Fig Jam (sugarless)





Yep I've been jammin again:)

 I mentioned quite some time ago that we have a big old fig tree on the empty block behind our house. Benny's mum said that the owners of the block are happy for us to have whatever we can get to before the birds so I went over and picked a bag full a few evenings ago.

It was a wild and windy night, not the kind of night one would expect in the middle of Summer but nice all the same 

 The figs are in abundance, the birds  have yet to find the fruity feast. Benny's mum said she never managed to get many figs when she lived here. What luck I have, I guess these figs just wanted to become jam

 I loosely followed this sugarless fig jam recipe (honey sweetened)

I also made fig muffins using our favourite muffin recipe

sugarless tomato sauce

 We've been bringing in so many tomatoes from the garden this summer so along with regular tomato soup, salads, sandwiches etc. I've managed to make two batches of sauce from all the excess tomatoes. Not all my tomatoes are perfect, some have grubs, blossom end rot or sun burnt patches but all these little imperfections get cut off so that we barely waste a single one. They all taste delicious in sauce

 I'm rarely short of a helper to wash them. The only pay they expect is a few cherry tomatoes to munch on while their hard at work

 Recipe-
9 cups of pureed tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
1 small onion
2 tsp garlic
1 cup vinegar
3/4 cup honey
handful of basil

*cook olive oil, onion and garlic on medium until onion is tender
* add pureed tomatoes, bring to the boil
*simmer until tomatoes have reduced to about 3/4 or the original volume (a few hours)
*add vinegar, honey and basil
*cook a further 20 mins or so. Turn the heat up and reduce a bit more if it seems too thin
*Puree again or leave chunky

Bottle and freeze or preserve (can)

Yum!

 Here's three of the 4 bottles that I made. they are 450ml bottles filled about 3/4 way (they needed room for expansion as I froze them)

And I bet you'd like to see the beautiful healthy plants that my abundance of tomatoes are coming from...

Yep seriously! These plants have looked terrible for weeks and I keep expecting them to die but they are tough and just keep making more fruit!

berry smoothies

i love cooking

broad beans and cabbage from my garden, tomatoes, plus

whatever veggies are in the fridge and some wholemeal pasta equals

my favourite throw together veggie pasta

wild yeasted (sour dough) bread

well, here is the second loaf (because of course the first loaf dissapeared before i could take the photo because it was sooo good)

i can see i will definately be making lots of this. i recently read a whole book on bread making. while this sounds like a bit of overkill just to make a loaf of bread, i found it realy helpful. it had all the little bits and pieces that recipes just presume you already know (um no!)

heating up our home

heres my very first (good) loaf of 'made with my own two hands' bread. i attempted it once before but lets just say that attempt wasnt worth photographing. it was great to make and better to eat. i even like the crusts (yes ill admit it, when im looking after kids i chuck my crusts in the chook bucket when there not looking, shh dont tell em)

i took a pic of the recipe to save writing it out. the recipe is from "the womans weekly new cook book'' (thats the title, its actualy not new at all, mums had this book forever and made so many things from it, its fantastic! i was lucky enough to find my copy at an opp shop for 50c, score!! i love that i can cook up lots of the things i ate throughout my childhood. mmmm)

the first few blured ingredients are 30g compressed yeast, 2 cups warm water, 1/2 teaspn salt, 2 tablespn honey or treacle

i left it to sit and rise a lot longer than the recipe called for as mine hadnt done much in their recomended times.

last week i did some visiting. first to anneke to hang out with her and the lovely mia dog on my favourite beach

and then to levins (where i forgot to take photos) for some much needed crafting inspiration. while i was there i made these coasters (yes that grass is at my house, its a tiny patch that has slowly come up all by its self next to the shed. i wish there was more of it but i must say im pretty happy now that its bug enough for me to sit on (just) ,who knew such a small patch of grass could bring so much enjoyment to a person)

and also got levins favourite banana cake recipe and had a go at them as soon as i got home. they turned out fantastic! a deffinate favourite here too.

and as usual i came away from levin with an arm full of wonderful reading material. i have started reading An Elm Creek Quilts Sampler and absolutely love it! so today is a reading and quilting day (as apposed to 3 days this week that i am actually working decent hours, yay!) im very keen to have a go at hand piecing soon after hearing about the process in the book. looking forward to seing yours soon levin, and coming over so you can show me how its done.

(family that are wondering how i went with the new kids i was meeting yesterday- meeting postponed until 4pm today, i also had some one book in a 3yr old girl who i meet next week and she is willing to pay from this week to hold the place open. for both families my hours are 10am-3pm, tues-friday so hopefully both work out, it would be perfect. fingers crossed)

lucky for me i happend to be there as levin was sewing binding on a quilt and learnt how to do it propperly. must say this way looks a whole lot neater than my previous attempts!!

oh and the baby quilt? me and benny are trying for a baby.

i started the quilt when we first decided to start trying 2 months ago thinking that with all the hand stitching i wanted to do it would take a long long time. apparently not so much as its almost finished!

oh weal, heres hoping that i can wait long enough to use it, i can definately see it making its way onto one of the beds of the children i look after.

ive always wanted to have beautiful quilts on all the little beds, it was a realy fun little project, im thinking i might have to do more soon. its hard justifying the cost of making them "for the buisiness" but i guess ive just got to think of them as entertainment for me. i will enjoy seing them every time i walk in the room. and besides, to me every child deserves to be wrapped up in home made, hand stitched goodness. what could help you nap better than that?

apple crumble

mums apple tree is full of apples so lately my thing has been to find the perfect apple crumble recipe. after a few attempts ive found it! yummy and so healthy you could almost get away with it for breakfast (believe me ill try it)

yep your lookin at it.
i put in it-
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup wholemeal flour
4 Tbs butter
3/4 oats

method-
* blend the begeebers out of it all in the mixer thing (the jug thing on a double mixer machine)

*peel and cut apples (i used about 8 i think) and put in pie dish

*sprinkle crumble mix on top

bake on about 150C until apples are soft and crumble is browned. enjoy.
its sooo good!

the chooks love when i make apple crumble too

we got these cane chairs the other day.they are just beyond cute (oh and the reading toddler. and her pinafore. when i have kids they will LIVE in overalls and pinafores, i just cant get enough of them:)

ive been wanting cane chairs for ages. mini ones are just as good!

settling in nicely

ive had lots of great visitors and lots of great fun. my favourite part of having my own home is having friends and family gathered around our little kitchen table (if there's enough of us, some one will be sitting on an esky topped with cushions, another on a lounge chair) for a meal, a chat, some making or baking.

my visit with lil didn't go quite as planned, i was sick, but we still made ourselves lots of fun. mostly lazing on a mattress in front of the tv, catching up on what each other had been up to. and we made the greatest crumbed chicken together!

these pictures are from a while back, opp shopping and garage saling in kadina together, oh the good times we have together:)

by the time aj came over i was thankfully feeling much better. we invited mum over for the day and made the yummiest cadbury chocolate rocky road ready for christmas. we also went wondering in my new town and found a beautiful little stream and waterfall, perfect for dipping our toes in. later we went looking at christmas lights

trust me, it tastes just as good as it looks!

me and benny are loving the extra time together, adjusting and figuring out who does what and most importantly making sure we have fun together. we've been to a beach close by (which made me breath a sigh of relief as its much nicer than 'our' beach!) gone for night walks and have been generally goofing around, singing and dancing in our kitchen together.

ive been living spending lots of time with kylie, its so fun that she lives across the road! pancakes is a way happening thing

the hardest part for me was my first day at home by myself, after everyone had gone home and benny had left for work. i was struggling a bit, plenty of things to do, even all the craft materials i could want but no motivation to do it all. luckily dad popped in unexpectedly on his way to adelaide and we had a good chat about fear, insecurities and other lovelies and it helped me get back on track. i am now happily lazing my days away with daytime tv and gardening. the garden is looking better every day especially with chooks now pecking about the place. the house is slowly becoming more and more our home. infact, im at kadina right now and i miss the place. deffinately a good sign!

this chooky pic was taken last week but i swear the chicks are twice that size now, they grow so quick!

my happy place

the garden is my absolute happy place. I've been spending too much time inside and starting to feel a little stressed so yesterday afternoon i went into the garden... and honestly would have stayed there forever if the sun didn't disappear. the veggie patch was looking a little unloved so i swept the paths, pruned away dead leaves, discovered many caterpillars munching on leaves (the chickens got a tasty treat). i feel so relaxed in the garden, everything is slow and has a soothing rhythm.

i dug up potatoes, gathered basil for pesto, lettuce, nasturtium leaves, garlic chives and beetroot for salad and we made a yummy little tea and ate it outside

this morning i got up and just felt so fantastic. i need to spend more time in the garden. just being.

where is your happy place?

looking forward to tonight, 5.00 we go see the house, fingers crossed it is just perfect for us, i cant wait to check it out! and then we are going swimming, i bet the water will be so warm after the last two days!

gratitude day 8

Ive almost bought a car! its exactly what i wanted except its sedan instead of hatch, its the coolest green machine!! cant wait to pick it up on friday!!!

speaking of green i currently have spinich practicly coming out of my ears, its growing like crazy and the freezer is fast filling up. luckily we are eating all the peas before they make it inside (i had no idea peas straight from the vine could be eaten like snow peas, they are so sweet and juicy!) also after buying a dozen eggs our neighbour gave us one and a half dozen from her chooks, so egg and spinich pie is a happening thing around here at the moment! and on the same day i wonderd how on earth we would get through all these eggs boots finaly started laying!!!

we also have cauliflowers almost ready to pick, strawberrys that im checking daily and cant wait to eat and chamomile plants that are getting bigger, im realy looking forward to my very own chamomile tea.

today i am grateful for edible plants. they are no harder to grow than regular plants but they have a purpose greater than just looking pretty. seriously, what is better then walking out to your garden on a warm morning and finding something great to eat right in front of you, no preperation , just pick it and eat it? that i am truly grateful for

i have been having a go at making waldorf dolls, something ive been wanting to do for a while. the little blue one i made first as practice and the faceless one i am working on now. i was working on it today and the girls thought it was great that i was making them a new 'baby'. it is already been well loved, cuddled and smeared with vegemite from sweet little kisses, i cant imagine how much they will love him when he actually has a face and hair

brownies mmmm

my babe made me brownies, they were so good! and i have a whole container all for myself... which i left in pt. wakefield:( sigh! oh weal, at least i have photos so i can look at them and remember how good they were. (kidding, that makes it so much worse!!!!!) i sure do wish i had brownies