Sunday Lovelies

Another week down, a big week indeed. Here's what was most lovely:

1) Our school is within walking/scooting distance. Hooray!

2) Morning sunshine in the garden.

3) Late afternoon picnic right before the storm.

4) Sneak peek at a new colour (I'll be updating the shop in the next few days).

5) Grow, babies, grow. My home-grown bruschetta's last hope...

6) Tiny pastry chefs.

Wishing everyone a lovely week x

Kitchen Garden

Today we were gifted a bag of fresh broad beans. And a head of perfect new garlic. And the silver beet in our own garden was getting a bit out of hand. And a certain young lady thought it was high time we picked the snow peas that had suddenly appeared on our vines and were, even more suddenly, enormous.

I blanched the shelled broad beans, then cooled them and removed their little pale green jackets. The snow peas went in for a quick blanch. Then I fried off a little of the garlic and some chopped anchovies in their oil, and threw the beans and snow peas back in for a final hurrah. Meanwhile, I cooked off a huge bunch of the silverbeet and chopped it finely, then kneaded it into a dough of flour, yoghurt and baking powder. I rolled out balls of dough and slashed them, then threw them on a hot grill plate to cook. 

Smashed garlic and anchovy beans and peas on green flatbread. We ate it before I could take a photo.

I do have these photos of some hummus I made on the weekend. Roasted pumpkin and coriander hummus. I blitzed a drained tin of chickpeas with some roasted pumpkin, a crushed clove of garlic, a tablespoon of tahini, some ground cumin and fresh coriander. I added a thin drizzle of olive oil and some lemon juice. We've been eating it with Lebanese bread doused in olive oil, salt and cumin, baked until crispy.

Oh, how I do love to eat.

PS Did you see Eulalie in her Typically Red pixie hat? How gorgeous is she!

It Came True!

A bit over a year ago I wrote this post, back when we lived in Sydney. Quick, go and have a look and come back. I have something to show you.

My sprawling country garden has a grand magnolia as its centrepiece...

..some lovely fruit trees that did indeed burst into flower as soon as winter let her guard down...

..and great swathes of unruly jasmine that, although they have flowered much later than in Sydney, are currently filling the air with the scent of my childhood.

And, yes, another magnolia for good measure.

Our Spring Garden

It's our first spring here in this house, in this village in the country. From the blossoming fruit trees right down to the weeds, she's putting on a mighty fine show.

In the Garden: Tomatoes

So many of the delights of parenthood come from watching your little ones master new skills. Rolling over, sitting up, those first beautiful, tentative steps. As much as you may want to hang onto that squishy little possum they handed you on day one, seeing them mould and shape into real live humans with real live human superpowers, well, that's the stuff of life, yes?

Except when the newly acquired skill is the ability to hoist and shimmy out of one's cot, accompanied by growing - a) tall enough to reach the door handle or b) smart enough to find a piece of furniture to stand on to reach the door handle.

And all of a sudden, what was once a family who slept in till a reasonable hour, usually 7:30, often later, is now a family rising, en masse, when there's a 6 on the clock. And we are a grumpy bunch. 

So what to do with revolting children, and a revolting mother, when the afternoon slump hits with full force? Gardening. We tried this little trick a couple of years ago, and while our seedlings were a great success, we were a bit lax on the follow-through and none of them made it into the garden. This year will be different.

To make the seedling pots, take a square of newspaper a bit wider than a plastic cup and roll it over the cup, tucking it up against the base firmly. Tie with a piece of string or kitchen twine (or cheat like I did last time and use sticky tape). Remove the plastic cup and repeat until you have as many as you need. Nestle them all together in a tray or box, then half fill with seed raising mix. Sprinkle in a seed or two (or 17), top up with a bit more soil, then water well.

If all goes to plan, once the seedlings are established, you can pop them, newspaper pot and all, straight into the garden. I'll keep you posted on our progress. We chose cherry tomato seeds because I have it on good authority that there isn't enough sun in an average summer around these parts for the bigger varieties. We planted some basil seeds as well. I'm dreaming of summer pesto. Tomato salad. Homemade mozzarella. Some sleep. And the sometimes delightful, almost always well-rested children who used to live here.

Work, Play, Rest

:: work ::

:: play ::

:: zzzzzz ::

Sunday Lovelies

A week's worth of lovely:

1) Back-step Lego

2) Herbs ready for planting

3) Charlotte's web (at sunset)

4) Three in a box, and some biffo to boot

5) Agapanthus in bloom

6) Flying plastic contraptions = hours of entertainment

7) Home-baked tomato, parmesan and basil flatbread, via this.

How was your weekend?

Magnolia

May my future sprawling country garden have a grand magnolia as its centrepiece...

..countless fruit trees that burst into flower the minute winter lets her guard down...

..and great swathes of unruly jasmine to fill the air with the scent of my childhood for a few weeks a year.

Oh, and maybe another magnolia for good measure...

Winter Harvest

I said to the Garbageman, "If you're serious about getting out of the city and living the rural life, prove it - grow some vegies." So he did. He and Lola planted spring onions, broccoli, carrots and Tuscan cabbage (cavolo nero for the fancypantsies).

Brave folk, planting their first garden as winter approached. 

Brave but successful. Yesterday they harvested the cabbage. Two whole plants worth. It looked like a fine bunch of leaves. "Two's enough," I said.

I blanched it, then sauteed it quickly in olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Simple, delicious fare. Of course, those two hearty bunches quickly wilted to a very small pile of greens on the plate.

Luckily there was some roast pork with crackling, rosemary potatoes and creamy cauliflower to go with it.