Focaccia Rolls

I was going to try out the Naan bread recipe this afternoon, which I've been meaning to do for ages, but I discovered it needed yoghurt, and we don't have any.

So I experimented with this one instead...

Basic Focaccia

450g baker's flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp dried yeast
3 Tbs olive oil
225mL water
sea salt, for sprinkling

Make up the dough by hand or in the breadmaker. Knead and let rise, knock back and knead again.

Divide into eight equal portions. Roll each into a ball. Flatten each ball into a 10cm round, with the edges slightly thicker than the centre.


Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with sea salt.

Let rise again while oven preheats to 200 C. Spray with water before placing in oven, and again 5 mins into cooking time.

Bake for approx 25 mins, or until focaccia are risen and golden brown. (Mine probably weren't quite golden brown)


I did these plain, just to try out the recipe, but olives and sun-dried tomatoes would be an excellent addition :)

Adapted from The Big Book of Bread, Anne Sheasby

I'm Over This Hot Weather...

...but it's really good for making sun-dried tomatoes :D

I have three Roma tomato plants, all are happy and have started to produce lots of lovely tomatoes... except that I'm not actually a huge fan of tomatoes! Not raw ones, anyway. Malachi and Zara take care of the cherry tomatoes, and some of the Romas would probably get used for sandwiches, but more would probably go mouldy in the bottom of the fridge.

But- I love sun-dried tomatoes! I don't have a dehydrator (it's on my list), and I really don't want to leave the oven on for 10-20 hours, which is how long I read it takes in the oven- it'd make the house way too hot, not to mention the power it'd waste.

As it turns out, I have a perfect dehydrator out the front of the house- the car! This was the other option I read about, and it really works brilliantly! I quarter the tomatoes and put them in a metal colander, as you need something with ventilation so they get evenly dried all over. Just put them on top of the dashboard for two or three days (I put them down on the seat when I drive, LOL) and they're done!

Apparently freezing is the best option for keeping them long term. I think they'd need to be soaked in oil for a little while before use though, as they're quite 'crispy'!

Return of the 28 Spot Ladybirds

The day before we went away, I found some weird little spiky yellow things on the zucchinis, and all the little growing baby zucchinis were turning yellow and shrivelling up. Argh! I didn't want to leave my garden for 12 days when I'd just discovered a new, unknown pest attacking my lovely zucchinis...

We came back, and none of the little zucchinis had made it, though the plants were still soldiering on despite half their leaves going brown and dying. I looked closer, and discovered that the tiny yellow things had grown... and some of them had grown up completely- into 28 Spot Ladybirds! When they were on my potatoes, I read that they also went for curcurbits, and moved the potato bins further away from the zucchinis (which are the only curcurbits we have growing at the moment). That was a few months ago, and they seemed to go away. But they're back! Bloody things.

I have implemented a Humane Euthenasia Program, which involves collecting any I can find each day, and putting them in a container in the freezer. I can't bring myself to squish them- it just feels too violent. So the container is filling up, but I've only found a few over the last couple of days, so I think I'm winning the battle. There are a few new baby zucchinis coming- hopefully they'll make it to maturity!

If anyone else has this problem, I found loads of the baby bugs right down the bottom of the stem, near the dirt- I had to lift the plant up to reach them.

In other garden news, LOL, my roma tomatoes are starting to ripen. I grew these from seed, so I'm feeling very proud of them. I'm going to sun-dry them :)

And I'm Back!

Happy New Year!

We've been away, so I haven't been posting for a little while... so here's a big photo post from our last few weeks :)

We were at my parents' place for almost two weeks after xmas:


Went to the Maritime Museum in Sydney, to find Malachi a submarine:


And here's the submarine! Malachi and I went through it, though I didn't have the camera with me, so unfortunately didn't get any photos of him inside it. He was very impressed by all the hatches we had to climb through, and he looked through two periscopes. Zara waited outside with my parents and my brother.



Got a new climbing frame, after our trampoline mat died:


Zara had her first go at painting:


And Zara'a CRAWLING! I've never had a crawling baby before- Malachi walked at 10.5 months without ever crawling, then figured that out sometime past 12 months. Zara's been 'almost crawling' for about a month, and she's finally got the leg movement co-ordinated with the rest of her body, and she's off! Getting into everything and enjoying it immensely :)