Homemade Water Biscuits, Cheap and wonderfully moreish

These are a tasty treat for the lunchbox, and easily made with very little expense.  The only fiddle is rolling out and cutting, but that is easily done quickly.

In a bowl put 1.5c of flour, rub in 50-100g butter (depending on how "short" you like them), and add enough cold water to make a soft dough.

Roll our super thin, wafer thin.

Brush with a little oil  and shake on some salt or other flavours, then cut into shapes and bake in a hot oven(180-200C) for about 10mins till browned slightly.

Flavours:  salt, chickenstock, beefstock, dried herbs, dried onion.

They stay crispy in an airtight container, but I really love them hot from the oven.

Great spread with homemade pate.

Dryer Balls!!

(Not what they sound like LOL)

These are little patchwork or woollen balls that you put in with your washing in the dryer.  They help the washing "move around" inside the dryer, causing the air to circulate better and hence a shorter drying time = less money spent on electricity.  A bit like how you put an old sandshoe in when drying sleeping bag to keep the loft in the feathers.

Now, I know what you are going to say about dryers...we shouldn't use them!  and I do try not to.  But sometime when the weather is conspiring against you and the washing just won't dry any other way, I resort to it.  My dryer is actually a fairly recent addition to our household.  We have had it about a year, I really wish I had it when we lived in Cromwell cos there in the winter it was so hard to get washing dry that I used our local laundromat in desperation.

However, I have made  some more "dryer balls" and a pix will come soon of these cuties.

(pop about 4 in the dryer with your washing)

25 Jars of Apricot Jam + Recipe

Mark and I made jam last night....24 Jars of it!  What a wonderful thing it looks on the bench, one for every fortnight of the year.   Glorious, fragrant, thick, soft and sweet, on scones, toast and more.

Apricot Jam

(We made 5.5kg of fruit)

Weigh the fruit, and for each kg use 1c water.  Weigh out an equal weight of sugar.

Stone the fruit first, just by splitting them in half and picking out the stone.  There is  no need to chop the fruit up, it mashes down somehow during cooking.

Add the fruit and water to a large pan and S L O W E L Y heat to pulp the fruit.  This can be a bit tricky not to burn the fruit at this stage, if you try to rush you may be disappointed.  So take your time and stir well and often.

Meanwhile wash your jars, and put into the oven at 100C to steralise.

When the fruit has pulped, add all the sugar and bring as quickly to the boil as you can.  You want a good rolling boil.

Don't worry about the froth, we will take care of that shortly.  Test for "setting point".  After about 10 mins, put a small spoonful onto a plate.  Pop into the fridge and let the piece of jam cool.  Then push it with your finger, if the top of the puddle wrinkles where you push it, you are ready!  If you were worried about not being able to get it to set easily, you can buy Jam Setting stuff which is Citric Acid and Pectin, but you can also add the juice of a lemon or two to the same effect.  Generally Apricot jam is pretty easy to do without added extras, but no worries if you want to err on the safe side.

(In this pix the jam is not quite done yet, just showing the technique)
Once you have reached setting point, skim off the froth, and stir in a teaspoon sized piece of butter afterwards to remove any remaining scum.

Then leave it to cool for 10-15mins, mainly so you don't burn yourself!

Pop the hot jars onto a cloth or board (so they don't crack with meeting a cold object) and ladle in the jam up to about 1/2cm from the top.  I use cellophane covers, which you wet then secure over the jar.  As the jam cools it creates a vacuum, to prevent any mould forming.

Label your jars then admire, then eat!

Freezing Beans

Yesterday's haul of veges

a huge pile of beans
1 large cauliflower
a bunch of carrots
1 beetroot
some tomatoes
Corgettes galore

and a whole lot of gone to seed radishes which the chooks are going to get I think.

Montana-Rose and I sliced the beans using an old fashioned bean slicer and then blanched them and froze several packets.  We ate  some for dinner along with corgettes (of which we have a major glut!)

Tomatoes in flower and corgettes making babies

The rain has encouraged our tomatoes to go crazy, they are not particularly tall, but they are flowering already.  I have been around them and plucked off the side shoots, so that I just get one tall stem, as more fruit is likely to set and get to ripening that way.

Also the corgettes are madly flowering and the plants are sprinkled with mini corgettes forming.  It is so exciting....

The hot and the wet

Two days ago it was 26C! then that night it rained, the temperature dropped and yesterday we had a cool,but fine day.

My garden loves this kind of weather, lots of warm growing time, and lots of drinking.  I swear the tomatoes have doubled in height, and are now producing flowers.  Most are of an ordinary variety (I forget exactly what) and there is one of a grafted variety.  Funny, I always thought grafting was for permanent things like trees.  A tomato is a one year thing, so why graft onto a different rootstock?  I just thought I would try it out and see if it was any better, it was certainly an expensive way of getting tomatoes.  I am ashamed to say I did not grow the others from seed, but at least they were $3.95 for a pottle of 6, where as I paid double that for one grafted tomato plant - it had better be worth it.

My corgettes are producing little green fingers, and the pumpkins are looking at their first flowers too, it's all very exciting.  Added excitement yesterday when I walked out to see a CHICKEN in my garden! again!!  Drastic chicken netting measures have been called for and young son is spending the day doing strategic fencing.

The Strimmer Method

Sounds like some kind of  self help for stammering, right?  actually, it's how to tackle an enormous overgrown garden.

Today I line-trimmered for 4 hours.. and I have made inroads.  I shaped garden beds, I strimmed the worst of the weeds, I tackled the bidibids, and I got sunburnt.

The trimmer gives definition to my flower beds, now, they have a close strimmed the edges down, as if they have been sprayed.  You should have seen some of the work that got done.  Actually, I will post some pix soon, as it looks dramatically different.  Not sure if you need to have seen it before to appreciate the work that went in, but that's your call.