life is a whiteboard*

As a consequence of our very un-SLOW living, we now have a white board in the kitchen. It details for all 'n' sundry, who's doing what, when. No arguments "its on the whiteboard!" has been used to stop a brewing one in its tracks. FAST. One surreptitious glance will prove the point. We're juggling set building and painting for the local theatre production which starts this week, FoodConnect meetings to meet the March 4 launch date, sports club responsibilities, Murrundi Pangari Ringbalin Coroboree planning- (exciting, huge connective Ngarrindjeri-Murray river RiverCountry Spirit Ceremony - will post more about this later) meetings, Greens Meetings and election meetings. The kids are not getting much of a look in these school holidays.I m not sure if I hope Si does get into parliment in March...

*title intended to be sung in tune with 'life is a highway'

tortillas

We have been living through another heatwave and facing catastrophic fires conditions; Code Red for 3/4 of the state yesterday. Just crazy; my brother is snowed-in in London and friends on holiday in Hamburg have been experiencing record snow and lows!
Too hot to cook? Bring on the burrito. The only cooking required is a few minutes on a hot pan per tortilla and some pan cooked meat if you want it.

Perfect vego food. Raw and healthy. Its B2s favourite dinner. Grated carrot and cheese, strips of red capsucum, cucumber, diced tomatoes and lettuce. Easy garden fare. Topped off with yoghurt guacamole spruced up with loads of chopped coriander, spring onions and chilli and if you like, some free range spicy chicken pieces.

If you're using store bought tortilla breads, then you have to give these a go. The day i tried my own tortilla bread i was a convert to the extra half hour investment. You won't believe the difference; flaky but feather soft and much more filling than store bought breads.I gave up the store bought breads for a few reasons mainly due to the plastic packaging and the distance traveled to get here and then there's the preservatives and basically, lack of quality product. Hmmm, tortilla for breakfast sounds goooood.

Tortilla:
3 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
11/2 tsp baking powder
7 tablespoons oil
1 cup hot water.

Mix for 3 min.
Rest for 10 min
Dry fry on a very hot skillet turning four times

Makes 8

Haiku Friday

sometimes it's tricky;
hanging on for dear life, or
gracefully growing?

tomato tee pees

I've taken a new tack with the tomatoes this year. Tomato tee pees.
They seem to be working well so far. I decided to do it this way for a few reasons. One is that we have a few bamboo groves around the garden so we use bamboo for most of our vegetable trellising, fencing and other basic structural needs and unlike regular tomato stakes, they are slippery and smooth and don't take to normal methods for tomato staking and supporting, the other is that I don't have to sacrifice perfectly good stockings at that time of the year when I'm least like to care. This year i planted more tomato plants than we have tomato stakes so a new method of providing structural support was required. Ive got tomatoes everywhere; in pots and in the ground.

As tomatoes apparently love to be free, hang loose and don't really appreciate trying to be fully productive under restrained circumstances (being adhered to a stake) I tried a tomato tee pee method this year. This tee pee approach allows for movement of the plant in a breeze and apparently encourages growth and development due to some molecular/biological function in the stems that I quite frankly cant be bothered looking up and explaining. As I also hate having to tie up tomato plants periodically during growing season, this method looked very attractive as it requires just one major time investment.

A tee pee of bamboo is erected over each plant and secured at the top with twine or wire. A piece of twine is then tied to the base part of the major tomato stem and then tied to the top of the tee pee. The new growth at the top of the plant is then 'twirled' around the twine as it gains height, which takes about 2 seconds a plant to swing around the twine. Soooo easy to do and it allows for that movement. No gagged and bound tomatoes at Chez Pan this year.

new year brunch

'brunch' (its the burbs!) is possibly my most favourite time for having people around for a meal. I'm well rested (usually) therefore relatively stress free and ready for what the day brings. Surprising then that i don't do it very often!? New Years brings a flurry of activity and today we had a lovely meal with friends who were all en route home to far away places and wouldn't be seen again for quite some time. we ate, chatted, sunned ourselves, and the bean showed everyone around his favourite place: the vege garden (always something edible to be gleaned at a visit)

Brunch for 12 required 2 hours of prep (pretty good in my book). On the menu was local wood-fired sourdough toast with Gnomes scrambled eggs ala Maggie Beer (secret ingredients of orange zest, local cream and local BD butter and strictly! stirred only with a wooden spoon) local BD bacon, oven baked to extra crispiness ( never ever do bacon in a pan if you like quick and crispy bacon), pan fried mushrooms with garlic, crispy wholemeal waffles with maple and homemade baked ricotta with a tomato balsamic glaze.
Thanks to the wonders of modern online social networking sites, I unearthed a friend with a this recipe which Id made 10 years ago and loved but the ex took all the good cookbooks and this recipe was in one of them. I put the call out and viola, recipe sourced. Its a ripper.

Individual Herbed Lemon Ricotta

500g Ricotta
Dressing:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic – crushed
Zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
½ cup olive oil
150g semi dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
4 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Crusty bread to serve

Lightly grease and line four ½ cup ramekins with plastic wrap.
Divide the ricotta between the moulds and press down firmly
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours
Preheat oven to 220°C.
Unmould ricottas onto a tray lined with baking paper and bake for 20 minutes or until golden
To make the dressing – combine all the ingredients in a bowl.
Place each baked ricotta into a shallow bowl and pour a little of the dressing over each one.
Serve immediately with crusty fresh bread.

I didn't bother making them individual nor turning onto baking paper, nor wrapping in plastic stuff, nor serving IMMEDIATELY, I just baked a whole-lotta ricotta in a round pyrex dish and periodically poured out excess liquid, for a lovely big wheel, slopped tomato dressing on top and on side. I used freshly oven baked/dried tomatoes instead of semi-dried ones and per usual didn't really measure anything! just tossed stuff in a bowl. Hence the rather large olive oil pool...

Haiku Friday

new camera, small kid.
a perfect match. shutter falls,
again and again.

Aims for 2010

I'm not a NYE resolution maker, but here's a lost of my goals for 2010. Blogging is such a good way to ensure a modicum of accountability for myself, putting it all out there lets me a) remember them! b)review them and c)cross them off when done!

1. get back to a regular exercise routine (at least 3 times a week of a dedicated hour)
2. give up my butter addiction
3. graduate
4. take the bean to a local kinder gym/playgroup
5. do more then two successive sowings in the garden for a more continuous supply of veges!
6. have a 'WoW' of a 40th birthday party
7. green my workplace a little more
8. make lots more champagne!
9. read more books
10. work harder at reducing household plastic waste

Whats topping your list for 2010?