Thinking of Autumn

We have three of these Chinese Tallow trees. They turn all sorts of gorgeous colours in the autumn and were bought for that reason alone. They're only small yet; this will be the first autumn we've had them in; but we can't wait to see the show. Everything has a use here; sometimes the use is simply to give us joy.

Kitchen Day.

This afternoon's harvest. Not counting the handful of strawberries and the two figs I ate whilst fossicking in the garden.  I was told by my cousin how to freeze figs so I can enjoy them any time of the year but sadly none of them have made it into the house let alone to the freezer. :)

Today I think I might pull all the carrots and put them through the processor to slice for the freezer. I do them with the vacuum sealer so they last for ages. There's still plenty of garlic hanging but I'm out of minced so I'll do that too. It's raining today so I think I'll stay in the kitchen and get a bit of cooking done. Not sure what's happened to summer; it visited for a while but has disappeared again. 

It's time to look at winter veges and getting some seedlings started. I'm not going to worry too much about potatoes this year once the lot I have in are done because we've hardly been eating any. I miss them terribly truth be told - love mash with chives and a little bit of cheese sprinkled on top - but they're white and starchy and all that not- good stuff so that's that. We occasionally have some steamed though and that's pretty nice. 

It's a good thing we gave the chook yard a good clean out yesterday - it's a bit of a wash-out today. I'm going to buy another couple in a few weeks - it's been a feast or a famine with eggs at the moment and I need a few more for cooking. I haven't had to buy any yet but I've run close. A solid talking to has done nothing to alleviate the situation and I have a feeling that one or maybe both of the girls I inherited when we moved here are getting on a bit. That's O.K.; they can mill  about to their hearts content, but I will have to have some new blood in the hen-house soon. That should be fun - they're quite personable little creatures so it will be nice to have a few more.

K.I.S.S.

These are my neighbours down the back. :) I haven't been able to get close enough to get a good photo of the foal yet. Her mum is getting use to me being around so maybe for next week I might have a photo of the little one.

Dinner Shopping.

One of the things I like about having a vege garden is that you can pop out and pick just what you need for the meal and nothing goes to waste. I picked some mint to go with the potatoes and just enough carrots to go with dinner tonight, topped and tailed them and gave the scraps to the chooks. The potatoes will be ready in a week or so. We've still picking the salad veges of course and a few strawberries and blueberries. Everything else seems to be jogging along quite happily. There are 20 figs on my little fig tree that I'm guarding jealously, waiting for the moment when I can sit down to a feast. They must be getting sick of me checking on them lol.

K.I.S.S.

                                                              Sprouts, glorious sprouts!!

Happy New Year.

Well here it is - how did everyone celebrate the arrival of 2012?

I hope all my family and friends,near and far, have a safe healthy and happy year. We're looking forward to seeing what it brings.

Mark has been busy for most of the day pressure cleaning the deck. Tomorrow we oil it  - thank heavens we're expecting good weather.

 


 It's been quite a warm day so I don't think he's been too bothered by the job, the spray has kept him cool. :)






Dinner tonight is fish parcels with veges. Have had enough ham and chicken to last a life time............. or for a few weeks anyway.

The recipe is as follows:

      Preheat oven to 180c.

20g butter                                                                     2 tbsp lemon juice (or lime)
shallots, chopped finely                                                  garlic (can be crushed or fresh)
cherry tomatoes; sliced                                                  1 tsp parsley (dry or fresh - I prefer fresh)
mushrooms; sliced                                                         4 fillets white fish

Saute shallots and garlic in a pan until soft. Toss in everything else. Put each fish piece on foil, spoon mixture on fish, wrap and seal in a parcel. Pop on an oven tray and bake for about 20 mins or until fish falls apart easily.
Some of the amounts of the ingredients I'll just leave up to you ; I have a friend who is garlic crazy and would probably put double the amount in so just do it to taste. It's very simple so it would be hard to mess it up.

Just served it with Mark's favorite steamed veges. A very easy dinner.