Home Food

Our kitchen is often a hive of activity! There seems to be always something being chopped, grated, mixed, stirred, fried, blended or baked in what is the heart of our home. Up at the island bench I love, which looks out to a distant horizon, I make the food we love to eat. Home food! There are so many benefits to cooking and eating this way. Benefits way beyond the deliciousness and naughtiness of a big bowl to lick ... 

A very lick-able bowl.

(That's chocolate pudding mixture in there!)

Each morning, starts with a nourishing breakfast. Perhaps an omelette or toast with egg and bacon or mushrooms. Perhaps warmed slices of a nutty, breakfast-y bread made days before and frozen for those busier mornings when someone has to be out the door a bit earlier than usual. Granola in the warmer months and porridge, with warmed blueberries, when it's colder. Always a fulfilling start to the day no matter what's on the table.

A slice of  nutty banana bread for breakfast.

An omelette with spinach and leftover roasted veg.

Weekday lunches are prepared and packed in a mini production line upon the kitchen bench (I have never quite mastered the night before packing of lunches). Leftovers from dinner the night before or fresh salads and always a sandwich or two! Weekend lunches are more leisurely, rounds of toasted sandwiches or fresh Turkish bread, if I've been to the little local shop that sells it, spread with each of our favourites. Weekend lunches are made whenever we are hungry and eaten with noses in our local paper or a good book.

Leftover roasted chicken and salads for lunch.

Snacks for morning and afternoon teas are mixed and baked on the weekends for the work and school days ahead. This week, it was Anzac Biscuits and a simple cereal slice. Often it's muffins, pear or banana, studded with little chocolate chips. 

A batch of little muffins ready for the oven.

Each night, at our little wooden dining table, we sit and share a home cooked meal. Nothing fancy, just simple food we enjoy. Over these meals, the highlights of our days are shared and the things we are thankful for are voiced. If we are cooking for a crowd, we still keep it simple and just increase the quantity!

 A quick macaroni & cheese bake.

A stir fry with lots of healthy vegetables.

A nourishing salad with lots of greens.

Many homemade pizzas!

Home food is real food! It's the way we eat most of the time. Cooking and eating this way doesn't mean that we never have takeaway or that I've never resorted to opening a packet of very convenient biscuits. Of course we do and I have! These are rarities though and not our normal, everyday way of preparing and eating food. 

Home cooking not only fills our tummies, it nourishes our bodies and our hearts. Beginning with the breakfasts that provide sustained fuel for the day ahead through to the homemade meals around our table at night, that bring us together and over which we talk and laugh, I know what's in this food. I know what ingredients I've used and how it's been cooked. I know those lunches made with leftovers prevent waste and save us money. While there's more washing up involved (Let's be realistic!), I also know there's a lot less food packaging and plastic too. I know that the birthday cakes I make my boy and the cheesecakes I make my husband are  baked with all of my love. I know the meals we cook and contribute to share with friends are made with a fondness for those we hold dear. In so many ways, home food is good for our family, our bodies, our wallets and our planet. 

Chocolate pudding to share.

(Imagine generous scoops with dollops of cream!)

Now, back to that big bowl in which I mixed this chocolate pudding. I absolutely did lick that bowl! I was home all by myself so there was no-one to see me really...except Sir Steve dog who knows that chocolate is no good for dogs:D

Have a lovely weekend. What will you be eating at your place?

Meg

Poppies for Rememberance

At a little stall, selling handmade poppy flowers for ANZAC Day, I bought this little brooch. I think it is simple and beautiful. 

A little handmade poppy brooch.

Red poppies have become a symbol of remembrance. Along with sprigs of rosemary, they are worn as poignant reminders of the sacrifices made for peace; a peace that we are so fortunate to enjoy here in Australia when there is so much conflict and suffering in other parts of our world. I think it is important that we don't forget how lucky that makes us.  

Thousands upon thousands of red poppies, each one knitted or crocheted or stitched by hand, have been made and "planted"  in very special tributes. The 5000 Poppies project, featured on Gardening Australia (my favourite television program) this past week, began as a personal tribute that has now grown and inspired en masse installations which are just extraordinarily beautiful. 

While no more handmade poppies are needed now for these inspiring installations, you could still make yourself a little red poppy of your own with some red yarn or red felt. Here are some pattern links:

four petal poppy knitting pattern  from Hippystitch blog

knitted poppy 2 from Libby Summers blog

Jen's very simple poppy pattern (crochet) from pattern list on 5000 Poppies blog

felt poppy brooch from Pip over at Rest is not Idleness blog

I will be wearing the little handmade poppy brooch I bought today for it's ANZAC Day here in Australia. A day to offer up a quiet thanks for peace. 

Meg

Honey & Ginger Anzac biscuits

Sweet and oat-y and thought to be a welcome inclusion in care packages sent to loved ones fighting in a long-ago war so far from home, Anzac biscuits are an Australian tradition that take their name from those first brave ANZAC soldiers who landed on a far away beach at Gallipoli in Turkey, on April 25th, 1915. On that April date each year, our nation solemnly remembers those long-ago soldiers and all those who have come after them. 

Those original Anzac biscuits had a long way to travel to reach loved ones on faraway shores. While traditionally made with rolled oats and golden syrup, without eggs and with lots of sugar, there are many twists now on the original recipe that began appearing in recipe books from the 1920s.  Traditional or with a twist? Chewy or crunchy? However you like them best, they are a biscuit with ties to our nation's history.

ANZAC biscuits with a ginger twist!

I discovered this version, for Nourishing Anzac Biscuits, over at Georgia Harding's blog,  Well Nourished, while looking for a healthier version that had far less refined sugar. In my much-loved, old and splattered copy of the Day-to-Day Cookery Book by I.M. Downes, the Anzac Biscuit recipe calls for a whopping 3/4cup of sugar. While Georgia's recipe incorporates ground, mixed seeds, I have tweaked the recipe to make these biscuits without them. Here's how I made them:

Honey & Ginger Anzac Biscuits

100g butter

60g raw honey

1 teaspoon bicarb soda

1/2cup wholemeal spelt flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/2cup dessicated coconut

1/4cup of coconut or brown sugar (optional)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger powder

1.  Preheat oven to 170C.

2.  In large bowl, combine all dry ingredients, except bicarb soda. 

3.  Melt butter with honey in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Remove from heat as 

     soon as butter has melted.

4.  Add bicarb soda and stir in very gently as mixture becomes frothy.

5.  Pour frothy butter mixture into dry ingredients and mix well. 

6.  Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls with wet hands (as mixture is somewhat sticky)

      and place on lined baking trays. *Leave room between each biscuit to spread as it bakes.*

      Flatten each biscuit ball slightly with a fork.

7.  Bake until golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool considerably on trays before 

     transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

8.  Store in an air-tight container. 

Try not to munch on too many of these before Anzac Day on April 25th otherwise you'll find yourself up early baking an extra batch!

Meg

A Skirt with Pockets

Some lightweight, deep blue denim fabric, bought on sale ages ago, has been waiting in my fabric stash for me to sew up into a skirt with pockets. 

My new home-sewn skirt.

(The colour varies in the photographs ... it's actually a brighter blue than this!)

The pattern I used is Frankie & Ray's West Coast Skirt. I chose this particular pattern because I thought it was a simple one even though it included two things I hadn't attempted before. Pockets and elastic! I found both the pockets and the elastic easy to sew in.  The trickiest part was turning the long and narrow skirt ties, which I made with the striped fabric of an old cot sheet, right side out. In the end, this simple technique demonstrated on this YouTube video, made it much easier. (Thank goodness!)

Drawstring in & pockets pinned on.

(This blue is more an accurate capture of the colour!)

Elastic at the back.

Turning over a "waistband"  to hide the elastic.

I really like this skirt! I love the gentle A-line and the deep side pockets.  I did shorten the length by adjusting the pattern so that it sits just below the knee rather than mid-calf.  It was easy and quick to sew and I know that I will wear it a lot because it's very comfy. 

 I love deep pockets!

Sewing has become a real joy. I have been pleased with everything I've made so far and wear them often. What I find quite funny is the number of people who comment on my home sewn clothes and ask where I bought them! 

Meg

Our Sea Glass Beach

There's a little beach, on a peninsula not far from where we live, that we visit from time to time so that our boy can search for sea glass. Fragments of blue, green, amber and white that are washed up on the shore, rough and sharp edges tumbled and smoothed by the waves. 

Little gems of weathered sea glass.

While I watched my boy wandering the shore, head bent down towards the sand in earnest concentration, I strolled the path above. (Beach walking is strictly prohibited for my sore feet right now:(  Although I found no sea glass along my path, there was a lot that was beautiful that caught my eye. 

The wooden stairs that lead down to our sea glass beach.

The tiny, calm waves of the sea.

A view of the sea framed by a tree. 

The soft, lemon-yellow petals of a flower. 

The crumbling pickets of someone's back beach fence. 

 The colours and spikes of a lizard.

Under a tree's arch. 

The red fireworks of a flower. 

Tall pines like this one reach for the sky.

A heart shape in the mesh. Xxx

My boy has been collecting sea glass here since he was around four years old. He still gets just as excited, when he finds a "special piece", as he did back then. If it's deemed a keeper, he brings it home! 

My son's sea glass collection.

(There's a few stones and some sand in there too!)

These pieces of once discarded bottles and glass have become someone else's treasure, my boy's precious gems. It wonder what else we throw away that would have value to another?

Meg

p.s. The links below are to  little projects you can make with sea glass.

                                            *  Sea Glass Candle          *  Sea Glass Stepping Stone          

 

Here & Now 20

We've rarely left home the past couple of weeks. It's school holidays here and with very few plans we've been absorbed by the simple happiness of our home. Gardening, baking, sewing, knitting, reading and playing both inside and outside have filled our days. Friends and family have come to share morning teas and afternoon teas out on the verandah. Sir Steve dog has been for his daily stroll around the neighbourhood and occasionally to the park in the back of our old ute. (He barks the whole way there, sharing his quite obvious joy with everyone!) Nightfall comes earlier now that Autumn is here. We tuck ourselves up in our beds with our books, lightweight blankets ready for the crispness of the early morning air come the morning. These are ordinary days but they are good days...

The Autumnal colours of natural dyes.

Delicious and chewy Honey & Ginger ANZAC biscuits. 

A mustard-y yellow sailor top for Autumn.

A bowl of homemade pumpkin soup.

The beginnings of a shawl.

One of Autumn's changing leaves.

Loving //  All of Autumn's glorious golden colours.

Eating //  Morning tea biscuits out on our verandah. (Chocolate chip cookies & ANZAC biscuits too.)

Drinking //  Sparkling mineral water with a little lime juice squeezed in.

         

Feeling //  Content.

Making //  Plans for how I'll use the little stash of the fabric I dyed ages ago. 

Thinking //  That young people, like this little girl who helped convince her city's council to ban 
                           plastic straws, can be so inspiring. 

Dreaming //  ... of a mid-May holiday to Melbourne, a city I have never visited before!

So, this is the here & now of my April. What's been happening during your April days? To join in with Sarah's lovely link-up, over at Say, Little Hen, just visit her there. She's just moved house and run a knitting workshop so there's lots to read about and her photos are gorgeous too. 

Meg

Nutty Chocolate Chip Cookies

The nuttiness of these scrumptious chocolate chip cookies comes from nut butter rather than chopped nuts mixed through the cookie dough. I've experimented with several different nut butters such as cashew, brazil, macadamia and hazelnut. Some I've bought and others I've made myself. My favourite one to use though is macadamia nut butter because I find the resulting cookies are lovely and moist. 

Scrumptious!

I came across the original recipe, from Paula over at the blog, Mixing It Up Hong Kong, a few years ago and I've only tinkered with it minimally. The original recipe is one written for the Thermomix but you can make it without one. As usual, I've reduced the sugar content. I find that less sugar is just fine as the chocolate chips add a sweetness too. I love to use dark chocolate chips in these cookies but you can use milk or white chocolate chips instead. I sometimes use nut butter instead of grinding whole nuts and blending with coconut oil as per the original recipe. This substitution is one of Paula's suggestions that you'll find at the bottom of her recipe page. It works well and saves some time too!

This quickly became my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Here's how I make it:

Nutty Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Unsuitable for those with nut allergy.)

80g oat flour or ground whole oats
120g macadamia nut butter (store bought or homemade)
35g coconut or rapadura sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large free range egg
100g - 120g wholemeal spelt flour
1 Tablespoon milk 
180g small choc chips


1.  Preheat oven to 180C and line baking trays.

2.  Beat nut butter, sugar & vanilla until very well blended.

3.  Add egg and beat again until well blended. The mixture at this point is quite "sticky".

4.  In a separate bowl, mix the oat flour and 100g of the wholemeal spelt flour.

5.  Make a well in the centre of the flours and spoon the sticky nut butter mixture into it.

6.  Add in milk and then mix until well combined. *While this cookie dough is fairly sticky, 
      mix in the extra 20g flour if you feel it is too wet at this point.*

7.  Gently mix through chocolate chips.

8.  Using damp hands, roll tablespoonfuls of cookie dough into balls and place on trays.
      Flatten each slightly with your fingers.

9.  Bake until lightly golden and cool on wire racks.

Every batch of these I make NEVER makes it into our biscuit tin without several or more cookies mysteriously disappearing from the cooling rack. I often have to stand guard just so they don't all disappear in one go!

Do you have a favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe?

Meg

Falling Fruit

Our mandarin tree, laden with the promise of juicy Autumn fruit just a few months ago, is systematically dropping several under-ripe mandarins to the ground every. single. day. 😦 There aren't many left now and I'm not holding out any hope that they'll stay on the tree!

Several fruit are falling from our mandarin tree every day.

Our tree looks lush and healthy. There's no obvious damage to the tree, no signs of insect attack on the leaves or the fruit. But, we have had a LOT of rain and both a google search and staff at the local nursery concurred that this was most likely the tree's response to too much of "liquid gold".  An example of unseasonal weather affecting a plant. Sigh!

Our usually very happy mandarin tree.

There's a deep disappointment to losing a potential harvest like this. (I can only imagine how farmers who lose entire paddocks full of produce must feel!) Those homegrown, fresh-from-the-tree mandarins are something we look forward to picking and eating every year. Instead, this year, I'll be trying to ripen them on my kitchen bench and researching mandarin marmalade to try and salvage some fruit. 

Unripe mandarins still on the tree.

(Fingers crossed!)

I guess this is just a gardener's lot sometimes, isn't it!  How are the weather conditions where you live affecting the plants in your garden?

Meg

Lemongrass Mulch

Just about a year after I planted out many little lemongrasses, for the specific purpose of growing some of our own mulch, it was time to give them a haircut! 

The abundant, strappy leaves of lemongrass.

One of the little lemongrasses I planted last April.

Lemongrass grows well in our climate and has loved the hot and wet conditions of the Summer just gone. Each thriving plant has provided an abundance of long, strappy leaves for us to chop and use as mulch.

One year's growth and ready for a haircut!

While we predominately grow lemongrass as a source of mulch, it has lots of great uses as Morag Gamble explains in this post over at her blog,  Our Permaculture Life.  

Roughly chopped!

I cut each lemongrass clump back quite a bit. As I worked, a lovely lemony scent filled the air and masses of chopped leaves dropped onto the ground. I left some of this to cover and protect the soil around the lemongrasses themselves and gathered up the rest in my trusty wheelbarrow to move to an area of the garden that needed some new mulch.

A barrow load of homegrown lemongrass mulch.

A blanket of lemongrass mulch around the mandarin tree.

A blanket of lemongrass leaves now covers the soil around our mandarin tree. This loose tangle of strappy mulch will allow plenty of water to seep through while protecting the soil and nourishing it as it breaks down over time. A second, lighter "trim" of our lemongrass will yield a little more of this mulch for use in our garden too before I leave the clumps to regrow their long, strappy hair-dos!

Meg

p.s. The other plant we chose to grow as a mulch, Canna Lily or Queensland Arrowroot, is also doing well. I will need to chop them back soon too. More free mulch!

A little Canna Lily just beginning to grow.

One year of growth.