tuesday treat

Here's another yummy slice recipe for you.


This one I remember my Mum always made at Christmas.  Dad loved ginger, this was one of his favourites.  I don't like ginger as a rule, but love this slice.


Another no bake one.

CHOCOLATE GINGER SLICE


1 cup chopped dates
65g preserved ginger, finely chopped
125g butter (not margarine)
1/3 cup sugar
3 cups cornflakes
1 small block chocolate


Melt butter, sugar, dates and finely chopped ginger in a saucepan; keep stirring until well mixed and mushy.  Stir in cornflakes and spread in a 17 x 27cm greased tin.  Melt chocolate in double saucepan and spread over mixture.


Put in fridge and when slice is hard, cut into small squares.  Store in the fridge.




Mmmm, yummy!


Have a great day :)

awol and far too busy

I'm not quite sure what I've been doing with myself over the last couple of weeks, it seems to have gotten away from me rather rapidly....that and I decided not to turn my computer on for a week....


Lets see .....  


DS16 is home from Germany, now its feels like he never left, 

DS4 and I made special cookies that he got for Christmas,

They never turn out quite like the picture do they .... we had fun though!

We found some fig trees on the side of the road, had a 'picking session' and made jam,

Do you see that red splash right in the middle of the photo .... that's DH climbing the tree!

Went crabbing in the Swan River in Perth,

DD19 had her last procedure (hopefully) and has been pain free - the first time in months,

Did some more fishing and camping on the beach,

This time with good friends,

Hubby quit his job, took a pay cut and went back to his old company .... in his words ' family comes first and working 60 - 70 hours a week is detrimental to our family life', 

At last I got some tomatoes,

Today we finally get a break in the heatwave, 

Why does it take nothing to feel exhausted these days??

tuesday treat

I thought it was about time I posted the recipes for those yummy treats I made at Christmas and posted about here.  


I'll do one every week.

NO-BAKE HAZELNUT SLICE


125g butter
3/4 cup condensed milk
2 tablespoons golden syrup
250g packet milk arrowroot biscuits, finely crushed
1 cup flaked almonds, toasted


Topping
250g block hazelnut chocolate, chopped
60g copha


Place butter, condensed milk and golden syrup into a small saucepan.  Stir over low heat until butter is melted.  Simmer for 2 minutes.


Place biscuit crumbs into a large bowl.  Add almonds and butter mixture.  Mix well.  Grease and line an 18 x 28cm slab tin with baking paper.  Press mixture evenly and over firmly base of tin.  Refrigerate while preparing topping.


Prepare topping:  Combine chocolate and copha in a small saucepan.  Stir over low heat until melted and smooth.


Pour chocolate mixture evenly over crumb base.  Refrigerate until set.  Cut into squares when firm.




Of course the final and most important step is to indulge!


Have a fabulous day :)

my two 'evils'

and here they are .... so pleased with how it all turned out!

hope you all have a great weekend :)

costumes and chaos

Whooooo ..... they're finished.  I'm so tired!  Finally got to bed at midnight last night, determined to finish the 'evil clowns'.  


It took three days, not bad if I do say so myself.  That was not just three days of solid sewing.  In between all that, DD19 went for her hair appointment, I played netball - and my oh my am I feeling it today - and my beautiful DD21 moved back home.  We had her packed and moved in one day.  She is struggling with the change in her life.  I feel sad for her, she is lost, heartbroken and unable to see that she will be ok.


I'm glad she's home.


I was going to wait until the kids were all dressed up, faces painted and all before I posted any pictures, but I'm so excited at how they turned out I couldn't wait.  I'll still put up a pic of them before they leave.


In the midst of it all.  Dinner was eaten in the lounge in front of the television for these nights.

On the lounge last night following finishing touches.

And because my photography sucks, my camera is old and sucks, and I'm never able to get those beautiful pics that other bloggers do, I threw them out on the lawn for some 'natural light'.

Today is a day of rest for me .... well, after I find those darn face paints and get the washing done and ... well never mind, maybe I can have a rest tomorrow!


Have a great day :)

dusting off the sewing machine

When I finally get my stairs up, I won't have to ...... clear the kitchen table, bring out the sewing machine, baskets, material, extension cords and then ... CLEAR IT ALL AWAY AGAIN!


What a pain in the ... well anyway, DS4 is having a sleepover at Nanny's house and going to the movies.  Me? well I thought about all the things I could do.  Then DD19 and her boyfriend reminded me that I said I'd make them some costumes for a fancy dress party.  They came home from holidays on Sunday and dragged me to the shops yesterday to get everything.  The party is on Friday night so I haven't got much time to spare.  Guess I'm sewing 'scary clown' costumes for this week!  That's in between a play date for DS4 and taking DD19 to get her hair done - she still doesn't have her licence back - plus all the usual jobs that need doing. I'm also starting back at netball tomorrow night after a six month break to rest an injury, so I could be quite incapacitated for the rest of the week.


I actually really love sewing and used to do a lot more, these days the time just gets away from me.


We're going for a cross between the pattern and the picture!

Better get cracking!!


Have a great day :)

weekend gardening

Best laid plans and all that ... we didn't get to the stairs making this weekend.


Saturday we had to get the trailer emptied to get some mulch for DH mum.  It had a couple of small square water tanks we picked up for some friends in it, so we delivered them and came back with these.

We revitalised one last year and have been on the lookout for some oldies ever since.

I did a bit of tidying up in the vege patch, staked my tomatoes etc.

I'm hanging out for my tomatoes to ripen.

Zucchini, cucumber and beans down the end, DH hanging out for his corn - I see vege patch, he sees corn!

I baked some beetroot the other night - what a hit - DS4 ate nearly the whole lot!

Good friends dropped in in the afternoon, MIL for dinner, so that was the end of Saturday!!


Sunday when DH went off to do the mulching for his mum, I started repotting and dividing plants.


This little loquat tree I posted about here is now three plants.  I divided and repotted it and gave one to my neighbour along with a pot of raspberry shootings.

Out of two raspberry plants I ended up with around twelve or more little shoots, I hope they take.

By the time we did all that, mulched all the fruit trees, another day was over.


Stairs next weekend!

zucchini pie .... update

Ok, so we ended up having the zucchini pie for dinner.


Do you remember your Mother always telling you 'if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all'?


Well sometimes honesty is just the best policy!


The pie looked magnificent.  I was so pleased with how it turned out.  It came out of the dish beautifully, cut just perfectly, and oh, how I admired it.  What a creation I had produced for my family.

There was silence at the table.  No one said a word.  Actually, it was such polite silence, I couldn't stand it any longer.


It tasted like CRAP!


We all laughed, gobbled down all the vege's and discussed what leftovers might be in the fridge!


I'll leave the recipe up, but certainly won't be making that again.  The chook children are going to love me tomorrow, DH says even the flies won't land on it!!


I'm off to heat up some left over Christmas Pudding with ice-cream :)

zucchini invasion .... help!!

I've been invaded by zucchini ....  big ones, little ones, skinny ones, fat ones,they're everywhere!

I've been searching for different zucchini recipes, you can only eat so much zucchini slice, right?


There are several that I've found, here's one that I did today.

Zucchini Pie (Kolokithopita)

1kg zucchini, grated
250g rice
500mls water
4 potatoes, grated
1 onion, finely diced
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 tin condensed milk
100ml olive oil

300g flour
1tbs salt
4tbs olive oil
water

Method

1. Mix the 300g flour, salt and olive oil together. Add enough lukewarm water to make a dough. Set aside.

2. Grate the zucchini and potato and place in a strainer with a teaspoon of salt. Mix until coated.
3. Cook the rice with the 500mls water and cook until tender. Pour out any excess water.
4. Press out the zucchini and potato out and drain out as much liquid as possible. Mix the rest of the ingredients together. (Onion, parsley, s&p, garlic, condensed milk and oil.)

5. Flour the bench and roll out your pastry. Roll out larger than your pie shell.
6. Brush your oven dish with oil and place the dough into the dish. Do not cut off the overhang pastry. Make sure you get out all the air pockets between the dish and the pastry.
7. Place the mixture into the middle of the dish and wrap the over hanging pastry into the middle until covered. Brush with oil.

8. Cook in the oven on 160 degrees Celsius for approximately 1 hour or until golden pastry.

Either eat warm or cold with a salad!

Friday night is 'pizza night' so I'm not sure if we'll get to it tonight, DS4 would never let pizza night slide by!

As we'll probably be working on the stairs tomorrow I might save it anyway.  The last thing I'll feel like doing after working in the shed all day is whipping up a gourmet meal.  I also baked enough bread and rolls for the weekend to make it easier!

What zucchini recipes do you love?

Have a fantastic weekend :)

coffee, scones and a playground

This morning I had to be organised.  DH car had to be taken to the dealer for some 'recall' work, so I was to pick him up.  There were a few things we needed to get done whilst we were out, which included a trip to Fremantle or 'Freo' as locals call it.


Freo is a vibrant multi-cultural port city south of Perth.  It boasts a 19th century port street scape with world famous heritage buildings and a fascinating maritime and convict history.  Along with old dockworkers' cottages, warehouses converted into trendy apartments, there is a strong creative streak.  The cappuccino strip is as famous  as the Fremantle Markets and you can't beat fish n chips fresh off the boat at Fishing Boat Harbour!

Cappuccino Strip

Dockside eating at the Fishing Boat Harbour

I love Freo, so we just had to stop awhile to chill out for coffee, scones and jam for me and a meat pie from the Fremantle Bakehouse for DH.  


What a nice start to the day, we certainly don't get to do this too often.


We went our separate ways for a few hours, I dropped DH off to get his car and he went to work for a while, DS4 and I went home, let the chook children out - he calls them bok boks cos that's the sound they make - and did a few other necessary jobs.


When DH arrived home we decided to go to the park at our nearest town.  Sometimes its nice to do things that you don't usually do, it was really lovely .... and we all  had fun.

We were the only ones there surrounded by these beautiful gum trees.

Hope you had a great day :)


PS  I've rushed through this post cos I'm sooo tired and just want my bed!