Tuesday, July 23, 2013

time for an update

Bloosoms

the winter so far has been fairly warm and the fist of the buds are out for the Peaches

Peach blossoms
Nectarines and Apples

Apple Blossoms

The Apples have never been particularly successful, I am told our "monsoon" weather pattern is the main reason, that is, wet summers and drier winters.  We'll see how they go this year as we've had a wetter than normal, albeit mild winter.

Weeds

For those interested in edible and useful "weeds" we came across this a few months ago

We've found a couple of the weeds mentioned and plan to use some in various salads etc
Dock, found growing in the Orchard

You can get a copy here if you're interested.  Interesting book.  We just wish we could find something on Fungi, as we have so many varieties on our property with no real idea as to which ones are edible.  Anyone know of a foragers guide to Fungi in Australia ?

Cheese...


is going great,

Freshly made Feta
Feta and Ricotta only at the moment. Neufchâtel is the next cheese to try.  You can read more about the great cheese factory here.  It sells well when Toni takes it to the Farmers Market and overall the feedback has been positive.  After watching her idol Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on River Cottage the other night, now she wants her own Cow... mmmm

Baking

Cinnamon Scrolls

Just before going in the oven

 were recently added to the home baked menu, love 'em !

Breads and Scrolls proving near the fire
Stored in the freezer, they are easily reheated over the fire in a small metal pan.  No Gas or electricity (even though we're 100% renewable) needed !

In fact, I am off to heat one now !  Ooo 'roo !

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

and again with the cooking

When life hands you lemons, make lemon cheesecake.  There are a couple bush lemon trees on some public land just down the road that are currently full of lemons

Using the recipe below it's quite easy

Easy Lemon Cheescake

Ingredients

397 grams sweetened condensed milk
80 grams butter
300 grams cream cheese
285 ml of thickened cream that's been 1/2 whipped cream
4 large lemons
biscuits (crushed for the base)

Procedure


  • Take a loose bottomed cake tin, melt butter slowly on stove and add the crush biscuits. Once the butter has been absorbed, turn into the tin and pat down gently and refrigerate.
  • For the cheesecake mixture, place the soft cheese into a mixing bowl and start to soften with an electric mixer add the sweetened condensed milk slowly, this will ensure no lumps from the cheese remain
  • Then add the cream
  • Squeeze the lemons
  • Add the lemon juice to the bowl a bit at a time & you'll find the mixture starts to thicken
  • Once all of the lemon juice has been added then transfer this to the biscuit base and refrigerate for an hour. 


We added some grated lemon rind to get a but more tang !

Easy lemon cheesecake
Long time blog followers ha ha ha ! May remember we had a visit from our local superhero, Superfixerupperman the other week, lucky we did as we used the repaired pan for the cheesecake above.!

Lemon Delicious

on the topic of desserts, we were at a friends house a week ago and they made a "traditional" Lemon Delicious or Baked Lemon Pudding.

Lemon Delicious borrowed recipe

They had no lemons and made it on limes, equally "delicious".  We have plenty of lemons, so off Toni went again

Lemon Delecious

Served six it said... mmmm :)

and Sweet Potato Soup

You may remember a couple blog posts ago about the sweet potatoes, well after boiling away on the stove,

Stove is heating the cottage, heating water for the dishes (rainy day, no solar)
and cooking the soup

this is the end result, after it goes through the blender for 20 seconds (renewable solar energy used for the blender !)

Home made bread with sweet potato soup, parsley from the garden
and some grated Granna Pedarno cheese