CHRISTMAS DAY

We held Christmas lunch at our home this year, with 22 people to feed it was a huge couple of days of making yummy salads and other dishes.

Here are some of the dishes we served.

This fruit tree was my big finale, everyone loved it and it was all eaten pretty quickly.

LETS TALK FOOD

This week I bought two items for the kitchen, the first is a Little Ark Grain Mill that I went halves in with my sister.  We paid $40 each for it which was an awesome price since they retail for $200.  I can't wait to try it out but am still trying to source some good quality, reasonably priced grain.

The second piece is a Spirooli.  I have wanted one for ages but have been wanting to buy local and as luck would have it when I was in our local organic store today, there was one on the shelf.  I made the most amazing sweet potato noodle pasta for tea tonight, two of the kids had a taste and asked me to make them some too which I gladly did. 

Here is the machine, it comes with three blades and is so quick and easy to use.  As you can see I just finished using it and hadn't cleaned it as yet.

Darren caught a small shark last night so it was fish and chips for him and the kids for tea, well Sophie and Lachie had two teas including my pasta LOL.  I didn't have time to make breadcrumbs so Darren coated the fish with polenta, I had a taste and it was yummy and crunchy.

On the weekend I made pizzas, meaty ones for my family and vegetarian for me.  To make the dough, I just used my everyday bread dough and the garlic bread was made from a leftover loaf I had made a couple of days before.  I think if I let them the kids would eat pizza every night.

AROUND THE GARDEN

What a lovely day we had today and I didn't need any other excuse to get out into the garden and plant some of my wonderful Eden seeds that came last week.

Just a few photos from around our place:

The herb garden is slowly filling up thanks to some awesome people from our Permaculture group that I've been swapping herbs with.

My quince seems to like being espaliered, lots of gorgeous flowers all over it.

While inspecting my plum tree that I've threatened will be chopped out if it doesn't produce this year, I've found that it has indeed got some fruit setting.  It also has a mass of aphids and heaps of these lady beetles on it.  Maybe they are full because they don't seem to be doing their job.  After consulting our Permaculture group once again, it seems they are good lady beetles and should eat the aphids, so I'll just wait and see.

Now back to those seeds.
I was busy pricking out some of these tomato seedlings, I can't believe how many I have this year, I'd say that's because I'm making a conscious effort to water them twice a day in the hothouse, usually I get busy and the trays dry out and then I wonder why I don't get many plants LOL

....and lots more yummy veges are now planted, the wire is over the top to stop our pesky cat Hugo from lying in the trays.

I pulled out the dehydrator for some quick dried chard and broccoli leaves.

 All pulverised up ready to add to casseroles or green smoothies.

That was my day, hope yours went well.

PLAYING

We have had the most beautiful weather for the beginning of Spring, I've spent most of it out in the garden preparing beds, weeding and sowing seed.

There are trays of seed in the hothouse holding tomatoes, capsicum, basil, eggplant and brassicas.  I've planted dwarf broad beans, sugarsnap and snowpeas and lettuce seed in the raised beds and over in the herb garden I've weeded and thrown down some parsley, chives and oregano seed.

Here's what I picked yesterday and ate for tea, the first of my asparagus and some yummy broccoli.

See my plan of our back garden, this is how I keep account of what has gone where and when.

My seed box, I love my seed box, it will be very full once again when my Eden Seeds order arrives.

What's happening in your Spring garden?

IT'S ALL SYSTEMS GO.....

Today I watched as trees in our yard were cut down, when we planted them 20 years ago we had not idea they would get so out of control and end up in the power and phone line.  I can't say I sad to see them go but I will miss the privacy they provided.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

We also had our huge Liquid Amber cut back by a couple of metres.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

So that's another big job done, I look forward to having a lot more light and the opportunity to re-design the garden down the front.

IN OUR KITCHEN

It was a busy day in the kitchen making yummy beef and vegetable soup, banana muffins, rat bait and cheesymite scrolls.

I don't know about you but I keep my bread crusts in a bag in the freezer and when there's enough, I make rat bait it's so simple to do and the kids (and hubby) love it.

RAT BAIT

Spray a tray with olive oil, place bread on tray then in a bowl mix up some bbq sauce, tomato sauce and Worcestershire sauce and spread onto the bread.

Add chopped bacon and I added torn salami as well this time.

Sprinkle grated cheese on top and bake in a 180 oven until bread is crisp.

When cool cut into fingers.

CHEESYMITE SCROLLS

Once again so easy. Make bread dough and after rising, knock back and knead then roll out to a thin rectangle.

Spread vegemite with a knife and add grated cheese.

Gently roll up the dough.

Cut into scrolls and place on tray, allow space for rising and cook until brown.

And there you have it, lots of yummy snacks to enjoy.

I QUIT SUGAR

I quit sugar over 2 weeks ago and there's been some highs and lows.  My first week went by quickly and with no cravings thanks to some wonderful recipes and advice from Sarah's book.  Week two was hard, I just wanted sugar!!!!  I only gave in once and really regretted it, I ate a small lamington finger and was headachy and nauseous for about an hour.  I'm not sure if it was in my head or not but I'm certainly not going to have anything else to find out.

One of the great things about Sarah's book is she uses a lot of the same ingredients for her recipes, most I already had in the pantry due to clean eating, so I only had to source a couple of products.

This is almond butter bark, just perfect for that sweet hit without the fructose.  The kids love it too so it disappears very quickly around here.

My 8 week detox really kicks in this week, I will be tested over the weekend when I go away to P!NK (eeek, so excited to see her again).  My bestie is a sugar addict.

ZUCCHINI PICKLES

Preserving and storing food takes up lots of room in my pantry and freezer but I can't stand having food go to waste especially after I've taken the time to grow it myself. Yesterday I picked yet another huge zucchini from our garden, funnily enough I barely had any to pick through summer but now the plants seem to have their second wind and are producing quite well. One of my favourite ways to preserve zucchini is to make pickles and my favourite recipe is from Sally Wise' A Year In A Bottle.

This double batch using 2kg of zucchini made up 12 x 300ml jars, enough to last us a couple of years.

COLOR RUN - ADELAIDE

Sophie and I are entered into our first marathon and what a fun one to do.  I'm so excited to be running the color run (really tempted to put a u in color) in Adelaide.

As luck would have it we are going to be in Adelaide for Lachie the next week as he got into SAPSASA footy this year.  He was the last one cut in 2012 and we are so proud and happy for him getting through this time.  Sophie and I will be going up a day earlier for the run and Lachie will be coming up with another family after his footy commitment here at home.

I'm so happy to be doing this run with my baby girl.

VICTIMS OF SUMMER

I didn't want to post these photos.  I can't quite believe what happened this year to our trees that were over 3 years old, I mean I watered them a little bit but other years I watered the same amount and yet they turned their toes up very quickly and I'm now left with a bare yard.

I lost 6 out of our 8 Pittosporums from our driveway.

 

 

Our Snow In Summer broke off in a particularly strong hot wind.

 

This Lillypilly is thinking very hard about giving up the ghost.

My male Kiwi is as dead as a doornail and my Golden Delicious/Granny Smith aborted most of it's fruit!

It's not a happy time in our yard I can tell you.  I took these photos last week and am slowly digging out the dead and re-conditioning the soil.  I don't even want to think about re-planting until we've have lots of decent rain.