Autumn Harvest and also Lindt Chocolate.

First up, comments;  I've installed disqus so that I can reply to comments and let the commenter know that how much appreciate and love her/him taking the time to let me know what they think.  This is the only way I can do this in blogspot - unlike other blogging platforms, they don't have a comment reply function. So it was either disqus or moving the blog.  Let me know if its causing any dramas, and if you don't want to use it, do feel free to email me at caitlyn.nicholas@gmail.com.

Thank you for reading about the comments.  Now I shall make the tedium worth it.  You see over at Singular Insanity, Dorothy has got this amazing Lindt chocolate give away going on.  Click here to enter.  I'm talking $250 of Lindt Chocolate AND $250 Myer gift voucher - and no, I'm not getting any extra entries for mentioning it here - I just think its a great competition, and Dorothy is one cool chick.

Frills in the Hills is doing a similar giveaway - enter there for a second chance :)

$250 of Lindt chocolate, yes that's it in the hamper... I can hear Jan my weightwatchers leader howling "Nooooooooooo," at the very thought.  Entries close Thursday 5th May.

So, we were over at Mumndads building site house last week, and I went for a forage in the much neglected veggie garden.  Came back with four pumpkins, a crumble's worth of rhubarb and another 2kgs of strawberry guavas.

Excellent haul

I see pumpkin soup in my future, and more strawberry guava jelly, I wonder if it will set this time :)

Post number 802: Pesto

YAY this is post number 802!!  Was planning on doing a bit of boasting when I got to post 800, but then forgot about it. sigh.  Story of my life really :)

We've got a bit of basil about the place at the moment, so I decreed this weekend to be pesto making weekend...

I used Stephanie Alexander's recipe in her Kitchen Garden Companion.  We ended up with about 3 cups of basil; picked, un-bugged, de-leafed and washed by hubs.

Being fundamentally lazy I fling it all in the blitzer - none of this mortar and pestle business, no siree...

Then I blitz it...

And then blitz it some more. We like our pesto smooth not chunky - well the kids do, and as they actually eat it, and it is green, I am happy to do it their way. 

Check out that awesome colour :)  That is around 600ml.  I was intending to freeze this lot, but then Ms Alexander said you can just cover the pesto with oil and keep it in the fridge and it will last until you get the next lot of basil in the spring.  So, with some trepidation, that is what I am doing.

Barring unforseen disasters (and oh yes, I'm sure there will be something) we should have enough basil in the next month or so to make another big batch, which I will freeze, just in case this lot starts to ferment on me.

We used the stuff that wouldn't fit in the tub to make homemade chicken pesto pizza.  This is easy to do, and to die for...
1. Make pizza dough, roll out
2. Cover with tomato paste
3. Chop raw chicken breast into small pieces, fling in bowl, stir through as much pesto as you think fit
4. Arrange artfully on pizza
5. Sprinkle with a little bit of cheese (mozzarella)
6. Bung in oven, cook until you are SURE chicken is cooked through - takes a little longer than usual we find
7. Guard your two teeny weeny slivers from voracious children and husband - use any means necessary, you have my permission.

I do have to say that I am now, officially, sick of pesto.

Well for today.

Garden Harvest

Was fossicking around in garden this morning and gathered the following in my pockets...

Two eggs (yay), carrots, sweet potato, desiree potato, erm some other little potatos, and tomatoes.

War on Clutter continues.  Kitchen now cleared out, today will tackle pantry - or maybe just go hunting for more Tim Tams, how much incentive is THAT??

Garden post

Spent the afternoon harvesting in the garden. Not a bad haul really, especially given all the 40+ days we've been having.  A lot of things, like my lettuces and asian greens are burning off before they even have a chance.

• Tomatos are all green because I ripen them inside - the moment then even look slightly reddish dogs, cats, birds, children and possums make a beeline for them.
• Yellow one at the front is a slightly overdone cucumber. But it is a cucumber nonetheless.
• Beans, corn and a couple of kilos of desiree spuds and one forlorn squash in the middle.
• Er yes that's a nice rug on the table behind the vegies.  It needs cleaning. Badly.

Once I've got rid of the spuds I'll be putting in sweet potatoes.  Presently they look like this. I'll break off the little stems (slips) and plant them.

Other than that its been an annoying kind of a day. The kids are tired and keyed up for Christmas and being very hard work. Also the yoghurt I was making curdled.

So a litre of milk thrown away, and a mess for nothing. Very vexing.

sigh.

Peas

Shelling peas (and a couple of broad beans) for dinner.We've got a bag of frozen ones in the freezer, sweeter and more tender. Still, I like that the kids are involved in the trip of food that we've grown to the table.

:)

The First Strawberries

Had a bit of a strawberry disaster this year when 70% of the Chandler strawberries I bought from Diggers died - could have been snails, fungus or transplant shock - or all three. Anyway, I had to buy several more to fill in the gaps in the patch, and instead of going for one type I went for several varieties - Kanawase, Toigo and Red Gauntlet.

What we have here are the very first Kanawase's ripening. The first strawberries I have ever grown and here they are, nearly ready to eat.

Only I dont want to.

Why? And you are going to be sorry you wondered... under the greyed out spot in the photo is a pile of poo. Could be dog, could be cat.

SIGH.

Spring Harvest

Today I have been harvesting things in the garden.

Onions - on the left - planted by Miss 3.5 several months ago by accident, they've actually come up quite nicely.

Painted Lady Sweet Peas - the pretty pink flowers, picked for no good reason except they smell divine.

Rosemary - big pile of green stuff at the back - it'd overgrown and was completely covering my oregano so I hacked the crap out of it. It is now drying in my vege dryer and making the house smell like roast dinner

Lemon verbena - front left, being dried to make tea

Oregano - front centre, being dried to go in spag bol

Leeks - on the right, being used in various meals this week (leak and spud soup, chicken & leek spies etc)

The bundle of greenery in the centre is thyme - also being dried for later

So there you have it. We've finally had some decent rain, and so I've been stomping around the back garden squashing wretched snails in revenge for whoever it was that ate my cucumber, chamomile, and pak choy seedlings. Vengeance is mine, RAAARGH, etc, etc...

Next up planting zucchini and squash. :)