Cooking Cousins on Mother's Day

I could hear rattling
I could smell cooking
I could hear the table being set
There was a a whole lot of giggling...
The girls were up to something

Eliza and her cousin Zoe decided to create a special breakfast for Mother's Day
ALL BY THEMSELVES!!
Talk about impressive.
They cut stars out of bread and toasted it

They whipped up scrambled eggs with fresh herbs, then freshly squeezed some orange juice.

The table was set with picnic plates, becaue 'they're more colourful for celebrating'.

.

There were lovely handmade gifts for my sister and I ...

A very special mother's day

Thank you girls xxxx

Once Apron A Time ...

I loved taking part in the pincushion swap and have signed up for another swap.
This time I'll be making an apron.
Sarah at Red Gingham has taken on the huge task of organising the swap. (Thanks Sarah!!)

It's an exercise in crafty logistics with names and addresses being swapped, emails flying across the world and swap partners dropping by blogs to introduce themselves.
My apron swap partner is Jenny who lives at Winnibriggs House in the UK. Jenny told me she's a fan of shabby chic and Cath Kidston.
As we say in Australia, no worries Jenny!
I hear you ... and what's not to love about gorgeous pastels and spring florals, spots and stripes .























I'm looking for some lovely fabric to create something special. My sewing skills are pretty basic ... but you can be sure I'll pour my heart into this project.
What fun.
And there's nothing like a deadline to get the creative juices flowing.
Drop by again to see my progress.

Pumpkin Patch

What's the collective noun for pumpkins ?

One word comes to mind .... but I don't think I should type it here.
Eliza has a 'swear jar' and I'm already in debt to the tune of $11.20.
So you get the picture .... we have a heap of pumpkins - actually a mountain of pumpkins that our tiny inner city back garden has produced. We harvested them yesterday.

We picked 15 pumpkins altogether and they're huge.
We've given a couple away already but if anyone has some inspiring ideas for pumpkins .... let me know.

We have a s***load of them!

In Rushed Autumn

It's been so long coming and then this morning it came in a rush.

Autumn is finally here.

The poor trees are so confused. We're almost at the end of April and one day last week hit 31 degrees.

We had rain overnight so this morning the garden was lovely and drippy. The leaf litter formed a golden carpet (look closely and you'll see the sheep poo we tossed on the garden last weekend).

The white crepe myrtles we planted last year are giving some lovely colour in the front garden.

So the season has changed as the year hurtles on.

Autumn is here and I'm into my cook books looking for inspiration for quinces, apples, pears and chestnuts. I'll also need to find some exciting things to do with pumpkin .... but more on that later.

Swap-a-rama

A huge thank you to Beck at Dandeloin for my pin cushion which arrived this week.
While I didn't get the initial thrill of opening the parcel (see the previous post) I was thrilled to add this gorgeous heart to my sewing box.

















Turn it over and lookie see!
Isn't her label great?


















As well as the pin cushion there were matching pins and a little red thimble.
Thanks Beck. I love it.

















And a huge thank you to Kate at Fox's Lane for organising the Pin Cushion Swap. It's created lots of excitement in blog land with pin cushions criss-crossing the country in the name of crafty goodness.
It's been lovely to be part of it and Beck, your pincushion will be put to good use.

I'm already gearing up for the next projecct.
Watch this space as I take on my next crafty swap.

You've got mail

" Mummy .... some special mail has arrived for you!"
I got the phone call at work this afternoon. Little Miss Pink was so excited she just had to call.
"It's your pincushion. It's arrived."

How do you know it's my pin cushion?

"I opened it!"

I love getting mail and I love parcels even more. So does my daughter. Obviously.

My pin cushion has indeed arrived - part of the pin cushion swap, organised by Kate at Fox's Lane. It was too dark and too late to photograph, it but it's a gorgeous heart shape, which I love. I'll post some pics as soon as I can.

In the meantime, my pin cushion has found a new home at 2 Pink Possum Lane where I'm sure it will be well loved.

heart to heart

This paperclip fell out of my sister's handbag the night before her wedding.

Just like this.

Perfect.

Wedding Belles

A collage of snaps which capture my sister's Easter Sunday wedding.

What a special day it was.

Homemade Pasta

I've always wanted to make my own pasta and today was the day.

• Bakers flour - check
• eggs - check
• recipe - check
• pasta machine - check (given to me a couple of years ago and never used)
• and most importantly TIME - check

I made a basic dough using flour and eggs, kneaded it for 5 mins and let it rest for half an hour.
The pasta machine was fun to use. And aside from the handle of the machine dropping on my toe, it was relatively easy going.
The sheets of pasta it produces are silky smooth.



















My niece Zoe was a my helper.
She reckons this pasta sheet looks like a big smiley mouth.
She's right.



















Once the dough is passed through the machine about 12 times ... we fed it through the cutter to make tagliatelle.



















We spread the freshly made pasta on a tea towel to dry.

Tonight, I'm making a chicken and mushroom sauce with fresh thyme from our garden to go with the pasta.

Can't wait to taste it !

Easter Goodness

I love Easter ...
It's usually cooler (although this year has been the exception with the temp hitting 27 degrees).
Four days break is very welcome after a fast start to the year.
It's a time to refresh and enjoy the family.
Traditionally I decorate the table and make hot cross buns ...



















I managed to adorn the table, and the girls made Easter cards and special nests in the garden for the Easter Bunny .... but there was no baking this year.

My gorgeous sister got married on Easter Sunday ... so there was lots going on in the house and no time for Easter buns.
I'll post some pics of her special day, once we've caught our breath.

Pin Cushion Swap - Part 2

My pin cushion for the great Pin Cushion Swap is complete!
I raided my stash for supplies and surprising whipped this up after dinner one evening last week - which is a very good thing because my time for craft is limited at the moment.















The fabric looks like it's covered in hundreds and thousands which means the pin cushion looks like a special cake or iced donut. Sweet.















I confess I'm quite nervous about sending this little treasure to it's new owner. I've been over to check out her blog and let's just say she's a very accomplished crafter.
But I loved making this pin cushion and already have plans for more.
Anything that I can create in one evening, after dinner, with a glass of wine (or cup of tea) beside me, gets a big tick.

Thanks to Kate for organising the inaugural pin cushion swap. Great idea!

You've got me crafting again.

Pin Cushion Swap

I've found a wee project that will force me to extract the digit and actually do some stitching.

The project is not too daunting ... and should be rather fun.

I've joined a whole group of crafty types for a pin cushion swap dreamed up by Kate, over at Fox's Lane.

A lovely idea .... but I fear Kate might be trampled in the rush.

Seems that truckload of folk have jumped at the chance of making a pincushion .... and then swapping it with someone else. Kate is coordinating logistics between all the swappers and swappees. Phew, that's some spreadsheet she's going to need. If you like the idea, you have until Monday to sign up.

I'll be delving into my stash to find fabric and perhaps a vintage button or two, but I need to see who my swap buddy is going to be and perhaps check out their blog to see just what they'd like.

Thanks for a great idea Kate!

Update

I whipped up my pin cushion last night. As soon as I get a moment I'll take a pic and post it on my blog.

It was a lovely project, started and completed after dinner. Quick and easy and fun - gotta love that! I've very happy with the result. I'll wrap it in some pretty paper and then it will snail mail its way to its new owner.

Come back soon to see what I made.

Saucey Sunday

The Labour Day long weekend is traditionally a time for sauce making.
So it was all hands on deck as we prepared for the annual ritual.
We bought our tomatoes at the Queen Vic Market from John at Tomato City.
He looked after us with some fine flavoursome tomatoes.














Making passata is really very easy.
Roughly chop the tomatoes - no need to plunge them into boiling water to get rid of their skins ... just throw them in the pot - skins and seeds and all - let them cook down slowly. This takes about an hour. I don't add any herbs or other flavouring at this point. I like to bottle the pure tomato flavour, then add garlic, onions, cloves and herbs when I use the bottle of sauce for specific recipes.














While the tomatoes are cooking ... sterilise the bottles and lids.
We do ours in the dishwasher, but you can also wash them in hot soapy water and then dry them in a slow oven while you boil up the lids on the stove.
While all this is happening - open a bottle of wine, or put on a pot of coffee and sample the platter of fresh figs, ashed goat's cheese and prosciutto ....



















When the sauce is cooked down - let it cool a little then ladle it into the mouli and hand grind the mixture. Then the magic happens - the seeds and skin are separated and you're left with pure tomato passata.

Ladle into the hot bottles and add a basil leaf or two.



















Then cap .... and place the bottles in a water bath - in a Fowler's Vacola or a large saucepan on the stove. Cover the bottles with water and bring to the boil. Then boil for an hour.
This preserves the tomatoes and the process forms a vacuum, allowing the passata to be stored for years.

My bottles are bubbling away as I write.

I also made meatballs earlier this afternoon and cooked them in the freshly made sauce and served them on a on a mound of spaghetti for dinner. Some shaved parmesan added the finishing touch.

UPDATE

The bottles are cooling on the kitchen bench - beautifully sealed.

Into the pantry they go - ready to be added to recipes across the year.

Cherry ice cream

I've made cherry ice cream
HOME MADE cherry ice cream
With half yoghurt and half cream and morello cherries we picked at Ellisfield farm.

Using my ice cream maker I combined the slurry of cherries with the cream and yoghurt and churned for 20 mins
.




















Then into a container and into the freezer for a couple of hours.
The hot pink colour was amazing.

We served the ice cream in white bowls topped with Persian fairy floss.

What can I say ...
We gobbled the lot without taking a pic!
Sorry!
(it was yum)