Share this:

My fairly new friend Giovanna who blogs over at Blue Jelly Beans was kind enough to gift me 6 awards!  Wow, what love!  Thank you again Giovanna aka BJB, I really do feel very special.  Giovanna started her blog to document the recipes she got from her mom when she left home at 18 as a record for herself and her children and anybody else who is passionate about treasuring old family recipes and memories.  Do pop over and see what she is making today.

I have been honoured by receiving the Versatile Blogger, Stylish Blogger and Liebster Blog Awards previously, so instead of boring you with more of the same information, I will tackle the questions that form part of one of the other awards, the Sunshine Award.  What a lovely name for an award.

1. Favourite colour?

Hmm, well that all depends on my mood, but for now I would have to say pearl – it is neutral and goes with everything.

2. Favourite animal?

No surprise here – CATS!  But for the most part, all animals.

 3. Favourite number?

It would have to be 8 – nicely balanced top and bottom.

4. Favourite drink?

Non alcoholic – Tea

Alcoholic – Gin and Tonic with lots of lemon

5. Facebook or Twitter?

Facebook.  It is more interactive and friendly – whereas with Twitter people seem to tweet their every waking thought and it takes me too long to scroll through pages and pages of peoples thoughts.  I tweet once a day with a motivational quote and then every Monday, Wednesday and Friday a second tweet of the day with my blog post link.

6. Your passion?

I’m obsessive so whatever I am busy with is my passion.

7. Giving or getting presents?

Absolutely giving.  Not always easy when you are battling to find the right gift but more often than not, I try and make a gift – baked goodies in a nice bowl, engraving a crystal glass, homemade preserves, sauces and the like.

8. Favourite day?

Any day that Pete is home.

 9. Favourite flowers?

Any type of lily and lavender.

Then as with all the other awards, is to pay the love forward onto other bloggers.  I know each award has its own set of rules and how many bloggers etc. to pay it forward to, which is never an easy task to pin point only a few bloggers as you are all equally as important and special to me, but for today I have decided to share all of these lovely awards with:

Kathryn at Kiwsparks

Lizzy at Bizzy Lizzy’s Good Things

Jed at Sports Glutton and

Betsy at Bits and Breadcrumbs

Share this:

I have been thoroughly enjoying learning all there is to learn about my camera and each day, I figure out something new to try out.  I will calm down with photographing soon, I promise, well I promise to try.  In the meanwhile, I would like to take you for a walk around our village where we live.  I will get back to the kitchen for new recipes soon.

Maybe I will start “Wordless Wednesday” posts…

Have a happy day.

Melody’s Tripe

As promised, I asked Melody for her tripe recipe and she lovingly shared it with me.  She never gave specific measurements for any of the ingredients; depending on the quantities you are preparing, I think it is all very self explanatory.  So with no further ado…

Ingredients

Tripe cut into bite size pieces (fresh or frozen)
Water
Salt
Onions
White Sauce

Method

1. Cook the tripe in a covered dish over night in a low oven (100°C) covered in water and salt to taste or until the tripe is tender.  Check periodically in case more liquid is required.
2. Chop the onions and fry until soft.
3. Make a white sauce.
4. Remove any liquid from the tripe and stir in the onions and white sauce.
5. Cook for a further hour.

Share this:

I have been having so much fun learning about my awesome new camera that I thought it would be nice to show you around our garden.

I was thrilled to get what looks like a shimmer effect on the petals, so pretty.  Honestly wasn’t my intention but I am proud all the same.  I hope you can pick it up now that I have reduced the size of the photo.

Here is Pete’s favourite birds eye chilli bush.  When we left for Mauritius, the garden was full of these little bushes that produce the most colourful fruit.  They start off purple then turn orange and finally red when they are ready for harvesting.  Sadly we returned to one lonesome little bush.  Pete has just recently dried some seed and has sowed them into pots, so we should have baby bushes soon.

I think this is a paper bark acacia (you will soon learn that my garden knowledge is somewhat limited).  We got the seed from our neighbour a few years back and it grew most successfully in a pot – Pete has serious green fingers or thumbs, never know which is the right terminology.  We transplanted it next to the drive and whilst we were doing the island thing, it had the most peculiar growth.  It grew a sturdy trunk which has been cut right down (now stands bare) and the tree has sprouted from around the base of the trunk.  It is very unique.  I will try get a shot of the whole tree to share with you.

I was really lucky to get this pic as this flower usually gets taken out by the weed eater.  I am sure I could have captured a sharper image but the wind was blowing quite a bit – well that is my excuse and I am sticking to it.  Do you possibly know what it is?

I have never noticed just how many of these bauble thingies are on the conifers.  They remind me of spiders nests – not a pleasant thought!

This is a new development on the base of our one yellow wood trees – I hope it isn’t diseased.  It appears to be very healthy, so I have decided that it just had a quick growth spurt and burst it’s bark seams.

Aah, we are inundated with loads of wasps nests/hives all around the garden and house.  I hope that if I leave them alone that they will leave us alone.  These fellows were frantically flapping their wings, to cool the hive possibly?  It looked like they were mating too, so I’m not too sure what that was all about.

Our little baby was stalking leaves that were blowing around the garden.  She was having so much fun dashing from one end of the garden to the other – attacking a leaf and destroying it in a couple of seconds before moving onto the next one and then all too soon was terribly bored with the whole affair and went to nap.

This here is the result of Pete “pruning” the conifers.  I have been told they will take a  l o n g  time to fill if at all – oh dear.  I am nearly over the ordeal, not quite but nearly.

We always seem to get the most odd shaped chillies – it is quite a rarity to get a smooth skinned “normal” looking chilli.  I wonder if it has something to do with sun and shade?

Finally, these two snails decided to take up residence on either side of the marker in our tomato pot.  I wonder if they knew about each other?

Thank you for taking a walk around the garden with me.  I will share more photos once I have improved my photographic skills.

Have a happy day.

Fresh Fig Yoghurt Muffins

Today’s recipe is not quite as exciting as yesterdays but it still got the double thumbs up, so I am very happy.  The muffins were remarkably light with a beautiful soft crumb and sticky top.  I am sure this would work equally as well with preserved or dried figs, just as the tart would but  I shall use the wonderful figs fresh on our tree for as long as I can.

Ingredients

500ml self-raising flour
250ml sugar
5ml salt
80ml oil
10ml vanilla essence
250ml plain yoghurt
1egg lightly beaten
4-5 figs (250ml) peeled and roughly chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl until just combined.
3. Divide into 12 muffin tins lined with cupcake cases.
4. Bake for 20 minutes.

Fresh Fig Tart

I quickly set to formulating a couple of recipes for the fresh figs before there were no more left!  I didn’t venture too far into the unknown and used the base for two of my recipes that are guaranteed to be nice and that work well with whatever ingredients you throw at them.  Today I bring you Fresh Fig Tart and on Wednesday it will be, well, you will have to wait and see.  The tart is absolutely delicious and would work well for tea with friends or as a dessert for dinner guests; no other accompaniments required although I am sure a ball of vanilla ice cream would compliment this tart beautifully.

Ingredients

Crust

125g butter
½ cup sugar – I used brown
1 egg
2 cups self-raising flour

Filling

3

eggs
60g butter melted
225ml
 brown sugar
80ml
 golden syrup
10
ml vanilla essence
3-4 figs halved and sliced

Method

Crust

1. Cream the butter and sugar.
2. Add the egg and about 1 tablespoon of the flour and mix well.
3. Add the flour and combine to form a dough and roll into a sausage.
4. Wrap half the sausage in cling film and freeze for another day.  Bonus!
5. Press the remaining dough into a 23cm pie dish and  prick the base a few times with a fork.  Set aside.

Filling

1. Lightly beat the eggs.
2. Continue beating and add the butter and brown sugar.
3. Add the golden syrup and continue to beat until the mixture is foamy.
4. Add the vanilla essence.
5. Pour the egg mixture into the pastry shell and arrange the fig slices on top of the mixture.
6. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.
7. Allow to cool until the pie is set.

Un-Recipe Cucumber Sandwich

It has been a long while since I shared an un-recipe with you and yesterdays lunch was very much just that, an un-recipe sarmie.  It was another one of “those” days where I could not pull myself away from the computer until it was too late to make anything more than a quick sandwich for lunch.  A very satisfying and very moreish sarmie mind you, one which I quite often enjoy.

Ingredients

2 slices of brown bread
Butter
Mayonnaise
Cucumber slices
Salt and Pepper

Method

1. Butter the bread.
2. Spread a layer of mayonnaise on one slice.
3. Top with the cucumber, salt and pepper.
4. Place the second slice of bread on top and cut in half.

Anchovie, Garlic and Basil Linguine

This supper which comes together in the length of time it takes your pasta to cook, is a satisfying tasty meal for when you really don’t feel like standing in the kitchen cooking, or like me, your husband is away on business and you sat behind the computer the whole day until way passed your normal dinner time.  When I make it again, I think I shall add a splash of white wine and or possibly some chopped black olives.  I may just add that to the leftovers for lunch.

Ingredients

250g linguine or pasta of choice
8 anchovies
4 garlic cloves crushed
Black pepper to taste
6 basil leaves chiffonade

Method

1. Cook the linguine according to packet instructions.
2. Mash the anchovies including some of the oil from the bottle or tin in a pan over a medium heat.
3. Add the garlic and pasta and stir to combine.
4. Add the black pepper, basil and a drizzle of olive oil.

White Sauce

As promised, this is my basic white sauce recipe, which doubles and triples beautifully just like the pancake recipe.  Use this as a base for a soufflé, cheese sauce, onion sauce or use as is for with your savoury pancakes or over broccoli and cauliflower and brussel sprouts (if you need to hide them a bit like I have to for certain people).  We enjoy our white sauce with quite a bit of pepper as you can see from the photo and I always use white pepper but you can substitute black if you prefer.

Ingredients

30ml butter
30ml flour
250ml milk
Salt and white pepper to taste
Pinch of dry mustard powder – optional

Method

1. In a small saucepan melt the butter over a medium heat.
2. Add the flour stirring to form a roux.
3. Add the milk and salt, pepper and mustard and stir until boiling and thickened.

Pancakes (Crepes)

As promised, this is my basic pancake recipe, which doubles and triples beautifully.  It is super easy and produces lovely light and soft pancakes ready for all your savoury and sweet desires.  Allowing the mixture to stand for 30 minutes before cooking is not necessary but it does soften the batter and allows the flour to absorb more of the liquid.  Once cooked, these pancakes also freeze very well.

makes ± 16 small pancakes

Ingredients

1 cup flour
½ tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup water
½ cup milk

Method

1. Place all of the ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.
2. If you have the time allow the mixture to stand for 30 minutes.
3. Heat a small pan or crepe pan over a high heat and brush with oil.
4. Pour or ladle small amounts of batter into the pan tilting the pan in a circular motion to coat the bottom of the pan evenly with the mixture.
5. Once lightly browned on the underneath side, flip the pancake over using a spatula and cooked for a few more seconds.
6. Continue with points 4 and 5 until the mixture is finished.