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Archive for August, 2010

Life Goes On

Posted in Musings on August 14, 2010| 28 Comments »

The circus moves on and so do I,
time flies like the birds,
and slides with the snails
but time never stops as life goes on.

Performances start and finish,
they flash by like lightning
and they drift on like the clouds
but time never stops as life goes on.

As the day comes to a close,
the sun disappears and the moon brings light.
Dreams can be happy and dreams can be sad
but time never stops as life goes on.

. . . . .

A poem by Big Boy,
penned when he was 10 years old.
(Photo taken especially for us by our beloved
friend Dan of Tutus and Ladybeetles)

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Baking Bread

Posted in Food & Friends, Frugal Living, tagged , , , , , , on August 13, 2010| 21 Comments »

I’ve been baking bread…

…most recently, five loaves of sourdough spelt. My breadbaking schedule tends to be dictated by my sourdough starter – when it’s frothy and ripe, I’ll  often mix up a batch of dough, even if it wasn’t planned.  I purchased organic Canadian spelt (we didn’t grow any in Australia last year) from Santos Trading, and it was beautifully responsive…

. . . . .

This yeasted multigrain loaf was my contribution to the Mellow Bakers’ August bake-along – it’s based on a recipe from Jeffery Hamelman’s Bread…

. . . . .

Finally, I just couldn’t resist this peanut-peanut butter-tahini-cumin-chipotle loaf featured in Dan Lepard’s Guardian column. I substituted an eighth of a teaspoon of chipotle powder for the roasted chillis, as I didn’t have any of the latter on hand.  It was delicious with nasturtium pesto and cheese!

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Nasturtium Pesto

Posted in Frugal Living, Recipes, tagged , , , , , on August 11, 2010| 37 Comments »

In our winter garden, there really isn’t much growing at the moment.  The broadbeans are struggling, the seed potatoes still aren’t in the ground, and there are just four lonely apples on our young trees.

The nasturtiums, however, have really taken off! Planted around the base of the fruit trees as ground cover, they attract bees and brighten our day with a lovely sea of green every time we go outside.  We use their leaves and flowers in salads, they’re good greens for the chickens, and any excess becomes mulch for our fledgling vegetable beds.

Inspired by a recipe in Pam Corbin’s wonderful book Preserves, I gathered some nasturtium leaves and a sprig of mint from the garden…

…and blitzed them in the food processor with slivered almonds, a little grated pecorino cheese, half a clove of garlic and a few brined nasturtium pods.  This was all loosened with grapeseed oil and the juice of half a lime, then seasoned with Maldon salt and a little ground black pepper.

The pesto was delicious – tangy and green, with a lovely peppery note from the nasturtiums.  It was perfect on sourdough rye, and even better on Big Boy’s lunch of spinach and ricotta ravioli.  You can imagine how happy I am about this, given that we have a whole bed of nasturtiums growing faster than we or the chickens can eat them!

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Avocados

Posted in Food & Friends, tagged , on August 9, 2010| 63 Comments »

You know that old adage about Asians being unable to pass up a bargain?

It’s true.

When my gorgeous mother found these avocados at her local fruit market for 9c each, she just couldn’t resist.  The store had a limit of thirty avos per person, so mum dragged my dad to the fruit shop with her, and they bought sixty between them.  For $5.40.

Of course, my parents were never going to be able to eat sixty avocadoes, so yesterday they arrived with bags full, and announced that thirty were for me and twelve were for Maude.  I felt it would have been ungrateful of me to point out that they were all going to ripen at the same time.

Moments like this always remind me how wonderful my family really is.  Apart from being incredibly supportive, they’re also quirky and great fun.  Let me give you an example. Last week at dinner, I inadvertently called my mother a goose.  The sentence, “no, you goose, it’s not like that at all”, came out of my mouth before my frontal lobe had time to censor it.  I smsed my sister to bid her farewell, as I am now dead, and she replied with, “I’ve lit a candle for you..”

Anyway, I digress.  The purpose of this post is to ask for your help!  What do I do with thirty avocados?  They’re not ripe yet, but the first ones will be ready in the next day or so.  They’re not recommended for chickens, and there’s only so many we can eat on toast every morning.  I’d be grateful for any suggestions you might have, particularly on how to preserve them (I really do think  most of them are going to ripen at the same time!).

Aahh…families…where would we be without them?  I hope you’ll share stories about your families too – we’d love to hear them!

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Lemonade Scones

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on August 8, 2010| 47 Comments »

Scones are on the radar this week – the fabulous  Heidi blogged about her lavender scones, and Dan’s Guardian recipe was parsley and cheese scones.

I can’t resist joining in with this easy lemonade version – they only have three ingredients and are so simple that they’re  commonly taught in kids’ cooking classes.  They’re not the prettiest of scones, but they are as light as a feather, and keep quite well.

Some clarification –  “lemonade” in Australia is carbonated fizzy soda drink, like 7-Up or Sprite.  The first time I posted this recipe, I had friends in the US attempt it with what they call lemonade and it was a complete disaster.  The bubbles are very important!

If possible, try to use pure cream (I believe it’s known in the US as heavy whipping cream) – ours was 35% fat with nothing added.  I’ve used thickened cream before quite successfully, but the scones are a bit lighter when made with pure cream.  The fat content is important – these are usually made with butter, so the cream has to fulfill that role in this recipe.

I have no idea where this recipe originates, but it came to me via my friend Joyce.  Her kids make a batch every week!

  • 3 cups (450g) self-raising flour
  • 1 cup (250g) pure cream (35% fat)
  • 1 cup (250g) lemonade (7Up, Sprite etc)

1. Preheat the oven to 200C (400F) or 190C(175F) with fan. In a large mixing bowl, mix the ingredients together.  Stir gently until combined and all the flour is moistened.  This should take less than a minute.

2. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Handle it gently.  Here’s a photo so you can see the consistency. It’s quite sticky at this point.

3.  Dust your hands and the top of the dough with flour,  then gently pat the dough into a thick disk.   With a floured cutter, cut out the scones, and place them side by side on a lined baking tray.  Cut out all you can, and then gently reshape the dough and cut out a few more. My batch made ten and a half scones.

4. Bake the scones in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.  We served ours with whipped vanilla cream and Pete’s apricot jam.  Perfect for  Saturday afternoon tea!

Click here for a printable version of this recipe

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