Strawberries for dessert. Yum!

Well the pallet has been producing lots of yummy strawberries for the family to devour.

We had a taste test on Christmas morning to decide which variety was the best. I have 4 Albion strawberries on the top row and the rest are Camarosa.  It was 100% vote that Albion was the better of the two.
The one variety that I didn't plant as many..... Always the way.I'll have to plant more of them next year.

Albion has the added benefit of being day length neutral, which is helpful when you gets periods of grey and wet weather... like we have at the moment. We also decided that the flavour was more like strawberries of old.

We have had a lot of success with the berries all round. Lots of raspberries,boysenberries, and black currants have been amazing in their first season. We had 1 cherry.  1 apple.

A very good crop of potatoes, corn coming on well too. Tomatoes are green waiting to ripen.
Lots of lettuce, salad greens and kale.

Overall I'm very happy with my new garden.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Pasta Making with Kids

In the last school holidays I looked after my niece and nephew for my sister. We decided to make fresh pasta for dinner, a great fun thing to entertain kids in the holidays and you have the bonus of eating it for dinner too.

I use 100g flour per person and 1 egg per 2 people, a little salt. I mix it on the bench, by making a well in the middle of the flour and then add the eggs into the middle, and stir with your fingers until mixed then knead until smooth. The kids love the notion of a mess and getting your hands sticky.

Let the ball of pasta rest for the gluten to work, then with the application of lots of flour, put the pasta through a pasta machine to roll it out. This gets fun as it gets longer and longer as it gets thinner and thinner. The kids become great sets of hands keeping the pasta off the floor....

We sliced it into fettuccine then hung it up to dry on the pasta tree

Lastly sweep and mop the floor to remove excess flour, as it tends to go all over the place.
I made a mince and tomato sauce for my sisters' family for their dinner. A nice surprise to come home from work to dinner made.

I've Been Busy.....

I know it's been awhile since I wrote but I have been busy with both my parents in and out of hospital,
I've been looking after my niece and nephew for my sister during a career change she has been undertaking and still is. It's amazing just how busy I have suddenly become looking after and caring for people.

My garden is taking off with the spring season, I will post photos soon. I have been very busy cooking and making food for us as well as others, more details will follow.

We have had a change of sport season with our son as well, Rugby gone and the cricket season has started with gusto. Harry has been playing Saturday and Sunday for the last 2 weeks and will play 2 days every weekend for the next 4. This requires a chilly bin full of delicious and healthy food to last the 8 hour day. Both Tim and I love spending the days sitting in the sun watching our boy play, but as you can imagine not a lot else gets done, so I end up playing catch up for the rest of the week.

Will post more details of some of the fun I have been up to soon.

Strawberry Pallet Garden

I made a pallet garden for my strawberries, I wasn't going to plant strawberries in this garden because they take up so much room for little reward......until I saw this idea on the web.
It took 2 and a half pallets to make it, after deconstructing 2 pallets and then remaking up the other.
I should have filled it when it was lying down in hind sight, but as per decided to bolt on and managed to make it harder than it needed to be.
Needless to say I will not be making another anytime soon.
Mission accomplished!

The end result hopefully will be nice juicy strawberries that haven't taken up half the garden. Hopefully my Labrador will not eat too many either... As they are at the perfect height for her to scoff.

I've Been In The Garden.

My time lately has been in the garden, and looking after Tim, he has had a rough time of it of late. So sorry for lack of posts.
I have been flat out clearing and making space for the fruit trees, in my new garden. I had for make the most of the planting season, so that meant pruning and digging out 30 roses, which I donated to my parents church. Removing alot of over grown conifers and scruffy plants.
I have just completed planting all the fruit trees and bushes. Of course there has been the un ending trips to garden centres and growers, and the head hurt of choosing what to grow.

I have settled on

Double grafted Apple
Flatto Nectarine
Flatto Peach
Apricot
Greengage
Cherry
Blueberries
Black Currants
Red Currants
Raspberries
Blackberry
Loganberries
Boysenberry
Asparagus

I have planted a full compliment of herbs, and the vege garden is starting to feed us. I have put in plenty of greens of all varieties.
So I will be supper busy in the coming summer seasons when all these start producing.
Roll on summer!

Tamarillo Chutney

Tamarillos are in season, and given how short the season is I always make some Tamarillo chutney. I use it in sandwiches, with cheese platters, on ploughman lunch plates and with scrambled eggs, (my favourite way of using any chutney or relish or sauce).

I added some chilli this year to the chutney just to change it up alittle. I made 4 jars of this, and probably will make some more with a different recipe. Small batches are good, that way you don't get sick of the same flavour all the time.

My Tamarillo Chutney.

1 Kg tamarillos (approx 12)
1 large apple chopped
2 onions chopped
1 1/2 C malt vinegar
1 C low GI sugar
1/4 t chilli
1 t dry mustard powder
1 glove garlic crushed
1 Ancho chilli
1 sm chiptole chilli
2 t allspice

Combine all ingredients in a large pot, stir over heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, simmer until it thickens, stirring occasionally. Pour into sterilised jars and seal. Date and store in a dark place.

Quesadillas

Quesadillas are an easy food for leftovers. Roast chicken as it was with these. For George I use Gluten Free tortillas, and wheat based ones for the rest of us. If I have time I make my own with Masa. Which is a roasted corn,  flour. That way you get corn tortillas for all, and no gluten.

I add anything that will fit in really. Chicken, chorizo, tomato, baby spinach, capsicum, red onion, chillis, refried beans,cheese. George has very little cheese in hers. Fry them in a pan and you have instant dinner, couldn't be easier or quicker, and you know what's in them. Healthy fast food with leftovers.These also make a good lunch for school too.

Ginger Crunch

Waiting for the snow to come, decided to do some baking.

For the base
2 cups nuts I used almonds and cashews
1 cup soft pitted dated
2 Tbsp water
2 tsp ginger

For the icing
3 Tbsp coconut oil
1 Tbsp agave nectar
2 tsp ginger

Process the nuts in a food processor until they are coarse but flour like. Add the dates, water and ginger and blend until it all comes together.
Press into a baking tin and bake at 160 deg C until golden. Let cool.

Gently melt all the icing ingredients together, take off heat and whisk until thick and caramel like.Spread topping over cooled base. Sprinkle with cut up crystalised ginger.

Set in fridge, cut up and eat. Keep in fridge.

Yum.

Rugby and Homemade Pizzas

The first All Black test of the season was a couple of weeks ago now, and last Saturday night after a very cold and wet afternoon standing on the sideline of my son's rugby. He plays for and captains the Christchurch Boys High School 3rd XV. They beat Christ College 2nd XV 22- 0. A great game.

We decided to have pizzas for dinner in front of the TV watching the 2nd All Black test Vs France. Which we won 32-0.

We bought the bases, I know cheating really, but it was easy. Gluten free for George, and normal for the rest of us, including extra boys that Harry always has here.

Toppings were

meat lovers, goes without saying in this house, made up of chorizo, ham, salami, precooked sausage on top of tomato sauce, capsicum, red onion. Sprinkled with alittle cheese and BBQ sauce. George can't even let up on the cheese with pizza, even though it plays merry hell with her skin.

The other pizzas all had tomato sauce, capsicum and red onion then cooked chicken, ham, and cheese. and one that I did for those who can eat cheese, cooked chicken, brie and cranberries and cheese.

Nothing quite like homemade pizzas on a cold night with the fire on and rugby to watch.

Fresh Juice

Fresh juice is an absolutely wonderful way to start a winters day. It is a great opportunity to boost the immune system without to much thought or effort. Tim doesn't have an immune system like the rest of us, so a daily dose of vitamins is very helpful for him, and it will help keep all the winter bugs at bay for the rest of us.

I use a mixture of carrot, apple, pineapple, pear, lemon and ginger. It changes everyday depending on what I have on hand each morning. My kids aren't that fond of lemon or ginger, but a little put in just gets lost in the rounding. I use whole lemon too.

My lemon tree produces these tiny hard dry lemons, so its a good use for them. Clearly the tree hasn't been fed or watered much in the past. I will change this, to start getting good fruit coming on.

This mornings juice was pineapple, carrot, pear and lemon. 4 large glasses for $3.50 and the wash up duties on the juicer. Not a bad return really, considering what the juice bars sell these for. An average of $7.50 each.

No added sugar, preservatives etc, etc.

Spicy Chickpeas.

Following yesterdays note an salads, I'm making a chilli chicken dish for dinner tonight and decided to have a warm chickpea salad and green beans with it.

I made a spice paste then added chickpeas, capsicum and baby spinach. Yum.

Here's the spice mix recipe I used,

6 cloves garlic, crushed
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
3/4 cup lemon juice
2 chillis, chopped finely
3 Tbsp finely grated ginger
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp gr cumin
2 tsp gr turmeric
2 tsp paprika
2 cinnamon quills broken
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Mix in a bowl the garlic, lemon zest and juice, chillies and ginger.

Heat oil in a frypan and fry the cumin, turmeric, paprika and cinnamon quills for about 30 secs to release the aromas, DO NOT burn.

Add the garlic and ginger mix and cook for a further 30 secs.
Remove from heat and add sugar, salt and pepper.
Allow to cool.

This is enough for several meals so put in an airtight jar and store in the fridge. It will keep for weeks.

This can be used as a rub on meat before cooking or in a vege salad dish as I did.

I used a large spoonful of this spice mix for my salad.
I also used Low GI sugar.

Winter Warming Dishes.

Well winter has hit  very suddenly, with sleet and hail last week, so it's time to break out all the winter warming dishes, beans are a must for this.

I recently made a chilli, chicken and bean casserole, which went down a treat with all,as I have had friends staying from Auckland, it was nice to have a big pot of warm food, when it was cold outside.

I also like to add hot lemon sauces to greens like broccoli or green beans, helps keep the winter bugs at bay.

Another very yummy dish is homemade baked beans. Mine always lots of chilli, a few different varieties to really get a good depth of flavour as well as spice.

I have been making the leftovers of pulled pork, or casseroles into little pies for the freezer, Harry can take these to school and heat them up for lunch. A nice warming treat for him in the middle of the day.

I'm going to try and make more salads to be served hot this winter, as I tend to only eat salads cold and in the warmer months. Watch this space, I will share as I make them.

Chilli Chicken and Bean casserole

Tomatillo Chutney and Sauce

I found some tomatillos at the local farmers market, and had a play around with a sauce and chutney. The chutney is my fav by far.

The sauce is a bit thick for my liking but very tasty all the same, could do with some tweaks.

I used Low GI sugar in the chutney, and some home grown chillies, both mine and my sister in laws too. I use an organic apple cider vinegar with the mother (cloudy) bug in it. It has more potent qualities to it.

We eat a

lot of cheese, pickles and crackers around here as sometimes this is better for Tim to eat small amounts of tasty food, rather than a meal. Particularly if we do not have children around. Also nice to have with wine of an evening with friends. I know what's in my condiments, so I feel relaxed knowing that Tim can eat them without the worry about what maybe hiding in the ingredient list.

Pop's Crab Apple Jelly.

With living in the same city as my parents, I am lucky enough to be given the crab apples off my Dad's trees.

Mum has done her time preserving fruit. I grew up on a large sheep farm and Mum spent her life cooking for farm hands, ie: shearers,  musterers, tailing gangs etc. She always had a large store room full of bottled fruit, jams, jellies, chutneys, preserved and pickled veges.

Hence I have grown up watching and helping her and Dad in the garden, orchard and kitchen. So now I get given the fruit to jelly or bottle for the family.

Dad has two varieties of crab apples, white and red. I made them into jelly. The white jelly is better with poultry, as it has a more subtle flavour. The red one is great on hot toast.

Cut up the apples into chunks, core, peel and all, just cover with water and simmer until the fruit is soft, I then mash the fruit up abit, cook until very soft, and strain through a jelly cloth or muslin. My Nanna use to use a clean pillow case for this. Do not squeeze the jelly bag as tempting as it may be.

Measure the liquid and put into a pot with Low GI sugar. I measure 1 cup shy for the sugar as I don't like jelly's too sweet. So if you have 5 cups of apple liquid add 4 cups of sugar. Then heat until sugar has dissolved,  turn up heat and boil until jelly sets. Drop a little jelly onto a saucer that has been in the freezer, and if you can pull your finger through the jelly and it stays apart then it is done. You can use sugar of your choice, I use Low GI sugar so Tim can enjoy the jelly too.

Sterilise clean jars in the oven, heat to 150 Deg C for at least 10 mins. Pour into jars and cover. Label and store in a dark place. Or as I do distribute to the family.

Mum loves that jellies just turn up now. It's nice to have fresh homemade preserves at hand, but gone are the days of feeding lots of folk on the farm, now it's teenagers that my kids bring home, and there's no shortage of them either.

High Protein Biscuits. (Cookies)

I made these with breakfast on the run or fuel before rugby training in mind.

Here's the recipe.

1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup coconut
1 cup wholemeal spelt flour
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup chia seeds
1 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp date puree
2 Tbsp coconut oil
1/4 c agave syrup
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp soy milk
1 egg
1 cup of cranberries


Mix dry ingredients together, then mix wet ingredients together, fold together. Spoon onto oven tray lined with baking paper . Bake at 180 deg C for 10 to 15 mins.

These are yummy and not to sweet.

Makes 20 biscuits.

Everything Free Breakfast Cereal.

I have made some wonderful cereal, even I do say so myself.

I made it with 3 different flours but no wheat, coconut sugar, coconut oil, oats, fruits, nuts and seeds.

I made some little nuggets, baked them til crisp, then made up the cereal part and toasted it lightly, cooled everything, added cranberries and goji berries. Mixed it all very well.

It is very high in protein, anti oxidants and omega 3.

It is Low GI, sugar free, wheat free, dairy free.

It tastes amazing and I did a costing of it and a serve worked out to be cheaper than a lot of fruit and nut muesli on the market, more expensive than plain puffed rice or flake cereals. Similar price to sugar cooked popular cereals. Without naming names.

It costs $1 per serve.

It will serve our family very well, it is filling so our son will get probably the most benefit from this aspect, as it will keep him fuller for longer.

Homemade Jerky.

Both my teenage children love jerky, and given it is protein what better snack for them to eat.

However it is very expensive to buy in packets, and contains all sorts of preservatives too.

Tim thought about and investigated how to make our own. So some time later 2 kgs of flank steak turned into 850g of jerky. We made teriyaki flavoured jerky, which included coconut sugar to keep it Low GI and it tastes amazing.

Got the seal of approval from both of the kids!

It is hard to photograph to even begin to make it look edible, but trust me it is very yummy.

It works out to be about 1/3 of the cost to make our own. We have a ceramic charcoal fueled covered cooker that we used to dry it out. At 70 deg Cel for about 6 hours.
It will keep for up to 6 months, but I think that is a joke in this house!

Market Vegetables

Today we went to the local market to buy some veges. They are at the Riccarton Race Course, here in Christchurch. The setting is very beautiful under rows of trees, and this morning was a brisk autumn morning, and a very pleasant way to start the day.

The vegetables on offer are mostly locally grown and a very wide selection is available. The market has a mix of antiques, fruit and veges, imported goods from around the world, hand crafts and local artisan delectables.
There is a wide range of food caravans and stalls too. My favourite being the Dutch donuts and coffee.

I only bought veges today, and the ones pictured below only cost me $12.50. A very good quality cheap supply of seasonal veges indeed. I worked out that if I had bought them at the local supermarket they would have cost at least $30, if not more.

We are nearing the end of lettuce, capsicum and eggplant. So it's nice to make the most of the tail of the season.

One stall owner told me that last week he ran out of lettuces and couldn't sell any leeks, but with the change in the weather in the last couple of days, the leeks were flying out the door and he had plenty of lettuces. Amazing how quickly we look to warm comforting food as the weather patterns change to the cooler.

It is important that we support our local producers.

Beef Tortillas

George and I made Masa tortillas for dinner last night. They were amazingly good. We used the Masa flour to make them, they are so easy.

2 cups Masa flour
1 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 tsp salt

Mix together to form a dough. Roll into balls. Should be tacky to touch. Roll the balls out thinly between wax paper so they don't stick to the rolling pin or bench.We made them small and got about 18 tortillas.
We fried them on a skillet on top of the gas hobs.Keep warm until you serve or reheat slightly in the microwave.

I used rump steak sliced finely, then marinated in the following mix for about 1/2 an hour or so.

4 cloves of garlic crushed
1 chilli finely sliced
1 tsp cumin
S & P
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tsp cider vinegar
1/2 tsp coconut sugar
1 Tbsp olive oil.

You could vary the spices to your taste. Stir fry steak and serve hot.

I sliced lettuce, grated carrot, diced tomato and guacamole and chilli sauce. Add whatever takes your fancy as you make your own tortillas.

These are Wheat free, dairy free and sugar free. Ideal dinner for George. Masa Tortillas are Low GI too. So a win all round for me to cook.They are very fresh and yummy.

Love This!

Posted on "The Farmacy" facebook page. I absolutely agree!

Easter baking.

We have always baked Easter buns on Good Friday in our family, and given we are back in the South Island, and have our family near by, my sister and I decided to have afternoon tea. Well it could have been morning coffee but with all the yeast to rise etc it ended up later in the day.

I made a cinnamon and sugar scroll pull apart, I made it traditionally, however next time I will have a go at changing out flours,sugars etc.It was all to hard this time around. 

The result was a very light tasty treat indeed. It certainly is a lot of fluffing around with all the time to rise at different stages. 

At least it's only once a year. My sister made traditional Hot Cross Buns.

End result was a very happy family with some traditional tasty homemade treats.

Sugar free salad dressing sweetener.

I made a yummy lentil,beetroot and kale salad yesterday for a family Easter lunch. I made a balsamic dressing, and to sweeten it slightly I used a date puree.

1 Cup of chopped dates and mixed in 1 cup of boiling water, left it to soften for about 10 mins, then pureed until smooth. The rest will keep in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

I added 2 tsp of this to the dressing, instead of the sugar that the recipe called for. It was very yummy and I know it is better for us than sugar, and it helps George out with her skin.

Dates are high GI but given such a small amount is used over a large salad, it had no effect on Tim.
We had this and many other fresh, last of the summer salads,  with herb and bacon covered  lamb leg. We cooked on the BBQ. Served with my Sister's homemade bread.

What a fabulous Easter lunch. And of course those who can eat chocolate had their fair share of Easter Eggs.

Low GI Raspberry Jam.

We are in the throws of Autumn now and I managed to buy some of the last raspberries of the season to make into jam for the winter.

I used Low GI Chelsea sugar in place of the white sugar, so that Tim can enjoy the jam too, with no side effects.

Usual jam recipes call for 50/50 ratio of fruit to sugar, however I use less sugar, my ratios were 600g raspberries to 400g Low GI sugar. We don't like jams to sweet, after all it's suppose to be about the fruit NOT the sugar.

I got 1 & 1/2 jars of jam.Yum, I can't wait to start eating it. It will be rationed over winter. Jam making when you have to buy the fruit is quite expensive, but I think the taste makes it worth while.

As we have just moved I will be flat out planting fruit trees, berries and veges this winter/spring. We only have a lemon tree on the property at the mo, so watch this space. It will be exciting to be making jam from my own fruit in seasons to come.

The Big Move South

Hello, long time since I last posted, yes I know...., but I have been very busy with our move to the South Island. We have relocated to Christchurch to be nearer family, for their support and help with Tim's ongoing health challenges.

Our daughter has finished Secondary education, so this made the timing perfect to move on, our son has changed schools, with 2 years to go, and is very happy with the change.

It is fabulous to be back in our home Island, we have bought a nice warm sunny home in a fragile city.
Christchurch is recovering from major earthquakes two years ago, the people are just amazing and it's lovely having family so close. Sadly my big beautiful "Snow" (cat) has done a disappearing act, I'm hoping this is a temporary thing.

I have picked some crab apples from my Dad's garden and will make jelly today hopefully.