Apple Pie.

Delicious apple pie from the Thermomix community recipes.  The last of the apples from the mountains.

Stewed Apples, Produce From the Mountains.

Our annual trip to the mountains with local mums.  Thankyou husbands!

I bought a large bag of apples and used an apple slinky machine (thankyou Aunty L.) to get them peeled quickly.  Then cinnamon and cloves (thankyou Mrs N) and into the pressure cooker for 12 minutes wiht some water.  After they were done, I mashed them and have put them into containers into the freezer.

Satisfying and Simple.

A whole month of Spring already?
We had sausages done on the BBQ, watching for swooping kookaburras.
Strawberries dipped in chocolate, thanks to Liz for the inspiration.
Lots of sunny spots in the garden.  Blue skies, no smoke in the air from bushfires.....
A cool wind, yet sun on the back.

Very satisfying.

Fruit Bowls.

We have been given so much fruit from people; apples,grapefruit, limes, lemonades and even some unknown citrus fruit from our own tree.

Eaten out of House and Home.

Our mammoth fruit/veg stores are depleted, ready for tomorrow's order. All we have left are the 2 lemons (from the basket full that we were given), 1 zucchini, half a bunch of English spinach, 1 apple, half a bag of carrots, I have not used the celery yet and 2 cherry tomatoes (for the children's lunchbox tomorrow). I have even used the potatoes that were in stock before the delivery came. Luckily tonight the family will have bolognaise with lots of zucchini and carrot already grated into it.

Friday's Fresh Produce.

Well the weekend is almost done but I thought that I would talk a little about our fruit/veg delivery that comes on a Friday.

Our local fruit/veg shop kindly deliver an order to me that I phone in on a Friday morning. This week, there was quite a lot on special and I also needed to factor in a large salad for a bbq for today (Hospitality Sunday at church) and dessert-some fruit.

My order included: 6 loaves bread, 1 x 3L milk, 2 buckets of apples, bucket mandarines, bucket kiwi fruit, 2 bunches English spinach leaves, 2 heads lettuce, 1 cucumber, green capsicum, a Spanish onion, 4 loose tomatoes, 3 punnets cherry tomatoes, 2 punnets strawberries, a large wedge of watermelon, 2 bunches asparagus, 5 zucchini, half a celery, bulk bag of oranges, 1 kilo carrots and 2 dozen eggs. I had already bought a bunch of bananas the day before. We will not throw out one item from this list! The cost of this amount is about $70 AUD. Now imagine if we grew our own.........I have stuck the lettuce roots into the soil and I see that the cherry tomatoes from last year are resprouting. Our avocado tree is growing very well, but I have heard that it probably won't bear fruit here in Sydney. Our passionfruit vine surprises us after Christmas, so that will be nice.

PS I have loads of oregano growing and it will be time for basil soon.

Lemons and Lemonades.

Lemons and lemonades from Mrs N, Grandad and Lake Conjola. Time to bake and make icing. Some thoughts: lemon pudding, lemon slice and icing for cakes.....

In response to a comment,
here is a recipe for "Zulu Cake" or Orange Almond cake.

Boil 2 oranges till soft, with skin on.

Then put into a blender. Blend. Don't do this when the oranges are too hot!
Add 250g almond meal
Add 250g sugar
Add 6 eggs
Add 2 t baking powder.

Blend, pour into lined cake tin and bake till firm (at least one hour.)

Looking.

This green juice is spinach, apple, carrot, ginger and açai berries. The above library bag is for 7 year old daughter.

Pretty Pears.

Home Industry.

Juicing.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Dr-Oz-Green-Drink-Recipe-Intructions

A great recipe for my new juicer.

Strawberry Ice Cream.

To make this: 500g strawberries, hulled and juiced (include pulp)

In a pot, mix 1 cup milk and 1 cup thickened cream with a splash of vanilla. Almost bring to the boil. In a separate jug, mix 5 egg yolks and 125g caster sugar. Slowly add hot milk mixture to egg mixture and then put back in the pot. Stir over heat till thick. Chill both the custard mixture and strawberry mixture.

Mix both mixtures and then pour into icecream machine.

Mix both mixtures and then pour into icecream machine.

This recipe came with the Sunbeam icecream machine.

I will be making a sorbet with all the egg whites.......

Mulberries.

"Here we go 'round the mulberry bush...."

but it is not cold and frosty.

Two boys; 9 year old son and his friend, picking mulberries from our neighbour's tree. With her permission of course!!

Baking Banana Cake.

Bunches of banana cakes. The heat of the weekend sped up the ripening of our bananas. It is rare for us to have any bananas left for baking into banana cakes. Good to have in the freezer as we have a few things coming up in the next week.

Thinking of Summer....

Just like Cathy, I too have an older style picnic set. Unlike Cathy though, this picnic set does not get much use. I bought it before we had children from a little junk shop, thinking that we would use it for vintage car outings. We have used it, and hopefully will again in the future.

6 year old daughter wanted to make frozen fruit yesterday so we did. We cut strawberries and grapes and then covered them with water. Fruit juice could have been nice too. We put them in the freezer and will enjoy them this afternoon. It is hotter today. 4 year old daughter starts swimming lessons today, she will join her big sister in the pool.

Back to the clock

We are back to watching the clock. 4 year old daughter has gone to preschool and the older two will go to school tomorrow. 9 year old boy is sick with a fever....

Lots of washing to put away today, floors to clean and a bedroom to dust.

Yesterday's brunch was very nice, the smell of bacon chases thoughts of dust bunnies and laundry to be done and makes one feel like the hostess with the mostest.

We had blueberry muffins, Winter fruit and fritatta.

Winter fruit

Can of plums (large)

Can of strawberries

sultanas

cinnamon

orange rind

Heat on stove or microwave, serve with yoghurt

This recipe just happened.

Fritatta

bacon, onion (chopped and fried or done in microwave in quiche dish till onions soft and you can smell the bacon)

Grated zucchini

parmesan cheese (shaved or grated)

8 eggs

Mix altogether, bake in oven till set.

You could basically add anything that takes your fancy.

This recipe is an altered version that Mrs H gave me.

Tonight we are having the leftover roast in a casserole which we all love served with rice:

Leftover roast casserole

Cut roast into diced pieces

a few tablespoons of corn flour and stock dissolved in cold water

herbs

vegetables

Bake till gravy thick. YUM