Divine Daylily

Coming into bloom in my garden now is a divine Daylily;  gently ruffled petals of the softest peachy-pink, and with a single white stripe, surround its yellow centre. I think it's exquisite!

Beautiful Daylily.

As its name alludes to, the Daylily's open blooms only last for one single day but their fleeting beauty reminds me to appreciate and enjoy them as they flower. 

The promise of a gorgeous flower. 

Tightly closed buds.

One beautiful bloom opens. 

I began with just one of these beautiful Daylilies; a gift from my mother-in-law from her garden to mine. I divided that clump when it was ready and now, through propogation, have even more of this particular Daylily, which I think might be Across the Galaxy, growing in my garden. All this beauty for free!

Daylilies are easy to grow and care for. They are hardy and drought tolerant too. You can even eat the flowers! Best of all though, they come in a huge variety of gorgeous colours. (The Mountain View Daylily Nursery website has some beautiful photos of different Daylilies in their online catalogue.)  I would love to grow a rainbow of them!

Hmm ... perhaps I will ask for a new Daylily variety in my Christmas stocking this year. 

Meg

p.s. I am not affiliated with The Mountain View Daylily Nursery in any way. It is a nursery not far from where I live, at Maleny in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. So, if I were to source a new Daylily, this is where I'd consider buying it from as it's the most local to me.

Little Potato & Haloumi Cakes

Anything made with chewy, salty haloumi cheese, has me hooked before the first mouthful. So it was with these little potato cakes. 

Delicious!

The recipe comes from The Art of Nourishing, by Therese Steele, which is one of my favourite cookbooks. Therese is a local woman who sought better health for her family through food and other changes to reduce or eliminate chemicals we can all be surrounded by in our modern lives and homes. There are so many delicious, healthy and gluten-free recipes in this cookbook as well as many tips for reducing chemicals in our daily lives. 

This is a very simple recipe really. I have omitted the salt from the recipe because I find haloumi to be salty enough on its own.  I also used olive oil instead of the grapeseed oil from the recipe. (I don't have grapeseed oil.)  Here's how I made them:

Little Potato & Haloumi Cakes

4 large waxy potatoes (A variety like Desiree is a good choice.)

100g haloumi cheese

2 large eggs

paprika & pepper

parsley *optional*

olive oil

1.  Coarsely grate the peeled potatoes on top of a clean tea towel. Bunch up the tea towel around the grated potato and use it to squeeze out as much moisture from the grated potato as possible.  Place grated potato in a mixing bowl.

2.  Coarsely grate the haloumi cheese and add it to the grated potato.

3.  Beat the eggs and add to the potato and haloumi mixture. *Add chopped parsely if using.*

4.  Season mixture with a generous grind of pepper and a sprinkling of paprika.

5.  Cover the base of your frying pan with olive oil and bring up to a medium heat.

6. Place little spoonfuls of potato and haloumi mixture into frying pan and even out thickness with the back of a spoon.

7.  Fry until golden brown on both sides. Remove from frying pan and sit on a piece of kitchen towel to soak up excess oil. 

8. Serve with a scrumptious chutney or chunky sauce and a generous side salad.  

Yum!  These little potato and haloumi cakes are so moreish that I don't recommend you make them all the time. While infinitely healthier than, say a hash brown cooked in palm oil at your local takeaway, eating batch after batch of them might still be overload. Once in a while though ... 

Meg

p.s. This is a rosti recipe I am very keen to try. Jamie Oliver's Giant Veg Rosti sounds amazing and full of goodness.

Hello, Sunday!

Hello, Sunday! It was an early start, there's nothing quite like a hungry Labrador who thinks the breakfast clock has been wound back an hour now that the day dawns before 5a.m. Lucky I am a morning person and said Labrador is so cute!

This extra hour allowed for the propping up of pillows and the reading of a fascinating book I discovered at my local library. Patchwork Prisoners, by Trudy Cowley & Dianne Snowden, is the study of The Rajah Quilt and the women who made it. This treasured textile, discovered in a Scottish attic in 1987, is the only known surviving quilt made by female convicts who came to Australia from England so long ago. It is amazing to think that on such a perilous voyage, aboard the convict ship, Rajah, and in such difficult circumstances, that something so beautiful was created.

Simple pleasures on a Sunday morning.

While I have never created a patchwork quilt, I did spend some time this morning stitching some little pale green olive sprigs onto a piece of dark brown cloth. Later, I will add tiny olive blossoms, with white and yellow threads, to these little sprigs. I am making a surprise for a sweet and generous soul.

After enjoying my own simple pleasures on this Sunday morn, I then indulged my canine friend with a lovely long walk along the path that follows the little creek. We strolled along, happy in the company of one another and the creek's soft gurgles. Being a Labrador, a swim along the way was compulsory!  We returned home tired, wet and content. Ready for breakfast and the rest of this beautiful Sunday day.

I hope your day holds some of your own simple pleasures.

Meg