New Chooks!

Earlier this month I brought four new chooks home to add to the three I already have, it was always my plan to have more than three, it just took me a while to track down the type that I wanted locally. They're settling in well although the originals haven't made them particularly welcome! Once they start laying I should have an abundance of eggs.





I've been using a lot of egg whites lately making desserts for the Festive Season Eatathon! and I have a new favorite way of using the yolks.

Creme Brulee! not very healthy I admit, but really delicious!  Keep those eggs coming girls!

Peach Chutney

When we moved house two years ago, one of the hardest things to leave behind was all the fruit trees we had planted over the fifteen years that we had been in that house. The one tree that we dug up and brought with us was an Anzac Peach that had only  been in the ground for about a six months, it was a bit of a risk moving it in the middle of Summer but we potted it in an old plastic rubbish bin, looked after it as best we could and planted it in the chook yard once the worst of the hot weather was over.

Last Summer it had half a dozen lovely peaches which we grudgingly shared with the birds, this year it has had about sixty beautiful looking Peaches, sadly the weather hasn't been great for them and they haven't really ripened well and aren't all that sweet, hasn't stopped the birds having a go though!

Yesterday I picked everything off the tree that wasn't rock hard and made Peach Chutney, I peeled the peaches and roughly chopped them.

In a non-stick pan I gently fried a chopped Red Onion, four cloves of Garlic and a couple of tablespoons of finely grated fresh Ginger, once that was soft I added it to a large pot with the peaches.

I then added a cup and a half of Raw Sugar, a cup of Malt Vinegar and a cup of Sultanas, I simmered this for about three very fragrant hours!

I put the Chutney into sterilised jars, I used the funnel on the left which cost me zero, the one on the right which cost a fair bit only works for very big jars!

Looking forward to trying this!

with a little help from my friends!...

I always think that being in charge of our family Christmas Day tea is a bit of a tough gig! Everyone is usually still feeling half full from a huge lunch and often tired from the busy lead up to Christmas Day. Trying to come up with a menu that's not too heavy, can mostly be done ahead and will spark peoples jaded appetites can be a challenge. This year though I think I nailed it with some help from a few "friends"!

We had Mini Cranberry and Turkey Meatloaves courtesy of Not Quite Nigella , I made ours with Pork Mince and they were terrific! Very therapeutic sitting down for an hour fashioning Holly Leaves out of Kaffir Lime leaves I must say!

We also had Lime, Paprika & Honey Glazed Chicken, a favorite recipe from Bill Granger"s Everyday book, this is my all time favorite "people coming for dinner" recipe, it never fails to impress, is really easy and can mostly be done ahead.

We had a Ricotta & Herb Flan for the Meat-Free, Wheat-free, contingent.

My Mum brought a gorgeous Potato Salad and a Pumpkin & Baby Spinach Salad that is our new favorite this Summer...

and just in case we weren't all completely full from the Berry Pavlova Wreath and Plum Pudding that we stuffed ourselves with at lunchtime, we had these cute Puddings made from Chocolate Royal Bikkies. I used to send these along to class Christmas parties when my children were at school and we all still love them!

Last, but by no means least, I made an amazingly yummy Donna Hay White Chocolate Christmas Cake, the recipe was in the Donna Hay bit in the Sunday Magazine a week ago, it really appealed to me because it was full of Dried Cranberries & Pistachios, My favorites!

Thank-you Lorraine (NQN), Bill, Donna and of course Mum! We did it!

The First Cucumber!

OK so it's not the most beautiful Cucumber I've ever seen either but it's the first one for the season so it was a very welcome sight in the garden!

It grew quietly under the leaves where I didn't even see it until it was ready to pick!

What a lovely surprise!....

...and what a lovely addition to an otherwise ordinary lunch!

Wishing you peace, joy and a very merry Christmas!

White Chocolate Rocky Road

Christmas is the only time I make Rocky Road, I kid myself that I make it for gifts, in fact quite a lot of it ends up being gifted straight into my mouth! The problem is that the version I make is chock full of fabulous things that I love but manage to resist for the rest of the year!
I start by lining a big baking dish with foil and then sprinkle in roughly chopped Pistachios, Marshmallows, Turkish Delight, Macadamias and Dried Cranberries.

I melt a couple of blocks of White Chocolate and drizzle it all over top of the ingredients in the tray.
This goes into the fridge to set and once the chocolate hardens it gets chopped into large chunks. This year I'm putting them into cellophane bags with cute mini pegs with red stars on top.

Hope all your Christmas dreams come true! xxx

This post is part of the Sweet Adventures Festive Favorites Blog Hop...

Sweet Adventures is a monthly, dessert-themed blog hop organised by JJ from 84th & 3rd, KC from The Capers of the Kitchen Crusader, Jennifer from Delicieux, Nic from Dining with a Stud, and Christina from The Hungry Australian.

Welcome to the Festive Favourites Blog Hop! Click on the links below to see all the amazing festive desserts created by other food bloggers from around the world.

For detailed instructions on how to join the blog hop and submit your festive dessert link, check out the official Festive Favourites post by this month’s host, JJ from 84th & 3rd.

Meat-free, Wheat-free Monday, Ratatouille, Potatoes & Mushrooms...

Everyone in my family either loves mushrooms or hates them! I love them but I try not to inflict them on people who dont, these grilled Mushrooms with pesto & feta are a great side dish to have with something else, the mushroom haters can then just give them a miss and have more of the "something else", in this case Jacket Potatoes with Ratatouille.

I peeled some large flat Mushrooms and grilled them stem side down until they looked cooked on that side, turned them over, spread them with pesto and sprinkled them with grated feta. I turned the heat down and continued to grill them until they were soft all the way through.

I had made a pot of Ratatouille on Sunday, I always think it tastes better the next day!

Potatoes cooked in their jackets in the microwave, topped with the Ratatouille, sprinkled with a bit of cheddar, a Mushroom or two for the Fungi Fans, everyone was happy!

December Food Swap...

Saturday morning I went to the last Harvest Basket food swap for the year, there were more people there than there has been for a while, it was lovely to chat with other keen food growers. The range of produce which people brought to swap was gorgeous as usual!

I took...

1 jar of Curried Cauliflower and Carrot Pickle

4 jars of Beetroot and Orange Relish.

2 Bunches of Hydrangeas...

I brought home...

1 piece of Pumpkin

4 Artichokes

Cherries

Chervil seedlings

2 Garlic heads

Parsley

2 Zucchini

It's been a great year for the food swap, I'm looking forward to the January swap already!

Beetroot & Orange Relish

There's not many things I'd rather do than spend a day at home playing in the kitchen and the garden, today I had the luxury of a day off work, the weather was beautiful so I headed outside to do some work on some paths I've been making around the vegetable beds in the front yard. Eventually I hope to have just garden beds and mulch paths, no grass, it should be much easier to keep looking neat. It didn't take long for me to get hot and bothered working outside so I headed to the kitchen!

The fruit bowl seemed to be full of things that needed to be used, the fruit shop near where I work had bananas on sale for $1.99 a kilo last week and there's a few left which are starting to look a bit unappetising, just right for Banana, Blueberry Muffins though! The muffins also used some sour cream which was left over from another recipe so that was good.

Next I made some Beetroot & Orange relish, I've made it a couple of times before and  I always forget how messy it is to make until I've started! I cut the ends off about a kilo of Beetroot and grated them in the food processor, put them in a large pot and added the finely grated zest of 4 Oranges.

 The rest of the peel was taken off the Oranges, the flesh diced and added to the pot with a teaspoon each of Cinnamon, Allspice and Ground Coriander. 

Next into the pot were 3 crushed cloves of Garlic, 600gm Sugar, a teaspoon of salt and 2 cups of Malt Vinegar. I gave it all a good stir and simmered it for about 2 hours.

All that was left to do was to pour it into sterilised jars and label it.

Can't wait to eat it!

Meat-free, Wheat-free Monday, A Stack of Flavor!

My lovely daughter Rose made this dish for us all, we loved it, full of fresh flavors, filling and it just looked amazing on the plate.

She peeled and grated about a kilo of Potatoes, added a cup of Gluten Free Flour, a couple of beaten Eggs, Spring Onions and Salt & Pepper. This mixture was fried in a non-stick pan to make Rosti style pancakes.

In the meantime, thinly sliced Eggplant was grilled, Tomatoes were sliced and oven-roasted and Red Onions were sliced and gently fried.

All of this was tossed together with baby spinach, seasoned and piled on top of the pancakes.

We ate and enjoyed every bit and I appreciated a night off!

Thanks Rosie! xxx

A Frosty, Fruity Breakfast...

I'm not usually much of a breakfast person even though I know how important it is, the one thing I can bring myself to tackle in the morning is a Fruit Smoothie.

 Now that bananas have come down in price, the berries are abundant both in the garden and the shops, it seems like a good time to start a healthy Smoothie habit!

I like my Smoothies made with frozen banana, raspberries, boysenberries, blueberries, strawberries and soy milk.

Meat-free Wheat-free Monday, A Berry Nice Pavlova!

This post is part of the Australian Pavlova Blog Hop, hosted by Jennifer of Delicieux

After much impatient watching and waiting we finally have berries from the garden ready to eat, not buckets of them. but certainly enough to decorate a birthday pavlova for my husband!

It was indeed a proud moment presenting this beauty, made with eggs from our charming chooks and berries from the backyard!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE! XXX

November Food Swap

The weather is finally warming up and I'm planting, planting, planting! There isn't actually all that much to eat from the garden at the moment which left me with a bit of a dilemma when it came to working out what to take to food swap this month, I had used a heap of eggs  making a lovely egg and bacon pie for Friday night dinner, I then put the few that I had left into a Vegetable Slice to take as a contribution to the Harvest Basket anniversary lunch which was on after the food swap, so eggs weren't an option.

 I ended up making some Rosemary and Capsicum Bread Sticks, I took some of a batch of Jam Drop bikkies and a couple of jars of Curried Cauliflower & Carrot Pickle, some Curly Kale and some Vietnamese Mint

I came home with, a jar of Apricot Chutney, 6 Lemons, 3 Pumpkin seedlings, an Angelica plant, 2 Lettuces, 3 baby Artichokes, some Cherry Tomato seedlings and 3 baby Beetroots.