Belle Fleur Store - lovely things

This gorgeous little bird perched on the top of a reel of string paperweight, is a new item in Belle Fleur Store for July. It costs $16.95. Let me know if you would like one!

This is a lovely brass paper clip. It is about 6cm from top to bottom and costs $14.95. What a stylish addition to a desk. We have them in brass (as illustrated) and silver.

This larger brass paper clip measures about 9.5cm from top to bottom. It is a very elegant piece. We also have this clip in brass or silver. It costs. $29.95.

Belle Fleur Store Pop-Up Shop

Yesterday was my very first Belle Fleur Store Pop-Up Shop. For a long time, I have been hoping to open a gifts and homewares store, however, it wasn't until our travels through the UK last year that we came across the concept of Pop-Up shops, a shop that sets up for a short time, that I realised that this may be the way I could turn my dream into a reality without giving up my wonderful job.

So, I hired the community hall on the corner of Hume Street and Perth Street, Toowoomba, Queensland for the day and Belle Fleur Store had its debut. It was a wonderful day and all my beautiful friends came along and supported me. With the help of my Mum, my husband and some dear friends, we had a bustling little shop.

We sold potted herbs, bunches of herbs, William Morris tea-towels, stationery, magnets, mirrors and cards, pretty floral bags, Burgon and Ball gardening gloves and tools, desk accessories and jewellery.

I am hoping to run Belle Fleur Store Pop-Up Shop on the first Saturday of each month.

Vegan Basil Pesto

Our basil is bountiful at the moment, so we made this dairy-free pesto and it was just so delicious that I wanted to share this recipe. We have made pesto many times, but this recipe made the sweetest, tastiest pesto ever. We used cashew nuts instead of the traditional pine nuts as organic pine nuts are very expensive.

100 g fresh basil leaves
80 g cashew nuts (traditionally, pine nuts would be used here)
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
8 tbsp savoury nutritional yeast flakes (available at an organic shop)
2 tsp lemon or lime juice
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Toast the cashew nuts in a moderate oven for about 6 minutes or until slightly browned. Allow to cool. Put the basil leaves, cashews, garlic cloves, yeast flakes, juice and a little of the oil into a food processor and start to process the mixture. Gradually add the remaining olive oil in a thin stream until you reach the desired consistency, stopping to scrape down the sides of the food processor a couple of times. Season to taste with the salt and pepper.

My batch made these two bottles, which will be kept in the fridge for up to a week. Tonight, we will cook some spiral pasta and stir through several tablespoons of the pesto with roasted pumpkin, sweet potato and zucchinis, which have been cut into 2cm cubes and roasted, oil free, for 40 minutes.

Summer Vegetables

It has been really hot here in Toowoomba this summer, but the vegetable garden is loving the warmth. Simon has been keenly tending our veges, and harvesting basket loads of beautiful zucchinis and beans. Here I have taken a photo of the chilli plants, with lots of green chillies hanging like Christmas decorations, as we wait for them to turn red, and of one our tomato bushes laden with enormous tomatoes. We are impatiently awaiting the first signs of colour so we can pick them before any insects sting them. How fulfilling it is to pick fresh vegetables and cook them that evening...garden to plate within half an hour!

Chocolate, Fruit & Nut Loaf

We have been cutting down on dairy and so it was really exciting to find a lovely cake recipe that used olive oil instead of butter. We loved it, so I thought I would share this recipe here.
1 1/2 cups (225g) wholemeal self-raising flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 eggs at room temperature
2/3 cup (160ml) olive oil
1/3 cup (80ml) honey
375g raisins
200g shredded coconut
100g dark chocolate - chopped
2/3 cup (90g) nuts - chopped (I used walnuts and almonds)

Preheat oven to 150C
Grease 2 loaf tins and line with baking paper, leaving some overhanging the long edges.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and cinnamon.
In another mixing bowl, whisk eggs, olive oil and honey together.
Add egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix until well combined.
Stir in the raisins, coconut, chocolate and nuts.

Spoon into loaf tins and press down with the back of the spoon. Bake for about 40 - 45 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 30 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool another 30 minutes.

William Morris' House

My husband and I have just had the opportunity to have a holiday in the UK and Europe and one of the things I really wanted to do, was to visit William Morris' house, Kelmscott, near Lechlade, about an hour from Oxford. It was well worth the visit. It was so interesting to see the rooms that he and his wife and family lived in and imagine them there. The garden was lovely, with a vegetable garden, a meadow and lots of roses. I particularly enjoyed the gift shop as it had so many different William Morris design items to choose from, like linen, trays, notebooks, bags, umbrellas and magnets.
How wonderful to feel that I was walking where he had walked and seeing the same beauty in nature that inspired his lovely designs.

home grown sweet potato

We were very excited to dig up our first decent crop of sweet potato yesterday afternoon. We were roasting a chicken for tea, so we cut up some of the sweet potato and also some of our home grown zucchini, and tossed them in olive oil, laid them on baking paper in a tray and roasted them for about 40 minutes.

 Here are the vegies about to go in the oven.

...and here is last night's simple roast dinner of chicken, sweet potato, zucchini and pumpkin. How rewarding to eat the things grown in your own garden.