Celebrations

The festive celebrations are happening everywhere and Friday night we had one on our own. 

Pre-dinner nibbles. Ham & pineapple on toothpicks and a cheese log with crackers. Both were very nice. 

After dinner antics. Hubby watching on as D2 takes photos for Nan. Pop wasn't overly keen.

This novel idea for a gift Christmas tree was made for our Quilters Christmas breakup. Everyone went home with 3 fat quarters for a future project. 

Cheese Fruit Log
¼ cup pistachio nuts
250g cream cheese
¼ cup finely chopped dried apricots
3 spring onion, finely chopped
¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes finely chopped
¼ cup finely chopped parsley
Pepper to taste
 

Preheat oven to 200 deg C and roast
nuts for 5 minutes. Cool and finely chop.
Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Fold
in apricots, onions, tomatoes and pepper.
Form mixture into a log and roll in combined
nuts and parsley. Wrap in plastic wrap and
refrigerate until firm.
Serve with cracker biscuits.

This will be my last blog for a few weeks. Hubby and I are off on holiday tomorrow. I trust you all have a wonderful Christmas and we will catch up here in the New Year...Dot  

Simple Pleasure

Watching the rooms change face with renovations well underway.
The windowsill and cupboards were sanded (previously varnish)and will be white. 

I took a 'turn' in the garden on Saturday. We had received a huge rainfall and it's nice and fresh to take a look at things outside.

New bed with plants in place.

These will turn blue one day.

I did not plant potatoes this year but a few plants came up here and there in the garden from past years of planting. They are flowering. I will leave the chats alone and let them grow to full size.

I am amazed!!!. This is my first time ever of having my own strawberry patch. I have tried many ways of growing them and have not been successful. Net has been put over the bed and so the birds can leave them alone and I am harvesting a small supply. 

Weekend coffee time. 

Lots of cleaning up to do here this week so I am going to get stuck into it.

Dot 

Summer is here

Hello. Summer has arrived. The weather is warming up and I put cotton sheets on the bed today.The flannelette will be stored away until it turns cold again.

Today, oh dear. It is overcast. It would be nice to have a good rain to help green up the lawn. The temperature is a lovely warm 18 degrees. 

   
We are using lettuces, parsley and other fresh herbs from the vegi patch. I cut the rhubarb on Saturday and that has been stewed and stored in the fridge to use. Mmm, crumble or with muesli and yoghurt. Maybe both.

The raspberry patch is doing well again this year. We should have some fruit in a couple of weeks. Our home has had a fresh coat of paint. Looks good. 

Hubby spent most of the weekend sanding. The window surround has been done, along with the cupboard, doors and main door. Preparation take times but the rewards are great. 

Lunch for two. And oh how easy it is!!!. Pizza about to come out of the oven. 

Tummy calls...Dot :-)

I need to do this

And I have made another list!!

We are off in a couple of weeks to spend Christmas in WA with family. I have a few things to do before I can complete packing my case.

1. D3 left her wedding dress here and it needed to be dry-cleaned. To do so, the beads on the front had to be removed. I need to sew them back on before it leaves here.

2. I am crocheting myself a summer cardigan. It is coming along well. Just about to start the waistband.

3. I have always been keen to make some crocheted flowers. My sunhat is going to be revamped. I took off the original band and plan to replace it with a row of coloured flowers. This should not take long to do, just a bit of fun. 

4. I have one Christmas gift left to finish and pop in the post.

Off to it...Dot 

Cooking

What's cooking, good looking!!!

Thought I would share a few things I have cooked up this past week. I made the Tofu Stir Fry. Hubby suggested that maybe next time I could pre-fry the tofu before adding. Of course, you could substitute tofu for chicken.

Tofu Stir Fry (serves 2-3)
375g firm tofu, diced
2 Tb oil
1 onion, diced
2 sticks celery,diced
1/2 red capsicum, diced
good handful beans, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed or diced
1 ts curry powder
1 cup chicken stock
1 Tb cornflour
1 Tb honey
pepper and salt to taste

Heat oil in fry pan and saute onion, garlic, celery, capsicum and green beans for 3 minutes. Add tofu and stir into pan with curry powder. Add salt and pepper. In a small bowl mix stock, cornflour and honey. Add this after vegetables are cooked to your liking.
Serve with rice.

I made up a huge amount of Spagetti Bolognaise. This is usually asked for around birthday time and if we haven't made it for a while. I converted this recipe to make in my Thermomix but basically it is just cooking up some spaghetti noodles and placing them in the bottom of a large casserole dish. Make up a bolognaise sauce using 500g mince, and also adding some celery and grated carrot. Spread this mixture over the top of the noodles and top it with a cheese sauce. I then grate some parmesan on top and cook in a moderate over for 30 minutes or until you see it bubbling around the edges. (note: the celery and carrot are grated well in the processor)

I found some Orange Butter Cream in the freezer and so I made up a lemon butter cake and topped it with toasted almonds.

Until next week, happy cooking...Dot

I do this every Monday

Every Monday morning you will find on my daily list to do this blog and follow it by emailing my daughters. I must admit there has been a time or two when I have been extra busy after the weekend and don't get it done until Tuesday. I don't like it when this happens, but at least I get there and feel I have then connected with you and my family.

Today is a special day in this household. My hubby has a birthday. Sometime today we will open gifts and I have a yummy dinner planned. 

Cheeky fella. He often makes me laugh. Every day in fact. This was the last load of green waste. 

He is very clever and full of ideas. Over the weekend he reused a staircase from the deck we demolished a few years ago. It has always been tricky to get down to the orchard, not so hard to get back up the bank, but now we have easy access to and fro. I was excited as!!

And so was D2 when she spotted it later in the day. 

The neighbors ponies came to have a look. They were happy to receive some fresh grass from our side of the fence. 

On Saturday, D2 and I attended a High Tea we were invited to. Along with 30 other ladies we enjoyed great company, food, and games. Lots of laughs. 
It was a well organised event and we all came away with lots of praise. 

Until next time, I better go and prepare lunch. Tofu Stir fry (one of hubby's favourites)

...Dot (and it's windy here again today)

Weather

This could only happen in Tasmania. Last week we had wind, lots of rain, and a hail storm. This morning when I woke up it was still and I could hear the tin creaking on the roof. It was warming up. We have blue sky, hardly a breath of wind and its a holiday. 

We have the trailor again and we will be taking another green load to the tip or two. Hubby has just mentioned he wants to take another tree out. 

Last Saturday we took a trip up the coast and met with other family for a Christmas BBQ. We cooked the meat in the shed and then all went indoors where it was much warmer and enjoyed a wonderful few hours together.

I couldn't believe it when it was dessert time. There was so much to choose from. All homemade. Absolutely divine. I had to have a brandy snap, lemon meringue pie and fruit salad. 

Hubby is waiting for me outside, so I had better run....Dot

Windy

Hello!!! Today is sunny but very windy. During the night we had thunder and lots of good rain. That should make the garden shine. Oh dear, I am on about the garden again. We are still spending a lot of time in it and it is starting to look really good. To top it off, hubby and I went to a garden show over the weekend, so enjoy all the beautiful arrangements.

Oh, poor Humpty.

Just before I pulled the curtains last night, this is the new clean view from my kitchen door.

Now to go and tackle the wind and check my vegie patch...Dot

Sunny

1. The lawn seed has been planted in this soil, we have had some rain and now looking forward to a sunny week. There will be hardly any rain about. I have the hose hooked up to keep it damp though and we should have a lovely green patch there soon.

2. Saturday morning we were outside in no time. Hubby and I attacked the ivy growing on a rock wall in the back yard. Above it was a tree that was removed. We took 2 huge trailor loads to the tip over the weekend. One was green and the other was filled with rubbish from the sheds out back. What a great feeling!!!

3 - 6. Sunday we ventured off for a road trip. This took us up into Table Cape. It has been years since we have gone through this way. Shots were taken at the lookout and on the way out the colour of the tulips was spectacular. 

Today I have lots to do indoors. Hope your week is sunny too....Dot

Hard at it

Another week has gone and we are pleased with our progress outside. While I weeded a huge patch at the front of the house, hubby spent most of Saturday on our vegetable patch. He only got frustrated once when he was putting a steel post in and hit a rock. He had to dig it out; it was a good size one.

Hubby put up the fence and we have a gate. I have hit my head a couple of times. The plan is to paint the top rail yellow. My brother brought up a couple of bales of wood wool and I placed that around the raspberries. I have planted seeds in the boxes and in the tyres.

We will be out there again tonight so I am getting everything done I need to inside to make that happen. 

I can smell the stew in the slow cooker, yum....Dot

Whirlwind

Hello

It has been like a whirlwind here the past few days in more ways than one. At present the wind is whistling outside and it has been reported that the wind speed got up to 147km per hour through the night. Thankfully we have no damage done, just lost a compost bin lid. Someone forgot to put the brick back on it and I am wondering if we will find it. 

The weather has turned and we have had copious amounts of rain and wind.

Vegi Garden update: During a lunch break hubby got another load of soil and in the afternoon I shoveled it into the boxes and hubby joined me later to help finish them off. 

He drilled some holes into the sides of the boxes and threaded through some rubber coated cable he found under the house to divide each bed into 4 x 2 squares. 

I have not been able to get out to plant yet, but plan to as soon as the weather allows.

In the meantime we relocated our daughter to her rental. Hubby and I found some muscles we forgot about. Then daylight savings kicked in and so today I am feeling a little tired.

Never mind.....

...I received 2 lovely handwritten letters in the mail today. 

And I also picked up...

my favourite magazine. 

I am off to relax with a cuppa and read it...Dot

End of Month

Today marks the end of another month and this weekend we welcome in Day Light Savings. It is really wet and windy here today, great for being indoors, but we have had some lovely weather which has enabled us to do wonders in the vegetable patch.

This is the vegie patch before we commenced work on it. I had been doing the crop rotation method for the last 3 years but I have been convinced to try another easier and effective method of providing our table with yummy fruit and vegies. Hubby and I were discussing here what we would do. 

A bit more progress. A lot of weeding and whipper snipping had been done here.

A lot has happened in such a short time. We really got to work last week and pulled out the fence surrounding the garden, placed the bottom half of the new beds in their spot and started filling them with soil. Those boxes are very level (thanks Hubby, you did a wonderful job with your leveller.) I am SO pleased with what he has done and really looking forward to planting this next week.

We have 3 days straight of very sunny weather coming up....garden here we come...Dot