Beetroot

Have you tried roasted beetroot??? its delicious especially when nice and fresh.  I try to cook a roast at least once a week, great value for money, as plenty of cold meat for Johns lunch's.  The price of meat here is pretty horrendous, the only roast I can afford these days is chicken.  And sometimes pork, lamb or beef you can never get anything under $20 so its off the menu, in fact I am seriously thinking about going vegetarian again.  The meat does'nt taste all that great either.  Anyway back to my free range chicken.  Which does taste delicious.

 I love to add kumara, (these are really nice at the moment) beetroot, shallots, potato (John only), not pictured here as they are not in the shops at the moment is Jap Pumpkin and the aniseed bulb split down the middle.

 Now I have a really bad secret, see that above, its the chicken neck, all crispy and hot, I tear it off when its cooked and eat it.  I know, I know I shouldn't as its very fatty, but oh, it tastes so good, especially straight out of the oven, while the chicken is resting.  Now I am not likely to get onto My Kitchen Rules in the near future, or ever come to that.  But can't say I agree with resting the roast, steaks yes, but I like my roast really hot!!!!

And this is John's tea, mine is about half that, not potatoes, but then I did eat that chicken neck, but I didn't put it on my plate, does that count.........

Domesticity

I am not really very domesticated but I like to pretend sometimes. Today I needed to make more muesli bars for John's lunch box, being my usual impulsive self, thought as I had the oven on I might as well make something else as well. Found my trusty Edmonds recipe book which is falling apart at my favourite recipes, must be over 40 years old, doesn't always see the light of day, but today it ended up on my bench. This trusty little recipe book brings back fond memories of my mum, my nana and my mother-in-law Gladys as I know they all had copies and all very good cooks, nothing fancy but good honest tasty food. I had a hankering for something ginger. Ginger cake seemed like a good choice and I had all the ingredients in the pantry.

It turned out just as I like, moist and wonderful flavour of ginger. When I was in Europe I found their cakes quite dry, my taste is to moist cakes, another favourite is banana cake, a favourite of my dearest dad as well. Well as you can see there is a piece missing, that was my morning tea.
Have a good weekend
Jacky

Monster Garage Sale

Hey, we are having a Monster garage sale this Sunday, at Guildford Town Hall.  Cnr James and Meadow Streets, Guildford.  Time early 8 am to 12 am.
Joanne, Jessica, Phil and me, there will be lots of junk going cheap, if you are not doing anything on Sunday, mosey over and have a look.  Say hi before you leave.
Have a wonderful long weekend

Jacky

my desk

My dear sister had a photo of her desk on her photography blog and it set me to thinking what does my desk look like in a photo.  Well, this is how my desk looks I am ashamed to say.

Just check no bra hooked on the chair, it is hot, but no, not there, thank goodness.  I have been sitting in that chair for over 4 hours, working on an online workshop I will be putting up when I have ironed a few things out.  Bopping away to Casey Chambers singing Rattling Bones, know what she means after sitting there so long.  Needed an eraser, rummaged at the back of my desk, its no wonder it takes me so long with all that mess.  Under the computer there are cards I received at Christmas and as I didn't get around to sending any they are waiting for me to send my apologies.  Also bits of paper, disks and usb things with my photo's on, hmmm, I don't know, I do try but I end up back like this in no time.

A closer look reveals coffee cup, got to keep the sustenance up, see that brown paper pushed aside, that gets dragged back when I went to work on my journal.
I guess my desk reveals me, a messy slob.
Have a good weekend...
Jacky

Share my morning

 Thought I would share my morning with you.  I woke early 5.30am bursting with energy, just had to get out of bed.  Why is that, do you think? The one morning when I don't have to get up early.  My usual weekend morning ritual is to put the kettle on and go out and get the paper, then sit down for an hour with my cuppa and read the paper to see what is going on in the world, you see, I still prefer the written word.  This morning is amazing, cool night i.e. good sleep, several days cooler weather with rain, yay rain and now I can appreciate the sun.

My view from my kitchen sink, see the sink on the left and the early morning sun coming up.

 My breakfast, protein drink and toast with advocado, tomato, white onion a drizzle of caramelised balsamic a sprinkle of salt flakes and grind or two of black pepper, heaven!!!! why are the simple things so delicious

 whoops forgot to add some shredded coriander, yummy I was to busy tucking into this to take another photo, sorry it was nice too........

 Around the garden to take more photo's, can you tell the camera is not far from my hands, these are seed pods from the oriental poppies I pulled out over a month ago. Up against the blue, blue sky with the sun shining through

 And seed heads from the parsley.........

And this is my morning full of sunshine and possibilities, hope you all have a wonderful weekend..
Jacky

Gratitude

                            

today I went into Royal Perth Hospital for a second scan on my right breast as an unknown spot had shown up on my first scan.  I was advised that I could expect to be at the hospital for up to eight hours.  Fortunately I was only there for four.  In that time I had a scan which was developed and scrutinised and after a talk with a lovely understanding doctor, she explained that they would now do an ultra sound to have a better look.  This was pretty amazing and I was able to observe and see that there was not one but two lumps and it was decided to do a procedure whereby they injected into my breast using the ultra sound machine to guide them to the lumps, which where virtually sucked up the needle and taken away for a biopsy.  Because of my experience with Raymon's cancer, I was concerned as was John and the kids, they pushed the results through for me and I was given the information that they weren't cancer but cysts, whew!!!! what a relief.  We need to give all our support and help to Raymon and the last thing I wanted was to not be able to do that.

But I was so grateful for this wonderful service provided by our government.  I have a free scan every two years as all women in Western Australia can, I would encourage all women to take up this offer as early detection can make a huge difference.  The Doctor advised me before the ultra sound that because it was only small,  if it was cancerous it would be a simple procedure of just removing the cells and not the whole breast.  I could feel no lump myself and if it hadn't been picked up in my scan and it was cancerous it could grow and become wider spread.  So girls, go get tested, only takes less than half and hour.

Raymon's chemo this time seemed to be not so hard on him, only one more to go before he has radiation to zap the last of it, fingers crossed and prayers to up above, he will then be cancer free.  My heart goes out to all those going through cancer treatment, it is not nice.

yummy fruit cake

Over the last two weeks I have read three books in Joy Dettman's Woody Creek series.  Joy is Australian and this series is based in rural Australia from 1939 to the most recent one finishing in the 1960's.  Although it is on Australia during that time, it is very reminiscent of growing up in rural New Zealand.  It brought back memories of sitting around the kitchen table with a cup of tea and a slice of fruit cake.  No bought biscuits or coffee in those days, and many a yarn was told over that cuppa and fruit cake.  I just had to go and make one of those cakes and just so happens I even had all the ingredients in the cupboard.

Anyone who knows me, knows I am not good at following directions or rules, so some little adjustments where made here and there.  And as it wasn't exactly to the recipe, I just had to have a piece, just to see that I wasn't making anyone sick, i.e. John (instead of his muesli bars in his lunch) and the girls on the Tuesday morning class. Well, it wasn't too bad, if I do say so myself.  Heres the photo's with the recipe following.
Quick Sultana Cake
Heat oven to 180 deg
In a large pot add 500 grams sultana's and 1 cup water boil until water evaporated (doesn't take long just as well John was in the kitchen while I was on the computer or would have burnt) take off element.
Add 250 grams butter and tablespoon Golden Syrup let melt, helps if you chop the butter up a bit.
Whisk 3 eggs and essence ( used vanilla and coconut or raspberry is nice) and mix into pot.
Add 2 cups flour and 1 tsp baking powder and pinch of salt and mix in well ( I mashed up two very ripe banana's on the inside of the pot and stirred in)
Scrape all mixture out into a paper lined tin about 12 inch square ( if you use a smaller tin you get a higher cake, but I don't want John eating too much, I'll have to make another one then) my tin has the sides that open and make it easy to take out.
I sprinkled sliced almonds on top before the damn insects get into them, that happens here!
Cook for approx 1 hour test with skewer to make sure cooked through.

easy as, and only 1 pot a small bowl, wooden spoon, scraper to wash up, by sort of baking

enjoy
Jacky