Winter Chills......

Well technically it is Spring but the weather has not decided on that really yet and we are getting some belated Winter wind and rain.
Consequently, the jumping from barmy to chilly weather has played havoc on our bodies and my cherubs and I have been struck down with a terrible sinusy lurgy.

It is at times like this that you don't actually feel you want to eat anything substantial but I know I should be taking in some well needed nutrients if I am to kick this sucker into touch.

We were so affected we didn't leave the house so I am delving deep into the abyss that is my chest freezer and trying to use up meat cuts before we go for another homekill.

That's when I found the bacon hock....what to do? I admit I have not cooked one of these before.

So after much trawling of the internet and cook books I decided on boiling the hock in stock and using the meat in a soup. WOW...delicious, nutritious and, although the girls still weren't up to eating much I used the soup juice to soften up some mashed potato for them, they loved it.

And it's easy peasy to make :) Don't worry too much about exact quantities, feel free to fiddle to your heart's desire.

Hearty Hock Soup

1 organic Bacon Hock
2 large organic Agria potatoes
1 large red Kumara
2L organic vegetable stock with 4 cloves and 8 black peppercorns and 1 large organic garlic clove squashed
2 large organic carrots
bunch of homegrown parsley, mint and thyme
3 white onions
extra organic garlic

Place the hock in a large saucepan and pour in the stock. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until the meat starts to come away from the bone.
Pull out the hock and allow to cool, then take the skin off and cut the meat off the bone into chunks.
Strain the stock and return to the pan. Put in the washed and chopped potatoes, kumara and carrot.
 Cook until tender.
In a frying pan sauté the sliced onions until soft using oil with two squashed garlic cloves.
Add the onion to the pan and chop up all the washed herbs and add those too, cook a little longer (say 10 minutes).

Enjoy and be well!

It's been a while......and Story Stones

I was going to start by apologising for my tardiness in adding to my posts, but then I thought......heck, WHY?

Initially, the reason the writing this blog was to help me review just exactly what I had been up to all day when I flopped down having finally got the wee ones off to sleep.
It still is that to me, but sometimes....often, real life is just so darn busy I don't find the time to sit and cogitate on what I am so darn busy with!

I am thrilled to think some other mums and friends out there might pop in for a peek at what we get up to, but I don't feel pressured by it, think I'm going to make a living from it or often, don't have time for it.

Hopefully when I do post something it might be interesting or even useful to someone out there. I am certainly not going to put a post up every day or every week just to be regular.

Right, enough ranting......................what have we been doing?

Well, we have had family gatherings, tree planting, fence building and animal wrangling.

We have been putting in many more natives and fruit trees - we love the cherubs being able to wander around in the summer and autumn, eating directly from the trees - and improving fencing to keep the cows from getting to our garden or the little stream by the citrus orchard. We have also increased the livestock count by adding pet lambs to our happy home and the cherubs are thrilled. The little woolly fellas think they're dogs and go hurtling around the paddock with our big pawed sofa hogger.
The cherubs are in to books big time - one is learning to read and the other has really switched on to the power of her imagination. So many library visits later.....

Phew.....

Well, today I got to have a go at making story stones with the cherubs. I saw some ideas on pinterest and thought - How cool is that? So I got the cherubs to choose pictures from stickers, fabric and magazines and we each made up a set of stones as practice.

We used:

• polished pebbles - you could scavenge them from beaches, your driveway etc
• PVA glue - it's nontoxic, washable and dries clear
• sources of pictures
• Scissors for fabric, scissors for paper

GO WILD!

The idea is to choose, whether blindly or knowingly, say 3 stones and using the 3 pictures tell a story to everyone else. It can be done as a competition, winner of best story gets a prize - say a new book?
Can be used on camp overs, parties and in the car. (Of course mum and dad can always make more adult versions for their friends ;) )

Addendum to 'Sunset on Summer'....

 

The crabapples and quinces were not to be outdone by the green tomatoes and I have been preserving the very last of the fruits this week.

I decided to make the batches slightly more adventurous and added herbs and spices to subtly enhance the standard jellies I normally make.

The crabapples (Malus sp) we grow are 'Gorgeous' (both in name and flavour), grown on MM106 rootstock. The tree has done fabulously well again - thank you tree.









I made crabapple jelly with cinnamon and cloves - mmmmmm, smelled divine and the spice flavour will really draw out the taste of chicken and turkey as well as ham.

Ratio of ingredients is:

2lbs crabapples
1 pint water

Throw all the apples, unpeeled and uncored in to the preserving pan with the water and simmer until it turns to a pulp.

In go a few cloves and some sticks of cinnamon....

Put the pulp through a muslin/jelly bag overnight. Measure your juice collected and then put into the preserving pan with 1lb of sugar for every pint of juice collected, boil rapidly until set then seal in sterilised jars.

I also livened up the quince jelly by adding a few sprigs of Thyme and some Sage leaves and the shredded peel of 1 lemon. Our quinces are 'Taihape', a tree that survives droughts, flooding and possum attacks.....well so far anyway!

And of course - it always helps to rustle up some muffins whilst the jellies are boiling - Peanut Butter and chocolate chip, yummy.......

 

 

But true to form, you are going to need something wet to wash it down with - a lovely cup of Yorkshire tea did the job for me this afternoon !

Mix these dry ingredients in a large bowl
2C self raising flour
1/3C wholemeal flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 C caster sugar

In a small bowl mix together -
100g melted butter
3/4C peanut butter (smooth organic)
1 egg
1C full fat milk

have extra peanut butter to hand

Mix the wet ingredients to the dry ones, folding together until damp but not smooth.

Divide half into a 12 hole standard muffin tray, then plop a dollop of peanut butter onto the batter before adding the other half of the mixture to all 12 muffins, so enclosing the dollop between the layers.

Bake at 200 degrees celsius for around 15 minutes - until they spring back when pressed gently.

Sunset on Summer......

The clocks went back this morning and I almost got a lie-in...but the cherubs had other plans.

The whole family made the most of the beautiful weather and spent the morning at the beach with the dogs, it was glorious. Blue sky with voluptuous white clouds scattered far and wide. The sun now warming but not scorching, the cool southerly breeze bringing a sense of the changes to come.

We love this time of year. Tell the truth we love Spring and Autumn the most in New Zealand, the months of moderation in temperature, UV intensity and rainfall (on the whole) - grass is green, the ground is semi-firm and plants grow. The summer can be, and has been, scorching, riddling the ground with cracks and making being outside in the daytime a chore. The winter can be excessively boggy and very, very grey. Don't get me wrong we actually love aspects of all the seasons, for the changes they bring....but there is something lovely about Spring and Autumn.

And so, as our garden winds up it's summer harvest and the preserving is almost at a halt, I was looking around to see what I should really be making the most of and our second crop of tomatoes were on my hit list. They are not ripening now and the bugs are beginning to settle in and take over, so rather than lose them all I decided it was time to pull the plants out, give the ground a rest and some tlc with worm tea and the like and deal to the green tomatoes in the kitchen.

They are such petite bunches of scrumptiousness.

 

 

I decided to make my 'Sunset on Summer' green tomato chutney. A fitting curtain fall to the end of our summer harvest. Using the last of our fresh apples, the last of our tomatoes and almost the last of our peppers.

 

As with all good chutney recipes.....it is super easy.

 

3lbs chopped green tomatoes

1 lb chopped, cored red apples

1 lb chopped onions

3 mild green peppers, sliced thinly

Juice and shredded rind of half a large lemon

2 cm piece of ginger grated (fresh, root) - about 1 oz

1 Dsp ground cardomom

1 Dsp ground cinnamon

12 oz raw sugar

1/2 tsp sea salt

 

 

 

Throw it all together in a large preserving pan

Add 300mls of cider vinegar

Doesn't it look just lovely - even before cooking!! I love my preserving spoon - one of the culinary aids I brought back from my travels to South America.

 

Now gently heat until the sugar dissolves and then boil until the mixtures softens up and thickens up. Pack into sterilised jars and seal.

 

Let it mature a couple of weeks then....Enjoy!



Make your own Hairclip/Bobble Saver..............

We are forever trying to find hairclips for our girls' hair (that is why hairbands are often easier) - we seem to lose them like we lose single socks from a pair.

Down the back of the sofa, in the car seats, behind bathroom towels....they end up everywhere and anywhere.

One solution (well somewhat!) is to have somewhere fairly secure/foolproof to put them when we do find them, enter the hairclip saver..............

It's easy as................ simply sew a rectangle - or any shape you like (go on let your creative juices flow!), as you sew the shape sew in a ribbon for hanging and I put in Hand Made labels, then before you completely close up sew in a length of ribbon for the clips and stuff with fibre. I added a button on the end to weight the ribbon down.

If you are completely stuck, let me know (comment) and I can email you some instructions.


But, really, easy peasy and super quick to run up. Hubby loves having somewhere to stick the little blighters when he comes across them and we really have lost fewer since having them up.

I also wrap hair bands/bobble around the cushioned top piece to stop them straying too far too!

No April Fool.......

Don't let the heat scare you in this one, I am being perfectly sincere, no practical joke here :)


We are lucky enough to be able to grow both Kaffir Lime trees and Thai Chilli Pepper bushes.

The lime tree survives our mild frosts in winter, the soggy, soggy winter rains and the parching dry summers we often get with, I have to admit, very little care or attention from us.

 

 

The Thai Chilli bush lives in the greenhouse just to get it through the nasty weather. Even if I didn't use the chillies in any cooking I think I would still grow this plant. It is sooooooooo pretty, especially when there are a mass of chillies all at different degrees of ripeness - it's a great rival to many flowering displays.

 

 

 

 

My Thai Chilli Sauce recipe makes use of both my plants and the garlic that we also grow. It's got a tang, a sweetness and then a heat that kicks in as it slides down. Great as a dipping sauce for fish, prawns and even marinating beef strips.

 



In a bowl mix together:


2 Tbsp fish sauce
squeezed contents from 1/2 a kaffir lime
1 large garlic clove crushed
a few very thin strips of kaffir lime leaf
a few shavings of kaffir rind
2 minced fresh Thai chillies
1 small spring onnion finely sliced
3 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp sugar


Enjoy!

Hot cross buns, cherub style..........

 

Cherubs one and two took on the making of chocolate chip hot cross buns today, no small feat for a 1 and 3 year old.  But I shall have them do it every year..............they are just delicious!!!

They helped me measure out and put the ingredients into bowls and then they did the mixing and rubbing and stirring.

I was left with setting the dough out to rise, shaping and then putting on crosses before baking in the oven....how easy was that!!

We made one batch yesterday - just for taste testing you understand and then another today for real.

Happy Good Friday to you all.

Emma (Poires au Chocolat) provides a lovely delve into why Easter and why Hot Cross Buns, worth a read, might whet your appetite (pardon the pun) to do a bit of your own research into HC Buns or other traditional foods.......In our house it is all about life, reproduction and the Easter Bunny.


Makes 12 large buns

1 1/4 C organic full fat milk
1/4 C organic raw sugar
2 tsp active dried yeast granules


Warm the milk just enough to feel just warm to your finger tips so that it will encourage the yeast to grow and not kill it. Mix the milk, sugar and yeast together in a bowl and set aside for about 6 minutes until you get a nice froth formed.


4 C organic plain flour
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp sea salt
65g salted butter
1 C chocolate chips
2 free range eggs

Sift the flour, spices and salt altogether into a mixing bowl, mix up.
Rub in the butter.

Add the chocolate chips and stir to mix in.

Add the eggs (lightly beaten) and the frothy yeast mixture and combine to a dough.

 

 

 

Knead the dough by hand for about 4 minutes or so so that it becomes smooth.

Place the dough ball in a greased bowl and cover. Allow to rise over about 50 minutes or so, it should get to almost double in size.

Now give it a small second kneading and press out into a large rectangle on your baking tray - leaving the dough about 2 inches in height. Using a knife, divide into 12 pieces, nestled up against each other (if you prefer to shape each into a round you can do so now, but we like it rustic in this house). Cover again.

Let them rise whilst you make the cross mixture.

Mix about 1/4 C self raising flour with some water to get a thick, sticky dough that will almost run into the piping bag. Use a small circle nozzle.

Once the buns have had another 10 minutes or so to rise on the baking tray, pipe the crosses onto them.

Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for around 25 minutes until the buns have risen further and are no longer doughy inside (tap for a hollow sound or use a skewer). It's not a complete disaster if you do pull them out with a little stickiness right in the centre as they can be split and toasted under a grill anyway.

When you pull then out of the oven, whilst still hot, you can brush them with some homemade marmalade (just the jelly no peel) to give the buns a lovely glaze and a slight citrus zing to the outside.

Hairband heaven..................

Pre-school cherub is very much taken with hairbands just now. She refuses to wear hair bobbles or clips, it just MUST be a hairband!
Until now I had two or three lying in a draw that had been gifts with purchases from the lovely people at Eternal Creation, but use necessitated that they get washed, or perhaps cherub would misplace them (under the sofa, behind the bed.....) and so I found myself needing a couple more in reserve.
Soft fabric hairbands are proving the best at this age, but often come with a hefty price tag.

So I decided to make some.

I kept it incredibly easy and also forgiving on sewing untidiness (I rarely get a few minutes of quiet time to concentrate on a task).

The main headband piece can be made from one piece of fabric or from a number of smaller pieces. I did both as I had some spare 5 inch squares left over from quilting.

Then you need a piece of fabric to cover the elastic - I used a plain colour piece in contrast to the main piece.

So firstly, I got the squares sewn together to make the 2 sides to the main piece:

 

 and then once they were sewn into the two strips I placed right sides facing and sewed along the long sides leaving the two short ends open so I could turn the whole thing the right way round.

Then I sewed up the fabric casing for the elastic in the same way...

Keeping the elastic pinned down at one end of the fabric, use a needle or safety pin and drag the elastic through to the other end, scrunching the fabric up so the elastic appears at the opening....

I then turned in the ends of the main headpiece and sewed in the elastic piece at each end - you can be as creative as you like here with pleating....

 

Secure the elastic with a couple of runs with the machine and even out the ruffles on the fabric....

 

 

Easy and quick, I ran up one for each cherub within an hour !

 

   

 

 

Because of the width of fabric used in the headpiece, they can be worn scrunched a little as above or spread out for a wider coverage if you fancy it - good for a bad hair day!

 

 

The great thing about these is they are cheap and quick to run up so as colour and pattern likes and dislikes change, so too can the hairbands :)