Well it seems that the winter chill is upon us – though I know it will get worse than this.I dont actually mind winter. Its time for me to indulge in my favourite foods and pasttimes. Sitting in front of a roaring fire with a lovely drop of red and indulging my love of knitting while a slowly braising casserole bubbles away in the oven.

Bought myself a new braising pot which I am going to use on the top of the fire box. Cant see the point in wasting that lovely warmth when dinner could quite easily be simmering away for a couple of hours as well as keeping the house warm and snug.

The family are all down with varying stages of dreaded colds at the moment. Hubby seems to be particularly suffering from man flu and is just moping around the place, feeling sorry for himself. Maybe a warming soup will do the trick. Found a great recipe this morning on Kitchen Vignettes which sounded perfect so might give it a go. If you’ve never visited be sure to take a look  – the videos are fantastic!

http://kitchenvignettes.blogspot.com.au/

weed fest

The bountiful rain we have had lately has resulted in bountiful weeds. I have just spent a productive hour or so in the number 1 vegie patch with a huge pile of unwanted intruders to show for it. But you know what – thats notyhing compared to what is still in there!

I cant believe it – where did they all come from?

But in amongst all the weeds were a couple of bonuses;some long forgotten onions, half a dozen chilli plants that I thought were long gone and a few carrots that are still ok.

Thats not all that is in there of course, the kale is still doing brilliantly, there is some fennel, and some beetroot, even more carrots ( in our house you can never have enough carrots! )and even a confused asparagus spear!

While having the garden got to the point of neglect that it did is quite distressing it was nice to spend some time away from the desk and deadlines to reconnect with what is happening in the patch – get the feeling its been a while since I had visited? Yep, but have made a promise to take the time to give it some tlc a little more often from now on.

 

in the garden

The cooler weather makes it so much more pleasant to be working in the garden so have been getting heaps done. Have laid out a couple of the new beds, repositioned the clothes line and spent plenty of time thinking about exactly what it is I am trying to achieve.

There are plenty of the winter crops sitting not so patiently in trays waiting to be priicked out or transplanted into beds so still lots to be doing.

I promise that as soon as i can there will be images too.

The world of food

What can I say – I love food. I love to grow it, cook it and eat it. I dont grow all my own food but try to grow as much of my families fruits and vegies as possible. The vegetable garden is bursting with things at the moment and there is something to see and taste everyday.