Cornflowers at Christmas

I love that scene in the movie Room with a View when the two gentlemen adorn the two lovely old ladies with cornflowers. Here are some cornflowers that I grew this summer and used on our Christmas table.

We just had my Mum and Dad for lunch so here's our very simple outdoor table setting for the four of us. We had roast lamb, potato bake and home grown vegetables followed by meringues with fruit salad.

Cooking from the garden

Here are some things we picked from the garden this afternoon. We've got loads of basil and beans, and we picked a little zucchini, some young lemongrass and a Kaffir lime leaf. I had some chillies that we had grown and dried and I have just bought some organic, Australian garlic from the organic shop.

So, what to cook to use all of this in one dish... we love Thai, but because of Simon's food intolerances we can't use any bottled sauces.

I had 500g of chicken mince, so here's what I did:

• Heat some olive oil in a large frypan
• Stir fry the beans and zucchini for a couple of minutes, then remove from pan and set aside
• Stir fry the crushed garlic, chopped chillies, lemongrass, Kaffir lime leaf and some grated ginger and chopped shallots for about 20 seconds
• Add the chicken mince and stir fry until cooked through
• Return the vegetables to the pan with the juice of a lime
• Add the big bunch of shredded basil and stir through until the basil wilts
• Serve with jasmine rice, a spoonfull of natural yoghurt and sliced cucumber
It was very tasty and a good use of the produce from the garden. This amount served the two of us with a little left over for lunch tomorrow.

Off to Beatrix Potter's House

Beatrix Potter was the most wonderful, inspirational author, illustrator and devotee of nature, and I admire her greatly. We are hoping to travel to the UK this coming year, and one very special thing that I would like to do is to visit the area she loved so much, near Lake Windermere in the Lake District, and go to see Hilltop, one of her farms. I have been reading about Buckle Yeat, a guest house that is nearby to Hilltop. Buckle Yeat is featured in some of her illustrations and I think it would be delightful to stay there as it still runs as a guest house today. I wonder if anyone has stayed there or has suggestions for our time whilst in that area.

Summer Tomatoes

We've been growing cherry tomatoes, and here is some of our first crop for the summer. It is such a lovely thing to pick something that has grown in your own garden. Such a simple thing, but it just brings so much pleasure.

Simple pleasure

What could be a more simple pleasure than what I had for lunch today? How indulgent to slice up a whole gourmet truss tomato, put it on top of grated tasty cheese on a cracker, with cracked salt and pepper, and place it on a pretty plate. Delicious.

Camping at Kenilworth

We have just spent 4 nights camping at beautiful, green Kenilworth, about 40 minutes drive inland from Maleny. We camped in the grounds of the Kenilworth Hall, so had access to toilets and showers and it is dog friendly so we could have the poodle with us.

With Simon's food intollerances, we had to cook everything from scratch and not use anything tinned or processed. As we had access to the butcher and grocer in the township, we were able to buy fresh groceries as we needed them. I took lots of cooking equipment, herbs from our garden at home and I typed up a few pages of recipes that I knew would work whilst camping. The photo above is the pantry.

 Simon looks out towards the Mary River.

 Sitting down to Thai basil chicken with stir fried vegetables and rice.

My kitchen! We set up camp beside a little shed so we were able to use its bench as an area for our gas cookers.

We had happy hour each afternoon before dinner, I made avocado dip, tomato salsa and cucumber tzatziki. For beverages, the best one was a pile of freshly squeezed oranges, a squeezed lemon, with half a pineapple that I juiced by pushing it through a colander. I sugared the rims of our glasses and we drank our fresh fruit cocktails whilst eating these dips.

The township of Kenilworth was built in the 1920s, so has a lovely vintage feel.

Holding the Market Stall

Well I finally had the fun of holding a market stall, a couple of weekends ago. I was so excited the night before, that I could barely sleep! For me it was the fun of picking the fresh flowers and produce, and setting up the stall with home grown and home sewn products. It was a fairly quiet market in the grounds of a church, but it was just how I wanted it to be, not hectic, just gentle.

I got my chance to wrap things in the little brown paper bags that I had stamped. It gave me heaps of satisfaction to do that. I had lovely visits from Jane, Jenny and Diana and Mum stayed with me all morning.



So I've had my fun holding a market stall... a one off for now I think.



Market Stall

Today I spent the day finalising the various items that I have been making to take to a market next weekend. So, I am nearly ready. The markets are next Saturday from 9am at Middle Ridge Uniting Church on Stenner Street, Toowoomba. I have made bunting, compost bags, linen tea towels, lavender sachets, placemats, aprons and a few other bits and pieces. It is my first ever market, and probably a one off!

Cooking Dotty Biscuits

Yesterday, we put on a concert at school. I wanted to give the girls a treat at the end of the concert and thought I would organise a cake...there were about 50 girls involved. Then I decided it would be so much nicer to cook Dotty biscuits and package them up individually and it would also make it easier to distribute at the end of the concert. It ended up being very time consuming to make and package them individually, but I was very happy with how they turned out and the girls were grateful for their treat. The letters spelt out "Congratulations Year 4 & 5 Band". Although making the biscuits took a little longer than I had planned, it gave me a great deal of pleasure to make the lovely display.

.roses make my day

How nice to arrive at school today and have some students bring me these beautiful roses from their garden. I put them in this jug on my desk and they have brought me so much pleasure today. Why do flowers make us so happy? What a blessing they are.

Spring growth

How nice to feel the warmth of Spring and the advance towards summer. How lovely to wake up early and the sun is already up. My herbs are making progress. Here's how they looked back in July.

Nearly 4 months on and my sweet little seedlings have grown from this (above) to this (below)

And my Rosemary and Lavender cuttings have gone from this:

to this:

The rest of the herb garden is starting to look lush and healthy. Here's a patch of mint up the back of the yard:

Best ever tomato relish recipe

Here's the recipe I used this week, to make the tastiest home made tomato and onion relish, full of wholesome ingredients and packing a huge flavour punch. We have some food intolerance in the family, so all our ingredients need to be as close to nature as we can get. I have indicated what I left out to achieve this, and the flavour is still fantastic.

6 medium (1.1kg) tomatoes, peeled and chopped
2 medium (300g) onions, finely chopped
2 medium (300g) apples, peeled, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 teaspoon dry mustard (I ground my own mustard seeds with mortar and pestle)
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 tablespoons of mild curry powder (I used my home made madras curry powder)
1 1/4 cups (250g) firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) white vinegar (which I had to leave out)
1/4 cup (60ml) lemon juice
1 tablespoon tomato paste (which I also had to omit)

Combine all ingredients in a large pan and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally for about one and a half hours or until the mixture is thick. Pour hot relish into hot sterilised jars, seal immediately.

Here's the mixture when I started to cook:

and here's the mixture after about 1 and a 1/4 hours of cooking:

the finished relish:

We have been having it with eggs for breakfast and using it instead of tomato sauce with meat balls. Thank you to the Australian Women's Weekly Tomato Cookbook for this recipe.

A place for everything...

Simon wanted me to go four wheel driving with him last week. We were running a little early to meet the other vehicle so we called in at Gottabee Country at Highfields and I found this old silky oak filing cupboard. It was love at first sight and I couldn't leave without knowing it was coming home to my place. Of course, it couldn't come 4 wheel driving with us, so we picked it up on the way home. Here is it in my study, doors closed:

And here it is chock-a-block with things that needed filing, like paper for the printer, folders, envelopes etc...

All in all, quite a successful four wheel driving excursion really. I ended up enjoying it much more than I thought I would, and I even have something to show for it.

Ah, the joy of having a place for things!

Camping in Comfort

We've just spent the weekend at the Goomburra Valley Campground which is just over 1 hour south of Toowoomba. Here's Simon and the poodle enjoying what we came for...Simon snoozing and Juliette keeping a look out for stray cows in the creek.

I loved setting up our camp site, stringing up my red and white bunting, drinking from our new red and white striped coffee cups and preparing meals when I wasn't relaxing with the dog on my lap. We ate some yummy meals. Here I am about to eat eggs, poatato cakes and grilled tomato for breakfast.

I loved the challenge of cooking everything fresh, with all natural ingredients. Here are the ingredients for a creamy, chicken pasta we had for lunch yesterday...

 and here's the finished product:

We had a really restful time...in bed by 7.00pm each night and sleeps during the day! Goomburra Valley Camp Ground is such a lovely place to stay, park like grounds, excellent amenities and you can have your dog there. What more could we want?