food!

Ahhh food.....

How I love you. 

I have been quite the domestic goddess lately, if I may say so myself! 

Some of the things I've made lately... 

Yoghurt

Labne

Butter (twice!)

A couple of amazing eggplant dishes

Banana bread

Raspberry white chocolate muffins

Roast chicken, and chicken stock

Risotto

Baked Quinces

The list goes on.....

I know everyone cooks, but I thought these dishes were particularly tasty :) 

 I made cultured butter using a recipe from The Gourmet Farmer's 'Deli Book'. I used organic raw cream, so it smelled a little bit strange but was very delicious! 

I also made the yoghurt using his recipe. It was nice, but not very strong flavoured, I think I prefer tangy, stronger yoghurt. 

I have been watching the Gourmet Farmer on dvd lately, I love it! It makes me really want to go to Tassie!! I keep day dreaming about frosty mornings on a farm, making scones with fresh cream and home made jam.... Ah maybe one day! 

Unsweetened Banana Bread

I saw this recipe on one of my favourite blogs, Green Kitchen Stories. I changed it a little bit, they put unsweetened pureed apples in as well but I didn't have any on hand, so I used extra bananas. It's not super sweet, but if you use really ripe bananas, they give it just enough sweetness. I also added the cacao nibs and the blueberries. The cacao nibs are a delicious addition!

It's quite a dense bread, more of a banana brick! They say to use olive oil but I prefer coconut oil or butter. 

It keeps for about a week in the fridge. 

Best enjoyed straight out of the oven or lightly toasted and smothered in yummy, good quality, salted butter :)

Here's my version:

2 cups spelt flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt

5 very ripe bananas

1/2 cup coconut or oat milk

3 tbsp coconut oil

1 tsp vanilla extract 

3/4 cups walnuts

1/4 cup cacao nibs 

sprinkling of desiccated coconut

handful fresh blueberries

Method:

• Preheat oven to 175 C.
• Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt).
• In a separate large bowl, mash bananas with a fork. Add the milk, melted coconut oil and vanilla. 
• Fold in dry mixture, then add nuts, cacao nibs and coconut. 
• Pour into a loaf tin lined with baking parchment, and bake for about 1 hour and 20 mins, or until browned on top and cooked through. I think mine was in there for a while, because of all the banana it was hard to tell when it was cooked properly! 

Enjoy :)

Baked Eggplant with Quark and Pomegranate

I made this using a recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi's book Plenty. 

Quinoa, chickpea and mint salad:

1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed thoroughly

1 can chickpeas

handful chopped almonds

handful currants

1/4 red onion, finely chopped

1/2 bunch mint, finely chopped 

lemon juice 

olive oil

salt and pepper

Method

• Cook quinoa using preferred method, I'm yet to find the perfect one..
• Combine prepared ingredients in a large salad bowl
• As a dressing I squeeze half a lemon, generous drizzle of olive oil, crack some salt and pepper and voila, a yummy, hearty salad! 

Happy Autumn feasting everyone, I wish I had heaps of homegrown fruit to be preserving! One day I will be writing blog posts about all my jars of preserved summer goodness :)

I'm looking forward to rainy-outside-doona-hot-chocolate days. Bring on the cold!

x Zannah

Autumn.

It’s rainy, windy and deliciously mild outside. It’s definitely autumn! My garden is loving the rain. The pumpkins are taking over, their luscious green leaves covering almost every part of the ground, one vine has even crawled through the fence and into the neighbours yard. I’ve spotted a few baby pumpkins, so I’m hoping they grow into big yummy golden fruit. The thing about my garden is it tends to look very luscious and pretty, but it’s not the best producer. I had 6 big zucchini plants, and only got 2 actual zucchinis! I have had some good tomatoes though, and I’ve got some eggplants growing bigger and bigger which I’m very excited about.

I will try to give my garden more attention from now on.

One thing that has been abundant this year is figs! We have had a tree FULL of beautiful figs for a few weeks now, and they’re just about to finish up.

I’ve been eating figs every which way... baked, fresh, cut up on muesli, in crumble, straight from the tree, I’ve even dried some.

I have been making the most gorgeous baked figs, here is how I do it:

As many figs as you’d like to bake

Honey

Vanilla Essence

Cinnamon

Slice the figs in half lengthways and remove the stem, laying them cut side up in a baking dish.

Sprinkle cinnamon all over them, I use quite a bit.

Drizzle honey on all the figs, however much you think is right.

Then add a few drops of vanilla to each fig, and put in a pre-heated oven (180 C) for 20-30 minutes.

Serve with cream, yoghurt, ice cream or mascarpone, and some of the sticky sauce from the bottom of the dish. They are to die for.  

I bought some heirloom cherry tomatoes that we had at work from a local chemical free farm last week, and I used this recipe to make semi-dried tomatoes. They are so delicious and super simple to make. I’ve been eating them in wraps, on toast and straight out of the jar.

I can’t believe it’s week 6 at tafe already. I feel like all I’ve been thinking about is proposals…. What do I want to do, why do I want to do it, how am I going to do it…. Instead of just making work. I have started a weaving though, which is keeping me happy. 

I'm heading away next week, so excited! 

Happy Easter peeps, hope the bunny pays a visit.

x Zannah

turning twenty-one.

A few weeks ago I had my 21st birthday. 

Mum spent the past couple of months working in her garden, preparing it for everyone to come over. It looked so beautiful. We put up lots of pretty fairy lights and lanterns and candles.

We began the night sharing yummy food with family.. Everyone brought a plate to share and we made nice salads and dips and pizzas. 

Friends arrived later on.. We had good music, and lots of friendly faces. It was a very special night, I felt so lucky to have so many awesome people in my life. And the presents! I got such good presents, I am so grateful. 

We had 2 cakes; a chocolate cake and a sponge cake for first dessert, then later we had a sticky date tower which Brendon and I made.. Well mostly Brendon. He made 36 sticky date muffins with caramel sauce. It was so delicious! I'll hopefully post the recipe soon, he has a pretty damn good one. 

I keep thinking of things I want to blog about, but I don't have internet at home at the moment so it's just bits and bobs for now. 

Uni starts next week. I feel so unmotivated, I don't feel ready to go back just yet!

I've been knitting a bit lately, there's a few babies still in bellies that I want to knit blankets and hats and dresses and pants and everything for! I like knitting for babies, I lose interest in big projects. And babies  look so cute in woolly outfits! 

I made this little dress the other day using this pattern. It's super easy and quick to make. 

Yesterday I made yummy little super bliss balls. I love SuperOrbs, so I used similar ingredients, but I think mine are wayyy better if I may say so myself! 

It was a bit of an experiment, so I'm not exactly sure of quantities.. Just give it a go and see what happens! There's not much that can go wrong when making things like this.

This is a rough guide:

1/2 cup raw almonds

1/2 cup really raw cashews*

1/2 cup walnuts

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup white mulberries

sprinkling of sesame seeds

sprinkling of black sesame seeds

sprinkling of hemp seed 

sprinkling of chia seeds

sprinkling of linseeds

some goji berries

4 medjool dates

small handful rolled oats 

big tbsp raw cacao 

tsp maca powder

pinch crystal salt

small tbsp coconut oil, I use Loving Earth

about 1/4 cup cacao nibs

desiccated coconut to roll them in 

*Really raw cashews are delicious. I buy the Loving Earth ones, they are grown in Java. The shell is cracked open using a traditional knife to preserve nutrients. Apparently regular 'raw' cashews are fried or boiled to make the skin brittle and easily removed. They are labelled raw because they are not roasted. The taste difference is unbelievable, and the really raw cashews are easier to digest. There is good information on the Loving Earth website which is worth a read. Although really raw are more expensive, they are worth it. I have only seen them sold at The Fruit Peddlars, or you can buy them online from Loving Earth. 

I just put everything in the Bellini, except the oats and some of the cacao nibs, blended it all up until it's crumbly, then stirred through the oats and the rest of the cacao nibs (I like them to still be crunchy). Some people blend nuts and dried fruit/oils separately before blending together, but all at once worked fine for me. I then just squished it into little balls, and delicately rolled in the coconut, then put them in the fridge for a couple of hours. Y U M! 

Some other good things to put in are:

Other super foods and powders like mesquite, lucuma, camu camu, afa, maqui, acai, tumeric etc. 

Also any other nuts and seeds are good, brazil buts, pepitas, anything. 

You can also activate your nuts first for extra enzymes! 

I think I will be making these on a regular basis for sure. Perfect with a coffee in the morning, or as an afternoon pick me up. The only bad thing about these is that if i make them, I just want to eat them all at once! At least they are good for me :) 

Thank you to my lovely mum for sharing your beautiful house, and all the work you put into having a party for me.

Thank you dada for supplying the alcohol, a key ingredient for a 21st! 

You're the best mum and the best dad I could wish for. X

X Zannah

summer.

I feel like lately there's been so much happening which I haven't blogged about yet, I don't know where to start.

The other week we went down to Woolamai for the week with such an awesome bunch of people.

On the second day there we went over to French Island for a night.... It was an adventure that's for sure..  We had planned to sail over, but it was a very windy day, too windy for a small sailboat! In the end we caught a barge over. 

There's really something strange about going somewhere where you have to rely on other people to get there and get home.. Maybe it's just that I'm so used to having a car, but I felt a little bit edgy the whole time.. just that feeling of not being able to leave when you like. 

I had really high expectations of the Island but it wasn't quite as idyllic as I'd imagined. There was a very cute fat pig that hung around though, and it was fun sleeping in the old prison cells. 

One of my favourite things to do when we go to Woolamai in jumping off the pier in San Remo. The water was so beautiful.. glassy, greenish blue. 

We went on some nice long walks around to the magic beach.. swam in the rock pool.. ate lots of yummy food.. even went to the carnival... 

But mostly it was just nice to hang out with our crew all week. 

It was nice to have the pup there too, he's a good one.

We saw 5 stingrays! They came right up to the beach. They are so elegant, they glide so smoothly through the shallow water and gently break the surface. It's so special seeing such beautiful creatures up close. 

We also saw 1 wallaby, 2 penguins and lots of pelicans! I love the pelicans, I love how they tuck their beak(bill?) neatly in between their wings and their neck just disappears! 

We had delicious fresh fish one night for dinner, caught by Freya and Dan. Whiting and leatherjacket I think..

I've been having some yummy smoothies, and made more delicious sorbet in the Bellini. 

See ya later peeps! Now to try and work out how to put the photos from my new birthday camera on the computer so I can put them on the blog! Exciting times :-)

x Zan

a new year.

Where do I begin!

I have been thinking about my blog these first few days of January and wondering what my first post of 2013 should be about... Bit of a catch up I think...

Christmas was so lovely this year, it definitely lived up to my excitement and anticipation. It was nice seeing family that I haven't seen for a while.. We ate so much delicious food, I found myself hungry for each meal on Christmas day even though they were huge! 

It was nice painting little strawberries for each jam gift, and decorating with cute fabric..

On boxing day we set off for the high country and camped in a beautiful walk-in only camping spot right on the crystal clear Howqua river. It was so relaxing.. We had perfect weather the whole time, nice and hot. I think my favourite part of the whole trip was swimming. Everyday I went for a morning and afternoon dip, and lots of swims in between. It was amazing how much the temperature of the water changed.. It was freezing cold morning and night, but by mid afternoon it was a very comfortable swimming temperature. That's one of the things I like about camping by a river instead of the beach.. You can have a swim and you're all clean, no salty sandy-ness!

Instead of just taking a double swag and trangia like we normally do, we had a good set up.. Tent, canopy shelter, table, gas cooker.. I could have stayed for weeks. I really enjoyed not having phones or internet, I think it's good to have some time away from that every now and then. 

I read Breath by Tim Winton while I was there, it felt very appropriate being out in the bush reading a good Australian book. 

It's hard to describe the trip, my words just don't do it justice. 

If you would like to see some exceptional photos, I would definitely check out Kristian Laemmle-Ruff's page.. He is amazing! http://www.kristianlaemmleruff.com/916/howqua

I was worried about my vegie garden while I was away, but it survived. Yay! 

Last night I ate my first three ripe tomatoes, I think they're called yellow taxi or something. They were yummy! 

And I'm very excited about these babies! 

My zucchinis grow to about 3 or 4cm then just shrivel and rot, very frustrating! I don't know why.... Anyone have zucchini growing advice?

Brendon bought me a Bellini as an early birthday present, it's so cool!! It's like a Thermomix, but soo much more affordable! I made raspberry sorbet the other night.. It was yummy, but a little too eggy.. Next time I might just use half an egg white. 

Then I made delicious Lindt hot chocolate, it was like the ones at Ripe! 

Well I think it's about 40 degrees outside, and strangely enough all i feel like doing is knitting or crocheting! I have a few new projects I'm hanging out to start.

I made a delicious smoothie this morning in my Bellini, perfect for today.

1 or 2 frozen bananas

Ice blocks

big dollop of yoghurt 

sprinkle of cinnamon

1 fresh medjool date

a big tablespoon of cacao nibs

Whiz it all up and enjoy!

There are some exciting things happening in my world this month... lots of my family's birthdays, my 21st, a beach holiday, a trip to French Island, and I'm sure much more! 

Well, I'm off to rearrange my kitchen drawers then see a movie. 

Bye! 

x Zannah

strawberry jam.

Last week, on that really hot day we went strawberry picking. 

I always feel so overwhelmed when I first get to the field, I feel like I have to quickly pick as many berries as I can or I'll miss out. The plants were laden with big juicy red fruit, they were so sweet and delicious! Berries are definitely best when they're warm, straight off the plant.

We went to Ladybird Organics, a certified organic 'pick your own' farm in Keilor. You're allowed to eat as much as you like while picking, then you just pay for what you bring out in your bucket, for $12 a kilo. Very reasonable for organic strawberries!

We ended up leaving with 8.9kg, $107 worth!!! holy moly.

We made the jam at a beach house, so we didn't  have any scales which was a little annoying.. I think we used about 3 or 4 kilos of strawberries and about 2.5 kilos of sugar, and 3 squeezed lemons. We searched for a recipe on the internet and worked off about 3 sites... It was a lot of guess work and rough estimating, but I think we made a yummy jam in the end!

It's fun watching it bubble away on the stove in such a big pot, I like how there's a definite moment where it turns from a strawberry sauce to jam. 

Freya took care of sterilising the jars, Angelique quartered a huge bowl of strawberries, and Sanaga did a very good job mashing the berries before the sugar went in. 

I can't wait to give jars of homemade jam for christmas presents! 

We still have 2 big containers of berries in the freezer.. looks like we'll have to make ice-cream! Yum!

When I started the blog I had planned to write every second day or so.... But I'm finding it harder to sit down at the computer as often as that at the moment, especially before christmas! Maybe in January I will.. 

Only 6 sleeps till christmas!! 

x Zannah