Blueberry Cheesecake

OK, here's the recipe I did for dessert on the Solstice :)

Blueberry Cheesecake


220g fresh or frozen blueberries (I used frozen)
85g shortbread biscuits
1/2 cup almond meal
45g melted butter
600g cream cheese, softened (I forgot to soften it and it was lumpy :P)
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 cup caster sugar (I think I used a bit less)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Blend the blueberries with a little water. (The original recipe involved cooking them with sugar and pressing through a sieve, which I couldn't be bothered doing, plus it'd make it more sugary. Theirs looked prettier. Mine was healthier and tasted fine).

Crush the biscuits and add the almond meal and butter. Mix until combined. Press onto the bottom of a pie dish (approx 22cm) and refrigerate.

Process the cream cheese until smooth (I didn't want to get the processor dirty, so I mixed it with a spoon. This, plus the fact that I didn't take the cheese out of the fridge to soften it, made for a lumpy cheesecake. Maybe next time I'll use the processor). Add the sour cream, eggs, sugar and vanilla, and process until combined and smooth. Pour into pie dish.

If you can be bothered, drizzle the blueberries over the top and swirl in an artistic manner. If not, just dump it in and mix it around a bit. The swirling thing works better if you do the sugar syrup thing.

Bake on 140 C for 1 hour or until set. (50 mins was fine for mine). Refrigerate and serve cold.

Summer Solstice...

...was yesterday, but Zara didn't sleep well in the evening so I didn't get time to post this.

We had an all-day summer fruit feast to mark the Solstice.

It started with fruit salad for breakfast...
Berry & Brioche Bake for lunch (must post the brioche recipe, it was yummy as!)

Fruit punch to drink...

A passionfruit souffle for dinner, which collapsed when DH took it out of the oven, so wasn't worth taking a photo of, LOL, but it tasted alright, and a blueberry cheesecake for dessert.

We also opened the first presents (one each).

This is our Summer Tree :)

And Zara the Cherry Vampire

Garden Update!

OK, a big progress report on everything in my garden!

My one purple capsicum plant- just starting to flower.

Two of my tamarillo seedlings- growing well :)

Some of my strawberry pots- less than half of them.

Corn seedlings

Tomato plants- first tomatoes coming! Three Romas, grown from seed, and one cherry, self-seeded from the back garden and transplanted. There are more round the back that I want to move, but I need more room in the front garden first!

Two of my little eggplant seedlings.

Malachi's lovely watermelon seedlings.

One of the zucchini plants. We're about to be buried in zucchinis- there are billions of bubby ones coming!

Most of the cauliflowers are ready to harvest- I just need to have time to do it. As you can see, they've been a bit chomped by the bloody cabbage moth caterpillars.

My happiest looking potatoes. This is the fourth bin. The first one was emptied, just to see how they were going, and we got about 500g of baby potatoes. The second bin was looking very unhappy, and the tops look like they were just about dead, but they've come back now, new leaves and everything! The third bin is starting to look sick and unhappy now, but I'm not worried after seeing the other one pick up again. The fourth, as you can see, is looking great! And I've just planted the fifth today- the last of my seed potatoes.

Some capsicum seedlings in the overgrown back garden.

The parsnip seedlings, grown from seed, also in the back garden.

And the sugar snap peas, next to a wall of invading grass and weeds.

There's also a cabbage (yep, one cabbage... we had two, but had one for dinner the other night), but I ran out of camera space.

Beetroot Swirl Loaf

I was feeling creative the other day, and made this for our Playgroup xmas party.


Take one quantity of bread dough (I used a 500g flour batch for this, with lots of herbs added by Malachi). Roll it out flat to a size that'll fit in a loaf tin when rolled up.


Spread with beetroot relish (or whatever- the recipe I adapted it from used basil pesto, but I didn't have any).


Roll up and place in lined or greased tin. (At this point I should point out that it's a good idea to have the join bit facing the bottom of the tin, for reasons which became apparent when it was cooked)


Cover with teatowel and let rise (I put mine on top of the oven) while oven is heating to 220 C. Cook for 30 mins (I did 25, and it was still doughy in the centre, so maybe 35 mins even. Everyone's oven is different). As you can see, with the join being on the top, it stuck out and went a bit crusty and hard to slice. Oh well.


It still looked pretty funky in the end, even though I'm terrible at slicing bread! I always squash it. Any tips for that, anyone?

Mixed Success With Onions

As the title says, I have had mixed success with my first go at onions. They were in the back vegie garden, which is on a slope, and they were right down the bottom. There is black plastic under part of it- left over from the smaller vegie garden which we expanded. Because of that, the drainage isn't great, and in some spots there's not much depth for root growth. I planted 67 brown onion seedlings, and 72 red onion seedlings, back in June. The back garden is being taken over by weeds and evil grass, and because I don't have that much time to get out there, and because we're planning on moving next year, I'm letting it go. Just trying to keep the grass and weeds at bay from the plants that are still in there. Some of the onions are as big as I'd like them some aren't, and some have hardly grown at all, and I decided to pull them out. I got all of the brown onions out this evening, and some of the red. So here's my partial onion harvest-


The cleaner-looking ones in the bottom right corner were pulled out about a week ago, the rest a few hours ago.

The two biggest are on the left, then the average size, then the smallest.

I think that with better conditions, onions will be an easy and rewarding thing to grow :)

Beetroot Relish

I decided to pull up our (very small) beetroot crop yesterday. Some were quite a decent size, some pretty small, but all bigger than the beetroot DH grew last year- he's too impatient to be a gardener and pulls everything out too early!


The whole lot were made into beetroot relish this morning. Here is the basic recipe (I ended up with six cups of grated beetroot):


Beetroot Relish

2 cups grated beetroot
1 Tbs honey
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cumin
3/4 cup water
1 tsp salt


Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Stir over high heat until honey dissolves.


Bring to the boil, then reduce to simmer. Cook for 1 1/2 hours, or until most of the liquid is gone.

Easy! And yum :)

Creativity and Cuteness

A big photo post!

Malachi being a 'diney-saur' in a costume he came up with. Very creative I thought!


Yes, the costume is a green towel :D I asked what kind of dinosaur he was- apparently a worm-eating one!

And two beautiful people in a boat :)


Gotta love creative play :)

Actually just realised that the boat pictures came first, cos his hair's long there, and short in the dinosaur ones :P Oh well.

Oh, and one more... Malachi after deciding that putting porridge in his hair was a good idea! I can't remember exactly how the conversation went, but I said that porridge was for eating, and Malachi said it wasn't. I suggested it was for putting in your hair, which he thought was an excellent plan! He's so funny :D

Green Memes #1 and #2

I got tagged with 2 green memes by Selene at Memo To Self

I've never heard of these things before! But here we go:

1) Link to Green Meme Bloggers. (use image if you like)
2) Link back to whoever tagged you. (no need to wait to be tagged!)
3) Include meme number
4) Include these guidelines in your post
5) Tag 3 other green bloggers.


OK, I'll tag Majik Faerie, Nalin at Yes,ThankYouVeryMuch, and Stephanie and David at Treading Lightly

Okey dokey...

1) Name two motivations for being green?

To look after our beautiful planet, as it's the only one we've got!

To save money.


2) Name 2 eco-UNfriendly items you refuse to give up?

Hmm... I'd love to get rid of our car, but it'd be too hard, we travel to Sydney regularly, and public transport is shocking here.

Air conditioner- I only use it when I really have to... but I love having it for those really hot days. Won't need one once we've got our strawbale house tho!


3) Are you at peace with or do you feel guilty about number 2?

At peace.

4) What are you willing to change but feel unable to/stuck with/unsure how to go about it?

I'd like to buy more organic stuff but can't really afford it...

5) Do you know your carbon footprint for your home? If so, is it larger/smaller than your national average? (http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx)

I have no idea. I'll go have a look later.


6) What's eco-frustrating and/or eco-fantastic about where you live?

Eco-frustrating - the mines. There are lots of coal mines around here, and they want to open new ones. While it's great for jobs and all... grr!

Eco-fantastic - Much less pollution than being in a city, and much more space to grow things!


7) Do you eat local/organic/vegetarian/forage/grow your own?

I am vegetarian and grow as much as I have room for at the moment. The plan is to grow everything when we get out of town.


8) What do you personally find the most challenging in being green?

It can be hard to find eco friendly stuff here, and it's often out of our price range...


9) Do you have a green confession?

I use the air con in the car too much.


10) Do you have the support of family and/or friends?

Mostly.


------------------------------
Green meme #2

1. Do you use baking soda toothpaste or baking soda shampoo? If not, would you consider it?

No, have made the toothpaste before, but it doesn't last long. I buy chemical free versions of both.


2. Do you make any home cleaning products?

I use bicarb and vinegar for everything.


3. What is your top green issue at the moment?

Most of my energy is focused on the vegie garden at the moment.

4. Given unlimited cash, what is on your fantasy green wishlist?

Strawbale house! It will happen... :)

5. Have you implemented any new green act/behaviour/product this month?

Umm...nothing new that I can think of.

Cheese, Herb and Garlic Pull-Apart

This is currently my favourite fancy bread recipe- it looks impressive but is really very easy!

1 quantity bread dough (A batch with 750g flour makes about the right amount)
100g melted butter
1 egg
25g grated parmesan cheese
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/2 tsp salt
dried herbs

Make the bread dough up to the point after the first rising. Knock it back and knead it.

Divide the dough into balls.

Mix the butter, egg, cheese, garlic, salt and herbs together.

Dip each ball of dough into the mixture, and place it in a lined or greased tin (loaf tin, round, ring tin, whatever)
Leave dough to rise again while oven preheats to 190 C
Bake for 30-40 mins.

Adapted from a recipe in 'The Big Book of Bread' by Anne Sheasby

Listen to the Three Year Old!

I've been meaning to post about ECing for a little while, but haven't gotten around to it. I've got a funny EC story now, so there's my motivation!

For anyone who doesn't know, EC stands for Elimination Communication, and basically it means you learn your baby's cues for when they need to go to the toilet. Just like they'll let you know when they're hungry, bored, tired etc, they'll also let you know when they need to do a wee... if you listen.

This is NOT 'toilet training'. It's more the parent that's being 'trained', but I think mostly it's another way to communicate and be in tune with your baby. See Tribal Baby for more EC info!

I heard about ECing before Zara was born, and had vague thoughts about giving it a go, but didn't get around to it. Then one morning she woke up and I offered her the breast, but she pulled on and off and squirmed all around. I thought of some stuff I'd read on Tribal Baby about 'plucking' on and off the breast being a sign for needing to do a wee. I thought to myself, "Maybe I could give that EC thing a go."

It was Sunday morning, and I'd had a big whinge at DH about being tired the day before, so he came and got Zara while I stayed in bed for a little while. She had her night nappy off and was nakeybum. After she'd been up for a while, I heard her making a sort of squirmy, uncomfortable noise. I thought, "Put her on the toilet..." About 5 seconds later, I hear DH say, "Oh, Zara!" and I knew she'd done a wee. That was when I decided, yep, we'll try EC with her.


We've been doing it for a bit over a month now, and it's been really quite easy. We catch most wees and poos most days. She only wears nappies at night, and to go out- but even most of the day nappies are dry now, even after being out for two or three hours. We had one day, last week sometime, where we had NO misses at all! How exciting! :D

Anyway, on to the funny story- a few days ago, Malachi, Zara and I were in bed. I'd been trying to get Zara to have a sleep, but she wasn't too keen, despite being tired. Before I'd taken her into bed, I'd put her on her little toilet, and she'd done a wee. She was getting a bit whingy, so I sat her on my stomach, with me lying down. She made some noises, and Malachi said, "She said 'weee! weee! weee!' She need to do a wee!" I said, "Mate, she only just did a big wee. I don't think she needs to do another one yet." But... a few minutes later... LOL! So I got wee'd on, and apologised to both Malachi and Zara for not listening to them.

This has been my biggest EC lesson (and one I still obviously haven't quite learnt!) - don't assume that she doesn't need to do a wee because she's only recently done one! And listen to the three year old!