Things of gardeny importance

Well I remembered to use the camera this weekend so there are quite a few photos to document what we got up too.
Below is the area that we have dug up in readiness for the tomatoes. We have had many discussions of late about the garden and in the end we've decided the lawn needs to give way to more productive plants. I guess this is the beginning of that.
The two newest additions to the family....2 rather nice looking blueberry bushes. Blue Rose is the variety. I am assured they are delicious and also prolific croppers.
One of my weaknesses. In the garden it's important to me for plants to have a purpose. Mostly that means food, however this little plants only purpose in life is to produce heavenly scents. It's a Boronia.
One of the staples of my garden. I finally managed to pick up a couple of Lemon Verbena plants. These are vital to my preparations later in the year but I will save the details for then...when it will all become clear.
Can't let a weekend go by without muffins! These are raspberry and white chocolate. They are also almost all gone!

Sausage Love

It was well over a year ago now that myself and Karen attended a sausage making course. We had high hopes of being able to make our own sausages...not for profit but for fun. However our talent at procrastination got the better of us and despite having all the equipment we never got around to it.............until now!!!!!

We decided that Saturday was as good a day as any, got a hold of the meat, dug up the mincer/stuffer and got stuck in. It was a steep learning curve just to work out the best way to mince the meat and after that, looking at the 21 pounds of mince that we had yet to transform into sausages, I'll admit, we experienced a few doubts about getting it done.

Still we rolled up our sleaves and got to stuffing. The first lot of sausages were slow going however it was very exciting to see them forming up into recognisable shapes. We seemed to be doing it right.

Of course the jokes and comments from bystanders were colourful to say the least. It's a very visual and hands on process with the manual mincer/stuffer.

And in the end we got them all done and twisted in to sausage looking shapes. Below you can see them drying out.
We made plain pork, pork and leek and lamb and mint. We completely covered the place in sausage meat and exhausted ourselves in the process but we were rather proud of our efforts in the end and it was one of the most fun days I've had in ages. Really satisfying and I'll definitely be doing it again.
Look just like the real ones huh!
They are the best sausages I've ever tasted!!!

Where I am very happy with myself!

Ok I could go on and on about Egypt and I might later in the week but for now I’m too excited about other stuff. Like the goals and resolutions we all set for ourselves at the start of the year. Two months in and how many of you have forgotten them already? A few of mine have quietly faded away but I’m rather pleased with myself as yesterday I ticked one off my list!I can make sushi!!!!! Yesterday afternoon I attended a sushi course and surprised myself with how easy it is…once you know how!

There are quite a number of sushi places in Brighton but the one I pass by regularly is called "Okinami" and they frequently have a board out on the footpath advertising their lessons. So Sunday I went along and it was great!

We learnt how to make the sushi rice, how to shape the rice and how to roll with the mats. We made Inari, Nigiri, Temaki, Maki rolls and California rolls.
An arty shot of the sushi...
Another arty shot of the sushi that I made.

Yes I am rather happy with myself at the moment! Just wait...I'm sure I'll do something stupid to repair the balance any minute now!!

Muffins, Pies and a Bus

Finally here are the muffin pictures, which after all that waiting are sure to be an anti climax. They are Peanut Butter and Choc chip muffins (recipe below) which turned out rather well I think. Definitely a keeper although I’d like the Peanut butter taste to be a little stronger. I’m not sure how I’d do that though….increase the amount of PB? Not sure.

Also some mince pie pictures because it is the season after all! Don’t you love the mug too!!!
And some bonus shots. Last night we were sitting peacefully watching TV when we heard a banging sound. It wasn’t long before it became a drumming sound and very rhythmic and loud it was too. Then suddenly this appeared outside.
We think it was some sort of charity collection but there were no signs so we’re unsure what charity it was. The top was open and the band (drummers) were up there with a familiar face…… HO HO HO!
Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Muffins

From http://www.mrbreakfast.com/superdisplay.asp?recipeid=461

2/3 cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons butter -- melted
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup milk
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the peanut butter and margarine until well blended.

Mix in sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

Combine flour with baking powder and baking soda.

Add to peanut butter mixture along with milk and chocolate chips.

Mix well. Spoon into 12 lined muffin tins.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in the center.

Seasonal goodies!

This time of year means many things to many people but to me it means food!! I love to feed people...I have no idea where the need came from but the force is in me and feed folks I must. AND there is so much scope for that around Christmas. It starts about now. Mince meat, Christmas puddings, things marinating in alcohol, freezing things now for extra mouths later. I love it!!

My Christmas magazines come out this week too and I'm excited, stupid excited, ridiculously "I have no life nor any other interests and I don't mind sharing it with the world" excited!!
2 or 3 magazines with nothing but recipes of things I could cook...lovely!

Having admitted publicly to the sadness that is me and my life perhaps your impressions will change when you see what I'm up to at the moment......Lemon Verbena Liquor
All's I'll say is that a herb, some vodka and a little bit of time make a whole lotta heaven!!!!!

Carrot & Coriander

Soup I promised you and soup I will deliver. I decided to start my soup trials with one I’ve been meaning to try out for a while now.
Carrot & Coriander…and it was goooooooood. Very simple, very quick and very yummy. Best of all you can control the corriander-ness of it all…cause some folks don’t like it so strong.

So…serves four, takes about 20mins to ½ hour to make and goes really well with homemade bread rolls!!

Carrot & Coriander Soup

Ingredients

450g carrots…I sliced and chopped mine to make them cook quicker

1 onion…sliced and diced as well

1 tbsp vegetable oil…for frying only

1 tsp ground coriander

1.2 lt veggie stock

large bunch fresh coriander, roughly chopped

salt and black pepper…to taste

Method

Put the carrots and onions into a pan, add the oil and cook until starting to soften.
Add the ground coriander and cook for about a minute longer to heat the spice.
Pour in the veggie stock and bring to the boil before turning down the heat so the veg simmer until they are tender
Whizz it all together until smooth. Reheat in a clean pan, stir in the fresh coriander, season to taste and serve.

I forgot to take a picture unfortunately but it comes out this lovely warm orange colour with green flecks of coriander...very pretty!
Next time I'll try to remember to take a photo before eating it!!

Back to work blues....

Groan…I feel horrible today. I haven’t felt good (well or healthy) since getting back from Canada. Is it withdrawal or jet lag? I’m awake when I should be asleep, asleep when I’m supposed to be getting off the train and groggy in between! My sinus’s (which have never really bothered me before) are tight and tingling and I’ve had a headache for weeks.
Even though I feel so bad I was kinda hoping I still looked like my normal self. However it appears the cracks are showing.
My ‘best’ comment today (and bear in mind that it’s only 11am) is “Hey, you look like crap!”.

Excellent!! Why did I get out of bed again?

Aside from feelings of under the weather-ness the weekend was good but short. (Definitely back to reality there!!) We have a glut of apples at the moment and they are rotting under the tree faster than we can use them. So I did some creating cooking on Sunday and made an Apple, apricot and cranberry chutney which looks lovely but I’ll have to wait a couple of months for it to mature a bit before I can taste it.
Also made a Spiced Apple cake which lasted about 10 mins…it was very, very nice. And some Spicy Apple muffins (a different recipe for comparison) which are disappearing at only slightly slower rate than the cake. Quite please with the results actually as I have another cake for the repertoire and have tested out the silicone individual muffin cups that I bought recently. I don’t know if silicone is any better than metal to cook your food in but they are definitely a lot easier to get cakes out off. (The trick is to wait a bit after you bring them out of the oven.)

A brief knitting word…when last I mentioned knitting I think it was to explain the horrendous mistakes I made with the arms. The good news is that I now have one arm finished correctly and have ripped back the other arm (again) and am about half way through re-knitting it (again!) I’m trying my hardest to get this project done by the end of September cause I have other projects to do before the end of the year. I’d also like to cut down the time it takes me to finish something cause the list of “I would like to knit…” is getting long and at this rate I’ll be 60 before I’ll have finished my current list!!!! The only good news about that is that my invite to Ravely has come through (probably only of note to knitters) so I can keep a track of all the stuff I want to do! (and find more!!)

Well that's about all the enthusiasm I can muster for today. Hope yours is better!