Australia Day, not in the garden. It's too wet

So dry for so long and now......................

 That's us in the blue

We are certainly having a lot of weather lately. This is the rain depression from ex Tropical Cyclone Oswald. The "bom.gov.au" has had so many hits that it has stopped working for a while. According to the radar, a large golden patch passed over us just now and that means heavy rain.  We have had non-stop rain for about 36 hours now.  A large tree branch has fallen right across the road right here, but some good Sam. has chopped it up and thrown it aside.
Our water tanks were filled to overflowing at 4.00pm yesterday.  The ground is getting a good soak.
Worse to come tonight, they say. 
I picked every red tomato I possibly could, yesterday.  They will split with all this rain.
We smoked some tomatoes, zucchini, spring onion. I made a little chicken casserole with the smoked tomatoes in amongst the sauce.  I added an eggplant and a red hot chilli. I served it with cous cous.

Recipe Chicken with Smoked tomato Casserole
Chicken breast Fillet sliced thinly
Spring onion
Clove of garlic, crushed and chopped finely
1 Cup of fresh tomatoes
1 Cup Smoked tomatoes
1 Chilli
1 grated zucchini
100g haloumi chopped into thick slices
or 1 teaspoon blue vein cheese, crumbled

Method
In a saucepan, fry the spring onion and then the crushed garlic. Remove from the pan.  Lightly fry the chicken.
Return the onion and garlic to the pot
Add all the tomatoes, smoked tomatoes, eggplant, chilli
Cook for 5 minutes so the eggplant softens a little
Then add the zucchini, and haloumi,
Serve with couscous, rice or pasta. sprinkle with parsley and the blue vein

Isaac's Homemade chicken

Food adventures with a guy named Isaac.

"So we're in Maleny on Holidays and the chicken is good.  It's not chicken breast fingers, it's not chicken nuggets.  It's chicken." 

With these words from Isaac, I was so charmed , that I named it after him, and we are having "Isaac Chicken" again tonight AND  he will be doing the cooking.

Here is the recipe.

Isaac chicken - Isaac says it's the best

Ingredients

• 9 tsp Pieces chicken thigh fillets
• 1 Tbsp Tumeric
• 1 Tbsp Dried italian herbs
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp Oil
• 1 Squeeze lemon juice

Directions

1. Marinade Mix all the ingredients Marinade for at least 10 minutes Meanwhile preheat the oven or grill 210 degrees Boil a cup of water Put the boiling in water in a tray in oven Place the chicken on its own rack above the tray Grill for for 20 minutes Check at 10 min turn if you like
2. Marinade for at least 10 minutes
3. Meanwhile preheat the oven or grill 210 degrees
4. Boil a cup of water
5. Put the boiling in water in a tray in oven
6. Place the chicken on its own rack above the tray
7. Grill for for 20 minutes
8. Check at 10 min turn if you like

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La Cucina - Favourite Recipe - Favourite Cookbook

Zucchini Spiced Bread. Lots of Zucchini and passionfruit from the garden
from "Low Fat Living" - Robert K. Cooper, Leslie L. Cooper -I love this book,

3       Cups wholewheat plain flour
1/2    Cup Sugar (less is fine)
1       tbspn ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1       teaspoon nutmeg
2       eggs, or 4 egg whites
2       cups shredded zucchini
1       cup honey
2       tbspns melted unsalted butter or canola oil
1/4    cup unsweetened applesauce
1       tbspn vanilla


Preheat the oven to180 degrees.
Lightly coast two 8" x 4" loaf pans with non stick spray
In a large bowl mix the flow and sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and nutmeg.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs,or egg whites, zucchini, honey, butter or oil, applesauce and vanilla.
Pour into the flour mixture and mix just enough to incorporate the ingredients
Pour the batter into the prepared pans, then remove and cool on a rack.

Per slice: 157 calories, 2.1g total fat (11%of calories), 0.4g monounsaturated fat, 0.2g polyunsaturated fat, 1g saturated fat, 3.3g protein, 33.1g carbohydrate, 2.5g dietary fibre, 24 mg cholesterol, 122 mg sodium.

Makes 20 slices

le shed

Here are the products of fun and games in the shed.  Some Christmas decorations. The cone tree.

and the beautiful wreath for the front door.
Yep, that is an onion flower.

first say

Domicilio Verde, An Italian connection,

Lear Greenhaven, a resourceful Australian

La Cucina – What We Are Cooking

In preparation for Christmas the beautiful Pineapple Boiled Fruit Cake is required.

Pineapple Boiled Fruit Cake

Ingredients:

• 450g can crushed pineapple and juice
• 500g mixed dried fruit
• 1 tbs sherry
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 125g butter or margarine
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1 tsp ground ginger, ground cinnamon plus extra for me.
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of (baking) soda
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Method:

1   Preheat oven to 180C (370F). Grease a 20cm cake pan.

2   Place the crushed pineapple, dried fruit, sherry, brown sugar, vanilla essence and butter in a saucepan and cook on medium heat for 6 minutes or until mixture is bubbly. Allow to stand until cool.

3   Fold in the flours, mixed spice, bicarbonate of soda and the lightly beaten eggs. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.

4   Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Remove and cool slightly before turning out onto a wire rack.

Note, this time we used two loaf tins and it cooked beautifully, no soggy middle.  In addition, it is much easier to cut into modest sized slices and we wrapped up the other loaf for “ron” later on.

Sala Da Pranzo - What are we eating

 Sauerkraut is ready.  Made from the cabbage from the garden and the whey from the cheese making. The red one grew mould, whoops out it goes.

Apple Cider.  Absolutely delicious. Cool and refreshing.

I am a tomato freak.  Even when there were none in the garden I haveto buy them at any price.  I even eat tomatoes for breakfast on toast.

We are eating dried tomatoes in oil. - Store bought tomatoes, not too juicy so easier to dry in this hot dry weather and fresh tomatoes from the garden.  At a dinner party this week, Elizabeth made a beautiful entre, Tomato Jelly with crab salad

L’Orto – What’s Growing.

This week, still no rain but joy. The flowers are all out. Agapanthus everywhere, nasturtiums, butterfly plant all an absolute riot