Curried Tuna Slice

Ingredients:
1 sheet shortcrust pastry
425g tuna (drained and flaked)
1 tbsp butter
1 onion, finely diced
1 stalk celery, finely diced
2 tbsp butter, extra
2 tbsp plain flour
2 tsp curry powder
½ cup water
½ cup milk
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 tbsp grated cheddar cheese

Topping
Ingredients:
125g grated cheddar cheese
1-2 tsp curry powder
½ tsp paprika

Combine ingredients, and sprinkle over base before cooking.

Method:
Pre-heat oven 200 degrees Celsius. Line the base of a greased, foil lined lamington tray with the pastry. Spread drained and flaked tuna evenly over pastry.

In a small saucepan melt butter and sauté onion and celery for 1-2 minutes. Spread over tuna. Melt extra butter, add flour, and curry powder. Stir until combined. Gradually add water, milk and eggs, stirring constantly and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and fold in 2 tablespoons grated cheese. Pour sauce over vegetables. 

Sprinkle topping over slice.

Bake at 200 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce to 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until cooked.

Filling will be set and top is golden brown. Serve hot or cold as a main meal or cut into 3cm squares to use as finger food.

(Sharing this recipe from the Cheapskates Club Newsletter.)

Home made Shortbreads and gift bag

It's hard to buy gifts for people that you don't see very often. Knowing their likes, dislikes etc. And just wanting to give them a token gift with good wishes of the season, without over doing it. Home made is always good in these instances I believe, and shortbreads are always a winner for Christmas gifts.

I also love to put lots of thought in to how I wrap my presents, so I made a cute little bag, complete with clear cello window so that the shortbreads could be seen. I finished it off with a border punch, ribbon and a little gift tag.

I used my thermomix to make the shortbread, it's very quick and easy. It's not as nice as a true shortbread I don't think, but everyone I have given these to seems to rave about how nice they are, and seems to really appreciate them. I put pistachios and cranberries through these as well for some festive flair.

I used this Christmas Shortbread recipe from the Thermomix forum.

Gingerbread House 2016

I was lucky enough to be purchased a cooking class as a gift, so decided I would use it on a Gingerbread House class. I had a great day baking, and I'm really happy with the result. Great to put in the centre of the table on Christmas Day! It even has windows, and has lights inside that can be turned on and off.

Doughboy - our wandering bull

Our bull, Doughboy, has been a bit naughty over the last few months, and has started testing the fences and going on to neighbouring properties. We got a call from the stock squad a couple of weeks ago to say he had wandered on to another property, which ended up being a neighbours property.

They have been using molasses traps to catch the steers on their property, and Doughy can smell molasses from miles away. So he has broken through our fences to get over to the molasses, and keeps getting caught in their yards - which then means they can't catch their own cattle! They dropped him back for us, but he quickly disappeared again.

After looking for him for a few days while we have been up at the farm, I rang them to see if they had him again, and they did, so we arranged to go to the property they have taken him to, to keep him out of their molasses traps, about 30 klms from here. So yesterday Damian headed out to pick him up. In the meantime, the owners of the other property were rounding him up for us, Hugh...the owner, who is 73, has ended up having an accident on his quad bike, coming off, passing out and having to be choppered in to the local hospital! Nothing is bloody quiet around here! He has ended up having a few broken ribs, punctured a lung and bruising. He was actually very lucky. Quad bikes can be so dangerous, even if you know how to ride them.

Apparently, the news has been in contact with them today, and their grand-daughter has been giving interviews about children ringing 000, as she is 9 years old, and the one who rang the ambulance.

(Hugh being loaded in to the chopper for the ride to hospital)

We are so glad he is ok,  He has left hopsital today, and is managing well.  We have been up at the farm since the Thursday before Easter, and I was due to head back today, but I have been sick since last Friday, waves of headaches and nausea, and ended up going to bed at 4pm yesterday and was not up to the 4 hour drive back to Brisbane today.  Not sure when I will head back yet, probably will spend another day or 2 up here and then head back. I want to do some painting in the kitchen here, and we have been having a big clean out here, and clearing out bits and pieces from the shed while we have been here. Well, I better go and make sure the bull is behaving himself and hasn't wandered off again!

Stella.... my little mate....

Had to say goodbye to my little mate on Saturday....unfortunately Stella has never been 100% since we got her when she was 5 months old, and we found out after she started staggering that she was in liver failure which had started affecting her brain with toxins - it was called hepatic ensepalopathy.  Her blood was also not clotting, which meant she was very sick. It was going to take days of very intensive hospital care to even get her to the point of surgery, and even if she made it to surgery her chances of making it through were fair at best.  We had to basically be prepared to lose $10,000 and the odds were against her.  She would have been subjected to needle after needle, plasma infusions, and continue poking and prodding and intensive surgery that she probably wouldn't have made it out of because she was so sick, and I didn't want that for her. The very, very hard and absolutely heartbreaking decision was made to put her to sleep, and let her go peacefully. She was only 3, and my little best friend. She was sooo tiny, only weighed 2.7 kgs at her heaviest, and had dropped down to 2.1 kgs in the last week.

We brought her home and she is buried in the garden, which is my favourite place. I am looking for the most perfect, beautiful standard rose to plant over her, as she was so beautiful.

I miss her terribly, and I am so sad. This would have to be the most affected I have been about losing a pet, as I really considered her my tiny baby, and she was my little shadow.   Rest in peace my little Stella Bella xx

Year 6 Graduation Dinner and Dance..

I've been getting in to trouble from my Mother for not keeping my blog updated, sorry Mother :) so I thought I had better stop being a slacker and update it ;). A LOT has happened in the last few months, including a move back down to Brisbane, as work died off immensely up at the farm township, so decisions had to be made.  A lot of people up there have been affected by a lot of mines closing and money is pretty short, which of course has a flow on effect on small businesses such as ours. We still have the farm, and the cattle, we just have to head up every few weeks to take stock of what's happening up there. We still also have our business up there, we have put a casual guy on to do the jobs that come in, and I am running that part of things from down here, and Damian has gone back to project managing for a company down here...regular income is lovely.

Anyway, tonight is a big night for our youngest, Kasey has her year 6 dinner and dance tonight. This is the first year they have put on such an event, and the kids are all really looking forward to it. Kasey spent weeks designing her outfit, then we had to provide the $ to make it all come together...lol... but she looks beautiful, and is looking forward to a great night.

Newest Addition

Our newest addition was born overnight... a gorgeous little bull calf born to our Hereford, Hertie Gertie...he is sooo tiny, as Mum is only little herself. We were a little concerned that she may have had a difficult birth, but she seems to have managed fine, we noticed her milk bag filling up the other day, but didn't expect her to have her calf quite so quickly. He's a little cutie...