Delicious

Best ever pumpkin soup recipe here.........

Seriously...bestest....nom nom

xox

Feeling Blue

The School Hols seem to be zapping by at light speed. Good as I'm looking forward to returning to 'some kind of normal', not so good as I feel I haven't 'done' a lot of 'things' with the kids...get my drift?

We were very fortunate, however, to spend some time with my one of my faves and hang out for the day in Pohangina valley. There is a blueberry farm not too far from our place, and the kids and I had a total blast picking blueberries, Alex managed to fit 32 in his mouth at once...later complaining of a sore tummy!!! ( he rather fancied the sour ones!) My beautiful friend Tink, who came a picking with us (Twas her idea, bless her!) has just started her own blog 'milkface' So please pop over and say hello, she has a beautifully honest way of writing and I always enjoy reading what she has to say.

I was extremely lucky to go to her Mama's & snap some pics of her totally amazing house, it truly was like something Bilbo Baggins could live in. I had a very healing day breathing in the fresh country air, sharing delicious whole foods and sharing the company of like minded souls.

Here are some pics of their amazing whare......

And now to (finally) acknowledge the 'new year'

Like many of you amazing bloggers, I have attempted to set some 'new year' goals as opposed to resolutions.

Things that have been in the back of my mind for some time, and perhaps need the 'new year' excuse to be kicked into action?!

1: Sit my full license (I've had my restricted for 11 years would you believe?)

2: Start piano lessons (two of our children have been blessed with the opportunity to take music lessons, only to grow prematurely tired of them. I have ALWAYS wanted to be able to learn the piano, so I have decided to take it upon myself that I shall ignore the feelings of being selfish, & grasp this opportunity as an adult, with the passion I had 20 years ago, and dive on in....watch this space)

3: Go back to work....! Yes working, and NO not that full time work that some Mother's do, along with juggling everything else (I am not one of those!) But prior to having Ginny, I did part time work massaging some of the local IHC. I loved this...have missed it so much, and now that Gunny is not quite so demanding on the breast, I feel like the time is right to return.

4: Make my vege garden the mecca of green goodness! Yep my garden has suffered some neglect over the past 18 or so months, 2012 is going to be an opportunity to learn more self sufficient techniques, eat A LOT more from our garden/ local produce etc, all in the face of the current 'food bill bullocks'!

So....any good blueberry recipe's?

What's for tea?

I recently found an amazing recipe for a 'yum as' dip.

It went quite nicely with my little lamb pies, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Little lamby pies

300gms (ish) minced lamb

1 onion diced

2-3 cloves of garlic crushed

1 tsp cumin

1 chopped chili

2 tsp paprika

2 Tbsp tomato paste

1 hand full of fresh mint chopped

2 Tbsp of pine nuts or sunflower seeds

Vege of your choice I used a big bunch of chopped kale but you can do what ever you fancy, or none at all!

2 sheets of puff pastry

Oven to 180C

Cut the pastry into 1/4's and pop into 'monstor muffin' pans or something equivalent.

Brown mince, drain fat, add onion, garlic & spices, then T-paste, vege, mint & seeds. simmer, adding more liquid if needed ( this mix is dryer than your normal Spag bog mix) Set aside.

Bake some kind of wedges. I made kumera wedges. Bung your little pies in the oven until the pastry puffs nicely.

Yummy dip

Caramelize an onion in 1 Tbsp of butter for around 20min. Pop in your blender/mixer with 1 Tbsp of wine or cider vinegar, 1 Tbsp of whole grain mustard & 3/4 Cup mayonnaise.

serve it all up with fresh green salad type thingy. Yum!

P.S: I often make this mince mix and pop it in a free form gallet shape with home made short pastry, making a layer of grated cheese on the bottom first in super nice.

Enjoy! xx



Square Eggs

What's for breakfast in your house this weekend?

Pretty Carrot Muff's

Best carrot muffins ever

2 Cups Flour

3/4 Cups white sugar (raw or brown would be fine)

2 tspn Baking powder

1/2 tspn Baking soda

pinch of Salt

2 tspns Cinnamon

1 tspn mixed spice

1 Egg

1 Cup of Milk

1/2 Cup of Oil

2 grated Carrots

1/2 Cup Sultanas

1/2 Cup Walnuts (or sunflower seeds)

Sift dry ingredients, mix wet ingredients & add to dry stuff. Fold in carrot, sultanas & nuts. Spoon into muff pans & bake at 180 C- 200C depending on how mental your oven is.

Ice with cream cheese icing:

1/4 Cup cream cheese

1 Cup Icing sugar

2 Tbsp melted butter

zest of 1/2 a lemon

Beat all togeather.

Nom Nom

xxxxxx 

Domesticity

I've been an absent blogger lately.

Fleur was home with a tummy bug & Ash all week with tonsillitis

Imogen has had a very sore thrushy bottom & thrushy mouth...which became sad thrushy boobs!

Boo hoo! And now she has decided that her maximum sleep during the day will be 15 min & waking 3-4 times a night...Bliss....NOT

And to top it all off, the house my lovely thought he'd be building in 2 weeks time, which was going to be our saving grace, has fallen through...Grrrrr

So now there are all sorts of crazy ideas being thrown back & forth. A friend of ours has suggested he try out for work with him, great money but away 10 days & home for 4! Whilst myself at home with the 5 babes. I'm not too keen.....super woman I am not!

On a brighter note, I have actually been doing a little bit of 'stuff''.

In the name of thrifty-ness I have made some rather styley dish cloths out of some old towels and over locked some nice cotton fabric onto one side. They work great, were FREE & look fab hanging over my taps!

Inspired by old towels I made Imogen some super styley bibs using the same principles.

Ta daa

I have also made a merino blanket for bubs which looks rather crap in the pic, but is cool I assure you (blowing my own horn she says) Its green on the other side with a green birdie. We are lucky to have a very neat factory shop down the Kapiti coast way,about 45 min drive, which is a merino knitwear shop. End of line & factory seconds, you get top quality merino for between $5 & $15 a metre. I have just got some neat mustard, sage, charcoal & black to make the kids some leggings...which leads me to another exciting thing...I have just discovered PDF patterns on Etsy. I know..I can hear the words slow & retarded being thrown at me, but this was rather exciting for me, I'm looking forward to making some winter coats for the girls.

One last thing before I become domestic goddess again & return to my mountain of washing,

I wanted to share with you a very cool & extremely cheap recipe I found here for making your own laundry liquid, & with Rhonda's permission I am sharing it with you:

Laundry liquid:

1/2 cup washing soda

1/2 cup borax

1 cup grated soap (i used a cake of sard wonder soap but you can use anything really)

1.5 Litres of water

Essential oils ( I used 1 Tbsp of Lavender & 1 Tbsp of eucalyptus)

you don't need to add these if you're after an unscented product.

8 litres of cold water

Put the first 4 ingredients into a pot and bring to the boil, then gently simmer until the soap is dissolved.

Put this into a plastic 10 litre bucket and add cold water making the total up to approx 9.5 litres. Add your essential oils & give a good stir. Then pop into containers leaving enough room for it to be shaken as it will turn to a gel consistency. I kept mine in a lidded bucket, & refill an old eco store laundry liquid bottle as the cap measure is around 1/4 cup, what I use for each load.

This stuff is fantastic, very cheap to make. Safe for front loader machines. Smells fab & lasts our house of 7 for 3 months.

Happy brewing.



Kitchen busy

The weather today is total crap, I've lit the coal range for the first time in ages,

time to get some sewing jobs ticked off the list I think.However......

I discovered hiding in the hedgerows on Sunday...some Elderflower in bloom...

This gave me a little hope for hot summer days sipping elderflower cordial,

So I subtly pushed Ged out of the car with a bag....

and well the rest you can see for yourself xox

The other goodies getting create din the kitchen this week were a batch of home made muesli bars.

I was lying in bed when I realised that the daily lunches consumed 5 bars a day! seeing as you usually only get 6 in box, I thought....that's an average of $3 (approx) per week day....$15 a week. Enough of this frivolous spending, which we really don''t have anyway. Out came the cook book and......

Oatie slice:

1/2 C Sunflower seeds

3 C rolled oats (the porridge kind)

1 C sesame seeds

1 C wheat germ (I forgot the wheatgerm and sesame seeds and it still turned out fine)

2 1/2 C Sultanas (or your choice of dried fruit)

1 1/2 C wholemeal flour

1 1/2 tsp Baking powder

1 1/2 C Coconut

1-1/2 C Raw sugar

11 oz Butter

6 Tbsp Honey ( I can't eat honey so I made a blend of 2 Tbsp malt 4 Tbsp golden syrup)

Melt butter and honey mix pour over dry ingredients, press into 2x sponge roll tins and bake until golden...15-20min. Cut into bars when warm. xox Makes 32 bars. This recipe can easily be halved.

 

Fleur and I had a fossik in the garden and discovered that our first corn of the year was ready! So second breakfast it was. Yum.

Now were cooking up the blackberry haul, inspired by this great book called 'fruits of the earth', Gloria Nicol. A beautiful book which has many old fashioned and hedgerow inspired recipes for jam's chutney's etc....and a section on cordials which is what were making today.

Blackberry Cordial:

900gms of ripe blackberries

Sugar.

Place blackberries on a bowl with 100mls of water and boil in a double boiler for an hour breaking them up with a spoon as you go. Strain through a sieve and add 450gms of sugar for every 600mls of juice. Put this on the heat and bring JUST to the boil, remove and bottle in sterilized bottles or freeze.

I used to make a similar mix with black Doris plums which was heaven after a hot day in the garden mixed with soda water. I guess you could use this recipe as a standard for any berry cordial.

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