Food Muster Giveaway

Jewellry Giveaway!

Yes, C over there on Food Muster is giving away some of her hand made earings. 

Check it out, they're really cute!

Monkey Bread

Gina's HomeJoys blog is so much fun for me to read!

This week we tried Monkey Bread

It's a basic sweet bread dough, dipped in melted butter and rolled in sugar, cinnamon (and I used a bit of allspice)

I happily cheated by sticking the bread making machine on while we were at church in the morning. Then it was the easiest and quickest thing to plop them in butter, shuffle them around in sugar and stick in the oven. The kids loved helping and we sat watching them to see if we'd get any "pop offs" (giggle) but they all stayed in the tin.

This bread pudding was marvelous. You know how the recipe says milk, cream and eggs.. well, I replaced the cream with lemon butter (that my lovely friend made just for me - effortlessly with her Thermomix.).
I've made it three times since  and each time it gets gobbled up faster than cake! Simple things are often the best.

Correction - All time favourite

So having a long soak in the bath I grabbed a couple of favourite books to paw over. I love having my own copies of books as I can read them in the bath and don't worry if it gets damp or slightly dipped if I drop off to sleep (or absent mindedly dog ear the page). Today I realised that it's not Barbara's year of local eating, or the Seakingdom's historical insights that I like the most it's this:

LINK

Yes, that's right I'm officially out of my tree and rummaging in the undergrowth.

I have so much fun and get so much enjoyment out of reading about how to care for fruit and nut trees. Imagining my own land plan and choosing the fruit trees I want to own one day.

(Dreamily slow and happy exhale) Here's my list so far:

Dwarf White Shatoot Mulberry (long and white, super sweet)
Curry leaf tree
Peanut butter fruit tree (just out of curiosity - think of all those nut allergic kids out there, they can try it!)
Pecan nut
Native finger lime (the black skinned one with red jubes inside)
Mango for Sydney weather - yes there is one!
Kiwi - that's 1 male plant to 7-9 females so that one will have to wait a while.
Cinnamon tree
Blackcurrant bush
Avocado
Dwarf Macadamia

I think maybe the Dwarf Mac and Mulberry, Curry tree and finger lime are the only ones I could accommodate so far and keep small in large pots. Oh but I love to dream and plan away!

Inspiring blog

I love blogs that inspire you to plan, imagine and do better. This blog:

HOME JOYS

Home Joys is one of my favourite blogs. Gina is a Mennonite who home makes, grows and preserves EVERYTHING! - it seems. With a foot very firmly in the tech of today and a foot enjoying the simple life, I love her ability to do so much and immerse herself in her family, her religion and have purpose and joy in life.

Mind you, this is blog land we're talking about here, and there are alot of blogs that just show the polished best side (not like the green scabby lemons on one of my prev posts!) so I'm not sure if she ever has a bad day, is really grumpy or wants to pack it in, eat chips and watch TV all day. I doubt it :o)

Take a look for yourself. Very inspiring (and how cute is that baby!) Oh, to have an ounce of her energy!

Your friend in blog land

Suzi

x

All time favourite -ish.. maybe

I'm not really a booky kind of person. I enjoy reading instructional books about making soap, chook pens, cheese etc (though not actually getting around to making any). Books that drag me in too much take my mind away from everyday life and I end up resenting having to live it instead of reading my book - so those are out.

Lately I've been into family history (well, for a few years now) and I've been fascinated to find the inherited genetic traits and those environmental factors that make us who we are. 

I've finally finished this one:

I loved it, my good view of him increased and few people from our book group (that I sparsely attend) say that their opinion of him has changed for good. GOOD.

This is the other one I'm finishing up. It's more up my street and family tree:

If you didn't have an understanding for the coming about of the peoples of Britain then you will after this. It explains how the Irish had such a huge hand in the education of the common folk throughout Europe even to Africa. How the Welsh, being the original rulers and Britons, together with the Scots managed to keep up their fight for their language thanks to the protestant religion.

Highly enlightening, an objective view of Celtic history that's been very well researched.

Ok so my FAVOURITE BOOK at the moment is:

My goodness how this book creates excitement and proactivity in my life! It's a down to earth look at self sufficiency with no judgment or condescension on those that don't. I'm not in love with her writing style or the order of the first few chapters but I did love the family stories and interesting facts along the way.

I love her journey of allowing turkeys to "nooky" naturally like they haven't done for decades, her daughter's chicken business and all the little funny quirks along the way.

I'm not sure I'd be bothered to do the entire year like she did, but in my corner of the world it pushes me to use every scrap of space for food production! I want gluts of food like she has. I want to preserve and share and give things that have taken my time, effort and careful thought. 

I am so lucky living in Australia where we can grow all year round. There aren't those black hole months where nothing will grow. I'm reading it again to motivate my post surgery butt (well, my mind at the moment) into action and get help weeding.

Here's the site about the book and if you image google it there's alot of interesting links too.

Lemon Delicious!

The thing about Winter in Australia is that there's nothing to look forward to, except Spring. In the northern hemisphere you have Christmas to fill you with things to do, family, excitement and tradition. It takes your mind off the cold.
In my house, we have the excitement and large task of LEMONS. Picking, juicing, zesting, making, baking.

My friend offered to get the ripe ones from the top. I asked DH for the ladder.. then it all went out of control. Asking for the ladder apparently was asking for "help" and a full tree strip.

These could have done with another two weeks of ripening and getting all juicy... no matter, they smell and taste DELICIOUS!! My cooking juices are already flowing and lemon cheesecake is first on the agenda. Well, I've already done lemon delicious (self saucing pudding).

I've been trying to find a way of preserving lemons without salt or alcohol....help??

Today I love my kitchen. Apart from the fact that DH cleaned it up so well that now I have this itch to cook and mess it all up again - it contains lots of things from the garden. The pumpkins I grew MYSELF! YES THAT'S RIGHT!! I know they're not massive and there's only 3 (with one more on a vine yet to die) but they're mine! These will be nice and sweet when baked. Yu-um!

The spuds are mine too, a cup of kipfler minis and the rest are ruby reds. They re-grew from last year and I needed the space for spinach (next to the garlic) so out they came.
I really should move that bread maker. Since I got it I've been motivated to make more by hand and it turns out soooo much nicer :o)



This doesn't count as there's hardly any work involved in making this, it's ham and cheese damper that I LOVED and no-one else touched funnily enough. (??)

Recipe from What's for Dinner Mum?

With the rest of that ham I made ham and veg soup - delish! Then with the rest of that huge wretched pumpkin I made more curried Pump soup with coconut milk and fresh coriander - since it's the only soup man enough for DH (not a soup man).

All in all I'm loving feeling alive again, gardening and cooking.. from dirt to dinner. Ahh!

Pumpkin Quandry

I got this pumpkin on holiday - yes, stopping at the roadside stall was the most exciting bit! There were lots of exciting bits I just love this stuff.

Anyway, anyway, anyway, it turns out that this pumpkin is not as nice as it looks.

I baked some thinking it would be sweeter that way and I could make pies, pasties, soup and just eat it. Nope, no joy... blurgh!
I made some soup, onions, sweet potato, baked blurgh, chicken stock, curry spice mix and cinnamon. Then added coconut milk and a heck load of chopped coriander. It was so nice that DH took it to work!!! SHOCK!

My second try was a bit of a long shot. I'd seen a recipe for a brownie with a cheesecake swirl (I made pumpkin cheesecake swirl).. Anyway anyway, one was runnier than the other, didn't work out and I ended up just mixing them together and baking it. I topped it with the BROWNING SECRET RECIPE CHOCOLATE SAUCE.
It was chocolate overload (heaven for some of my friends) with secret vege ingredient.

Bad bad picture, but this was all that was left after a day or so. Sooo fudging good!

DS1 loves smooshing his hand in the remains and feeling all those slimy seeds. I think these will definately be toasted and eaten, not sown and grown!

Any more suggestions welcome!

Now I'm off to bake the rest and think of what to do with this whopper ham I have in the fridge. Reduced from $60 to $40! Slice it and freeze it?

Anyway, anyway, anyway, lemons are calling. Tree is ripening and I am loving it!! I'm dedicated to make lemon butter this year, already made lemon surprise pudding..