Wishing you Mamma Karries!

This Christmas I pumped out Gingerbread houses for those special ones - camera broke so no pics - and these DELISH ferrero like chocolates for the other 'special to me's'.

A lady in a pilates class made them for end of term nibbles at the end of class and I was BLOWN AWAY!


Recipe


180g soft butter
pinch salt
120g brown sugar - I used rapadura as I was out of brown, that's why mine look speckledy

240g plain flour
3 tablespoons cornflour - I ran out so used custard powder, was great!
1/8 tsp bicarb soda
small chocolate cups
nuts of your choice (raw, they'll get roasted in the cookie baking part)
500g chocolate (plus more for drizzling if you want to do that)

You can see the raw cookie dough around the hazelnut. You don't need to leave much room. If you have put too much dough around the nut it sags when it cooks and you don't have that think wafer like crunch... it's .. well, thicker :o) still yum though.

See some have sagged here. First batch.

Dipped and chilling, waiting for white choc to melt.

IT MADE 130 -ish HAZELNUT chocs!!!!! I was there for flippin' ages! I hope you loved them as much as I do :o)

Merry Christmas. I'm glad it's over.

Berry bountiful bargain

 Not exactly a bucket full, but nice munchable snacks for me and the boys. I had to fight the baby for the strawberries. As soon as I let him loose in the garden he heads for the patch under the lemon tree and trawls through it looking for treats!



Here's one of the boys with some zucchinis from the garden. We had them stuffed and baked:

Fried off onion, mushrooms, cherry toms and herbs. Mixed with olive oil and left over cous cous (already cooked). Shoved it in the cooked zucchini halves with breadcrumbs ontop that were mixed with parmesan and grated tasty cheese. Mmmm.. nice and crispy.

It was very filling which suprised me and we ate it with Hubby's catch of the day (snapper I think) crumbed and fried.YUM!



 
 
Ok so not a garden shot.. but it's such a buzz to get something for a bargain! We got this at a garage sale for $20. I was nice to the guy and didn't haggle, I think he hadn't done a garage sale before as he kept lowering the price every 10 seconds - nervous about something?!

In the mean time.. let's veg

Hubby took the daisey bushes out some time ago and it's just looking scraggly while we're deciding what free things we can plant there (it's a rental.. don't want to spend money on it).

So! Here's my pumpkin on the left with a new row of cucumber seeds with support for them to grow up.

On the right I've popped some potatoes on the ground to do a "no dig" patch. My small tribute to Esther Deans (a local at my post office :o)

Here's the after shot. I took Peter Cundall's advice this time and put straw over the seed potatoes, then manure on top. I ruffled a little more straw over the top as it didn't look/smell all that good having a big splodge of cow poo there!

They're both netted with wire to keep the flippin' cats out from next door - grr!

My local Permies

Here's a pic of our local Permaculture group. It was our Christmas get together (and meeting o'course). It was really interesting to here about the new community gardens, North Epping/Epping becoming the next Transition Town and a report from the rep at one of the local schools about their new Permaculture project, classroom, focus and plans.


It was reeeally nice to wander around our lovely host's garden. It was brimming with life - so relaxing and inspiring. The pic above is of their latest addition. Behind to the left is the huge veggie patch and to the right is their 5 star chook motel.
 

Norwegian Experience

VS

So I'm a researcher, a skeptic and very cautious with my money when it comes to products that make outrageous claims.

A while ago I bought some enjo products that are great to clean with;

• Use less water
• Enviro friendly
• No chemicals needed
  BUT:
• Very expensive
• A drying cloth or is needed for every surface
• No proof to show it rids the surface of bacteria

So I bought some and liked them. THEN I found out about Norwex that also have cleaning cloths;

• Use less water
• Enviro friendly
• No harmful chemicals
  And also:
• Very affordable
• Microfibre cloths - no drying needed
• Silver element in all cloths - now a PROVEN antibacterial
• Used in Norwegian hospitals
• Used in St Vincent's Private hospital in Sydney

Here's a link to some of the clinical studies

In fact I'm so taken with this product (that I've only ever seen in action once but read up on it a million times) that I'm joining.

Say hello to your new Norwex Consultant :o)