Home made inspect spray for the garden

Back in October 2011 I promised that I would put this recipe on my blog when I found it. This is a really handy recipe as not only does it help to keep unwanted pest insects out of the garden, but it you can adapt the recipe to use up kitchen scraps.

Ingredients: 4 large chopped onions, 6 chopped garlic cloves, 1tbsp hot chilli powder, 2 cups pure soap flakes or pure grated soap.

Method: Combine onions, garlic and chilli powder, cover with water and stand for 24 hours. Strain. Mix in soap flakes or grated soap into onion mixture. Dilute mixture 2 parts mixture to 5 parts water. Will keep for 2 weeks in a cool, dark place.

As an alternative to using perfectly good onions and garlic cloves, I often use the off cuts from food preparation. I use the equivalent of the above measurements in onion skins and garlic skins and any bits that are cut off (such as the tip of the garlic or bits of onion that have gone soft).

You will need to give the mixture a good shake before you use it each time as the soap flakes tend to settle a bit. You could use chopped chillis if you have them rather than chilli powder.

Construction Theme Birthday Party Cake

I was really glad when my son picked out a construction theme birthday party cake from one of the Australian Women's Weekly cake decorating books as it looked really easy to do. It was pretty simple, just make two cakes and stick them together (one on top of the other) with icing. Cut into the top cake to create a hill. Cover with icing and crushed Violet Crumble, decorate with construction toys. Put some choc coated sultanas around to look like rocks. I found that this worked well for a beginner cake decorator like me, as it didn't matter if some cake crumbs got into the icing or if the icing ran a bit... construction sites are messy places anyway!

Construction theme birthday party pinata

My son is about to turn 5 and he had his party on the weekend. We made a Stop/Go sign pinata by using thick cardboard and cutting two large circles as the two sides. Then we cut a strip of cardboard and used packing tape to stick it around the edges, making sure to put a hole with some string in at the top and filling with lollies before taping it all up. Lastly my son and I had fun painting it. I wasn't sure how strong it was and was surprised to find it took quite a whacking before the contents spilled out! It was so easy to do and better still we used cardboard that would have only been thrown out and some packing tape we had at home. All we had to get was lollies and a bit more paint. Pinata's are about $20 in the shops, but I only paid about $10 for a bag of lollies and one of chocolates. My advice would be to only use one bag and it turned out we had far too many lollies/chocolates in ours for the number of kids that we had (10).The best thing about this, it didn't matter that it didn't look perfect, my son still loved it!

Home made air freshener

I'm going to give this a go the next time I need air freshener!http://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-Air-Freshener-Gel/?download=pdf

Jolly Santa Advent Calendar

In previous years I have been disappointed in buying advent calendars. While very cheap, the chocolate that comes in them is the size of a 5c piece and at the end of it all you are left with is some packaging. Last year I made my own using Jolly Santa material. It was a bit rough and ready but my kids loved it as the pockets are big enough to put a small toy, holiday craft activity to keep the kids busy and some home made treat. This year my husband suggested getting a small lego model and putting some of the bricks in each day so day by day the kids can construct the model. This year I made one for my best friends kids and took much more care with my measurements and sewing. I took photos as I did it and wrote down the instructions, so if you would like to make it, here it is.If you have trouble copying and pasting this into your browser, email me at paulinestips@gmail.com and I will email you the document. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AkgrmKD8FLIDNAUL3hG8gMG4YzwhjxPBZkT6XZ4FNOc/edit?usp=sharing

Sunrisesister.org

I have just added a new blog link to My Blog list. Sunrisesister is my sister-in-law, Charlotte. She has some fantastic ideas on things to knit, recipes to cook and other crafty ideas. Check it out, you'll love what she has on there.

Garden update...200kg of produce and counting!

Three years ago I planted a vegie patch. The first year I got 104kg out of my garden and was pretty excited. Last year I got 120kg and was even more excited. Yesterday I picked the last of the tomatoes as well as some oranges and was extremely excited when I weighed the days takings and found that my garden has produced 200kg this year so far (and it's only the middle of September!). I have a set of kitchen scales and I weigh everything I pick so that I can keep a record of how economical my garden is.
I spent the weekend digging out unwanted flowering plants as well as the tomatoes and pumpkins that have died off. I went out and bought the following seedlings: rockmelon, watermelon, corriander, sweet basil, zucchini, tomatoes (4 varieties, one seedling of each...I do it each year), cherry tomato, peas and beans. I had some corn seeds that I got from the Adelaide Royal Show and some pumpkin seeds that I saved from the last pumpkin picked out of my garden. I don't usually have much luck growing things from seed, apart from parsley and lettuce that self seed in my garden, so will be looking out to see if the corn and pumpkin germinate. If not, it will be a quick trip down to the nursery to get seedlings. I also bought some manure and sugar cane mulch. I love the smell of fresh sugar cane mulch on the garden! I had a very busy day yesterday, with lots of soil preparation and planting. I didn't get to plant the rockmelon and watermelon as I have to remove the grass that has grown in the spot where I will put them. I will have to do it sometime in the next week.
Does it cost much to set up a garden? Yesterday the mulch, manure and seedlings (and Seasol spray) cost me about $130.00. Not bad considering how much I will get from it in regards to zucchinis and rockmelons, etc. It will pay for itself over the season.
My husband got me some editions of the Grass Roots Magazine from the library and I read an interesting article about how much food is NOT eaten from our vegie patches. The author started going out each day and picking produce from their garden and making a point of using it in a meal. It didn't matter if it was one spear of asparagus and a few leaves of lettuce, it still went towards a meal. I think I will give this a go, as I find there is so much in my garden that doesn't get used. My cos lettuce are huge, so I think I will pick some today and maybe make a Caesar salad for dinner. I also have a lot of spinach and silverbeet, so will pick a few leaves and make something with them (and pick the snails off them at the same time).
I am also excited that the asparagus that I planted last year has shown a new lease of life this year. After I planted it my husband and I moved it just as it was dying off at the end of the season as it was where my husband wants to plant a fig tree. After transplanting I cut it back to ground level. Recently we looked at it and declared it dead, as it certainly looked that way. A week later Spring started and new spears popped out from under the ground!

Growing cos lettuce

In Autumn I planted 6 cos lettuce seedlings as I love cos lettuce, especially in a caesar salad. They have grown really well in a position where they get the winter sun. There is something I discovered which has increased their economic value in my eyes. I found that if I removed the leaves without pulling out the stump and roots that they grew a new lettuce head from the old stump. Consequently I now have more cos lettuce than I can keep up with. I recently gave some large leaves to a friend who has a rabbit. I now know that I can pick the lettuce leaves while they are still relatively small (I prefer them that way rather than too big) and still have some left for another meal. My only question is, when do they die off? Do they die off in Summer? Mine are still looking good as we have moved into Spring. I am wondering if I should let one go to seed the same as I do for the other variety of lettuce that I have growing in my garden. With the other lettuce, I planted it years ago and ever since then I let it go to seed and just watch to see where in the garden it will pop up next. Since the first planting I have never had to plant it myself, it self seeds/germinates around the garden! I'm hoping to do the same with my cos lettuce.

What, no potato? Substituting potato with home grown pumpkin in my Chicken and Leek Cobbler

I recently went to make a favourite dinner of mine...Chicken and Leek Cobbler...only to discover there were no potatoes in the pantry. However, I still had some of my home grown pumpkins that needed using up. So I had a go at substituting potato for pumpkin, with great results. Here is the recipe. 50g butter; 1kg free range chicken breast fillets, cut into strips; 1 large leek, trimmed and finely sliced (I used home grown leeks); 1 stick celery, finely sliced; 1 tablespoon plain flour; 1 cup chicken stock; 1 cup cream; 3 teaspoons Dijon mustard (although I actually used Beerenbergs Bavarian Mustard which is lovely). Topping - 400g potatoes or equivalent in pumpkin; 1 1/3 cups self raising flour; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/4 cup grated mature Cheddar; 100g cold butter, chopped; 1 egg yolk, lightly beatedn to glaze. Melt half the butter in a pan. Add the chicken and cook until golden. Remove from pan. Add remaining butter and cook the leek and celery until soft. Return the chicken to the pan. Sprinkle flour over chicken mixture and stir for 1 min. Remove from heat and stir in stock and cream. Mix well to avoid lumps. Return to heat and bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 20 mins. Add mustard and season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer mixture to 1.25 - 1.5L casserole dish. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius. To make the topping, steam or boil pumpkin until tender. Drain and mash until smooth. Place flour and salt in food processor and add cheese and butter. Process in short bursts until mixture is like breadcrumbs. Add this to pumpkin. If mixture is too sloppy, add more flour (pumpkin tends to be more moist than potato). I added rice flour which gave the end result a lovely texture. Bring together with your hands to form a dough. Roll dough onto floured board and roll out until 1cm thick. Use a scone cutter to cut circles into it.Keep rerolling pastry and cutting circles until all pastry is used up. Carefully lay the circles over the chicken and leek filling, overlapping the circles. Brush the dough circles with egg yolk with a little milk mixed in if needed. Bake about 30 mins or until dough is golden. Absolutely delicious! This recipe is adapted from Family Circles Step by Step Quiches, Pies and Tarts

Home made pepitas from my home grown pumpkins

With all the pumpkins I have had out of my garden this year I wish I had started making pepitas earlier when I still had plenty of pumpkins left. Better late than never, I looked up how to make pepitas (roasted pumpkin seeds) on the internet to see how it was done. There were a number of ways to roast them, so I thought I would give it a go and see which way works out best. I have tried one way so far, with different seasonings. Firstly, rinse the pumpkin seeds. Some websites said you have to be meticulous, while others said it wasn't so important to get all the pumpkin 'guts' off. I laid them out on some paper towel to dry and patted them dry a bit as well. Then I took away the paper towel and laid them on a baking tray to completely dry overnight.

The following day I placed them in a bowl with a little drizzle of olive oil and mixed them together with some salt. The second time I made them I also added smokey paprika. Then I laid them out on the baking tray again and baked them at about 150 degrees C (300F)until they were a light golden brown. I think this took about half an hour. This method made pepitas which are pumpkin seeds still in the kernels (unlike the ones from the shop which have been shelled). They were crunchy and delicious. Another method which I haven't tried yet is to boil them in salted water before laying them on a baking tray to dry and roasting them. You could flavour them with any seasoning you like I guess. I hope to try things like chilli flakes and garlic as well. If you've made them before, let me know what method you tried and if it worked for you.

Make your own pinata

Brendon wants a pinata for his construction theme birthday party, but I refuse to pay $20 in the shops for one! So this morning I looked on the internet for instructions on how to make one. I found this site http://www.kidspot.com.au/how-to-turn-a-cardboard-box-into-a-pinata/ and will make one either in the shape of a construction helmet or traffic cone (as per my almost 5 year olds wish). When I do I will post photos so you can see how I made it.

My garden featured on Today Tonight Adelaide Channel 7

This program aired last night, so here is the link to see my garden and the interview I did (not to mention my beautiful kids)!

Nuts and bolts recipe

This tasty snack is an adaptation from a recipe that my sister makes. The original recipe calls for Nutrigrain, but I didn't have any so used wholegrain Cheerios instead. If anyone has any suggestions on flavourings I can use instead of packets of soup mix please let me know on paulinetips@gmail.com or post a comment. Ingredients: 1 packet French onion soup 300g peanuts 1 packet Dutch curry and rice soup 1 packet pork or plain noodle chips (I used cashew bar mix for this one) 300g sultanas 1/2 cup oil 300g Nutrigrain (or wholegrain Cheerios) Mix all ingredients together. (How simple is that?). This keeps for ages in an airtight container and is great for parties. Omit the nuts for allergies if required.

No garden? No worries! Indoor edible plants

Here are some ideas for growing edible plants indoors. Mushroom kits are great and cost about $20. Mine is in the laundry and the mushrooms taste great. You can also grow alfalfa or cress in your kitchen. My son's kindy grew cress in plastic yoghurt containers with cotton wool. It now sits on my kitchen bench ready to use. If you have any other great ideas add them here or email paulinestips@gmail.com