DINNER IS ON THE TABLE

This would have to be my all time favourite vege bake. Full of broccoli, tomatoes, homemade pesto, pasta and pumpkin seeds, it's just so yummy.

This bake is from my very favourite vegetarian cookbook, 'very easy vegetarian cookbook' by Alison and Simon Holst. It's an older book from around 1998 and worth every cent if you can get your hands on a copy.

What are you having for dinner tonight?

THE LAST OF THE GIANTS

Zucchini/marrow/squash season is officially over for this part of the world, early rains have brought the season to a standstill. I harvested what is left of our crop today and don't forget I still have 6 more black marrows in the fridge. The spaghetti squash will keep well in a cool dark place and I will use the zucchini/marrows in more pickles and vegetarian slices that I will freeze for the winter months.



This is all that is left of the tomatoes and melons in the hot-house after the girls decided that they would have a little peck around in there last week when I was out. Usually there is a piece of corrugated iron across the end so they can't get in but the wind must have blown it down without me knowing.

I have quite a bit of pulling out and re-planting to do in the week ahead.

10 BOTTLES OF SAUCE SITTING ON A BENCH....

I couldn't believe how quickly Squeezo works. Such a time and wrist saver!!!!! One thing I did learn was not to use previously frozen tomatoes in him. They have too much liquid to push through and this does take a bit longer. Next season I will put the tomatoes through Squeezo first, then freeze while waiting for the whole crop to be ready.

We now have 7 litres of yummy homemade tomato sauce. The tomatoes and garlic were home grown but I had to buy the onions as I didn't have enough of our own.

CHEESO AND SQUEEZO

Lachie came up with something funny in response to the goings on of the last few weeks.
"Mum, look what I got into" Showing me a letter to say he was through to the final selection for SAPSASA athletics.
"I didn't even try out for 2 of these events and I still got in, this must be just like cricket"

LOL!!!!

During the week I made feta cheese, it was exciting to watch the process.

After cutting the curds.

Ready to eat.

The initial taste was a bit salty from the brine but on the second taste, YUMMY!!!!

I halved the recipe as I don't own a big double boiler, so I went with the microwave directions but my microwave is tiny and I could only fit in a container that held 2 litres of milk.

Now onto Squeezo.....

He is my new best friend in the kitchen, without him I would not be able to make sauce this year because of this crazy virus I have affecting all of my joints (wrists and fingers are the worst affected). You just pop the fruit or veg in the top, squash it down, crank the handle and out comes the pulp, no skins or seeds. I was eyeing one of these beauties off online, but here in Australia they cost over $300. On ebay I found a slightly used one in America for $90, I had to pay $50 to get it here but that's still quite a saving. Squeezo with be a very handy addition to my preserving efforts. He is the other present I bought myself because Darren bought the boat (I must post about the boat soon).

WHAT A MONTH IT'S BEEN FOR CRICKET!!!!

Gosh where do I start? Maybe with Daniel.

A couple of weeks ago Dan was picked for the West Gambier 10/10 squad made up of under 16 players and under 14's to fill the team. Sadly out of the 8 teams that participated, West came last but they all had a great day. Dan picked up a wicket so he was happy.


The day before the 10/10 match he made his highest not out score of 30 runs and the same day sub-fielded for senior D grade and got a runout. All in all a great weekend.

Then came Monday, Dan was trying out for the year 8/9 squad to go to Adelaide through the school cricket program and sadly once again just missed out. This time something needed to be said after all if we don't stick up for him, who will? Darren met with the selector last night and put quite a few valid points across to this coach that we had run-ins with last year. The same kids get selected, not on performance but who their dad is or what their last name is. Some of the kids selected didn't even try out and one has a broken collar-bone and was still picked. It's not good enough and we were over it.

So all being said, nothing will of course change for the squad but this coach needs to be made accountable for his actions and stop being so unfair. His reasons once again were simply that he wants big kids and Dan being shorter and quite skinny doesn't fit the bill. Talent wise, he admitted that Dan has everything that the others have, he just isn't big enough (meaning he can't hit 6's) What a load of shit!!!!

Now last weekend Dan's mouth and a cricket ball collided. There wasn't any visible damage, so we just shook it off and told him he'd be fine. Yesterday his pain got worse in one of his front teeth and today it was unbearable at times, I rang the dentist and was told to bring him in right away. They took a few xrays and did pulse tests on his teeth and thankfully there is not a fracture. We have to wait a few weeks and they will run the tests again because there is the risk there's tissue damage and the nerve may still die. The outcome is pretty positive due to his teeth still developing as they are couple of years behind where they should be so hopefully this will be the end of it.

Now, are you still with me? Lets go to Lachlan.

Lachie tried out a couple of weeks ago for the under 12 Future Champions, which are the best of the best under 12's around. Normally you have to be 11 or 12 to try out and are about to go into the under 14 side in the next year. Lachie only just turned 10 in December and placed as 12th man for both sides. The selector told us after that he was named 12th man as he still had 2 more seasons to be in the side and the older kids needed to be selected first. We couldn't be prouder of him and he had a great day last Sunday being out on the field for both sides. He only got to bowl one over and got a wicket!!!!!



The day before the Future Champions match, he made his highest not out score also with 26 runs. He made a 4 as well, the second one for the season.

Both boys have been playing senior cricket all season as well as there own teams, they have both really stepped up and the coaches seem to think that Lachie will go up to under 14's a year earlier than normal so that's positive that he's on the right track.

The season sadly ended for both teams last week with Lachie's team coming 5th on the ladder and Dan's team 5th also by half a point. They were stripped of points due to a rule that no-one was aware of by the association. That's another long story however that is hitting a sore point with both Dan, being the captain and Darren being the coach.

Sophie doesn't miss out on all of his cricket as she got to train South Australian junior selectors and 2 of the Australian Women's Cricket Team on the weekend. She had a ball and they kind of really liked her too. Sophie wants to play next season, but I'm not sure cricket and ballet really go hand in hand. We'll see.

CHEESEMAKING

I finally get to try my hand at cheesemaking. I figured that since Darren bought a bigger boat (more on that later) then I would buy a couple of things that would help me out in the kitchen. This cheese kit and equipment is one of those things, I'm so excited and can't wait to begin but unfortunately we have a huge weekend ahead of us with cricket so I won't be making any cheese until Monday.

I decided to buy the soft cheese kit first up to get used to the process but what I really want to make lots of are hard cheeses. This is going to be quite a journey and I have a lot to learn but I am really looking forward to eating wonderful home-made cheese with heaps of flavour.

THIS WEEK

Well my rash disappeared after a couple of very itchy days and in it's place all of my joints seized up. It was like what I imagine bad arthritis to be like. I haven't been able to do anything but today I'm starting to feel like my old self.

I wandered through the garden today and decided to do a little job of planting seeds as I still am unable to weed or dig.

Pots were made.

markers were printed and seeds were planted.

How do you keep your seeds? I used to have a pile of them thrown into a bag then a couple of years ago a friend and I spent some time making one of these boxes each. There are dividers for each month and the seeds to be sown are put behind the corresponding month. When the seeds have been planted, they are placed either back in their month or moved along to another month that I want to plant some more in.