Quick change of plan

I just passed my 300th post and I've been thinking about a giveaway to celebrate,

but when the fresh caught whitebait arrived for dinner last night sausages went off the menu really quickly and a salad was sourced from the garden. I just had to share the images here for your mouthwatering pleasure.

Whitebait patties:

For 1lb of freshly caught whitebait, have the children beat up two free range eggs, sprinkle in a tablespoon of flour and season with pepper and salt, add whitebait. The kids will enjoy tipping the whitebait in the bowl and giving it a stir. Mine love the eyes and tease each other to eat them raw.

Then easy peasy, put spoonfuls in a pan to fry in butter.

Come back for the giveaway next week.

Kefir Soda

Left water kefir, right milk kefir.
A friend of mine loaned me "A change of heart" by Kay Baxter. Having always been a meat eater and raised on a farm to harvest from the land and waste nothing, I really enjoyed the book and it's recipes. I've experimented a wee bit with milk Kefir for digestive health and was encouraged by the easy instructions in the book to convert some of my milk Kefir Grains to make kefir soda. This is essentially the process I used. The results were yummy and really encouraging. The kids even added their approval but don't like it as much as ginger beer. It tastes a tad alcoholic but so does my ginger beer at times. My online research found this good article leaving me feeling reassured that it's Ok for kids at least once in awhile and surely better than bought, sweet, fizzy drinks (which incidentally I refuse to buy, making me a freaky hippy according to some of my children). The success of the experiment led me to wonder if I could get real water Kefir Granules in New Zealand. It didn't take long for me to find this site and I received my grains with excellent instructions. I very soon had the water kefir going alongside my milk kefir. I had to move all my brews to the warming cupboard when the winter cold snap hit and now the cultures are all expanding so well that I can share some with friends and experiment with extra fruits and honey for sweetness.
The lemon tree is having trouble keeping up with lemons for the jar, but the new crop are close to being ripe. Elsewhere in the garden, young citrus are being covered to protect from frost. The ground is far to wet to cultivate for the garlic but weeds and grass of course are thriving.

Berry buckle

I'd always rather be crafting than cooking. Had you picked that up already?

Tonight for dinner was rooster soup. None of the big kids complained at all , they know better. The red head is difficult at dinner time. I called them to the table with a wink to the big kids,
"noodle delicious" for tea tonight. They all played along, if you give it a jazzy name the red head just might eat it.
Half way through the bribes start. "better eat your noodle delicious if you want some pudding"

Pudding:
I only make it sporadically, the black berries inspired me tonight.
"Berry Buckle" from Alison Holst's Dollars and Sense cookbook.
My copy has seen better days, I almost burnt the house down awhile back when I set it down on a hot element and went outside to collect beans.

The butter, egg, flour, Cinnamon base with fresh blackberries, plus one extra with frozen red currants to have cold for the school lunches tomorrow.
Now here's why I don't bake much. Chopping butter into the topping till it looks like breadcrumbs!

Bah, I'd really rather be finishing my sewing.

Add whipped cream and it's all worth it. YUM

Miss my boy

Skatey is away at school camp. The "red head" and I are missing him alot, I think Willow the Jack Russel is missing him the most (no one warm to sleep with)

Skatey will be 13 tomorrow. I remember about his birth and infancy more vaguely than the others as I had post natal depression. He was overdue. The week before he was born I had a nasty fall when I went out to hang the washing, I also had a terrible tummy bug which the Dr thought should have bought on his labour. We'd had some late concerns about his growth rate and when I went to see the Dr on a Friday, he told me if he hasn't come by Monday we're going to do a "sweep." Now that didn't sound too good to me so when Sunday night rolled around and there was no sign of the boy I walked two rounds of the Ngatimoti School field. That didn't work, so we drove to town and walked up and down the Mot beach. Still not working so we went round and round the Memorial rose garden. If my memory serves me rightly I think I might have helped myself to a gypsophilia cutting.

Thankfully at 5am the next morning things started to happen. His Dad went to work. I carried on till about 9am and then decided I was too scared to be alone. There was a horrible bull in the paddock that bordered our house and he kept roaring at me as he'd done in the final weeks of pregnancy. I sneaked down to the shed where the 1968, red family Datsun was parked. At the time the teen was 3 years old and I drove he and myself to town about 25kms, to where my Mum lived. No cell phones in those days, quite a scary ride down the Valley stopping on the roadside on my own with a preschooler for contractions. Poor Mum freaked out as I laboured at her place, I think eventually we called my partner home from work and got to the birthing centre at about 12.30pm.

His was a very intense labour from then on and he was born at about 1.30pm weighing 9lb2oz. Towards the end it was fast and very freaky.

After that is a total blur except for rain outside the window and a beautiful pink rose in flower.
He was a good daytime sleeper for about 6 weeks but feed alot at night.

He was the baby I shared with my precious Grandma. Driving to town in the Datsun with no heater in winter and stalling at the intersections because the timing was out. Before he was born I sat on her sofa, knitting, chatting and choosing antique baby clothes. Afterwards I dropped the teen at Playcentre and raced around to Grandmas place. She was always waiting with chocolate biscuits in her tin and books in the white cabinet if I wanted to borrow some. I made her a cup of tea and we talked for two hours about life and the goings on of all the rellies till I reluctantly left for clean up time at Playcentre. Skatey entertained us as we sat, she popped him in her old cane pram and then when he got older she bought out her antique toys and puzzles for him to play with.
Happy Birthday to my Skatey tomorrow. I wish my Grandma had lived to see how awesome he is.
I'm now going to make the never fail Chocolate birthday cake with walnuts,
to surprise him we'll have the day off and drive out to camp tomorrow. (hope they are having eel for tea)
XX

Moist Chocolate cake.
(Never failed in 15 years)
4oz butter
2 eggs
2tsp baking powder,
2 cups flour
1tsp baking soda
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
1 and 1/2 cups milk
2 dsps golden syrup
2 Tbsp Cocoa

Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs one at a time. Then flour, baking powder and cocoa sifted.
Warm golden syrup in milk with baking soda.
Then combine with dry ingredients.
Creates quite a wet mixture. Stir to combine, pour into greased square tin and bake for about 1 hr at 190 degrees Celsius. Ice with Chocolate icing and decorate with walnuts.

Autumn 09

This has been a beautiful Autumn here. I've missed a whole month in the garden, but it carries on finding its own balance in the warm but wetter weather, with lots of seedlings coming up and brassicas plumping up nicely. I harvested masses of black boy peaches which I sold at the gate and dehydrated for the kids lunches over the next few months. Only I turned round one day and saw that skatey boy had found them, and in just three days had munched his way through 3/4 of an Agee jar of them, probably equivalent to about 25 peaches! I have hidden the other 2 jars so we have some winter snacks.

Our beautiful green grape is ready now, people always ask for cuttings of this one, I don't know what it's called but it's sweet and almost seedless and grows perfectly organically. It doesn't get any food or water but I give it a good prune in winter. It's a real asset in the garden because people are happy to barter for it. See below I've had tons of tomatoes from Dad and walnuts from my Aunt, while not pictured my neighbour has also been supplying me with hazelnuts.

A friend put the word around that I hadn't been well, so I've been spoiled this week with home cooked meals and baking. It is so healing to know that people care. All of them with busy lives themselves. Without the chore of cooking dinner I've made soup, sauce and paste from the tomatoes. While in the still room I've been brewing up some cider (a first for me) and drying lemon verbina, and tansy which are also romping away in the garden.

Tomato Paste is easy, here it is:

10 lbs (5kg) ripe tomatoes

1 Tablespoon salt,

white pepper to taste,

olive oil

Chop tomatoes and cook in a large pan for about half an hour or till very soft. Stir as necessary.

Remove from heat and mouli or puree in food processor. Return to pan, bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer until reduced by half.

Preheat oven to a very slow 120 degrees Celsius. Transfer puree to a greased baking dish and bake 4-5 hours till very thick and concentrated. Add salt and pepper and spoon into sterilised jars, cover with a thin layer of olive oil and seal.

Keeps for about a year.

If you don't want to bottle it, freeze it in kids ice block moulds, they are a good size to whip out and add to a meal.

Comfort.

Dizzy spells, headaches, queasy feelings, funny vision, and panicky attacks are how I spent most of the week. Thank goodness for a friend who rang me every day to comfort me, even offering to drive 60kms to help out. I find it quite scary being ill when I'm solo, especially when it's not symptoms that I recognise as typical.

At least today I felt well enough to make myself some comfort food:

Comfort dinner: Fish Pie with garden veges

Hard boil some eggs, collect potatoes from the garden, cook and mash them.Collect say 3 or 4 leeks and a bit of celery straight from the garden as well. Cook them in about 25gms of butter with a little water to barely cover them for five minutes or until soft but not soggy. Strain off the liquid for making the sauce. Put the soft leeks and celery into an oven dish with flaked smoked fish, I used 2 smoked fillets from Mapua smokehouse weighing about 450gms, and the quartered boiled eggs. In the leek pot add some more butter probably another 25gms, some curry powder 1/2 -1 tsp depending on what you like, then add a bit of flour 1Tbsp and let it bubble. Add milk to the reserved liquid making it up to just over 1 1/2 cups, add it about a 1/4 at at time to make a nice smooth sauce, bring to bubble between additions. Pour the sauce over the fish etc, then top with mashed potatoes. (I mashed mine with Kefir and butter) Grated some Parmesan and a pinch of paprika on top. Cook at 180 for half an hour.

Now I'm looking for a recipe for salmon, as skatey boy went over to Golden Bay for a spot of fishing at the Salmon farm with friends today, bringing home some beautiful fillets which will be dinner tomorrow night.

He wants to build a smoker for it, though I don't know if I'm quite up to that. I'm imagining sushi. He's planning another trip for his birthday.

Blackcurrant syrup, vitamin C

The children have had a little change of season sniffles and I am starting volunteer work in our local craft co-op this week so I made some blackcurrant syrup to dose them up so they're not sick on my first day, fingers crossed.

My black currants didn't yield much this year but this is what I do with the frozen stores. You can dilute and drink the concentrate hot or cold.

Here's the recipe and the changes I made to it if you want a natural dose of vitamin C that the kids will drink:

Cover 3lb of black currants with water, bring to the boil and then simmer for about 20 minutes til soft. Strain through a muslin cloth squeezing out all the goodness. ( Feed the solids leftover to the worm farm)

Put back into the pot and add:

1 cup of raw sugar and 1 cup of my brother's lovely native bush honey.

1 1/2 cups local organic cider vinegar. (The vinegar and sugar act as the preservers I understand)

Boil for 10 mins, then bottle into sterilised jars.

I keep the jars in the cupboard and once opened in the fridge, be sensible and check the seals are good and with no evidence of spoilage before we use.

Before use dilute to taste.

So obviously you guys don't have access to my local ( very cleaver and sustainable) brother's lovely honey and you may be use to modern sweetened drinks. The original recipe said 8 cups of SUGAR! No way do I give that to my kids so the one I do is quite vinegary. They still drink it happily, though the red head age 3 1/2 says "this tastes like dish water"
Teen, Skatey and Pj drink it happily.

Give it go, I'll publish some other syrups I use as well. Click comments to let me know how you get on.

Growing in the kitchen

At a recent seed swap with friends I was also given some Kefir grains. You use them to make a fermented milk drink which is good for your digestive system. I didn't know much about it and let my first lot perish somehow, so now with a fresh batch of grains I'm determined to keep it growing this time. Here's some info I found on growing Kefir , but I'd love to have advice from anyone else who's using it. My friend didn't tell me to wash the grains each time so hopefully that is where I've gone wrong. The ever suspicious and fussy kids are not keen on the taste but I plan to sneak it to them in fruit smoothies as summer comes. My friend told me the Kefir is something that should be given, not sold so if I can keep mine alive I'd be happy to share with anyone who wants to try it. I see there are plenty of people offering it for sale on "Trade me" and through the web if you're further away.

Again I'm wishing I had a goat or cow to milk, maybe I spend too much energy in wishing and not enough time in making things happen!

Bread and Pumpkins

In response to correspondence from my last post. Thanks so much for the feedback.

I buy a special variety of pumpkin seed called "Austrian Oil Seed"pumpkin from Kings seeds in Auckland. I think their catalogue might be available to Australians too. These pumpkins have no hulls on their seed so you simply scoop out the seeds, dry them in the sun and they are ready to use as in my last post. I'm too lazy to shell regular pumpkin seed so we feed that to the animals. My Dad use to roast them in the old coal range then we'd all sit around cracking them open with hammers. A good activity in downshifting I suppose? The flesh of the Austrian oil seed pumpkins is not to my liking so we cook it up for the chooks and that's how you turn pumpkins into eggs! The reason I don't save my own pumpkin seed but buy fresh each year is that pumpkins cross pollinate so easily that within a few years the fruit would no longer be true to seed and I'd be back to pumpkin seed with hard shells. It can be done though, you have to get the whole neighbourhood to grow only one variety and then save seed from it or you have to hand pollinate then tape up flowers and mark the pumpkin. Koanga Gardens in Northland describe the technique well in their Garden Centre Guide by Kay Baxter, which I currently have on loan from a friend. It is a skill I aspire to master but will leave it until I have time for such activities.

I base my bread recipe on Alison Holst's basic white bread recipe. At the kneading stage I add approximately 1/2 - 1 cup of cooked brown rice. This keeps the bread fresh and moist longer. At the end of kneading I add seeds and sprinkle extra on top. I'm a beginner bread maker too and am just experimenting with what I can add. I often add some wholemeal flour too but it doesn't rise as big and the kids won't eat it as enthusiastically. I'm introducing it slowly.

Here's Alison Holst's basic recipe:
1-1@1/2 tsp Surebake or similar yeast
2 tsp sugar
2 cups warm water (as warm as a babies bath)
3 cups high grade white flour
2 tbsp oil or melted butter
2 tsp salt
2-3 cups of extra flour
My additions cooked brown rice and seeds, experiment with quantities.

Put the first three ingredients into a big bowl and mix well. When the yeast has dissolved, stir in the first measure of flour. Cover the bowl with a plate or glad wrap and put in a warm place for 30 mins. ( In the warming cupboard or near the fire. It needs to rise to about twice the original size.
Stir the mixture to deflate it then stir in oil or butter, salt and as much flour as you need to make a dough which is firm enough to form a ball (add rice here). Turn it onto a floured bench to knead. Knead dough for 10-15 mins add flour to stop sticking on bench and hands. You know it's ready when it kind of starts to spring back and it looks different, kind of satiny.(add some seeds here.)
Halve dough and put into buttered loaf tins with room to rise to twice it's size. Press seeds on top you might need to brush loaf with melted butter first to make them stick better. Stand bread in warm place again till risen to twice it's size. Bake at 200 C for about 30 mins or until lightly browned.

Pay it forward

Okay, so I’ve pledged to Jasmine that I would play along.
First 3 people to post a comment and pledge to pay it forward will receive a handmade pressie from me sometime in the next 12 months.
BUT
You have to put the same post on your blog and send a pressie to the first 3 people to do the same on your blog. ETC etc etc.
SO…if you’re want a pressie from me, leave a comment.

My downshifting week is not perfect but the effort is being made.
* I cooked a meal from scratch with ingredients from my garden and am trying to keep it up all week. So we'll be vegetarian or I might make bacon bone soup from pigs my Dad raised, I think that counts as downshifting cos they're not from the supermarket.
* I gave away some re usable bags, used mine twice but forgot them once. Still want to make and give some more.
* Harvesting and storing things from the garden, more on that later in the week.
* The TV went off but we didn't play scrabble we read instead.

To really be a genuine down shifter I feel like I shouldn't be using the car. Until I manage that I have to admit I'm not being a true down shifter. We only live 8km from town so I should at least bike once in a while.

Here is Skatey Boy's recipe for downshifting week:
Fruit smoothies
Makes enough for 5 glasses

Into your blender put 3 cups of berries and a cup of fruit juice. We used raspberries and blueberries we froze earlier in the season and the last of the fresh strawberries. Peel 2-4 fejioas and add them too. Bananas could be substituted but fejoias taste beautiful. Ice cream can be added but we think it's better without.
Whizz it all up and pour. Easy and delicious.
Check out Homemade Rainbows for more downshifting activities

Count blessings

My bad mood nothing's working mojo ends today! It's been one of those weeks in the kitchen, the garden and at the sewing machine. Thank you to my blog friends for the constant stream of new comments on my blog I often try to reply but am unable to. I always check out your blogs though and have alot of "favorites" to catch up on in the school holidays. Thanks to my local friends who've called and visited and listened to my moaning. I'm not having any more bad dreams about the upcoming Education Review office visit to Playcentre, what will be will be. Just remind me to count my blessings every now and then please.
Do you like my wooden spoons? They were my Christmas present to myself from local woodworker PJ Heath. The long one is especially fabulous for preserving. You can find him at the Pokororo Fair and the Motueka Market.
I put the call out for a Sweet Chilli Sauce recipie. ( Thanks Mum)This is a beauty.

20 oz Sugar
20 oz Red Peppers
6 oz Chilli peppers
2 cups white vinegar
1 cup water
5 large cloves garlic
1 packet of jam setting mix
2tsp salt

Process chilli, peppers and garlic until pulpy. Heat vinegar and water disolve sugar and salt in it. Add pulp and boil 10 minutes. Add setting mix and boil til thickens about 10 mins. Bottle into sterilised jars. YUM.

Lemon Honey Tea

We got a bit of Autumn rain last week, even a bit of snow on Mt Arthur. Unfortunatley the small kids and I got colds to go with the change of season. So we've been drinking lots of lemon and honey tea. I make it with a few extra goodies to fight the germs. The kids don't really notice the garlic if you put in plenty of honey.

LEMON AND HONEY TEA FOR COLDS.

To make 4 or 5 cups of tea:

Juice of 2 to 5 lemons,

as much honey as you need to taste, (manuka honey has healing properties)

Add any of the following for extra healing and soothing.

Fresh garlic 2 to 10 cloves chopped depending on your taste,

Fresh thyme 2 to 4 teaspoons chopped, (lemon thyme is nice)

Fresh Echinacea root 1 or 2 teaspoons,

Cover with about 4 cups of boiling water and drink hot or cold. Experiment with your favorite herbs to create your own recipie. Sage or ginger would be quite good too. My music teacher swore by black tea for sore throats. When we all got sore throats before our musical of "Annie get your gun" she had us drinking pots and pots of it, so you can add a teabag too.

Look what popped up in the garden. Usually I drive in the country looking for mushrooms when the Autumn rains come. Couldn't find any last week I don't think it was wet enough, but last year I spread some spores on the lawn and yay ONE mushroom. Will leave it to spread it's spores.
Long awaited rain, Neudorf Road near Motueka. ( No mushrooms though)

Tomato Soup

As harvest time quickly approaches I've been busy planning and preparing things for storage. The tomatoes have been pretty good this season and I've managed two pots of this soup, it's the best recipie I've ever tried for tom soup. I took some today when I visited my friend's beautiful new baby boy. After my last baby I promised myself to make an effort towards any new mums I knew as the support I got was the difference between coping and not.

TOMATO SOUP.
14 lb tomatoes
7 large onions
3 Tbsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 Tsp thyme ( I use more)
1 Tsp mint ( I use more)
7 cloves
14 sprigs parsley

Boil together for 1 hour then mouli or pass through sieve. In a bowl mix 8 Tbsp flour and 1/2 pound melted butter to a smooth paste, add to soup and boil for futher 10 minutes. Serve with cheese scones, or freeze some for later.