Cake

The Banana and Walnut Cake that I made for the boys yesterday ...

They were very excited to receive a quarter of the cake each this morning and were looking forward to going home to enjoy it with a cup of tea.

The muesli that I make for Adoring Husband ...

I would share the recipe with you, but there is no recipe and I make if a different way every time .. which I do with quite a few of my recipes.

This is why it always tastes different .. luckily, Adoring Husband has liked all of the batches that I've made so far.  He liked the last batch so much, that he ate 16 days worth of muesli in just 5 days!!

I currently have a giant pot of bone broth simmering away on the stove.

I used the slow cooker last time, which was great, but it doesn't hold enough liquid.  I'm using the stove top this time, with a much bigger pot, so there should be twice as much broth by the end of the process.

Dinner tonight, was Slow Cooked Pork Belly with Potato/Sweet Potato Bake and Apple Cabbage.

I had big plans to groom the Psychotic dogs today, but the kitchen took my attention, yet again, so let's try to fulfil that doggy plan tomorrow instead!

I think I'll try for another early night tonight, and then attempt a sunrise, or at least an early morning ride with my camera, in the nice morning light.

Nite all.

Tasty ... I think

I had 5 old organic bananas that had turned black on the outside, in the fridge, and I decided to use them in a banana cake.

I don't have a recipe for gluten free, sugar free banana cake yet, so I decided to use up my old regular flours and make a banana and walnut cake for the boys at the Seat of Knowledge.

They will get a quarter each.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to taste it due to the gluten, but I did have a tiny taste of the lime icing, which was divine.

I think the boys will like ti!  Adoring Husband had a thin sliver and said that he liked it.

I was really looking forward to cooking some recipes from the Topliss recipe book, but I've discovered that the recipes I want to cook, require a special flour mix, which I don't possess.  I'll have to wait til our next trip into town before I can play!

It's 9.30pm and after 2 glasses of wine, I'm feeling very drowsy.

You should be familiar with my short Friday night posts by now :D

Nite all

Cooking

Today, was another day lost, while we spent time in The Bay, grocery shopping, restocking my pantry grains, seeds and nuts and then picking up our FROG box of goodies.

The organic deliveries via FROG are now suspended until 16th January, so we put in a big order to cover Christmas and New Year.

This means I have lots of cooking and preparing to do to fill up our new freezer and to make sure we don't lose any of the produce ... but I have a new recipe book ... "Monica Topliss in the Kitchen for a good life without gluten".

Monica is the Executive Chef at Kunara Organic Marketplace on the Sunshine Coast website here.

I LOVE Kunara Marketplace!!  I wish we had something that big in our area!

Anyway, I tasted about 5 of the recipes from her book when we ate there for breakfast and lunch last weekend and what I didn't taste, I saw in the glass cabinet when we were ordering our meals.

The salads and tarts looked mouth-wateringly good!  The best part is that all the recipes are in the book, so I get to try them out at my leisure.

There will be photos and reviews as I go :)

Meanwhile, as you know, I got some photos of my little Chicklet yesterday.  I looked at a few of them this afternoon in the short time I had free before cooking dinner, so I only have two to share in tonight's blog.

Those of you who know us, can see how much she has changed and grown in just a few months.  The first photo was taken in the garden after she'd been playing in the dirt with her dinosaurs.  I just love the grubby face.

It will be a month before I get to see her again.  I miss her already.  Precious little possum that she is.

Once again, it is almost midnight, so I'm off to slide in between my delicious bamboo sheets and get some beauty sleep.

Nite all.

Shorty

Another short post tonight.

It's almost midnight and I'm very much ready to climb into my own bed and hopefully, get a good night's sleep.

I took photos of Chicklet today, so hopefully there will be some good ones among them for me to post here tomorrow.

We had another good time today with the dinosaurs and the dirt and then she told me that she didn't want me to go home which was both sad and lovely at the same time!

I had a nice trip home on the train and the movie was "Sleepless in Seattle" which was a bonus.

Adoring Husband was waiting on the platform when I arrived and then the Psychotic Dogs provided a loud welcome as we drove up the driveway.

It's good to be home .. and now I'm off to bed!

Nite all.

Jurassic Park

While I was playing with little Chicklet outside today, she collected some stones and rocks from the garden and brought them to the garden seat where I was sitting.

She lay them down carefully between the toy dinosaurs, placed one of the dinosaurs on top of a rock and said quite matter-of-factly, "These rocks are from the Jurassic Period".

She is 3 in February next year.

It's not the first time she has blown me away with something that she's said.  Even her Mama is surprised by some of her announcements!

I'll take some photos tomorrow to show you how much she has grown.  It's been at least a couple of months since I posted a photo ... I just get so involved in our time together, I don't even think of the camera!

Anyway, here is a photo from the farm yesterday ...

There are more to come, but not tonight.

I have one last day with Chicklet tomorrow, then I'm off home for a few weeks, so I need to sleep and be bright eyed and bushy tailed for her tomorrow.

Nite all.

Starting Point

The Nikonian and RaRa inspired me to have a go at editing one of the model photos from the weekend.

They posted a couple of spectacular editing masterpieces on facebook, which I would love to share with you here, but they have gone to bed and I can't get permission for tonight's post.

Instead I'll show you my effort ... which I will use as a starting point and then make comparisons in a year, to see how much I have improved.

From this ...

to this ...

We all have to start somewhere.

The Nikonian and I had a great morning on the farm with our cameras and I'll have some bird shots to share in the coming days.

I've taken so many photos over the last couple of days, it'll take a while to get through them all!

Anyway, after almost two hours wandering around the farm and a few hours with my little Chicklet, my body is protesting ever so slightly and I think I need to turn out the light and fall asleep to the sound of rain on the rooftops.

Nite all.

Great Weekend

I have really enjoyed this weekend!

It was fabulous catching up with Jman and Mod Mel.  They are into food - real food and nutrition and all things healthful too, so we had lots in common, aside from photography, and lots to talk about and share.

It's rare to find someone else as 'into' this food deal as I am, and it was so nice to talk in depth about the different and new things that we've been trying, plus sharing recipes and locations where we access organic foods and produce.

They are such a lovely couple and I hope it's not so long between visits this time.

It was great to see Ra Ra again too and admire her work ... more to share on that in another post soon.

We had our JPEG Christmas party this afternoon down at Shelly Beach at Caloundra.

There would have been more than 30 of us there.  It was nice to meet some new members and catch up with some original members - some of whom we only see every year at the Christmas parties.

We had a visitor this year, that had us all running across the sand, cameras in hand!

What a show he put on for us, and what a spectacle we all were, standing in a circle around the rock pool, long lenses in hand and all aimed at the Osprey bathing in the rock pool.

The Nikonian and I left the party earlier than most people.  The ones who were left all headed to the beach, cameras in hand, with hopes of a nice sunset, but from what I understand, the clouds closed in and there was no sunset worthy of being photographed.

Of course, I am secretly pleased and now don't have to feel disappointed that I missed out on something!

It's been a full day, after an early start in Coolum for a photo shoot and ending with a delicious dinner cooked by 'B' ... The Nikonian's other half.  Their hospitality has been wonderful, as always .. I have another memorable weekend through the camera lens, thanks to them.

Now I need to regenerate, so it's sleep time for me.

Tomorrow I'm off to see my Chicklet family for a couple of days!  *happy dance*

Nite all.