Ready for the Cool

We are really enjoying the mild autumn weather this week, for shearing, playing and outside jobs. Lyssie and I have cleaned out the wood box and disposed of the enormous amount of spiders and filled it ready for when the cooler weather comes. This morning we collected sticks down the driveway while Emme had a nap. Ian has cleaned out the plate at the top of the fire so we are ready to go when the cold hits.

Quiche and Playing

Thank goodness lovely autumn weather has arrived and the girls can finally play outside without worrying about the sun too much. Emme really loves being outside doing fun things like eating stones and chasing moths. This morning I found her eating compost out of the wheelbarrow as I refilled an old laundry trough to replant some mint.

Impossible Quiche

1 onion, chopped
2 rashers bacon, chopped
1 cup of grated cheese
salt and pepper
1/2 cup self raising flour

Mix the above together in a bowl until everything is coated in flour.

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tbsp melted butter

Whisk together in a jug then pour over flour mixture and combine well. Pour into a greased quiche dish and bake for about 45 minutes at 200*.

Works well with other bits added such as corn, asparagus, grated zucchini, spinach, parsley, tomato slices on top, or anything else you have on hand.

Wonder Woman

Yarding sheep ready for shearing

We have a busy couple of days coming up with happenings on the farm. We are shearing at the moment and on Monday will be pregnancy scanning 2500 ewes as well- a lot of sheep coming in and out of the yards over only a few hours. So I thought I had better get organised today so at least we would have good food to keep us going.

This is what a good morning in the kitchen produced

• bread
• chocolate cake- big one, hald will go in freezer
• pumpkin, zucchini and bacon soup- some in little containers in freezer for small children
• impossible quiche- will write out recipe when I have a little more time as it is really versatile and simple
• batch of spag bog sauce for the kids- little containers in the freezer as well
• lamb and pumpkin curry for tomorrow night
• 
  
• 

The stove at 11.00am

Still have to make an apple and rhubarb crumble and custard to take out tonight and ice the cake. Had better go and get organised as we need to be out of the house and ready by 4.45pm!!


Fresh bread and a jar of tomatoes ready for the spag bog for the kids. Are just about out of fresh tomatoes so have just started to use the bottled tomatoes, definately pleased with my first effort at bottling my own tomatoes

Poppa's Birthday

On Saturday we headed to the coast for a big family birthday lunch for Poppa's 70th.
It was lovely to catch up with everyone and see all the kids play together out side in Nan's beautiful garden.

Emme really enjoyed the birthday cake!

Lyssie is showing potential to become a great country lady by mucking in and helping Nan with the washing up.

Simple Apple Cake

It has certainly been quite a while since I have managed to blog! Thought it was about time to get back into it. There has been quite a bit happening here with taking on a new farm and just the children in general, it has been hard to find 5 minutes to sit, write and reflect. I will try to make time more regularly. I will hopefully start to feel a bit more motivated too as the seasons are changing in the garden and there is once again a lot happening.


I finally used a new Bundt pan I bought a while ago on special. I think Bundt pans could become an obsession, I have three now and I can see room for many more in my house. There is certainly one for every occasion. It was really easy to prepare and cooked a simple apple cake perfectly. I used the Quick Apple Cake recipe from Stephanie Alexander's Cooks Companion. It makes a nice pudding cake with a hint of brandy or rum, might be nice with a bit of spice next time.

The Girls

Emme had her car seat turned around this week and she is pretty happy to see what is going on. Here she is on a farm tour with her lamb.

Lyssie has been helping as usual! Just spooning a zucchini slice into the dish ready for baking.

One Variety Just Wasn't Enough!

As usual I planted too many pumpkins, I admit that. Pumpkins are a great thing to have too many of as they store well and you never really have a glut that has to be used or preserved all at once. It is great to be able to give them away and know that somewhere they are making a great pumpkin soup or even a pumpkin swiss roll (haven't tried yet but on my list of things to do).

My first pumpkin, a Queensland Blue (I think)

This year I have planted a variety of pumpkins from several sources.

Firstly a packet of Pumpkin's Old Favourites Mixed (Erica Vale brand) that I picked up earlier last year somewhere and thought they looked interesting. They include Queensland Blue, Jarrahdale, Butternut, Gramma and Jap & Paw Paw. I can really only see Queensland Blues and Jarrahdale pumpkins growing, so I am not sure what happened to the rest.

Secondly I planted 6 triamble seeds from The Digger's Club. I grew them last year and they were by far the best producing pumpkin I have ever seen. They have the added advantage of storing for up to two years.

Last of all I planted a punnet of Japanese pumpkins that I saw and just couldn't resist before christmas. Really didn't need them, but did have a great little spot full of compost and easy to add on to the retic so I knew it wouldn't be much more work. They do need a little work at the moment though as the asparagus seems to have disappeared under them!

Lyssie- 2 years and 4 months

In training for feeding the chooks and collecting the eggs