March

Alex and Sophie have joined Tim on the Aikido dojo.

Aikido’s philosophy stands for the art of peace (not pieces). 

Self defence, changing the energy of an opponents attack into deflection, without harm.

when it’s too hot to cook...
Dinner, has become a very simple affair at our place, afternoons are mostly filled with after school activities, not leaving much time to cook. Lots of salads, fruit, legumes and a bit of meat.
Corn has been our main carb stable for the last couple of months, making the most of the summer harvest. Leftovers are highly favoured, making the meals a bit more diverse and are providing me with lunch.

Rosie, our free as a bird new “pet”.

Alex’s 5th birthday party, his best friends and whole kindy class!

Dragon fruit in flower, so big!

The dam’s new vegetation along the dam wall is starting to look much and healthier, more important it’s becoming stronger! She’s at maximum level, it won’t need much to start a flood now.

Rainy days and rainbows, Summer has started to pack her bags,
but while I’m sitting here dripping with swear on a muggy 35 degree day, she hasn’t left the building just yet.

Sick days, 

our feisty 3 year old turns into a teddy bear, and only wants me as a pillow.

Inspired by a glut of eggs and a free Saturday morning.
Baking bread with a dark chocolate and walnut swirl.

Expanding the granola, 

now also in the kitchen and on the shelves at A Perfect Blend Espresso Bar in Grafton.

Launching the snack packs, rebranding one of my granola’s, loving a good pun.

Besides, I’ve started developing a new granola, something for when the colder days are upon us.

I love this part of my work.

Biggest Playgroup has come and gone, at least 200 kids turned up for the day and had a ball. 

A big event to organise for the committee, but a great way to showcase where we stand for: play and a strong community. 

 The main bathroom, finished!

Loving our very basic and natural new shower and vanity.
(Much easier to clean too!)

Soccer season,
the admin site of it is keeping me rather busy, many evening and free moment spend, 192 registered!
And now all 4 have decided to play this year!
Coaching session with Alex, lesson 1, there’s no climbing involved in soccer.

Loving the change we’re seeing in Sophie, she has been seizure free for 2 years, and spasm free for a year. Something to celebrate!
Last month we lowered her medication, a risk, but we suspected that they were making her sleepy, making it hard to concentrate, to take on challenges and learn.
Already she has so much more energy, she’s tackling things a school, has energy to play and wants to do things, it’s making my heart sing...
Piano lessons, aikido and now also soccer, because there’s more to life then academics.

I’m trying to hold down the fort, while hubby is in Thailand, with his mate Erik.

Tim spend all weekend building a hydraulic arm, David get’s to test it.
I love it when they challenge themselves while helping and encouraging each other.

Looking at my poor (pumpkin) overgrown garden.
My fingers are itching, but my back is sore, signalling me, it’s carrying enough and wants some down time. So I listen, for now.

From the kitchen...

I’m still making bread my daily rye sourdough, but I’m trying to bring in a little more variety (read, veggies), when it comes to lunch. The kids are great fans of salad wraps. But just to spruce things up, I like to keep trying out some new things on them.
Pizza is a favourite and any leftovers are great for those after school munchies.

Make them as large as your baking tray and call them a pissaladiere (French pizza).
This one we made with homemade dough, tuna, capers, feta, red onion and prawns.

But nothing beats a quiche. Perfect to use up eggs (chooks lay five eggs a day, the pressure is real!) besides it’s Sophie’s favourite lunch. Fresh greens up from the garden, onion, mushroom, a little organic bacon and a sprinkle of parmesan.
Use store bought puff pastry, or make your own.
Hot or cold. Lunch is sorted for the next couple of days.

Comfort food: laksa. Simple and fragrant. I love this recipe. 

By swopping the chicken stock with fish stock and fish and prawns instead of chicken, it becomes a whole new level of awesome.

My busiest time of the year for granola.
With Simone, catering lots of events and extra markets, she’s keeping the sales ticking over very nicely.
I’ve just done a count for the Second Chance Jars we’ve been doing these last couple of years.
In the last 5 months alone, we’ve already sold 124 jars! That’s another $300 raised and donated to the local womens shelter.

 Making cupcakes, with a smile...

 ...and sprinkles...
To share at school.

Sophie’s birthday yesterday, so her choice for dinner:

“Blue pasta with blue cheese sauce”.

Seriously...

Not wanting to be the the one to crush creativity, I delivered.

A couple of drops of colouring in the pasta water. 

And a basic sauce spruced up with bacon, peas, mushroom, garlic and a big dollop of gorgonzola.

Looks disgusting interesting, but actually tasted amazing (just keep your eyes closed).

Blue cheese, our kids love it. Amazing, right?

After the rain...

After all the rain we’ve had last week, we were hoping for a couple of dry(ish) days. Didn’t happen.

Washing took a week to dry resulting in kids dancing in puddles without it. 

The mighty Clarence went up for a day to a minor flood, back to normal the following day. The Orara River behind us went for a moderate flood, cutting off many people for days. School was rather quiet.

Fungi and flowers are popping up everywhere. Tim finds it hard to sleep with the ruckus the frogs are making. And more to come I’d say, just going by the frog eggs, turning the dam into a fluffy merengue...

Laura aka Casper the friendly ghost.

Just like 4 years ago, the prolonged rain gave way to horrendous swarms of biting flies. It drives everyone absolutely bonkers, washing gets hung up inside, collecting eggs becomes and egg run, weeds get out of hand but you just don’t want to be outside. The copious flies and mozzies might be bad, but this is the stuff for horror movies. Especially when you’re a horse... I couldn’t get her rug on fast enough, while both horses are marinated in insect repellant...

Hopefully all those frogs get their act together soon...

All the citrus trees are heavy with flowers. Fascinating how they can have fruit on them while blossoming for the next run.

After a couple of weeks with sick kids, countless trips to school for Sophie and bad nights. Last week I could hardly keep my eyes open. A virus knocked me down too. With grey, drizzly weather, bed was a nice place to be. I’m back on my feet again, too much to do. 

With the exception of granola, cooking and baking has been on low for the last couple of months, too hot, just didn’t feel like it either. Since the weather has started to cool (still 30 degrees today though!) and the nights are getting considerably longer I’m tentatively putting the oven on a bit more often. 

Last weekend that meant cooking with Quinces: a bunch of rock hard, inedible, fuzzy, pear like creatures.

That magically transform into these soft, ruby red, delicious and aromatic beauties wanting to be bottled for the winter months to come. They go well with just a little yoghurt, but also with salads and roasted meat.
5 hours in the oven on 160 degrees, with vanilla sugar, covered with water and aluminium foil to minimise evaporation.

Quilting is also back on the menu. The reason I got into quilting 6 years ago were all the beautiful fabrics with gorgeous colours and patterns. They tempted me enough, for me to want to learn how to sew. I picked this fabric up months ago, the print is as pretty as a painting and I couldn’t resist it. I’m turning it into a table runner for my mum, it suits her so well.
The baby quilt for my niece is ready to post, just waiting for her safe arrival.

A friend’s 40th turned into a 3 day music festival. We had a wonderfull time listening to many different bands and styles, while the kids had a ball with glow sticks. At least they were easy to find!

The veggie garden is loving all this rain, especially since its now combined with sunny, 30 degree days. Many plants and trees are going for an extra flush. More asparagus, I’m not complaining and I’m loving all these fresh herbs! 

The focus stays mostly on permanent plants, with salvias for colour, strawberries, capsicums and chillies while I’m contemplating if I could squeeze more fruit trees in.

Cyclone Debbie is creating havoc in Queensland. She’s a category 4, nearly to be upgraded to a category 5 ,which is as bad as they come.

Thinking of all of our friends and old colleagues that are still in Mackay and Sarina. 

From the years and cyclones we did encounter while living in Sarina, we do know one thing: they grow them tough in Queensland...

Meanwhile friends in NSW are becoming a little worried if Debbie comes down. She would be downgraded to a Tropical Low way before she reaches us, but another 300mm of rain is just not what we need right now! With dams and waterways already at maximum capacity, they’ve started uttering the F-word (Fl**d), and getting their pantries and medicine cabinets stocked.

Sander has been working on a plan for the front deck, when we couldn’t find the (pebblecrete) tiles we had in mind. 

Having made one himself, we now know how much time (months) and money goes into every tile (we would need about 100). It’s now doing a time and cost calculation, while considering a quote to get a concrete truck delivery.

Since Alex has been using the still wet setup as an obstacle course with his bike, twice, (%#$&*@), getting some quotes (and some duck-tape) is becoming a mighty fine idea...

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Red Onion Relish

I’ve always got a couple of jars in the pantry with red onion relish. Easy to make and it keeps very well. Serve it with cheese and crackers, or my favourite, with roasted veggies on Turkish. They also do nice stirred through a quinoa salad and are a huge hit with hamburgers. 

I’ll add some to through the bread next week, having a taste for French Onion Bread.

Red Onion Relish:

5 red onions, halved then finely sliced

3 tablespoons neutral oil

2 tablespoons brown sugar

5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves

1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds (optional)

Put all the ingredients in a thick bottomed pot on medium heat. The trick is to go slow and long, stirring occasionally. You might want to add a little water, to keep it from burning too quickly. 

After about 50 minutes, the onions will be nice and syrupy.

Spoon into jars and keep in the fridge, or use the proper canning technique for pantry storage.

How about these very cute appetisers? 

A spoonful red onion relish in the middle of a quartered piece of puff pastry. Add some goats cheese (I had some leftover feta on hand). Into the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden and you are ready for a party. 

 

Not much to it, but the result looks fancy. 

Jalapeno dip

A couple of weeks ago I made Pickled Jalapeños from our garden. Once again, they worked out great! I love to use them on sandwiches or wraps, or when making a pot of chilli con carne. Being able to spice up your own plate without getting cranky stares from the kids.

They do love this jalapeño dip though. Which goes well on the side of said chilli con carne when using wraps, or as a dip for the corn chips. The leftovers got eaten on sandwiches, with crackers for an afternoon snack, while I scraped out the bowl with pieces of carrot.

It makes a rather large batch, you might want to halve it (or double it!)
The heat of the jalapeños varies a lot, between batches and age of the jar. Start with 25 grams, taste and keeping adding until you reach your level spiciness.

Jalapeno Dip:
200 gram avocado
100 gram sour cream
25 gram pickled jalapeños (add more to taste, I used 65 grams)
a pinch of salt
juice of small(ish) lime

Put in a blender and mix until smooth.

Broccoli Burgers

I’ve made these burgers many times, the funny thing is, no-one seems to notice that they’re vegetarian and actually brimming with broccoli. Taste and texture wise, they’re quite meaty. I find them the perfect way to use up leftovers. Like mashed (sweet) potato and ends of bread. Rye sourdough in my case.

What you need:
1 head of broccoli (boiled or steamed), then mashed or chopped.
100 gram of grated pecorino or parmesan
1 egg
1/2 cup of (your choice of) flour
1 scant teaspoon of baking powder
a sprinkle of black pepper
bread crumbs, preferably sourdough

Optional: leftover mashed potato, shallots, parsley,...
The extra greens do make it harder to hide that they’re, well..., green.

Keeping the bread crumbs aside, mix the other ingredients. Make balls and dip them in the bread crumbs. Then shallow fry until browned on both sides.

Very filling, they won’t need much more then a salad on the side.
A little with sweet chilli sauce is a bonus, a recipe for that is coming soon.

Smoothie Pancakes

On Sundays we have a pancake breakfast. I keep playing with recipes, but a family favourite are smoothie pancakes. Smoothies are great to use up some fruit that is getting past its prime (brown bananas) and very forgiving towards frozen fruit. With just the addition of plain yoghurt they make a nice, but filling snack.

Since all flours react act differently (ever tried swapping plain flour with coconut flour? You’ll know what I mean...), I’ll leave the flour amount needed, up to you.

Start with a cup of Greek Yoghurt, 2 bananas and orange juice from 2 freshly squeezed oranges. Stick it in the blender (or grab a masher) with 3 eggs and blend until smooth. Transfer to a mixing bowl and add a pinch of salt, teaspoon of baking powder, and your type of flours (I used a happy mix of almond, spelt and coconut flours). You want the mixture to be quite thick (think cake batter). Bake in a medium hot frying pan. No need for syrups, fresh fruit is nice for presentation

I like mine savoury, with a fried egg and a slice of cheese. It makes quite a stash and they're very filling. You could halfway through the batter add a small hand of sultanas, you'll have afternoon tea covered as well.

Eat your leftovers: Dosa, Indian Flatbread

There are so many recipes out there in cookbooks, magazines, blogworld, pinterest, Facebook, emails, newsletters. We get bombarded with all these exiting recipes, waiting to be tried and tested. I love playing with new ideas and combinations. But as I mentioned before, what to do with the leftovers?
I often have plenty of them. Nothing goes into the bin, reduce, reuse, recycle works for food too. Of course there is a freezer, if there’s enough left for a family meal. Small portions are great for a quick and easy lunch.
And those portions in between? They get pimped into a new meal. Add some chickpeas to a curry for extra substanance, some more veggies and a new presentation. And there is dinner ready for another night, no-one the wiser they're eating leftovers, again...

Dosa is a Indian pancake flatbread, just waiting to be filled. The traditional dosa involves lots of time fermenting, but you can make a cheaters versions that you make in minutes, using chickpea (besan) flour. It’s a great way to revive leftover curry, that tastes much better after a day or two anyway...

Mix together:
1 cup flour
1 cup besan (chickpea) flour
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
400ml water

Heat a frying pan to medium-high heat, drizzle a little ghee (or any other high temperature oil)
add a spoonful of batter to the pan and rotate to make the bread as thin as possible.
Once bubbles start to appear on the surface, gently flip and cook for another minute.
Keep dosas warm between two plates until you’ve used up all the batter.

Fill with your curry, pumpkin curry is a favourite in our house, and (leftover)veggies.

Any curry left after this point is happily fed to the chooks.
But the dosa can be revived again as a salad wrap or toasted with cheese, cucumber and mango chutney...

Sunday Lunch: pulled pork

The sun is back, the rain is gone after having dumped 200mm in two days. The skies are brilliantly blue, the ground won’t be squelchy for long. It might be a good time to reclaim the jungle, that we call garden...

A couple of months ago I came across a recipe for pulled pork on one of my favourite food blogs.
For a long time we didn’t eat pork at all, having been into a piggery does that do a person...
A friend, Karen, has happy pigs roaming around on acres of grass and mud. The only pork we eat comes from her. She could do me a special order for the shoulder cut needed in the recipe with her next lot due at the butcher. The couple of weeks wait was so worth it!

Cooked in spices and cider for 5 hours, this was an epic lunch, very tasty with the perfect level of spices. And enough left for dinner tomorrow (with black beans and corn) and some containers (hidden!) in the freezer.
The grated raw beetroot and carrot is a colourful salad that has been finding it way in many variations and dressings to our table rather often. It must be the very bright colours that attract kids...

The bamboo floor is in, the furniture back in place. A perfect celebration lunch...