A simple life give away

It's action stations here in my kitchen with Mr. GW doing a little reno and installing a 15 draw stainless steel cabinet with a wooden bench top.  I'm so excited!!  Nothing like stainless steel and draws to get a girl pumping! Did I mention it's anti-fingerprint proof - there is a cleaning OCD god!

I'll post some pics another time but I'm in the mist of a huge declutter.  I've got 5 big bags for good will (how good is purging!!) but I thought I'd see if anyone would like this litte book "The Simple Life" written by Rhonda Hetzel from one of my fav blogs down to earth.  Just leave me a comment on why you would like it and I'll pick a winner in a few days.  It's a shame I couldn't give away the armful's of Delicious mags and cookbooks that have been untouched for years...

Ricotta, pea and mint fritters

I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!!! But what's that saying - better late than never!  I had the best of intensions to do a cook-a-long with the lovely Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella (yes I'm a groupie but I just love her writing style that is so personalised and the recipes she posts just speak to me :) so there) but I'm a few days late of the deadline.  

Nevermind, better luck next time, hey.  Here is my spin - of course I changed the recipe up a bit but I brought ricotta instead of fetta for the recipe as I got a bit muddled up and I didn't have any curry powder :) mine are also heavy on the mint.

I fiercely cut back my mint a few weeks ago and look at it now, blooming sensational!!  I just adore adding fresh mint to lots of my dishes, especially into salads or a few sprigs chopped up mixed with hot greens is to die for. 

Pssst...can I just draw your attention to my beautiful sunny yellow eggs!!!

My recipe goes a little something like this:

Ricotta, pea and mint fritters   makes 12

1 x 350g tub of ricotta - drained of any liquid

1 1/2 cups of frozen peas - defrosted

2 googey eggs

a good handful of fresh mint roughly chopped

4 spring onions finely sliced

2 tbspn of plain flour

lots of salt and pepper

• Mix all together - I squished some of the peas but left some whole.  
• Heat oil in a fry pan - I used coconut oil, around 2 tablespoons per batch.
• Place a heaped tablespoon into the fry pan once the oil is hot, but not too hot it has to be just right, so try medium to low gas setting for a few minutes.
• Fry for 2-3 minutes on each side and pop onto paper towel to take up any excess oil.

Serve any way you fancy!  They are also great the next day either cold or give them a quick reheat either in the fry pan without any oil or in the microwave for a minute or so.

I am desperate for some lemons from someone's, anyone's tree so to substitute I used some balsamic glaze to add an acidic hit which worked a treat.

I had them for brunch today with runny poached eggs and some garden ripe tomatoes - ah-mazing! And a great carrier for the eggs just like toast.

I'll make sure I'm on the ball for the next cook-a-long and can't wait to see what Lorraine comes up with....I hope it's nothing like the Daring Bakers challenges she does!

Ciao, Jan x

Coastal ripple blanket - Ta Dah!

I'm on a total crocheting binge and word is spreading around my family so I have a few victims to help feed my addiction.  One of my aunties wanted a shawl sized blanket to take with her on her beach walks now that winter is fast approaching.  I suggested a coastal ripple blanket style that I had seen on Attic24.  I had no idea how to do this but I was sure I could find a tutorial that would get me hooking it fast.

I much prefer a visual tutorial over a written pattern so this tutorial here did the trick.  Gosh though, I filled up the swear jar and used up the patience of a saint trying to get it at the start - no tears but lots of pulled out hours of work, never the less I cracked it!  The pattern, once mastered, is really quite rhythmic and I wonder now how I took so long to 'get' it - must have been a blonde week :)

This photo really hurts my migraine brain!

For those of you interested, and for my own future interest here is the low down on the making of the blanket.... 
I wanted to mimic the colours of and around the ocean - sand, sun, sea, and sky.  I'm finding it tricky to get my hands on a good array of coloured yarn, but I finally settled on Myboshi from Spotlight.  It's 30% merino wool and 70% polyacrylic, machine washable and used a 6mm hook
I ended up doing a foundation chain of 204 + 3.

One ball of myboshi 50g did 2 rows of 207 stitches.  In total I did 4 rows of each (except for the dark orange) using 2 balls of each.  The boarder took 1 and a bit balls of the dark blue.

Don't even talk to me about the boarder...I had to pull it out many times - I stupidly started and almost finished it on the wrong side (lesson learnt, won't do ever again!!) but to make it a straight boarder instead of a continuation of the wave it is tricky.  There is a tutorial for it on Attic 24's pattern or you can google/youtube it, but its basically increasing and decreasing - I ended up just making it up - starting at the top of the rise it's 2 sc, 3 half dc, 1 dc, 1 tr (you are in the bottom of the dip, now head back up the to the top) 1 dc, 3 half dc, 2 sc,   Let me tell you it is a nightmare to do on the foundation chain end, and if by any miracle you are reading this and have found a way that is easy, please share it with me!!!  The sides are just 2 dc into each row - into the last of the dc on each end, capiche? I'm not sure I follow either!!! hahaha 

Now it's time to start my next one :)

Ciao, Jan x

In my kitchen ~ April 2015

It's that time again, time for In my kitchen where I hook up with 

Celia from Fig Jam and Lime cordial along with hundreds of other food obsessed bloggers from around the world.  If you love to see what's in other peoples kitchens, pop over to Celia's blog and get stalking!

Lots of things have been happening in my kitchen this month.  April would have to be my favourite month of the year - crisp mornings, sunny days with some rain and cold nights and lots of produce coming in to be made into treasures.  So here we go.....

Our girls have been laying the most beautiful eggs, well 2 are and 2 aren't as far as we can tell.  It's like Easter everyday at our place!!

I must admit, I was a little shy at eating our eggs for about....5 minutes, but then I poached them and I have never had such perfectly poached eggs, I almost cried!  

We have been letting the girls out to free range most afternoons and you can see here our cat Coco keeping an eye on them....not long after this photo was taken the cat was attacked by the chooks!!  Phew, I was a bit scared Coco might attack them but no, she knows where she is on the pecking order now.  I have to keep a good eye on these girls as they could whip through a pot of rocket in seconds flat!!  We love sitting and watching them, funny little entertainers they are.

I've been pickling beetroots but I used a new method to preserve them this year.  Mr. GW and I are always trying to shorten our preserving ways if we can without ruining the end product and this way worked a treat.  I peeled and quartered the beetroots, put them into the jars raw and made up the pickle liquid and poured it over them, adding some mint and peppercorns.  

I then placed the jars - I used Hoyts pickled chilli jars that are 430g size - them into a big pot of cold water and let it come up to the boil.  Simmer for 15 minutes and then drain off water and let them cool.  So much less mucking around and they are beautifully tender.

I keep 2 big pots of basil along the back porch and they thrive there, protected by the wind and in sun for most of the day.  Sadly they are coming to an end so I've been try to preserve them in different ways.  Blitzing them with some nuts, in this case macadamia & walnuts, with extra virgin olive oil to make a mock pesto lasts for ages as long as you keep the pesto covered in oil in the jar you put it into.  

Lots of Parsley and basil garlic butter for the freezer for later.  These parsley stalks will be frozen to make stock another day.  I love adding a slice to fry prawns, to scramble eggs, on top of a steak, or to make a potato heavenly...the options are endless really.

Now the nights are colder, it's perfect red wine weather :)

I've been reading this Ottolenghi cook book over my breakfast.  I just love his use of fresh ingredients - very inspiring.

I was sent these darling little earrings from a friend - they are little tomatoes - aren't they just sweet!

We've been playing uno in our kitchen and let me tell you that Miss 8 yr old is a very cunning player!!

I've been making these baked cauliflower flowerettes (recipe here) and used some of the hundreds of zucchini that are still coming in - I also added chilli to this recipe.

And lastly in my kitchen, we have made a batch of apple cider to use up our poor apples that have been attacked by codling moth this year....never fear though, the chickens should have them cleaned up for next years blooms.

This bad brew takes around 45 days.  It's just apple juice, sugar and some brewers yeast we got for a few $$'s off the internet.....can hardly wait to see how it turns out.

What's been happening in your kitchen? If you want to leave me a comment I'll pop over and check out what you have been up to this month.

Ciao, Jan x

Coconut, chia and strawberry bread

When I was growing up, my mum (bless her) wasn't a great cook nor did I come home to cookies or cakes straight from the oven with a glass of milk.  I instead usually was home alone until Mum came home from work or I was with my mama (our maternal grandmothers name for us grandies thanks to the first cousin in a long line that couldn't wrap his lips around 'nana') along with a gazillion cousins.  Mama raised 11 children on her own in the 40's, 50's and 60's.  Could you even imagine?  Yep, on...her...own...11 under 11 ~ a set of twins came late down the line just to throw a spanner in the works!  She is a modern day saint that woman.  She has also had a wonderful hand at helping raise all of their offspring.  So you can understand when I say my cousins and I after school at Mama's place was like feeding time at the zoo.  She had a way of whipping up something out of nothing for us all - either her family famous scones, pancakes, spaghetti and potato soup (I must share that frugal recipe), grated potato cakes or she would just put out a loaf of white bread, butter, jam and let us devour the whole loaf before we went outside and left a trail of destruction for her to clean up.

Now that I'm a Mum, and a stay at home Mum, I do make most things from scratch for her lunchbox and a cooked evening meal yes I nearly always have on at the ready, but I don't always have sweet treats just out of the oven for my girl when she arrives home from school,  but I try and do it at least once a week as the pleasure it brings her is worth it :)  

I do try and be a bit sneaky and get in as much fruit or healthy items as possible so when I found this recipe here for coconut bread that also contains no egg, I thought I'd give it a try.   I thought I'd give it a whirl, with my own twists of course. I couldn't not use some of my home clucked chook eggs though so I just added one.  I'm thinking I will have this toasted for breakfast this week too with some slices of banana....ok probably not as I don't think it will last that long.

Coconut, chia and strawberry bread
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup agave syrup or sugar
1/3 cup chia seeds 
1 cup frozen or fresh strawberries (you could use any berries or banana even)
1/cup frozen or fresh strawberries to decorate the top
into your 1 cup measure, crack 1 egg-whisk well- then top up with soy milk or a milk of your choice - coconut milk would be sublime

1.  Pre-heat oven to 170c and line a loaf/bread tin with baking paper.

2.  Sift flour and add all ingredients and mix thoroughly just with a spoon will do, but don't over work it.

3.  Pour batter into the tin and smooth the top - use a spatula to get all of the batter out of your bowl.  Top with 1/2 cup of remaining berries.

4.  Bake for approx. 35 minutes.  Leave to cool slightly in the tin before turning out onto a baking tray.

5.  Devour with hot cups of tea and conversation.

Truth be known, I'd happily bake something every day for after school but unfortunately between me and my darling heart we would devour it as we both love food so that is why I show some restraint!  Another bonus about this recipe as it seriously took me 2 minutes to whip it together and was ready by the time I'd walked up to the school gate....and there really is nothing like cups of tea or hot chocolate, a warm slice of somethin' somethi'nto get your kids to talking about their day - bribery all the way!!  Although we did fight over another slice...

What do you like to bake that's in the oven in minutes?

Ciao, Jan x

Happy Flower Blanket -Ta-dah

My happy flower blanket that I started back in January has  finally, finally been finished.  What a labour of love it was with exactly 150 granny flower squares then the joining of them all and a boarder...I'd hate to even guess at how many hours it took, it was around 2 months and I did more some days than others but I did it!

I got the original idea here but I did change my squares to 5 rounds then a round of joining.  This was mainly due to Sharron using cotton and a 3.5mm hook where as I was using a variety of mostly 8 ply wool and/or acrylic on a 4.25mm hook so it would have ended up too big.  I also didn't have the choice of the gorgeous colour combinations but I did put a big dint in the yarn I had hoarded on hand.  I think I only needed to purchase 8 or so balls which made this a pretty cheap blanket.

Although the placement looks random, some thought has to go into it as you don't want to double up on the same colours in the same rows.  I layed them all out then bundled them into row piles and got to hooking them together.

I love the joining together stage, something wonderful happens when you can see your creative imaginings  coming together in a real project in the form of a warm snuggly blanket.  My husband must be a saint cause if it was his stuff piled all over the lounge room day after day, week after week, we would be divorced!! Funny how us woman can cope with our crap all over the house, my hubby says even his car keys get moved within minutes of him popping them on the kitchen bench...Me? Territorial? Perfect? Never!!

Excuse me while I bombard you with the stages and photos!!

It kept my legs nice and warm as I was joining it and as it grew and the colours came together it just made me happy.

here he is without a boarder

I was going to do a colourful boarder but it just looked wrong - too much going on so I went with the pink doing a granny stitch all the way around twice and ended with a round of dc.  I used this granny boarder technique to avoid the corners curling here, but I must admit it is curling up a little but it's hardly a problem.  The boarder and joining is in 4 Seasons pure wool entwine 8ply 100% Australian wool made for spotlight.

On my daughters bed - it's a present for her 8th birthday that I'm hoping will be well loved and used.

this gives you an idea on my queen size bed how big it is...and I think maybe it looks good on my bed too

So there we have it! It's my 4th blanket in less than a year but this is by far the largest.  My aunt has already put her hand up to make her one which I've been itching to start, but I just couldn't start it before this one was finished.  It's going to be a different one altogether, not a granny square or stitch insight so I might be doing some super fast learning!  Thank goodness for youtube.....

Ciao, Jan x