Grapefruit Glut - Marmalade

Our grapefruit tree is huge and I don't think we'll ever be able to consume everything it provides.  Heck, I made a HUGE batch of marmalade, numerous cakes, muffins and juice, and we didn't even make a dent.  We're very lucky that our grapefruit are sweet and not overly bitter or tart, you can drink the juice freshly squeezed, no water or sugar added.  I'll miss that once our tree is finished (or when the next storm hits).  In the mean time we can work our way through 19 large jars of marmalade - I made double batch of recipe below.

Marmalade
4 Grapefruit
2 Lemons
3.5L Water  (use only 6L for double batch)
Sugar

Wash then thinly slice or whizz up fruit in a food processor (don't throw away the pips - they have pectin that help the marmalade set).  Cover with water and leave for 8-10 hours.  I chopped mine in the morning and cooked it in the evening once the kids were in bed.

Once soaked simmer for 45 minutes or until soft and pulpy.

While fruit is cooking turn on oven to 120C.  Wash and rinse the jars and lids.  Put jars in the oven for 30 minutes and boil lids covered in water for 10 minutes to sterilise.

Once pulp has cooled slightly measure and add one of cup sugar for every cup of pulp.  Return to the heat and boil rapidly till mixture reaches 105C or setting point (drop a small blob on a frozen plate and put plate in the fridge for a couple of minutes.  Give the blob a gentle poke, if it has formed a skin that wrinkles it's ready).

Carefully full jars and screw on lids - trying to avoid getting jam everywhere like I do.

Basic Beauty

After a forage in my garden I returned to the kitchen with a very large handful of silverbeet and kale, for our easy quiche dinner.

I have never grown anything but plain silverbeet before - I don't think I'll go back, these 'rainbow brights' silverbeet and red kale are beautiful.  The chopped steams looked like jewels tumbling into the quiche dish, even Mr 3 was impressed.

Simple pleasures for our simple life.

How to Season Stainless Steel to make it Non-Stick

Sorry folks, this has been a long time coming.  It's been a busy week!  One of my boys was sick, I was busy building up to our Christmas BBQ lunch with family and friends and the garden is taking up a lot of time (I will post some results of my gardening efforts soon).

Well here it is; how to season your stainless steel cookware to make it non-stick - you don't have to rely on the stuff with nasty coatings and chemicals.

It's very easy, here are two methods (I use sunflower oil and they come up beautiful - but peanut and coconut are supposed to be even better).

Top of the Oven - Frypans or Pots
Clean pan/pot very well in hot soapy water, rinse well and dry.  Put onto a medium heat - when it is good and hot add a couple of tablespoons of oil.  Swirl the pan so the whole base and a good portion of the sides are covered.  Keep heating the pan till the oil smokes (you may need to turn up your heat a bit), let it smoke for a 10 seconds or so, you'll notice the oil starts to shimmer.  Remove the pan form the heat and let it cool completely.  Wipe out excess oil.

Inside the Oven - Baking Trays or Tins
Preheat oven to 180C.  Wash cookware with soapy water, rinse well and dry.  Once they are perfectly dry wipe a very generous coating of oil over the inside surfaces of the pan/trays, making sure you get into all the corners.  Put into the oven for 20 minutes or so, till the pans are smoking and heated through.  CAREFULLY bring out to cool and wipe off excess oil.

You're cookware is now ready to go.  Just remember, for the top of the oven don't cook things too high.  When I cook things like pancakes and pikelets on my stainless steel pan the element is only on quarter, for sauteing it's just under half.  Start low and work your way up to what works for you.
For inside the oven I roll my bread in oats or flour to be sure they'll turn out without any fuss - especially for a very wet sourdough.

Washing up depends on how much of a mess you've made.  For something like pancakes or eggs just wipe the pan out and for a bigger mess clean with hot water only - not soap.

Sounds too good to be true?  I thought I was too, but it works.  When you heat the stainless steel the structure opens up and the hot oil seeps in.  When it cools the oil is locked in giving you a nice smooth, non-stick coating.  If you wash your cookware with soap you'll wash the oil away - that's why you should only use hot water.

I have to admit the pan won't stay non-stick forever, it depends on how often you use it, if you use your stove top too high or burn things.  No problem though, you will just need to re-season your cookware every now and then, just scrub it out and repeat as above - you can't do that with Teflon fancy smansy Circulon can you!!

Flour, yeast, salt, water and PFOA?

Over years I have favoured non-stick cookware.  Supposedly easy to clean (for the first few uses anyway) and I thought buying upper end non stick would last longer and have less of the toxins I had started to hear about - not so.

After reading an article I dug a little deeper to into non-stick cookware and the upper end brands I was currently using - and it's not good.  I won't repeat too much of what I read, because you can look it up for yourself if you're interested, just do a search for non-stock chemicals or non stick carcinogens.

What really worries me is being a bread baker, I frequently have my oven set at max for chewy artisan style crusts.  This is exactly the kind of thing that can release carcinogens like PFOA from non-stick cookware.  With my upper end non-stock loaf pans showing signs of ware with bits of coating coming off I've decided to retire them - and never go back.

That's I am excited that these beauties arrived today from Amazon - my Christmas present.  They are 18/8 stainless steel with no coating that will peel away and the are punched and molded with no rolled edges or folds, so they'll be a breeze to clean.  Best of all, I will never have to spend another penny replacing peeled and very anti-non-stick tins.  And I can use them for anything else you'd put in a large loaf pan, a roast chock, banana bread, date loaf, lemon loaf, meat loaf.....
Another thing, have you put oil on a non stick pan and found a sticky coating left on after baking, which is impossible to remove - unless you got a wool scrubber out - which you can't use on non-stick?  Well no issues with that here, I can give these a good scrub if I need to with no worries - except the flawless polish, but that doesn't bother me, these are going to be some very hard working pans.  They were not cheap but I think our health is worth it and they are a lifetime investment.

I'm off the wash and season my new pans and get some bread made (I'll explain how to season your stainless steel next time - I need to get baking).

And if you're wondering why I need six, it's so I can bake 2 batches of bread right after one another and cut down baking to every 6 to 7 days, which will save power and time (which I don't seem to have a lot of at the moment with an 18 month old explorer/adventurer)

Tackling the House and Sea of Toys

With 2 tired kids happy playing I thought it was a good time to have a sit down.  But as I walked the to lounge I stood on a toy and nearly tripped on another.  I stopped and looked around.  There was a layer of toys throughout our entire lounge, dining and sunroom.  On walking down the hall with a mere handful of toys I had collected I found more toys, discarded clothes and books.  Reaching each of the boys rooms I with the now armload of things to put away I found more books, toys and clothes, some that were very far from their homes.

Right!  Something has to be done about this!  I decided to put into action an clean up method I had read about.  Instead of focusing on just one room, scrubbing every corner and walking into the next room feeling like you've got a bit of Deja Vu, you tackle your entire house in steps, I started by just doing 3 jobs and some of number 4 before it was dinner time.


ONE - Put everything away
Grab your biggest washing basket and a rubbish sack then starting in a room at one end of the house put away everything you can in that one room.  Anything that doesn't belong in that room goes in the rubbish sack  or washing basket.  Move on to the next room with the basket and rubbish sack and repeat, putting away anything in the basket that belongs in that room.  I found it easier to tip the washing basket out and sort out what I needed to put away in that room (faster than digging around in the basket).  Strip the beds as you go and throw any other washing you find into the doorway.  Once you get to the end of the house you will probably have a few things in your basket, work your way back to were to started and empty the basket.  Pick up the washing into your now empty basket and deliver it to the laundry, put a load on while you're there.
Using a rubbish sack worked well for me on a Friday, which is rubbish day, so taking the sack outside gave us the new rubbish bin liner we needed - another job done.

TWO - Dust
 Start in one corner of your house and systematically work your way around with a duster.  Dust all of the window sills, tops of doors and windows, light fittings, cobwebs from corners, shelves, light switches, top of curtains and rails, picture frames, the tops of skirting boards, everything.  I don't actually have a duster (I think they just shift the dust around) so I use the little brush attached to the end of my vacuum.

THREE - Vacuum and Clean the Floors
Go around with your vacuum over your now clear floors, finishing each room by going around the edges with the 'wand' attachment - a favourite place for pet hair to collect at our house.  Then take a hot mop to the hard floors (I use a steam mop with a few drops of teatree and lemon oil on the 'slipper' thingy - no nasty chemicals and lovely clean smell).
For something extra, in one or two rooms move all the furniture away from the walls and clean underneath it, each week do a different room.

FOUR - Clean Surfaces, Sinks and Toilet (and Windows if you have time)
I don't worry about the kitchen bench at this stage - it gets a wipe over with hot soapy dishwater every time I do the dishes.  Dish liquid and hot water does an amazing job, I fill the bathroom sink with hot water and a squirt of liquid and use this to clean the sink, surrounding area and any other surfaces.  Repeat this with any other areas with a sink - like the laundry.
Half fill a bucket with the same stuff then work your way around the house wiping down windowsills, shelves, furniture - anything that needs it.  Just make sure you wring out your cloth really well each time you rise it so you're not sloshing to much water everywhere.  Refresh both the cloth and water every now and then.  If you want to make sure surfaces are extra clean go around with a spray bottle filled with white vinegar and a cloth and use like you would a nasty chemical cleaner.
Now for the toilet.  Give it a good scrub then sprinkle baking soda all over the bowl and a throw a good couple of tablespoons into the water.  Use your vinegar spray to wet the baking soda in the bowl and pour a half cup or so into the water - fizzy toilet fun.  Now spray the rest of the toilet with vinegar and leave for 15 minutes.  I grab a wad of loo paper to wipe everything down and flush it and all the soda down the loo.
If it needs doing, clean the windows.  Grab some newspaper, screw up half into balls, dampen and put into a bucket.  Clean the windows with the damp paper and polish dry with the dry stuff.  Take the used paper out to your compost heap, breaking it up a bit - it'll love it. Why not hang out that load from number one while you're outside.

FIVE - Finish Up
Go round and make the beds, straighten pillows, do the dishes (giving the kitchen a good wipe down with the hot water), fold any washing (I always seem to have a basketful waiting for me) and put another load on if you've got it.

Now you can relax and enjoy your clean and tidy home.  With my 2 boys at my feet we managed to get steps one, two and three done in just under 2 hours.  Then for number four we just gave the bathroom sink and toilet wipe down and scrub.  Next time it will be faster as I hadn't dusted for ages.

If you're expecting friends and you're in a hurry just do steps one, three, a bit of four then five.  Heck, even doing number one while the kids are in the bath each evening makes for a less clutter and a more relaxed home.

Gingerbread

This recipe is easy, reasonably quick and super yummy!  The biscuits come out quite firm and crunchy so is a good base for a gingerbread house.  I've tried quite a few recipes and this is by far my favourite.

Gingerbread

3T Golden Syrup
75g Caster Sugar
1T Water
1t Cinnamon
1t Mixed Spice
2t Ground Ginger
75g Butter
1/2 t Baking Soda
225g Plain Flour

Turn oven on to 180C bake (or 170C fan bake).  Gently stir and melt syrup, sugar, water and spices together then bring to the boil.  After boiling for 2 minutes add the butter.  Once the butter is melted and well stirred into the syrup add the baking soda (this will make the mixture turn pale and foam slightly).  Remove from heat and stir in flour.  When cool enough to handle push dough together into a ball, gently roll out to about 4mm thick (if you push too hard the surface will crack), cut and place on ungreased baking sheet (use baking paper if the surface of your baking sheet isn't that great).  Bake for 7-10 minuets (a little longer if you're making large house pieces), until the edges are just begining to brown and underside is golden.  Cool on the tray for a few minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.  Decorate with royal icing.

Royal Icing

1 Egg White
250g Icing Sugar
Vinalle Essence

Beat egg white to soft peaks then gradually add the icing sugar till the mixture reaches a spreadable consistency.  Stir in a few drops on vanilla.  Add food colouring if you like.

6 and 7 Years - Blue Cheese Sauce and Steak

7 years ago (and one day) I met the love of my life.

After writing nearly a novel online to each other via a dating site we agreed to met at a book store cafe in Auckland city for a coffee followed by lunch.

For the 2 weeks prior we had been sending each other pop quizzes to find out more about each other.  For our first date we left our last set of questions unanswered so we had something to talk about over our nervous first coffee. I can remember sitting, sipping on my chai latte, waiting, nervous, excited!  After what seemed forever (which was only quarter of my latte) he arrived.  Tall, brown haired, blue eyed and handsome.  I wriggled out from out behind the table and we broke the ice as planned with a hug, the kind of hug you give a friend when you meet.  Hear racing and n-n-nervous I returned to my seat while he ordered a coffee.  Soon nerves and pop quizzes were forgotten, conversation and laughs flowed as we drank and decided to explore the city.  Our coffee was followed by bumping knees in an arcade, a sushi lunch at an Asian Food Hall, admiring the huge yachts at the waterfront and taking a look around the then reasonably new Britomart Train Station.  The afternoon quickly disappeared and we decided to get dinner at a ramen noodle bar.  A flask of warm sake and a couple of big bowls of miso noodle soup later we decided to see a movie before parting ways.

Twelve hours after our first date began I was delivered safety home, we agreed that we had both had a fantastic time and we'd like to see each other again.  We have never looked back, 3 months later we talked of getting engaged and 364 days after our first date we wed.  Six years later I am sharing my life with my best friend, we have 2 amazing little boys, a home in the country with animals and a big garden, things we dreamed of together when we fell in love.  Simple pleasures are what fill our lives, and I couldn't be happier.


Blue Cheese Sauce and Steak - Anniversary Dinner

2T Butter
2 Medium Onions, sliced
1T Four
1C Milk
1/2C Blue Cheese, Crumbled

2 Steaks (we had home kill scotch fillet)
Oil
Salt and Pepper



Put a pan on med-low heat and melt the butter (put another pan on medium for the steak).  Add the onions to the butter and cook gently for 10 or so minutes until golden (stir only every minute or so)).  Meanwhile oil and season your steak and cook in another pan.
Once the onions are golden (your steak should be cooked and  resting by now) add the flour to the onions and after another minute add the milk.  Stir continuously until the sauce has thickened then add the blue cheese, continue stirring until it has melted.  Serve steak over the blue cheese sauce.  We had ours with fresh salad from the garden, home made pasta tossed with pesto.

This sauce is amazing for something so simple - and if you love blue cheese like I do this is drool worthy stuff.

Spring Rain

I may not appreciate the spring extremes of super hot and cold rainy days but my garden sure does.  Everything is looking healthy and growing so fast I can barely keep up with pinching out sideways growth and training vines and tomatoes up stakes.
 

Kale, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Iceberg Lettuce, Spring Onions and Oregano - with old nesting box bedding as mulch.

My cucumbers, tomatoes and zucchinis all have tiny little fruit starting to form, seeds are striking  with very little encouragement and I'm sure that the white cabbage butterflies are being snapped up by the chickens before they can get to my tender young kale, broccoli and cauliflower.

  After taking my boys to the local doctors office this morning for a checkup and immunisations, then fueling up at the cafe with hot chocolates, we headed home to do some seed sowing.  I've set myself up a table in the corner of our carport to do my potting - which is an excellent spot out of the heavy spring rain.  Today I planted sunflower, zucchini, chives, lemongrass seeds and moved the marigolds that Mr 3 planted in my lettuce only poly-garden to my watering-can door stop.

Runner Beans reaching for the sky

Old watering can turned into a planting/door stop

This garden is the best I have every grown.  Beautiful sweet LIVE lettuces, copious amounts of spinach and spring onions and the occasional radish and Asian vegetables.  I'm loving it.  We're slowly spending less and less at the green grocer to reflect the increased productivity of the garden.  And even better, I know where everything has come from and it is all spray free.

Poly-gardens - the first one has been mostly harvested with new seeds planted this week - the second box is ready to go

 The chicks are growing at an amazing speed - they pretty much double in size each week.  Emmy Lou is doing a fantastic job and the chicks are wondering father and father from her side as they grow and gain confidence.  Loving our little bit of the good life.

Cheap Cheap Yoghurt

We go through a kilogram of yoghurt pretty much every week.  It only costs us $2 for a 1 kilo batch of low fat natural style yoghurt - a kilo tub at the supermarket costs $7!

Each month I purchase one plain Ezy-Yo sachet for about $3.60 - this makes us 4 kilos of yoghurt.  I half fill my yoghurt jar with water and add 100g of skim milk powder (125g is if you're using standard milk powder).  Then add a quarter of the yoghurt sachet, that's about 35g.  Give it a good stir, top up with water and put in your yoghurt maker for 10 hours.  So easy, so cheap and so good for you.

The yoghurt sachets are pretty much milk powder with active cultures - the cultures multiply to fill the jar so it's still works out fine only using a portion of the sachet.

Pesto in the Garden

After a very hot weekend it was time for a very quick and simple dinner for me and my 3 hungry boys.  Pappa Bear got the BBQ going with home kill sausages while I chucked some pasta in a pot, bashed up some basil, parsley and pinenuts then grabbed lettuce, borage flowers and spring onion from the garden.

My window sill is under control and the pesto was delicious.  It would have much nicer with homemade pasta - but kneading pasta is not something I want to be doing when it's almost 27 degrees in the kitchen.

The breeze and evening sun in the garden was wonderful, so we ate alfresco with Emmy Lou and her chicks at our feet snaffling up anything our babies dropped.  Bliss.

Not the flashest meal, but when you're hungry and dinner only takes 20 minutes then it's perfect!

Pesto

Pinenuts
Olive Oil Fresh basil and parley
Parmesan (or just plain cheese like colby and a pinch of salt)

Put a drizzle of olive oil and a handful of pinenuts in a pan on medium heat.  Keep moving nuts around in the pan till they are nicely browned then remove from heat.   With mortar and pestle bash up four or five handfuls of basil/parley leaves till they almost form a paste.  Pour in the oil and pinenuts and stir to break them up (or totally pulverize them if you like your pesto smooth).  Lastly, stir in some grated Parmesan.  I didn't have any Parmesan in the fridge, so I just used Colby and added a good pinch of salt - all good.  Serve with bread, on pizza, stir trough pasta like we did with a little more extra virgin olive oil - there's loads of uses for it.

Time for Pesto?

I think my kitchen window sill is going to start attracting wildlife if I don't give it a trim.  Sweet Genovese Basil and Coriander in tin cans and a Giant Sunflower from the School Gala (which needs to be moved to the garden).  I'll think up something to go with Pesto in the next day or two and post the results.

My tin cans are not the flashest thing on this earth, but they do the job and were pretty much free.

Herman the German

My lovely sister-in-law gave me some of her Herman starter last week.  To be precise, Herman the German Friendship Cake.

To start with, I didn't read the instructions in full - so thought all I had to do was mix and add ingredients every 5 days.  Turns out you're supposed to give Herman a good old beating every day - oops.  Any way, we reached day 10 yesterday (baking day).  I was too busy with Friday play group, chasing chickens and tending to the garden to bake so Herman was divided and baked this morning.

The idea is that you quarter Herman, bake with some and give away the rest - but that's something you cannot really do at 6am, on Saturday, in your PJs.  So with a monster batch of Herman starter and hungry kids I decided to keep quarter for another starter, make 2 cakes and whip up pancakes with the rest.  Let's just say the kids aren't hungry any more and I now have a good way to use up extra Herman starter.

The Herman cake calls for a lot of sugar and some cooking apples, which I don't have.  I replaced apples with ripe bananas from my fruit bowl and halved the sugar.

 
 Herman Pancakes

1/4 of a 10 Day Old Herman Starter
1 Giant Freaky Frida Egg (1 or 2 normal eggs would work too)
4 T Plain Flour
1t Baking Powder
Splash of Milk

Beat starter, egg, flour and baking powder together.  Add a splash or 2 of milk and stir again.  Keep adding milk till you get a pancake batter consistency (or leave slightly thicker and make pickelets).  Grease your frypan and cook on med-low heat as the sugar in the starter tends to burn if you cook too high.  Flip pancake over when bubbles appear on the surface.  Cook the other side for a minute or so.  We had our with Fig and Ginger conserve that I got from Peplers Fine Foods - just down the road.  Beautiful.

Seasonal

Living off one income has it's challenges, but by thinking carefully about what we buy, sticking to seasonal produce and putting a little time and effort into making plenty of homemade food and cleaning products we save heaps of money at the supermarket.

I was talking to a lady at our local farm supply shop yesterday (while I brought chicken food) about how I only go to the supermarket once a month with a budget of $360 dollars for a family of 4 (that's $90 a week) and a weekly fruit and vege shop which averages at $30 dollars.  She was amazed and couldn't understand how we get by on so little.  We don't just 'get by' though, we eat varied and interesting meals, which change with the seasons.

Eating seasonal is very important if you want to cut down on your shopping bills - heck, we never have capsicum when it's out of season - why would you?  They cost up to 5 dollars each in winter, which is madness, that same $5 can buy you something like 4 heads of broccoli, or 2 or 3 big pumpkins, or a truck load of carrots, even a fortnights worth of onions and potatoes!
The same goes for fruit, in season and fresh is always best, and cheaper - so don't buy sad looking oranges that have spent goodness knows how long shipping over from the US, grab a bag of fresh, kiwi grown pears, apples or kiwifruit for nearly half the price.

I generally stick to produce that is under $4 a kilo - so tomatoes are off the table for a good part of the year.  My husband loves them on sandwiches but at nearly $2 for an average sized tomato it's just silly, so we're agreed that for something moist and juicy in his lunches over winter we opt for tinned beetroot (which we by in bulk when it's on special).  A big tin for $1.80 will last him a week - that's if the kids and I don't get into it - the bank account and Pappa Bear are happy.

Most fruit and vege shops put ads in the local rag, so look over the specials and plan your meals around the fruit and vege you can load up on for a bargain.

I have lots of other things to share with you on budgeting, but washing is waiting in the machine and dishes are calling.  So till next time, take care and start getting seasonal.

A week in our piece of paradise

It's been an awesome week.

We started our week with new arrivals, 8 little chicks.  They are all growing super fast and are sporty some small wing feathers.  Then we did our monthly shop so our larder is full to the brim - I stocked up on all the basics, flour, butter, oil, tinned tomatoes, wheat bix, milk powder and soap - and come in well under budget, bonus.  While I was in town I also popped into the green grocer for our weekly shop of fruit and vege - loving that asparagus and strawberries are in season - yum!

Sleepy Sunny Chiks

 On Thursday night I went out with my sister-in-law for a ladies night and AGM for our playgroup - and I was voted in as Treasurer for the executive committee. Exciting times, it's great that I can get involved with something to benifit my kids - and others.

We spent Saturday at the local school Gala - they haven't had one for 6 to 7 years, I hope we don't have to wait that long for the next one, it was awesome.  My baby bears and I wondered around buying plants, sweet treats and watched the firemen making fireballs with hot oil (don't ever put water on a oil/fat fire - BOOM!).  Mr 3 got his face painted as batman and had loads of fun running around in a semi-inflated hot-air balloon.  He is super chuffed with his fire engine poster on his bedroom wall, a real fireman gave it to him.  Then he spent the evening telling Pappa Bear all about the firemen rescuing someone from a crashed car with the jaws of life - I had to spend quite some time reminding him that it was just a show - he was worried the boy that got to be rescued was sick.  Cute little man.

We finished the weekend with Nana and Poppa making a surprise visit from town.  Our baby bears spent the afternoon going up and down our drive with Nana, Poppa and their cousins while mummy and daddy worked.  My husband illustrates for a kids bi-monthly magazine, I help out by colouring in his cartoons using photoshop - we make a good team.  Nana and Poppa stayed for a BBQ hamburger dinner with home made burger buns and lettuce from the garden.

This week was started clearing out our basement - I had chicken feed everywhere along with hay and a collection of cardboard boxes.  Now my basement is clean and orgaisied - finally!  It's a job I've put off for ages.

One more thing before I go, I want to show you an egg from my 'Freaky' Frida.  She produces 2 yolks a day.  She is a New Zealand Shaver so has been bread to produce a lot of eggs, but this is crazy.  If she doesn't lay a double yolker in the morning she will randomly plop about a second 'softy' during the day.  A softy is our name for a an egg for a very thin, rubbery soft shell.

The pale egg is from our Langshan hen, it is about a size 6, it is quite skinny and long.  The dark brown is from our other shaver, Dixie, about a size 7, short and fat.  The last egg is Frida's, and it is huge!!  Long and very round and fat.  It has to be a double yolker.  The photo doesn't really do it justice - the Frida egg is at least twice as big as the pale Langshan egg, I can't close my fingers around it.

Freaky Frida

Eight out of Eleven

We finished off yesterday with 9 chicks hatching, one of which died, and last 2 Eggs still showing no signs on life.  This morning Emmy Lou brought her now dry and very hungry 8 chicks out into her brood run.  She is showing them what's good to eat while sitting very close to the ground so they can pop underneath her for warmth.

 
Sadly she left the last 2 eggs to go cold.  I brought them inside and shone a light through them (called candling).  One was completely transparent, no embryo, so had not developed at all, I carefully put this one in the middle of our rubbish sack outside - it will stink if it cracks I'm sure.  I had a suspicion that one of the eggs had gone bad - for the last few days when I lifted Emmy Lou for exercise there was a very slight rotten egg smell in the nest.  The other was dark - I wondered if the chick had died from Emmy Lou leaving it to get cold?  I gently cracked open the stone cold egg and found a nearly fully developed chick, my uneducated guess would say it died about a week ago.  I think Emmy Lou knew these 2 eggs wouldn't hatch so she'd moved to her focus to the hungry mouths she has to feed.  Good girl.

6 Yellow Chicks and 1 Brown

Soda Bread

With Mr 3 going to daycare and no bread in the house I had to whip up something quick for lunches.  I decided to give soda bread a go.  It turned out really nice, I little heavier than our standard home made bread but still lovely, moist and crusty.

Soda Bread

2C Wholemeal Flour
2C Plain Flour
1t Salt
1t Baking Soda
425ml Buttermilk

Mix flours, salt and baking soda together.  Stir in buttermilk and bring together to a rough, sticky dough.  Turn onto floured bench and gently knead 4 or 5 times to bring together into a ball (do not over work!).  Shape into a ball then flatten a little into a disk and dust with flour.  Line a tray with baking paper and put on the dough.  Slash a nice deep cross in the top and bake for 30-40 minutes at 200C.  Easy.

The bread is only good for a day - perfect for sandwiches, with cheeses or for wiping up your soup bowl.  Any left overs can be turned into garlic bread, or, just toast it like you would bread for breakfast.

Butter Milk

I come across quite a few recipes needing buttermilk.  Its acidity helps activate rising agents, keeping baking moist and adds a delicious tang to buttermilk pancakes (I'll post recipe next time I make them).

Here's is how I make my buttermilk alternative, it only takes 5 minutes.  I use powdered milk and it still works fine.

Buttermilk

1T Lemon Juice or Vinegar
Almost 1C Milk

Put juice into measuring jug, top up with milk to measure 1 cup.  Leave at room temperature for 5-10 minutes.  You now have butter milk.

Look what Emmy Lou Did!

I took Emmy Lou off her nest to have a feed this morning (read up and I should continue the 20-30 minute exercise and eating routine).  She was ravenous!  But more importantly she has some new arrivals this morning.  I put a towel over the nest so it was warm and quiet while she ate.  There are four little chicks and more eggs are starting to hatch too.  Look closely at the photo and you'll see cracks in the eggs.  You can even see the egg tooth on the end of the chicks beaks.

I'll make sure I remove hay in the nest next time it's open, don't want the chicks getting tangled

I set up her brooder box/run with some chick food - which will be moved under the cover thingy so that only chicks can eat it once they know what to do with it, Emmy Lou shouldn't really eat it for long - not the right food for a layer hen.  I also set up a water bowl with rocks in it (so the chicks won't drown), wheat for mumma and some greens.  It's not The Ritz or anything, but I'm sure we'll manage.

The new meat run is nearly complete, Emmy Lou will spend a week with her babies in the brooder while they get strong and know what food to eat, then they'll all move to the run.  We'll shift the brooder every other day or so, then there will be fresh grass to eat and bugs to find.

There's Cracks in Them Thar Eggs!

I didn't get Emmy Lou out of the brooder box today for her walk around the garden - her chicks are due very soon so I didn't want to take her away from her babies (I've heard her talking to them for a day or 2, they mustn't be far away).  As dusk was setting in I thought I'd give her a quick look over and offer her food.  After she turned up her nose at her food bowl I went to put her back on her eggs - and there are CRACKS!  Yay, some little babies should emerge by the morning.  So exciting!

Pappa Bear came home with chick raising food today so I'll put some in the run so they have tucker if they come out of the box in the morning.  I've also left some radicchio leaves and barley for Emmy Lou, I'm sure she'll be ready for a feast when she can leave the nest for longer.

I'll be keeping an ear out for peeps in the morning.

I mustn't get too excited or attached though, these birds are destined for the table.

Sorry Emmy Lou - we're gonna eat your (adopted) babies.

Garden Pesto and Eat Your Weeds

Pizza night!

While Mr 1 is having a nap - he's doing some serious growing at the moment - Mr 3 and I spent the afternoon kneading dough, collecting greens from the garden and constructing our pizzas.  He was super excited about bringing veges inside that he helped me pick from the garden, spring-onions, spinach, silverbeet, borage leaves and flowers, herbs and foraged weeds.  We whipped up a pesto and chopped up everything leftover to spread on our pizzas.

Mr 3 selected everything to go on his pizza, even olives, wicked!

You can add what ever you like to pesto really, once I made it mainly with spinach, garlic and a few nastersian leaves.  When it was cooked on our pizzas it tasted and looked like cooked avocado - the strangest thing, but super yummy!

This pesto is just a bit peppery from the nastersian and bitter cress.  We didn't even need the ham tonight with all our tasty toppings, I fished it out of the freezer because it needed using.

Garden Pesto

2 big handfuls of Borage Leaves
Handful each of Borage Flowers, Parsley (stalks and all), Nastersian Leaves and Bitter Cress (Edible Weed Cardamine hirsuta, part of the mustard family)
A Few Sage and Tarraon Leaves
4 Cloves Garlic
A Few Slugs of Olive Oil

Give garlic cloves a quick chop and chuck into a blender with the other greens (I use a magic bullet, making paste, smoothies and mush is the only it's good food - chopping, dicing, yeah right!).
Add a slug of oil and blend.  Adding a one slug of oil at a time till you get a good spreadable consistancy.  Add salt and pepper if you like.  Extra can be frozen.

If you want to upgrade it to 'posh' pesto, pulse in a handful of pinenuts and grated Parmesan - doesn't freeze so well with nuts and cheese, they go rancid a lot faster than the greens/herbs.

Go Go Poly-Garden

The little poly-garden is working out fantastic.  Only 5 weeks after the seeds were sown and a dose of chicken-poo tea last week and we have salad ready to harvest.  The Gourmet Mix leaves can be taken from the outside of the plants but I'm going to leave the Tom Thumb to form hearts.

Water, sun and chicken-poo tea

10 Days ago, seedlings looking good and more sown in second box

The seeds sown in the second box are coming along nicely too, by the time our first box starts to look a little tired there will be more salad greens ready to go.  Our kitchen is right by the front door, so we can easily grab a few leaves for sandwiches and salads.

Bacon and Eggs for Lunch

On Saturday my husband was putting up fencing for another chicken run.  We're hoping to have a few little fluffy chicks this week, so are making a new area for them.  The initial plan is to keep the laying girls in their run for the morning while they lay and let the meat birds have the yard, then opposite for the afternoon.  We plan on doing this because of their different diet requirements.  Young and meat birds need more protein and layers more calcium.

I had a bacon and egg pie in mind for our lunch after spending the morning in the garden but time got away on us, with only 40 minutes till noon I opted for an easy quiche instead.  After a rummage in the garden I found spring onion and spinach.  With the eggs, feta and bacon already in the house I chopped everything up, covered with the eggy mix and put it in the oven.  Just as Mr 3 came in to ask for 'dinner' (his name for every meal), it was ready.  We chomped it down with salad and had left overs for dinner, it was super tasty.

Broody hens and our First Strawberries

After having Dolly our Buff Barnevelder go broody and spending a day in a box I found another hen in our compost and cuttings pile.  She was one very angry hen!  It was kind of scary to see our quietest most laid-back chicken go crazy.  Squawking and screaming at me with most of her breast feathers plucked out.

When I went to visit her for the second time, without my dog, she was much quieter.  She even left her nest to see if I had food.  I manged to get hold of her and put her in the box that Dolly had just vacated.  Once she had laid an egg in there, out of the comfort of her nest, she forgot about being broody.  It's not something I relish doing, but hens are not free to keep and we have hens for eggs.  If they start sitting they stop laying.  I don't mind having one sitting at a time (to get some meat birds started for us), but three sitting at once, no way!

 

We also found our first strawberries this week.  I have have 6 suckers from my sister in law growing on the front steps.  They weren't super sweet but very tasty, I'm sure they'll get better as the weather gets warmer.  Maybe I'll get enough to make a little pot of jam.

Snail Hunt

I had been eagerly awaiting Spring.  Warmer days, seeds sprouting with very little encouragement and adventures in the garden with my boys - which we have been enjoying.  The one thing I had forgotten about is the nasty little invaders that awake and begin munch on unprotected seedlings as soon as darkness falls.

I was even silly enough to think my seedlings and poly-garden on my front steps would be safe.  Why would slugs and snails venture up onto a deck?  Well they did, and in 2 nights they wiped out a dozen smalls basil plants I had in a small trough, right down to the potting mix, then started on a smaller pot of basil - then the poly-garden!  Time to wage war.

Last night I ventured out into the garden by the cover of darkness and found them in masses.  I must have dispathced over 40 huge snails and twice as many slugs in the main garden.  The biggest and fattest snail I found was on the now empty trough on my front steps - it even smelt of basil when I squashed it.  Little bugger.

This is a cheap and very effective method of control and I have a tip for you, when the heat of the day has passed give the area around your garden a light sprinkle with a hose - this will invite the slugs and snails out sooner becuase they don't have to wait for the evening due to fall to ease their journey into your beloved garden.

Our Emmy Lou is still sitting on her eggs.  Every day I open her brood box and gently lift her off her precious eggs, I think she welcomes my visits now too, she doesn't growl, hiss or try to leap out of my arms.  I check her for lice and mites, stroke her head until she awakes from her nesting slumber then let her have a feed and scratch around in the garden.  There is a strict time limit of 30 minutes so her eggs don't go cold.  It's funny to see how she's changed while she sits on her eggs, Emmy Lou holds her tail very wide and upright (like a male turkey).  When our dog goes near her or the box she goes bananas, squawking and fluffing up her feather.  I think she's going to make a good mumma.

I very gently lifted each of her 11 eggs this morning.  The all feel quite light except for 2 - which I suspect will be duds.  We shall see in about 8 days time - very exciting.

We've had another hen go broody, but it is too close to Christmas to let her sit (we would like to spend a few weekends at the beach), so I have removed her from the nesting box and she going to be seeing out the next 2 days in a box under a tree.  The theory is that if she has nowhere to sit and make a nest she should stop being broody - we shall see.  She is very angry hormonal hen at the moment - I hope she'll forgive me.  She can have a turn in the brooding box after Christmas.

Foot Frustration

I planted some zucchini and pumpkin seeds about a month ago and they outgrew their paper pots within a couple of weeks.  I've had an addition to the vege garden planned for them but with a foot injury I haven't been able to dig the new garden - very frustrating.  My lovely husband spent a good hour of his only day of this week digging it for me.  This morning Mr 3 and I finished digging in compost and lime then planted out zucchini, pumpkins, spring onion and silver beet.  We also put some spinach in another garden to replace the bucketful we brought inside with us for dinner.  I think I'll make my cheats risotto with leftover sausages and the spinach.

New plot along the right fence line - can't wait to have zucchini on the BBQ

I have discovered something lurking on my grapevines, the leaves are blistered with white fluff on the underside.  With thoughts and chopping down and burning, pinching off all the infected leaves or nasty sprays I was glad to find it is a harmless leaf mite - which won't hurt grape production, only looks.  Phew!!

Leaf mite blisters on the grape vine

Pappa Bear also put up a swing at the weekend which has been the source of a lot of fun today, along with bubbles which had Mr 1 squealing with delight.

Poly-Garden

Good timing!  I had just flicked through a library book on container gardening where I had seen a polystyrene box turned into planter - I was very interested to try it (the thick poly box keeps water and heat in for longer - great for lettuces).  Then out of the blue my lovely father-in-law brought down 2 for me - perfect!

I had some lettuce seedlings on the go so I've planted them in one box and seeds have just been sown in the other.  So far the lettuce seedlings have doubled in size in just 4 days.

My 3 year old got into my seed box just after watching me sow the Tom Thumb lettuces.  I came back to find the last of my marigold seeds had been planted for me too.  Luckily the seedlings will look very different, so if the marigolds do come up I can prick out and move them.  I'll have to get another box  - then he can paint the sides and I can be his very own garden.

Looking forward to having salad right outside the kitchen for lunches - will post our results.

Orange Chocolate Muffins

After an action packed day I knew my boys would be wanting something scrummy for afternoon tea - so I experimented with orange chocolate muffins.  They turned out really good!

My instructions may seem strange - sifting dry ingredients over wet, but I don't like to create extra dishes by sifting into different bowls, so I just sift right over the wet.

Orange Chocolate Muffins
Makes 12

50g Oil or Spread
75g Sugar
1 Egg
1t Vanilla Extract
85g Plain Flour
85g Wholemeal Flour
20g Cocoa Powder
1t Baking Powder
Zest and Juice of 1 Orange
Milk
1/2 t Baking Soda

Grease or line 12 muffin tins and preheat oven to 200C on bake.  Cream together oil and sugar then beat in egg and vanilla.  Sift flours, cocoa powder and baking powder (put wholemeal husks back into the mix) over the top of the creamed mixture.  Grate zest over top of the sifted ingredients.  Juice the orange into measuring jug.  Add enough milk to make up liquid to a 3/4 cup, dissolve soda in milk mixture.  Working quickly and gently pour milk mixture into other ingredients and fold until just combined.  Divide mixture into muffin tins and bake for 12 minutes or until they spring back after a light touch.

Housework Can Wait

My boys and I have had an awesome day - not much housework has been done but I felt like we needed a day devoted just to my boys, they have been cooped up quite a bit over the last 3 weeks, due to weather and icky colds.

We spent the first part of the morning spread out on the sunroom floor playing blocks.  When little Dylan was ready for his morning sleep Luke and I played shops and watched some Gummi Bears together till lunch time (still in our PJs).

 
Once nap time was over we had lunch together then got out the play dough. Many shapes and a few arguments later I figured the boys were ready for a run around.  We got dressed and played pirates in the garden.  With the hot afternoon spring sunshine filling the garden I pulled out a paddling pool and wound the hose around the washing line for a shower.  The boys LOVED it!  They were making so much noise our neighbour wondered over to see what all the fuss was about.

Both boys are now shattered, rugged up in the lounge playing quietly.  Mumma Bear better be sure dinner is ready a bit early - I've got a feeling dinner and bedtime will need to be early this evening.

Feijoa and Apple Crumble

I was hunting around in my freezer the other day and found a stash of feijoas.  For a feijoa fiend like me I had struck gold.  I was actually looking for some stewed apple to go with our roast pork, so I grabbed a bag of both apple and feijoa and decided on a crumble for pudding.

Ginger and feijoa are amazing together, I use this combination for muffins too - so good.  I pretty much throw this recipe together with what I can find, so have had to give a best guess on quantities.

Feijoa and Apple Crumble

2C Feijoa chunks (mine are scooped halves in a freezer bag)
1 - 2 C Stewed Apple
100g Butter
3/4C Rolls Oat, quick cook
1/2C Plain Flour
1/4C White Sugar
1t Cinnamon
1t Ground Ginger, heaped

Heat oven to 180C on bake.  Put feijoa and apple into a dish (I use a glass 1.7 litre casserole dish) and stir to combine.  Melt butter in a saucepan then remove from heat.  Stir the remaining ingredients with the melted butter and sprinkle over the top of the fruit.  Bake for 25-30 minutes until fruit is hot and top is golden.  Serve with cream, greek yoghurt or icecream.

Busy Weekend

With the weather improving I haven't had much time to post lately - I'm spending quite a bit of time in the garden.

Since my last post we had an awesome long Labour weekend - the highlight was our Free Range Foodie Saturday lunch based around my new Annabel Langbein - A Free Range Life cook book.  The weather was stunning, the food we easy and delicious, and best of all, we had lots of family visit.  Here are photos from the day.

On Sunday my sister-in-law and I went to a poultry farm to collect eggs for her broody hen.  She selected Sussex Light and Australorp, good multi-purpose birds - eggs and meat.  If both our hens sit well over the next 3 weeks we should both have fluffy chicks to keep an eye on over the Christmas period.

Sunday was spent toiling away in the garden.  Between us my husband and I got fruit trees planted, the lawns mown, some edges tidy, cut back trees, converted a steel drum to a broiler chicken coop and planted out some seedlings.

When we brought our house in Te Kauwhata 6 months ago it had been neglected.  Over grown plants, weeds everywhere and trees in need of shaping.  It seems to be taking a long time to get on top of things, but I have to remind myself that we're not in a race, I have 2 lovely little boys that take up a lot my time and we need to observe our garden over the coming seasons to decide what we need to do.  For example, we were going to chuck and plum tree in the garden last week - but after sitting back, just for 7 days, some lovely Hostas have raised their heads.  We would have destroyed them with the spade if we hadn't waited.

This is what my backyard looks like this afternoon - the sun is shining, a light breeze from over the hill and the roses filling the garden with an amazing smell.  Spring Bliss!

A persimmon tree in its new home and a lime tree waiting to be planted, now that the shabby
old camellias have been cut back

The vege garden is starting to put more and more on our table each month.
Looking forward to tomatoes over summer.

Good afternoon shade in the hottest part of the day

Brooder Box

Poor Emmy Lou!

With Emmy Lou taking up one of only two nesting boxes our other layers were getting a bit desperate.  Twice I went to collect eggs and found one of the layers trying to get in with Emmy Lou to lay - despite her growls and raised hackles - bird brains I tell ya!

My husband and I set about making her a brooding box and run - quick smart.  We didn't want any more eggs broken or Emmy Lou to get frustrated and not want to sit anymore (our youngest hen was having a practice at nesting the other morning while Emmy Lou was eating - kicked one egg out of the nest and broke another).

We searched through the off-cuts of in our wood pile and put together a plan which included an old kennel our dog has never used (she is an inside city dog - I don't think that will ever change).  It took three evenings after the kids were in bed to finish.  By the cover of darkness last night, we moved Emmy Lou to her new accommodation.  I lifted her gently and Pappa Bear arranged the eggs into the transformed beer crate.  She was eager to get back to her eggs so settled down onto them and in her new little house like a dream.

 

I have seen her twice today, she stretches her wings, tells off the other curious hens hanging around outside, eats, drinks then goes back to the business of sitting on her eggs.

A Hunt, a Finger in a Door and an Easy Quiche

While my 3 year old was at daycare yesterday, my 1 year old and I went to town for a charity shop hunt.  Our aim was to find more crockery and cutlery, firstly so we have enough for our Annabel Langbein Free Range Foodie event on Saturday.  And secondly, so I don't run out when we have guests again.

I was lucky enough to find loads of stainless steel cutlery at one shop.  None of it really matches, but I don't mind - I'm going for a shabby-chic look, and matching doesn't matter.  I also found a big pile of dinner plates, a few breakfast bowls and some bread and butter plates.  Again, none match, I'm just going for white - and shabby-chic again.  My collection might be a little more on the shabby side but I don't mind.  At least all my guests will have something solid to eat off on Saturday.

After collecting Mr 3 from daycare in the afternoon, and fixing up a broody hen with eggs, it was time to fix dinner.  After a forage in the garden for greens I was planning for this recipe to be my post, but other things took priority.  I managed to get some before shots, then my youngest got his finger caught in the door, after shots were forgotten.  The savoury yeast adds a lovely depth, and nutritional value to the dish.  I add it to a lot of cheesy dishes, it goes really well.

 

 

Easy Quiche

2-3C Veges (mine were spinach and tomatoes)
1C Cheese, grated
6-8 Eggs
1  1/2C Milk
3/4 C Flour
Salt and Pepper

Optional
1t Savoury Yeast Flakes
2T Pickle, Relish, Salsa



This fills a medium sizes lasagna dish nicely.  Turn oven on to 180C.  Lightly grease your dish.  Chop veges and put into dish with grated cheese.  Beat eggs, milk, flour, salt and pepper (and optional extras).  Pour over veges, poke down any veges trying to float out of the eggy mix.  Bake for 40 minutes till just set in the center.  Let it cool for 10 minutes or so before dishing up.  We had it with boiled potatoes.