In the Garden - October 2012

Last month I planted some seeds and seedlings, ready for a summer crop. Regardless of the beer traps, the slaters dessimated most of the seedlings as they emerged. They seemed to be helping themselves to the beer, but not before feasting on the zucchini, cucumber and pea seedlings. Determined not to let this happen again, I did away with the beer traps (which smell really bad if you don't empty them regularly) and planted some new seeds in pots. The physical barrier seems to have done the trick, and seedlings mk II are now hopefully big enough to hold their own and be transplanted into the vege patch.

I didn't have anymore zucchini or cucumber seeds, but I did have a lot of other options so planted dwarf beans....

 

...peas and watermelon in the background.

Something I thought the slaters would leave alone due to their lack of real leaves, are perennial carrots.

I thought I'd try my luck with spinach straight into the ground, because the thought of transplanting spinach plants wasn't particularly appealing. Similarly, I'm lazy and never thin my carrots, but it makes for some interesting shapes and sizes.

I think there may be one saving grace for the spinach. At the end of each row, a rhubarb plant has re-emerged. When we returned from our Gypsy Getaway, my rhubarb plants (of which I had 3 established) had vanished without a trace. I was a bit disappointed as they were doing well, but they have come back! The slaters love the leaves but don't affect the stalks so this may just be my new slater solution.

The chickens did a great job preparing the tomato garden plot, and this week I transplanted the cherry tomato seedlings I grew in pots from seeds (or rather I dug holes and Chicky did the planting). We planted 7 plants, which will inevitably be too many, but I will attempt to tame them with tomato mesh so we can keep some sort of control on the area.

Here are the girls, looking puzzled about why they're no longer allowed to forage in the tomato plot. Or maybe it has something to do with their tiny brains. :)

Veges aren't the only things blooming in the garden at the moment. The grape vines have gone from dormant to prolific in a matter of weeks. The 5 vines we currently have are in their second fruiting year and teeny tiny grapes can be seen everywhere. I can't wait!

The mandarin tree has some very small fruit emerging. Fingers crossed the birds save us some.

The orange tree, although struggling with some kind of leaf curl, is also managing to fruit this year. Citrus need a lot of TLC in our sandy soils, and really benefit from regular fertilising. This is hubby's job. My slap-dash approach to the garden doesn't involve such luxuries for the fruit trees.

The passionfruit vines seem to take it in turns fruiting, and I was a little surprised to see one of them flowering given we had a winter crop. Providing we get enough bees, I think these will be the purple-skinned fruit. I love the flowers, they are just a little bit Little Shop of Horrors-esque.

Finally, here is what I hope will be a potato patch. I had a few sprouting spuds in the larder so scattered the tubers and covered them with soil. I'll add some more soil when the sprouts emerge and try to get a mound happening, to maximise yield.

For now this is all that's happening in my garden, but with spring in full swing things are moving swiftly.  It's great, and I don't need to play much of a role. Now I sit back and watch things flourish. I'd love to hear what's happening in your garden this spring (or otherwise, wherever you are).

Pregnancy Hormones

Damn you pregnancy hormones, damn you! Today, at almost 26 weeks, I am a blubbering mess.

This morning I did the Glucose Tolerance Test. A 2 hour combination of blood tests, sugary drinks, sugar highs, sugar lows, and hormone provocation. During the second hour, waiting in between blood test number two and blood test number three, I picked up a copy of That's Life magazine. After drooling over a Tim-Tam Cherry Chocolate Cake recipe (I am currently on day 5 of no chocolate, self-imposed), I made the mistake of reading a sad story of a 4 year-old's lost battle with cancer and found myself sobbing in the waiting room. Chicky is 4. I managed to pull myself together just in time for the last bloods and to get the hell out of there to cuddle my children.

This afternoon I checked out a recently found blog/website called Scary Mommy. The author is quite raw, honest and hilarious. I found the website a few weeks ago when googling Vulvar Varicosities - a rarely mentioned possible side-effect of pregnancy which I was horrified to experience before learning about. Google it if you dare, but if you're faint hearted or yet to embark on the journey that is pregnancy, maybe it's best you don't. Anyway, today I stumbled across a post called Motherhood is... and alternated between laughing and welling up. Then I read a reader's comment: "Motherhood is watching your children sleep and praying that you’ll have another chance to be a better mom to them the next day." That was it. All composition I had regained from the morning was gone again. I often find myself hoping I have a chance tomorrow to be a better mum, to be the mum I aspire to be. Luckily Chicky and Poppet were both having quiet time, so I could escape to the carport and let the emotions out without the "why are you crying Mummy?" questions.

Thrown into the works today I have had to explain dwarfism to Chicky after she expressed "Why is that lady so little?! No ladies are EVER that little!" in ear shot of someone who was in fact that little. I have also had discussions about the necessity of Woolworths employees to eat lunch too, discussed the brain size of a magpie and why they swoop us even when we don't want to hurt their babies, wiped several poos that weren't my own, pretended to be Hansel and Gretel's nasty stepmother and pretended to take my children into the forest and leave them there (a favourite game of Chicky's of late), read several stories multiple times, diffused an argument over who was eating who's hair, and been kicked countless times from the inside. These are just the things that spring to mind, and the afternoon is still young.

Motherhood is... learning everyday a new part about motherhood.
Motherhood is... recognising that the traits you find most irritating in your children are the traits most similar to your own, and not getting angry at them for it.
Motherhood is... looking at your children playing quietly and wondering how in the world you were so lucky to be given the best job in the world, even if you were pulling your hair out in rage at them 5 minutes earlier.
Motherhood is... inviting other mothers over for some adult conversation, starting 25 different conversations but not finishing any.
Motherhood is... calling me. Looks like it's the end of quiet time and the end of this post.

I'd love to hear some other people's thoughts on motherhood.

Tales from a pregnant runner: Episode 2

Last time I posted about running, I was just getting back into it. Now, two months on, I can call myself a pregnant runner, hitting the footpath 2-3 times a week to tally between 10 and 20kms. The bump is more than obvious now, and I get more than the occasional double-take while strutting my stuff, but overall the public's reaction is positive. I even "competed" in a 5km event on the weekend, and other than a few surprised glances, I disappeared into the pack nicely. I entered the event with my best friend who has just started running. This was her first event, and the furthest she had ever run, and I was so proud to help her achieve that.

When I started running again, I found things a little uncomfortable. The pelvic instability was unnerving and the constant bladder pressure off-putting. I was also getting a bit of lower back pain after even a short run. After a bit of research, and discussion with a fellow runner who ran until she was full term, I purchased a Gabrialla abdominal support belt. This has made the world of difference. I haven't experienced any lower back pain since using it, and it makes everything feel a whole lot more stable. I wear it to run, for step aerobics, and even for grocery shopping if I know I'm going to be pushing a heavy trolley full of shopping and children. Thank goodness they come in black, so you can't even see it on top of my running shorts. I can't recommend enough, some sort of abdominal and lower back support garment for anyone thinking of running through their pregnancy.

So I was feeling good running again, even getting in up to 10km at a time, but I still had a niggle in the back of my head asking if I should be doing this. My obstetrician is supportive but certainly not an expert in the area of maternal fitness, so I decided to do a bit of my own research. If a science background has taught me one thing, it's to be educated. I came across the name James Clapp who is a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology and an international expert on the effects of exercise during pregnancy. His latest book, Exercising Through Your Pregnancy, covers the most recent research on the effects of not just exercise, but training, on the mother and child. It provides answers to most of my questions and has reassured me that given I have a low risk pregnancy and am otherwise fit and healthy, regular exercise is a good thing. In the past, pregnant women were urged to exercise within specific heart rate ranges, but if running has taught me anything it's that heart rates vary hugely between athletes. Clapp's book appreciates this and suggests perceived exersion as a better determinant of exercising safely.

Another book I purchased was the Runner's World Guide to Running & Pregnancy. This provides month by month recommendations and advice for someone who was running regularly before pregnancy and wishes to continue to run.

So at 25 weeks I'm not sure how much longer I'll run for. I'm taking it one run at a time. Sometimes I have a shocking 3km run and end up walking home. Other times I can run 8-10kms comfortably. All I can do is listen to my body and follow the advice I have found and am given. I hope I can still run into the third trimester, but I'm not going to be devastated if I no longer feel comfortable. I'll take up another swim or stationary cycling session in place of a dropped run. I have to work off all the chocolate and jelly beans somehow!

In My Kitchen - October 2012

Wow, I think this is the first In My Kitchen post that I've managed to get out at the start of the month! Maybe I'm a little excited about some new toys, or maybe I've been doing way too much baking (and eating) that I'm feeling in touch with my kitchen this month. Either way, here's what's in my kitchen this month.

My recent discovery of The Book Depository has been a little dangerous. My debut purchase involved a heap of kids books, put away for Christmas, some running/exercise books and of course some foody books. I'm a sucker for fast, easy recipes, so couldn't say no to Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food. This book is great for ideas when you've got some staples in the pantry, are short of time and lack inspiration. Slater shows you how to prepare common ingredients, several different ways which I love. His recipes are also open to interpretation so you can totally work with what you've got in the fridge. There are no pretty pictures, so if that's your thing then it might not be for you, but if you often find yourself preparing dinner shortly before you want to eat it, this book is great!

Because I am an unashamed sweet tooth, I couldn't go past Slater's dessert version: Real Fast Desserts. I have already tried out his Chocolate Almonds and they were a big hit, so I'll be giving a few more of these recipes a go soon.

I normally order my dark chocolate two ways. Callebaut brand 54% callets in a 2kg bag, which I use for muffins and biscuits as the callets are small. I also buy a two-pack of Sicao Classic Dark (also 54%) 1.5kg bags. The Sicao brand is a little cheaper than Callebaut but I consider the quality to be comparable. The Sicao callets however are large (akin to Nestle melts) and while they don't work well in bite size treats, they are perfect for melting. Sicao have recently changed their product coding, and confusion at the distributor meant I received 1 packet of 54% and 1 packet of 70% (which happen to be the smaller callets). This is great for me because I haven't before experiemented with 70% callets. If I can stop myself from eating them all straight from the container, I might test out some darker recipes.

Another exciting part of my recent chocolate delivery was a Callebaut flavoured sampler pack of chocolate buds. This includes about a cup measure each of cappucino, strawberry, lemon (interestingly these are green, not yellow), caramel and orange flavoured buds. I lifted my self-imposed chocolate ban today and made some Apple Caramel Muffins (below).

Apple Caramel Muffins
These are a variation of my favourite Banana Choc Chip Muffins, made this afternoon because I was out of bananas.

60g butter, melted
2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour 
1/3 cup raw caster sugar 
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 apple, grated with skin on
1 cup caramel buds

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with paper cases.
2. Mix flour, cinnamon and sugar together in a large bowl.
3. Lightly whisk eggs with milk, add to flour mix along with apple and melted butter.
4. Mix with a spatula until batter just comes together.
5. Add caramel buds and mix to combine.
6. Spoon mixture into muffin cases and bake for 12-15 mins or until just beginning to brown.

 

I kind of added lib with this recipe and hoped it would work. It did. I'm not a massive caramel fan so find the caramel buds a little sweet but the combination of flavours definitely works. Now I have to think of some interesting recipes for the other flavours.

Head over to Fig Jam and Lime Cordial and check out what some other bloggers have in their kitchens this month.

Chocolate for Sharing

Last week my chocolate order arrived. I can't economically buy Callebaut chocolate locally so I source it online from a Victorian distributor. This means I buy in bulk, two or three times a year. Six kilos of extremely high quality chocolate of various cocoa contents and a kilo of cocoa powder landing on my doorstep is very dangerous. It is perhaps even more dangerous because its arrival coincided with the arrival of another recent purchase, a copy of Nigel Slater's Real Fast Desserts.

I have drawn the line at three chocolate creations for the week, because anyone who knows me, knows that self-control is not my strong point when it comes to chocolate. Fortunately visited friends on Sunday for a BBQ, so I used this as a bit of an excuse to pull out some of the chocolate. On the menu was: Chocolate Almonds from Nigel Slater's book, Oreo Truffles and a favourite from my childhood, Chocolate Crackles.

Chocolate Almonds
This really is as easy as it sounds.

2-3 handfuls of shelled almonds
100g dark chocolate (I used Callebaut 54%, any darker and Hubby complains)
2 heaped tbsp cocoa powder (I used Callebaut dutch-processed)

1. Dry fry almonds until they are fragrant
2. Melt chocolate in a heat-proof bowl over simmering water.
3. Spread cocoa over a piece of grease-proof paper.
4. Dunk each almond in the chocolate, thoroughly coating, then roll it in the cocoa. Place on a piece of grease-proof paper to set.

I only coated half of my almonds in cocoa as Hubby really does complain if he can taste cocoa. The rest were all mine. Slater says "you'll wish you had made more", and he was so right but so wrong. These were ridiculously easy to eat, and if I had made double, I would have eaten double, in the same amount of time.

Cheat's Chocolate Crackles
This is yet another very easy recipe that the chocaholic should approach with caution. When I was a kid I loved chocolate crackles, until I went to someone's birthday party and tasted the overly sweet, copha-filled monstrosities that I later discovered followed the traditional recipe. This is how my mum makes chocolate crackles, and as far as I'm concerned it is the only way to make them.

200g milk chocolate (I used Callebaut 34%)
Cornflakes (yes, cornflakes, the volume varies and I never measure)

1. Line a 12-cup muffin tray (or 24-cup mini muffin tray) with paper liners.
2. Melt chocolate in a heat-proof bowl over simmering water. 
3. Add a handful of cornflakes to the melted chocolate, lightly crushing as you add them. Mix.
4. Continue adding cornflakes, a handful at a time, until all cornflakes are coated and no melted chocolate remains in the bottom of the bowl.
5. Spoon mixture into the paper liners (you may need more or less liners depending on how much of the cornflakes you used).
6. Refrigerate until set hard.

You may be saying "eeewww", but trust me, these are the best! Maybe it has to do with the slight saltiness of the cornflakes, or the more structured texture as opposed to a rice-bubble version (you could of course use rice bubbles if you prefer), but no matter how old I get, I still adore these and love that my girls are now old enough for me to make them for them as a treat.

Oreo Truffles
These were the last, and most evil chocolatey treat I made on the weekend. I was first introduced to these tasty morsels a few years ago at a kids birthday party and could not believe that the combination of ingredients could create something so rich and adult-tasting.

2 x 150g packets Oreo biscuits
170g cream cheese (I used Light Philadelphia)
200g milk chocolate (I used Callebaut 34%)

1. Melt chocolate in a heat-proof bowl over simmering water. Turn off heat but keep melted chocolate over the pan of hot water. Line a baking tray with grease-proof paper.
2. Break up Oreo biscuits into a food processor, then whiz until finely crumbed.
3. Add cream cheese and whiz again until combined.
4. Roll teaspoon sized portions of the Oreo mix into balls and coat in melted chocolate. Use two forks to remove the balls from the chocolate without deforming the shape too much.
5. Set the balls on grease-proof paper and refrigerate until cold.

I took these to a BBQ on Sunday night, and they were a massive hit. It's always fun getting people to guess what's in these, as unless you've had them before, it's very hard to pick. This batch made 37 truffles, but only about 30 of them made it to the BBQ.

While I had a fun weekend in the kitchen, with no real baking involved, I think I need a self-imposed ban on chocolate this week. My baby and my behind will thank me later.

Pasties

If there is one meal in my house that falls into the "comfort food" category, it's pasties. I know they are more evil than they are good, but damn they are tasty! In the winter they do seem to creep onto our regulars list, but I tend not to make them more frequently than once a fortnight at most, for the sake of our arteries and waistlines.

I don't particularly enjoy making pastry, of any sort, and this is no different. Shop-bought frozen puff pastry is easy, cheap and generally of sufficient quality warrant saving my time and energy. You can now also buy reduced-fat puff pastry which isn't as flaky as its butter-filled counterpart but is still tasty. Here is what a pastie looks like in my kitchen. This will serve myself, Hubby and the babes with enough for one adult lunch left over.

500g lean beef mince
2 potatoes
2 carrots
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup tomato sauce
2 tbsp mustard (I either use french or wholegrain, whatever I have on hand)
good shake of season-all
4 sheets reduced-fat puff pastry, just thawed

1. Preheat oven to 200C (fan forced). Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper.
2. Dice carrots and potatoes.
3. Combine carrots, potatoes, peas, tomato sauce, mustard and season-all in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly with your hands until well combined.
4. Divide mixture evenly across the 4 sheets of pastry, arranging it on the diagonal.
5. Pull in the corners of the pastry, one at a time, wrapping the meat mixture up in a parcel.
6. Prick each parcel several times with a fork
7. Cook for 20 mins or until browning nicely, then reduce heat to 160C and cook for a further 30-40 mins until escaped juices have dried up. 

You can fold the pastry any way you like, but I find the parcel method ensures an even pastry to filling ratio across the whole pastie and you don't get left with excess pastry around the edges that doesn't contain any meat. I also normally divide my 4th sheet of pastry into 4 even squares and make mini pasties for the girls. These often need removing from the oven about 5-10 mins before the big ones.

I love pasties served with tomato sauce, but the filling is tasty enough that it's not necessary. Of course you could adapt the filling to add whatever you like (corn, beans etc) and change the flavouring. I sometimes add some worcestershire sauce or horseradish. You can reheat pasties in the microwave, but like all pastry, reheating in the oven avoids soggy pastry, and I'm yet to meet anyone who likes soggy pastry.

In My Kitchen - September 2012

This month's In My Kitchen post comes a little late, and for no good reason. I was contemplating skipping it altogether in favour of sulking over my lack of new gadgets, and delayed postage on some new books I ordered, but I have spent a lot of the time in the kitchen this month and convinced myself an update was warranted.

In my kitchen today is...

a Raspberry Yoghurt Cake. I originally came across Celia's Blueberry and Yoghurt Cake recipe some time ago. Hubby doesn't really like cake, but this is one he'll steal the last piece of. The original recipe can be found here at Chocolate and Zucchini. Anything with yoghurt in the recipe is guaranteed to be moist, and to remove the "cakiness" of cake, hence why this one was a winner in our house. I normally use whichever berries I have on hand and today it was raspberries. I also never use white sugar and so replaced that with raw caster sugar in the recipe. Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly and I'm waiting for the cake to cool so I can have a piece! Most of it however will be shared with some lovely ladies and their children at a local coffee morning tomorrow.

In my kitchen quite a lot lately has been...

a pot of Teresa Cutter's Vegetable Minestrone Soup. This is the simplest and tastiest vegetable soup I've made, and one the whole family seems to enjoy. It is simple, vegetable-filled, low in salt and delicious. The capsicum is the dominant vegetable I think, and that makes the taste of this soup really unique from other vegetable soups. Did I mention it was healthy? And it contains no potato so it a fantastic low-carb option for lunch or dinner. I serve this as a main meal with a fresh loaf of Mixed Seed Bread. I also love these soup bowls that my mother-in-law almost got rid of at a garage sale a few years ago before I spotted them and took them home.

In my kitchen earlier this month was...

a birthday cake for my gorgeous "kind-of-sister-in-law" Kate. A fortunate twist of events meant I was able to see Kate on her 26th birthday, and make her a birthday cake, or 24. I used this divine Brownie Cupcake recipe and topped them with a whipped milk chocolate genache. I didn't even know you could whip genache until coming across Savoury Sweet Life, but the result is a beautifully pale and extremely stiff topping perfect for piping. The letters were made with white chocolate. I melted the chocolate, poured it into a zip lock bag, snipped the very end off the bag and piped the letters out onto a baking paper-lined oven tray. I then cooled the letters in the fridge and when they were set, moving very quickly to avoid melting them with my hands, arranged them on top of the genache. This was a great cake for sharing, and the munchkins could have one to themselves without consuming too much brownie.

So maybe my kitchen isn't that boring this month. Check out what's happening in some other kitchens around the world by visiting the links at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.