Knock knock. Who's there? Olive. Olive who?.....

Olive right next to you!
*tumbleweeds*

Ahem. Anyway did I mention that the climate up here is hot enough to make our olive trees fruit? I grabbed a handful last year and brined them to see how much work was involved and how they ended up.

It actually was not as involved as it seems on first read as the process is spaced over weeks. And the olives were good, although a little salty (I've since learned to put them in plain water 24 hours before use to leach out the extra salt if needed so I will do that this year). They are on the small side but the flavour is still great. Not sure what variety we have.

So here is the first lot. Heaps still on the tree and they will be ready in the next few days.

And this is the method I used. I chose this primarily because it is local so I knew it would have ingredients and measurements I use and likely use the same or similar variety of olives. There are many other brining methods on the internet though.

I have put mine in an ice cream container and used a ziplock bag full of water as the weight.

So many places use olive trees for decorative planting in Auckland and it's often hot enough for them to fruit. So if yours does you could give this a try.

Plums!

It's high summer here and our poor plum tree is groaning under the weight of the fruit. The birds are loving it and much of what is on the ground is already half eaten by them.

I sent the girls out to pick up all the rotting fruit that we hadn't got to in time. They filled up 2 buckets before deciding it wasn't worth the $2 apiece. Child labour isn't as cheap as it used to be. I think they got about half cleared away. I may have to bribe them some more tomorrow.

Meanwhile I have been offloading gifting plums to everyone. As well as plums in my fruit bowl I have made plum jam and plum cordial. Apparently you can use the leftover pulp from the cordial processing to make fruit leather but I decided against it, at least for this year.

The freezer is full of beans, sweetcorn, and broccoli ready for the cooler months. Tomatoes are now cheap so I will be making and bottling Annabel Langbein's harvest tomato sauce over the next week. We love it as a base for pizzas.

Updates

There have been a heap of changes since I started ( and subsequently neglected) this blog. The first huge one is we have escaped the rent trap! Yes we have done the impossible and entered the Auckland house market. And on one income to boot! We are immediately better off as our mortgage and rates is less than we paid in rent. Which is insane.

So I am blogging from my own dining room in my own run down house. And just waking up is our other big change; Our son.

Over the last year I have been hard at work figuring out ways to slash our budget and have been really successful. So I figure I really should start recording it all again (now that I'm not fighting sleep deprivation on a regular basis).

Now I have a house to maintain, a garden to plant, and a household to run. Should be a lot of opportunities to find new ideas.

Planning ahead

Now is a great time to look out for cheap summer produce and blanche and freeze for winter. I did this last summer with sweetcorn. Today I am taking advantage of cheap broccoli to escape paying huge amounts six months from now.

If you have space in your freezer, lay the produce out on a tray, lined with baking paper, in a single layer for the initial freeze. Then transfer to a zip lock bag. This will stop the veges clumping together in a rock hard icy mass. If not then drain as much water as possible from them and pat dry before bagging.

Grapefruit Sorbet

I've done it! I've found the best use for the grapefruit on my tree.
Grapefruit Sorbet. I scouted the internet and adapted a few recipes expecting a fair bit of trial and error and... aced it on my first try!

The BEST thing is as far as I'm concerned it tastes like a grapefruit and lemon Fruju. These things are my go-to in summer and were a godsend throughout my pregnancies. Now these seem to be seasonal for summer only so in winter I just go without. Until now.

I forgot to take a photo when I made it and it didn't take long to eat through most of it, but since photos are always nice. Here's the tiny smidgen I have left. Time to make more tomorrow :)

My recipe is as follows:
Equal quantities of sugar and water - I used a tall water glass of each.
Put in a saucepan on a moderate heat and DO NOT stir.
Leave it until it boils and then boil for 3 minutes.

Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Add 2 cups of grapefruit juice, 1 TBSP zest, 1 TBSP of alcohol (I used white rum as that was what I had but apparently vodka is good for being tasteless while still preventing the sorbet from freezing solid).

Stir and put into a dish that has been kept in the freezer for an hour.

After it is frozen to semi solid state stir it vigorously with a fork.
Put back in freezer for a few more hours until frozen to sorbet consistency.

Just a word of warning, like any grapefruit product you shouldn't eat this if you are on the birth control pill, blood thinners, antidepressants and possibly some other meds as well. Basically if you're on meds please check first. Grapefruit likes to meddle with medicine.

This recipe would work just as well I think with any other fruit juice/liquid substituted.

Mmmm bagels

Homemade bagels with homemade plum jam. Awesome! Bagels are my new 'easy-to-make-not-worth-buying' discovery.


In other news I'm in serious need of garden inspiration. Happily this year my beetroot were big enough to actually eat (and a gorgeous jeweled purple colour to boot) but now they're gone I'm faced with the standard winter dilemma - what to plant that I actually want to eat?

I already have celery planted on the hubby's suggestion. I'm not that partial to celery but I figured I could use it for soups etc. during winter. Typically it is thriving. I really don't like the standard 'space filler' Bok Choy and all variants of it. I'm tempted to just plant heaps and heaps of Kale. I already have 9 plants of it but my kids REALLY like Kale chips.

I have my wood all ready for winter again and happily it's been really warm lately. Although I'm dying to get started with the cosy fires I'm also pleased that it means our wood will last through whatever winter we get thrown at us.

Redid the budget. Food shop per week has been set at $180. Ah for the days where we got change from $150. Even at $180 it's only achievable because we've switched from upmarket to budget supermarkets. Personally I hate the supermarket in question and its horrid yellow lights and tall shelves that look like they're plotting to crush and end you in the most undignified way possible. But hubby does the shop and it seriously saves us $35 each time.

Food rewards (now with pictures!)

Now my garden is well established one of the best feelings is making recipes which contain a majority of items from my own garden.

I've decided to start sharing the results partly as a pat on the back for myself, partly to share new food ideas, mostly because blogs with pictures are pretty :-)

So my first food entry comes courtesy of a free Sanitarium recipe book.

Warm capsicum, tomato, burghul, and baked feta salad

Featuring chives, red onion, capsicum, cherry tomatoes and basil from my garden. Isn't it gorgeous? It was very tasty too although the kids weren't convinced. You can get the recipe online here.

As an aside Sanitarium has a free info service with qualified nutritionists and dietitians. You can email or freephone. There are also links on that page to sign up to get free recipes via email. Pretty good deal. I guess nutritionists and dietitians don't have to just be for the wealthy after all.

It's all about priorities

My mother heard an interesting saying which she relayed to me and as some sayings do it has stuck with me for quite a while. It goes like this:

You can't tell who's swimming naked until the tide goes out.

What does it mean? Well basically when things are going well in the economy it is easier for people to keep up appearances even if their income doesn't support it. But once things take a turn for the worst, as it has the last few years, those overextended people soon become quite apparent.

I think almost all of us have been guilty of being a bit careless with money in the past. Nothing like a 'good' Global Economic Crisis to pull us all into line.

We are by no means perfect when it comes to being frugal but one thing that I am proud of is that we do not overextend ourselves with HPs, overdrafts and credit card debt. Oh we did once. It took a year to pay off that consolidated loan. Lesson learned and never again!

Anyway the 'best' thing about the current situation (apart from ongoing low interest rates) is that people are starting to get creative. There's a new surge in home made clothes and crafts. I'm sure it's no accident that Pinterest is growing so exponentially. So many good ideas there. Gardening is taking off again. Old recipes are being unearthed. People are trying new tastes - especially protein sources such as pulses and beans. Nosh has even waged a price war with the supermarkets on the price of milk. (yes I know it's a loss-leader and don't even get me started on how wrong it is that there should ever be a cause for a war on such a basic commodity...)

And yet I constantly hear of people struggling because they don't prioritise. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate it is hard out there. I am not saying that people are struggling simply because of wrong choices (thanks John Key) but there are a few that could be a little smarter. Here's a bit of 'brain spew' from my completely unqualified noggin:

• If you're finding it hard don't go nuts on label clothing for the kids. Honestly I think clothing children (shoes excluded) is the cheapest part of having them right now. If you want new stuff buy on sale for the following year. Otherwise second hand op shop stuff is usually in pretty good nick and very cheap. The retail sector is struggling - there are sales everywhere. You should not have to buy stuff at full price.

• Make use of your garden. If you don't have a garden make one in pots and containers. If you don't have the time or this isn't an option then buy at your local market. We did it the other weekend and got an entire week's worth of produce for under $20. There were 4 vege stalls to choose from. Get friendly with your neighbours and swap unused fruit for some of the end result preserves that you are going to make.

• Learn how to cook some meals meat free. There are heaps of other protein sources. Also stop with the takeouts - they're stupidly expensive. (OK confession, we still do takeouts once a week).

• Plan your trips. Walk when possible. Petrol is expensive. Also in the same vein, car servicing when possible is important. It's more expensive to fix if you wait until things go wrong. Try and put money aside for this and do it annually.

• The horrid 'B' word. Make a budget. Go and see Sorted.org (link on the side)

• Don't let the banks keep raising your credit card limits. Stay on top of this. Try to only use your credit card for emergencies and only spend what you can pay off in the month.

• And the most important one - Learn to differentiate needs from wants.
  * SKY is not a need - we don't have it. We are still alive.
  * New couch on 24 months HP. Be very careful because there is no such thing as a 'free lunch'. Also I would strongly discourage anyone from buying items with a quick devaluation on HP unless they absolutely have to. That's phones, computers and definitely cars.
  *Cloth nappies. Yes you can have too many. You don't need a limited edition whatever. It's a NAPPY. It will not feed your children.
  * Just follow the golden rule - ask yourself 'do I really need this?' This doesn't mean never treat yourself. In fact I would recommend you put money in your budget for little treats. It would be a sad world indeed with no coffee ;) Just be sensible.

Most of this is not rocket science. Most of you will probably be doing this and more now. But you would be surprised the amount of people who are not managing simply because they are not prioritising needs and wants and still trying to live outside their means. Do yourselves a favour and live frugally - you will feel freer than you would running around in a unpaid for car, sitting on an unpaid for couch and looking for all the world like a million bucks.

Rain rain go away

Righto so we're in summer apparently. No one has told the rain that. It's completely f'ing the berry season up and down the country and at home my garden isn't faring much better.
I'm rather grumpy. My garlic has started dying back so I had an exploratory dig around the base of one. The bulb at the end is minuscule. Well not minuscule but certainly not decent sized. So disappointed. I'm not sure why they are so small. I want to blame the weather although that's probably not entirely it. I shall have another go next year and see how we go but honestly not cool.

My uncle used to grow awesome garlic here in Auckland so I know it's do-able. Unfortunately said uncle is now suffering from Alzheimers so I can't actually ask him for tips.

My brown onions look like onions but small pickling onions. I will leave them as long as I can but it is dependent on when the stalks start dying back which they look like they're going to. Red onions are only just starting to appear.

Beans are pretty pitiful. Mind you I didn't see many bees in our garden which I understand is a fairly common problem nowadays. I'm going to get some borage from Mum and plant that to see if I can bring more bees in next year. Borage is gorgeous when in flower though it does tend to take over gardens if you're not careful.

Tomato plant has gone nuts. 2 ripe cherry tomatoes so far but a plant that is taking over an entire bed. *sigh* I REALLY should have staked it.

Capsicums are starting to develop. We've had a few good courgettes too so far. But overall my garden has been fairly dismal. I really can't blame the weather too much. I was very slack at planting and tending over the summer.

The plum tree has just produced another great crop. I've just gone out with the broom and smacked down a whole basket. Stuff you blackbirds! These ones are mine.

We have some fat happy blackbirds here. The neighbour has plantain bananas which they love having for breakfast and they usually have a great lunch on my plums. I'm sure once the tomatoes ripen they'll be having a shot at adding those to their diet too.

Christmas overall was a great success. I'm getting very good at making food that looks tricky and tastes great (if I do say so myself) and are incredibly cheap to make. This year I provided the old reliable - cranberry and pistachio biscotti along with a new trial; Chilli chocolate florentines.

Now I'm busily preparing for a family wedding and looking out for clothes in the sales for the girls for next year. Luckily when it comes to winter stuff the rain is helping me get into the right mindset ;)

Oh and speaking of sales - the best bargains to be had at the moment are overseas. Especially in the UK. The exchange rate is reasonable and when the British do sales they REALLY do sales.

The most wonderful time of the year

Christmas madness is upon us. I looooove Christmas. Adore it!
But due to poor planning on my husband's and my part we also have our children's birthdays in Nov and Dec. Plus my family has followed the trend so add another 4 to that between Nov and Feb.

It makes for an incredibly busy and expensive time of the year.

This year marks the first year my eldest has really been aware (and therefore into) birthday parties. 'It has to be at the riding bikes park mummy'. This was non-negotiable. Luckily the park has a community hall. Even better it only costs $10/hour to rent it. Given Auckland weather around this time of year (it's raining as I type) I wasn't keen on having 16 kids in my little house. So $40 outlay and some chips and wee people food. Entertainment will hopefully be the bikes and the park itself. If it's wet, balloons inside will hopefully suffice.
There is a barbecue, full kitchen with dishwasher and tables and chairs. Everything I need to keep it stress free.

If you are stuck for party venues I recommend looking into this option (assuming your kids are old enough that you can't get away with a small family gathering). Friends of ours were amazed at how cheaply they were able to rent the local community hall for their area. The bonus was there was a play centre attached and the play area was open for them to use. There are fantastic options that come cheaper than McDonald's or Lollipops if you do a bit of searching around your local area.

This year I don't have to host Christmas so that removes the expense of extra food. Present shopping for the kids has already been done months back during sales. This may be the last year I can do this as I suspect next year Miss 4 will have set ideas about what Santa needs to bring. Grown up pressies are proving to be a bit more of an issue. Mainly because my handy present list I used every year was stored in my old phone that got drowned by an errant cup of tea. (Moment of silence).

I've already been caught out with shopping without a list. A visit to some local shops last week resulted in a baby shower present, a birthday present and.... no Chirstmas presents :S

If you are crafty and need a bit of inspiration my new fun place to hang out is Pinterest
Instead of creating endless bookmarks of things that inspire you this allows you to 'pin' it with a picture to a virtual board. Think of it like a cork board on your computer. Lots of very crafty people share great ideas on here. Fantastic for those of you wanting to go the homemade route this Christmas.

I'm also carefully scanning the local papers for Christmas Events. Tree lightings, Carol services, markets; there's lot's of fantastic things starting to happen now.

Oh and for those of you wondering Kale does bolt. Apparently you just need to blog about it to set it off ;) But that's ok because strawberries and snow peas are already happening in our garden. Christmas and summer produce - who could ask for more?

Playing Coffee Roulette

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a coffee nut (or should that be bean?) . Like any coffee nut I'm pretty picky about the product. Especially when it costs upwards of $4 for a cup. It seems New Zealander's really aren't that fussed about good coffee - or else why are there so many terrible baristas (I use that term loosely) out there?

Now I'm no expert but if you get a sour watery coffee or one that tastes like someone has stubbed their cigarette out in it then it's no good. That's $4 of undrinkable coffee. Plus the cost of fluffies (that's steamed milk in a demitasse cup for the unitiated) for the kids.

I was lucky enough to be gifted an old coffee machine a year or so ago by friends of mine who had upgraded. It was small but it was beautiful and I loved it. It even came on holiday with me. Sadly it died this year and so I was left with the option to buy a replacement or play coffee roulette with bought stuff.

I managed to get a Baby Gaggia off TM at half the retail price of new. A very dirty, never been cleaned machine but still a good price. I did have to buy the cleaning brush, backflush disk, tamp (it came with a plastic one) and cleaning solution for it. Plus since I don't have a grinder, I have to buy coffee for it every week(To all the coffee drinkers shuddering at the thought of pre-ground; I know! I know! But I haven't been able to convince my non-coffee drinking hubby that we need a $600+ grinder -yet). Unlike my old machine she's a bit fussier and doesn't like the 'supermarket' grind. It has to be finer for my baby. So it costs $12-15/ week for the coffee but I get 7 or more cups from that.

So is it cheaper? Possibly not at the moment. Depending on how long the machine lives it may well be though. Is it better than bought stuff? Well it's better than a majority of it. I know a few places to get awesome coffee around here but only a few.

Consistent coffee every morning is worth the cost to me. Plus my cafe doesn't charge for fluffies :)

Labour Weekend

So this post is a bit late but of course Labour weekend is traditionally the time that the garden gets planted for summer. We didn't break tradition here.

The Kale are still in. I'm not really sure if/when they should come out. They haven't bolted so I have wee Kale topiaries around the boarder of my vege patch. Zucchini are in as are capsicum. I decided to try tomatoes this year - I've never had any success before but I thought we'd try a few cherry tomato plants and see how we go. I've planted a row of carrots but they have yet to germinate so I may have to redo that. Six snow pea plants are in too.

From my mum's seed stash (from last year's garden) I have planted broad beans and also rocket. That certainly lived up to its name germinating in a couple of days.

I have room set aside for more tender stem broccoli. I haven't managed to locate any yet but I am very keen to replant after last year's results.

The strawberry plants from last year have been fed and since then they've just thrived. There is already a decent sized, albiet green, fruit on one of them. The kids will be stoked!

In the herb garden I've planted parsley, basil, coriander (hoping it doesn't bolt as it isn't from seed) and a jalapeno pepper to keep the ever present mint company.

The onion and garlic are still happily growing. I'm really looking forward to the harvest. Already I can see that the onion stems are thickening. I have both white and red planted and the red stems are such a gorgeous colour near the base.

Really looking forward to this summer. It looks like it's going to be a good one.

When she got there the cupboard was bare....

Ah spring - the season I invariably get sick in. Two weeks of illness and I am out of pre-made stuff. I'm sad to admit that we had a few takeaways in the last fortnight.
So back into it today. Time to restock.

Chilli Con Carne, a staple in our house as it pads out cheap mince with kidney beans, has been made and frozen. Pizza bases are next on the to do list. With the breadmaker of course. Then if time permits some wraps and pita pockets will also be made and frozen.

I did manage some cinnamon scrolls last weekend. A couple for a lazy Sunday with the paper and a coffee (home made of course) and the rest are frozen. I freeze them before their second rise. Then it's just a matter of taking them out Sat night and leaving them on the bench to defrost and rise. Sunday morning they just go straight in the oven.

Hummus will also be quickly whipped up. It doesn't have a long shelf life but with two active kids it's a great snack with some carrot sticks. I also make a lamb pita pocket with it.

We've had a crack at home made curries over the winter using spice packs from the supermarket. You provide all ingredients and follow the recipe on the pack adding spices as instructed. It's not the cheapest of dinners but compared to bought curry it is much cheaper, plus you get more, plus it tastes as good as the best takeaway curry I've ever had (thank you Sigdi in Devonport) and you can control the fat content by adding slimmers yoghurt or lite cream. Of course it also makes a small bit of meat stretch much further.

The last few weekends in Auckland have been typical for early spring. 2 days of rain after 5 working days of sun. Not too much of an issue so far as I like to plant seedlings rather than seeds. So I have a few more weeks before the capsicum and zucchini need to go in. I should be planting out broad beans and peas now (they're already late) but that requires breaking more soil and I have not been up to that lately. I'll also plant carrots and parsnip from seeds next weekend and some kale (seedlings) and maybe some broccoli. The garlic and onions are still growing happily in their little garden. The red onions have started to get red at the base of their stalks which is very exciting :)

Christmas is fast approaching. Not sure how we're going to approach that this year. I would do home made if I was at all talented but I think a better approach is to make a list and work out a budget. Sadly my old present list was in my old phone which met its end earlier this year thanks to husband and an errant cup of tea.

Calling all gardeners

Ok so finally I ventured out to the vege garden for more than a quick harvest as the sun was setting (for dinner). It was a mess. Weeds everywhere. Snails and slugs hiding among it. Broccoli has well and truly bolted now - I managed to delay it for a while but it's really done its dash.
Beetroot looked lovely from the top side but when I pulled up the biggest one and it had a root no thicker than my thumb I pulled them all out and biffed them.

So anyone who is good at gardening - how do I get beetroot to grow? Also brussels sprouts. I managed to get about 8 bulbs off 6 plants - all the rest grew loose bushy heads that were no good.
I used a vege mix soil before I planted but I'm guessing the soil is probably the problem. I'd love some insights.

Leek and Potato soup was the winner in our house this week. Easy to make and the kids inhaled it. I added a bit of zing to the adult portions with some sliced chorizo.

There's another cold snap forecast this week and that will probably see most of our wood used. But barring a long winter it seems that the two cubic metres is sufficient. We'll definitely get more kindling with next year's order as buying it on an 'as needed' basis from the local supermarket is very pricey (plus the last lot was damp!)

Of concern this week is the possible hint at changes to ECE funding from the government. Tinkering with the 20 free hours has not been ruled out which could signal an increase in fees for a lot of parents. It will certainly impact on us as #2 child is chomping at the bit to start and will be attending from the beginning of next year.

I am a bear Grahhhhh!

The 'real' winter has finally hit and our family has been in hibernation mode. It's been so cold and wet lately that even my vege patch in the back garden has been too far to trek to. We live in suburban Auckland so trust me it's really not far at all.

I hadn't realised how neglected it has been until I looked out of our bedroom window this morning and spied beautiful yellow flowers in amongst the green. Yes, unthinkably I had let my loose head broccoli go to seed. A quick trip out between showers saw me harvesting a huge bundle of the heads which will go toward dinner tonight. This type of broccoli has been brilliant - only yielding a dinner size amount at a time and because they aren't huge tight heads we haven't had the previous issue of caterpillars that you only realise haven't been rinsed away when the vege arrives on your plate :p We will definitely be replanting again.

I also noticed my carrots are almost ready to harvest, Kale is still going strong, Bok Choy is ready to go too. The beetroot is still just sitting there - last time I checked there were no big veges on the end of the leaves and they've been in the ground for months now so I think we'll chalk that one up as a failure. Pity because I loooove beetroot.

The garlic and onions are already thriving so I'm hoping all this rain doesn't drown them. If this weather keeps up I may consider planting rice! ;)

Eating seasonally has been fantastic. I've discovered so many new veges and in turn so many new recipes. Our current favourite is Jerusalem Artichoke which I made into a gorgeous soup the other day. My husband was very confused when it came out of the Foodbox, wondering why we had been sent such a large quantity of ginger. Swedes and Leeks, things we used to walk past at the supermarket have now been integrated into many dinners. I'd love to say that we use Kale in many different recipes too because I know there are so many out there (being a staple of American cooking) but we can't go past the Kale chips. Hey, it gets the kids eating it and if it works I say go with it.

I must admit I did feel rather smug the other night when the news ran a report on the skyrocketing price of veges. They used Capsicum and Tomatoes as their examples - well of COURSE those are expensive! They're completely out of season! Yay me for actually knowing that. A year ago I would have been in the majority of the younger population who, thanks to a global market, has no idea what veges are grown in what season locally.

Almost Half Way

Time to put the garlic into the fridge for a week in preparation for planting. Yes I know I'm going to end up a week early from the shortest day but the following weekend looks busy already and I want to make sure I don't forget.

I can't believe we're in winter. It's unseasonably warm in Auckland. The mornings are chilly but most of the day is spent in teeshirts or light shirts. The sun still has heat. If it weren't for the shortness of days there'd be no indication.

So not a great litmus test for the woodburner vs. electric heater experiment really but I can tell you that the woodburner heats our upper floor completely and also warms the rooms faster than the heater that struggles to take the chill off just the lounge some evenings. The other night husband was lounging in front of the woodburner in just his undies because it was so warm in the room. Usually it only needs 3 or 4 pieces of wood too so it should take us a fair while to work through the woodpile. What a pity both of us suck at building and keeping the fire going. We wouldn't survive in the rough I'm sure.

I'm working on the husband to let me keep chickens. We go through about a dozen eggs a week and I figure laying hens would serve not only to keep us in eggs but also make good pets for the kids and help with pest control in the garden (so long as I fence off the actual veges). So far hubby has said no but I'm going to keep pushing the benefits.

For those of you interested and in Auckland there's a great site called Chickens at Home which sells many different breeds. There's also a few other sites which serve the rest of the country.

Winning!

I'm happy to report that we 'seem' to be on target for shops under $150. It's not an exact science because it fluctuates depending on what's on special. Bulk buying is definitely the way to go. Especially with Cheese and Butter.

Also I'm getting very good and cooking great meals from scratch with cheap cuts of meat. Tonight for example we're having meat pies. These are made with casserole cuts of beef because you stew them for over an hour before you make up the pie. Obviously it's much easier to manage the food budget if you have time - i.e. are at home - because you need lots of time to cook from scratch. I wouldn't recommend trying this if you have very young children unless you are supermum or have an amazingly chilled baby.

We have a log burner in our home so this year we decided to use it. So far we have paid $65 getting the chimney swept and $215 for 2 M³ of firewood and some kindling. Will it work out cheaper than power this winter? It will be interesting to find out. Last night we used 3 logs and heated the whole house to almost uncomfortably hot levels. It was still warm this morning. Mind you it was also cloudy this morning which probably helped.

The garden is well planted for winter. I finally pulled out the Capsicums (but they were amazing and I will definitely be doing them again next summer) and planted the bed in with red and brown onions. In a few weeks garlic will go in too. Can you believe it? Only a few weeks until the shortest day of the year. The brussel sprouts still haven't appeared but the broccolli is starting too show and the beets are looking good. The carrots are looking good too although there aren't very many as I had issues getting them to germinate for some reason. My kale is doing well too which is lucky because I have a new love - Kale Chips. Mmmm. If you get some kale and have a fan forced oven definitely give them a try. You will be pleasantly surprised.

Kale Chips courtesy of foodbox

Preheat oven to 160 ° fan bake
Remove stems from kale and wash thoroughly and pat dry
Lay on baking tray and drizzle over approx 1 Tbsp olive oil
Sprinkle with any favourite seasonings e.g. garlic salt
Bake at 160 ° for 8-10 minutes until crisp and lightly browned
Sprinkle on Parmesan Cheese (optional) and serve.

New recipes

Ah the Internet. Where were we without it? I remember the days of having to wait until the library opened to go and find something out. Or using telephones - to talk not write. Really showing my age here - I remember the old analogue dial phones. Anyway I digress...

I've been hunting out new recipes to use the food I have. That pumpkin that grew 'for us' made several containers of pumpkin soup and I had half left! So I did a little searching and my new favourite thing is - Pumpkin Scones!

For anyone not raised in North America or South East Asia the idea of pumpkin being used as a sweet is a bit foreign. Heck, in England it's considered only fit for pigs! But I encourage you to give it a try. Not only does it come out a beautiful golden colour, its consistency means that you use less butter and sugar.

I started with this basic recipe from Graham Weir (Published in the Australian Women's Weekly and sourced on the taste.co.nz website) and have since made variations with coconut, and ginger and dates.

Ingredients

60g butter

¼ cup (55g) caster sugar

1 egg yolk

1 cup cooked (440g) mashed pumpkin

2½ cups (375g) self-raising flour

pinch of salt

pinch bi-carb soda

milk, for glazing

Method

Preheat oven to 220°C fan-forced and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Beat butter, sugar and egg yolk together until combined; stir in mashed pumpkin.

Add self-raising flour, salt and bi-carb soda; mix until just combined.

Place dough onto a floured surface and knead lightly.

Roll or pat dough out to about 2cm thick.

Cut scones out using a 5cm cookie cutter and place onto tray.

Brush tops of scones lightly with a little milk.

Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

There are heaps of pumpkin scone recipes out there though - I chose this one simply because it had a cup measurement for the pumpkin rather than a pre-cooked weight and I had already cooked an pureed mine.

The other new project currently occupying (most of) my preserves shelf is Feijoa Chutney. I have several friends with feijoa trees and at this time of year they plead with anyone (even complete strangers I imagine) to take the damned things off their hands.

I already made a less than successful foray into Feijoa Jam - far too sweet and ended up more like Feijoa Honey, so this time I was determined to try something new and a little bit different.

The recipe below I found on a message board so hopefully they don't mind me reposting it here.

Ingredients

2kg feijoas, peeled and cut into chunks

600g sultanas

1kg pitted dates

1kg onions, peeled and cut into chunks

1kg brown sugar

50g ground ginger

50g curry powder

50g fresh red chillies, deseeded and finally chopped

20g salt

500ml water

Method

Dump all of the ingredients into a huge pot, mix, then bring slowly to the boil. Simmer for 2 hours, then spoon into hot sterilised jars and seal according to your preferred method.

This makes a LOT of chutney but it is good!

And finally an update from the garden. More beetroot has gone in as well as brocollini and curly kale. The eggplant has fruit but I'm not sure if it will get bigger so I'm adopting a wait and see approach. My brussel sprouts were being attacked by cabbage white butterflies but my mother found a great solution via a gardening mag. Butterfly decoys. Apparently Cabbage Whites are quite territorial so a couple of decoys made out of plastic scraps and staked in the garden keeps them away. So far so good!

The capsicum are at the end of their days. Some very sad mutant fruit is still on the vine but gone are the huge capsicums we had when they were in their prime. The dwarf beans have started to flower but still no beans.

The carrots - the rows and rows of carrot seed tape I planted - have produced a few straggly seedlings half of which the cats have dug up while toileting (gggrrrr!). I will keep planting them but I don't hold much hope of a good crop.

Say Cheese!

This weekend is a great time to stock up on Cheese. Foodtown/Countdown is doing their $9.99/1kg block special on Mainland Mild, Edam and Colby.
I just bought 3 - expiry Sept 2011 - and saved $13.49. Yes almost another whole block of cheese in savings! (which just goes to show how stupidly expensive cheese is at the moment).

Autumn

Wow what a crazy old time we're having globally. My heart goes out to everyone affected by the Christchurch Earthquake and now the Japanese Earthquake and resulting Tsunami. Of course there is a run-on effect financially every time these events occur. Petrol, rent and insurance increases, and ingredients such as flour and fruit and veges also cost more as harvests and crops are affected.

It's interesting how many people I've come across lately who are making a conscious effort to save money in the face of all of this. Gardening and home baking seems to be on the rise. Which is nice. I like the idea of getting back to basics. Many conversations with friends lately have been swapping recipes and dinner ideas and offering surpluses from one garden crop in exchange for another.

Tracking my shopping goal is really difficult. I know overall I am probably saving money because I haven't done another meat shop since the last post and the fruit and vege and dry goods shops are pretty standard. But it's really hard to track it weekly. I think I'm going to have to average it out - I hope that's not cheating.

A few things that have helped lately. I've been collecting and using up all my samples. Most of the ones I have are for skin care and cleaning which are of course the most expensive part of any shop. So when I ran out of washing powder the other week I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had 5 washes worth of samples to use. That's a week of washing I didn't have to buy powder for.

I've also found it really pays to shop around when it comes to buying your skincare. After using a few samples I decided that Aveeno seemed like a great one to buy. I was surprised that The Warehouse sold it a full $2 cheaper than the local Foodtown. So definitely go and check out places like The Warehouse and K-Mart as well as the supermarkets if you're using a fairly ubiquitous brand.

I'm still harvesting huge (bigger than commercially grown) Capsicums and Zucchini from my garden. I've just planted in dwarf beans and brussels sprouts and also sown some more carrots (if they survive the cats that is Grrrrrr!). Once my lettuces go to seed I'll be replacing them with Kale for the winter.

I also managed to score a lovely big pumpkin courtesy of my neighbour's vine which grew through our fence and decided it liked our side better (although she had quite a few on her side too so don't feel bad). So this weekend I really must make some pumpkin soup.