Plot to Pantry: Relish and Ratatouille

This week, with my excess of tomatoes, I have made a second batch of tomato relish and a second batch of ratatouille.

The relish is made using the Edmonds Book recipe. It is so delicious in steak sandwiches, with cheese fritters, in savoury pinwheel scones and in cheese toasties. For lunch yesterday I put some relish and cheese in  small pita breads and cooked them in the toaster. They were a hit with the girls.

I freeze the ratatouille. It's really nice to be able to pull some out to add some tasty fresh veges to a Winter meal. It's great as a side dish with steak, sausages, lamb or pork chops, crumbed chicken schnitzel etc.

Girl Style Friday: Visit to the Doctor

Here's my two littlies yesterday. We were about to head off to the doctor for Sofia's before school check. She won't be 4 until November  and won't start school until next year but they like to check up on hearing, eyesight, development etc well before they start school to catch anything of concern early.

Sofia is wearing:

Dress-Pumpkin Patch

Singlet: The Warehouse

Leggings-from cousin Clara

Shoes-Pumpkin Patch

Na'uli is wearing:

Top-Cotton on Kids via Sofia

Dress-Christmas gift from big cousin Vincent

Leggings-Pumpkin Patch

Sandals-Number One Shoes vis Sofia

They are very much into mothers and babies at the moment. Sofia is carrying my childhood doll, Polly and Na'uli is carrying Sofia's  doll 'New Doll' who was made by Mum. They (but Na'uli especially) like to take a handbag everywhere we go.

After the doctor we had a browse at Ula (where I bought a couple of bracelets...wait for Wardrobe Wednesday), a coffee here and visited the library

Wardrobe Wednesday: Love Christchurch

I am wearing my Love Christchurch earrings (from Cloud Nine Creative) today...you know why.
Have a bit of a strange feeling today as my girls have gone on a preschool trip into the centre of town (not earthquake related but to another event) and it's the first time they've been on an outing without me...deep breath.

Scarecrow

The girls and I made a scarecrow today...

 We used clothes from a second hand shop, hessian for the head, hay for stuffing, butttons for eyes, wool for the mouth, felt for cheeks, eyebrows and nose.

A couple of wooden stakes and a metal thing (!) hold it together and allow it to stand upright in the garden.

And Sofia wouldn't pose with her so I had to...

What do you think? Have you ever made a scarecrow?

Loving...

Now here's two ladies with really great style...

Rosa P., her blog is all in German and when translated still doesn't quite make sense but I love the photos of her outfits, often sewn or knitted by herself.

Nina Proudman from Offspring (I know, not a real person but I love the way the sylist dresses Asher Keddie's character). I think the programme is brilliant, always get a laugh watching it.
Have you watched Offspring, do you like it?

Wardrobe Wednesday

 

I haven't joined in Wardrobe Wednesday for quite some time so thought I'd drop in today. Not sure if it fits into the theme but I guess I'm learning to love bolder patterns (or any patterns for that matter) as I usually tend to wear plain.

The dress is from Shanton, jeans from Just Jeans, shoes from Overland and necklace from Postie

More clothing loves can be found here at Sailor Spy

Weekend Work

Our new place has a big yard and lots of garden. My first priority when we moved here was to get the vege garden up and running. I am now picking tomatoes, runner beans, dwarf beans, cabbage, lettuce, courgettes, beetroot and spring onions. It won't be long and I will have potatoes ready to dig.
The next priority was to get some mulch on the larger flower beds and tidy some other areas.
So over the weekend I spread bark mulch around the clothesline area,

 at the end of the house around the hydrangeas and agapanthus

 and another large area at the front of the house

That was a lot of wheelbarrowing! It took about 4 scoops (more than our largest truck full). It felt good to use some muscles that don't get used as often as they should!

Then I mulched the rose bed with a few bales of peastraw and gave it a good watering

On Friday I also got stuck into our shade house. It's a sort of a fernery with a few other random plants too. I spent a couple of hours weeding, trimming and clearing the path.

The girls loved playing alongside me. They called it their jungle and made up games in one of the little clearings.

 I love it that these two are so happy to potter alongside me when I'm outdoors

They also hung out with their Dad and big cousin who were just as busy over the weekend-building a pig house, putting a door into the chook's fence so the chooks can go out into their extended yard and digging post holes for a new fence.

The girls swept, dug with their 'shubbles' (shovels), hammered, rode in the wheelbarrow, ate outdoors and cared for their babies. Lovely.

From Plot to Pantry: Blueberry Muffins

 Unfortunately these sre not from my plot (I have three bushes that I am nursing to good health) but we are lucky to have a blueberry farm just a minute down the road. The girls and I went there today and picked a couple of ice-cream containers. It's a really peaceful activity. There were quite a few cars in the carpark and while we could here other voices we only saw two other people amogst the bushes. The girls munched away on freshly picked blueberries (liking them more than I had expected) and running up and down the rows and in and out of the bushes.
We came straight home and made them into muffins...

My favourite recipe is from Alison Holst's Marvellous Muffins

Best Blueberry Muffins

(adapted slightly)

2 cups flour

4tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup caster sugar

100g butter

1 cup milk

1 egg

1 1/2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Melt butter. Whisk in egg and milk. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar and blueberries. Fold everything together. Divide mixture between 12-16 medium muffin pans.

Bake at 220 degrees celcius for 12-15 minutes. If you used frozen berries they may need to cook a little longer.

From Plot to Pantry: Tomato Sauce

Today I made my second batch of tomato sauce using my homegrown tomatoes.

I use the recipe from the Edmonds book.

I have also made a big batch of tomato, courgette (from the garden) and onion (not from the garden) and put that in the freezer for Winter.
Will try to get back sometime soon with a more informative post about what we've been up to over the last couple of months.