Friday, October 28, 2011

Been Productive

We have been making lots in the last week
 Cucumber Relish
3 telegraph cucumbers
1 Spanish onion
1 red chilli
1 tablespoon of salt
Cut up all ingredients and mix all together leave to sit for 2 hrs then drain.
Then in a pot mix together 
300gm brown sugar
500ml apple cider vinegar
2 tbs of mustard seed
1teaspoon of turmeric
Bring to boil, then simmer until a thick syrup
Add the cucumber mix and bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer until jam like.

I normally double the recipe and I get 3 jars.

Mulberry jelly
no exact recipe for these
pick as many mulberry's as you can 
then take of stalks and rinse then put in a pot and fill till level with mulberry's
bring to boil then simmer for 1 hr
drain mulberry's though cheesecloth then tip the liquid back into the pot
for every cup of liquid add one cup of sugar then bring to boil cook on med high until its reduced.
I cheated I was worried that it wouldn't set so i added two jam setters the end result is a very firm and yummy jelly



Stars inspired by here
 and lastly Vegemite scrolls made with a normal bread mix too easy.
 

Garlic

Starting to harvest the garlic, I planted around 100 garlic's this year, it will be interesting to see how far into next year they last.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Crafting and Berry Harvest

 Yummy  mulberry's, and some strawberry's all of which are going o be turned into some pies for the freezer.
 Carving from the drift wood we found while camping these were really quick and easy to carve and best of all the kids love them.
 Fishy yet to be finished.
and lastly hexie flowers inspired by here and here, I am doing mine from 2 jelly rolls of 'Central Park' by Moda and around each hexie flower I will have a white border of heixe's.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Long awaited camping trip

Camping, we have been wanting to go for ages but keep putting it of because of the weather, so this weekend we decided to go no matter the weather... well we did get rained on. But we had lots of fun we forgot lots of things like thongs and our foam mats that go in front of the tent. We found lots of awesome drift wood and had lots of fun.





Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Pasta and harvesting

Making pasta is one of the most simplest and rewarding things that can be made from scratch and more importantly its fun for children who love tho join in and get the hands dirty.
The recipe is 2 cups of flour and 2 eggs but I normally do 3 cups of flour and 3 eggs and this will be plenty for 2 meals.
Make a well in the flours and crack eggs into well  add a small amount of warm water then mix eggs and slowly mix with the flour if needed add a small amount of more water mix until combined then knead until soft, around 10-15 min.
Glad wrap and leave for 30 min to rest .
Then u can roll out how every u please.
I use a pasta maker and I find this is easier then rolling by hand.





Today's harvest of beets and carrots, this was cut up into small pieces and roasted until soft and will be used tossed through a salad with some feta.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Growing, Reading and Playing

Seedlings are slowly showing themselves, bread is been consumed, new books are been read and self portraits are been drawn and all to quickly the school holidays are coming to and end.



Lincolns self portrait on the left and Alyras on the right, Lincoln helped Alyra finish hers as she didn't give herself a body or a nose or mouth hahaha.

She rides

 sometimes its scary how quickly they grow up. You can't help but feel proud of them yet at the same time wish there was a freeze button. 
Lincoln decided that Alyra needed to be like him and have no training wheels, we did remind him that he was 5 when his came of but once it was mentioned Alyra was determined to have them off. To our surprise she picked it up straight away I think it helped having a big brother who encouraged her the whole time. I'm so proud of my big 3 yr old and even prouder of her brother for believing in her and giving her encouragement.


Monday, October 3, 2011

2 Days

No children (my first time to be child free over night in 6 years) and over 1000 kilometers.