A Bit of Excitement

I got an email yesterday from my friend Rel. She wondered how I felt about having one of my reviews in 'Christian Fiction Online Magazine'. She had submitted three and mine was one they chose. I could give you a great long list of adjectives about how I feel. Excited and disbelieving would rate quite highly amongst the many!

So...from 1 November (I'm assuming that's US time), you will find my review for 'The Moon in the Mango Tree' featured in the magazine. I don't have a direct link yet, so you'll have to have a fun little surf through the magazine to find it.

'Diamond Duo' by Marcia Gruver

Lovers of beautifully written fiction, you will find my review for 'Diamond Duo' is now up at Relz Reviewz. This is the first in a series, so I'm looking forward to reading more from Marcia in the future.

In The Garden

We were given some freebie organic vegie seedlings about two weeks ago from a local farmer, who is also a parent at our school. Yesterday I finally got them in the ground. In doing so, I found a new Jumping Jack's nest so I will need to find a vegie gardening friendly way to get rid of those nasty little critters.

Beans went in first. Perhaps too close together, but I didn't want to get close to the Jumping Jacks.

Then came the tomatoes. Apparently this are shrub varieties and do not need staking. We shall see!

Finally, the rhubarb. It died off at the end of last season and has come back with a vengence! I looked out there not 3 weeks ago and lo and behold look what happened!!!! It grows in spite of me or the lack of rain! I think I might have to make some rhubarb muffins for the weekend.

I need to go in search of zucchini and eggplant seedlings now...and whatever else I may happen to see that we like eating. I was so impressed with Kate's eggplants last year that I figure if they won't grow where I live, then they won't grow anywhere. There are commerical nursery growers over my back fence, after all!

Homemade Ice Cream

Homemade ice cream will, I think, be in the same category as homemade pasta. Very worthwhile, but somewhat time consuming. A special treat to spoil my family, rather than an everyday must-have. We rarely have ice cream and if we do have it, it's because Dh has bought it....not I, the family scrouge! So it was with a great deal of joy that we have delved into this little treat the past two nights. The kids have been so excited to have had dessert!!!

Vanilla Ice Cream

5 egg yolks
3/4 cup castor sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or essence)
600ml thickened cream

1. Combine egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Make sure the bowl doesn't touch the water. Use an electric hand mixer and beat over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until mixture pale and very thick.
2. Add 1/2 cup cream. Beat for two more minutes and remove bowl from heat. Set aside to cool for 20 minutes.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the remaining cream until thick. Combine the whipped cream with the egg mixture and mix well.
4. Pour mixture into an airtight container and freeze for 6 hours until almost set making sure you leave room for expansion.
5. Transfer mixture to a food processor and process until smooth. Return to the container and freeze overnight.

Makes 1 litre
You will find that the volume of the ice cream drops after processing, making me wonder if it would work to use an electric hand mixer for the second beating.

You can also add all sorts of different things to the ice cream when you beat it after the first freeze. My friend has given me all sorts to try: passionfruit & white chocolate, coffee & white chocolate, caramel, turkish delight & pistachio. The choices are only limited by your imagination.

Peach Clafouti

I made this again last night, because you need something to go with ice cream....homemade ice cream. Oh boy was it good...and so was the apricot clafouti ~ again! I'm really liking how simple this is and the fact that you use tinned fruit. The recipe calls for tinned peaches but any tinned fruit will do ... fruit in juice, pie fruit, whatever fruit you have or happen to love and whatever fruit you happen to have been able to get a good deal on. Of course, it will suit those whose children only eat things like ... mangoes.

Peach Clafouti

800g tin peach slices, drained
1/3 cup plain flour
2 tablespoons self raising flour
1/4 cup castor sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups milk*
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1. Grease a shallow ovenproof dish, place peaches in dish.
2. Combine flours and sugar in a bowl and gradually stir in eggs, then milk and essence until smooth.
3. Pour batter into dish. Bake in a moderate preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.
4. Serve warm with cream or ice cream.

Serves 6

* I used about 1/3 cup less milk this time and found it cooked through better.

On The Table

I'm sitting here looking at heavy laden dark grey skies and thinking that yes, I'm liking what I planned for dinner tonight. My motivation was to save a lot of money on food this week ~ 5 week months are always a challenge. The weather has cooperated quite nicely though and we will enjoy cosying in tonight over a scrummy meal. I made ice cream the other night, so I'm thinking maybe an apricot dessert to go with it will top the meal off perfectly. Why apricot? We bought 3kg tins of pie fruit...I opened an apricot one the other night to make Apricot Clafouti. Boy was that good! We would normally make a crumble, but I had no coconut and from somewhere in the dark recesses of my memory I dragged out this idea. So so easy and quick to put together. I'll post the recipe tomorrow.

For today though, here's what's on our table for the week:

Monday: Roast chicken, potatoes, vegies
Tuesday: Ricotta gnocchi & tomato pesto
Wednesday: Chicken pie (or casserole), vegies
Thursday: Hearty soup, homemade dinner rolls
Friday: Hamburgers
Saturday: Singapore noodles
Sunday: Chicken kebabs, cubed bbq potatoes, salad

How am I saving money on food you ask? That roast chicken will do me 3 meals. With a size 20 chicken we have half the meat for the roast, the other half goes into the pie/casserole and the bones will be used to make the soup. That $10 bird will go a long way.

When you eat the labor of your hands,
You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.

Psalm 128:1-3