Great Excitement

After two years of baking in this benchtop oven......

...which was too small to accommodate many of our baking pans (imagine no muffins, cup-cakes or slices, alarming!!), we've finally had a new kitchen installed in our little patch of paradise.  It's not quite finished (I will post some pictures when it is) but the ovens (yes, that is two ovens) and cooktop are both up and running.  

Why two ovens I hear you ask?  So we have more flexibility and don't have to heat up a large space when we don't need it.

It's fair to say that after two years of constrained baking we went a wee bit silly with all this new space.  Our freezer is now stuffed full of baked goods because we baked way more than we can actually eat or share with others. Between us we baked stuffed chicken thighs, gingerbread cup-cakes, mango muffins, buttermilk scones, sourdough bread, bread rolls, an apricot cheesecake, puddings and a pear and brie tart.  

The first thing I made was chicken thighs stuffed with pistachios and apricots.  This was for a a dinner party we had with our good friends, J and G on NYE.  I served it with a couple of salads. The asparagus and avocado salad was definitely the star of the entire meal but the chicken thighs were pretty good too.  Many of the recipes are from Dish magazine (I love their recipes, you'll see a theme) like this one for the chicken:  https://dish.co.nz/recipes/chicken-thighs-pistachio-and-apricot-stuffing.  

The asparagus salad is also from Dish but I couldn't find it online, probably because it's in their latest magazine. Being a retired person I have a bit of time on my hands, so I've typed it out for you. It's a seriously good salad and worth the effort to share.

Asparagus and Avocado with Sesame Dressing

2 bunches of slim asparagus, stem ends snapped off

1-2 avocadoes, thinly sliced (I used two)

2 tablespoons kewpie mayo (I didn't have this and used a whole egg mayonnaise instead)

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Dressing

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon maple syrup

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes (I used 1/4....it wasn't enough if you like chili)

1/4 -1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes

To make the dressing, put all the ingredients in a jar and shake well.

Cook the asparagus in a well salted pot of boiling water for one minute. Drain and immediately place into iced water (this will keep them nice and green) then dry on paper towel. Layer the asparagus and avocado on a nice platter. Drizzle generously with the dressing.  Mix the mayonnaise with the sesame oil.  Place in a small plastic bag (or you could use an icing syringe if you have one), snip off the corner and drizzle over the salad. Then....enjoy!! 

The brie and pear tart is one of Belinda Jefferie's recipes.  If you've not already discovered Belinda's recipes I recommend you give them a go.  They're all really easy to follow, always work and taste amazing.  My lovely Mum loved this tart.  I miss being able to share it with her but it is lovely having the memory of having done so.  I've not included a link to the recipe but it's pretty easy to find online, albeit not on Belinda's own site.  It hasn't photographed all that well and was way tastier than it looks. 

R has had his sourdough starter for at least ten years now. It was gifted to him by our good Scottish friend, E.  The starter definitely improved when we moved from the city to the country and sometimes blows the lid of its container because it is so active.  The bread has also improved.  Plus, R has been tweaking his recipe along the way, seeking that perfect loaf.  He was able to bake a loaf in the benchtop oven, but the temperature wasn't reliable so the results were a bit mixed.  His first loaf out of the new oven was a corker.  I love a slice of bread from a still warm loaf with lashings of butter and sometimes some homemade jam.   

 

These are Walnut, Herb and Parmesan Brioche rolls I made using a recipe I found in Dish Magazine:  https://dish.co.nz/recipes/walnut-herb-and-parmesan-brioche-wreath-pull-aparts.  This recipe included a technique called tangzhong which I'd not heard of before.  So naturally I had to try it.  Basically, tangzhong is cooking a flour paste which gets added to the dough when you start kneading.  Pretty easy.  You'll see in the recipe that the balls of dough are rolled in olive oil and then dukkah before the final proof. I didn't have any dukkah on hand so I made my own.  These rolls are seriously tasty and reheat from frozen really well.  

I had some leftover fruit mince from Christmas and didn't want to make another batch of fruit mince pies.  So I made Chocolate Fruit Mince Puddings using this recipe which I found online:   https://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipes/chocolate-fruit-mince-puddings-custard-strawberries-recipe/n9wabpvp?r=baking/ig340uqk&h=baking.  I did have to tweak the recipe a wee bit because my fruit mince was already made and the recipe uses dried fruit that gets soaked.  They turned out very tasty but rich. Oh, and they stuck to the non-stick muffin pan even though I greased it really well before hand. So not the prettiest but hey, it all goes down the same way right.  Oh, and as it's mandatory in our household to do so, I served these with custard and ice-cream.

There are plenty of butter milk scone recipes online and we've found this one from Taste to be pretty reliable:  https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/buttermilk-scones/fe8b5646-f2f5-4443-98f1-09709ad5d163.  We had these with butter and homemade mulberry jam.  When we lived in Greenmount, we had a fantastic mulberry tree that produced kilos and kilos of fruit.  This is our last jar of the jam I made using the fruit from that tree.  We sure do miss that tree.  We have planted a cutting from the Greenmount tree here but it is likely to take a good ten to fifteen years to be as productive.   The one in Greenmount was about 25 years old when we moved down here.

We picked about twenty kilos of apricots this year, which was very exciting, and I wanted to make a nice dessert for R's Mum using them.  I know she loves cheesecake so I found this recipe in Dish Magazine :  https://dish.co.nz/recipes/mascarpone-apricot-tart.  The filling is really light and not too sweet and the apricots are a little tart.  A really nice, balanced dessert that J really enjoyed. 

We're still not over the excitement of the new oven and no doubt will be trying out lots more new recipes and some old, cherished ones as well.  Roll on winter when we can do some slow roasting!!

Rose Mallee

One of the first plants we put in our garden here in our little patch of paradise was a rose mallee. We both love them but just didn't have room to put one in when we lived in Greenmount.  We really love the form of the mallee and the incredible flowers.  So, you can imagine how excited we were when buds formed on the tree this year.  Super excited.  But that tree sure makes you wait to see the flower.  The mallee is planted in the bottom paddock, and we've been going down every week to see if the flowers have opened.  For about the last three months!! Finally, we got to see some of the buds open.  It was definitely worth the wait.  I'm not sure the photos do the flowers justice, but it will give you an idea at least.

This is the bud.  They're huge and impressive to look out. Who needs flowers to show off!!

                                                    

If the parrots and cockatoos don't get to them first, this is how the flower opens:

                                                    

Once it's shed its cap, it takes few days for the flower to full open.

                                       

We also have a grevillea in the bottom paddock which has flowered nicely this year.  Its flowers are on the end of a very long stem, which is unusual.  I can't remember what type of grevillea it is.  But I love it.  Like all grevilleas.

We have lost about a quarter of the plants we've put in over the last four years. Overall I'd say we're pretty happy with our progress though.  We've still got plenty of room to put more plants in.  And now we've plenty of time to do planting too.  We just need to be patient and wait until Summer is over.

A Grove of Grass Trees

 My adorable husband and I took a drive across to Tutunup to pick up some pine poles to make a trellis to grow grapes on.  Google maps took us along the Capel-Tutnup road (or CAPel-Tootunup Road as she called it) where we came across a grove of grass trees, all in flower.  Neither of us have seen this many grass trees in flower at the same time.  So we were super happy to see them.  We had to stop and take pictures of course, to share the love.

Simple pleasures that make one happy. 

Clever Sister

I'm really lucky to have a wonderful family who are always happy to lend a helping hand when one is needed.  I'm even luckier to have siblings who are actually talented at a whole range of things.  One of those, my clever twin, recently sewed some new cushion covers for our cane seats.  She's exceptionally good at sewing (her soon to be born grandson is one lucky child!!) which is fantastic from where I sit (pun intended) because I can't sew to save myself.  Below are some before and after pics so you can see the difference some talent makes.

I hand sewed these cushion covers from faded doona covers that I no longer used.  It took me hours and hours and I ended up with very sore fingers.  And cushions that were permanently encased in their new covers.  They looked okay (as long as one didn't look too closely) and did the job, but they were impossible to keep clean. 

                                                            

                                                                

After sewing covers for the two-seater and two singles, I ran out of oomph, and the third single didn't even get sewn.   The cover was just thrown over the chair.

                                                                    

My lovely sister on the other hand, has used a sewing machine and sewed in zips and buttons so I can take the covers off and wash them.   

Don't they look amazing now.  All neat and tidy and matching.  I love them and, even though they have the same foam in them, I'm sure they're way more comfortable to sit on now.

The Summer House

When we moved into our new home, back in April 2020, we inherited a structure which we call the Summer House.  It might be overstating it a wee bit to call it a Summer House.  It was basically a three-sided shed with a pitched roof and a dirt floor which had the property's only clothesline in it.  It did have a little bit of detail in one corner which suggested it was intended for greater things.  So, we added a cement floor.  That is, we got someone who knows what they're doing to add the cement floor for us.  That was about two years ago.  Since then, we've used it to dry our washing and house a growing cluster of spiders.  Our best intentions have been sidelined by, well, life really.  

It's been a project waiting to happen for too long so, while my lovely husband was off on a boys own fishing trip to Exmouth with his best mate (I know, who'd have thought he'd ever be up for that??), I decided to keep myself busy and paint the Summer House.  I managed to get some paint tinted to match the colour scheme that is already used on the gables of our house.  Great start.  I then set about cleaning the walls so they'd be ready to paint.  I really, truly thought this would be maybe a one-hour job.  Turns out it was an entire afternoon job.  Apart from brushing the walls down, and chasing the spiders out, I had to wash them three times.  

 

There sure was a lot of dirt on those walls and loads of spider's homes (sorry spiders).  It look heaps better just being cleaned.  I was tempted not to paint it. 

But given I had six litres of paint, tinted a lovely shade of pale green, and no idea what else I could use that for, I forged ahead and put on a first coat.  My goodness, did it improve that space.  When he got home, R helped me put on a second coat.  The Summer House now looks like just that, a nice place to hang out in Summer. And we have already done just that.  We had breakfast out there this morning.  Lovely. 

It was definitely a lot of hard slog but I'm more than happy with the end result. It still needs a few things just to finish it off but it's very useable. 

Long live the Summer House. 

What a Difference a Floor Makes

It has been just a wee bit noisy and stinky in our little patch of paradise over the last two days.  That's because we've been getting new jarrah floors laid in our home.  They've not been sanded and finished yet and already they have transformed the living area of our house. Now it looks like it was always part of our home and not an afterthought that was added on later.  And, we're both so excited to be rid of the awful tiles that we had before.  Even the cement pad was an improvement on those. 

Anyway, here are some pics.  We're super happy with the work that has been done. They've created a lovely frame around where the fire place will be put back in.  That's to allow for the tiled hearth that we will need. 

The boards look way better in real life than in the photos.  They contrast in colours isn't anywhere near as dramatic and the tones are lovely and warm.  I can't wait to see it completely finished. Unfortunately, I have to because they won't be back to do that part of the job until mid-December. Bummer.

Oh Bother

For the first time since we planted our fruit trees, our early and late apricot and our prune have an abundance of fruit on them.  For the first time since we planted our orchard, the apricots, peach, prune, plums and nectarines have bacterial canker.  Oh bother, as Pooh famously said.  The good news is that, with proper treatment, the canker isn't terminal and it isn't a bio-security issue (phew!).  Treatment requires removing the affected limbs and spraying the cankers with copper.   It's not a hard job to do but it is time consuming because we need to soak our secateurs in a mild bleach solution for 30 seconds between each cut.  It's pretty easy hanging out in the orchard though on a lovely spring day.

The first obvious sign of the bacterial canker was dead leaves on the tree which were all stuck together with a very sticky substance. Then we noticed the same sticky substance dripping from the branches and running down the trunk.  Then we noticed it oozing out of some of the fruit. Boo hiss to that.

 

 

According to the good folks at the Department of Agriculture (we sent the above pics and some others to them just to make sure this wasn't something more serious) bacterial canker is generally caused by winter pruning, trees being exposed to wind driven rain or poor drainage.  We did prune our trees a little late this year but it was definitely well ahead of winter.  We will certainly be more careful with the timing of our pruning in the future.  The trees are outdoors so there's not a lot we can do about wind driven rain.   The drainage should be okay because we planted the trees in mounds. That said, we have got a lot of clay so this is something we can maybe look at too.  Overall, we're hopeful that with a little bit of effort the trees will be fine and we'll still get most of our lovely fruit.  Fingers crossed!!