In the Garden - September 2012

With the weather in Perth starting to warm up, the weekend provided a great opportunity to potter in the garden. Having missed a winter crop due to the Big Gypsy Getaway, I was left with empty garden beds just waiting for spring. Empty apart from a few weeds, but that was nothing a little hard work and some help from a few willing feathered friends couldn't fix.

The new garden bed in the front yard is structurally complete, but we're still getting around to filling it with soil. With the rear bed ready to go, I bought some seeds and seedlings on the weekend and the girls and I got planting. Actually, I got to dig holes and the girls did all the planting. We planted capsicum and basil seedlings, as well as cucumber and zucchini seeds. For some reason I have real trouble growing capsicums, so I opted for seedlings.

Cucumber and zucchini however seem to run rampant in our sandy soils and I have had lots of success with seeds in the past. Slaters and slugs also run rampant in our garden, and I've had entire seedling crops disappear overnight in the past thanks to some ravenous slugs. In an attempt to tackle the problem before the seedlings emerge, I have set quite a few beer traps. They just can't pass up the sweet smell of several year old home brew, and I'm happy to put it to use! A few strategically placed vegemite jars full, should do the trick.

I bought a LOT more seeds, but I have been guilty of over-planting in the past, and ending up with a very busy vege patch, so I'll hold off on anymore planting until we get soil for the front.

The new chickens have been busy settling in, and have found a few favourite places to lay their eggs. Almost everyday there is one in the back corner, furthest away from the house and difficult to get to given a passionfruit-covered bird net about a metre off the ground, covering this area. Egg-collecting is Chicky's job. She has the advantage of being only a metre tall. We've been letting the chickens out most days and they are getting quite socialised. Isa Browns just don't seem to mind being handled, which is fortunate when you have a 4 yr old and a 2 yr old trying to give you cuddles all day.

The same passionfruit vine has grown nicely over the girls' Kombi Cubby, and is taking over the non-existent windscreen. It adds quite a nice ambiance to the cubby, and makes the giant volkswagen in the garden bed a little less obvious at first glance. That's what I tell myself anyway.

Spring has definitely sprung in my garden, and it's only going to get better. I'm looking forward to getting the rest of the garden organised and planting lots more veges. The girls are at great ages to appreciate where food comes from and can take some ownership over their plants. Lets hope the lovely weather hangs around, on the weekends at least.

A Healthy Cheesecake Experiment

For Father's Day last weekend, we had a little afternoon tea with my parents, my sister and my niece. I had planned on making Mini Choc Cherry Cheesecakes, but after making a Date and Nut Loaf and scones, as well as buying some different cheeses I decided we probably had enough food for a mid-afternoon snack. This left me with some cream cheese in the fridge, begging to be used. We LOVE the Choc Cherry Cheesecakes, but they really are a treat for special occasions only and a half batch makes 12 so I end up eating at least 4 of them. 

I decided to give the decadent treat a healthy revamp and use the Muesli Cookies recipe as a base. As tasty as crushed biscuits mixed with melted butter is, thinking about it makes my arteries ache so replacing it with something more healthy eased the palpatations a little. Because the overall recipe is a little different from both the Muesli Cookies and Mini Choc Cherry Cheesecake recipes, I've included the complete recipe below.

Base

2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 tbsp linseed, soy & almond (LSA) mix
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ripe banana

1. Preheat the oven to 150C (130C fan forced). Line 12 holes of a regular sized muffin tray with paper cases.
2. Place all ingredients in a food processor and whiz for 20ish seconds until everything is combined and the oats are mostly chopped.
3. Spoon about a teaspoon worth of mixture into each paper case and flatten. You only want a thin base.
4. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until slightly brown.

Cheesecake

60g white chocolate

1/4 cup cream
250g cream cheese, at room temperature
1/3 cup raw caster sugar
1 egg, lightly whisked
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
about 200g frozen mixed berries

1. Put chocolate and cream in a small pan over low heat and cook, stirring until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Be careful not to burn. Cool.
2. Whiz the berries in a food processor to break down large lumps.
3. Beat cream cheese, sugar, egg, vanilla and cooled chocolate mixture in a large bowl until well combined. If the cream cheese is too cold, it will form lumps and won't combine properly. Also if the chocolate mix is too hot, it will cook your egg. Fold in berries and divide the mixture between the paper cases, on top of the muesli mix. Level the tops and bake for 15-20 mins or until just set.
4. Cool in trays, then in the fridge. They need a good few hours cooling before serving.

These cheesecakes are definitely not as decadent or moorish as the chocolate version, but this is great because I am satisfied after one instead of wanting to devour the whole tray! I was a bit concerned that the muesli base wouldn't marry with the cheesecake flavour, but it really does work well, and it holds together much better than a traditional cheesecake base. The only ammendment I would make is to reduce the amount of honey, as honey is quite a powerful flavour. One tablespoon might be enough. All in all, this was a successful experiment, providing a healthier version of cheesecake that I'll make again.

Muesli Cookies

We all love muesli bars at my house, perhaps a little too much. A batch rarely lasts more than a day, and so I've been looking for a slightly healthier alternative that we can all enjoy with a little less guilt and a little less exercise required to counteract the over-indulgence. I often scan Teresa Cutter's website in search for healthy ideas, and last week gave her Oatmeal Honey Scones a go. They were a big hit! They are egg-free and dairy free which doesn't bother our household specifically, but I have a few friends whose children have allergies so another recipe up my sleeve is a bonus. They are also super quick to whip up. As always, I added a bit of lib with the recipe, using what I had on hand, so here is my version:

2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 tablespoon linseed, soy & almond (LSA) mix
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ripe banana
120g chopped fresh dates (pitted)

1. Preheat fan forced oven to 160C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Place everything minus the dates in a food processor and whiz for 20ish seconds until everything is combined and the oats are mostly chopped.
3. Add dates and whiz to combine.
4. Spoon about a teaspoon worth of mixture for each cookie onto the baking paper and flatten slightly.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until slightly brown and just starting to crack on top.

I made these into 22 little Muesli Cookies, whereas Teresa Cutter made 8 large "scones" out of the same size batch. That way the kids could have a couple and feel like they were being spoiled (and without any sugar or butter, I could have a few and not fear for my arterial health). They are really yummy. I think they might actually taste better than our muesli bars, and of course the recipe is open for experimentation. I've made 3 batches of these since discovering the recipe, but I think I'll try playing with the ingredients next time, maybe changing the fruit and adding some other seeds. FYI, they don't set hard like a biscuit, they are quite soft, I guess given there is no flour.

On another note, I have just been introduced to The Book Depository. How I didn't know about this before is beyond me, but they do free shipping world wide, and their prices are amazing! Needless to say I have a few Nigel Slater gems headed my way.

And on yet another note, we found out today that Chicky and Poppet will be getting a sister in January.

Flocks and Friands

The complete lack of egg production from our chickens over the last 8 months made us reconsider the flock. The cochins, very attractive birds, had grown quite large. Two were clearly roosters and we aren't allowed to keep roosters where we live. The two females hadn't started laying yet (I've read it's quite normal for them to take 10 months to start, but then egg production isn't consistent or reliable). They were also fairly unsociable and the girls couldn't handle them like the Isa Browns. Unfortunately we lost two of our original Isa Browns at various times this year and the only remaining hen had never laid. Given all of the above, we decided to re-home our flock and start again. Approximately 3 minutes after I posted a "free" ad on Gumtree, the phone calls began and by the end of the week the chickens had gone to 3 different homes.

On Saturday afternoon we picked up four new Isa Brown pullets. They quickly made themselves at home and started fossicking through the self-sewn tomato plants.

My girls were very excited to meet the new girls of the garden, and Chicky has taken on the responsibility of taming them with lots of "pats and cuddles".

And we are already being rewarded. Since arriving on Saturday afternoon, they have laid 10 eggs. I'm excited just thinking about all the baking I'll be able to do!

Speaking of baking, I got straight on the job tonight and baked some Raspberry and Dark Choc Friands. I don't think I've ever eaten a friand before, let alone made any, and I wasn't really sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised by the finished product (yes, I've eaten 2 already).

The only change I made to Celia's recipe, was using Callebaut 54% dark chocolate callets in place of 70%. In the absence of a friand pan, what else could I use but bright blue patty pans? These made the friands a little smaller than in the original recipe so I stretched the batter out to make 9. How good are raspberries? I must have eaten a handful of frozen raspberries in the process. Friands will definitely be going on my list of "morning tea possibilities" when I have visitors.

Back to Basics

I've started running again. It's weird, very different but oh so therapeutic.

I stopped running when I was 6 weeks pregnant and contracted giardia, which rendered me weak, tired and void of enthusiasm. Given the complications of morning sickness and the fact that we were travelling the country, the giardia went undiagnosed until we got home 4 weeks later. I then had to wait until I was in the second trimester to take antibiotics for it, so after 6 weeks of gastro-like symptoms I had lost a lot of weight, almost all muscle mass and all my stamina. All the efforts I'd made to ensure I was in tip-top shape pre-pregnancy were moot. Perhaps being in prime physical condition helped the recovery, but it certainly felt like I was left with nothing.

So at 13 weeks pregnant, with the visitors evicted from my digestive tract and breakfast only occasionally revisiting, I began the journey to regain some of the muscle and stamina that I'd lost. At first I could walk little more than a kilometer to the local supermarket without having to nap when I got home. I slowly built this up to a 4km walk and had started cycling regularly on an indoor trainer (both my arms and legs looked like the arms of a Schleck brother!) when our household got hit with a nasty head cold. We somehow managed to back this up with the flu. Now at almost 17 weeks I am finally getting back into some regular exercise. I'm back at step aerobics (which I did up to 28 weeks when I was pregnant with Poppet), I started swimming again this week (oh my lord my shoulders hate me), I'm cycling on the trainer a couple of times a week and this weekend I started running again. Re-reading that sentence, it sounds like an awful lot for a preggo to take on, but compared to pre-pregnancy where I was running 50kms each week plus aerobics, plus swimming, plus cycling, I really am "taking it easy", I promise.

So pregnant Pam runs quite differently to pre-pregnant Pam. If you've been pregnant, you'll know that some of the hormones involved in nurturing your bundle of joy (primarily relaxin), cause your ligaments to loosen. The biggest offenders are the ligaments of the sacro-illiac joint in your pelvis. This has to happen, otherwise the thing the size of a watermelon won't fit out the exit the size of a golf ball, it's not rocket science. To an athlete, "loose ligaments" sounds like an injury, and this is one reason why you should be careful exercising during pregnancy. Pushing those relaxed ligaments too far will result in injury, so pregnancy is not the time to push your body to its limits. Being sick and effectively starting from scratch has helped me here. Running like a granny isn't such a bad thing for bubs and I!

So my leisurely 6km jog this afternoon consisted of a 200m walk break half way through (mostly to have a drink and to give my heart rate a chance to recover - too much blood moving away from the uterus for too long isn't good for bubs, so little breaks are great for us both). Can you tell I studied reproductive biology at uni? Education is great, but maybe if I were more ignorant I'd be sitting in a beanbag, watching Oprah with a donut in one hand and a coke in the other. I like to think my baby and my body will thank me for being an active mumma, and maybe I still ate the donut when I got back from my run.

Where was I? A mid-way break for recovery. The break also provided an opportunity pee-stop. The kid is the size of an avocado and my bladder is already compromised! I could feel my pelvis moving while I ran which was a little unnerving, but completely normal. I could also feel the milk jugs shudder with each step. Don't get me wrong, I have a good sports bra, but the puppies have just realised that we're pregnant and have shot up from non-quite-an-A-cup to something more like you might see on a Canberra-bought video. Keep in mind they were feeding Poppet up until a couple of months ago, so I'm not sure why they seem so shocked by all this, but needless to say it adds another interesting element to running.

I can see how all these changes might put even a runner off running during pregnancy, but the endorphins that were bouncing through my body this afternoon made me ignore the pain in my hip flexors and start planning the next run. I doubt I'll run much more than 6kms at a time until the wee-un is out, and pace is something set by my body and not my watch, but being active again is what's important, not just for me physically, but for my mental state. I was sick for a while, but now I'm not sick, I'm just pregnant, and while my doctor is happy and I'm happy, that's not going to stop me from being me.

Banana and Date Scones

Legend has it that this week is International Scone Week. With two very ripe bananas in the freezer, what better opportunity than to give my mother-in-law's Banana and Date Scone recipe a go? I haven't had much success in the past making scones, and find the lemonade version much more foolproof than the traditional recipe, but think I may have gotten a bit of technique sorted in my last couple of attempts, with help from my food processor.

Here's the recipe, as my mother-in-law defines it, with not quite exact measurements. I think it takes a bit of experience and observation to gague just how much of the flour and milk to add. I replaced plain SR flour with wholemeal and found it worked just as well.

• 40g butter, cubed
• 2 cups plus a bit of wholemeal SR flour
• 1 large or 2 small mashed bananas
• 1/2 cup chopped dates
• pinch ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup milk (or as much as you need to bring dough together)

1. Preheat a fan forced oven to 220C. Lightly grease the holes of a 12-hole muffin tray.
2. Mix butter and flour on low speed in a food processor until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Alternatively rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips.
3. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl. Add the mashed banana, dates, cinnamon and almost all of the milk. Slice through the mixture with a butter knife until just combined, adding more milk if necessary to bring dough together.
4. With floured hands, turn dough onto a smooth surface and break gently into 12 even pieces. Place one piece into each hole of the muffin tray. I prefer this technique over cutting the dough into rounds as I find it removes some of the handling which can toughen the dough.
5.  Bake for 10-15 minutes or until slightly browned. 

These are a tasty, healthy snack that are best eaten warm, with or without a little butter. As with all scones, they are best eaten the day they are baked, but if you find you have leftovers at the end of the day, they freeze well. Thirty seconds each in the microwave is all they need to defrost. Happy International Scone Week!

In My Kitchen - August 2012

I've been spending a bit of time in my kitchen lately, since nausea seems to be giving me a break and my appetite has returned to normal (if anything I'm a little more ravenous than usual!). I've even been getting a bit more creative with dinners, cooking spinach & ricotta cannelloni, tuna mornay and spinach & egg pie this week, none of which have appeared in my kitchen for many months. Unfortunately I don't have any new toys in my kitchen this month, but I do have a few other things of interest.

In my kitchen are some whole macadamia nuts, in their shells. My sister-in-law recently went "down south" and brought these back for me, amongst a few other little goodies. For the non-West Aussie readers, "down south" refers to the south west region of Western Australia. These macadamias are the hardest nuts I've ever tried to crack. We broke our nut crackers on the first one and have since resorted to a vice and hammer. They kind of make you burn the calories before consuming them.

 

In my kitchen is a batch of (slightly overcooked thanks to baby brain) Breakfast Muffins, ready to share with a local community group I go to. There are often lots of evil tasty treats brought for morning tea, so I thought I'd be the healthy contingent this month. Next time I might take some decadent Mocha Bars to even things out.

In my kitchen (in my freezer to be precise) is a batch of Nigel Slater's Apple Icecream. I watched him make caramelised apples with this icecream on the TV a few days ago, and while I've never made icecream and don't own an icecream maker, this looked too easy not to try. And it was incredibly easy, using ready-made pouring custard. The end result basically tastes like frozen custard with apples (which it is). It's a pleasant change from the shop-bought chocolate icecream that normally resides in my freezer.I might have to make some sort of pudding tonight to go with it.

In my kitchen is a copy of The Edible Balcony by Indira Naidoo. This was a birthday present from hubby. I turned 30 while we were on the road (What was that? I don't look a day over 25? You are too kind!), and he managed to sneak the girls off shopping, buy me this together with a book about running, and hide them in the camper trailer until my birthday. Needless to say the books got a little scratched and stained by red dirt, but I was none the less impressed with his efforts. Naidoo has some great tips and ideas about gardening in small spaces, and the book is packed with lots of fun recipes too.

Other than being a mess from my renewed interest in cooking and baking, nothing else noteworthy can be found in my kitchen this month. I have grand ideas about baking bread and flavoured scrolls this afternoon, but I suspect sleepiness and dinner preparation may stand in my way. Maybe tomorrow...

Check out what's happening in some other kitchens this month by following the links at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.