A Day in the Kitchen

I always start out with the best of intentions: grab some sad-looking bananas and tomatoes on the way home (because I could make something from them, instead of leaving them to be thrown out!), clean out the fridge and find I'm running out of time to get that batch of stock boiled up, pick up a couple of new recipes I'd like to try. I always start out optimistic, but after three hours in the kitchen I start to wonder just what I've gotten myself into.

At least this one doesn't need a lot of supervision.

Christmas Cooking - Part Two: Sweet

When it comes to Christmas treats, my mind automatically goes to two things - gingerbread and peppermint slice. The first is a recipe I've spoken about before and the second is one my mum has been making for years at Christmas-time and that everyone I've introduced it to looks forward to. At this time of year when my friends come over it's with a hopeful "got any leftover mint slice?". I also made the most adorable "rice krispie treats" (I don't even know what those are meant to be called here!) and some fudge. Let's not beat around the bush: recipe time.

Christmas Cooking - Part One: Savoury

I live a very privileged life. Christmas to me has always been, on some level, about abundance - about the pile of gifts waiting tantalisingly beneath the tree, about an extra effort to spend time with family, and about eating too much for at least two days straight. There are other aspects of course, like the joy of giving, of community outreach, goodwill to men and so on (though, ironically, it's also the season that can make it most difficult to feel goodwill towards anyone!), but it's the abundance that comes with recipe reviews so that's the one I'm writing about.

I Dream of Iced Tea

Now that it's starting to be consistently warm I'm finding myself pining for cool, refreshing drinks - and every time I walk past the stone fruit at the supermarket the smell makes my mouth water. I'm not a huge fan of their taste but the scent is irresistible. So while the garden responds to the shift in the weather by bolting... I'm making iced tea.

These strange little blossoms are cuter than the iced tea, though.

An Explosion of Life

Now that we've had a few warm spring days all that rain is really paying off: everything is growing like mad (weeds included of course) and I'm starting to feel really guilty about how much time I'm not spending in the garden. I did have a nap lying in the sun, though, and it was glorious. I can really see the appeal of this photosynthesis business.

I think the blueberries are starting to berry!

Luggala Heartbreak

Is there anything worse than frogging hours of work? I finally bit the bullet and ripped out Luggala's sleeves because, as hard as it was to admit it, the sizing was way off. At least my other news this week is all good: everything in the seed trays is growing and our second attempt at dumplings went even better than the first. Oh - and the chickens are laying!

No, I still have just the two - it may have taken me a couple days to notice is all.

Recipe: Hearty Breakfast Wrap

Do you like breakfast, and food you can eat without cutlery? ME TOO. Today I'm going to show you my much-refined breakfast wrap and help get you started on a more convenient sort of breakfast food.

Chard at Work

Chard! This "bitter, pungent and slightly salty" relative of beets and spinach has been, slowly but steadily, settling in to the bed beside my perpetual monster spinach for a few months now. I have the rainbow variety, so my plants have a mix of green, red and yellow stems - it's really pretty! But also it just seems like such a "fancy" ingredient. I don't know what to do with it.

Luckily, Martha Stewart has me covered (not a phrase I ever thought I'd say): it's time for some chard pasta.

The Cast On Itch

Yarn has arrived and, despite my best efforts to the contrary, I have cast on a new project. We also made dumplings and I discovered just how hard rust stains are to get out of concrete. It's been a very adult week.

Proud Chicken-Mum moment: they finally agreed to put themselves to bed on the roost at night. Finally.

Progress in Preservation

My biggest goal in beginning this journey into (aspects of) self-sufficiency has been to learn pickling and preserving. It's one thing to pick some tomatoes from the garden and make yourself a salad but entirely another to process the things you've grown and then put them aside for another day. It still seems to odd to me that I can just make something like jam or chutney or sauce - could I be any more a product of my modern upbringing?! - but the idea of actually doing that remains incredibly exciting. And now that I've tried my hand at a few of these I'm ready to show some of it off.

Could I have staged this shot better so there wasn't laundry and cold medicine in it? Yes, I really could have!

Homemade Pesto is Besto

I've always enjoyed cooking and baking - although cleaning up after? Not so much! - and having my own kitchen makes it even more fun. I plan the week's meals, put aside extras in the freezer for later, and actually quite enjoy going grocery shopping (although I hear this stops being fun once you have kids, so I'm glad that's a ways off yet). Having a garden I can actually harvest for ingredients is incredibly rewarding. So far I've had the chance to make a few things and I'm looking forward to sharing my favourite recipes.