Food Pets

For a number of years now I have regularly made our own sour dough bread. Nurturing the sour dough culture is like a little bread pet that lives in our fridge.


During our recent holiday we were unable to keep our bread pet going, so I am now just bringing a new culture to life. I always find in amazing how from flour and water you can create such an amazing fermentation. 

Having a food pet such as this, brings a sense of routing to our lives. They need feeding, cooking with, cleaning up after, maintaining. I quite like this sense of order and routine.

This week I have decided to increase our food pet quota to 3! I figure if I am already maintaining one... it shouldn't be too much harder to maintain three? Should it?


So now in our food menagerie consists of our sour dough culture, a set of sprouting jars and some Kefir grains. All need almost daily attention.

The kids are super excited about the sprouting jars. Yesterday our parcel arrived and we set to work soaking our first crop of Mung Beans. This morning to the kids (and my) delight the creamy white sprout tails had appeared! This afternoon the tails are even longer! They are growing before our very eyes!! I can't wait to have plenty of fresh, live sprouts to add to our salads, wraps and stir frys. We are starting with Mung beans but look forward to trying our hand at alfalfa, mustard, fenugreek, snow pea.... Any other good recommendations?



Kefir is something that I was reading about in Whole foods for Children. I had never heard of it but was interested by her descriptions. Apparently, when you ferment milk with Kefir grains, lacto-fermentation occurs which can assist our bodies to digest the proteins in dairy. Also during the process a lot of pro-biotics are formed so the resulting, thin yogurt like drink is super high in good gut flora. 

Wiki says that:
 "Kefir grains are a combination of bacteria and yeasts in a matrix of proteins, lipids, and sugars, and this symbiotic matrix forms "grains" that resemble cauliflower. For this reason, a complex and highly variable community of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts can be found in these grains."

So I ordered some live Kefir grains on the Internet and eagerly awaited their arrival! When they turned up they were rather 'interesting'. They looked like rancid milk that had formed lumps... YUM!  Apparently through the postage process they go a little 'sleepy' and take a few days of feeding before they come back to their full lively spirit. All I could think about was vomitus rancid milk, so I'm hoping I can change this mental picture :)

Already after 2 days and 3 flushes with fresh milk it is smelling much better. I just need to remember that it is meant to be like yogurt not milk and then we should be fine :)

With our Kefir I am looking forward to adding it to smoothies and ice-blocks and making Kefir cheese... I'll let you know how it goes :)

So yes, I will be busy caring for my collection of food pets, but think it will slip into our daily routine just fine. I also find it very nourishing to be able to care for and create food that will nourish my family with all the good things their tummies need.

Summer Delights

Over our delightful festive season, our family went and spent some time in rural Victoria with my Mum. While there Mum treated us to some of her home made ice cream. I find good ice cream rather irresistible. We never really buy it, as having it in the house will mean I will eat it :)

On our return, we were wandering though the supermarket and low and behold there was an Ice Cream Machine for sale! $24! Bargain! But did we need it? No... We would eat too much and turn into rolly polly pigglets.

As we continued to shop for our groceries, we started brainstorming all the 'healthy' ice creams we could make if we did have our own machine. We also started thinking about the gourmet flavour combos we could create. So, you guessed it, we decided that the machine may just need to live at our place... we wouldn't have to use it all the time though......... yeah right!

Now that I have been playing with it and experimenting for a week I am rather excited about our purchase! The kids don't get ice cream that often as I'm not so keen on them loading up with all that sugar. Now we can all enjoy ice cream, that is far less sweet, but far more delicious! Also the machine only makes 500ml at a time. This is great for us as it is enough for the whole family to have a little without gorging.

We can see a long and delicious road of ice cream experiments to come (YUM!) but here are a few we have enjoyed this week!

Banana Ice Cream
200ml Milk
100ml Cream
2 Mashed Bananas
50g of sugar if you need it (we don't if they are good bananas)

- We have then been topping it with toasted shredded coconut or a light grating of dark chocolate

Berry, Banana and Coconut Ice Cream
125ml Coconut Cream
375ml Natural Yogurt
1 Banana
1 T honey
230g Berries (what ever sort you have!)

Blend to puree all and wack in the magic machine!


Mango Ice Cream

200ml Milk
100ml Cream
pureed Mango or 2 depending on size and how 'Mango-ee' you like it

- Top with toasted macadamia nuts

Raspberry Frozen Yogurt
200g of Raspberries (pureed)
200g of Natural Yogurt
Enough Maple Syrup to take the tang from the yogurt and raspberries I used 1/4 C


What a delightful treat for our summer and with the 3rd 37+ degree day in a row here and more to come we need a little cool sweetness :)

Spring Planting....

We love our Vegetable Garden. Different years have greatly different results depending on the climate and our energy levels.Some years we are rather competent and attentive and this is rewarded with a close to self-sufficient veggie patch. Other years we are less attentive and have very little to show for it.

We plant much later than most, mainly because we find that seedlings planted into warm soil hit the ground growing... rather than needing to survive the cold before they grow. Also in Canberra we can have very late frosts so it is always a gamble as to when they are over. We have come to plan around Melbourne Cup Day being a safe time to plant.

Our garden is a whole family affair. I find that the more the kids are involved the more they are likely to eat the vegetables that are presented on their plate. 

I am hopeful and slightly optimistic that this is a year of growth for us all, and that the garden will be rewarded with attentiveness, which in return will reward us with delicious organic vegetables.

With our veggie patch re-fertilised and doubled in size, we set out to the nursery to select this years crop. Ideally I would LOVE to be growing all of our veg from seeds, but this requires me to be even more attentive, and I have not yet got to that place :) We often save our seeds but are not yet dedicated enough to do this productively. The kids love picking the tomato varieties for the year and love all the different names they have. They also join in the discussions about vegetable selections... should we try yellow zucchini this year or stick with the tried and true black jacks? What type of onions are on the menu? Do we want real spinach or just silver beet  What colour carrots do we enjoy? This year we selected: kent pumpkins, beans, snow peas, more strawberries, Lebanese cucumbers, black jack zucchinis, spinach, rainbow chard, 4 types of cherry tomatoes, 4 types of big tomatoes  HEAPS of Basil, lettuce sweet potato (trial) and a mixed bag of carrots. We also choose nasturtiums as our edible flower to welcome bees into our garden.

This year the kids did all the planting and I acted only as a foreman. I delighted in hearing Orlando teach Matilda how to care for and plant the seedlings. His instructions were "Squeeze the tub... but not too much... support the stem in your fingers... turn it upside down... and then take the pot off.... now the fun bit.... tickle the roots and make the plant happy.... if you laugh too it works better.... now put the happy plant in the hole... make sure it is up straight and not falling over.... and cover it with the dirt like a blanket... remember you don't like a blanket over your head and neither does the plant, so just around its bottom and legs, which is the roots.... push it down tight so it is cosy and give it a kiss with water, but not too much .... then we wait before we can eat it..."

Don't think I could have put it better myself....

Now to do the waiting part... remember to kiss it with water regularly and see how we go....

How is your garden growing this season? Hopeful?

Preperation Harvest

As the frosts disappear and the kitchen mayhem settles we are looking outside again and preparing out veggie gardens for their summer plantings. I am always a bit latter than most with my plantings but come from the philosophy that when the soil has really warmed up, plants can hit the ground growing, instead of having to wait a month for the soil to warm.

So this weekend we are preparing for planting. We have re fertilised (thanks chooks) and cleared the winter crops. I always hate pulling out veggies that have gone to seed as it feels like such a waste. I know I could save my seeds but we have a bucket load already and last crop wasn't the best as we were away for 2 months of it.

This year I decided to deal with the pull out guilt by using all that I could of what I was pulling out. Mainly I was able to harvest coriander, kale, rainbow chard (silver beet) and onions.

Here is how I used them!

Kale and Spinach Chips

I was having morning tea with a friend the other day when their child pulled out some green 'chips'. I had heard of Kale Chips but this was not Kale... Upon asking I found out that they use all sorts of green leaves to make their 'chips'. Beetroot leaves, spinach, broccoli and kale! So, I heard a little about the process and put it loosely in the memory bank for later.

Today's harvest inspired me to retrieve that memory and put it to use.

Ingredients
Edible green leaves
olive oil
garlic
sesame seeds
salt

Method
- Wash and dry all the leaves
- Remove strong inner 'spine'
- Roughly tear into 5 cm 'chips' (they shrink A LOT)
- 'Dress' with a little dash or olive oil a good sprinkle of sesame seeds and 2 cloves of garlic
- Lay baking paper on some large trays and spread the leaves out
- Bake in a 150 C oven for about 20 mins, mixing and re spreading once or twice until crisp
- Add salt if desired

YUMM!!







Coriander Pesto

Coriander grows like a weed at our house. We planted it once and let it go to seed (as it often bolts quite quickly when planted as a seedling). We let these seeds to their thing and didn't pull the plant out it naturally died and rotted. I must have spread its seeds far and wide because for the past 6 years we have had coriander grow annually all over the place - even in the grass!) We have begun chopping the flowers and seeds and putting them in a jar!

So this is a recipe I grabbed from somewhere many years ago - I forget where as it now just lived in my head :)

2C Coriander Leaves
2 cloves Garlic
1/2 C Cashew Nuts
1/3 C Olive Oil
1/2 C Parmesan Cheese

Blend it all in the food processor until it resembles Pesto!

This is great on pasta but is also awesome spread on chicken on the BBQ or on sandwiches or a dip or....or... or ... endless possibilities!

 

 

 

 

 

Out with the Old, In with the New - Part 4

Okay, I know I'm pumping them out tonight but I finally have a second to sit and write, so I'm catching up!

Tonight we christened our new kitchen!! YAY!! Horahh! Wooo Hoo!!!

Both the plumber and the electrician were here today, which means we finally have power, water, drainage etc etc which means we can use our kitchen!!!!

In fact the only thing missing is the glass splash back and that is still a week or two away.

Because it isn't all looking so show room perfect yet, I'm only doing to show you some snippets until the glass is in and we can show it off properly :)

We had great joy this afternoon, moving in the essentials to the new kitchen and starting to play with our new appliances. I had a hearty laugh as we ran the dishwasher for the first time and the kids and I sat on the floor of the kitchen and listened to is run for about half and hour :) It's the little things :) Then when dinner was being cooked, I walked in and found Nath, sitting on the floor of the kitchen watching the oven cook our Spanikopita (guess it runs in the family :))

To my joy and delight, while we were cooking dinner the kids exactly as I hoped the would. They turned the telly off, unprompted, and came to join us at the bench, sharing in the cooking process and sitting up there and reading books. Being a part of the kitchen life again, which our old kitchen didn't really encourage.

We keep finding ourselves standing there staring at how beautiful it all is, our old decrepit kitchen now distant in our memories as we appreciate the beautiful kitchen we now get the pleasure to use many times every day. I'm one happy lady and I look forward to the coming few days as we unpack and make home again.

So raise your glasses and toast with us, to new beginnings, good food shared and enjoyed and to the centre hub of a family home! The Kitchen!

Catch Up Take 2!

Well in my last posting I said that at Mt Field the sun came out... Well it has stayed out ever since, so I have been out busy enjoying our holiday and not had a lot of time for blogging or much Internet connection (good old Tassie!). We have some mega catching up to do! More than 2 weeks worth actually!!! So it will be brief but I'll elaborate when we get home :)

Following Mt Field we went to:

Bruny Island
This was a wonderful stop. We rode the ferry (or Fairy as the kids are convinced it is) over. Orlando was in heaven! Yet another form of transport to add to the repertoire! Or camp site was on one end of "The Neck" which is the famous isthmus the joins north and south islands together. Our campsite was merely meters from the BEAUTIFUL beach and we very much enjoyed sleeping to the beating of the waves (have actually had this for 3 weeks now and will miss it as we move inland).
We could have stayed here for weeks! The island has a small population but it has a beautiful relaxed atmosphere. There are little factories and farms like the cheese factory, the smoke house, the berry farm and fudge shop. We did the tour and went back to our beach with a hamper full of goodies to enrich our camping pantry. We had sunshine and no wind YAY!!

We saw the Fairy Penguins waddle in from the beach at night time and squark around their nests (the part of the holiday Matilda has been waiting for.... I think she is still a little surprised they didn't look like the fairies she was imagining :))

Dover

Our dear friend Kathryn and her daughter Jasmine live in the little fishing village of Dover. It is always good to spend some time with old friends. Particularly ones you were very close to and then don't see for ages. It was nice being in a house for a few nights but a bit of a culture shock also. The kids were in heaven! Another kid to play with! And TOYS!!!!!!!! After an awkward start, Orlando and Jasmine hit it off and quickly made friends. Orlando found it rather tricky to say good bye to Jasmine, she made quite an impression on him. He sobbed for a good half an hour when we left, upset he wasn't going to see her again for a long time. This was also a clear indication for us that he is REALLY missing all of his friends and the social community he has around him at home.

Hobart
Well Hobart nearly blew us away!! LITERALLY! This was when the gale force winds hit Tasmania and Victoria and Oh MY!! We were in a horrible little Caravan Park on the outskirts of Hobart and were in a wind tunnel next to a bay so we had 3 sleepless nights just trying to hold the van down so that it didn't take off! Nathan's wonderful rope skills meant that he was able to tie the roof of the van to the ground to hold it down. This wind scared me a bit and I didn't feel settled or safe.

But on the touristy side of things we went to the Cadbury Factory and learnt all about chocolate. The kids were in heaven! We also brought a good lot of it from the very very cheap retail shop (I was also GOB SMACKED buy the amount of chocolate some people we buying OMG why are they not the size of houses!)


We also spent a very windy day in Hobart at the Salamanca markets which is always a nice day out. Got some delicious produce to nibble and found a FANTASTIC little book shop in Salamanca square. Could of spent days in there. It was my idea of a beautiful little tucked away treasure. Even the kids were happy for a full hour looking at all the kids books.

We had our Belated Fathers Day. We went to see MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) This is a great gallery and a real asset to the Art world. We really enjoyed our visit here, the museum has been well done. We also agreed that much of it, is not the sort of art we really like to look at! A bit too much exhibitionism for my liking. We then went over to the Royal Tasmanian Botanic Gardens. These are beautiful but it was really interesting to been in a 'constructed' natural space after spending so much time in wild natural spaces.

Tasman Peninsular

I always marvel at how old foot stones
wear down over hundreds of years
 and millions of uses.

We were pleased and relieved to be going bush again and this is a beautiful part of Tasmania. We camped at Fortescue Bay which is a stunning beach with white sands and picture perfect blue water. We had quite an adventure getting in to our campsite as it was raining, just a little, but enough! The road was dirt and the hill was long and VERY steep and started to go straight up, straight after a sharp corner, so you didn't even know it was coming to get a good run up.... well with this and a whole lot of loose, wet slippery gravel on the road.... we couldn't get up the hill... Bugger... we had 3 attempts, each time Nath had to reverse the car and van down the ridiculous hill that was so slippery we were sliding even when stopped and trying to be still. Just when we were discussing other camping options in the area an 'old cobber' came out of no where in his little suzuki and said "Common cobber, hook this to your bus, we need to get those kiddies to the beach!" and he hooked a tow rope to the front of the car and his little box of a 4WD pulled us, the car and the van up the hill. Thank goodness! And bless the little bush yokel fairy that saved our asses!

 
Once here we really enjoyed a day at Port Arthur. Ollie really loved the stories about how people used to live and we only included a few of the horrible bits :) Tilly didn't understand much of it but loved the old houses. We also went on an epic bush walk that was meant to be "flat 3 hr coastal walk". Well it took us at least 4 1/2 hrs and was VERY hilly. Like we walked over the top of 3 mountainous headlands. By the end we all felt exhausted but satisfied. Ollie walked the whole lot of it and Tilly helped me build back and shoulder strength with her luxury back pack ride.







Freycinet
Being the "Gold Coast of Tasmania" and Tasmanian school holidays, it was a lot busier here than we have had anywhere (saying that we have come accustomed to having campgrounds to our selves :)) So we felt a little crowded. We are also starting to get a bit tired and need to remember to schedule in some slow days, other wise we are going to need a holiday from our holiday!

We had a meander along some little pebble beaches, one with some amazing granite boulders and caves. The bouldering/rock climbing bug has bitten Ollie and Nath and Ollie are having some FANTASTIC boy time going off and rock scrambling. Matilda on the other hand sits in the sand or pebbles and has a little sensory massage, rubbing and rolling her whole body in the sand. She gets in quite a zone!


We also did the iconic Wineglass Bay walk. Up to the lookout and over the mountain to possibly one of the world's most beautiful beaches. I am so pleased they haven't put a road through nature to get easy access here but instead you have to walk, a decent walk, to enjoy and appreciate its beauty. We continued on an extended bush walk, totaling 5 hrs of walking. Ollie has developed into a champion walker and only complains a little near the end of 5 hrs, which in all honesty we all feel like doing :) I found it interesting to reflect on the beauty of the beach and then to discover why it is called wineglass bay. Partly it is to do with it's shape, but mainly, due to how deep it is and the fact that it is very protected, it was an area of great protection for whales and it had an enormous migrating whaler population.  During early settlement of the area it was discovered how many whales were here, and low an behold man started to slaughter them at great speed. First all the Sperm Whales and then the Humpbacks, so much so that the bay was continuously full of blood, so much that it looked like a glass full of red wine.... :(


Mole Creek
For our last stop in Tasmania we have decided to stop at the sleepy little town of Mole Creek. Today we went and explored the caves which was one of the most beautiful and well preserved limestone tour caves I've seen. It also houses one of the largest populations of Glow Worms. The kids have become quite the glow worm fans! Ollie expressed today that they were like beautiful stars and he and Nath are hatching a plan to construct a glow worm haven on his roof at home. Tomorrow we bush walk some more and go and visit the honey shop and other gourmet delights.

On Wednesday evening we embark on our return voyage on the Spirit (as you could of guessed Ollie has been talking about for a week already!) and then we have just over 2 weeks of this journey left! Time is flying for us!

5 Weeks in we have settled into a nice hum together as a family. The kids have made great friends and are really enjoying each others company. We are thankful for the bonding we have the opportunity to be doing and I think it will stay with us for a long time following this journey. All of our internal communication has improved out of sight and we are appreciating each other everyday. Parts of us are longing for home, we miss our friends, family and lives. We miss our chickens and garden, which should be blossoming just beautifully about now. But that will all be there waiting for us on our return.

Coming to the end of the Tassie leg it is hard not to feel like we're going home. In a part we are but we still have 2 1/2 week in Victoria. It's hard to get there mentally right now so we are just being and will explore Vic when we arrive on Thursday! (Which is also my BEAUTIFUL little sister's Birthday... HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNA!!)

Until then...

Caio!