Here & Now

Loving...wood fires at night (and sometimes even in the day)

Eating...frozen mango cheesecake (homemade, of course) 

Drinking...tea! It's always tea :-)

Wearing...my new cape from Pretty Parcel & gloves from Myer

Feeling...worn out

Wanting...sunshine

Thinking...how lucky we are to be able to grow our own eggs and some of our meat and veggies

Dreaming...of sheep

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Looking at the first photo - and the others with a little sunshine in them - you probably wonder while I wrote that I am wanting some sunshine. Those photos were snapped on the only afternoon in weeks were we've had a patch of sun...I say patch because I mean about an hour or two.

The constant drizzle does make it colder, though, and since I actually love a cold winter I really shouldn't complain.

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I'd love to know what's been happening in your Here & Now, either through the comments or maybe even a blog post of your own? 

I realised my blog was started to look a bit like a recipe blog so before I share any more I thought I'd better get a post about something else up....

Have a lovely weekend!

Sarah x

Recipe: Chilli Sauce

You all seemed very interested in my Mum's Chilli Sauce recipe so I thought I'd better get it posted sooner rather than later. It's not a sweet chilli sauce but's it's not too spicy, of course the chilli you use will also affect this. I hope you enjoy!

And thank-you for all your comments on my last post :-)

Chilli Sauce

You can use any chilli for this recipe, Thai Birdseye, Jalapeno, the long Hungarian Chillis.

Use red as they give the sauce a better colour.

You'll Need:

2kg Rapadura*

1.2 litres apple cider vinegar

300-500 grams fresh seeded chillis. If you like it really hot use 500g and leave some of the seeds in.

100 grams garlic

100 grams fresh root ginger.

1 teaspoon salt.

Method:

Grate the ginger, chop the garlic and add to the prepared chillies. Put in a pot with the other ingredients and bring to the boil. Cook on a slow boil until the sauce is syrupy, about an hour and then blend with a Bamix (stick blender). Pour into your cleaned prepared bottles. Makes about 7 bottles

The sauce thickens slightly on cooling so allow for this. 

*Rapadura is available from all good health food shops and online stores (Bulk Whole Foods is a good source).
It is simply the juice from sugar cane dried out. It's also usually organic. It's much healthier than White sugar, retaining many of it's vitamins and minerals that other sugar loses in processing. You can of course substitute White sugar, your sauce just won't be as dark.

In My Kitchen ~ June 2014

There is always heaps going on in our kitchen, as we grind our own flour, grow our own meat (aside form pork, which we are lucky enough to be able to purchase from a local free range pastured pig farm) and make almost everything from scratch. Lately I've been determined to capture it more often and share more of our kitchen happenings here, so I couldn't think of a better way than to join Celia and a host of other bloggers in the monthly kitchen tour at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial. Make sure you pop over and enjoy a peek into everyone else's kitchen too.

In my kitchen is....

A large batch of meat pies cooling. Made with our organically grown home-beef and shop bought puff pastry. I wrote mostly from scratch above as we still purchase some things, such as this pastry. I'm not brave enough to attempt making puff pastry, especially with home ground flour! 

This time around we made about 32 individual pies. Out of this we had dinner and lunch the next days, still leaving lots to go into the freezer. Now when we're short of time one evening all that has to happen is heat up some pies in the oven and steam some greens to go with it!

A friend gave some chillies to Mum and she made a beautiful sauce from them. It tastes so good! I plan on posting the recipe soon :-)

Baked beans with pork is a perfect easy dinner on a cold night. It tastes even better enjoyed in front of the fire! 

It's so nice to be able to eat food from our own garden again! We've been enjoying lettuce for a while now but we got to harvest the first of the winter vege the other night. It was simply steamed with a little butter and it was oh-so-yummy!

Killed that morning, into the pan that evening. Poultry is a treat in our house, and one that is always relished with delight. This particular night we crumbed the breast and had it with the steamed greens above and some mashed potatoes. The rest of the meat is in the freezer.

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What's been happening in your kitchen lately? Are you an all-the-time baker or a weekender?
Hope you're having a good Sunday!

Sarah x