The Garden :: Power Gardening

Check out the before shots here......

So we got the tree men in, with their cherry picker and chainsaws. They were just starting to chop at 9 am, and just driving away when I got home at 3:30. Money well spent.



Now my vege patch gets to see some sunshine. I'm a wee bit concerned it's still too shady, but I think a wee bit of cover from the midday Auckland summer sunshine probably isn't such a bad thing. Along the back, those trees are 3 peaches and a plum. I'm pretty sure!





There's a wee garden which runs along he side of the house, opposite and paralell to this garage wall. With the tree gone, not only can we get into the garage, this wee stratch of dirt gets all day sun!



The most dramatic change really was out the front, still so so much work to do, but at least now we can see where we are headed! Taking out these trees has also dramatically increased light level in the lounge.

Dave and Louise (Michael's Dad and Stepmum) are staying with us for 5 days at the moment. You won't beleive the series of phots I'll show you in a couple of days time when we've finished the working bee we're in the middle of!

The Garden:: Before

When we bought this property, a little old lady (in her early 90's) had owned it for 15 years. We think she had moved out about 6 months earlier, where the appointments ran out on the wall calender left behind. While I don't doubt she once had a lovely garden, and I'm told a very productive vege garden, by the time we got to owning it it was very overgrown.




These are such sweet, juicy oranges. Hopefully with a litle light the tree can start growing back the other way!







Some one sprayed thisall out before we moved in, unfotunately they got the rhubarb too, which is slowly coming back, while everyone else in Auckland is eating theirs! The neighbour told me Dorothy grew a magnificent crop. Also in the vege garden when we moved in was a bean vine, covered in dried out old pods, I saved the seed before I pulled them out, to plant this weekend.

So that's the before....stay tuned!

Puffy pastry

In the spirit of cooking posts that has been happening, one for the puff pastry i made a couple of weekend back. So delicious, and worth the relatively minimal effort required.

Just any puffy pastry recipe will do, but a bit of googling gave me these pointers:

The trick is to make the butter think it is one with the pastry, while not letting it melt into the pastry. This means keep things cold. Chill between rollings.

Two, cook in a hot oven (heated up). And cook from chilled. This probably applies to store bought pastry too. The recipe I used had 250g of butter in it and made enough for 4 rhubarb and apple pastys, and a bacon and egg pie two days later. Prehaps 200g of butter woulld have been ample.

Give it a go, you won't be disappointed!

Errata and the mock chicken recipe

In the last recipe I told you to use 1 3/4 c of flour to get a sticky biscuit dough. This is wrong as I clearly can't do basic sums. The correct amount is 1.4 cups. 1 1/2 is fine I'm sure. I double checked myself, not by calculating it, but by making the biscuits. I hope if any of you have made them and run into problems, you just added an extra egg like I did. Luckily my egs are just wee, which is maybe why it was so dry in the first place.

Also, I'd just like to point out I think its cute how the Edmonds Classics recipe use both cup and weight meaurements- I guess using the measurement the original recipes were in. They do only use grams tough, no emperial system here. I prefer to use cup measurements though, as it's just easier than getting out the scales.

So, Mock Chicken. No photos today as I haven't made it. The recipe is intriguing though.

Chop one medium onion finely and cook in a little butter, but do not brown. Add a small tomato, skinned and sliced, 1 teaspoon of mixed herb, salt and pepper and one beaten egg. Cook slowly unitl mixture thickens. Pile on cheese or water biscuits and garnish with parsely.

The recipe is accompanied by a note which explains there was no chicken during the depression, and that women had to be "creative in the kitchen". (Which doesn't really explain the extravagent use of butter and cheese in this recipe.)

So, do let me know if you try this. I can't imagine it will resemble chicken all that much, but it may be good of it's own right.

Best Biscuit Recipe

For the first time in 4 years of living together, Michael and I have a fully functional oven. It's a case of 6th (!!) time lucky, and only because we bought a brand new one. Every time we spend money on the house, I reckon it's the best money we've spent. Which reminds me, I must show you the power gardening. Please note, this is the cleanest you will ever see my oven.

So I opened the recipe book, and as Michael was passing asked hime which ones I should make. He said those ones (the top left of the page), pointing to the 'Chocolate Cream' biscuits. I usually stick to tried and true recipes, but sometimes it's good to branch out. Maybe I will try a few more of the recpies in the the book (Edmonds Classic). Except the mock chicken, cos I just think that's weird.

So the second time I made them I modified them slightly (cos really, mixed spice in a chocolate biscuit? It just wasn't right.) I thought you might like to make them too.

{chocolate biscuits}

75g soft butter

3/4 c sugar

1 egg

1 t vanilla

1 1/2 c flour

1t baking powder

2T cocoa

handful of chocolate chips (optional)

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Mix in flour, cocoa baking powder and chocolate chips. Roll into balls and flatten onto baking tray. Bake at 190 C for 12 minutes.

These make a lovely, cakey, soft biscuit. The mixture seems quite sticky, but just go with it. Somehow, with less butter and an egg, these seem healthier than my usual go to recipe (which has condensed milk AND sugar in it!) Enjoy!

Dreamtime

Early evening light is the best

A few more photos from my shoot with the blossom trees.

Summer Bounty

We have 4 trees at the back of our section, 3 are covered in pink flowers at the moment, one was laden with white flowers, branches dripping white petals, which has now given way into fresh green leaves. I think the white flowered tree is a plum (I'm hoping for elephant heart) and the pink are peaches. I've also found lots of peach stones while digging over the garden beneath the trees.

Two of the trees are planted quite close together and are quite large. If I can work out how to protect the fruit from the birds, I'm expecting a big crop.

Flowers collapsing, having done the hard work attracting bees, tiny furry fruits appear at their bases.

The best part of our new house

From time to time I get a bit disillusioned with my job- the rat race-ness of it all, the driving to work. I long for a more creative, gentle, flexible way to earn a living. Right now, for us, this is not a viable option, but there are small, baby steps toward a time where I might be able to be at home more. One day Michael asked me what it was I really wanted to be doing, and I replied, "listening to National Radio while I work in my studio." Sometimes, you really have to put it out there. One of the things we (I) fell in love with about this property was this space I could claim as my own, and even when our family begins to expand I'm unlikely to have to give up this space, as I would have to a bedroom.

Welcome to my studio.







At the moment it's a dumping ground for the boxes we haven't got around to unpacking yet, and the off cuts of a couple of hastily thrown together projects. It's probably last on our do up list (so the mural might be there for a time yet!!) but I planted the seed of an idea that it may be the easiest room to do- the carpet tiles lift right out, and there's no wallpaper to strip, unlike the rest of the house. Except the toilet.
It's big too, half a double garage. So although we bought a 3 bedroom house, this studio means it will be flexible for us for a good while yet.

Wedding Dress

Oh Wedding dress. Last time we met, I was struggling to make you work, and to take photos of you.

Now, you are beautiful. And deconstructed. If you want to see pictures, go here. If not, don't.

I bought fabric, and have unpicked my labour of love. From here on in, more cryptic photos as she starts to take shape, which should happen relatively fast now- I've already done the hard work!