I try to always make one big "soup of the week" for meal planning throughout Winter and Autumn. This week it was my favourite irish pub soup, which contains an array of hearty root vegetables, which nourishes the body through a cold spell. It also brings back wonderful memories of Ireland, sitting down at a little round table with a bowl of hearty soup and thick cut brown bread to the side.
Let’s say living in a house full of boys has its challenges too in the odour department. Since I grew up having allergies to all sorts of things I've definitely learned over the years to deodorise the house in a very natural way, and there are so many different ways you can do that!
When I had captured my prized Bramley's in my arms I raced back to the country kitchen only to find I really wanted to make an apple and pistachio tea cake, and could not find any inspiration in all the regular places. So I made up a very simple recipe and it worked so well that I am sharing it here.
While its immensely tempting to rest every single bed under a thick layer of mulch, cardboard or black plastic and head north to the sunnier states for winter, I try to rest one bed and plant lovely greens to enjoy for winter suppers.
Is there nothing a potato can't do? Just like eggs, they are a chameleon of the kitchen, one minute you're digging into homemade crunchy chips, the next you are enjoying leftover mash in an apple tart made with potato pastry. The wonder of it all.
So here it is, jam drops for everyone, even those with coeliacs disease. The recipe is fairly simple, with the addition of almond butter and flax meal, the biscuit crumb is a little denser, crunchy on the outside, chewy in the middle, and less powdery than usual. I used homemade mariposa plum jam for the middle. Needless to say, they were gone in a couple of hours!
Not just for dinner, we spend much of our time picking them and eating them straight from the pod. This is the very reason that we decided that we needed more than just a trellis in the vegetable patch to grow them on.
These quick Banana Bread Bites have been the most requested and most popular snack in our home for most of winter now, so I thought I'd share them with you.
One of those recipes that can be made without much thinking, grab a fork and a stainless steel bowl to mash the bananas and then whip them up. Simply pour into a cake tin and pop straight into the oven. No fuss, just like most recipes that appeal to me!
The shortest day has arrived. It was memorable and beautiful and I can’t remember a Winter Solstice quite like it. We woke up to a pink, purple , blue and apricot-tinged sky. The sun was enlarged by the misty fog, becoming a gigantic round ball of light that beamed across our winter flowers, which were glistening like jewels under the magical glowing light.
Garlic is a long growing journey, taking place during the coldest of months. In our cold temperate climate, Garlic is the standout hero. Garlic is born to grow here. It suits this climate, well, down to the ground!
Garlic does like a cold, reasonably wet and long winter, so down here in the south east of Australia, it makes sense that there are many garlic farms here. Last year, we got our best crop ever, and rainfall was above our 1000ml average for the year. So the garlic (...)