A great day, Australia Day

Australia Day is not a day that I normally celebrate and not for any particular reason. The only one I can think of is that my husband normally works, other than that I can't think why. Today was a great day because:

• I slept in
• Everyone was home
• I had no where to be
• I watched my girls ride their bikes
• We walked to the playground
• I made lamingtons with my girls
• We made a huge mess and I didn't care
• I didn't worry about what had to be done
• Time got away from me
• I made homemade mayonnaise 
• I made potato salad
• We had a delicious BBQ for lunch
• There were so many left overs that I didn't have to think about dinner
• The sun was shining
• The girls were splashing in their little pool

A cheats lamingtons

Making  a mess

Homemade mayonnaise

Potato salad

It's days like this that I wish came along more often. It was a day that kind of felt like Christmas Day but probably better. We had nowhere to be, no one to please. The kids were so excited about making lamingtons instead of what presents they would receive. Unlike Christmas, I didn't feel exhausted at the end of it; it was a slow day. I felt relaxed and refreshed to begin another school year. I hope you had a great day too :-) xx

A good quiche recipe

For the past probably 10 years I have been cooking this quiche recipe time and time again with much success. A version of it began from my mum but this is my adjusted version that I wish to share with you.

You will need.
1 sheet of short crust pastry
Butter or oil for greasing
1 brown onion finely chopped
8 rashes of shortcut bacon finely sliced
1 packet of frozen pastry thawed and excess water drained
6 eggs
250ml of thickened cream
Good handful of cheese of your choice. I normally just use tasty
Salt and pepper

How to make it.
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees while you thaw out the pastry.

Fry off your onion and bacon until it's golden and set aside to cool. Meanwhile, pop you thawed pastry in your dish and put it in the oven to blind bake.

Mix together your eggs and milk in a bowl.

Once your pastry case is baked  and cool it's time to assemble.

Start by a layer of the onion and bacon.

Next step is the add your layer of spinach, then cheese. Today I used feta only because I had some left over. If I was using my usual grated tasty cheese then I would add this last. It really doesn't matter!

Finally add your cream and egg mixture and even it out as best as possible. Mine clearly isn't perfect. Who really cares!

Pop it in the oven for at least 45 minutes. Today mine took and hour. Just keep checking until it's golden brown on top, has risen and a knife comes out clean when put in the centre.

This was my finished product today. Enjoy!

Ps. If you would like your mixture to be firmer you can whisk in about a tablespoon of plain flour with the egg and cream mix and that will firm it up. Sometimes I do it and sometimes I don't. I just forgot today but I'm sure it still tastes good!

Sunday harvest

This afternoon I was able to harvest some of my first summer veg:-) I filled a bowl with some parsley, green beans and 3 tiny zucchini. Some nice organic veg to accompany our dinner!

Parsley Pesto Recipe

Beautiful zucchini flowers in the morning

I'm happy to say that my veggie patch survived a week of scorching temperatures. I watered morning and night and all was good....we'll except for a little capsicum plant. We aren't huge capsicum fans in this household anyway so no big loss.

Corn seedling heading towards to scorching sun

young zucchinis

an almost ripe grape tomato

tomatoes loving the heat

lebanese cucumbers

Although the heat did stress me and my veggies out a bit, the heat definitely sped things up a bit. So for today I harvested a nice big bunch of flat parsley, a zucchini and a tiny cucumber which I ate straight away!

today's harvest

A large bunch of parsley this good called for another pesto recipe, this time parsley pesto.

You will need:

A bunch of continental flat parsley

3 garlic cloves

1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Handful of walnuts

Handful of grated Parmesan

Teaspoon of salt

2 medium sized zucchini diced

Packet of pasta of your choice 

Method: 

Bring a large pot of water to the boil.

While that is happening, add your parsley, garlic, oil, walnuts, Parmesan and salt to a food processor.

Whizz it altogether until it resembles a pesto consistency.

By now your water should be boiling so add your pasta.

When there is a few minutes to go until your pasta is cooked, add your diced zucchini. You could also add diced green beans or potato as well.

Once your pasta is cooked so too should your veg so drain it all and return back it the pot.

Stir your pesto through the pasta and veg and enjoy!

Home again

I've been away with my family for just under a week for some much needed rest and relaxation. As the holiday started to come to a close I started to think about my garden. The weather had been quite hot back home and it wasn't receiving the regular watering that it would had id been home to look after it. I was wondering....

Is everything still alive?

Is anything ready for harvesting?

How much weeding will need to be done?

Did my seeds germinate?

What will I plant next?

Much to my delight I found some things to harvest tomorrow, 2 young zucchinis and some beans.

Lots of flowers on my tomato, cucumber and zucchini plants so many more to harvest later.

Lettuce and corn seeds have germinated.

Some wilted leaves...many many weeds! But no dead plants:-)

I'm happy to be home, my kids are happy to be home back to their creature comforts, hubby's happy to have another week to wind down at home before going back to work.

Yes there are mountains of laundry to be washed, then folded and put away...meals to be planned, groceries to be bought, meals to be cooked...hems to be taken up, name labels to be ironed onto uniforms and the lists goes on and on with no end. The truth is, it isn't all that bad, it's part of my home, my family, my life that I wouldn't trade for any other.

2014 brings a new baby into our family....more washing, more nappies, more crying, more sleepless nights but most of all more love and joy into our home

:-)

Summer garden

The madness of Christmas has subsided and my garden was in desperate need of some tlc. My tomato, zucchini, bean and cucumber seedlings were growing nicely as the weather has been warmer. However, they were slowly being taken over by weeds!

Today was a mild morning so it wasn't too hot to spend a couple of hours weeding. I dread weeding but the end result is always worth it and my plants will reward me later with summer veg:-) 

I also visited the nursery later and bought some more seedlings ( eggplant, chilli, capsicum, more herbs and beans ), and some sugar cane mulch to try and keep those weeds away!

Let's see how long it is before harvest!

Creamy basil pesto recipe

This is a recipe that I've been cooking now for about 10 years and am yet to find anyone who dislikes it. It's healthy ish, green, garlicky, filling and doesn't take long to make.

You will need.

Packet of pasta of your choice

Bunch of basil

5 cloves of garlic

300ml ish of cream of your choice...I used thickened

5 tablespoons of pine nuts 

Handful of Parmesan and extra to serve

About half a cup of olive oil

Salt to taste

Method

Start by browning your pine nuts in a frypan until lightly brown over a low to medium heat.

In a blender add a quater of a cup of oil, your basil bunch, crushed garlic cloves and pine nuts.

Start blending your mix. You may find that not much is happening. If this occurs start to add the remainder of your oil in stream from the top. I often turn it off, open it and squash it all down with a spoon to help it along. Continue to process until you get a smooth mixture.

At this stage add a handful of Parmesan and process again. Add about a teaspoon of salt or less depending on your preference. When you taste your pesto at this stage, the garlic will be very strong. Don't stress! The cream will mellow it down. If you still find after eating this dish that the garlic is too strong then reduce the cloves until you find what works. Remember though that garlic in this raw form has amazing medicinal properties!

Once you have your pesto mix, bring some water to the boil in a large pot and cook your pasta according to the cooking instructions. Today we had ricotta and spinach tortellini. If you have the skills and a great amount of time, make your own pasta. It tastes divine with gnocchi.

In the same pan that you browned your pine nuts in, over a low heat add your cream. Combine that gently with all of the pesto and slowly simmer.

Once your pasta has finished cooking, strain it and return to the pot. Add all of the cream sauce and gently combine.

Enjoy!

You could also add some browned pine nuts on top. I've also made this with some cooked chicken. If your brave, you could skip the cream and just stir through the pesto with the pasta.