Peach Wine #2

The Peach Wine has sat on our dining room table for a week now, I've given it the occasional poke with the wooden spoon, it certainly looks smells and sounds like it's fermenting.

I strained it today and poured it into a sterilised demijohn with an airlock on top.it smells quite vinegary but that's pretty normal at this stage, I'll leave it for another week and I might siphon into another demijohn to leave behind some of the sediment if it has settled by then.

Quinoa Salad

I don't usually get excited about salad, I'm just not a fan of raw leaves, having said that, we had this salad with some barbequed chicken last night and I loved it!

It was relatively quick and easy too as it needs to be on a weeknight.
 I started by laying down a bed of Baby Kale, we've grown a lot of Kale lately and it was great to find a new way to use it, I usually cook it.

Next, I peeled and chopped a Mango and a Cucumber,added them to a cup of cooked Quinoa along with a handful of flaked Almonds.

The dressing was simply a glut of EV Olive Oil, the juice and finely grated rind of a Lime and some Salt and Pepper.

I mixed the dressing through the Quinoa mixture and piled it on top of the Kale, topped with a few Basil Leaves. Done!

Menu Plan 5th January

This week's menu is up and as I'm back at work this week, it's a fairly non-demanding meal plan. During my time off from work I had a couple of major power cooking sessions with my daughter who has inherited our small freezer when we upgraded to a larger one, well, when I say upgraded, it cost $60 on Gumtree and it's an oldie, but I hope, a goodie! I'm loving having the extra room and being able to stock up when I see a bargain.

We cooked up a storm with 2 slow-cookers on the go as well as things baking in the oven and bubbling on the stove-top, As a result We both now have ready cooked meals that we can heat up when we get home from a long day at work. Much as I love to cook, it's so nice to have a night off sometimes.

In My Kitchen

There's a lot less in my kitchen than there was a couple of weeks ago, I've had some time off work and have been on a major decluttering mission!

 

There's a batch of White Peach and Vanilla Jam made with peaches from a tree that we dug up and brought with us when we moved here 5 years ago, last year was our first crop and this year we have had around 9 kilos of wonderful peaches.

 There's a Panettone, bought half price after Christmas and just the thing to enjoy toasted for a special " on holidays" breakfast. Hop over to see Celia at figjamandlimecordial.com to see what's happening in kitchens around the world.

There are a growing number of lovely zucchinis, I do love the challenge of keeping up with them and not wasting a single one.

Peach Wine #1

Way too hot to cook anything today, the last of the white peaches from our tree, however, were sitting on the kitchen bench beginning to look decidedly overripe. After a quick internet search I decided that Peach Wine would be a good solution, no cooking, just a bit of chopping and mixing. A kilo of peaches and a kilo of raw sugar, 4 litres of boiling water all went into a sterilised bucket.

After the mixture cooled down (as much as it could on a 40 degree day) 1 tablespoon of bakers yeast a teaspoon of citric acid and a cold cup of black tea were added. It needs to sit with a lid on for a week before straining and siphoning into a glass demijohn. It,s a bit of an experiment but I have high hopes, I'll let you know how it goes!

Meal Planning

I have been doing a weekly plan for our meals for a couple of years now, I like to put it up on our Menu board so that everyone can see what I have in mind to eat for the week. Sometimes things change, for instance tomorrow will be a day of Total Fire Ban and I had planned to cook sausages over a fire in our chiminea. We've still got some ham left from Christmas so I think we'll have that with some salad. 

A fresh start...

The first day of a new year seemed like a good time to start a new blog but after much consideration , breathing life back into an old blog that I haven't posted on for over 2 years seemed like a better option. I just knew that if I had to start from scratch it might just never happen, so welcome to 2015 and welcome back to My Garden Feast!