Vegetable Garden Progress

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. Today I thought I’d let you know how our little vegie patch we started about a month ago is going. I've included the photo above so you can get an idea where it's positioned in our yard (you can see it in the background if you look closely). We planted seedlings of cherry tomatoes, capsicums, baby carrots, spring onions, a whole bunch of different lettuces, baby spinach, red sorrel and strawberries. In some pots next to the planter, I’ve added another strawberry, rocket and tomato plant to balance things out with my herb pots on the other side and everything has been mulched with pea hay to help keep the moisture in.

All the seedlings are growing really well, especially the lettuces which we’ve already been able to use. There’s nothing better than being able to pop outside to pick a few fresh lettuce leaves to make a salad. I have noticed something is taking some bites out of the rocket and a few lettuce leaves though and a few white cabbage moths have been hanging around, so perhaps caterpillars are the culprits?

This part of our backyard is so much nicer now than the previous neglected corner it was. Also, we have stopped the problem of Asha running along the fence barking at the dogs next door and making a mess of grey sand everywhere. The remaining yellowish bush in between the herb corner and the vegie patch is really in the wrong spot, but it’s growing so well that I think I’ll just leave it where it is. We just need to neaten up the lawn and the edges around the planter and it will be perfect.

Here’s some photos of how this corner used to look and how things are looking now so far…










On a different note, I have to say I feel a real cloud of sadness in blogland here today with A-M’s latest news of her decision to take a break from blogging. Please stop by her blog and offer some words of support and encouragement for such a lovely lady who is going through a difficult time…

Morning Tea Recipes

Hope you’ve all had a lovely week. We’ve had a pretty quiet one and this afternoon we’re off to our friends’ wedding which will be fun.

As promised, here is the recipe for the Powder Puffs I made at my Pink Ribbon Morning Tea Fundraiser last weekend. A few people also asked for the Jelly Cheesecake recipe so I’ve included that too. I’ve added a few tips under each one to explain some things I do when making these. Let me know how you go if you give either of these recipes a try and if you have any questions, or if anything in these recipes isn't clear, please ask.

Powder Puffs
(Makes what you see above plus a few extra)

I chose to make this recipe for my morning tea as it is one which can be made the day before an event. In fact these are much better served the next day when they’ve had time to soften. For a morning tea, I would usually make these the afternoon or night before.

2 eggs
½ cup sugar
½ cup cornflour + 2 extra rounded soup spoons
2 tbsp plain flour
½ tsp cream tartar
¼ tsp carb soda

Preheat oven to 200°C. Beat egg whites and sugar well together (nice glossy peaks). Add beaten egg yolks, then dry ingredients which have been sifted 2 or 3 times. Cover baking tray with baking paper, spray lightly with oil and drop teaspoons of mixture two inches apart. Bake 5-10 minutes (I found 6 mins was good) in fairly warm oven. Put together with whipped cream two or three hours before needed and dust both sides with icing sugar.

Tips:

When dropping the batter onto the tray, I use a teaspoon of mixture (not too overloaded) and hold the spoon upright to let the batter drop off to make nice round circles.

When these come out of the oven, they will appear pretty hard and perhaps a bit crisp. This is normal. When they are cool, pair them up as best you can in similar sizes and fill them with cream (I whip 300ml of thickened cream together with some vanilla essence and 2 tablespoons of icing sugar).

When placing these on your platter, lightly dust it with icing sugar first to stop the powder puffs sticking.

Put in the fridge – after several hours, they will soften up. Take out of the fridge for a little while before serving.

Jelly Cheesecake

As with the powder puffs, this recipe is a great ‘prepare ahead’ one which can be done the day or two before an event.

Jelly:
1 pkt raspberry jelly (you could use an alternative flavour)
1 cup boiling water
1 cup cold water

Biscuit Base:
6 oz butter (melted)
Marie biscuits (I used a packet less 6 biscuits)

Filling:
1 tin condensed milk
½ cup boiling water
1 tbsp gelatine
125 g cream cheese
juice of 2 lemons

Crush biscuits. Add melted butter. Press into lamington tin (25x30cm) - I line the tin and I use the bottom of a glass to press in the mixture nice and firmly. Beat cheese. Add condensed milk, then juice. Dissolve gelatine in boiling water. Add to mixture. Beat well for 10 minutes. Spread over base. Allow to slightly firm before continuing with jelly. Make jelly with boiling water and then add cold water. Leave to sit for a bit (but don’t let it set) before pouring over the filling. Refrigerate several hours or overnight. Cut into squares when firm.


Tips:

There is nothing too difficult about this recipe except, it’s important to let the cheesecake layer slightly set before you pour over the jelly. When pouring over the jelly, I use a jug and pour it over the back of a large metal spoon very slowly. This stops the jelly from making a hole in your cheesecake layer.

For my morning tea, I piped some of the cream I’d whipped for the powder puffs above on top.

To serve, I cut the cheesecake into nice even squares (I trimmed off the edges to make my squares neater).

My Favourite Frock

Do you have an all time favourite item in your wardrobe? For me it's the dress above which is definitely one of my 'best buys'. I spotted it at Picnic a few years ago and thought I'd try it on to make myself feel better about having to leave it on the rack when it didn't fit right. It ended up fitting perfectly and with several upcoming weddings to attend, I bought it.

I have worn this dress over and over to functions we've been to and with another wedding to attend this Friday and no time to shop for something new, I'm contemplating getting yet another wear out of it.

What about you? What is your all time favourite item of clothing that you would describe as your 'best buy'?

Home Feature At Honey And Fizz

Today I’m really excited because my home has been featured over at my bloggy friend Simone’s blog Honey and Fizz. She’s starting a series of posts where she’ll share a peek into the homes of fellow bloggers and today the spotlight was on our place.

Pop over to her lovely blog here to see a few snippets of my house and for those who aren’t already familiar with Honey and Fizz, be sure to browse through some of her past posts which are always full of inspiration…

Giveaway Winner

Sorry this post is a bit late but thank you to everyone who entered my 'first year of blogging' giveaway. Using an online random number generator (sorry I wasn't sure how to insert the image for this on my blog), the lucky number selected was comment #32 which was left by Deb of Let's Go Moerkabout. Congratulations!! I will get your goodies in the post to you as soon as possible.

Image from Celebrations At Home found via Polkadot Prints