White Choc Macadamia Cookies and other Rambles..

Well I'm kid free for the day and have finally found my Blog mojo again, this house has been very lacking in excitement other than the fact Cairns has seemed to reach a new record for hot/stickiness, so I've been spending most of my time huge and pregnant at the computer refreshing Facebook(therefore not cooking or gardening) and whinging about the heat.

Of course ice cream is always one way to motivate me, and when my brothers girlfriend offered a swap of the awesome ice cream where she works for some Macadamia cookies I hauled myself into action.

Here is the recipe for those who requested.

Macadamia and White Choc Chip Cookies

250g softened butter
2 cups of soft brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp milk
2 beaten eggs
3 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder.
1 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1 cup white choc chips

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
Add vanilla,milk and beaten egg and fold in.
Mix in flour and baking powder until combined.
Gently fold through nuts and chocolate.

Bake at 180 for approx 15 minutes.


Enjoy :)


The garden is coming along nicely,after wondering if we were going to have any joy with the corn it suddenly decided to rocket up and is now higher than the neighbours fence with little immature cobs on it. I had to get Beau to make me a cover for the raised garden bed as the cats had decided it was the Worlds Largest Litter Tray and scratched up all my baby seedlings, but that's now replanted.

The little self seeded pumpkin has taken over the lawn now and has lots of lovely little baby pumps on it.



Mum also came over the other day and helped me get my Autumn planting of curcubits in as well as a new lot of hybrid sunflowers and some winged bean seeds that an lovely Earth Garden member sent me.


Speaking of curcubits, I have a Zucchini dilemma, I've been getting lots of little baby Black Zucchinis, but most of them have been becoming ridged and sort of shrivelling.
It doesn't seem to be a fertilisation issue, it doesn't just happen to the immature ones but right up to ones around 10cms. They seem fine one minute then start developing ridges and yellowing. Nothing I've found on the Great Google seems to explain it?


We've also had another arrival into this crazy family. Man of The House's sister had her first babe on Tuesday,now I'm the first to admit that I'm not generally a baby person and tend to think all newborns look like Winston Churchill but baby Matilda is just divine. Congrats Jaimee and Nick she's just lovely.


Other than that it's just a bit of a waiting game for our new unnamed Bebe to arrive in the Davidson household. With the older kids at school and only Miss Theodora the terror at home I feel like I'm just sitting around twiddling my thumbs in expectation and waiting now. I know I really should be baking/freezing/preparing things now but it's just been so hot that all motivation seems to have deserted me for cooler climes.



On that note, the couch and my Costa dvd is calling me, I'll leave you all with a final image. Raphaela's latest artistic rendition of the family, as you can tell I'm the round one in the middle!


Until we meet again.
Eden

The Harvest begins....

Well I use the word "harvest" very loosely but hey, we're starting to eat actual real food from our actual real garden, so that's a start at least!

We had Pasta Primavera last night, with our own snake beans, and first zucchini and a lone tomato.



I also found a ripe watermelon hiding in the sweet potato patch when I was weeding, I had no idea of it's existence until then and that made a nice surprise




The sunflowers have bloomed too,just a smaller variety but I planted Giant Russians a few days ago so I hope I have some success with them. It would be quite spectacular to have 3 metre high flowers to gaze at when I wake in the morning ( well when I'm not gazing at Teddys face 2 millimetres from mine, "Mummy, Mum , Mummy, Muuuum Mum ,MUMMY").


Other than that it's just been nesting/baking/nesting/baking....6 weeks to go now until bebe #4 is here but 6 weeks may as well be 6 years in this weather, I feel like an elephant who has been pregnant for years.But nursery is ready to go, pram re-assembled,Etsy quilt arrived, carseat bought and now all I really have to do is pay off a few remaining laybuys, and sit at home and mope...whilst baking bread and other delicious things that are contributing to my backfat.





Oh and find The Name, we really must do that....I really think the poor poppet is going to be called Baby all her life, Beau and I are having so much trouble settling on a name.
And yes Valentina and Serafina are definately out my Constant Readers.



So.....what you YOU think she looks like? ;)

Random musings of a Bored Housewife...

So once again the time has come that I share the excitement that is my life with you all.

Firstly I have a confession.

I am cool, and I don't mean in a big sunnies, Nicole Ritchie kinda way. I mean my body temperature is hovering at comfortable, which can only mean one thing.

I have caved and used the aircon for the first time this year.

I know I knoooow, but the temperature reached 39 in some places here today, the humidity was the normal wet tropics sauna levels and after a day of being out in the sun hand weeding the veggie garden I couldn't hack it anymore.

Ok I've admitted it, lets move on shall we.....

Firstly another Brag for Beau....he was home Monday so he did another "Skip Scavenge" and found enough wood to knock together a potting table for me.

Veggie garden is slowly recovering from the epic rain we had last week, I think my zucc's will fruit after all if there isn't another big downpour, and after removing the older mildew affected leaves it's looking much perkier. The gourd seeds I planted for Beau have sprouted and I found a few self seeded tomatoes in the watermelon patch. I'm really waiting for March though and that's when the serious planting shall commence.

I also lost my contacting virginity the other day, I think my left eye is still twitching slightly. I had to help Teddy contact and decorate her "special book" for Kindy.

What evil despot invented that foul sticky stuff I don't know, but my life was definitely happier without it lol

Other than that I think my days just revolve around school pick up/drop off and feeding said school children. I had fond ideas of pottering around organising the new Bebes room etc whilst the older kids were at school, but it seems all I do is race around baking for their school lunches.

At least if they don't remember the effort I went to when they're older they can check this blog for proof!

Latest effort for the school lunchbox was homemade labna and hotcross buns. Both successful but I'm not sure how wise I was for picking such a god awful stinking hot day to bake them.

The recipe for the buns is just one I found specifically for the breadmaker, A few people have asked for the "recipe" so here we go.

Hot Cross Buns

Dough

Water 330ml

Margarine 2 tbs

1 Egg

3/4 cup sultanas

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 Brown Sugar

520g Plain Flour

2 1/2 tsp yeast

Add to Breadmaker and turn use Pizza setting, or one approx 1 1/2 hours, you only need one rise

Take out risen dough, knead on a floured surface until springy and then shape dough on a greased tray into 12 buns.

Leave in a warm place for half an hour to rise.

Crosses

80g Plain flour

80ml water

2 tsp Sugar

Mix well and pipe onto top of buns.

Bake at 180 for 30 minutes

Glaze while warm.

Glaze

2 tbs water

2tbs sugar

1 tsp Gelatine.

Dissolve ingredients either on stovetop or microwave then glaze buns.

Voila!

And of course if anyone has any good school lunch recipes to share, knock yourselves out.

Until next time ....

The Taj Machook

Actually when I ponder it I think the Taj Mahal may have had less time and thought invested in it.

Beau has been lovingly and methodically slaving away at this Chook Palace for weeks now. In the meanwhile our poor girls have been shunted around like itinerant Gypsy's whilst Beau madly hammered away on the few days he gets away from work.


I'm so proud of his handiwork, between the fact it was practically free( lucky for us we live in a new development...hence lots of skip bins filled with timber scraps)
and the fact he managed to do something so technical with no plans and nothing but a few basic tools...well shucks and all that but I have a new respect for The Man of Much hair aka The Husband.


So it was move in date for the girls today, and after much cursing and experimenting to get the coop out of the garage it's finally in place and chookies look noticeably happier already.


Anyway enough of the praise for Man of the House, and back to my favourite subject...ie bragging about myself.

I made homemade pasta today( it's amazing the things you can achieve when 2/3's of your children are being cared for by government employees)


It wasn't bad at all even if I do say so myself...but I think I'll have to find a better drying tool, I'm not sure draped across the back of my kitchen stools was completely ideal.


I served it with a cream,garlic,basil reduction and it was none too shabby...kids hoovered it down but that isn't unusual for them, they'll consume anything.


So once again another riverting insight to the Davidson household,I bet you can hardly contain the excitement Dear Constant Reader.

It never rains it pours.....

At least in Far North Queensland.

After much finger drumming and whinging about the humidity the heavens have seen fit to open and rain down upon us.
Of course in perfect timing this also coincided with my Zucchini and Pumpkin setting about 300 fruit which have now all rotted, and back to school for the elder children of mine. Which meant I had the debatable pleasure of chaperoning back to school on Wednesday two children who by the time they reached their new classrooms were soggier than drowned rats and almost $200 of drenched school books.
The Joy.


But yes our Fat Boy otherwise known as The Child who had a Speech Delay yet now won't shut up has started school. Prep. I'd almost pretend I'm human and I shed a tear, but Dearest Constant Reader you know me too well. I shoved him through that door with more glee and I even experience when I hit the David Jones sales and went rocketing home to enjoy the peace and quiet.

Oh and the rain....mustn't forget the rain.

Well that's about it for us at the moment...I'm slowly trying to restore the veggie garden to some semblance of order after the torrential rain and within a few days "Our Girls" aka Angry Chook, Zen Hen and Poppet's Chicken Palace should be ready and I'll update with pictures ( Beau is fancying himself muchly,with reason mind you)


Purple chilli,Black Zebra Tomato, Capsicum and a heritage Eggplant
Tomato and Eggplant
My very happy Okra

Baby Watermelon!

Sad looking Zucchini

Squash and various Tomatoes

My Yam!

Sweet Potato

Self Seeded Pumpkin

Sunflowers

Tommy Toe Tomato
Over and Out.

Beware the Ides of March(Flies)

Well in a valiant effort to follow through with my resolutions, here I am again Dearest Readers.

I'm back from our trip to the wilds, our first official "Family Camping Trip". Amazingly Beau and I remained on speaking terms for most of the trip.

Biggest hurdles were the evil mass of march flies that decided it had never feasted upon a tastier morsel than my pregnancy bloated legs and the torrential downpour we had the first night. Probably not helped by the fact I clung to Beau all that night whimpering and clutching a hammer and asking him if the bolts of lightening was actual Axe Murderers come to butcher me in my sleep....Ahem anyway.

But despite this we all had a great time, I floated in the beautiful freshwater creek scaring the cows, Beau wandered around half naked trying to spear fish and the kids turned half wild.


We came home to find the garden had bloomed once again( especially the bloody nutgrass)and some self seeded pumpkin and tomato had also popped up. I've managed to con Beau into setting up my raised garden bed as well, so I've been fantasising about what seeds I'm going to order for that. I'm thinking some Purple Chilli, Pink Thai Tomato and a heritage variety of Thai Eggplant. Ohhh and I'm ordering some Yams and fantasising about the Push Mower I saw in Bunnings yesterday....exciting much?

So that's about it for my thrilling life at the moment, I'll finish off with some updated garden pictures and if you can stay awake through that consider it a triumph.

Zucchini Patch

Sunflower

Pumpkin

Watermelon hiding behind the Pumpkin

Sweet Potato

More Watermelon

Self Seeded Butternut

Raised Garden Bed

My amazing garden in its entirety


Peace out.