Mudgee

Steve and I are off to Mudgee tomorrow, at 5.00am, we are just going for 2 days one night, we will be back on Saturday afternoon. We are staying at a B & B called Suzie's Hideaway, we haven't been to Mudgee for years so it will be nice to go up and have a look around again.

I'm taking the big camera so I will post some pictures next week. Better go and check the batteries are charged.

We have a very busy weekend ahead of us, 21st Birthday party of very good friends eldest son on Saturday night, and our youngest nephew, Justin is having his first birthday party on Sunday. All this is being held in the Sydney CBD. Did everyone forget the Pope is here this weekend and Sydney is going to be a nightmare to get around. We will have to go by train, cheaper than using the car with petrol prices the way they are.

Will post more later, better go to work now..

Tracie xx

Tupperware Party

Tonight I'm having a Tupperware Party. Tupperware the most fantastic plastic containers on the planet. I have the stuff breeding in the cupboard. Over the last couple of years I have stopped buying it as it is just too expensive. There are a couple of peices that I just can't live without like the Fridge Smarts and Veg Outs, these 2 articles are just fantastic and they really work. I put all my vegetable in the Fridge Smart containers and it keeps them for weeks (I actually use all the veges too quickly now) and in the VegOut I store potatoes and onions. They are stored seperately as they send each other bad.

The reason I'm having a party is to help a friend out, she is just strating out as a dealer, I try not to host Tupperware parties anymore but with that said, I end up having one every year it is really becoming an annual event. I will be trying not to buy anything my plan is to get enough sales that I will get what I want for free.

I have already made cupcakes this morning from the Crabapple Bakery cookbook they are the easiest cupcakes to make and I know they work. Now I'm going to make my friend Kelly's Weekender Biscuits.

These weekender biscuits (cookies) are always a hit whenever they are made, they just melt in your mouth.

Have a great day

Tracie xx

How My Garden is growing

We ate our first Cauliflower out of our very own garden yesterday. It was so yum. I made a nice cheesy white sauce to go on it and that made it even more delicious. The Broccoli is also getting bigger and bigger we will be eating them as well real soon. Eating out of your own garden is so satisfying, the hard work is worth it to not have to eat all those chemicals. I spent a couple of minutes each morning and go down to the garden and pull the little green caterpillars off the leaves, I think the moths have finally worked out that laying eggs in my garden is no way of carrying on their moth lineage as the caterpillars only end up squished under my foot. I haven't seen anymore caterpillars for a couple of days.

Our Rainbow Chard looks and tastes just fantastic. I will make another Spinach/Silverbeet Pie very soon it was so nice last week, you will find the recipe on the Down to Earth blog.

I made some yummy Strawberry jam last week. It tasted good but I didn't get it to the right setting point. I will try again, this was my first attempt at jam making. I started to write this a couple of days ago but this is the first chance I have had to get back to it.

Steve and I planted our apple trees today. We have put them in two very big pots, we have used pots so that if we move we can take them with us to our new home.

I will try and get back tomorrow.

Tracie xx

Pay it Forward

I have joined Tracy in Pay it forward.

I saw the above sign on her blog and wanted to play along.

This is how it goes : it's the Pay It Forward exchange, based on the concept of the movie "Pay It Forward", where acts of kindness are done without expecting anything in return, just passing it on, hoping that the recipients will do the same and pay it forward, like a never ending chain of kindness...
How to proceed ?
I will make and send a handmade gift for the first 3 friends who post a comment to this post, requesting to join this exchange, and promising to pay it forward to 3 other persons, etc....I don't know what my 3 gifts will be, and I can't make them in the next few weeks, but I can promise I will send them within the next 6 months .
What YOU have to do in return then, is pay it forward by making the same announcement and promise on YOUR blog.
Come and join the fun to make the world a happier place !

I hope there is someone out there that would like me to send them something, please come and join in.

Tracie xx

The Queens Birthday Long Weekend

I have been having a great time baking bread rolls, I have made three lots so far if I had known how easy it was I would have done then before now.
Here they are before they are baked. I have found that the secret is to let them rise for quite a bit of time. I left this lot for 2 hours yesterday while we were out in the morning then I baked them for lunch.

Here they are after they baked for 19 minutes at 205 degrees on fan forced.

They were so yummy and light and fluffy inside, the secret is in the rising time. We ate these rolls with Celery and Celeriac soup. it was Yum and so filling

The other thing I have made is my Nana's

CHILLI RELISH

6 long Red Chillies

4 Large green apples

3 cups Sugar

1.5 cups white Vinegar

Deseed and chop chillies. If you like some bite in your relish leave some of the seeds in.

Peel core and chop apples.

Put all ingredients into a lge pot and simmer stirring occassionally until the relish is set using the cold plate testing method. The relish will darken the longer it is cooked. It takes 3 time the recipe to get this much relish.

I also finally used my Fowlers electric preserving pan that I picked up at Bankstown Markets for $7.00. So now I can keep my relish in the pantry.

My Mum always keeps hers in the pantry even though she doesn't use a preserving pan.

The other thing I made this weekend from scratch was pizza. I made the dough and all. The pizzas were just lovely. I don't usually like pizza but I will be doing these again.

WINTER - My Favourite season...

I have reading two of my favourite blogs Sunny Corner Farm and Beyond My Picket Fence and their titles included winter in them. This inspired me to write something about winter here.

Yes winter is here, but here in Sydney we are just having rain and the cloud cover is keeping it nice and warm.

Well I think it's warm (18 degrees C) today. This is my favourite time of the year I just love winter, I would like the rain to stop for a day or two just so I can get the washing dry. I have a dryer but I don't want to use it. I uses too much power. We have an outside undercover clothes line but the air is so damp that nothing is dryingThe fire has been going for 4 days now and the house is nice and toasty, so I have been trying to hang what I can on hangers but the house is looking like a laundry.

I baked my first lot of bread rolls from scratch the other night, they were alright, I need to practice some more, will cook some more over the weekend. I did cheat and do the dough in the bread maker. Next time I will take some photos.

Tonight we are having Apricot Chicken for dinner with Mashed potatoes and some other vegetables I still haven't decided which ones. This whole dish costs about $6.00 and there are leftovers for lunch tomorrow, Steve likes to take leftovers for lunch the next day so I always cook extra.

Tracie xx

In Loving Memory of Toby 6/2/1996 to 1/6/2008

We lost our beautiful boy today.

He was hit by a car this morning. Steve found him on the footpath not a scratch on him.

We tried to keep him inside but he was at his happiest outside. He loved to wander and I knew our street would be the death of him.

Toby had a good almost 12 and a half 1/2 years. More than he would of had if we hadn't rescued him from the local vet clinic all those years ago. He was on death row, the kitten no one wanted, but we gave him a home and we loved him with all our hearts. He is going to be greatly missed as he was our baby.

He was grumpy but we loved everything about him. I knew him so well, I could read every little facial expression and I knew what he wanted when he wanted something, there will never be another cat like him.

We are going to miss Toby so much, rest in peace our little mate.

Tracie

Ps. These are some of the last photos that were taken of him on Thursday 29th May.