny. I think they always must be having a great time with life!
One day I will get a more decent photo – like, with the bird attached!
Love the huge manferns!
Delicate things
A good walk through the bush is refreshing for body and soul! We saw lots of great plants, sniffed some ‘pungent’ ones and found fungi, berries and bird nests!
Native blueberry – some are fine to eat… but we didn’t risk trying this oneThe creek bed was not running but it wasn’t empty!
I cannot remember the name of this bush fern…
This is kind of cool and kind of sad – Vines grow on some of the trees and wrap around trunks and branches. Sometimes the branches grow around the vines giving it this twisted shape. Sadly, eventually the vine strangles the tree
More twisty branchesThe biggest kids on the blockBeautiful colours in the timber that Fiona has been splittingPauls Grim Reaper impersonation
Back to the house and we had to go see the new little black lamb before we left…
Everyone goes along – including Alice the dog and the chook that thinks its a person!
It was nice to get way out of the house for a change – seems like a while since we escaped!
Hello! There is Friday gone! Hope everyone has some excellent weekend plans.
Clearly my Saturday plan will be something to do with sorting/cooking the plums Jeff brought home from Ruby’s that he helped pick!
So happy – my upcoming plum jam crisis has been averted (for now)
Well… my husband is getting a bit more daring in the kitchen! (proud wife moment) He looked up how to make muesli bars (or granola bars) and went off on his merry way.
The first batch was excellent, so we did another lot today
I will add the recipe at the end of the blog for anyone that is interested in giving them a go
Some of our dried apples from last season
Since you can get a bit creative about what goes in them, I started having thoughts about strawberries
Pickings are getting slim, but I put these on to dehydrate today as I reckon they will be awesome in the next lot of muesli bars
I can’t tell you how good strawberries smell as they dehydrate!Dried apricot always my favouriteRolled oats, honey, desiccated coconut
And here is a Jeff-Action shot, just for his parents to see 🙂
Half an hour in the oven and ‘Voila’
Tasty and will be excellent to take on our 6 day hike across Cradle!
The plans are all coming together!
Cheers!
RECIPE FOR MUESLI BARS
9×9 inch pan – criss cross with wax paper going up the sides and also grease paper
Preheat oven to 165C (325F)
INGREDIENTS
2&1/2 cups oatmeal (we used rolled oats)
1/4 cup desiccated coconut
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Then – make up one cup of whatever you like to add to your bars. It can include, crushed nuts (we have used almonds and cashews) dried fruits – so far we have used apple, apricot, sultanas, – choc chips.
METHOD
Mix well all ingredients and press down into your tin really firmly
Put in oven for about 30 minutes
Allow to cool COMPLETELY in tin. Once cool, you can remove and slice!
In the interests completely over doing things in 2017, I just booked our flights back to Japan for November. They had some really good prices and we had been discussing with my parents for a while about taking them over and showing them about!
Now as well as topping up the Texas Fund, I also need to super-budget for our actual spending money while in Japan.
I am not daunted – I am excellent at saving. (Just a moment of self-praise there 🙂 )
It would be mega-helpful if summer would put in an appearance and sort my vegetables out so I have something to sell. It rained all day but at least it wasn’t cold.
If you have followed my blog for a while, you would know I am very fond of Japan. I am really excited to go back for a whole swag of reasons.
Koi
It will be wonderful to catch up with friends. We will be (hopefully) staying in Kyoto for most of the time with my parents and doing day trips. Most of our friends are within easy reach.
Food – oh the food.
Looking forward to grazing our way around the Kansai Prefecture!
Ramen Bar in Fukuoka
So many amazing temples and shrines to see
Entrance to Todaiji, NaraTodaiji, Nara
Bamboo Forest in Arashiyama, KyotoBeautiful gardens
I intend to have as many baths as humanely possible while I am there! (I LOVE Japanese baths!)
I am so looking forward to getting back into the humdrum of the Osaka Streets!
Its loud, crazy, busy and a whole lot of fun
But as crazy busy as the cities are, you can always find some peace close by.
Gods watching over the rice harvestsPersimmons
Anyway, I am excited to be taking my parents around, and with luck, maybe Jeff’s parents can come over from Canada and meet us for the last two weeks we are in Japan so we can take them on a tour as well!! (Told you – not doing things by halves this year!!)(My parents are staying two weeks and we are staying one month)
My head is spinning… perhaps its time for me to get a book to write in all my ‘to do’ stuff.
I completely failed to capture the gloomy, windy & cold nature of today.
This summer I am officially awarding a 3/10. Disappointing to wade through the dark and gloom of winter to not get your proper summer!! Seems every second day is cold. We are still getting stuff from the garden but it should have been a lot better. (and earlier) Happy to be feeding ourselves, so I can’t whinge and complain too much. We are halfway through the last month of summer and it doesn’t feel like it at all!
The saving grace of the garden really is the hothouse
Beautiful jungle
The heirloom capsicum are coming along really well. They don’t have the same shape as what I grew last season – but I am looking forward to trying them.
Hand for scale
The ones outside have started showing some fruit which is nice!
In among the tangle of the rockmelon plant I finally found ONE little fuzzy fruit!
The sunflowers enjoy living in the hothouse tooIs it weird to find their dying phase more interesting?These ones look like they have had one drink too many!
Despite trying other non-chemical methods… looks like our apples are full of codling moth again! Damn. Jeff seems determined to break out the non-organic pest control next year and drown them! (We shall see)
We still eat the fruit – its just a pain cutting around the grub
The girls are being slack! Three eggs from 11 birds!!!!
I was trying not to do too much today – so I got onto youtube to see how to crochet granny squares. I have been watching Mavis’s (from 100 dollars a month) adventure of learning to crochet and I was also keen to see how to do one.
Then I got carried away
And now its after 2am with a small granny square explosion
Its going to take forever to make a blanket, but I like them!
Pip says go to bed
Cheers!
Pip wrapped up in the knee rug Ruby made for me! I love it! So proud I have something she has made – will wrestle it back from the cat now!
Hello!
Not a lot from me today. I am still doing things in slow motion thanks to my shoulder which is still not playing nice at all.
But I did get my relish made! So happy to be restocked! (See bottom for recipe if you are interested. Its a lovely old fashioned one from my Nanna)
I hung out some washing and then got sidetracked by shoveling some dirt around the ‘boardwalk’ and putting some rocks back at the front to try to blend it more… then figured that was a worse than bad idea. (not what I did but because it wasn’t really helping my shoulder much)
I played with my garlic scrapes – just trying to put them all in a bowl to do something with
Someone had suggested making garlic infused olive oil which I was keen to try – then read there is a high risk of botulism from the process, so I got nervous and abandoned the idea. Still not sure what I will use them for
I did do some housework – but didn’t get all that far. So I sat down for a bit and finished Miss Emma’s late late late Christmas present
Nearly doneDone! (again – night time not the best light for the colours but you get the idea!)
So… looks like I might achieve an early night tonight!! You never know!
Cheers!
Recipe for my Nanna’s tomato relish:
Ingredients
6lb tomatoes (3kg)
2lb onion (1kg)
2lb sugar
Vinegar (you can use white, malt or cider vinegar)(Avoid malt if you are keeping it gluten-free)
2 tablespoons curry powder
3 tablespoons mustard powder
Cornflour to thicken
Salt
Method:
Chop tomato in to approx 1cm chunks (You can peel if you want to but I don’t)
Dice onion
Put both in large pot, mix and sprinkle top with a handful of salt and leave overnight.
In the morning, drain off excess liquid.
Pour vinegar over the mixture until covered/saturated.
Add in your sugar and bring to boil… then let cook slowly for an hour or two.
Prepare about 10 good sized jars by washing and sterilising in the oven at 100C
In a separate bowl mix your curry & mustard powder along with a couple of heaped spoonfuls of cornflour add some water and mix into smooth, runny paste. Stir into your tomato mix and cook for a few more minutes.
Pour hot into your jars and seal with lids. (Apron good – can be messy and splashy!)
