Cheese Straws - who knew?

It always makes me slightly angry when I find simple recipes like this that I could have been making for ages! Way too easy, way too yummy, way too quickly eaten. The recipe I actually used was from the Treats from Little and Friday. (which of course I'm dying to go visit the cafe in Auckland.)

Check out the book at least. There are so many great recipes.

Good cheese and fresh herbs from the garden.

Yes, I cheated. Store bought puff pastry.

Messy twisties.

And yummmmmm. Amazing warm out of the oven.

Yummy for boys, and yummy puff pastry crumbs on the floor for Timmy.

A quick pantry lunch - Tuna Cakes

I've become one of those people that have a full pantry, basically my mother. You never know what you will need! Or, as I have found lately, "why did we need this?" I've come across a few things lately that I have NO idea what I bought them for... But this is not about my brain-fart moments... It's food related. I swear.

Anywho. I love being able to come home from playgroup and whip together something like this. It's not super flash, but it's good, I love it, the boys like it, and it takes all of about 10 minutes to make.

Tuna Cakes

Ingredients :

• 180 g Canned (tinned) Tuna in water
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• a little bit of dried herbs, chives, parsley (or fresh if you have them)
• 1 tsp seeded mustard
• 3 or 4 tbsp whole wheat flour
• 2 tbsp grapeseed oil, or canola is fine

Method :

1. Drain the tuna in a sieve.
2. Quickly beat the egg and add your herbs and mustard.
3. Add the drained tuna and flour to the egg mix and mush together with your fingers like you would meatloaf.
4. Separate into four equal amounts and roll into a patty shape.
5. Heat up the oil in a small fry pan and cook through until golden and crispy on the edges.
6. Drain them on a paper towel and devour.

Yum... I make a fake tartar sauce for mine, but the boys are happy to have them with some edamame.
Enjoy!
x

Pikelets and Tea Parties..

Far out! Seriously easy!
I love pikelets! You can add pretty much anything to them. Corn, bacon, apples, bananas, savoury, sweet, topped with honey, jam, or just plain!
Here's all you need...

Protein, veggie style!

I saw this recently somewhere on Facebook, and thought it was pretty brilliant. I do try to use most of these as often as I can, but didn't realise that many of them were good sources of protein! I'd be keen to try out chia and hemp seeds.

If anyone has some yummy recipes for them they would like to share, please do!

X

 

Some old and new friends around the garden

When we moved into our little home, our tenants were nice enough to leave some amazing herbs and veggies growing in the beds they built. It was such an awesome gift. Now, once I've figured out what most of everything is, we have leeks, chives, rainbow and regular silverbeet, (I think) beetroot, spinach, parsley, mint, thyme, rosemary, fennel, pineapple sage and probably a few things I haven't found yet. 

I had to give the mint and the thyme a massive cut back the other day, but out of came a massive amount of dried thyme, which should keep and I can make some tea out of. Or maybe some shaving cream for Jacob (if he ever decided to shave!)

Since Monday was a public holiday here for some, I headed to Leacroft Nurseries with some of the family and was so impressed! I hadn't been there before, but will be going back this week! They have so many native plants and it's all fairly priced! Yep. New favourite place.

Lemongrass (new), fennel with pineapple sage (old)

Feijoa & the $5 tomato plant (both new)

Lavender (new) and one of our leeks (old)

Yep. Love gardening. And love my green gumboots.

Oh yeah!

Forgot to share some good news!!

One of my lovely Christmas gifts from Jakely was to head off to a weekend workshop! (It was more or less my idea, but still!)

Next month, I'll be taking in some learning at the Cottage Hill Herb Farm for the Natural Skincare Product Workshop! I'm super excited! I've been experimenting over the ages making my own oils, shampoos, astringents and random other bits and bobs, but I've always hit a wall with a lot of the other things I'd love to try.

Bring on making creams and balms!

Herb-a-licous Treasury!

Love this one! So inspiring! 

I think I'll go make some soap this weekend!

Thanks Briga!

Herby Goodness!

At first, J thought I was nuts... 

A small collection of jars. A medium collection of jars. 

Now, a massive collection, being used to make herb infused oils, tinctures, salves, astringent toners, hair tonics, and soon - SOAP and LOTIONS!

One of the best parts about this whole process, all of the herbs I'm using are from our garden! That is one of the most satisfying parts. Really! (That and using my awesome Lemon Balm and Lavender Toner! Heavenly!)

Since we have had so much rain in the last few months - Summer? What Summer? - everything has gone being going crazy in the garden! We have tomatoes that have mysteriously appeared, as well as some pumpkins and zucchinis that are almost the size of the calf... a couple different kinds of beans, cucumbers, the list goes on!

This year, I was so lucky to have a good base of herbs. The mint was already going crazy in a bed, but I transferred it to an old lemon tree pot and it's taken off even better than before. It's so healthy and loves to be cut back. The lemon balm, calendula, and the lavender are doing beautifully. The rosemary and thyme coming along nicely for their first season. Even the Goji Berry plant has finally shown us some life - and some berries!

This is been one of the BEST growing seasons in ages! I hope everyone else has had great success as well!