Darling Dahlias

Hello there! 

 I thought for the last day of summer in would be a nice thing to share some beautiful blooms that my dahlias have produced over the last month or so.  I have really tried to be more consistent with my care of the dahlias this season and the plants have rewarded me with the best display of flowers that I have ever grown.  Such bright and showy flowers really speak of summer to me. I hope they keep blooming for a few more weeks, I will be dead heading like crazy to try and get another flush of buds. 

So, are you looking forward to Autumn?  I'm a bit sad to see Summer go, it always seems the most relaxed season to me, and I love the long days, but it will be nice to have the cooler months again and all that cosy crochet time in front of the fire. :) 

Have a great day everyone, I'll be back with some crochet to show you soon! 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Summer bounty......

tomatoes, tomatoes, everywhere!

(sorry you crafty ladies, this is a bit of a garden joy post today)

 Sooooo..... we have heaps of these in the garden at the minute, I just love a good summer glut of tomatoes, beans, raspberries, or whatever really, it makes me feel like a good gardener and a little pleased with myself, if I am honest with you!! haha...

It's the reward at the end of the whole long process of sowing a seed, nurturing a seedling, feeding, caring and protecting a little plant till it grows more robust, then anxiously hoping the little fragile flowers were visited by the bees you encourage to frequent the vegie patch, then remembering to keep the watering even and abundant so the fruits/ vegetables swell and flourish and the plants stay healthy and can fend off the insects that want their share.........

A million things can upset this journey from seed to harvest. It is hard to maintain the vigilant attention your little plants require for the whole growing season.  

This summer a bed of freshly sprouted carrots and spring onions that were just pushing their first leaves out, were fatally set back when we went away for the weekend and it was hot for a couple of days. Boo Hoo

 My garden suffers from my sporadic attention, although I have tried very hard this summer to be more consistent in my vegie gardens.  I have been pleased with my results - lots of tomatoes and other things, enough to mean we can get our vegies from home, for the most part, through out summer. Yay!

don't they look pretty!!!

After all that is the reason I garden in the first place, the joy of picking your own stuff!

OK enough gushing....I just love the garden!!

 (kind of like I love crochet, I am an all or nothing type of girl) 

And then you have to do something with it all.  There is only so much you can eat and give away to other people (who have gluts of their own), before it starts to rot on your benches and leak all over the floor.

Apparently I am not to worry that they have risen in the jars - it means that they have made a good seal!

  

So that's what I did yesterday. Got out Mrs Fowler and preserved up a storm!  Just chopped up tomatoes, but very satisfying all the same.  There are a few jars of dark ones, which are my Black Russians, and the rest are Romas and Grosse Liss I think.  15 jars in total.  

I have another lot ripening at the moment so I think I will be adding to this later in the week.

Anyhoo......there is a lot of this going on around these summer parts at the moment, just thought I'd give you a little peek into my kitchen and garden, show you what I've been up to, hope it wasn't too boring!

I am starting a new little bit of crochet too, so will show you all soon.

See ya!

Summer vegetable (recipe) love...

 There has been a severe lack of vegetables being eaten in our house recently, so I decided to make something that is very vegetabley and quite delicious too. 

( Even though my boys won't eat this, very picky of them, it makes me feel better getting a good helping of vegies in)

It helps that the zucchinis in the garden are going mental doubling in size almost overnight, and this recipe can use a few of them.

I grew the garlic, zucchinis and pumpkin in the photo, but my tomatoes and capsicums are not quite ready and I haven't grown mushrooms before, so I bought these.

This is my version of a vegetable lasagna, it makes a big tray and feeds a lot!!

I thought I'd share it here, because it is yum, and pretty good for you, and uses up the zucchini glut, and just to be nice!

Ok enough rambling, heres how you make it....

My Vegetable Lasagna

8-10 tomatoes, chopped 

2 cloves garlic, chopped 

2 onions chopped

2 red capsicums

1 butternut pumpkin

3-4 zucchini chopped up or sliced

8 large mushrooms, sliced or chopped up

Lasagna sheets

Cheese Layer:

4 cup milk 

60gr butter

6 tbsp flour

1cup grated tasty/vintage cheese

1/4 cup grated parmasan

Cook the vegies:

Firstly, cut the pumpkin into quarters and take out the seeds.

Cut the capsicums into a few big pieces, discard the seeds.

Put the pumpkin and capsicum pieces onto an oven tray lined with baking paper and drizzle with olive oil.  Put in a moderate oven to roast until  the pumpkin is soft and the capsicum is nicely cooked and the skins come off easily. (about 40 minutes?)

While this is cooking, put garlic and onions in a big saucepan with a bit of oil, over medium heat, and cook until the garlic smells good, then add the tomatoes, zucchini, and mushrooms.  Let this bubble away for a while, till all the vegies are soft and it is a nice stew-like consistancy. (If you think it needs more tomatoes, I sometimes add a tin of chopped tomatoes as well.)

Make the Cheese sauce:

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan, add the flour and stir together, cook for 1 minute.

Take off heat and whisk in milk, one cup at a time, (this helps give you a nice smooth sauce)

Return to heat and stir/whisk continually till sauce thickens and bubbles.

Remove from heat and stir through cheeses.

Make up lasagna! 

Layer sheets of pasta,

 then half vegie stew, 

then more pasta, 

then half cheese sauce,

 then a layer of scooped out roasted pumpkin flesh and roasted capsicum slices,

then pasta again , 

then rest of vegie stew,

then more pasta, 

then lastly, top with rest of cheese sauce and spread over top, grate some more parmasan over it all and you are done!  

Pop it in a moderate oven for 30-40 minutes until it looks nice and golden on top!

(You can also add a layer of blanched spinach /silverbeet /spinachbeet or basil leaves  if you have room and want a green layer when you cut it, and a sweet potato roasted and sliced up, can be used instead of pumpkin)))

I think that is it, lots of veg in one delicious package! It looks a bit of a hassle when you write it down like this, but it is really pretty straight forward when you get into it.

 Sorry about this pretty crappy photo, I am no food stylist!  

See all the nice colourful layers? It really is much yummier than this picture looks.

Ok, got to go now and get into some crochet action,

 I am trying to write a pattern for a cushion cover, so I hope it works out!

Have a great day!

Pottering and Meandering.....

Hello there!

I don't seem to have much to blog about at the moment with the holidays in full swing, we are happy meandering through each day, the boys are having massive sleep ins so are really only getting a bit over half days to do things in ( but they do like to stay up at night, they are becoming nocturnal I think, or vampires!).

I have been pottering around in the garden, so I thought I'd show you how some of the vegetable patch is getting on. The photo above is a view over my main vegie garden, with carrots in the foreground and my sweetcorn bed at the back, also can see some of the huge zucchini plants.



The sunflowers are well over my head and beautiful, so summery!




The sweetcorn has gone off this year and produced a great crop of cobs, they should be ready to eat soon, yum!


Another thing that has grown really well this summer is this stuff, perpetual spinach, which is a cross between silverbeet and english spinach, it looks like silverbeet and tastes and cooks like spinach, delicious! I am told it should keep going for about 5 years if we keep picking it, pretty good value I reckon!


The zucchinis have gotten away from me this year. I keep finding these monsters under the leaves That I swear weren't there the day before, this is a collection of big whoppers that are destined for the chooks! I picked around 12 that were good eating size so I'll be looking for recipes to use them up.


This is what I collected for dinner today, I'm making fried rice with most of it, the potatoes might wait till tomorrow.


On the crafty front, I am trying to work out a pattern and write it down, not my usual way of working but I would like to make more of these toys, and maybe share a tutorial down the track.

So what happening at your place?
Have a great day!

at my house.....

Blogtober 25th
.....today I spent the morning turning this............



...into this, ready to plant some summer stuff and mulch.......



...and cleaning this one up so......

... the strawberries underneath have a chance to flourish in the sun!
Still a long way to go in the Spring clean up , but we are on the way!