Savoury Muffins

The baking is just flowing this week.... Here is a recipe I used to create my muffins.. You can replace the cheeses and olives with whatever you like...

Ingredients
2 cups self raising flour
125g melted butter
1 egg lightly beaten
1 cup of milk (I added a fractions bit more)
Half a cup of shredded cheese
Half a cup of feta
3 tbsp of diced olives

Directions
1. Pre-heat oven to 180 deg cel.
2. Add self raising flower to bowl. Make a well in the centre and add wet ingredients. Mix all ingredients together until smooth (you may need to add a smidge more milk).
3. Once smooth add cheese, feta and olive and stir in with a wooden spoon but do not over mix.
4. Bake in oven for 15 - 20 mins or until cooked and golden brown.

Bread Making

I forgot how great fresh bread and rolls are, this week I have been testing out making bread rolls. I have really worked out my bread machine which unfortunately is slowly dying after 6 years of use. I would love to be able to say I stood there for 10 minutes and kneaded the dough but with time lacking I use the dough setting on the machine.

Bread Rolls

1 1/4 cups of water
1 tbsp skimmed milk powder
2 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 1/4 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp strong dry yeast
Extra melted butter to brush rolls

If you use your bread machine put the ingrediants listed above in order then use your dough setting.

Hands on instructions

1. Activate the yeast by adding the yeast, sugar and some of the water (should take about 10mins)
2. Add all your dry ingredients.
3. Once all dry ingredients are in add the activated yeast and the remaining water
4. With all the ingredients together mix together with a spoon until it you need to hand mix it, then start bringing the ingredients together with your hands. If your dough doesn't come together enough and flour is still remaining in the bowl keep hand mixing.
5. You want to hand mix the ingredients until they form a ball
6. Lightly flour a board or your bench and put dough on and start needing for atleast 10 mins
7. Once kneeded form dough into a ball and place in a lightly greesed bowl and cover with cling wrap or a moistened tea towel.
8. Once dough is doubled in size it is ready for the next part
9. You will now need to deflate the dough by punching it in the middle
10. Sprinkly some flour on your board or bench and start kneeding the dough again for about 2 minutes

Now follow instructions below

1. Divide into 12 equal portions (I made bigger rolls so only made 8)
2. Shape all into a ball
3. Place onto a well greased baking tray
4. Brush lightly with melted butter
5. Let stand covered for 20 - 25 minutes or until doubled in size
6. Bake in oven at 190 deg cel 15 - 20 minutes

What happened After the Calm After the Storm

Unfortunately the vegie garden hasn't come back after the storms. All the zucchini's were pulled out over the week, the tomatoes are still left in the pots in hope that they may revive themselves and start producing...

We pulled out one of our potato plants this week and this is the crop we got from one potato not sure how we managed to get 2 varieties from one spud but I'm not complaining.

Our first cucumbers are starting to grow... Am getting rather excited... It's the first year we have tried to grow them..


Have had a rather busy weekend.... I've put together a list of things that need sorting out before Christmas or should I say before everyone comes to stay at our place!!! One thing on my list that I have put off since we moved in here 18 months ago was to clear out my clothes and sort out the WIR... Well today I finally did it!!!!

This week I've got my bread maker out of the cupboard and have been making bread, so far 3 loaves have turned out rather icky we couldn't work out what it was so today I bought a new bag of bakers flour and a different brand and today's bread is perfect just like how it should be.... Not sure what is up with the other brand of flour but it just didn't make a good loaf of bread...

During the week I also made my first home made fitted nappy... I have quite a number of friends currently pregnant and due in the first half of next year so I thought I would turn my hand to making cloth nappies for them. I used nappy flannel and have asked my neighbour if I made a couple a bigger size if they could try them out on there 9 month old... So crossing fingers they are going to work...

The Calm after the Storm

Hubby and I finally got some time spent in the garden on Sunday. We are going with the leave it and see what happens method, hopefully it will re-strengthen itself. The capsicums needed tying up to a stake to help them re-establish. I pulled off the bruised fruit from the tomato bushes & zucchini's, the silverbeet and lettuces were too far gone and to add insult to injury we have a plague of catterpillers now and the lady bug looking things seem to be feasting on just about everything!!!
I gave everything a good fertilise and a spray with white oil so hopefully that will help in the gardens recovery. Will update with some pics over the weekend..

The Storms

Well the storms on Sunday night have trashed the vegie garden.... So not happy jan....

It looks like I can probably salvage about 20% of the tomato plants, the silverbeet and lettuces look like a whiper snipper has come through so nothing salvagable there, once I chop off the bruised fruit from the peppers I think they will come back to life. Every single zucchini on the 6 plants has now been chopped off, I even hacked some of the leaves and stalks off hopefully they will come back to life...

Hubby and I have to go down the Gold Coast this weekend and the garden needs some serious time spent on it to salvage what is left... Hopefully we can get back early Sunday and sort some of it out....

Time Well Spent

Hubby and I spent about 4 hours in the vegie garden today. It's amazing how quickly everything grows especially the weeds. We put up some meshing along the fence today for the tomatoes to grow up, pulled out the what felt like 1 million weeds and remulched around the fruit trees to help try and retain some water. It certainly needed a good few hours work on it, there was tomato plant pots everywhere it was crazy...

Garden Update

Well these pics were taken on the 14.09.08 I can't believe how quickly the garden grows. I will update some pics next weekend. We have been harvesting pak choy and quit a fair bit of rocket.

I have a pot of mint growing which will be great for those summer drinks. When I was in Belgium a few years ago they make an amazing drink with rum and mint, so I'm hoping to replicate this drink over the summer.

My poor avocado tree is looking a bit limp, not sure what is wrong with it. My mango tree is looking a tad sad as well. Not sure if its too much water not enough water... who knows.


This weekend I finished a top I started making last weekend. I was rather impressed it turned out far better than I thought it would. I haven't done any sewing for about 14 years so for my first effort in a long time I am rather proud.

Seeds Seeds and more Seeds

Well I decided to plant seeds direct into the raised garden beds as it seems whatever it is I'm doing with the seeds in the mini greenhouse clearly isn't working.

So this afternoon I planted:

yellow zucchini
celery
cos lettuce
radiccio
mixed lettuce

The plan for tomorrow is to plant some tomato seeds into a few pots and leave them outside...

What is happening????

Not sure what is happening but none of my seeds at all are coming up in my green house. I have tried seedling potting mix and soil from the garden beds. Everything planted in the garden beds has come up so I think I will plant straight into the garden.

ARRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally Growing

Well I decided to start again with everything that was in the green house. I don't know what happened but nothing wanted to germinate. I used the soil from the newly filled garden beds to plant the seeds this time since everything planted in the garden bed came up. I did plant some more seeds in the second garden bed so hopefully they will come up.

I thought I had better update some piccies so here goes:

Hmmm

Since planting the seeds the other week the 2 types of carrots and spring onions seem to be the only things that have come up.

I did put some more seeds in last weekend as well. I've put them in the small greenhouse thing so hopefully they are all just slow starters.

Will update with some pics during the week.

Yoghurt Making

I got rather excited when I found how to make yoghurt. Why would you bother, isn't it easier to just go to the shops some people might say but at the end of the day everything isn't always about money but it does help. It's the satisfaction of making something from scratch and saving some money is always a bonus.

My first attempt was not very successful I might add. I bought some low fat milk from the supermarket and thought wow how simple is this. Well the milk from the supermarket has been, homoginised, pasturised, basterdised and waterised, is it a suprise that it didn't work. Well not really.

So off I set to ALDI and bought some powdered milk (skim & full fat). I set about making some yoghurt with the full fat first just to check it really did work and WOW it sure did.

I was so excited I had to phone my mum and tell her I know how to make yoghurt now!!!! My mum was chuffed she said I could make her yoghurt now and save her a fortune. My mum eats her yoghurt everyday for breakie and goes through about 1-2 kilo's a week.

We went down to the Gold Coast on the weekend and I packed the majority of yoghurt I made and took down for her. I now have to send her the recipe to make the yoghurt with skim milk powder of course (and I did test the skim milk powder).

I think some of the people I work with and my friends think I'm crazy doing all this stuff but hey who really is laughing, me of course... I think this simple living definitely has its advantages....

I will post the recipe here adjusted of course to the skim milk powder..
I make the yoghurt after I have used the oven for dinner as you need a warm oven to put your saucepan in.

Ingredients:
Skim Milk Powder
Natural Yoghurt

I bought the ALDI's skim milk powder. I put 2.5 cups of skim milk powder to 1 litre of water in a saucepan. I heated the milk up to just before boiling, where you see the bubbles appearing around the edge of the saucepan. Then take it off the heat and allow to cool til it's about lukewarm temp. I then put 3 generous tablespoons of natural yoghurt into the milk and whisk it up with a hand whisk. I put the lid on the saucepan and put it into the warm oven that I used to cook dinner (you don't need the oven on to make the yoghurt). Remember not to open the oven door until the next morning.
When you make more batches of yoghurt just use some of the stuff you made before!!!!

The Garden Beds

Well hubby has nearly completed the last 2 garden beds, he just needs to buy one more piece of wood to finish the corner bit.

Here is a pic of the garden beds:

I decided to put the old green house over the top of the garden bed to keep it a bit warm as we are having a slight cold snap thought it might keep the seeds nice and warm :)

Here is a piccie of the comfrey garden bed:

I found the cutest kids wheel barrow in Bunnings on the weekend and am going to turn it into a mini herb garden...
Well we are away this weekend down the Gold Coast so I won't get to fill the garden beds with soil until next weekend maybe who knows.....

Well the weekend was a little bit of a success. Hubby bought the rest of the wood for the remaining raised garden beds. He also put another one together. His mission this week is to finish the final raised bed. Not sure when I will get the soil to fill it though.

I planted some seeds this weekend as well as 5 comfrey plants (they were such a mission to find too). I bought a new mini green house far better than the other one that didn't have any shelving.
Spring Onion
Cos Lettuce
Roma Tomatoes
2 types of beans
2 types of baby carrots
Cauliflower
Brocoli

Am looking forward to seeing the progress, hopefully now I've done some research I'll yeild a better crop.

Will update some piccies if I can during the week.

The Start of Things to come.....

Well it took most of the day yesterday to organise the new garden beds and setup the worm farm. I just need to find a nice shady spot for a worm farm. DH suggested putting it in the drain pit at the back of the garden, which I think we might as it is the shadiest part of the garden.

I have the greatest hubby he designed a system to collect all the washing machine water so we can use it during the week to water the lawns and plants. It has taps to turn of when the tanks are full. I must say the washing machine water saved our garden last summer.



DH has finished 2 of the raised garden beds, he still has 2 more to go...

I have plenty of work to do during the week to figure out what to start planting. I have a mini greenhouse to start the seeds off. Was thinking to start of with some summer salad veg....

The Start of a New Life....

Darling husband and I moved into our new home last July and didn't know what to do with the space at the back of house. Smart me said lets grow some vegies, so off we went and planted whatever to see what would grow. Most of what we planted grew but not as successfully as we thought.

After several websites later and going to the QLD Home Garden Expo later I think I have semi figured out what we were doing wrong and what need to do.

Tomorrow is the start of a new day, re-use, recycle and reduce.

I have gone out and bought a Can'O'Worms and am starting my worm farm tomorrow..... I am somewhat rather excited and have been sharing it with everyone lol some people just laugh and some are excited with me. I am hoping I may start other people off on a similar path to me.

Last year we planted a couple of fruit trees a lemon and orange. I'm pleased to say the lemon tree has 3 lemons on it but unfortunately the orange tree got citrus bug and half the leaves are missing. This year I have bought a lime, mandarine, dwarf mango and dwarf avocado. I can't wait til they are all fruiting as well.

Tomorrow I will let you know how my worm farm starts off and some piccies of my part finished vegie garden beds.

x