Oven dried cherry tomatoes

Summer is my favourite season of the year.  Melbourne has more cold and cool weather than warm so when it is warm and sunny I get out and revel in it.  It also means things happen in the garden.  I love my flowers but I'm also enjoying growing vegetables.  Which brings me to the subject of cherry tomatoes of which we have many at the moment.  We've given them away, eaten them in salads, had them on quiches and on pizzas.

 Don't they look good?  Not being able to eat all these before they spoiled, I decided to make some oven dried tomatoes.

This is what they looked like after being the oven for about 30 minutes.

The dried tomatoes are in extra virgin olive oil, an Australia brand and flavoured with rosemary, basil, thyme and oregano which I have growing in the garden.

I used a recipe found here adjusting it where needed to fit the quantity of tomatoes I had.  I also adjusted the oven temperature and cooking time as needed.  I made another jar today so we now have two jars.  We also have a surplus of Grosse Lisse tomatoes so today I made some chutney but that will be the subject of another post.

For all the lovely peeps in the Northern Hemisphere who are longing for spring, I hope this post reminds you of all the good things that come with warmer weather.

Anne xx

Late summer

There are still some lovely things flowering in the garden late summerlike these roses which smell divine.

Some Johnny jump up violas I planted from seed.

Prepping peaches for making an upside down peach cake tomorrow.

 Aren't the colours glorious!

I hope you are having an enjoyable weekend.

Anne xx

Scavenger Hunt - January 2015

It's my goal in 2015 to join in again with the photo scavenger hunt.  With thanks to Greenthumb at Made with love for putting the scavenger hunt together.

1.  Something new

Making a new recipe, Monte Carlos

2.  Landscape

The farm where I grew up, central wheat belt Western Australia.

3.  Words

South Australia

4.  Cold

Cold winters day June 2014.

5.  Bottle

Wine consumed on New Years Eve 2014.

6.  Up high

Crested pigeon, on the farm Western Australia.

7.  In the fridge

Home grown tomatoes.

8.  Texture

Bark of eucalypt tree, Western Australia.

9.  Hidden

Bee lavae hidden underneath the yellow capping.

10.  Blue

Blue, blue sky on the farm, Western Australia.  The birds nest on the left is made from fencing wire.  Can't have been too comfortable to raise a family.

11. Big

My nephew Ben who is 6' 3" so he is tall rather than big.  Washing dishes at Mum's, Western Australia.

12.  Whatever you want.

Genevieve who has just bought her first car.  Doesn't she look pleased?!!

Looking forward to February's list.

Anne xx

Easy Apple Slice

The following recipe was posted on FB (source http://gggiraffe.blogspot.com.au) 

and it was so easy I decided to make it.  Who doesn't love an easy bake recipe.  So here it is.

APPLE SLICE

2 cups self raising flour

1 cup of sugar (I used just over 3/4 cup)

3 apples, peeled, cored and diced, 1 cm, (I used 4 small Granny Smith apples)

125g butter, melted

1 egg

(I added a little cinnamon, about 1 teaspoon)

Toss apples with self raising flour and sugar in a medium mixing bowl.

Melt butter in a small saucepan on the stove top or in a small bowl in the microwave.  Stir in egg.

Pour butter and egg into the apple mixture and mix until combined.

Spoon into a greased and lined slice tin.  (I used a 30 x 25cm tin).

Bake at 180C for 35 to 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Keeps for about 3 days.

I made this for a dessert served it with cream, ice cream or both.  Happy baking.

Anne xx

2015

Well another year is upon us and may it be a good one for everyone.  I hope your NYE celebrations were enjoyable.  We spent ours at home with family and friends, the special guest of course being Mum.  I made up some fruit punch, an old recipe of Mum's that is simple but refreshing.

NYE is a fine time to bring out pretty glasses and family heirlooms.  The silver serving tray in the photo below was my Grandmother's and Mum was very happy to see it being put to good use.  It certainly saved red wine stains from going on the white tablecloth.

 We enjoyed a selection of lovely cheeses and dips with crackers, nuts and other delicious nibbles during the evening.  A few sweet things were enjoyed too, some lemon coconut balls I made, some delicious chocolates and a wonderful platter of fruit.  One or two glasses of champagne were enjoyed by those who wanted something sparkling.

 New Years day was a quiet and slow one here.  There might have been a few of us napping during the day, enjoying yummy leftovers from the night before and some reading of books.  A lovely way to bring in the new year.

Mum returned to Western Australia today accompanied by my sister who will be spending about 10 days with her.  As you know from an earlier post, Mum recently lost her 18 year old cat Humphrey which was heartbreaking as he was a lovey boy and such good company.  I am very happy and excited to hear that before Mum travelled home to the farm today, she adopted a little three year old cat which she has named Cara.  Apparently Cara is settling in well and doing normal cat things like smooching the furniture to leave her scent, jumping up onto the sink, a no no, attempting to scratch the furniture and learning that the scratching post was designed for that purpose.  I'm so very happy for Mum that she has a new little companion and my sister can be there to help out during the settling in period.

Summer weather is arriving in dribs and drabs in Melbourne.  We've had some hot days followed by cool ones and some lovely rain too.  Our tomatoes are looking good, fruiting well and I'm anxiously waiting for the fruit to ripen.  I've started to harvest some of the climbing beans, the dwarf beans have been prolific.  The flower garden is not so plentiful as it was in spring but there is still some lovely colour and summer flowering plants about to burst into bloom.

Grosse lisse.

Cherry tomatoes.

 I've been thinking thinking about the goals I would like to achieve this year rather than making any New Years resolutions.  I have a painting sitting up in the studio, the portrait of a lady that needs completing.  I haven't even started looking at my photos from our 2012 Europe trip with a view to using some of them as painting subject material although a couple of photos in particular come to mind as I'm typing, especially from the Roaches area in Staffordshire where Louise of the blog Ramblings of a Roachling lives.  If you want to see stunning photos of a very beautiful part of the world, go check out her blog, you won't be disappointed.  I'd like to grow more vegetables, get some  chooks again, make lemon marmalade from the lemons on our trees, finish crocheting a cardigan and a blanket I started last year and get myself fit again.  I did lose 4 kilos late last year by reducing my calories just a little bit, reducing my portions a little and with lots of physical activity in the garden.  It was a was a big achievement for me and one I'd like to continue with to lose a few more kilos.  It's most encouraging when you can fit into your clothes comfortably again and rediscover long lost favourites to wear.

Looking forward to catching up on all your posts now things are getting back to normal after the silly season.  Take care everyone.

Anne  xx

A yummy treat

Sometimes I want a sweet treat to have with my cuppa, just a little morsel that isn't necessarily chocolate.  When I came across the following recipe on a 600g packet of Trident dates, I thought I'd give them a go and they taste delicious.

Date and Almond Balls

 Ingredients:

3 cups coarsely chopped dates

3 teaspoons finely grated orange rind

2/3 cup blanched almonds, toatsted (about 120g)

1 tablespoon honey

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 cup desiccated coconut

Method:

1.  Place all ingredients, except coconut, in large bowl, mix to combine.  Using a food processor, process mixture in batches until a paste forms (small almond pieces will still be visible).  Lightly wet hands, roll mixture into balls about 1 tablespoon in size.

2.  Roll balls in coconut.  Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 30 balls.

I put the recipe into a recipe calculator and each ball has about 52 calories.

 

Anne  xx

Snippets

Here are a few snippets of what's been happening this past week.   

Hubby testing out the bee smoker in preparation for when we have hives.

  We were out to dinner with friends Saturday night and I had a salad for my main meal so I would have room for this dessert which was mango Bombe Alaska with passion fruit curd and strawberries.  It was delicious.

 

Bungee soaking up the sun.  He's surrounded by birthday decorations waiting to be recycled and passed onto a friend of Genevieve's who will use them for her 21st later in the year.  Gotta love recycling.

My Sophie is getting old and is starting to have trouble with her back legs.  She's allowed to sleep on the sofa ONLY at night after it's covered with an old sheet.

 

Making muesli.  We go through this very quickly as hubby has a big bowl for breakfast every morning.

 Testing a recipe mix for a friend who is starting up her own business selling organic pre-mix baking packs. The one trialed below was Blondies.  First attempt was not so good, second attempt with new instructions, perfect and delicious.

I'm heading off to Western Australia again on Sunday to spend two weeks with Mum and to catch up all things farming, so my next post will be from there.

Anne xx

A little baking, animal watching and creativity

I love it when I find a super easy recipe that's delicious.  I made this Easy Lemon Slice yesterday and it's delicious with a cuppa.  The recipe can be found here.  I would add a little more lemon juice to the icing as it's quite stiff.

 

I came across this DVD in the local library "The Ocean's Supermum", a natural history documentary about the Australian sea lion.  It was beautiful and I can tell you, sea lion pups are incredibly cute.

In rather disheartening news, our protest about the McDonalds

development in Tecoma appears to have failed.  During the past week about 50 police were deployed one morning at 4a.m. to secure the site and stop any protesters entering.  The police presence was in addition to security working on behalf of McDonalds.  There is nothing more distressing and intimidating than to see police dressed in semi riot gear.  For goodness sake, what were they expecting.  We are a peaceful community protesting a development by a multinational foreign corporation taking over our beautiful part of the world.   Buildings standing in the way of the development have since been demolished. 

On going for my daily walk with Sophie I discoverd the footpath I usually walk on along Burwood highway was/is closed to pedestrians.  Police and security staff were positioned along the footpath and I was told it was closed for safety reasons.  I think not.  If it was that dangerous, nobody would have been standing there at all, more rigid barriers would have been put in place rather than the thin timber fencing that is currently in use.  To continue my usual route I had to cross two roads with pedestrian lights which is safe.  I then had to walk on the other side of Burwood highway and cross over this busy road without the safety of pedestrian lights.  I was assured by the security guard I would be assisted across the road by the police but no such help was forth coming.  High school and primary school students use this footpath as a safe way to walk home.  I saw today that the footpath has now been totally closed off and boarded over.

We feel totally gutted as a community, we feel sick and disappointed that the only voice that is heard anymore is the one that has the money.  We feel betrayed, bullied and intimidated, our faith in democracy challenged.  Thank you to each and everyone of you who has taken an interest in this story and supported our cause.  Thank you for helping shout out loud that we don't like or agree with what is/has been done.

In bid to calm my distress after my walk, I decided a little creativity was in order.  Over the past year or so I've been collecting free postcards from the local library which advertise all manner of things from cultural performance, education, awareness of social issues and the work of artists.  I based these collage pages loosely on colour themes.

I intend hanging these in a new creative space coming soon to our backyard.  :)

In other creative endeavors, I've entered the world of journaling, a totally new way of creative expression for me and I love it.  There are no rules, even better.  I've started by cutting out images from magazines and going from there.  The brain storming that was going on while doing this was so much fun.  Here are two pages I've completed, I think.

The two pages look better seen together.  I know these first two are quite basic but as I learn more about this genre and learn new techniques, I'm sure they will become more interesting.

The pages currently being worked on.

 

 This is my preferred page so far.  I've lots more work to do on these two pages incorporating stamped and hand drawn images.  I used light water colour washes on the pages before adding other elements.  The flowers in the vase above are an image from a magazine and I've used a black fine line pen to highlight different areas.  It's always a big risk to put your artwork out there.  I hope I haven't bored you all to tears.

 Melbourne is currently experiencing it's worst winters day this year with rain and lots of it, cold and extreme wind, the type that turns you umbrella inside out.  Wishing you all a lovely weekend and better weather than what we are having today.

Anne  xx