First egg...

We've had our first eggs!  The one Minty is holding has a slightly wrinkled shell like a well worn leather handbag but the other two eggs laid this morning were perfect.  Thankfully the chickens have also settled down.  I've introduced them to a bigger enclosure which seems to have reduced the pecking order issues significantly.  They even lay down on the grass this afternoon to sunbathe!  I'm not entirely sure whether to find this behaviour endearing or alarming.  Their ungainly postures make the yard look a bit like a chicken hospice!

I made carrot and herb rolls for lunch, using our freshly laid eggs, and served warm with a generous slathering of butter.  Minty adored these but kept referring to them as parsnip rolls despite their obviously orange hue!

The garden is coming along slowly.  I suspect I lack the patience needed for real success though watching seedlings sprout is endlessly rewarding!

Today in photos...

01 Seeds sprouting

02 Nothing better than kids doing dishes!

03 Homemade honey almond granola with yoghurt and raspberries

04 / 05 Mint painting a starfish

06 Veggie box day

07 Never get tired of that view

08 Kale pizza for dinner amongst the random rubble on the dining table

09 / 10 Monkeying with lego and pizza!

In which I am hoarding toilet rolls...

New veg garden under construction... not very pretty yet!!

Yesterday one of my good friends left me a Facebook message to say that she had saved me two toilet rolls and two ends of celery.  It occurred to me that I have reached a frightening level of thrifting.  I suspect it's a short trip from here to crafting a felted tea cozy from clothes dryer lint. 

In case you're wondering what I'm doing with this miscellanea, I've been making little planting tubes from the toilet rolls for my veggie seedlings.  And did you know you can plant the bottom of a bunch of celery and it grows again?  Well pinterest assures me it will work, so it must be true.  

Gardeners are as a rule such a thrifty bunch.  Take cuttings for example.  I mean seriously you can cut a bit off another plant, bung it in the ground and it grows!!  Who knew?  If only I could do that with my Calvin Klein jacket.

Just a quick disclaimer to say that I'm totally new to this whole gardening caper and though I may occasionally sound as though I know what I'm talking about I can assure you it is just hot air.  The Mr and I have been having intense debates about the best way to get a bumper tomato crop as though we are some kind of experts but the truth is neither of us has the slightest idea.

I guess when I started this blog three years ago I had no idea how to use a camera and could hardly sew… so I'm hoping blogging about the garden is going to spur me into some kind of action.  I'll fake it until I make it so to speak. Wish me luck! 

In which there are chocolate martinis and the dinner conversation degenerates...

The Mr. is working late tonight and I'm flying solo.  I made a rando lentil dish and a silverbeet gratin.  You know when everyone is really enjoying their meal and a contented hush falls over the room because everyone is too busy chewing to talk?  Well tonight the kids spent the entire meal giggling hysterically and poking each other with their forks while calling each other 'penis'.  Oh well more gratin for me.

Thank god it's cocktail Friday.  Tonight's cocktail is a chocolate martini (from my trusty cocktail bible)

3 chocolate drops

cocoa to garnish

30ml vodka

30ml white creme de cacoa

Place chocolate drops in the bottom of a martini glass and dust the tim with cocoa.  Shake vodka and creme de cacoa with ice, and strain into a martini glass.  

Happy Friday Everyone!!

And for those who have been asking for a house update, here is a little sneak peek.  This is what the laundry currently looks like.  I promise I'll do a proper house update next week.

Oh and if anyone is interested I blogged a kale pizza recipe over at food fanatics earlier this week.

Why I haven't been blogging...

 

I'm having some technical difficulties getting my photos from my flash card onto the computer.  I know, sounds like it should be super simple right?  But for some reason I'm getting all these error messages when I try and transfer them from the server to my laptop and tech support (aka the Mr.) has been working and skiing and hasn't been around to sort out my drama.  I feel a bit naked blogging without pictures. (I took these photos a couple of weeks ago when we visited my little niece)

We have no TV at our new house.  The valley we live in is some kind of media dead zone, which means we would need a 4 meter aerial to get reception.  The Mr. feels this would be a grossly unsightly addition to our abode, so I am forgoing Grey's Anatomy and The Shire in favour of architectural aesthetics.  Oddly, despite being a self confessed raging television addict, I haven't missed it in the slightest.  And since giving up TV cold turkey I no longer feel like listening to popular top 40 style radio stations.  I am living a vaguely puritanical existence in which I only listen to ABC classic FM and go to bed at around 8pm.  As you can see my life is endlessly exciting!

I have been busy in the kitchen, so when I finally manage to sort out my photographic issues I'll share some more exciting things.  I've been making lots of wintery treats like rainbow chard pies, beetroot pesto and Irish beer bread.  Turi and I have even been experimenting trying to recreate Far Away Tree pop biscuits!

In which Minty is swaddled and falls for a sea captain...

We're currently working our way through a glut of fresh produce.  Our weekly veggie boxes have been positively bursting with fruit and we've been struggling to get through it all before it becomes overripe.  So I've been stewing plums, freezing grapes and making scores of banana muffins and bread.  I've been trying out lots of different recipes - some more successful than others.  These little beauties are chocolate zucchini muffins (you can find the recipe here).  The batter seemed a little dry to me but they turned out well, if a little dense.  

These zucchini and banana muffins on the other hand were a complete disaster.  The batter was far too wet and even after a lengthy time in the oven the middles were still raw while the outside was overcooked.  I should have trusted my instincts and added more flour.  Oh well, you live and learn.

The kids have been sick this week with some kind of virus.  Minty was up most of the night coughing.  She finally succumbed to sleep at about 4am after I swaddled her tightly like a baby and propped her head up on a few pillows.  It is very funny and oddly endearing that even after all these years she still finds swaddling comforting!  I miss the days of popping a tiny sausage wrapped baby to sleep in a cot.  Nowadays the swaddled shape is somewhat bigger!  This is actually a picture of Turi as a baby (all my pictures of baby Minty are stored on a different hard drive and I couldn't be bothered dragging it out) - you get the idea though!

Understandably the kids are a bit overtired today.  They're currently wrapped up in blankets watching The Sound of Music.  Minty is quite enamoured with Captain VonTrapp.  I think she finds the fact that he is a sea captain alluring.  I have to admit I do find Christopher Plummer pretty dreamy in the film!  

In which there are visions of Jesus and Candy Spelling...

Ever since Minty received this cook book for Christmas she has been asking me to help her make pea soup.  While I was excited by her healthy choice, I was also feeling a little baffled.  I mean honestly, what self respecting three-year-old wants to make pea soup??  It turns out Minty thought she could see a smiley face in olive oil drizzled on top of the soup in the cookbook photograph!  She was like a fanatical christian who had seen a vision of Jesus in her burnt toast.  So rather than quash her delusion, I used it to my advantage and we made the soup for dinner tonight.  The fact that the kids cooked and willingly finished a bowl of pea soup was more of a miraculous transformative event than any holy apparition in some charred baked goods.  The kids may as well have been speaking in tongues!

And now just a little disclaimer of sorts. There have been a number of comments about how 'huge' the new house looks.  I thought it prudent to mention that I've been shooting the house with a 17-40mm wide angle lens - which is kind of like looking at the house through one of those fat inducing fun house mirrors (you know objects may be closer than they appear and all that jazz).  Just thought I should mention this in case I invite you over at some point in the future and you are expecting to arrive at something akin to Candy Spelling's mansion, with 27 bathrooms and a gift wrapping room and you are disappointed when all you find is a regular sized house.  Ok glad we cleared that up.

Pizza scrolls and an apology...

I've been a bit slack sharing recipes lately.  A few people emailed me asking for details about my calzones (back in August!!!) and I was fully intending to do a post with the full recipe.  Then I got busy and forgot about it.  Apologies, I'll try and get around to it soon.  In the mean time, I hope you all enjoy this recipe for pizza scrolls that I've been playing around with.

This is my answer to those mini pizza rolls that the kids nag for whenever we walk past Bakers Delight.  I always feel a little guilty when I buy them since I think we can safely assume that those weird little processed ham pieces come from factory farmed pigs.  Now that coles stocks free range bacon it's pretty easy to make a much yummier, guilt free alternative at home (and it's also a great way to get the kids to eat a few more veggies at snack time).  The basic dough recipe could be used for all kinds of different scrolls - you could do sweet ones with fruit or even some hazelnut spread or chocolate ganache if you're feeling devilish! 

For the dough:

375g self raising flour

57g butter

1 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 220C.  Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips to form a sandy texture.  Stir in the milk with a fork then knead to form dough.

Next make filling of your choice.  Here is what I used…

basic tomato pasta sauce (either home made if you have it or from a jar if you're feeling lazy)

grated cheese

1 onion diced

6 slices bacon diced

1 tbspn olive oil

1 finger eggplant sliced finely

1 zucchini grated

Fry the onion and bacon in olive oil until the bacon is crispy.  Add the eggplant and saute until beginning to soften.  Add the zucchini and saute for a minute or two until beginning to soften.

Divide the dough into two parts.  Roll each into a long rectangle (approx 12x6 inches and 1/4 inch thick - don't get too pedantic though these are just rough estimates!).  Spread the dough with a couple of tablespoons of tomato sauce.  Spread over the vegetables and then sprinkle with grated cheese.  Roll from the long edge to form a long sausage shape and cut each of your two sausages into 8 pieces.  Put on a tray lined with baking paper and sprinkle with some more cheese.

Bake for approx 18 mins.  Keep an eye on them - the oven is pretty hot and you don't want them to burn.  If they look like they're getting a bit too brown too early you can always pop some foil on top.

These taste best straight from the oven when they're still warm.

This week in the kitchen...

Very quick and easy raspberry sorbet (gently heat 1 cup sugar with 1 cup water to make a syrup, then blend with 1 cup frozen raspberries.  Add a squeeze of lemon juice.  Pop in the freezer for half an hour to chill and then churn in your ice-cream machine.  If you don't have an ice-cream machine you can just leave it in the freezer for a couple of hours, stirring every half hour or so to keep the texture light)

Green tea ice-cream made with some very special matcha powder I bought in Japan.  Matcha is an incredibly popular flavour in Japan (probably akin to vanilla here in Aus) - you can get matcha flavoured kit kats, cookies, ice-cream - just about anything you can think of.  It really is delicious and I couldn't get enough of it when we were in Tokyo.

I just had to show you a photo of this packaging!  After wrapping the matcha tin with intricate origami style folds the lady in the shop presented it to me and said in a self-deprecating way 'is this ok?'  Amazing!  I wanted to hug her and ask her for gift wrapping lessons!!

Pumpkin and asparagus quiche (recipe found here).  I was too tired to make pastry and this was just a week-night dinner so I cheated by lining a greased pie dish with thinly sliced slightly stale bread and then pouring over an egg beaten with a little milk to moisten it.  I'm not going to try and tell you it's as good as pastry (because let's face it, nothing is as good as pastry!) but it's certainly passable as a quicker and healthier alternative.

Wholemeal spaghetti with kale and swiss brown mushrooms sautéed with some onion and garlic in a little home-made chicken stock.

This week in the kitchen...

The Mr. caught a load of garfish so I made Thai fishcakes (sorry no pictures of the actual fish cakes - I was too busy eating them!)  I'm a big fan of garfish for a couple of reasons: firstly they are sustainable since they are small and prolific; secondly they are really good for you since you can eat the small bones which are a great source of calcium;  and most importantly they are very yummy!  Since I was making the fish cakes for the kids I popped the gar through my grinder (after I'd gutted them and removed the heads and spines) on the fine setting to make sure all the bones were thoroughly crushed.  

The Mr. also caught some crabs which we used in a creamy pasta sauce.  The kids had great fun playing with the live crabs and examining all the different parts.  I think it's really good to get them involved with their food so they have a sense of where it's coming from.

My new favourite way to use excess veggies from our weekly veg box is in calzones.  They're a bit easier for the kids to manage than a regular pizza and you can hide things like rainbow chard, that they wouldn't normally be too keen on, inside!!  Plus the left overs make a great packed lunch for the Mr. to take to the building site the next day.

As always shoot me an email or comment if you'd like more info or recipes for any of the above.