Winter chores

Tip day. We try and delay the trip as long as we can. Taking our rubbish and recycling to the refuse station is an hour and a half return trip. Bins are loaded onto the trailer and off we go. Once at the tip, we hand over one voucher (purchased from the council offices) per rubbish bin. Recycling is free. 

The trailer is backed up to a big shipping container and our waste gets tipped into it.

Surprisingly, the tip is clean. It is winter, so there are no putrid smells.

What people throw away is amazing! All of this stuff has to go somewhere. 

I dealt with burrow loads of rose clippings this way. Shredding them for the compost heap is not worth it. Injuries from rose thorns are all too common when planting seeds and digging around in the garden beds.

The roses are all but pruned. The garden beds look empty and bare. The bulb leaves are starting to come up and the daffodils are starting to bloom. 

It was a marmalade kind of week last week. The citrus fragrance wafted through the house for days. 

There's something quite satisfying in seeing a new batch of marmalade on the bench. Orange and Cointreau was one, and the other was Three Fruits. Delicious!

Some of our little chickens that were hatched in March have started laying. I picked up this very wobbly, thin and deformed egg at the entrance to the coop. Better luck next time chookie!

The young pullets are not the only ones laying for the first time. Our young ducks have started laying too. Just look at that cute little duck egg! Oh, see the egg box? I wrote that blurb in the lid when we gathered our first dozen, nearly three years ago and gave it to Sara. This box has done the rounds and always makes it back home.

What's under the wax cloth? Mmm.... I was lucky enough to get a lesson in making sourdough bread from Angie Smales from Birregurra last week. She kindly shared her starter with me too. It's not difficult, but you do need to be patient. It's not a quick process. But it is so worth it. Thank you Angie!

The dough is sitting next to the wood stove. Rising gently.

And here are my first two loaves, baked in the wood oven. 

Simply add jam!

We were treated to another lovely rainbow a few days ago. We never tire of them. We do believe we have found the pot of gold!

Have a great weekend!

Till next time....

It's begining to feel a lot like Christmas!

The decorations are up! The pool is crystal clear. The weather promises to be fine. "Hark the herald angels sing" is playing on the CD. Aaahhhh..... It's finally time to sit back and reflect on the year that was. 

 Yo yo's, gingerbread, mince pies and chocolate fudge. Mmm.....

And this is how we will hopefully spend our Christmas. Outside in the shade of the willow tree. This pic was taken a couple of weekends ago when we had our friends Martyn and Eugenia, Richard, Crochie and Doris down for lunch.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Lazy Sundays....

We had the most beautiful weather this past Sunday. Frans and I felt distinctly lazy and spent most of the day on the front deck reading and watching the world go by. The bees were buzzing and the breeze was soft. Nala couldn't even be tempted to chase the neighbourhood dogs as they passed our front gate. She was as lazy as we were!

We DO love sitting out the front.

I read a little fiction, checked out some new recipes and dreamed of travelling again. And just to make sure I didn't waste an entire day doing nothing, I worked on a new little SBJ (Surprise Baby Jacket) for my little friend Emma's baby. The baby is not here yet, but will be in a few short weeks, so I'd better get a move on and finish this little jumper!

I have finished the little quilt I started last week. Here is a close up. I really like it. It's happy and bright. Perfect for Emma's baby girl.

I made a 'Mommy' bag to match. Somewhere to keep the nappy creams, pins etc..

I also finished a little quilt for my friend Janelle's little granddaughter, Lily Joy. She's not here yet either! But I'm getting a move on. So many babies! So many thinkgs to make! So much fun!

Here is a close up of Lily Joy's quilt. She's going to be a little farm girl. So I chose some lovely reproduction blocks to make up this little quilt.

And this is the back.

As you may or may not know, Frans LOVES biscuits. Especially ANZAC biscuits. Whenever he goes to Safeway, he'll come home with batch of their home baked cookies. This morning he showed me a recipe from one of his shooting magazines. So I thought I'd give them a go.

It was really easy...

This is what they looked like after coming out of the oven and cooling down for a bit.

Can you spot the difference? Safeway on the left, Ami on the right. I know which ones I'd prefer to see in my old biscuit tin......

Mine!

And here's the recipe. -Courtesy of Hunter Magazine. (I doubled it and got out 40 reasonably sized biscuits)

Ingredients:

1 Cup plain flour

1 Cup sugar

1 Cup rolled oats

1 Cup coconut

125g butter or margarine

1 tablespoon golden syrup or treacle

2 tablespoons boiling water

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Method:

Mix the first four ingredients in a bowl. Melt butter and golden syrup in a saucepan, add water, then bicarbonate of soda and pour over dry ingredients. Mix well. Roll into small balls (about walnut size) and flatten on oven trays. Leave some room around each biscuit as they will spread a little. Bake at 150deg for 20 mins. Cool on the trays for a few minutes, then remove onto wire racks to cool further.

Tip: If you want crunchy biscuits, then let them cool completely before storing in an airtight container. If you like your biscuits chewy, then place them in an airtight container before they are totally cooled down.

Enjoy with a cup of tea!

Cupcake Madness

A couple of weeks ago, Stephen's (Sara's lovely BF) little sister Jessica had her 18th birthday. So it was all systems go with the baking, making and setting up for the party. Stephen and Sara made a huge batch of cupcakes. Two flavours: Strawberry & white chocolate, and a plain vanilla flavoured one. Stephen's Mum, Doris made another batch with a few different flavours.

They measured, mixed and baked all Friday evening.

The batter is good. Sara is spooning it into the cupcake papers.

 

Stephen is doing the 'rendering' here...

And here come the decorations! 

Keeping it simple. Looking pretty!

And here they are! All done.

And what is an 18th party without a few Vodka jelly shots?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESS!

The Family Table

We've recently had a few occasions to enjoy some good food and good conversation with family and friends. A few weeks ago we created a Tapas menu with our friends Greg and Sue. It was a great success.

Here's the menu:

Our good friends Greg and Sue.

Sara and Stephen decided to experiment and make Catalan Creme for Alan's 40th dinner.

Stirring... stirring... took forever!

And when you need a blow torch... just call your trusty sparkie! Stephen doing his 'chef' thing!

Frans making sure it's all good!

I had a little help with icing the birthday cake. Amelie doing her bit for her Daddy's cake.

Ami, Sara, Stephen, Alan, Amelie & Sonja

Happy 40th Alan! Do you feel old??? Nah... you're only getting started!

And then we had Father's Day last Sunday.

Happy Father's Day my Love. You're a great Dad!

Frans

We had 14 people for breakfast. A great way to entertain.

We ate and drank:

Pancakes with all the trimmings

Baked Eggs

Bacon

Banana Bread

Orange flourless Cake

Carrot Cake

Orange Juice

Pink Grapefruit Juice

Bubbles

Coffe & Tea

This banana cake recipe came to us from our guest house host in Cape Town on a recent trip. It's delish!

The Giuanguilio and Hillege Clans!

Baking & Crafting

Cold Winter's day. That inspires me to get into the kitchen and rustle up some biscuits! Now my experience with baking bisciuts is not the best. My first batch ever was a total dissaster. So I've steered away from cookies. My brother Lionel was in the army about a hundred years ago! I thought I'd be a good big sister, and bake him a batch of homemade biscuits. Except I misread the recipe. I overdid it with the baking soda, and the biscuits just oozed all over the oven. Not pretty! But this recipe that I found on http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/ was easy and successful.

Simple ingredients. Self raising flour, sugar, condensed milk & butter. Lots of butter! Not good for the diet! But moderation right?!

I managed to get close to 100 cookies.

And here's the total batch. I divided them up to give away and have kept only one tin for ourselves. Frans LOVES biscuits. So it's best not to have too many hanging around!

Here's the recipe:

Makes 7-8 dozen, cook 10 min at 180C

500 grams butter (approx 1.1 lb)

1 can condensed milk (390-400 gram)

1 cup sugar

5 cups wholemeal self raising flour (or plain flour and paking powder)

toppings like choc chips, smarties, jam, cinnamon and sugar

Cream butter and sugar, add condensed milk. stir in flour. roll into balls and flatten. top with choc chips etc, or thumbprint and add jam for jam drops.

Bake at 180C for approx 10 min until golden brown. cool on racks

And then it was Frans' neice Gwen's birthday on Saturday. We had her over with her folks for dinner on Sunday night. I thought I would have a go at making Macarons. Mmm... not that easy. Mine look nothing like the ones you buy. In fact they looked like mini dog turds! But the taste was good. They got the thumbs up from everyone. I think I'll have another go. Second time round may be better!

I baked a delicious pear and burnt butter cake for dessert. A winner all round. Here's the birthday girl.

And here's the cake!

Now to what I'm up to craft wise at the moment....

Remember the yummy yarns I posted earlier? Well they're coming together nicely to create a beautiful shawl. I thought I'd have enough little crochet rounds, but no.... I'm about half way. The current measurement is about 40cm wide by 70cm long. I need to make it at least 150cm long. So I will keep makng those little crochet circles and flowers!

I dug out an old UFO (unfinished object) the other day. I started crocheting a rag rug a few years ago. Somehow it ended up in a box burried in the sewing cupboard. I've pulled it out and hope to keep going with it. I need to cut a load of fabric strips to finish it. It's about 80cm in diameter at the moment. I'd like to make it around 1.5m total. So there's just a little bit more to go!