Say cheese!

My sister had asked if I could make her a calico bag to store her cheese in. This apparently stops the cheese from drying out.

What a great school holiday project for a 5 year old who was really keen to use a sewing machine for the first time!

Family Balm

As a Christmas gift I decided to make moisturising lotion/massage bars.

Coconut oil, I found out, is extremely good for the skin as is Almond oil. They are both edible and have nourishing properties externally and internally. To make them into a bar or balm they can be added to beeswax.

I made most of it in this heart mould but then put what was left into an old body butter container. It was actually easier to use this way. I gave this to my friends to use with their newborn child but realised that both of them could benefit from it too hence naming it family balm!

Uses include:
- moisturising hands
- cradle cap
- cuts and grazes
- acne healing
- massage

You can find the recipe here.

Now shall I make a salad dressing or a stir fry next?

Family Balm

Something for me

I have been busy clearing out the spare room so that I can have a well organised study space. The walls are very melancholy so to brighten them up I decided to make some festive bunting!

Something for me

Organisation

School holidays always allow me a bit more time to get organised.  I collected these ideas on my Pinterest account and then put them into action this week:

Braided wool for hanging earrings from.

Shower curtain hooks to hang scarves

Folding tshirts in a certain way to make more room

I certainly feel a little bit more organised for starting the Term.

Organisation

Birdseed bars

This recipe I got from Annabel Langbeins "Simple Pleasures" TV show. It makes HEAPS and is frankly "just delicious!"

On a baking tray mix together:
- 2 cups of rolled oats
- 1 cup of sunflower seeds
- 1 cup of pumpkin seeds
- 1 cup of sesame seeds

Toast in an oven at 180deg C for 5 mins. I substituted half of the pumpkin seeds for some linseed. When done add 1 cup of dried fruit. I did half dried cranberries, half sultanas.

In a small pot, melt together:
- 120g butter
- 6 T Golden syrup or honey
- 8 T Raw sugar
- 1/3 C peanut butter or condensed milk

Stir as it heats and simmer for 5 mins on a low heat.

Add the hot caramel to the toasted seed mix. Work fast as it moulds quickly. Transfer the mixture into a lined Swiss roll tin or baking tray and press flat.

Let cool in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours. When cool, cut into bars. Store in an airtight container till all gone!! Haha.

I couldn't believe how much it made!

Birdseed bars

Calendula Balm

Last year I planted Calendula in the garden as a companion plant and for a splash of colour.

In December I harvested some of the petals and steeped them in olive oil in a sunny spot for 6 months.

What evolved was a richly coloured oil concentrated with the medicinal qualities of this pretty flower.

The best use of this oil was to make a balm that could be used for cuts and grazes, nappy rash, chapped lips, dry skin etc.

Recipe:

Calendula oil - 1/4 cup of dried calendula petals steeped in 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil. Steep for a minimum of 2 weeks.

Balm - melt 1/8 cup of beeswax in a double boiler. Add the strained calendula oil to the mixture with 10-40 drops of lavender oil. Stir to combine then put into containers. Seal when cool.

Easy? Yes!
Messy? Potentially! Beeswax is like a waterproof casing on your pot so make sure you melt it in something set aside for making non-food items.

Calendula Balm

To Infinity and beyond!!

I spotted a tutorial for infinity scarves on Pinterest awhile back and pinned it with anticipation of one day making one.

With the budget a bit tight and families and friends having birthdays this month I decided that this could be a suitable present. Deciding on which fabric to use is the fun bit!

Bel would you like one??

To Infinity and beyond!!

Brighten up

A little bit of paint on this milo tin has brightened up my kitchen and provided handy storage for my utensils!

Brighten up

T-shirt scarf

I saw this idea awhile ago and then revisited it on Pinterest.

A friend of mine has done me a few favours lately so I thought I would make her one out of an old yellow t-shirt I had. I added some black ribbon, black leather tie and a vintage button to make it a bit more glam.

It actually requires no sewing - just cutting and pulling and then some hot glue gun action. Simple really!

There is a great tutorial for this on this site.

T-shirt scarf

Rainbow beets

The other night I had an absolute craving for Silverbeet.

It may have been my body telling me I needed iron and salt after playing football that day. It could have been  my mind reminiscing about my childhood.

Luckily I have these amazing rainbow coloured "beets" growing in abundance in my garden.

This one reminded me of an Oompa Loompa!

I simply cut off the stalks (even though they are so pretty!) and then roll them up into a bunch and slice them in rounds. Then into a pot they go with a bit of water and some salt to cook.

The best bit however is the water left after cooking them (something my Mum gave me as a child). In this case it was a beautiful warm maroon colour. I simply added a bit of salt and pepper and had the most wonderful nutritious drink with my dinner that more than satisfied my craving!

Rainbow beets

Hey presto - pesto!!

I have recently discovered the delights of home made pesto. Now even though I do have a few healthy basil plants growing in my garage I would much rather use herbs that are in abundance.

I have lots of wild rocket growing which whizzed up made this fantastic pesto.

Rocket pesto

2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 cups of rocket
1/4 cup olive oil (approx)

Put everything into a blender and blend until smooth. Add oil gradually until pesto is a good texture.

I also like to make this parsley version:

Parsley pesto

2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
2 cups Italian parsley
1 cup of basil mint

So easy and so tasty!

Hey presto - pesto!!

Ear, ear

Apologies for a lack of posts during the month of March. A combination of bad weather, busy work schedules and winter sport starting means that I have been away from the garden, the sewing machine and the house.

Summer has been and gone without warning. The weather changes from hot to mild to freezing cold. Rain, wind, sun - the garden is not sure what is happening to it.

However I managed to pick some of our home sown corn despite the wind making a mockery of the perfect rows. It looked more like a sculpture on the Wellington waterfront than the upright rows in a corn maze.

The corn itself was DELICIOUS! And really this photo does not do it justice. It was sweet and juicy and just so much more satisfying knowing that you had grown it yourself. As my partner said "it's hard to imagine this was grown from one of those tiny bits".

We will be growing corn again in summer, if summer ever arrives again.

Ear, ear

The garden in February

Tomatoes and Violets

Blackberries

The beds are full

Fragrant Basil

Red Kale Jungle

"Gold Rush" Zucchini's bathed in golden light

Skyscraper Corn

Ear that?

 Just some of the treasures from my vegetable garden.

The garden in February

Potatoes

Decided to finally dig up the last of the potatoes tonight. Wasn't expecting this many!!!

The varieties are Cliff's Kidney, Jersey Benne, Purple Passion, Desiree and some special Maori varieties: Tutaikuri and Karuparera. My favourite are the Karuparera.

Me and my 2-pronged fork did a really good job!

Most interesting potato dug up was this one:

Use your imagination!

Potatoes

The evolution of the salad

Salads historically in NZ consisted of some iceberg lettuce, cucumber and tomato. Then some marketing genius came up with the idea of selling bags of salad greens (mesclun) and housewives right round the country started experimenting with greens that were weeds in a former life.

My salads usually consist of lots of peppery rocket, cress and baby beetroot leaves. To liven this up even further I decided to grow some edible violas.

These beautiful delicate flowers come in a variety of colours and are so intricate to look at. They look stunning in a salad.

And yes I was brave enough to eat them. Not a particular strong taste so completely palatable. A good dressing always helps!

Violas are not the only edible flower. I use borage flowers from my garden in salads and freeze them in ice to add to summer drinks.  Nasturtiums are also bright and beautiful to add to salads. Check out this chart of all the different types of flowers you can eat and what they taste like.


I think it's time again to get a little bit more creative with the salad greens (or purples, yellows, blues and reds). Leave your iceberg lettuce for lunch at Grandmas and play around with some edible flowers instead.

The evolution of the salad

Lots and lots of cabbage

On Wellington Anniversary Day I entered my first ever A and P show with some homegrown produce. And wouldn't you know it I got first place! (Please note that even though the competition level wasn't as high as one might have expected my cabbage was still the bomb regardless).

Mega cabbage

But alas what to do with all the cabbage afterwards. After 3 meals of coleslaw there was still  ¾ of a cabbage left. My only other experience of having this much cabbage was in Form 1 when we learnt to make coleslaw in cooking class. The teacher (Mrs Watson) gathered all the leftover cabbage and made sauerkraut with it. Then for the rest of the term we used sauerkraut in other recipes. In particular I remember putting sauerkraut on pizza.

Mrs Watson had some interesting ideas about cooking (she pretty much put lemon pepper on everything) but I like that she didn't want to waste the cabbage and came up with another way to use it. Kiwi ingenuity for you (with a german twist)!

So anyway I don't have a copy of her version of sauerkraut and all the recipes I read involve quite a process of fermentation. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to such lengths considering I can't even remember what the stuff tastes like!

I wasn't kidding about the amount of cabbage

So I found this straight forward option for pickling cabbage here. It pretty much involves packing shredded cabbage into sterilized jars then putting some honey and salt and then hot water, sealing them and then leaving them in the hot water cupboard for a week.

I added some grated apple and caraway seeds to my mix. Next time I may be a little bit more adventurous.

With a bit of honey and salt on the top awaiting hot water

So apparently I can open and eat the cabbage in a weeks time or wait another 6 but if I open it between weeks 1-6 it will be quite sour. This is all a bit scientific but it has to go through 3 stages of fermentation. Interesting stuff!

Sealed and ready to be banished to the darkness

Will follow up with some notes once it has fermented!

Lots and lots of cabbage

Thrifting in the Hutt

Op shopping (or thrifting) is perhaps one of my favourite pastimes.

I get a huge rush when I find a small "treasure" or two for a small price.

I have to be careful that I only buy things that I need (which can sometimes be hard) but the best thing about this type of shopping is that its ethical and its green. I am buying somebody else's unwanted item therefore I am not contributing to mass consumerism or production. Plus lets face it old stuff is way more cooler.

This particular mission was to find items for the kitchen, namely more Crown Lynn and perhaps some furniture. No luck with the furniture - all a bit too pricey for me to make a decision on by myself.

So here are my finds for this week:

4 beautiful Crown Lynn bowls - $1 each

Crown Lynn dinner plate $2.50

Crown Lynn "Woodglen" dinner plate $2.50

Glass bottles $3.50 each

Recipe book holder - $3

I also got a bunch of chopsticks ($1.50), a small yellow and white striped cake tin ($2.50), a plate stand/stacker ($1.50) and a picture book copy of The Velveteen Rabbit ($1).

Good score!

Thrifting in the Hutt