Quiet Sunday...

With the man of the house away for most of the day, I spent a quiet day indoors. 

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I put towels out as it was really windy but I knew rain was on the way...
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 It started raining around noon, on and off, so I cross stitched for a while...

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This pattern is Dear Jane, taken from an old Civil War quilt dating back to 1863.

I'm half way through it now.  I started this back in 2010 and just pulled it out to have another go at it...

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Our autumn has been mild and I'm still getting roses from the garden...

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I gave the tables out under the pergola a wipe down and de-cobwebbed the windows then swept the pavers. Still a bit of tidying up to do but its better than it was...

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Bonnie is still under the weather.  Gus (who says he hates the cat) decided she needed some fillet steak to cheer her up! 

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This morning I tackled another sourdough loaf.  It rose really well.

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I cut it at lunch time and its a bit holier so I'm on the right track!

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Cheers - Joolz xx

Big barbecue lunch...

We had planned to have a back yard paddock fire on Sunday but the weather got in the way of things. Cold and drizzly, we abandoned that idea for a pergola/indoor affair....

You see, we had this huge lump of cow to cremate! I believe it was about 7 kgs (Gus bought it at a fundraising auction a few weeks back). It was cryo-vacced but was needing to be eaten. We invited some friends around and lit the chiminea to warm us...

I made some ciabatta rolls (starting the biga (mother) the night before...

I must add a bit more water next time as it was quite dry...

When I added the rest of the flour and yeast etc the dough seemed very dry so again, more water needed next time. I didn't think they would be any good, the dough was so tough to work with...

...but they turned out okay. Perhaps not as airy and coarse crumbed as they should be but totally edible anyway.

Oh, wow! This is my new, favourite salad! So delicious and tangy!

The recipe is from Marie at The English Kitchen and its called

Winter fruit salad with lemon poppy seed dressing

The dressing is so scrummy - you must try it! I would halve the dressing recipe as it makes enough for 2 salads and I'm not sure how long it keeps in the fridge...

I totally forgot to take pictures of the big lumps of rump steak that Gus cooked but we all enjoyed it, from the warmth of our dining room. A great day with friends. We don't do it often enough!

Cheers - Joolz xx

Posted by Joolz with Blogsy

A weekend at home...

Look what I found going through some files on my computer at work!

It's Brianna holding our two kittens, Clyde and Bonnie - way back in early 2007...

Poor Clyde didn't see out the end of 2007 before he was hit by a car but Bonnie has survived living on a main road, she is a resilient outdoor mogster. We shut her in each night in our garage if she chooses to come home... (where she usually sleeps on the bonnet of my car !) but she roams free during the day.

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Gus cooked this recipe that was in the Who magazine. We didn't have fresh figs so we used dried ones. Equally as good!

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The pearl barley was a new thing for us. I can remember mum putting it in casseroles but I have never had it like rice. Pleasantly surprised.

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As you can see, I was impressed with the dish!

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Oh, dear! We are still eating Easter chocolate here...just little bits here and there...

After making the date loaf and biscuits on Saturday, I made choc chip muffins on Sunday morning. These went to feed our hungry workers who turned up for a working bee. Gus was thrilled with what was achieved to clean up the dealership. Men hoard all sorts of things but they ended up taking 8 trailer loads to the refuse dump.

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I finished watching Season 5 of Downton Abbey. I really enjoyed it and can't wait for the final Season 6 which will air in 2016.

Then I got stuck into resurrecting our aging CD collection. Men! They never put anything away! I had to pair up CD's with dusty, broken cases. Some of the covers, I couldn't even read because they were so dusty! We had a CD player in the garage for playing when we sat outside. We now have a new system that works through our wi-fi and iTunes. No CD's needed! We just need to get any favourite CD's into our iTunes files - that may take a while!

Anyway, here they all are, shiny bright and back in their cases and stored in a plastic stacker box in the shed. There were only about 4 CD's missing so not a bad result.

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My next job was prepping for the curry I wanted to make fir Sunday night dinner...

These curries are quite time consuming - assembling the ingredients, making each step in readiness for cooking...

I had to debone a small leg of lamb, make the curry spice paste which had about 10 spices in it plus cook the rice (to which I added dried cranberries, sultanas, cinnamon and hazelnuts to make a sort of Kashmiri pulao) and make a cucumber mint raita...

It came together very nicely, quite hot (I am still learning to judge the hotness of dried red chillies which are like fire crackers!) but delicious.

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Now it's Tuesday and I am off to try and buy a winter coat like the grey one pictured. We are off to the Anzac march in Adelaide this coming weekend and its going to be cold!

Cheers - Joolz xx

 

Posted by Joolz with Blogsy

A nice quiet Sunday...

We've had a few busy weekends recently so it is nice just to hunker down and stay home. Apart from a 7am trip into town for milk and bread, I didn't leave the house all day.

I got two snail mail letters written (must try and improve my handwriting!) and ready for posting...

My Kobo stats prove I am a shit reader. I try and read a bit every night but Zzzzzzzz....I get sleepy straight away!

One thing I don't like about these eBookreaders is you can't skip to the last page and its hard to know when the end of the book is coming up. I need to acquaint myself with it better as at the end of Still Alice, I had no idea it was the end!! And are these full books or cut down versions?

I made Zucchini bread which turned out nicely. Here's the link...

http://www.lunchladymag.com/recipes/zucchini-bread-make-a-tonne/

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i love the spiceyness f om the cinnamon, really delicious!

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Gus knocked up this salmon (unfortunately hidden) with grilled asparagus, zucchini, oven baked potatoes and chermoula. The salmon was cooked to buttery perfection!

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I haven't made pikelets since high school, I reckon. I found a recipe in the Blue Ribbon Cookbook so I gave them a whirl this morning.

Pikelets

1 cup SR flour

1/4 cup castor sugar

3/4 cup milk

1 egg

35gms butter, melted

* sift flour into medium bowl, stir in sugar

* in a separate bowl, whisk eggs, milk and butter together

* whisk the milk mixture into the flour until smooth

* place a frying pan over low heat and grease with a little butter

* spoon tablespoonfuls of the micture into the pan and cook 1 to 2 minutes or until bubbles appear on the surface. Turn the pikelets over and cook for 1 minute, or until golden.

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Pikelets are nice served warm or cold...

I had mine with plum jam but maple syrup, golden syrup or lemon and sugar are all good too! There's plenty leftover for afternoon tea!

Now, I must get into my walk in robe - I'm going to time myself!

Cheers - Joolz xx

 

Posted by Joolz with Blogsy

Gorgeous Sunday at home...

 It started off with a sleep in until 8am, then I got up and had a coffee, perused the internet and did a couple of rows of the dish cloth I'm knitting...

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It's been a beautiful spring day here, bright sunshine and a light breeze.  Just before lunch, we loaded up the ute with any hard rubbish we could find then headed to my Mum's to get rid of a few pots and things she didn't want in her garden.  Then we went to our local Refuse/Recycling centre.  It's the first time I had been there.  Very well organised - there are stations for timber/wood products; scrap metal, recyclable cardboard/paper/plastics; household hard rubbish, disused electrical good on working (which get stripped down); stone/masonary and green waste.  This centre is manned by one guy who directs people to each site/dumpster.  Then it is carted away for recycling.  And it's a free service by our local Council!  Quite amazing!

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 Back home, Gus got busy on the ride-on, tidying up our little blocks each side of the house and the biggger block behind.  Trying to lower the risk of snakes.  We have 2 sheep but they don't seem to be eating the grass down quick enough.

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 I bought some tomato plants last weekend and more today so I got to and planted them out.  We are not quite ready with out veggie garden so they just got planted in tubs.  Not quite sure when we will develop that veggie garden???

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 In this tub there is Roma, Apollo and Gross Lisse...

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 In here, Pot Toms, Pink Pearl (which is a Breast Cancer sponsored plant), large fruit truss and Apollo...

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 I planted out another hanging tomato planter.  I had quite good success a few years ago with one of these.  You can see it here ...

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 I planted 4 different cherry tomatoes in here - Cherry Bites, Cherry Ripe, Sweet Bites and a Patio Cherry...and some sweet basil too.

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 I will hang it under our pergola where I hope it will get enough sun...

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 This is a Dwarf Red Fig cherry tomato...

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 My McLeod's Daughters rose is ready to pop!

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 and my (instert name because I can't remember it) gorgeous pink rose...
(found it, it is a  Delbard Bordure Rose (Delcoussi)

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 This is me trying to trim the wool from our pet sheep, Dj's eyes!  He was not co-operating!

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 He kept butting his head and pulling away everytime I tried to snip the wool...

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 I finally got it done.  He is due to be shorn any time soon.  We just have to organise for our brother-in-law to do it and it's a bit of an effort to get him in the back of a ute!  He protests loudly with a BAAAAAAHH!

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We are all finished for the day, having a wine now.  This was our sunset, beautiful colours.  Tandoori burgers for dinner and a free-form apple pie for dessert!

I love gorgeous Sunday's like this!

Cheers - Joolz