right now I'm....

...pulling up baby turnips with the sun on my back....

....noticing a mammoth beetroot hiding amongst my beet patch, pulling it up also and planning to slow roast it, like this, to enjoy with red meat and a salad for dinner tonight....

....trialling new Sourdough recipes, in search of the perfect loaf. For the loaf below I used the LunchLady recipe from her 3rd magazine, it's pretty good and super easy to make - which is a bonus.

....but I think I'm almost there with this loaf here - I've increased the hydration of my normal (original) loaf from 70% to 85% and its worked a treat!

....eating a different cake E.V.E.R.Y day. Today we're enjoying Donna Hay's Lemon Pound cake from this book, and it's simply divine...

...how about you? what are you doing right now?

This Week....

I'm lucky enough to be able to eat straight from the paddock where I live and this week saw us cutting up a couple of lambs to feed our family, and friends, for the next up and coming month...

 

DH is by no means a butcher but he sure does do a great job cutting up and preparing meat for his family... 

 

Sunday in my home is 'baking' day... Every Sunday I like to fill up the cookies barrels to last us the week and this week I pulled out some old faithful recipes that always seem to please... Fairy biscuits,

 

Monte Carlos - not even the littlest member of our family can resist these... 

and chunky chocolate cakes... Yum!!!

 

This week has also seen the girls and I planting seeds, excitedly awaiting what our most productive growing season of the year has to offer... 

 

And although this little Miss was feeling under the weather today I couldn't help but take a few snaps of her in this cardigan...

 

I made it for her back at the start of Winter and can safely say that it has been a much loved addition to her Winter wardrobe... 

 

She wears it all of the time and it's the perfect shape for keeping her chest and back warm without too much 'bulk'......

 

The pattern is 'Liesl' by Ysolda and for the version that my Millie is wearing I only used 1 skein of Malabrigo Rios - I know, awesome - right!!! I made the smallest size without sleeves and used 5mm needles...

Other projects I've been working on this week include this table cloth. I'm using a gorgeous cotton/wool blend, now to sew in all 176 ends - WOW!!!!

 

And with my eldest girl turning 7 in only a couple of weeks I've also been hooking away at a ripple blanket for her...  I love this pattern!!! For this version I'm using Cascade Pacific 12ply (acrylic/superwash blend) and a 6mm hook...

And because everybody needs to have a little fun every now and then, last weekend saw us attend the Louth Picnic Races... I can't believe the only picture I took for the whole day was of the fashions on the field...

What have you been up to this week???

Making Me Smile...

This week, with 3 kids under foot,I pulled on my boots and headed out to the shed for just a little while... DH has been collecting limbs from trees scattered over our farm for a good few months now and it felt so good to finally set to work making some rustic wooden buttons with them... I used semi green timber for this lot, 

 

and dry old aged timber for this lot...

 

I have about 60 buttons made so far and haven't even put a dint in my pile of sticks. I'm hoping to take them with me to an up and coming local market day in the park. I'm super excited and nervous all at the same time as this will be my first market day since closing my Shop over a month ago...

It's hard to describe in just words how I feel when I'm out in the fresh air watching my family..

My girls very rarely complain about the numerous jobs we set out to do on the farm and around our home each and every day, and 9 times out of 10 they do it with beautiful smiles on their faces...
 

Even the littlest member of our family loves to get out amongst it too...

 

Lately, whenever a moment is spare, my eldest girl has taken to making these...

Little fairy gardens for all the little itty bitty people out there that just might need them, and I love it!!! They're scattered all over our farm and often visited... ;)

Something that I get a lot of pleasure from, daily, is home-made bread... I've been making bread for my family for quite a few years now and hardly think twice about the process - it's part of my morning routine before we start school and and one of the last things I do at night before turning off the kitchen light. If its missed then we go without bread come lunch time. I like to prove my dough over night which makes the baking process come morning that whole lot easier...

We are big bread eaters in my home and I've now learnt to make just the right size dough to feed my family for a day, be it with rolls or in loaf form - I don't decide that til morning, today we're having rolls...

What's something that you do daily that makes you smile? Is it bread baking, getting your hands dirty in the garden, the smell of freshly cleaned clothes as you fold them from the line - I'd love to know... :)

Home Baked Bread....

As the days start to warm up I am frequently reminded of why I love this time of year so much!!!!

The garden is bursting at the seams with new life, little baby lambs dot my paddocks and the festive season count down has begun.... But most of all I love this time of year because of this........

For just over a week, during the cold days of Winter, DH works round the clock planting our crops. We then patiently wait for the days to become longer and the Sun to shine stronger, just so our red dirt paddock's can be transformed into luscious green wheat fields hopefully bringing with it precious income for the farm.....

Yesterday while on the hunt for Quangdong Trees we spotted our first hatching's of locust. Ever so mindful of the devastation these pests can bring we now have another side of mother nature to contend with... So with this weighing heavy on our minds we cross our fingers and hope for the best...

On another 'wheat' related subject, I'd so love to oneday be able to mill my own wheat into flour.... Nothing makes me feel more at home than the smell of freshly baking bread coming from the kitchen...

After my bread machine 'blew-up' just over 10 months ago I've been making bread by hand.... It took a little while to tweak a recipe that was just right for me and my family but now that I have it's a staple with fresh bread baked daily....

Have you ever done it before????? It's so rewarding turning a lump of dough like this.....

Into something as deliciously tasting as this.....
And no word of a lie, if you have a lovely Sunny spot on your bench top you can have oven fresh bread like this in less than 1 1/2 hours.... Believe me, it's true!!!

So if you'd like me to do a little tutorial of how I make my bread just share your interest in my comments and I'll pop it up in a post... :)

Great News on the Stove Front.....

After lots and lots of searching on the internet this week (what would we do without it???) I finally found a lovely older gentleman named Charles who is more than willing to help me out with my wood stove... He repairs them for a living/hobby and is just as passionate about them as I am...

(this pic is from Charles' website. The first one in the pic is the same model as mine.)

He thinks that my old girl is in great condition and that I'll have no problems making it look like new again. All I need is a bit of elbow grease and a few parts. He even told me that the hot water system in the back of it still works and that I can hook it up to use in my house when I put the stove in. He also said that he's more than willing to show me how to do all of this and at no cost....

How lucky am I????? You see the first man I rang told me that it would cost me at least $3500 to rebuild my stove and that wasn't including the re-enameling, that was an extra $2000..... :(

I was very disheartened and thought that this wonderful old appliance was going to have to retire to the garden and be used as a pizza oven (which is still a pretty darn good idea if you ask me, I just need to find another one for $5 now so I can do that too... LOL) This man than tried to sell me a NEW Rayburn for $10,000, was he trying to take me for a ride??? I'm still unsure......

Thank goodness I found Charles!!!! He's been so helpful and his advice has been priceless... He's not trying to flog his products to me and is even telling me to buy certain things like the new flu, paint and cleaner from a cheaper place like Bunnings, now that's one genuine guy....

He has told me that I can get my wood stove looking brand new for under $300. I was willing to spend $1000 so you've gotta be pleased with that!!!!! I can spend that spare $700 on some new bake-ware now.... :)

Speaking of ovens, I baked that tuna-loaf that I was talking about back here (the recipe is over here) and OMG it was delicious!!!!! What we didn't eat for dinner that night we had cold with some salad wrapped up in flat bread that next day for lunch...Once again a big thank-you to all of the wonderful comments I got in the last post and the oven advice was awesome.... Until next time, take care... :)

With all of this cold, no FREEZING, weather that we've been having over the past week I got the urge to ferret through my over flowing wool stash...

I decided to crochet a ripple style scarf for my little princess. It was super easy, no pattern required, and only took 2 nights curled up in front of the fire watching or should I say listening to the TV.... If you love to crochet and would like a copy of my instructions just leave me a comment saying so and I'll pop them up in my next post.

The little princess is wearing her new scarf today and just loves it... I have another style floating around in my head that I just might have to get started on tonight so stay tuned for that one... :)

On the lamb front, this FREEZING weather sure is knocking the little one's and their Mum's around. A few more were rescued and added to the 'sick pen' over the weekend. The little princess is doing a top job feeding this lamb and heaven forbid if it ever decides to step a foot out of line.... She's quick to start rousing if it does, don't you worry.... And then it's back to being a good little lamb again, just like it's supposed to..... LOL!!!
I found a couple of recipes that I'm dying to give a try over the weekend.... The first is for a orange (or lemon) and poppy seed cake and the second is for a tuna-loaf, kinda like meatloaf but with tuna... YUMMO!!! Are you trying any new recipe's over the next couple of days??? I'd love to hear about them if you are...

Have a great weekend and Take Care.... :)

Traditions....

One of the traditions we started when my little princess was born was 'EATING PANCAKES' for Shrove Tuesday. Last year we ate pancakes for breaky and this year we went the whole hog and decided to eat them for our main meal at dinner....DH loves jam and cream on his where as little princess and I love maple syrup and cream.... What's your favourite pancake topping??? What traditions do you share with your family?? I'd love to hear all about them... ;)

Good Home Cookin'.....

Yum, Yum, Yum! Last night I made chicken, ham and mushroom pies. They were so simple yet so delicious! Here's how I made them.....

300g chicken thighs diced

200g ham diced

1/2 cup of cup mushrooms diced

1 onion

1 clove garlic crushed

1/4 cup of cream

1/2 cup of grated cheese (any is fine)

1 teaspoon chicken salt

1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley

salt and pepper to taste

puff pastry

Saute onions and garlic, add ham. Cook for 5 mins or until ham is slightly browned. Add chicken, cook for approx 10mins. Add cream, cheese, chicken salt, parsley, salt and pepper. Cook for a further 10mins. Cut pastry and mould it to pie tins, spoon approx 1/3 cup of mixture into each pie tin, place another piece of pastry on top and press down edges to seal, brush top of pie with an egg wash. Bake in the oven at 200'C for 20 mins or until pies are golden.

Then to top it off... for dessert I made some little mini lemingtons. I made these yesterday afternoon after work. This morning I dropped some off to my hubby and his work mates for morning tea, they thought that all of their Xmas's' had come at once.

Today's 'Get Happy Now' Tip #10 - Lay the groundwork for some future fun. Order a book you’ve been wanting to read, or plan a weekend away, whatever sounds like fun. Try to involve friends or family, as well. People enjoy almost all activities more when they’re with other people than when they’re alone.

Oh What a Day....

I have been absolutely flat out today! My nephews party was great fun. He really loved his train cake, and so did everyone else. Boy does it take some time to decorate a cake like that, I'm lucky that I baked the cakes last night, it took me 2.5 hours to decorate it this morning.

I ended up crocheting him a couple of finger puppets last night to go with his present. When he opened the apple one and I showed him how the worm worked, (you put your finger through the bottom of the apple and the worm pokes out), he nearly cried.... Not quite the reaction I was hoping for, but I'm sure that they'll grow on him, they're so cute.


Why is it so much easier to be down on ourselves than to celebrate the good stuff? I have decided that every day for the next 30 days I am going to list 1 tip a day on how to be a happier you!!!!

Todays tip is #1 - If you feel like chocolate, buy the best you can afford and share it with someone... Savour every mouthful...

It's Party Time

This Sunday is my little nephews 2nd birthday party... I have offered to bake the birthday cake. The theme of the party is Thomas the Tank Engine so this is the recipe that I have decided to make. I'll change the colour of the front carriage to blue, that way it will look just like Thomas, I hope. I'll post a picture of the finished cake and the recipe on Saturday before the party...