A new toy has arrived!

Winter is nearly here and I'm really looking forward to our second Arctic winter. I thought I would hate it last year but I just loved it! All the mist, the snow, the crisp sunny days, the cold hard rain, it was all unlike anything I'd ever experienced so I loved it, and this year I can't wait to do it all over again. 

Recently we purchased a new toy for the kitchen. We hosted a thermomix demo for a friend who was training to become a saleswoman, and ended up buying one. It arrived last week and since then I've done a lot of cooking and been totally amazed at just how versatile they are. 

So far we've made a few curries, lemon meringue pie, playdoh (which I dyed with beetroot and tumeric) walnut bread, dips, porridge, custard, soup, curry pastes, sorbet, and other miscellaneous things as well. 

Today I made the lemon meringue pie and I was blown away at how easy it was, and how fast it was done, not to mention how perfectly it all turned out. I normally avoid making anything with pastry but having made this pastry today I can see I'll be making a lot more pies and pastries! 

Here's the playdoh

Winter is Upon Us in Antarctica!

So Winter has arrived, and for all I was expecting it to be horrendous, I'm actually really enjoying it! Yes, it's cold, but we have heating here! We didn't have heating in Sydney because it was too expensive to run, so we really only used it when we absolutely had to. We used heating for two nights last Winter, one of those was when I was in labour with Angus. The wood fire heater here makes us toasty warm! Everywhere in the house is comfortable (except the rumpus room which isn't insulated)

Our firewood finally arrived! After four months of ringing them and telling them that they owed us three tonnes of firewood (we won it in a raffle for the QLD floods, way back in January). After four months of the most tireless excuse making I've ever encountered (protesters were inhibiting their ability to get it here, their machinery had broken down, they lost our phone number - countless times - they had our address wrong, they couldn't remember how much wood it was meant to be ... you get the drift?) So I rang them for the last time and, as usual, was polite but assertive, and the next day a huge truck appeared on the street with full logs! The wood was meant to be all cut up, ready to use, but what were we going to do, send them away? So they dumped it in the drive way and across the foot path and at long last we had a good top us to our supply! They were meant to being 3 tonnes, but in actual fact what they left was closer to 5 or 6. We had to buy a chain saw. A spent 3 whole days sawing, and then chopping with an axe, and Stylish and I took it in turns to help him hauling it up the driveway, across the yard to the wood pile. Back breaking work! 

I plucked a good harvest of rose hips and made apple and rose hip jelly. It's delicious on sour dough toast, and I have about a litre of it so it won't run out any time soon. We've been doing lots of good cooking, my favourite thing we've discovered is a chicken baked risotto with marinated capsicum, and butter beans. 

Yesterday was Stylish's birthday, she is now officially a teenager! We gave her a new bike and took her out for dinner to the Chinese restaurant in Huonville. We had a lovely day all round! And ate lots of disgustingly rich chocolate, mousse, and raspberry cake.

Mother's Day

Today was mother's Day. It was a really lovely, simple, stay home family day and the only consumerism we partook in was one pair of lambs wool slippers. The kids made me a card each and Stylish did all the dishwashing for my present. A gave me eggs benedict and a clean house. 

This evening a good friend and her kids came over for dinner. We had lime, chili, garlic, and cayenne roasted chicken thighs on the bone and lots of vegetables. Spikee is the same age as said friend's son so they played contentedly all evening and we watched "It's Complicated" and breast fed upside down babies and folded the clothes. It was a really enjoyable movie, and a lovely day all round. Best Mother's day ever!

Wintering! Making semi dried tomatoes

This is yesterday's harvest. The chard was delicious!

 We cut the larger tomatoes in half and coated them in olive oil, bush spices (wattle seed, pepperberry and lemon myrtle) brown sugar and sea salt. Then I put a cake cooling rack over the top of a baking dish and baked them for about 2 and a half hours on about 150C

The semi dried tomatoes are stored in my second hand tupperware container, covered with olive oil. The flavour is AMAZING!

 Then tonight we added about half of them to a spaghetti bolognaise with more bush spices, lemon pepper, homegrown zucchini and masses of freshly picked parsley. It was delicious!

My thumb is green today!

I finally managed to spend an hour in the garden in between the teething baby, and the other children. I planted a heap of seeds. Pak choy, brussel sprouts, beetroot,  cauliflower, lettuce, radish and silverbeet. I also harvested a whole box of tomatoes of every imaginable colour, a massive bunch of parsley and a beautiful red stemmed chard. 

We had a gorgeous family lunch yesterday with a massive roast consisting of pork, lamb, potatoes, pumpkin, broccoli, beans, and home made mint sauce and gravy. After that there was a choice of melting moments or chocolate cake. Most people chose both. There was also a good whack of the latest home brewed beer which is lime and chili. I think it's my favourite. I like the berry beer but the lime and chili is such a unique flavour with its' mix of green and red chili and fresh limes, you just can't go past it. 

I plan on roasting most of the tomatoes until they're semidried, and making the parsley into pesto with cashews, and having the chard with sour cream and grated nutmeg, but I won't do anything until the teething demon awakes from his nap. 

pesto

Autumn is upon us

You can feel a definite chill in the air now, but for the last few days the weather has been beautiful in the afternoons. Last night before bed I let Vinnie out to pee and I could hardly see the front fenc through the mist. I love mist! I never knew how much I loved it til it was a regular part of my life. It was cooooold out there standing in it, but I think I'm going to enjoy winter with the fire, and weather watching on the hill.


We've been taking Vinnie out as much as we can, knowing that soon it'll be dark and rainy and too cold to enjoy the out doors as much as we have been over the Summer months. He's improved so much with his training. It's a beautiful sight to see him running freely at the park, he runs so fast, you can really see the cattle dog in him when he's running.

We went for a walk over the Easter long weekend and discovered a new park near the bowling club. The river goes through it and it's beautiful, open and sunny. We've spent every day over there since then, with Vinnie running wild and the kids skipping stones on the river. Today they banked lots of them up in the current to see how the water changed course. There are lots of toadstools there and they look so pretty, Spikee thinks that faeries live in them, and was very upset to see one that had been deliberately smashed. 

We had a wonderful Easter weekend, we made a big pink marshmallow rabbit and a berry jelly one, too. And we enjoyed lots of other tasty treats like home made hot angry buns and, melting moments with mandarin icing. The family were planning on coming down but they ended up canceling, but they're coming over next weekend instead and everyone is really looking forward to it. We also celebrated Mabon, just to completely confuse things! We went walking and collected a basket of beautiful coloured leaves, red, yellow, brown, faded green, and sticks and some rocks, which we had in a basket on the coffee table. We're going to tie the sticks in a bundle and put them in the fire to welcome the Dark Mother, next weekend, and the kids are going to read Mabon poems.

hot x buns

where the faeries live

the dog, enjoying the park

pink rabbit with crazy son!

latest harvest

pink rabbit with jelly rabbit

kids at the river

A month more in the life of a humble vegetable

The zucchinis and broad beans

Tomatoes - out of control!

The hot house is really going mad! Everything it growing really well, even the transplanted herbs are happy and growing like mad. It's an absolute joy to see it all starting to flower and fruit. We got our first zucchini, a plump green chili, two ripe yellow cherry tomatoes (ate them before I thought to take a picture!). We also had a spice mix day where I used masses of our parsley and oregano to make pasta sauce.

Spice mix day was on Friday and a few women came over and we all mixed up a large quantity of spice mixes (I made pasta sauce) and then shared it out between ourselves. I got a cajun spice, a middle eastern spice rub, a marsala mix and the pasta sauce I made. I put the sauce in jars that I got from the tip shop. The sauce had caramelised onions, a whole jar of marinated garlic cloves, semi dried tomatoes, green and black olives, half a bottle of wine, and masses and masses of fresh herbs stirred through at the end. It tasted wonderful!

We spent the day at Salamanca markets on Saturday, we had a whale of a time walking around and looking at all the amazing Tasmanian made stuff. We came home with a bunch of herbs and cassia bark from the Spice World stall, a hand made hat for Angus, and Spikee got a hand made jigsaw puzzle, made in Tassie, that just so happens to be Ben 10 *sigh*.

The cassia bark is the most amazing spice, it smells like buttery cinnamon. last night I tried it out for the first time and made rogan josh. It was the best curry I ever made! So rich and full of flavour, and with good quality beef, falling apart it was perfect! We have a fellow staying with us at them moment, he's from France, and he said my curry was the best he'd ever eaten!

The Start Of A New Year!

Liffey Falls

We had a quiet new year's eve with a friend and her kids here. We all drank home brewed beer (lime and chili for me) and had cheese and biscuits. Then this morning we had honey toast on home made bread.

We went up to Deloraine for a few days after xmas, and spent time enjoying ourselves with A's brother and new baby and the whole family. We went to the honey farm, and Ashgrove cheese farm and came home with an awful lot of both! We got a kilo of bush pepper cooking cheese for $10, a big chunk of cheddar off cut that's a very odd shape, wasabi, more bush pepper (a different type) and tasty cheese. We also got honey lollies which are all gone now and I need more, they were so delicious! Then the next day we went to the honey farm and bought them out of honey. Our honey collection is verging on the ridiculous! We have medicinal honey, lime honey (my personal favourite) blue gum honey, strawberry honey, cajun honey, and leather wood too.

We went for a drive up to Launceston and then Davenport, and we went for a bush walk at Liffey falls. It was a gorgeous day, but when we were at the falls, an hour from the car, there was a mini hail storm that had us a bit worried. The stones were so tiny they were melting on impact. We also went to the Gorge for a short walk and had coffee and an ice block - or booby depending on your demographic. It was so stunningly beautiful there, I hope we get back there again some time soon when the weather is more Summery and we can have a paddle in the lagoon.

We came home with a bread maker! A's father gave us their old one and it works prefectly so we've had lovely fresh home baked wholemeal bread today and plan on getting a sour dough starter on the go in the next few days.

The things we planted in the hothouse are really starting to take off, we're getting a few strawberries a day and there are two black russian tomatoes starting to grow. While we were away we learnt lots about gardening in Antarctica from A's mother. She gave us a big bag of seeds that she's been saving out of her garden and we have sprinkled them in planter boxes in the hothouse. I have to learn more about seeds I think.

Us at The Gorge

A Merry Giftmas To All!

Today is our first christmas in our new house, and Angus' first giftmas! We decided to spend the day at home with just us because we'd never done that before. We had a bbq with free range pork, lamb, sweet chili prawns, potato salad (with home laid egg mayo), green salad, and corn cobs and baby carrots. All served with home brewed lime and chili beer - oh so good! - or ginger beer depending on the age that appears on your license.

After lunch we had to get busy cleaning up and getting organised for our trip up to visit A's parents. We have a friend coming to water the veg and throw food at the cat and the LOTL. We are taking Vinnie with us. Stylish washed the dog, and Spikee picked up his toys, under duress.

This morning's present opening was exciting for some members of the household, and the bounty included such highlights as a remote control car, frog trinkets, and bright and colourful things that rattle.

For dinner we're having ham sandwiches on sour dough rye bread with home made tomato relish and we'll take our giftmas lunch left overs for a picnic on the drive up North. Right now the kids are in the front garden playing with the remote control car and the baby is enjoying things that rattle and a cuddle with Daddy.

MERRY END OF YEAR!

The Hot House in Summer!

This is the candle christmas tree I got at the tip shop for a pittance. Everyone laughed at me, but now we all think it's really pretty! I was right, I told you so ner n'ner n'ner ner!

It's freezing here, despite being more than a week into Summer. We've had the fire burning tonight and last night despite it being out for over a week now. I lit it tonight, I think I did a rather deft job of it for an L plater! Stylish did it last night and I was really impressed with how well she did it too. With the fire burning it's lovely and toasty warm in here, but I'm not looking forward to winter.

The dog was caught "playing chicken" today. He was only being friendly but that's too rough for teeny tiny little T-Rex Family, we're concerned she'll die of shock over night. The LOTL (Ladies Of The Lawn) have been keeping us beautifully supplied with lovely home laid eggs. The little ones started laying after a few days with the emus, and since then they've really started acting like chooks, they come out of the shed by themselves and peck around on the lawn eating bugs. Send well wishes to T-Rex Family. I'll keep you posted on her status.

This afternoon I finally managed to put Angus and his reflux down for long enough to do some gardening in the hot house. I really enjoy gardening. We filled up the raised beds in the hot house with potting mix, then planted out the rocket seedlings, and pak choy, and put the newly planted peat seedling starter pots with mesculin straight in. Then we planted more lettuce, spinach, rocket, and pak choy in seedling starter pots. We also replanted some of the seeds that never sprouted properly in the first planting. I'm not sure why they didn't come up because I've never had that problem before. Hopefully we'll have better luck this time round.

Beer making is going well, and A has just bottled about 50 bottles of chili and lime draught. We cracked a bottle of the raspberry and one of the blueberry to taste it. The raspberry tastes amazing! The blueberry is nice but not as flavoured. The ginger beer has become a bit of a habit now, A feeds it every day and bottles it every week.

Tomorrow is meant to be the family xmas lunch but it looks like it'll be raining all day. What a shame. Oh well, there's always next year!?

Table manners 101 - for Vinnie, and other miscellaneous happenings

Today we implemented Vinnie's 'food friendly' programme. I was feeding Angus at breakfast time so A and Stylish fed him his bikkies by hand. A held him firmly and made him sit before each mouthful and Stylish fed him from the palm of her hand. Spikee helped as well and gave him a few handfuls, and both kids put their hands and faces in his bowl while he sat and watched. He doesn't really do calm eating but he is certainly getting better, he is calm while we eat and doesn't beg which is positive. For lunch he had left over porridge. I made him sit down and I patted him enthusiastically while he gobbled it down. At dinner time Stylish and I fed him. She held him and made him sit and I let him eat his foul and disgusting kangaroo mince out of my hand. He did quite well and there was no growling or snapping. I suspect that this all stems from his lack of socialisation and the fact that they were giving him the tiniest amount of food at the pound. They were feeding him half a cup of biscuits three times a day and that's roughly half what he should be eating according to several sources. According to common sense and other more reliable sources he could have developed this nasty habit due to hunger and socialisation. So I believe we're on the right track!

Today we did a tip shop run and got a door for Spikee's room. We were looking for one for the back door but we'll have to keep looking. We took our door off the hinges and put the new one there instead, then our door went on Spikee's room. For some reason that fits much more geometrically there than it did on our door frame - go figure!? While we were there we also got a heap of bottles out of the recycling crates and A has been sterilising them, scrubbing labels off and prepping them for the next beer brew (chili and lime - due for bottling in a day or so) for hours. We got a complete fish tank, a book for Stylish, a bag of toy animals and a wind up dinosaur skeleton ... all for $20! We love tip shops!!!

We cracked open our first ginger beer brew yesterday and have nearly finished it already, it's too good to leave sitting around. We have another lot fermenting and still another batch of starter on the go. I think the next lot will have lime in it instead of lemon, just to see how it tastes. It's safe to say that home made ginger beer is one of the finer things in life!

Happiness does grow on trees!

DahlChapati with garlic

I'm starting to think that our tree change is one of the best things we've ever done! I was thinking about how I would feel if we were to move "home" to Sydney and I realised that I would feel very claustrophobic with all the buildings around. The food culture in Sydney is forever going to be something I lament, but I love home cooking so that's a very amicable swap. And we're learning to make some of our favourite food for ourselves now. We made chapati and dahl the other night and it was amazing! My next big challenge is caramel slices. I've mastered the cherry slice now, and Spikee wants to make muffins because he saw them being made on a kids cooking show.

So many foods to learn to cook, so little room in my stomach!!!

Moving In

A took to whipper snippering the jungle in the garden and after three days (two of those full work days) he managed to relocate a lawn. Then he tidied it up with our new mower. It looks lovely and tidy and it'd getting greener every day, it was all yellow and dead looking after being covered with layers of dead grass. It took Stylish and I a few hours to rake it all up and A and Spikee were madly making our piles of raked grass into giant piles along the back fence. We were wondering what to do with it all but we decided that it will be perfect for the chooks.

Stylish and A went out in the "to be chook shed" yesterday and insulated it using all the carpet they ripped up from in the bedrooms. Our chooks will be lovely and warm in winter and nice and cool in summer. They're the only family members I want living near that festy carpet though.

We've been slowly unpacking everything and moving is over the last week. We got heaps done yesterday and even set up a dining area and unpacked then put all the clothes away. It's starting to really feel like home!

The plan is to get everything unpacked so the rumpus room can be set up. This is happening at the same time as we get chooks, the cat comes home, and family life continues! We're looking at making a green house too. We thought about buying a kit but that would cost $1000, or there's the poly tunnel option, but they don't look very sturdy and sturdiness is a must when you house share with three wild and unschooled children. Well, two are wild and the third is working on it.

Today I'm going to finish sanding the mantle piece hopefully, then we can varnish it an put some pictures up there, that's one of those finishing touches that really makes a place feel like home. A is planning to make dhal to help ease the pain of leaving Sydney's Indian food. I might look at making some chapati to go with it!