Idea's to make life easier

Simone recently shared 25 Clever Ideas to make life easier. Here are a few of my fave's:

 Hull strawberries using a straw!

 Use wire to make a space to store gift wrap rolls against the ceiling, rather than cluttering up the floor.

 Overhaul your linen cupboard – store bedlinen sets inside one of their own pillowcases and there will be no more hunting through piles for a match. I have actually done this and it's awesome!

Rubbing a walnut over scratches in your furniture will disguise dings and scrapes.

To see all of the 25 idea's go to The Daily Buzz.

January Garden Photos

I thought I'd share a few photos of my January Garden.

 

Our Jasmine Star Christmas Tree. It flowers in abundance at Christmas time, gives a lovely smell and we don't have to throw it out at the end of December!

 My olive oil tin planters. Perfect for growing succulents. Just drill a few holes in the bottom for drainage if you want to do the same.

 Out the front. The neighbourhood cats kept coming into the front garden. Mum suggested planting Rosemary as a way of deterring them as the smell could be too strong for them. Rosemary is a natural insect repellent and it seems to work on cats too! I've also planted some of the native grass I bought back from Mum's garden on the Atherton Tablelands.

 Succulents are one of my favourite things to grow in pots.

 Another plant from Mum's garden. It survived the 1800km drive!

 More from Mum's garden.

 This funny little spot under the stairs has always been an ugly patch of dirt. The only thing I have managed to grow here is Mondo Grass partly because of the poor growing conditions, but mainly because of the dogs laying and digging in there. Now Sunny can lay in the cool grass and it survives!

 Native violet or Viola hederacea. One of the plants we got from the Free Native Plant Program run by the Brisbane City Council.

 My Passion Fruit vine is finally producing fruit! It was here when we first moved in but never really did much. I have been giving it some TLC over the last couple of years and now the fruit is divine!

Lemongrass. YUM! A must have in every garden. It's so easy to grow and it's zesty lemon flavour is beautiful in Thai cooking. It is also said to have a number of health benefits, especially when used in combination with other Thai spices such as garlic, fresh chillies, and coriander! Again, YUM!

Herb Robert or Geranium robertianum. It's a medicinal herb but I'm still not sure how to use it! Apparently it is as a remedy for toothaches and nosebleeds, I've also read it act as an insect repellent and there are even stories about it helping people beat Cancer.

 I saved this Marjoram plant from the markets... hopefully it will start looking a bit healthier soon! Some people say Marjoram can ward of bad luck so they put it in their homes and businesses. It is very similar to Oregano and can be used in many savoury dishes.

 A photo of Zone One of my permaculture garden. Hopefully by February this will be out of control with Basil, Parsley, Lettuce, Spinach, Coriander and what ever else I planted in there!

 I'm experimenting with propagating Basil from cuttings. Seems to be working so far... will let you know!

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My ginger is growing! The rhizomes came all the way from Cairns, from my Aunty Arja's garden. Apart from being delicious, Ginger can help with nausea and research at the University of Sydney has found it may also reduce pain and inflammation.

As you can see a lot of my plants have been given to me from other gardeners as cuttings, bulbs or rhizomes. This is fantastic as it cuts down on cost for me, but it also tells a little story in my garden and I think of my Mum and Aunty (and sometimes the neighbours - hehe!) every time I see their plants.

I once read, when you become a gardener you become a thief! I like to think of it as sharing...

Easy Eggplant and Ricotta Lasagna

I looooove ricotta so much that whenever I go to the markets I buy a full round of it. It's like six bucks and goes a long way. I make baked ricotta with herbs, sweet baked ricotta with blue berries and almonds, spinach and ricotta pie...

Last night I made Eggplant and Ricotta Lasagna. I don't really use recipes for savoury dishes... I kinda just shove everything in. But this was delicious and really healthy so I'll attempt to recreate the recipe for you and myself for future making!

Ingredients

• 2 large eggplants
• drizzle of olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic, finely diced
• 2 stems of garlic chi, finely chopped
• 1 red capsicum, diced
• 1 carrot, grated
• 1 zucchini, grated
• quarter of a large sweet potato, grated
• 1 tin of diced tomatoes
• handful of basil leaves
• ricotta (I used about 300g)
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Method

1.  Preheat oven to 180.
2. Slice eggplant into 1 cm rounds. Put in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil then cook on the BBQ hot plate until brown and slightly soft, then transfer back to bowl. 
3. Cook onion, garlic, capsicum and garlic chi in a large saucepan until all ingredients are soft.
4. Add carrot, zucchini and sweet potato and stir to soften. 
5. Add tomatoes and basil and simmer while eggplant is cooking.
6. In a lasagna dish (I used medium size) pour half the tomato mix, then layer with half the eggplant. Sprinkle / dollop / spread half the ricotta on this. Then repeat with the rest of the tomato, eggplant and ricotta. 
7. Top with cheddar cheese and bake until the cheese in golden and bubbling. 

 Serve with a nice glass of red.

I didn't put any salt, pepper or sugar in this and it really didn't need it. Even my husband (who usually adds salt to all my cooking) didn't add salt.I used to add sugar to all my dishes that were tomato based but I'm moving away from this now.

You could put thyme and oregano in with the basil (it was raining last night so I didn't venture into the garden to get any) and you could add other vegies such as grated potato, diced squash, corn, anything in your fridge that needs using up basically!

I will definitely be making this again. Great mid-week dinner!

I made a sugar-free, dairy-free, egg-free chocolate slice!

Yes, a sugar-free, dairy-free, egg-free chocolate slice. Oh my, it is delicious!

I love reading my friend, Amy's blog The Spice Of Life and recently she shared her dairy-free, sugar-free chocolate slice recipe

I wasn't sure if I'd like it as Amy says "If you are a normal, chocolate eating person, you will hate this..." but I am one of these people and I loved it!

Here is the recipe. Please try it.

Amy's "I Can't Believe it's not Chocolate" Slice Recipe

Ingredients 

200g raw cacao
80g goji berries
150g raw mixed nuts
120g sultanas
50ml Manuka honey
80ml coconut oil
1tbsp boiling water

Method

Process dry ingredients as finely as you can.
Add honey, oil and water.
Process to combine and pour into a 20cm, lined, cake tin.
Refrigerate 4 hours to set and cut into bite sized pieces. Keep in refrigerator.

I used normal honey, and I didn't have any raw cacoa so I used powdered cocoa (I just used less). Mine looked a bit different to Amy's but I think this came down to my food processor. Whatever - it was delicious!

Thai Basil Pesto Recipe

I love basil! Currently I have an abundance of Sweet Basil and Thai Basil.

In my garden in Brisbane it grows really well considering I water it occasionally but other than that it gets neglected.

Yesterday I cut back my Thai Basil. I kept the flowers and put them in a vase in the kitchen. Apparently Basil is a fly repellent but I just love the sight and smell of them. Makes washing up tolerable!

With the leaves I made Thai Basil pesto.

Thai Basil Pesto Recipe 


I found this recipe on www.myrecipes.com

The deep, toasty notes of dark sesame oil enhance this Asian version of the classic Italian sauce. Toss with rice noodles, or dollop on fish or chicken. You can also stir a few tablespoons into a simple meat and vegetable stir-fry. Freeze small portions of the pesto in ice cube trays; transfer to a zip-top plastic bag, and store in the freezer for up to two months

Ingredients

2 cups fresh Thai basil leaves
2 tablespoons dry-roasted peanuts
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 garlic cloves


Preparation

Place all ingredients in a food processor; process until smooth. Press plastic wrap onto surface of pesto. Store in refrigerator up to 1 week.

I started off in the food processor, but quickly changed to the mortar and pestle. I found this much better and will do this next time.

Good gardening websites

I have found these websites really useful for my gardening:

• http://www.sgaonline.org.au/
• http://www.tropicalpermaculture.com/ 
• http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/

Please let me know of any other good websites to add here.

Keeping dogs out of the garden

I was sooo sick of working hard on my garden and then having my two diggingest-dogs dig it all up and eat all my plants, some of which travelled 1000km's in the car with me to get to my garden!

I have tried everything to keep them out, but nothing works on these little MacGyver's. So I bought an electric fence. Installing it was very easy and it looks neat and tidy. And no digging! The only problem is I feel horrible and mean doing that to the dogs. But I figure, they will only go there once, right.

We were sitting outside when Peppa attempted to get into the garden, and... my heart broke to watch her get zapped. BUT... she has never been back! I'm not sure if Sunny has had a go yet, but I'm assuming she has as my vegies are all untouched!

Peppa and Sunny sitting in front of the new 'don't go there' fence! See, dogs and garden can co-exist!

Day 1 - permaculture garden begins

Yesterday we started our permaculture garden. I was going to do the trench thing mentioned in this article - www.permaculture.org.au

But when we started digging we realised that it took on a very similar shape to our existing timber boxes, so we used those as the garden borders instead. Here's what I did:

1. mowed all the grass and weeds in the area
2. turned the soil over (it's actually not as bad as I thought it was) 
3. tipped a bag of horse poo and  sort of spread it around the garden bed
4. topped with newspaper and then a really thick layer of mulch. 

The reason I put the cardboard on top of the poo is that it could contain grass and weed seeds that I don't want in my garden.

 I'm going to let these beds sit and do their thing for a few weeks until the cardboard and poo start to decompose.

In the bed I actually wanted to plant (in zone 3) I did steps 1- 3 but instead of topping it with mulch I added all the lovely rich compost soil from my compose heap. I was actually surprised by how quickly the leaves and food scraps had turned into lovely soil.

In zone three I planted corn and cucumber, then topped with mulch. Once the corn establishes a bit more I will plant something around the base of it. I also want to plant beetroot and garlic in here, but will wait to see how much room the cucumber and corn take up.

Starting my permaculture garden

My goal is to live a happy, healthy, stress-free and self sustainable life. I realise that in our Westernised culture that we can never be fully self sufficient. And I am not willing to give up many of the luxuries to which I have become accustomed, but I would like to minimise my impact on the Earth and maximise my family's health. I love gardening, cooking, sewing, entertaining and travelling.

After changing and moving my vegie garden more times than I care to mention, today, I am going to start a permaculture garden. I've found this website useful http://www.tropicalpermaculture.com/ in giving me a general over view on Permacuture and I quite like this description of Permaculture:

Permaculture is about "...saving the planet and living to be a hundred, while throwing very impressive dinner parties and organising other creatures to do most of the work." (Linda Woodrow)

I have just been to the local nursery with four soil samples where they tested the pH for me and they are all pH neutral. Good news. I also bought 3 bags of horse poo and an extra zappy electric fence. Look out Sunny! No more diggy in my garden for you!


I am going to start with zone one and get that right, then develop more. I don't want to go too hard, too early and give up after the entire thing gets over grown with weeds! I am going to put chives, parsley, basil, mint and other every day herbs right at the door step so I actually start using them in my cooking.

Photos to come...