I'm cooking dinner tonight - ARGH

On Thursday and Friday nights I cook dinner. It's only fair as Lloyd has had a long day at work, often not getting home until after 7pm having left around 7.30am.
I want to do this for him, however, I am in a mild panic all day thinking about what we should have. I don't enjoy cooking. I like baking, but cooking just doesn't do it for me.

Every week I get the recipe books out, every week I have a melt down, every week I'd like to take the easy way out and nip to the Chinese take away in Kaikohe (which is actually really rather good!) But mostly I find something I can cook and just get on with it. I have a few things that I feel ok about making, mainly chicken dishes in a sauce or pasta. Poor Lloyd is probably bored rigid with them!

Anyway, after pouring over the recipe books I'm sticking with an old, tried and tested recipe. Chicken Meyer.
I think this is a blast back to the 70's!
But its lovely, simple and I can make it!

Recipe ( for 2)

2 tablespoons fresh  cream 

2 tablespoons of sour cream or creme fresh

2 free range organic skinned boneless chicken breasts 

1 head of broccoli, cut into florets.
10 1/2 fl. oz. can condensed cream of mushroom soup (most recipes say cream of chicken but I like it better with mushroom.)
2 rounded tbsp. real mayonnaise
1/2 level tsp. curry powder ( or to taste)
2 oz. sharp cheese, grated

Preheat a moderately hot oven, 190 degrees. Arrange chicken and broccoli in shallow dish. Combine undiluted soup, mayonnaise, sour cream and cream with curry powder. Spoon over chicken and broccoli, sprinkle with cheese. ( if it doesn't quite cover the chicken I add more cream! what's not to like?) Bake in the preheated oven for about an hour -  until the chicken is cooked and the cheese is turning golden brown.
I serve it with rice.

Fail safe boiled rice? Yep, this works every time
1 cup rice
1 1/2 cups water
teaspoon salt

Put in pan, and bring to the boil
Cover and simmer for 7 minutes
turn heat off
Leave, covered for 20 mins.

It's really yummy!

So, now I need to make a list and head out to get the ingredients. I'll go to Paihia as I need to go to the chemist there and stock up on Paihia bombs! What on earth are they? I hear you asking! Well I get terribly sea sick - yeah, odd for someone who spends so much time on boats/diving! But yep, without these little babies I would barely last half an hour before I would have my head over the side of the boat. Lovely. The chemist makes up their own seasickness tablets and they are amazing. I'm off on a dive trip all weekend (with a bunch of people I don't even know, which is terribly brave for me as I'll be way out of my comfort zone - the things I do for a dive!) and I reckon spending the majority of the time vomiting wouldn't make a particularly good impression!

Herb jars

Lloyd likes to store all the herbs is jars. Up until yesterday - what was in the jars - was written on the bottom in permanent marker. It was a bit of a pain, as I can't tell the difference between a lot of the herbs so had to pick all the jars up, and either smell them or look on the bottom. Yesterday, I chalk painted a panel on the front of each jar so that we could write the names on, but I also painted all the lids so that it's very clear what's in each jar without lifting them all to check.
It took ages for the paint to dry as it was very damp yesterday, and I'm incredibly impatient and want things done - NOW. But I had to leave them overnight.
This morning they are all dry so I wrote what was in them and put them all back in the larder.
A job well done!

A very sleepy Monday

We have crammed so much stuff into the last few days.
The first great and interesting thing we did was go for a guided night walk of the Puketi Forest. Home of the giant Kauri tree and lots of other fascinating things.

We saw Kauri snails

Cave wetas and bush wetas

Fresh water cray fish, and heard Kiwis, moreporks and bats. It was incredible to be in the forest as the sun set and it got dark. The guided walk lasts for 2 hours ( on our trip we were the only people and lucky for us the walk lasted just over three hours!) We went with  Adventure Puketi and I can't recommend them highly enough. If anyone is coming up this direction for a holiday or lives here already I'd add it to  things you must do!

Then on Saturday we went out diving again. The weather was glorious and the water was as flat as a pancake. With just a little chill in the air. After the dive we went back to Rob and Sam's yacht, had a hot shower ( height of luxury) and then cooked the crays we'd caught and had them for dinner. It was late and pitch dark by the time we got home very tired but happy.

Rob about to tuck in!

Yesterday I headed down to Whangarei with Melanie from Frugal Kiwi to the Chicken and Poultry Show. It's held every year and each year I'm more blown away by all the different breeds of chickens on show.

I was barely home when Lloyd and I headed out again and over to Danny and Paula's, originally just to meet up and have a beach walk with them, their lovely labrador, Wilson, and our three dogs. But Danny invited us to stay for dinner, and you'd be mad to turn down an offer of dinner as Danny is the best chef I know - Danny AND Lloyd!
He cooked us a pohutakawa smoked crayfish risotto. I have never tasted a better risotto in my life.
Again, we arrived home well into the darkness, tired but happy - making a habit of this!

Today I haven't even bothered to get dressed!

Soup and Sandwiches

On a Friday!
We've all got lots of different things on at the moment, so instead of postponing Soup and Sandwiches, we decided to have it on a Friday instead.
When I'm reading magazines, if I come across a good soup recipe I tear it out and add it to my recipe folder. The one we had last night was one of these. It came from NZ Gardener.

Kumara and Bacon soup with brie.

Ingredients
1 onion diced
1 clove garlic chopped
2 sticks celery
1/2 a leek diced
40g butter
4 medium kumara peeled and diced
750ml stock ( veg or chicken)
sea salt, pepper
slices of brie

Sweat onion and garlic, celery and leek in the butter until clear. Add Kumara and stock. Bring to the boil. Turn down heat and simmer until kumara is soft. Blend soup until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
 Heat to almost a boil. Top with brie and serve.

The sandwiches were Freedom Farms Streaky  bacon with baby rocket and mayo in a ciabatta bun.
This was all a raging success.

Stella, such a pretty wee cria.

Stella is growing so well now. She's definitely more dainty than Herbie. Herbie is like the kid in the nursery - you know the one, he's a big bruiser, annoys everyone, but so totally adorable you can't help but love him. And he does love Stella. I think he's just so happy to have a playmate.

 Such a delicate little flower!

And here's Herbie next to her - not such a delicate little flower! He has a gorgeous wee snub nose don't you think.

And yesterday we had some excitement. The Stud male came over to mate with Cocoa and Vienna. It's standard practice to mate them again around 2 weeks after the cria is born. However Vienna is a bit older so we left her for almost 9 weeks to give her a chance to have a little rest.
Alpaca mating is dignified, but noisy!
The male makes sort of a growling noise, which stimulates ovulation!

Watch and learn ( only if you want to!) 

 

Brining the feta

On Friday, when Lloyd was at work, I decided to make some feta on my own. Now, this is no mean feat for me. I've said numerous times, I am not a natural in the kitchen!  But it worked. I followed the recipe we used before and just got on with it. I know the curds didn't set quite as solid as they should, but I got everything scooped out and put into the moulds.

At this stage I was rambling on facebook about how soft they were and Melanie from Frugal Kiwi suggested I leave them to air dry for a few days. They would harden up a bit and hopefully not go all soft in the brine. So I left them out on the worktop, draining and under a food cover for three days. They hardened up nicely and actually look really good! I brined them yesterday and now they're in the fridge. ( looking the best we've ever had!) Thank you Mel, I'll always do this now, it works a treat.

All we need to do now is wait 4 weeks then we should have lovely crumbly feta.

(these containers are the best we've found for making feta in. They have a basket in them and there's a wee hook so you can hook the basket to the edge of the container and the cheese drains beautifully. They're way better than even the ones you actually get for making cheese! For any Kiwis interested, New World has them reduced to just over $2.)

My new wetsuit...

Had it's first outing yesterday. Firstly it is so lovely to have a wetsuit that fits perfectly therefore is nice to get on and wear. Secondly is is warm. Dare I say it, almost too warm! I was so hot I had to take off my neoprene socks and just go barefoot in my fins.  But it'll be perfect for winter. Also, for any divers out there who understand what I'm talking about, I had severe buoyancy issues! 10mm of neoprene is SO buoyant. I knew it would be and had added an extra 2kg of weight - not enough it would seem! I was grabbing any spare weights from around the boat - even thought I was going to have to stick a rock in my pocket!
This is something that will need rectified pronto! So I'm off to buy some lead shot today to add to my weight belt.
Have to get it sorted as I'm off on a 3 day dive trip in 2 weeks.

Also great news, Lloyd absolutely loved it! He bought a new jacket part to his wetsuit as his old one was too small even when he bought it. His new one lets him actually breathe! Always a bonus underwater.

We went out with one of our lovely friends, Rob and his son, AB. The dives were the prettiest ever with fish absolutely everywhere, and we caught some crayfish as well. All in all a pretty perfect day, if super buoyant!!

Here we are all happy and warm!( looking a little bit like an advert for Seaquel!)

 

See how lovely the weather was, we're slightly pink this morning.

Two things to make me smile today

The first is, the ever faithful, delivery of my Country Living Magazine. This never fails to bring a big cheesy grin to my face.  I've just renewed my subscription for another year ( Oh how I love the strong $$)

It's the simple pleasures! 

And after over 6 years of keeping chickens I finally achieved something today that I have wanted... well for ages. Ok I didn't achieve it personally, but we had our first green egg in the nesting box!! Go, Consuela! I watched her go into the nesting box this morning and over a couple of hours make a wee nest for herself. I thought maybe it was in preparation for laying an egg perhaps, tomorrow. But when I checked later there it was! Happy days!
Here it is beside Geraldine's egg. Geraldine is a Light Sussex, so her eggs are pretty big.

Look how green it is

And ok, I know they taste just the same, but after trying to breed some Araucanas last year and every single chick turning out to be a boy, and then our mammoth 5 hour round trip to pick these girls up, I am just happy.

This is from a pure bred Lavender Araucana. I have some black araucana crosses that I bred this year. I'm hoping they come into lay soon. They're getting red gobbly bits ( I know they're really called wattles, but I like "gobbly bits") so maybe soon. They look just like photos I've seen of black Araucanas so who knows, perhaps they will lay blue/green eggs too. Here's hoping!

Yes, it's a good day.

it's getting colder

...just in the last couple of days. I've even had the range on.
My feet feel the cold and I usually wear slippers in the house by this time of year but today I got the Uggs out. This is their first outing so far but now that they're on they probably won't leave my feet for the next 3 months!
I know folk either love them or hate them. Obviously I am in the love category!

And on another note, I am having a cheese disaster. The feta we made on Tuesday has gone terribly soft. Putting vinegar into the brine solution isn't working so I'm at a bit of a loss. I assume it'll still be edible? I decided to try again today - on my own - ( never a good idea!) - and it started off so well, but I'm now at the cutting stage and my cheese  soft and curdy. I maybe didn't add enough rennet? I dunno - I thought I followed the recipe perfectly. I shall soldier on!

A lufah and a UFO

Remember I was really disappointed and thought we had not a single lufah from my very prolific vine?
( realised the reason was not enough long warm days and sun, rather we had a lot of rainy, wet days, not a lot of heat and not much sun!) Well.... I was out in the veggie garden deciding if I should cut my losses and just take the vine down, when I saw a lufah! Whoohoo - it's not huge, about 30cm long and not terribly thick, but I am thrilled to bits with it. I'll let it dry out for a good bit longer, then take it off. If nothing else I'll be able to dry the seeds for next year. Surely we can't have 2 terrible summers in a row.

Here it is in all it's glory.

The rainbow chard is coming up rather nicely as well. I love the colours. I'm not a massive fan of eating it, but Lloyd and the chickens are!

We've been having the most miserable spell of weather, truly horrible, very windy, lots of incredibly heavy rain and even some hail. The only thing  I love about it is the thunder and lightning!
However, the weather can't dampen the trees colours. Just gorgeous.

I love how they stand out on the grass...

And the UFO? Unfinished Object.
I am joining Sue on her challenge to finish one UFO by Tuesday next week ( So, I better get my finger out!) I have some lovely fabric that I want to make a wee smocked dress out of ( I wear them with jeans - not as a dress - I hate my legs and don't own a skirt or a proper dress) I've just cut it out now, and will start sewing it today.

Or maybe tomorrow...

Oh and I wanted to say 'HI' to Maggie at The Station Masters Cottage! I've been reading her blog pretty much since she started, not least cos we were both in Glasgow before we moved here and our lives seem pretty much identical! BUT Maggie - I can't comment on your blog to say hi. I know you read this ( thanks and *blush* cos you said nice things about me!) but I want to return the favour! Anyway, I am glued to your blog and await updates with baited breath. xx

much later...

ok I started it, but I got the tension wrong on  the elastic so will have to do an awful lot of it again. Oh poo.

Still, at least I started it.

A spot of cheese making

We had a lovely day yesterday over at a friends house making cheese. We're very lucky as Phil is a dairy farmer, so has a lot of milk! There's something quite lovely about making cheese with milk straight from the cow.

We were making feta, ricotta and queso blanco.  The queso blanco and ricotta are ready to eat immediately, but the feta takes a while of brining ( between 4 and 6 weeks - this is our recipe, others are different)
After the 6 weeks we cut it up into wee blocks and put in lovely jars with olive oil and perhaps some herbs. Rosemary is lovely. This way it lasts for a long time.

How to make Feta

We started off with 10 litres of milk ( straight from cow) in a double boiler. Heat this to 37 degrees.
Now you need your starters -
Mesophile and thermophile. Add half a teaspoon of each. And a pinch of lipase. Wait 30 minutes to grow starter bacteria. In New Zealand you can get these from Binn Inns, trade me and various cheesemakers who have websites. You can then use UHT milk, mixed with starter to make more... and never have to buy again!

Add a teaspoon of rennet diluted in 30ml of cooled boiled water. Stir into milk for one minute and leave covered to set. ( check strength and dosage as rennet comes in different strengths)
Wait 60 minutes.

Cut curd into 20mm cubes. Cut left to right, top to bottom, then sort of sideways through the cheese to form cubes. Stir once gently every 30 minutes for next hour and a half. ( 3 times)

Lift curds carefully into sanitised moulds. Leave in moulds on draining mat overnight. ( we left them for a few hours as we were having to take them home) Turn them 2 or three times.

 

 Make up brine - 1/2 cup salt to 2 lt water.

Remove the cheese from the moulds and place in brine solution.

Store at 10c. Ripens in 4 - 6 weeks

Here it is in brine. If it looks like the feta is going soft (like this does) you add a teaspoon vinegar to the brine solution.

We've done this recipe several times and it never fails to give us the most delicious feta.

I know it all sounds a bit tricky and very time consuming, but once you get the hang of it, it's great.

Now for some Queso Blanco

We used 5 litres of milk. 

Heat the milk in a non aluminum pan until just before it boils.

Then add 1/4 cup of white vinegar.

The curds will separate from the whey.

Let simmer for a couple of minutes.

Then put curds into a muslin lined collander, drain for a bit, then gather up the muslin and hang to drain for a few hours. If you want to add herbs do it before you gather up the muslin. You can also add salt here if you want.

We added basil to one half.

It's also known as Paneer. We put some in our dahl last night for dinner and it was lovely!

If you look on the internet you'll find many recipes, some are a little different, these work well for us!

 

Matakana farmers market.

We've been meaning to go for ever, but we can only go when we're down in Auckland and it's actually unusual for us to be coming back up north on a Saturday, so we've  never managed until now. And boy, was it worth waiting for! We loved it. We especially loved that they have an area sort of custom made for it and all the stalls are outside, but under cover as it were. The amount of different scrummy things to eat was amazing and the standard of the produce was absolutely wonderful. We bought our weight in cheese!

This was one of the prettiest stalls

Lovely macadamia nuts - which we never buy as our neighbour has trees and we can help ourselves if want to.They're rather labour intensive wee nuts!

We did buy some lovely bread from here, though and had it for dinner with some of the goats cheese we bought.

And we bought some of this hot smoked salmon as well and it was possibly the nicest salmon I've ever had.

 I thought this stall looked so pretty - not sure if the lady liked getting her photo taken!

And these roses were just stunning.There were some lilac roses - I've never seen them before and thought they were  beautiful.

And a jazz band.

In all honesty it's probably just as well we live so far away from it as we would end up going every Saturday and spending far too much money! But I am a little jealous of the folk down there having it right on their doorstep, it's a totally lovely place to spend some time.

Oh and the reason we were down in Auckland again so soon after the last trip? Well, Lloyd had another course to go on and I was picking up my new wetsuit. Lloyds course was ok, but my wetsuit is AMAZING! This will mean nothing to non-divers, but I have been diving all year round in a 2mm swimming wetsuit. Most people dive in a 7mm at least. To say I have been getting a little cold is an understatement. But a good wetsuit is very expensive. I am not a "normal" size so to get one that fits properly I need a made to measure one. So really it was out of my price range. However, my lovely dad gave mum an envelope to take over with her...for my birthday... and in that envelope was some money, well quite a lot of money, so thanks to my dad's generosity I was able to get a lovely WARM, new wetsuit and not feel guilty about it! I had it made by Seaquel who are a New Zealand company and make the most amazing wetsuits. They supply the navy - that's how good they are. I have to say a big thank you to them for the brilliant job they've done and the amazingly friendly service. So much so that I've been invited to go on their next big diving trip in June - so I am very excited! Anyway, enough about wetsuits!
I'm off to mow the lawns!

Banana

I'm taking him to the vet this morning so that he can have his ( hopefully last) check up. I say hopefully last, as we paid his vet bill the other day. For all that he had it was actually incredibly reasonable and I don't grudge a cent of it - but don't really want a repeat! ( interestingly it was lab tests that are the most expensive, not the love and care he got from Matt and Anne, somehow I feel it should be the other way around, really.)

He is so well already.
This is what he spent yesterday doing, and yes, that is OUR bed.

Even his shaved fur is growing in nicely.

Have to thank the lovely vets again, they never gave up on him and they have called so many times since he came home just to see how he's doing. Anne, the nurse, said that they have so many sad stories it's ones like Banana that make their day.

update
He got the All clear! He's put on 0.8kg. Still about another 1kg to go and he'll be back to normal. But no more lab tests were recommended. Obviously this has been a huge ordeal for him, but he's made the best recovery.

We let him out for the first time today and what did he do? Go straight over to Franks! Frank called us to say he had just seen him and couldn't believe how good he was looking. He also had to clean lots of spiders webs off him - Banana has various routes he takes under Frank and Juen's house but because he hasn't been there for a couple of months, the spiders webs hadn't been getting cleaned off by him - Frank said he was almost invisible under them all! He goes to the vet tomorrow for a final check up, but I am sure he'll get the all clear. Banana really is our miracle cat!

And, Stella. Poor wee thing was born into the worst three days of weather we've had for months. We've had about 100mm of rain in the last 2 days - it's been raining constantly but last night there were some amazing rainfalls. Poor wee thing. There is a lot of shelter in the paddock, but they're not always sensible enough to go under the trees - if they did they would be dry! Her wee coat is wet, but I think it's really kept her warm, and she's drinking  brilliantly now. She's as tall as Herbie but he is twice as wide!! She's an incredibly dainty looking alpaca, whereas Herbie is a bruiser!

The Chalk paint recipe - worked!

The recipe I posted for the chalk board paint worked a treat.
 Reminder of the recipe...

Chalk Paint recipe
So, pour one cup of your paint into a bowl.
Add 2 teaspoons of the non-sanded grout and mix really well making sure all the wee lumps are out.
And that's it! How simple is that?

Then I saw an idea to use this method to mix up a batch of chalkboard paint the same colour as - say - your kitchen doors, I thought I could do our larder door as I still have lots of the lovely blue paint left that I used to paint the kitchen doors a few months back. Then when you take something out of the larder you can write a list straight onto the door!

Couple of things to note
- I would add the powdered grout slowly, stirring a lot inbetween. It has a tendency to all of a sudden turn into actual grout - great if you've got a bathroom to do, not so great if you want to paint with it.
- Even stirring and stirring I was still left with tiny grainy bits when I painted the door. Not to worry though as a very, very light sand will get rid of them.

Now all we need to do is use things from the larder and I can make a list on the door of replacements!

I've also painted all the herbs and spice jars, and Lloyd's last batch of chilli sauce! There's no stopping me.

Labelling your preserves/Chalk Paint recipe

For years I've made wee labels for all the sauces, pickles, jams and various other things we make. They're ok, but nothing special. Then a couple of days ago we were over at R&V's for dinner and Ness showed me what she'd done with her jars this year. Painted a bit of them with blackboard paint, then written what was in the jar and the date in chalk. Inspired!
So I did it with Lloyd's last batch of Chilli sauce. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

I thought - can I take this even further?? So I had a wander around online and found recipes on how to make your own blackboard paint! Which is great as it's really expensive.

All you need is any paint type, and colour - stuff you've got left over will do.
and a tin/bag of dry non-sanded grout. Now I have yet to source this here so I hope I can get some...

Chalk Paint recipe
So, pour one cup of your paint into a bowl.
Add 2 teaspoons of the non-sanded grout and mix really well making sure all the wee lumps are out.
And that's it! How simple is that?

Then I saw an idea to use this method to mix up a batch of chalkboard paint the same colour as - say - your kitchen doors, I thought I could do our larder door as I still have lots of the lovely blue paint left that I used to paint the kitchen doors a few months back. Then when you take something out of the larder you can write a list straight onto the door!

Inspired!

Ok a little update - I managed to find the grout powder stuff - Placemakers have it. However unlike all the American blogs I read where they could get a relatively small amount which cost about $2, the smallest box I could find was $18.99 It's made by Dunlop. I suggest if you have any like minded friends, you share. When I asked for non-sanded grout no one knew what I meant, so ask for the powdered grout - it's the same thing!  It's probably worth noting that I live in the sticks so cities  may have a better, cheaper choice.
Also read my instructions properly -like I DIDN'T! It's TEAspoons of grout, not tablespoons!! I've done the mix in the colour I painted the kitchen cupboard doors. First coat is on and it looks great. I'll do a couple more and report back.

Oh and thank you all so much for yesterdays comments welcoming Stella. She's feeding on her own now, which is a huge relief, and is very bouncy in a gangly sort of way, Herbie is beside himself with joy as he now has a wee friend, I think Stella will love him more as she gets a bit more robust. Right now she tolerates him - just!

Meet Stella.

 
Cocoa has had her cria!
When I went to feed them this morning I saw her and she had quite literally just been born. We saw her stand for the first time and take her first shaky steps. It's brilliant! She looks smaller than Herbie did, but when I saw him for the first time he was all dry and fluffy. Stella is still wet. Cocoa was an angel and let me clean a wee bit of amniotic sac off Stella's face and check to see if she was a boy or a girl. Then we stepped back and let them do their thing. She hadn't drunk anything yet as she was barely able to stand up, but we'll watch her closely to make sure she does.
It's terribly exciting! And Herbie will have someone to play with !

Resting.

 

Later now, we put her little coat on as the weather has turned showery and not very nice. We also contacted Steve and Christine at Naturally Alpaca and they kindly gave us some colostrum so we came home and made up a bottle. Better safe than sorry. She drunk it, but I fairly had to force the teat into her mouth! After she drunk the bottle she went straight to Cocoa and fumbled around - in the right place but, to be honest, I don't think she actually drunk any milk... we'll feed her a bit more later. 

Wish the sun would come back, though.