This the story of a little mother cat. We found her a couple of months ago darting between Cilla the pig's legs, so starving that she was prepared to risk being stomped by those huge hoofs to get a morsel of food. What can you do? We started to feed her as she was obviously … Continue reading Maggie comes to stay (forever)

I absolutely love Wednesday morning tea time. I sent a platter yesterday of blueberry and apple muffins. Some of the lemon curd I made the day before was piped (generously) into the centre of each. There was custard of course - the 3 litres I took along last week was maybe a little excessive even … Continue reading Wednesday Morning Tea Platter – muffins with lemon curd and custard

The last of the green tomatoes have been harvested from the veggie patch. Instead of waiting for them to ripen, I decided to try something recommended to me recently. A lady told me she makes my recipe for Tomato Chilli Pickle (aka Kasoundi) from A Year In a Bottle - but using green tomatoes instead … Continue reading Green Tomato Kasoundi

It's Wednesday morning tea time again. We weren't sure we could get up the road due to last night's snowfall, but as it turned out all was well, just a bit icy underfoot. The cake comes from The Comfort Bake (p.70) - Maple Syrup Upside Down Banana Cake, the recipe doubled so as to be … Continue reading Maple Syrup Upside Down Banana Cake

A tale of many medlars. Each year for decades now, our friend Kaye gives us her tree's entire crop of fruit. Sometimes the yield is small due to inclement weather or the ravages of possums. Not so this year! Friends Lizzie and Nina can be seen here gathering this season's bounty a couple of days … Continue reading Medlar season’s bounty

Here's the recipe for the Banana-Rumma Cake as promised. BANANA-RUMMA CAKE This makes a large baking dish sized cake, which is great for sharing or as a cut-and-come-again cake for a family. However, the recipe could be halved and baked in a 20cm round tin in a moderate oven for approximately 35 minutes. It can … Continue reading Recipe for Banana-Rumma Cake

Wednesday morning tea offering for The Custard Club (as spoken about in "The Comfort Bake"). A friend recently gave a a recipe for a Jamaican banana cake with a hint of rum. I doubled the recipe, made some changes (like leaving out the coconut, I do so dislike coconut) and a few other tweaks, like … Continue reading Banana-Rumma Cake

A couple of weeks ago a neighbour gave me some of his beautiful tree ripened apples. Aside from eating, there were enough to make a batch of scrumpy cider (recipe in "A Year on the Farm"). I didn't get back to it for maybe longer than I should and by that time it was very … Continue reading A loaf full of apples and rye

From the ABC Jams and preserves talkback with Joel Rheinberger yesterday morning. A listener, Dixie, rang in with this sumptuous sounding soup, using butternut pumpkin and chestnuts. Here it is, below: BUTTERNUT PUMPKIN AND CHESTNUT SOUP 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 onion, diced 2 carrots, diced 2 cloves garlic, finely diced 1kg Butternut pumpkin; peeled, … Continue reading Butternut Pumpkin and Chestnut Soup – recipe

The Custard Club's morning tea today was brought together by the generosity of our neighbourhood. The stars of the show were beautiful, fresh feijoas, gifted to me by a friend yesterday. I've not had any for years, this was such a treat! Fresh lemons in the cake batter were from another neighbour, the honey for … Continue reading Feijoa Season!