OK, so not really gardening related...but here is my latest quilt

Cupcake Heaven

Albie helped me make them using a Hummingbird Bakery recipe (way easier, no creaming of butter and sugar), and Montana-Rose helped to ice them.  Aren't they cute!

We have also done some Autumn Harvesting, I reckon our silverbeet could have won a prize at the Oxford show!  It is like palm fronds, it's so big.

What to do with a gazillion eggs - make Eclairs

Our chook girls are working hard giving us 6-7 eggs a day, and we are unundated with them.  We eat poached eggs, boiled eggs, make cakes and all the rest, but here's a good way to use up heaps.

Preheat oven to 200C.  Put 2 cups of water into a pot with 6oz of butter and bring to the boil.  Add 10oz plain white flour and beat till the mixture leaves the sides of the pot.  Remove from heat, add 1t vanilla and 2dessertspoons of sugar.  Beat in 8 eggs.  (my recipe book says to do each egg separately, but I whack the whole lot in and whizz with the electric beater).  You will end up with a mixture that looks like soft goop, like a paste.

Put large spoon fulls onto a baking paper lined tray, leaving plenty of room between them.  Bake 30 mins till golden brown.  Wait about 5 mins then slit to let out steam.  Let cool and dry thoroughly.  Fill with custard or whipped cream and top with chocolate ganache or icing.

Old Fashioned Picnic

Amberley School had it's end of term picnic, on the train from Waipara to Wairakei on the Weka Pass Railway. All the children were asked to bring an old fashioned picnic (no yoghurts, prepackaged food items, and only home baking).  And to dress in costume, don't Tana look great in her mop cap and tucker!

Getting the real Tomato flavour

We finally have some tomatoes and I have just had an amazing dish for dinner, which showcases Tomatoes in all their glory, along with some classic partners, Basil and Feta

Tomato, Feta stacks

Take each tomato, complete with stalk and slice a teeny bit off the bottom to make them sit upright in a dish.  Slice each into 3 thick slices.  Top the first two Tomato slices with a slice of feta and 2 or 3 basil leaves, then spray with oil.  Stack ontop of each other and then with the tomato top.  Secure with a toothpick.  Bake in a really hot oven for about 10 mins.

Simple and delicious.  They looked very like this!

What's ready in the garden in April

No matter that we planted our garden late this year (in January), here is a list of those things that are now ready and that we have been eating over the past few weeks:

Cauliflowers - although we did lose a few to white caterpillars
Broccoli
Spring Onion
Potatoes by the kilogram
Green Capsicum
Chillis (which are drying wonderfully on the windowsill)
Runner Beans

So, all is not lost!