In My World

In my world...

I have been trying my hand at making sourdough. 

It wasn't as hard as I expected.

I have been using this method

I tried some in the bread maker.

And a loaf in the pizza oven

Baking sourdough is a regular occurrence at our house now, I make a loaf at least once a week, and this is a big loaf.

I baked some sourdough banana bread. 

I  hope to make some scones, pancakes and all sorts of other goodies with the mix.

I have put one cup of sour dough in each of these jars and placed in the fridge for when I want to use them for more bread.

I have decided for health reasons to go completely vegan. 

I am getting a lot of exercise and feel great.

 We went to a concert in the park, the Salvation Army Brass Band from Adelaide were playing.  They were great to listen to. The ladies in the front were from our church and they were playing the timbrels.  I tried to upload a video for you to have a listen, but was unsuccessful, probably due to our slow internet.

 Getting wood ready for Winter.

 We will need to do some log splitting very soon.

 While out watering the garden a few days ago, three black hawks flew over.  I dropped my hose to snap this photo. There has been a lot of activity around town from the Army Camp this past week.

 I made my own laundry powder using this recipe.

 I used leftover bars of nice smelling soap, grated it up and added 1 cup of washing soda and 1/2 cup of bi carb soda. I used bi carb soda instead of borax as I was concerned about its effect on my fruit trees as this is where my wash water goes by way of a french drain. I am very happy with the way it cleans the clothes etc so will continue to use it.

My garden has slowed right down in preparation for Winter. We have decided to remove the garden beds as we found tree roots in the soil. No wonder my plants struggle and I need to water all the time. We will be using barrels like the one below to make wicking beds instead.  At the moment we aren't able to get any from our usual place of purchase. We have used old sulo (curbside rubbish) bins cut in half too, but I will say more about that in a later post.

In with some Kale seedlings

 and I planted garlic

 Plenty of tomatoes are still growing.

I am picking yummy juicy capsicums.

 Sweet potatoes and lots of stinging nettles.  I am hoping to make some liquid stinging nettle tea for the garden when they grow a bit bigger.

 The kale from Summer is just about finished, we are still enjoying green juices with this.

 Crazy spring onions that think they are leaks!

 I have about another half a dozen butternut pumpkins growing.

And also some others...not sure of the name of this golden beauty.

 This one is a JAP (Just Another Pumpkin) type.

 As is this one.

 I bought some more strawberry plants and placed them in one of the bath beds.

 In among the weeds are garlic and chives.

 Sweet potatoes, these just keep growing and growing.

 It is citrus time here in Australia, 

here are our oranges, they are just starting to turn.

Wont be long now.

 And the mandarins...

Very overloaded as usual.

Grapefruit.

Not my favourite fruit, but I do use it to add to our breakfast juices. Citrus is a great source of vitamin C and helps to keep the colds and flu's away. I am happy to report that I have not had either a cold or flu since 2002.

And of course my little lemon tree in a pot. I have twenty three lemons at different stages on the tree this year. The first year of multiple fruit.  

 This was my Mother's Day gift from my eldest daughter Sarah.  She knows me so well. I received some lovely smelling organic soap, a Tea Fit For A Queen cookbook and the most gorgeous little tea cup and saucer in a cute box. All of these were lovingly purchased in England on her recent trip over there.

 

I am loving my new little tea cup set.

 I found this cute sight when I went out to shut the chooks away tonight.  

Mama and her three chicks.

I heard a strange noise outside recently and when I looked out the kitchen window I saw this poor sleepy lizard trying to shed its skin.  

Oh and I cant forget to show you the progress on our shed.  It is getting there slowly, the cars can now be under cover and out of sight.

It is one year this Sunday since we were married after twenty three years together.  The time has flown by.  We are going out to dinner and then will go to the the same motel room we stayed in this time last year.

Hope all is well in your world.

A Well Used Cook Book - Apple Roly Poly

My mum gave me this recipe book way back when, it says 1978 on the cover.  I think it may have been placed in my glory box for when I left home. 

I love these types of tried and true recipes. There are many lovely recipes from ladies that were willing to share their favourites. 

I like to collect these types of recipe books whenever I can. Usually they are sold for fundraising for schools, churches and the like.

This was the main recipe book I used when first starting out on my own.  As you can see it has been well used. Pages are torn, stained and starting to fall out.  I probably should do something about saving it from disrepair before it is too late.

One of my favourite desserts in this book is the Apple Roly Poly recipe.

APPLE ROLY POLY

Rub 2oz butter into 1 cup of SR Flour, add pinch of salt, mix to a stiff dough with some milk.  Roll out and cover with grated apple and sugar.  Roll up and cut into slices 1" thick. Place side by side in pie dish.  Pour over 1 tbspn golden syrup, 1 dspn butter, 1/2 cup sugar dissolved in 1 cup of hot water.  Bake until golden brown.

The dough rolled out and

topped with grated apple

 and sugar 

(I also added a sprinkle of cinnamon)

 Rolled up.

Sliced.

 Placed in baking dish.

Syrup added.

Baked until golden.

 Serve with cream or ice-cream, or both. 

ENJOY!!

Do you have favourite recipe books?  

Around Here

 Hello everyone,

I spent a lovely Easter with my parents... Hubby was working so I packed some clothes and away I went. It is so nice to spend one on one time with these special people. They are getting older and so far have had fairly good health. They live a simple life with simple needs, are very independent and I love them dearly.  There are only two of us children in the family. My elder brother and myself. My brother lives in Queensland and doesn't get to visit us very often, and I know my parents miss him. They live an hour and a half away, west of here.

My dad is a hoarder as you can see by the "junk" in this picture.  He had these roosters given to him and wanted to know whether we wanted any to breed from. They were very pretty but as we have our own at the moment, we didn't take any. 

 I brought this box of apples, bananas and tomatoes home with me.

Mum and Dad are friends with the local IGA grocery store owner and any excess food is given to them to do with what they choose.  Sometimes it is too much for just the two of them so I get the benefit too and their chooks get the rest.

 There were strawberries too. 

I have frozen the bananas and strawberries for using in smoothies.

 And some quinces.  I will slow cook these to make a Quince Compote which is totally delicous!

 Let me introduce you to our newest member of the family.  I have been looking after this little girl this week as her mother rejected her.  She is only a few days old and just adorable. My daughter is her new mum, and I get to babysit when mum is busy. I will have her here again tomorrow.  

 She is yet to be named...

 She has a bit of a problem with her front legs, but has been checked over by the vet and he thinks that they should come right eventually. Don't you just love her little jumper?

 Hubby and I went for a drive today.  It is gorgeous weather at the moment, so we decided to head for the hills, visit with friends and go to the Laura Folk Fair for a look.  On the way home we came through Port Germein Gorge road.  Last year they had a devastating fire go through the area (the Bangor Fire). It burned for a month before heavy rain finally put it out. This is what we saw today.  It must have been horrific and hard to imagine a fire inferno raging through these hills.

This is what remains of the Yacka plants on the side of this hill...

 It looks so barren now, when usually it is so green.

 There are patches of green starting to show through.

 We noticed lots of new trees have been planted through the area, but they will take years to grow.

 Out of the hills and the ocean over yonder look so calm and blue.

Autumn,

my all time favourite time of year J