5 minute Bread

This morning I made my first batch of 5 minute bread from the bulk mix I made up on Tuesday.

I took a piece about the size of a grapefruit off, and quickly shaped it in to a ball by pulling the 4 corners to underneath, and place it on a floured tray for 40 minutes

I pre-heated the oven to 230deg, and slashed the top of the loaf with a serrated knife, and placed it in the oven with a cup of hot water in a pan in the bottom, and waited.

Half an hour later, my first loaf was ready.

All I can say is.....YUM!

The crust in beautiful and crispy, and the bread inside is soft and delicious. Just perfect. Slashing the top of the loaf allowed the loaf to rise nicely, and create lots of lightness to the loaf. And it was very, very easy. Took me about 10 minutes on the first day to mix it together. It then sat on the bench for the afternoon, then I put it in the fridge where it stayed until this morning. Today, if there was 5 minutes in it, it would have been just 5 minutes, and no more. I had some for lunch with just butter, started off with 2 pieces, then...ahem...had another...then a teensy weensy small bit of the crust, as it was so nice. Talk about full now though...I also picked a hand of lady finger bananas from the tree this morning, they are now in the fruit bowl on the bench waiting to ripen.

There is still plenty more on the tree to be picked, so I hope they ripen up ok. Getting a bit tired now, didn't sleep very well last night, the dogs woke me up (again) so was awake for a few hours reading until I was tired enough to go back to sleep. Must order my spring seeds and get those sown though, might relax on the laptop this afternoon and order those online I think. Must not get carried away though, I'm not sure whether we will be up at the farm by the end of the year or not, so don't want to go to overboard on the vegie garden here until then.

Potato Planting day

Today was time to plant the potatoes. I ordered mine in from Green Harvest, and I got 6 different varieties to try, and I have decided this year to try the potato tower method. The varieties I am trying are Sebago, Nicola, Dutch Cream, Desiree, Toolangi Delight and Ruby Lou. I have purchased 12 kilograms all up, so I would like to get a 5:1 yield back at least to make it worthwhile. I used chicken wire as the frames, and put sugar can mulch in around the base and sides and filled the towers up with home made compost, alternating layers of potatoes all the way up the towers, then watered them in...crossing my fingers for a good harvest in a few months time.

                                     

The sewing retreat on the weekend was very productive. I made quite a few items, and I also repaired a skirt that I needed to replace the zipper on. This is a bag I made for Kasey for school, but I think it is probably a little small for a school bag, but she loves it anyway. I just need to finish it off with a couple of clip studs to join the top on to the bag properly.

I also made her a new lunch bag, as her other one was getting a bit past it. 

 A new sun hat for me...might make a couple more of these I think...it has a nice wide brim, so is really great for the garden.

 There is always a project that the retreat ladies give us to do, and this time it was this table runner using a special flip ruler to do the shapes, I loved the colours of this one, and it is on the table taking pride of place.

 The last couple of days have been pretty busy, I had a bit of time spare before picking Kasey up from school on Monday, so I called in to the op shop and picked up this lovely picnic basket. I've always wanted one like this, but wasn't prepared to pay the high price of a brand new one. I picked this one up for $15, so was happy with that.

 Yesterday I spent some time in the kitchen, I made these lemon honey yoghurt muffins from Linda's blog for lunches, they are very yummy, for the extra sweet tooth's around here,  I made up some lemon butter in the Thermomix (very, very quick and easy, 10 mins from start to finish) to spread in the middle to keep them happy until they get a bit more used to less sugar, which is a big focus around here right now, and Linda has heaps of healthy recipes on her blog, so I will be trying quite a few for lunch box treats. I added some Chia seeds to them as well, they look just like poppy seeds, and no-one has even asked what they are, so a bonus.

I also made up a batch of mayonnaise in the Thermomix last night as Toni wanted some to put on her chicken sandwiches for lunches, very quick and easy to make, and yummy. I was looking at the prices of whole egg mayo in the supermarkets and they charge nearly $6 a jar, so it got left on the shelf! To make this batch would have cost me about $1.00 I would think, and I know exactly what is in it, no numbers in this jar.

I also made up a batch of yoghurt, and a big batch of dough from the Artisan 5 minutes a day for fresh bread book, so it has been resting in the fridge, and I will probably bake my first loaf from that tomorrow. I used a mix of organic white flour, as well as a soy and linseed mix, and I also added chia seeds, so it should be a nice filling, healthy loaf. I also baked up a batch of pikelets for the lunch boxes as well. I have flowers coming in tomorrow to be made up for the weekend, and an embroidery workshop in the morning, and scrapbooking Friday, so still a busy week ahead.

Weekend happenings and running on empty!

I am running on empty today, I didn't get to sleep last night until 11pm, and because I am trying to not take my tablet to help me sleep, I have been awake since 3am....blah...very tired, but surprisingly productive.

I have organised a few more guinea fowl to come in tomorrow, that are the same age as the 2 I have left, so that we are back up to 6 again. I also have a clucky hen at the moment, so I have organised for a half dozen day old chicks to come up tomorrow to place under her. I have a mix of Anconas, plymouth rocks and silver spangled hamburgs coming. I should also have a few ancona pullets coming up as well. I think quite a few of the girls are ageing and their laying capacity has dwindled , as out of 8 girls we are only averaging 1 or 2 eggs a day, and that has been since spring last year..so time to start bringing some new ones in to bring the laying capacity back up.  I'm happy to let the older girls live out their lives happily as they have done a good job with the egg laying, so now they are more for fertilising and eating some bugs.

I have been also organising a few final inside touches for the reno this morning as well. The weekend was relatively quiet, I spent most of the weekend keeping my sewing machine whirring away working on my wall art for the main bedroom, and I dug out the french knitting tool for Kasey yesterday, and she spent most of the day getting the hang of that, she absolutely loves it, and is currently working on a round rug for her floor (which she has conveniently given me the job of sewing together for her)  Then I think she will start work on covering some tins for storage containers on her desk. I will look at also getting her a rectangle knitting loom which is based on the same principle, but she will be able to make scarves and things with, but I will give that to her when we go away at Easter or whenever the novelty starts wearing off with the french knitting tool first.

I also did some baking for lunches and make pikelets,

 Chocolate yogo,

 and Hodgetts slice

So, lots of variety there for snacks to take to school, and for after school. I also placed an order with Fishpond last week, and 2 of my books arrived this morning.

I am waiting on another cheesemaking book on more of the soft cheeses, yoghurts, creme fraiche etc to arrive as well as a couple of cake decorating books. I am going to pop them away and take them with me on our Easter holiday as my easter reading...I just need to be patient...not long to go, Kasey finishes school this week for the term, it has gone so fast. I have booked her in for a kids easter cupcake decorating class next week, so she can bring her creations with her to share with her friends over easter. So..that's the update for today...lots going on as usual...
**Hour a day in the Garden Update - I have done 3 hours in the garden today, as I missed the last couple of days due to other commitments, so I made up for it today, I did 1 1/2 hours of mowing, (it is still really wet though, so only could do the front area until the back dries out more) and 1 1/2 hours of planting, I planted some Qld Arrowroot and Kassava in the pool area, I am hoping the Arrowroot gives the area a tropical look without having to have palms everywhere as they can get pretty messy. I have also planted Vietnamese Mint, Lemongrass, Mushroom plant, 3 types of sweet potato - purple, clumping and orange, and I know there is something else but I can't think at this stage what it is. I still have some pennyroyal to plant, and a Davison Plum, but I think I will plant that up at the property when we go up at the end of next week.

Decluttering and Baking

I have had a busy couple of days. I was so sick of trying to scrounge my way through some of the kitchen cupboards and drawers to find things, I just started on one of my big pot drawers with all of the baking trays, as I just updated my baking trays as my old ones were looking really grungy, and then it just sort of steam rolled from there...before I knew it, my car was full of kitchen appliances, old plastics, trays, etc etc, but I can actually find things in there now...so I donated it all to the charity store, and on Saturday night I completely overhauled the linen cupboard, because I was sick of chucking the towels and linen in the cupboard and quickly shutting the doors so things would stay in there...so now we only have about a dozen towels, teatowels and washers, and a few sets of sheets, etc, but still absolutely plenty of linen. Getting the cupboards re-done will be on the agenda very shortly, as they all need to be re-shelved, so I wanted to cull the contents down as much as possible, so that it's easier when I have to empty them all out to paint, before getting the new shelving put in, and the new doors on. The excess linen absolutely filled the entire back of my car to the brim....but looks so much better now. I spent the weekend using up some of the produce in the freezer, and made up 5 1/2 kilos of pasta sauce base out of the home grown tomatoes from last season

It is now all in the deep freeze. I also used up the rhubarb from last season, and made up 2 rhubarb crumbles,

These are extremely yummy, especially with some home made custard, I also made up some rhubarb muffins, but they ended up way too moist in the centre, so I gave them to the chooks, so will change the recipe a little as they would have been really yummy if a bit lighter in the middle. I also made up some banana chocolate muffins, and these got the thumbs up from Kasey

So, we will be back up at the property later in the week, Damian should be going up Tuesday to get the machines in to prep for the slab for the shed, and they are going to pour the slab next Saturday. The cattle sales will be on  the Monday, but it will depend on a few things whether we will be able to get cattle this time around, as we need to be on the property for a least a few days after we get them to keep them in the yards and feed them etc, so I am not sure whether we can manage that with school starting back tomorrow. Kasey is so excited, she went to bed nearly on time, and has her bag packed and her school clothes out already, so I am nice and inspired to make her a nice healthy, yummy lunch in the morning, and then take her and settle her in for her first day in grade 3. So, probably another busy week coming up, I have to finish a baby blanket for a friend, so I will need to pull the sewing machine back out and get that done, and a few wedding preservations to finish off to get those out the door, and then I am going to only take on very limited wedding work for the rest of the year while we are working out the new property and travelling back and forth between here and there. So, a very productive weekend, and it looks like some more rain coming our way this week, which will be great for the gardens.

A bit more Christmas preparation....

I have been busy continuing on with Xmas preparations etc over the last few days. I have organised Toni's present and it is being delivered over the next few days sometime.  I will be picking up Michael's present tomorrow.  I should be finishing the last of the present shopping tomorrow hopefully.  I spent some time on Saturday setting up my sewing machine in the spare room so I can get some serious sewing done.  I have finished the Xmas stockings, so they are ready for filling up.  I also finished the Xmas tree skirt yesterday, and I was up until midnight last night finishing off another Xmas gift.  I was a bit tired this morning, so I will have to try and get to bed a little earlier from now on! At the moment I have 6 mini xmas cakes cooking away in the oven, I am trying a new recipe this year, as the ones from last year seemed a bit dry. This one seems to be a nice rich cake, so I am hoping it will be nice and moist.  I will keep topping them up with brandy in the leadup to xmas day. We have had so much rain here lately, the vegie garden has been taken over by weeds....I spent an hour up there this afternoon pulling weeds, I ended up covered in dirt and mud but it looks a lot better, still a lot of the smaller weeds to pull, and then will have to do the other side. I need to get in some mulch to cover it over, and then do some replanting.  So, lots of things to do....Kasey finishes school this week, and has her end of year dance concert as well, so I need to get all of the shopping and wrapping out of the way before school finishes....but I am definitely feeling more organised than I was a couple of weeks ago.....

Busy baking day.....

I thought I would catch up on some school lunch baking today, it seems like ages since I have had a baking day, and the school munchies were in serious need of some topping up. I made some pikelets:

I also made some choc chip muffins

And also some cheesy vegemite scrolls

I also put on a batch of skim vanilla yoghurt using the simple savings recipe, I have tried the suggestion of another forum member and used long life skim milk, instead of full cream powdered milk. It seems to be thickening up ok, so I will see how it is a little later on tonight. I have never been able to get a skim version of the simple savings yoghurt using powdered milk to work, so if this works it would be great, it works out about the same cost, maybe 20c a litre dearer using the long life milk.  I usually use full cream powdered milk with a couple of tablespoons of the greek yoghurt starter powder and it ends up so thick that the spoon leaves a scoop mark in the yoghurt, I don't think the skim will end up quite so thick, but as long as it is thickened to a point, then that's fine with me, as I don't usually eat too much of my home made yoghurt because it's not a skim version.  I also gave the pantry a wipe out and cleared out some old, unidentifiable stuff in the bottom of the freezer as it's bin day, so my baking will now fit in the freezer!  So it's been a productive day in the kitchen.

I also sowed about 60 climbing beans, 70 peas and 8 golden nugget pumpkin seeds this afternoon. The corn I planted a couple of weeks ago is starting to shoot through the mulch, but no sign of the (kent/jap?? not sure which one they are) pumpkins yet...not sure if they will take as the seeds are a couple of years old, so I may have to dry some more and plant them out if the ones from a couple of weeks ago don't take...

I am going to have a look at the Ekka program, I would really like to go this year and watch the ring events and look at all of the judging etc....Damian loves the woodchop, I love watching the horses and the sheep dog trials and the night time events....Kasey, well she just loves the rides and side show alley and the showbags of course....so with the clash of what the adults like and what Kasey and her big brother and sister like, it makes it hard to go and for us all to enjoy ourselves.  May have to make 2 days of it, 1 for Kasey and 1 for Damian and I....just don't know if I could stand 2 days of the show....we did go last year, and we usually make a point of only going every 2nd year....we'll see what happens....

Friday Wrapup

I picked most of the chillies today. I wanted to leave them until they had started to turn red, but something has started invading them, and has started to chew on a couple, so thought it best to pick them all and leave them on the bench to redden. With what's already in the freezer, plus these, I will have enought to fill Christmas requests for Chilli Jam....it is very popular with family members!

I was quite out of sorts this morning, I have lots of things I could have been doing, but just couldn't seem to get myself started. Finally, I decided to bake an orange cake and that seemed to be enough to get me moving. I put on some pizza dough in the breadmaker to mix, I made a double batch so I could put half in the freezer. I did a few other banking errands, wrapped a bouquet preservation being picked up next week, started the hardening process on one in process at the minute, put on a batch of yoghurt, vacuumed and did a bit of dusting, did a few loads of washing and a quick tidy around. We had pizza for dinner tonight, there is heaps left over, so can probably have that again tomorrow night, we have heaps of quiche left over from last night also, so that's another option also, but I may end up freezing that for a quick easy meal for another night yet.Ann came over tonight as she wanted a bit of help with some internet advertising, and stayed for a couple of hours with cuppas and chats, so that was a nice catch up. I was going to try and start on my vegetable garden planning, but didn't get around to it today, so will put that on the list for the next few days/weeks....I am going to go and get some yarn from the American Yarn shop tomorrow, for some of the sugar n cream yarn, to knit up some more dishcloths, and look for some other lovely yarn for my crocheting plans, and then we are going to go and pickup Toni's formal dress, and may have a nice lunch while we are out, so hopefully a lovely day coming up tomorrow :)

Baking Day

Today I have tried to catch up on some baking. It seems like months since I have spent a day baking, other than the odd cake here or there, which have been few and far between, I just haven't been getting around to baking. I have dropped back into some bad habits of buying biscuits, chips etc..as my time has been a bit limited and time seems so busy and the days go so fast. It is hard sometimes to stay motivated with baking when it isn't appreciated a lot. Damian isn't a big one for home baking, and Toni will eat it, but not that much, and trying to get Kasey to take home baking in her lunches is a hard fought battle.  She is only in grade 1, but already there seems to be such a large emphasis placed on taking packaged items to school and of taking the same thing as what the other kids take. Kasey doesn't take purchased muesli bars, and never has, but I have been a bit slack and have been giving her packaged biscuits and the like on more occasions than I would have liked. I am trying to get back in to a routine and also encourage Kasey to take more home baking to school. She does understand that home baking is much better for her than shop bought, but it is difficult for me to stay on target when I give her home made yoghurt, or home made yogos, homemade banana cake, pikelets, choc chip biscuits, choc chip muffins etc, but most of the time they come home because she is too embarrased to eat home cooking at school. It would be great if home cooked food was more the norm in childrens lunchboxes than store bought food, it's cheaper, more nutritious, and we know what gets put in it..... Tomorrow her school is having a no packaging lunch box day, and will have no bins other than compost bins in the grounds, which is a really good start. Kasey takes a no litter lunch anyway, as I put everything into containers, so it is no effort for me to do this....great to see them taking this initiative though. Anyway, today has been a huge baking day. I have managed to make the following:

2 Banana Cakes

Meusli Bars with Choc Tops

Caramel Slice made with home made condensed milk of course...

Moist Fruit Cake

And for dinner, garlic prawns....very yum...