Asparagus Plants
2012 My second long term project for this year, the other being rhubarb, was planting asparagus crowns. I had tried planting two crowns last year but it was a disaster because I planted Vietnamese mint in the same bed and the Vietnamese mint loved the conditions far more than the asparagus did. When I finally […]
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Rhubarb Plants
2012 – a new addition to our garden this year are 5 rhubarb crowns. On reflection I think that this will give us more rhubarb than any of us will want to eat so after jam, crumble and juice what will we do with the excess. I have already been pondering who I will give […]
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Olive Trees
2012 – We have three olive trees – have had them for about ten years and they have barely produced any fruit. Mostly the reason that our trees bear so poorly so that we do not water things, I plant but I am not good at regular maintenance items like watering. This year we have […]
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CHICK PEA BURGERS
Another use for chick peas (add this to Hummus as a quick way to make something impressive in no time) – tins of chick peas are always handy to have in the pantry – or you can cook the peas from scratch but that sort of defeats the intent of having something that is healthy […]
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CAMP-FIRE BEEF STEW
Stew, Real Baked Beans, Pea And Ham Soup, Damper, Vegetable parcels, Chocolate chip bananas . . . . . The stuff of a campfire – recipes and links to good things to cook for a campfire experience. We are lucky enough to a have a fire pit with a few logs around it so that […]
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BOSTON BAKED BEANS
This is my second attempt at Boston Baked Beans, the first was a bit too strong in the molasses department but after being left to mature and frozen for a while it made great camping food. This time I have made enough to last, when frozen, for ages. It takes soooo long to make that […]
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Quick Books 09-10 pdf Printer set up
A known bug in Quick Books in 64 Bit systems Having just spent the better part of two days trying to get the built in pdf printer required for “send to email” in Quick Books Accounting 09-10 to work I decided that I had better document what I did. I don’t know what it was […]
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PEA AND HAM SOUP WITH SWEET POTATO
Love soup – something that you need to grow into, or at least I did. Funny thing is I would never choose soup from a menu in a restaurant, probably because I have never had one that tasted any better than something I make myself. Last time I tried this soup it was made with […]
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Budgie House
Home Made Happy Hut or Budgie House Today I was left to baby-sit a freshly washed white baby budgie (It wasn’t me who washed it!!). It was the coldest day so far this year, so to keep it warm and get it dry it sat for hours inside my jumper against my skin. When it was […]
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Scarfs
Two ways to make a crocheted ruffled or spiral scarf I was wandering around Spotlight when I noticed that the wool section had a lot of specials. It has been years since I have knitted anything and longer since I have crocheted but I was inspired so I bought wool that looked interesting and then […]
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YOGHURT, LABNE
Labneh This is a cheese made from yoghurt. I use low fat plain Greek yoghurt that I buy in 2 kg buckets. To me this is the perfect spread – low fat and good protein = no guilt. It can be used on vita weet biscuits cruskits or Mountain bread as a base for some […]
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CHICKEN AND HALLOUMI
Tender slow cooked chicken I saw Heston Blumenthal comparing chicken cooked according to the instructions on the bag and his version. the stringy, dried out roasted version looked very familiar, and is probably why I never roast a whole chook. The secret is in brining the chicken to get as much moisture into it as […]
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PICKLE SALADS
Cucumbers are another vegetable that I didn’t like much until I grew my own. These are salads that are delicious, keep well and can be served with just about anything. Oriental Pickle Salad Pickling liquid Mix together, boil 1 minute and cool: 6 tbs rice wine vinegar 6 tbs caster sugar 6 tbs water salt […]
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CARROTS WITH CUMMIN
This year our carrots were tasty. I have never liked carrots much, and certainly not raw carrots. The carrots I grew converted me to eating raw carrots. Carrots from the fruit shop are so cheap it never seemed worthwhile actually growing them. This, coupled with my previous lack of success at growing anything that didn’t […]
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SLOW ROASTED PORK
Tender Pork Today I cooked a big lump of pork on the bone. I have no idea what cut it was but it looked like it was a slice off the leg. There was meat on both sides and rind around the edge. I looked like it would be a good cut to be able […]
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CITRUS BUTTERS – lemon / lime / tangelo
We grow lots of different types of citrus trees, partly because they grow easily, have few bugs and are easy to manage and partly because I just love fresh citrus straight from the tree. You do not get mandarines or tangelos or indeed any citrus from shops that have that tang that comes from a […]
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COD KEDGEREE
Dead easy, quick and reasonably cheap. It also looks good, with the fresh tomato, parsley, egg slices and lemon quarters in the tumeric coloured rice. Start all of these things off at the same time. They will be ready to combine once the rice is cooked. Ingredients 4 cups rice cooked in rice cooker 1 […]
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ANZAC BISCUITS
I have a few very reliable and easy to make biscuit recipes – It is not something that I cook very often because they would be eaten and none of us need to eat more food than we do already. The main stays are Anzac biscuits, mothers biscuits and gingerbread men. I also have some […]
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QUINOA SALADS
Quinoa is a very versatile base for a salad, tastes great, good texture and goes with anything that you want to add to it. It is also very good for you, and can be frozen after cooking – I haven’t tried it yet but I am guessing that if the cooked quinoa is made with […]
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Microsoft Access – Code Snippets
This post is just for me. I do occassional work on some Access databases, not as much as I used to do, and now I find that I can’t quite remember how to get the results I need. I have decided that I will copy bits of code into this blog so I can easily […]
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WHITE CHOCOLATE – CHRISTMAS ROCKY ROAD
I love to make things to go with coffee. These can usually be made weeks before and stored in the freezer, the main problem that I then have is remembering to get them out. Serving straight from the freezer is ok as it is usually so hot on Christmas day that icy cold deserts go […]
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NASTURTIUM CAPERS
There are plants that I have to have in my garden. I think that they are mostly plants that were in gardens that I knew as a child. I don’t know why I remember particular plants. The list of my child hood memories includes May Bush, Alyssum, Rose of Sharon, Port Wine Magnolia and of […]
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GARLIC PRAWNS
Prawns are my absloute favourite food. If given a choice I will opt for fresh school prawns, on buttered soft white bread, with a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of salt flakes with a bottle of good white wine eaten on a beach or on our back verandah as the best way to […]
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SPRING PLANTING
2011 1st week of September: Time to clean out the beds that had remnant Summer crops. I had left things that looked like they still had some potential to produce something. I had pruned the eggplants and capsicum thinking that I could encourage them to produce new growth and get an early start on the […]
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