Composting

Composting the garden is something that all gardeners do at some stage. however, making your own compost is something that many people steer clear of. Not because it is difficult or hard to do, but more that it takes patience and a little bit of a recipe. Composting is such a key part of gardening. It is so cool, and so important to return back to the garden, what has come from the garden. Its kinda like the circle of gardening life! If you need any more convincing about why you should compost then think about things like you're recycling, you're putting back into the earth what your plants have eaten up (nutrients), its free (once you have a container), it is rewarding and the thing that makes me so convinced composting is a good idea, is that you know exactly what is going into your garden! You decide what chemicals are going into your food, and I like to choose no chemicals! So I see composting as a win-win for all parties involved (me, the garden and my family).

Composting the garden is so important! Adding nutrients back into the soil is essential!

So how do you compost?! Well you have probably all seen the classic composting bins. The big, black plastic things? I have one of those! I didn't buy it, but it was just left at our property and had been used as a rubbish bin. Yummy. Not! So I converted this back into a compost bin. You can go out and buy one of these bins to make your compost in, or you can make your own compost bin, simply by creating four waist height walls to make a little box. This can be made out of recycled wood, corrugated iron, or anything else that you can think of that will make your very own compost bin. Just make sure that you will be able to manage the compost, as you will be turning it. Make sure that your compost bin is on bare earth, or straight on soil, as this way, the compost ingredients will be able to break down.

My compost bin!

Now you know what you can compost in, you need to know exactly what you can and CAN'T compost. As often this is what trips some people up.

There are two essential ingredients to compost and you want to balance these 50/50. Green ingredients and brown ingredients. Or nitrogen and carbon. Or kitchen or garden ingredients. Simple? Still kinda confusing huh?

But I'll make it easier to understand, as once you know, its so easy!

Brown ingredients, or kitchen ingredients include things like:

• Fruit and vegetable scraps
• Egg shells
• Coffee grounds
• Tea bags
• Egg cartons
• Shredded toilet paper rolls or cardboard that does not have any ink or dye in them

You can collect these "ingredients" in a bucket with a lid that you keep in your kitchen, until the the bucket is full. The lid is super important as this helps stop the stink. 

Green ingredients, or garden ingredients!

The second part of composting is,

Green ingredients, or garden ingredients and this includes things such as:

• Lawn clippings
• Weeds that haven't flowered
• Any plants that have been thinned out when sown in groups
• Dead leaves
• Wood chips and saw dust from untreated timber
• Seaweed
• Pruned leaves

Other things that can be added, but aren't essential are:

• Manure (cow, horse, sheep, chicken)
• Garden lime (limestone)
• Drier lint (natural fibres preferably)
• Soil

But don't include:

• Meat
• Fish
• Cheese
• Bones
• Dog or cat waste (as there can be worms)

These will attract rats or other nasty things to your compost due to the smell, or won't break down as quickly as the other ingredients.

Unfortunately, composting isn't as simple as chucking everything in a bin and hoping it'll decompose. There are a few tricks that are super easy to learn though, that will ensure your compost works well!

So here are my simple steps to creating your compost:

1. Ensure your compost bin is in the place that you want it to be (a sunny spot, but away from a living area because it may smell a little)

2. If you have any sticks or straw, lay this down first, as it will help with air circulation and drainage.

3. Try to alternate layers of green and brown, or kitchen and garden. As this will help with moisture control. However, if you aren't adding enough to create a "layer", just make sure that you are adding roughly 50/50 of each type of ingredient at each time.

4. Keep the compost moist. Rain will help to do this, but if it doesn't rain, you may want to give it a bit of water. Just keep an eye on the moisture content as you don't want it to get dry.

5. Keep your compost covered. This will help to keep the moisture in, and prevent it from getting too wet. If you have a compost bin like I do, the lid is perfect, however if you have made your own compost bin, using a sheet of roofing iron, or a tarpaulin, or even old carpet would work!

6. The final important tip is turn your compost! This really helps to encourage the compost to break down as it mixes everything together and exposes oxygen to the compost. And oxygen is super important in helping the compost to break down. This only needs to be done every week, but you can turn it more if you would like. Its such a good work out! And sometimes I get my hubby to do it as my arms get too tired! Hehe (:

Turn the compost once a week to expose the ingredients to oxygen

In six to eight weeks you should have a beautiful compost that can be added back into the garden! You might find worms in your compost and this is a good thing! It shows that your compost is nutritious!

Just give composting a go! Please! Once you start you will find it so simple and easy to do! If you have any questions just ask away (:

Happy composting!!!

Preserving Carrots and Parsnips for ROASTING

 I love carrots!! They are a simply wonderful vegetable that can often test your patience, but they are so worth it! Its hard growing something that you can't look at and see its progress, and so when one carrot is ready, I get so excited and pick them all. (If you wanna know more about growing carrots, check out my previous post about carrots!) This week, I picked some carrots that I had (sorta) forgotten about and some parsnips I had definitely forgotten about! It was so exciting!! See!! Look at me with some of my babies!

They were huge and such random shapes! But because I picked all these carrots and a few parsnips, I had to do something with them. What you might know if you have had a few garden harvests, is that generally home picked vegetables don't stay fresh as long as supermarket vegetables. So within a few days, the veggies would go bendy and floppy. Sad face!

My carrots with a 30cm ruler

And I love roasts. Roast chicken, roast pork, roast lamb, roast beef. YUM! But the best thing is not just the meat, but the vegetables! Oh my gosh! Roast potato, roast carrot, parsnip and onion! YUM! So instead of just boiling the carrots and then eating them straight away, or steaming them, putting them in fried rice, I DON'T KNOW! Whatever you want! I decided that I would save my carrots for a roasting day. Hehe. Get it! So here is how to preserve your carrots and parsnips for future roasting! GENIUS! If I do say so myself :D

To begin, wash your carrots and parsnips really well. They tend to be more gnarly than shop bought carrots, so lots of dirt gets trapped. Then peel them and wash them well again to remove the last of the dirt. After they are peeled, cut off any long bits that are super thin, as these will cook a lot faster than the rest. You won't want to use these bits but save them for something else like stock or soup!

Bring a medium sized pot of water to the boil. And salt well. While you are waiting for the water to boil cut the carrots and parsnips into even sized pieces so that the cooking time is the same for the different pieces. One the water has boiled, put a few at a time (I did like 5 or 6 at a time) in the pot. Allow them to cook for 4 or 5 minutes.

After cooking, immediately remove the carrots and run under cold water, or place in an ice water bath. Either way is fine. This is just to stop the cooking process, as even when the carrot is out of the water, it would continue to cook.

Continue the process with the remaining carrot and parsnip until all the veggies are cooked and cooled. Then you need to thoroughly dry the vegetables and place on a baking sheet with baking paper or parchment paper down. Make sure that none of the veggies are touching. Transfer this tray to the freezer for a couple of hours, or until the vegetables have started to freeze. They can then be moved to a plastic ziplock bag, or a plastic container, and stored in the freezer until you are ready to use them. 

When you are ready to roast, it is so easy! Just preheat your oven to 190C or 380F, and then put as many carrots or parsnips on a tray as you like. Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake in the oven for around 30 - 45 minutes, or until the carrots are golden and heated through. They can be cooked with other veggies too, if you are roasting heaps of veggies together.

Also, if you don't want to roast your veggies, steaming them works perfectly well too! Just get your steamer ready and pop them in the steamer for about 5 - 7 minutes or until they are soft and well heated through! And an added bonus, they can be easily microwaved! Just place them in a microwave proof dish, cover with a paper towel and microwave in 30 second intervals until the veggies are steamed and heated through.

Homemade carrots are so sweet and tasty! What better way to savor them, than to preserve them for roasting at a later date! I hope you enjoy your delicious carrots!

Butternut Squash Soup

During the summer, in my garden I grew squash! This was such a rewarding planting experience, as I planted my squash producing beauty from seed, and then ended up with multiple beautiful, golden butternut squash! If you love butternut squash or pumpkins, then look at my post on how to grow squash and pumpkins! As with all things that are grown in your garden, you do often end up with A LOT of produce. So here is one simple and easy way to enjoy your butternut squash! Even if you have bought it :D

Butternut Squash Soup

Serves 4

Ingredients:

-1 butternut squash

- Vegetable oil

- 1 Tbsp dried rosemary

-2 Tbsp white sugar

-2 Tbsp white vinegar

-1 onion, diced

-1 carrot, diced

-2 celery stalks, diced

-1 cinnamon stick

-Salt

-Black pepper

-4 cups of chicken stock

Method:

1. To begin, get your squash and a big, sharp knife that you can use to cut through the hard skin of the squash. Also, preheat your oven to 400F or 190C.

2. Cut your your squash in half across the squash. This isn't normal practice, but it makes it a lot easier to handle the squash. Cut these pieces in half so that you have four pieces of squash.

3. Scoop the seeds and pulp out of the bottom quarters of the squash. This is really easy to do with a spoon! 

4. Once you have done this, carefully remove the skin from the squash. I found that using a knife and cutting the skin off, down towards the chopping board, was much easier than using a vegetable peeler. But you do whatever works well for you!

4. Cut these four pieces of squash into inch sized cubes (you will have some strange triangle shapes, but don't worry! The size is only important so that the squash has an even cooking time.

5. Drizzle the squash with about 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil, or just enough to get a light coating over all the squash.

6. Sprinkle the squash with the dried rosemary, sugar and vinegar. Then crack fresh black pepper and salt over the squash. Not too much, but enough to season well.

7. Get in there with your hands and mix it all up! This helps to ensure that every piece of squash is going to be full of flavor! Then put the squash in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes or until golden and caramelized. Turn the squash about half way through the cooking time.

8. Peel the carrot and onion, and dice into centimeter pieces. Wash the celery and cut into the same size pieces. I used the celery leaves as well because I didn't wanna waste them! But you can leave them out if you want.

9. Put 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil into a large saucepan, and heat over medium heat. Put the diced onion, celery and carrot into the saucepan along with the celery stick.

10. You don't want to brown the vegetables, but rather sauté them until the onion is softened.

11. Once the vegetables are softened, add the roasted squash to the pan, and cover with the chicken stock.

12. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes. This is only so that everything can get heated through!

13. Take the soup of the heat, remove the cinnamon stick and then blend up. If using a stick blender, go and do it straight away! But if you have a food processor, wait for the soup to cool for about 20 minutes.

14. Return to the saucepan and heat up again. Until it starts to bubble slightly.

15. Taste and season well. Serve straight away, or transfer to containers than you can put in the freezer for up to three months, or even in the fridge for up to three days. If soup is frozen, in order to reheat, just remove from the freezer and defrost in the microwave and heat up, or put into a saucepan to defrost and reheat. Super easy!

And enjoy!!! This soup will become a family favorite with its warm, sweet flavors and smooth, creamy texture!! Yum yum yum!!

Why you should love basil! (and preserving pesto)

I love basil. And I grew a lot of basil over summer. And when I say a lot, I mean I had six huge basil plants growing. I love basil on pizza, in pasta, with sun-dried tomatoes, and I definitely LOVE basil pesto! I love it on crackers, on pasta, with chicken, and in pastry scrolls with cheese. Oh golly. Yes, I love basil.

And you should love basil too. Basil is such a great herb to grow in your garden. Planting it around tomato plants (I did this), called companion planting, helps to give the tomatoes more flavor as they grow. It looks so beautiful as well, if you are planting it in a herb garden, or even in your kitchen garden. Its very simple to grow as well. I bought seedlings and then transferred these to my garden. I dug holes deeper than needed, and then filled these holes with some soil that has special nutrients in it that helps herbs to grow well. I then put the seedling in the hole and covered the roots, and then watered it.

As basil grows, it does have the tendency to grow up rather than fill out, and the ideal basil plant, is not tall with sparing leaves, but rather any height and full of leaves. This can be done by pruning the plant! It sounds scary, and don't stop reading now, cos this is beyond simple. All you need to do to get big, luscious plants is to:

1. Find the main stem of the basil plant (the one that goes down into the ground)

2. Find the spot where there are two smaller branches out of this main stem that are opposite one another

3. Pinch off the stem above these leaves

The two minor branches that you found, will now turn into main stems, and encourage more growth outwards rather than upwards. You can continue to do this as you feel your plant is getting too tall.

At the end of summer, I had a lot of basil that I hadn't used, and I was getting my garden ready for the new seasons planting, I decided to pull the basil out of the garden. I had a lot. And so I knew I wasn't going to be able to eat it all by scattering a few leaves here and then. So pesto was my best option for savoring my basil. And I knew that I would have to preserve some of it, and I don't like the idea of putting it in jars. And then it hit me, I could freeze individual pesto servings!

This actually turned out to be a thing already, and I found that many people had had problems where they were thawing their pesto, and the basil turned brown. The solution: blanch the basil first! Blanching is where you emerge a vegetable into boiling hot water for a short amount of time (in this case, for the basil, like 5 seconds, or until it wilts slightly). I used a sieve to help me do this, because it is only in the water for a short time, it is easier than fishing around with a slotted spoon, but use that if you need to! And very importantly, do it in batches, as this means the cooking is more even! 

After putting it in the boiling water, the basil is quickly transferred to ice cold water. Doing this almost brightens the green color of the basil, and helps to lock it in. I found that it intensified the basil flavor too!

After blanching the basil, I removed it from the ice cold water, and gently patted the leaves dry. I put these in a blender, and then added a little bit of oil. As the blender combined the basil and the oil, I added oil slowly so that it became more of a paste, than slightly oily little basil leaves. This is such a simple recipe, that you don't need measurements. Just add oil, until the pesto looks like it is starting to come along. After I had the right consistency, I poured it (very messily) into ice cube trays and then put these in the freezer.

After spending the night in the freezer I removed the pesto cubes from the ice tray and put them in an air tight container which I keep in the freezer. This is so handy because whenever I need a little bit of pesto, I just take out a cube, and let it thaw. Because it is just basil and oil, you can add your own seasonings depending on what meal you are having. Some delicious flavors to add are garlic or parmesan! Yum yum yum!

I love this pesto with pasta! Its such an easy quick meal! Just cook the pasta, and then drain the water, saving a little of the water. Put the pasta back in the pot, add the pesto cubes, and add a little bit of water, and heat through! Add lots of pepper and lots of parmesan! So good!

WIFE 101: Frozen Cookie Dough Balls

Its official. Your life has just changed. And lets be honest, you're welcome.

Frozen cookie dough balls. Your partner, your children, your friends, and you will all thank, well you.

So to do this, just 

1. Make your favourite cookie dough. 

2. Roll the cookie dough into balls.

3. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

4. Place the dough balls onto the tray.

5. Put in the freezer for two hours (this will stop the dough balls from sticking together into one massive dough ball).

6. Then transfer to a bag or container to keep in the freezer. So simple!

And then when you want to eat the cookies just

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F or 150 degrees C.

2. Line a tray with baking paper.

3. Put the dough balls onto the baking tray with enough room between each cookie for it to spread as it bakes.

4. Put the tray in the oven.

5. After 10 - 15 minutes enjoy freshly baked cookies without any hard work.

You're welcome.

Iced Green Tea

Everybody loves ice tea. And I especially like it. And here is my recipe for Iced Green Tea made with organic tea! Yum! And so good!!

Iced Green Tea (makes 2L)

Ingredients:

-3/4 cup of sugar (I used brown sugar)

-4 cups of cold water

-4 cups of hot (just boiled) water

-8 organic green tea bags

Method:

1. Put the sugar into a pitcher large enough to hold 2L, and then add in the 4 cups of water.

2. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.

3. Put the 4 cups of hot water into a container (jug or saucepan) and put the tea bags in. Only leave the tea bags to steep for 2 minutes at most.

4. Remove the tea bags from the water and squeeze slightly.

5. Pour the tea into the sugar water slowly and stir to combine.

6. Leave the tea to cool at room temperature and then serve over ice!

7. Enjoy on a beautiful sunny day! YAY!

Refreshing Mint Ice-cubes

Theres nothing like a nice, refreshing drink on a hot, sunny afternoon. A lemon ice tea with mint. Mmmm.

For those of you that grow mint, you will know that once it starts to get going, there is so much that you don't even know what to do with it all! Here is a nice way to preserve some of that mint, in a way that you will most definitely use!

So to start, pick your mint, and wash the leaves well. Get your ice tray.

Pull off the leaves, and if they are quite large, give them a quick chop. Then put the leaves into the ice tray. 

Fill it up as much as you like! Then fill the trays up with water and put them in the freezer!

Delicious!!!! Add these to amazing Homemade Lemon Ice Tea (recipe coming soon for all you lemon growers!), or even to cocktails, or just to water!

Another great combination is mint and lemon. So add some finely grated lemon zest to the mint before adding the water! AMAZING!!

And if you really wanna go crazy! Chopped strawberries and mint in ice-cubes! Super yummy! So go crazy with your not boring old ice recipes! :D

Homemade Sun(oven)dried Tomatoes

A few weeks ago, I picked a bumper crop of tomatoes (over 50)! That is a lot more than two people can handle. So I decided to make my own Roasted Tomato Pasta Sauce. And then much to my surprise, yesterday, I picked another 86 (!!!!) tomatoes from our garden! And one giant capsicum!

I decided that since we have enough pasta sauce to last us (and it can be bought really cheaply), that I wanted to make something that was different to what we normally have, and is a bit more expensive than we would normally like if we were to buy it from the store! So I looked at sundried tomatoes again. Last time I had an abundance of tomatoes I didn't want to make sundried (or oven in my case) tomatoes because of the bacterial risks involved in storing them in oil. But I discovered that sundried tomatoes can actually be frozen! So I'm going to give it a try! Here is my recipe for sundried tomatoes! (If you are going to make this, have at least 6 hours spare that you can have your oven on for!) 

Note: A lot of different people suggest that you need a certain type of tomato to sundry properly, but seriously, just use whatever you want and keep an eye on it. Adjusting the oven temperature to suit your tomatoes and your oven is key to getting a perfect oven dried tomato! So just play around and enjoy your tomatoes!

Homemade Sun(oven)dried Tomatoes

Ingredients:

Tomatoes

Salt

Oil

Dried herbs (basil, thyme, whatever you like!)

Method:

1. Wash all the tomatoes thoroughly and then slice in half from top to bottom.

2. Place cut side up on a baking tray. I used baking paper on my trays, but you don't have to if you don't want to. If you aren't going to use baking paper, then use a little cooking spray on the tray before you place the tomatoes down.

3. Season generously with salt and then leave for 20 minutes. During this time preheat the oven to 100C or 250F. You probably will adjust this temperature throughout cooking based on how the tomatoes look (eg starting to brown but still very juicy, turn heat down).

4. Place in oven for at least 4 hours. My two trays took 5 hours, and I rotated them half way through cooking. The idea is to cook them low and slow, so that the majority of the moisture evaporates from the tomatoes.

5. When the tomatoes are wrinkled and a lot smaller than they were at the start, take the trays out of the oven. You want as much water cooked off as possible without them burning.

6. While the tomatoes were still hot I drizzled them with olive oil and then the dried herbs (I used thyme). And then I left the trays to cool.

7. Once the tomatoes are cool, place in an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to a week, or if you want to freeze the tomatoes, place the trays in the freezer for 2 hours, and then once the tomatoes are frozen, transfer the tomatoes to freezer safe containers.

8. If you are freezing, making sure you write the date the tomatoes went into the freezer, as the tomatoes will last you several months.

9. To use the frozen tomatoes, take as many out as you need an hour before you need them and let them thaw out. Use them in sandwiches, pasta salads, or cooked dishes that require sundried tomatoes. They can basically be used just like normal sundried tomatoes!

YUM!!

I found that using my own homegrown tomatoes and oven drying them, that the flavour was very intense and very strong! It was quite different to other sundried tomatoes that I have tasted! I am so excited to have found a safe way to preserve sundried tomatoes and I hope that you enjoy them too!

Roasted Tomato Pasta Sauce TO FREEZE

After following this guide to growing awesome tomatoes you will end up with dozens of tomatoes! We have slowly been picking a few tomatoes over this past month as they start to ripen, but this week we had a bumper harvest where the majority of our tomatoes became big, juicy red fruits at the same time!

Like all good gardeners, we wanted nothing to go to waste. No tomato to sit too long in the fridge and become inedible. So I was looking at ways to preserve these beautiful rubies. Freezing whole tomatoes is a no-no. It destroys the flavour and the texture goes funny. Not nice. Sun-drying tomatoes is great, but I didn't have a dehydrator, we don't get hot enough temperatures in New Zealand, and I don't like the idea of leaving my oven on for up to 40 HOURS!! 

So, I decided that my best bet to preserve flavour not just the fruit, was to make a pasta sauce. And what better way to intensify tomato flavour than to roast them first! And the great thing about this sauce, is you don't need to stand over a hot pot for hours! You just need an oven and a food processor!

So here is my recipe for ROASTED TOMATO PASTA SAUCE

(from 45 normal sized tomatoes, I got 1.8L of pasta sauce!)

INGREDIENTS:

-tomatoes

-salt

-pepper

-oil

-crushed garlic

1. Wash all the tomatoes you have on hand. I had around 45 normal sized tomatoes. And preheat the oven to 160 degrees C (320F).

2. Slice the tomatoes in half and place cut side up on a baking tray. I had a couple of yellow cocktail tomatoes so I chucked those in too to roast.

3. Drizzle the tomatoes with oil - I used canola cos that was all I had, but olive oil can be used instead if thats what you have!

4. Season generously with salt and pepper.

5. Roast the tomatoes for half an hour, and after this time pour off all the liquid on the trays (there will be a lot).

6. Return to the oven for another 5 minutes just to get a bit more colour on the tomatoes, as this will be more flavour!!

7. Brush the tomatoes with crushed garlic so that there is a little bit on each one.

8. Wait for the tomatoes to cool for about 20 minutes on the trays and then transfer to a food processor. I used a magic bullet!

9. After processing, the pasta sauce will be thick and creamy and absolutely delicious!!!!

10. At this stage I transferred the sauce to snaplock bags in serving sizes, which I then labelled and put in the freezer! However, if you are going to use it straight away then you can add any herbs that you would like! I kept mine nice and simple, and when I use the pasta sauce, I will season with herbs to match the dish!

 11. This pasta sauce can be used as a pasta sauce, or in pasta bakes, or even in lasagna! Yum yum yum! Just place in a pot or a microwave proof dish to slowly defrost so that it can be used!

ENJOY!

How to freeze courgettes - Courgette Soup!

If you have ever grown courgettes, then you know that you end up with a lot of courgettes in a very small amount of time. And recently we have ended up with a lot of courgettes! And a few surprise marrows!

And there is only so much grilled courgette you can eat until you start to get a little sick of it. So we were looking for some ways to preserve (or freeze) courgette, so that we don't have to eat it all now, and so that we can have some at a later date. And most importantly, we don't waste any of the delicious veggies from our garden!! 

So I set out to do a bit of research on the best way to preserve (or freeze courgette). I don't have a lot of spare time at the moment, so I was looking for something that meant I didn't have to put a lot of effort in, and wouldn't mean I had to slave for hours. What I found from my research is that you can blanch and then freeze courgette, but many people didn't recommend doing that, as when the courgette is reheated, its rubbery and not that nice. I didn't want to cut up nicely, then blanch, then freeze my courgette babies, only for in a few months to reheat it and then avoid it in my meal. Someone suggested that it is better to create a meal with courgette in it first, and then freeze it, such as chocolate courgette cake (not technically a meal, but I could eat a lot of it in one sitting!), or a courgette soup! I had never tried courgette soup before, so I thought I would give it a go, because soup in winter is divine and so easy to reheat! And the best part of this courgette soup (in terms of preparation) was that the hardest part was cutting the courgette and that was it. Easy! Just what I needed!

COURGETTE SOUP

The great thing about soup is that you can basically make it up, so just judge how much you need, based on how much courgette you have!

Ingredients:

-Oil

-Garlic

-Onion

-Courgette

-Beef, chicken or veggie stock

-Chili flakes

-Pepper

1. In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion cut into quarters (as much as you like), and then add as much garlic as you like. I used one onion, and 1 tsp of crushed garlic. Sauté for a couple of minutes until the onion starts to brown a little.

2. Add the sliced courgette to the pot. I had about 7 to 8 cups of sliced courgette, but just use as much as you have!

3. Add chili flakes to the courgette. I used about 1 1/2 tsps. Saute the courgette with the chili flakes until the courgette starts to brown.

4. Add enough stock to cover the courgette. I needed 2L of stock, and I used a combination of chicken and beef stock.

5. Crack as much pepper into the pot as you like, and then increase the heat until the stock comes to a boil.

6. Once the soup is boiling, reduce the heat and then simmer. I just left the pot for an hour (to be honest I forgot I had the pot on the stove! Oops!), but you can just leave it to simmer until the courgette starts to break apart easily.

7. Take off the heat, and allow to cool.

8. Once cool, liquidize the stock. You can do this with a stick blender, or transfer in batches to a normal blender.

9. Either eat the soup straight away, or transfer to plastic containers in serving sizes, so that reheating it is very easy!

10. Place in the freezer!

11. To reheat at a later date, put the soup in a saucepan, or in a microwave proof bowl and stir at regular intervals to reheat it well.

Courgette soup is one of our new favourites!! Didn't even know it existed a week ago, and now we have 6 servings of it frozen to eat in winter!! YAY!

"Whats ready in the vegetable garden" Soup

Sometimes you just feel like a dinner you can whip together in seconds. No need to go to the grocery store to get ingredients. Or spend hours slaving and chopping away. "Whats ready in the vegetable garden" soup is one of my new favourites. This was also combined with "What do we have in the fridge that we need to use up" soup last night.

So here is my Monday night dinner - an extremely versatile soup that literally will be ready once the veggies are chopped and the soup is boiling. Basically, use as much as you like, of what you like, and adjust the ingredients based on how much you need, and how much you have!

INGREDIENTS:

-Canola oil

-Bacon

-Swiss chard stems

-Corn

-Courgette

-Carrot

-Frozen spinach

-Chicken stock

-Noodles

-Pepper

METHOD:

1. Heat the oil in a medium sized saucepan, and add the bacon.

2. Cook until the bacon starts to brown, and then add all the chopped vegetables that you want.

3. Stir and continue to cook until the vegetables begin to colour a little. This colouring will be some yummy flavour!

4. Add enough chicken stock to cover the vegetables, and then bring to the boil.

5. Once the soup is boiling, reduce the heat and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.

6. Bring soup back to the boil and add the noodles.

7. Boil until the noodles are cooked.

8. Taste and then season with pepper.

9. Serve and enjoy!!!

How to freeze vegetables... SUCCESSFULLY

There comes a time when growing vegetables that it seems like absolutely everything is ready to be harvested. Many cultures celebrate this with a harvest festival that includes eating, drinking and being merry. When we harvested many of our vegetables, we were merry and sensible!

There is no way two busy people can eat this many vegetables before they start to lose their appeal. And there are some beautiful vegetables that we want to savor and indulge in later in the year. So the easy way to solve all our dilemmas are to freeze our vegetables.

Many people don't realize that in order to freeze some vegetables properly, that there is a bit of preparation before the vegetables get to the freezer. So here is what to do in order to freeze celery, broccoli, spinach, silver beet (Swiss chard), and beans! I didn't manage to get any photos of the process as the lighting was terrible, but the steps are so easy to follow! So here goes!

CELERY:

1. Wash celery thoroughly

2. Cut into 2.5cm lengths (1-inch)

3. Cook (blanch) celery in a large pot of boiling water for 3 minutes

4. Remove from boiling water and place in ice water to stop the cooking process

5. Drain and pat dry

6. Transfer to a baking tray and lay out in a single layer. Put this in the freezer

7. Once frozen, place in zip lock bags with as little as possible air in the bag

8. Return to freezer

NOTE: Frozen celery is great in soups, an aromatic or in stir-frys!

BROCCOLI:

1. Wash broccoli thoroughly

2. Cut into 2.5cm trees (florets) (1-inch)

3. Blanch broccoli in a large pot of boiling water for 3 minutes

4. Remove from boiling water and place in ice water to stop the cooking process

5. Drain and pat dry

6. Transfer to a baking tray and lay out in a single layer. Put this in the freezer

7. Once frozen, place in zip lock bags with as little as possible air in the bag

8. Return to freezer

NOTE: Frozen broccoli can be steamed or microwaved for 2-4 minutes to reheat. It is also great for making into broccoli soup, or adding to stir-frys and pasta bakes!

SPINACH AND SWISS CHARD:

1. Wash greens thoroughly

2. Remove tough stems

3. Chop if desired

4a. Blanch for 2 minutes in a large pot of boiling water

5a. Remove from boiling water and place in ice water to stop the cooking process and retain bright green colour

6a. Drain and pat dry

7a. Place in a zip lock bag and remove as much air as possible

8a. Place in freezer

OR

4b. After washing (and before chopping), pat dry

5b. Place in a zip lock bag and remove as much air as possible

6b. Place in freezer

NOTE: Spinach and Swiss chard can be reheated by microwaving or steaming for 1-3 minutes. It can also be added to quiches, soups or green smoothies!

GREEN BEANS:

1. Wash beans thoroughly

2. Remove the ends of the beans

3. Chop if desired

4. Blanch for 3 minutes in a large pot of boiling water, or 2 minutes if beans are chopped

5. Remove from boiling water and place in ice water to stop the cooking process and retain bright green colour

6. Drain and pat dry

7. Place on a baking tray to freeze without beans sticking together

8. Transfer to a zip lock bag once frozen and remove as much air as possible

8. Place in freezer again

NOTE: Green beans can be reheated by steaming or microwaving for 2-3 minutes. They can also be added to stir-frys, pasta bakes or soups!

Freezing vegetables is a great way to keep the fresh colours and flavours over a period of time. Frozen vegetables should last up to a year in the freezer! Delicious!!

Burritos with garden vegetables - December 1 2012

As the first day of summer, December the 1st was a perfect day for a picnic with some vegetables from our garden! I found a delicious vegetarian burrito recipe which included some produce from our own garden!

So here is the recipe for our California Ensalada Burritos!

CALIFORNIA ENSALADA BURRITOS

SERVES 4

• -1 small red onion, thinly sliced into rings

• -¼ cup white vinegar

• -⅓ cup plus 2 Tbs lime juice (separate two measurements)

• -1 tsp salt

• -¼ cup coriander leaves

• -1 garlic clove, minced

• -2 Tbs olive oil

• -2 small avocados cut into large cubes

• -3 cups mixed baby greens

• -1 ½ cups shredded red cabbage

• -4 radishes thinly sliced

• -1 tomato cut into cubes

• -1 carrot peeled and cut into matchsticks

• -4 large tortillas warmed

1. Stir together onion, vinegar, 1/3 cup lime juice, and salt in bowl. Cover, and chill 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Meanwhile, combine coriander, garlic, and remaining 2 Tbs lime juice in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper, if desired. Slowly pour in oil and stir well until dressing is well combined.

3. Toss avocado chunks in separate bowl with 1 Tbs of the dressing. Season with salt, if desired.

4. Toss baby greens, cabbage, radishes, tomato, and carrot in large bowl with remaining dressing.

5. Arrange vegetables in center of each tortilla, then spoon avocado chunks over top, mashing down lightly to keep from spilling out of burrito. Remove onions from marinade with fork, and divide sliced onions among tortillas. Roll up tortillas, leaving one end open.

ENJOY!