Flowering broad beans

Ramblings about nothing in particular #openslather

I'm sitting here wondering what the heck am I going to write about for Open Slather, I have zilcho pilcho. So I'm just going to ramble.

My sister turned 40 on Saturday, which means we are the same age for three weeks. Yes I have a birthday soon. Is 41 considered to be teetering on the top of the hill? Or is 41 the new 25. I'm gunning for the latter.

I've started walking, and have been three times in the last week. Feel free to roll your eyes at yet another attempt at me losing weight. It's not the losing bit I suck at, it's the keeping it off. 

A Kirby(extremely expensive vacuum cleaner) rep came on Saturday. If you want to see exactly how dirty your house is, get them to come round and vacuum your mattress and carpets. I was shocked and appalled, my Dyson will now be known as the useless piece of shit.

I was going to post about Daffodils today, but I didn't really like the photos I took, so I didn't. I like photographing my flowers, and sharing them too. If I can get my shite together I'd like to do more of that. 

The weather hasn't been the best for taking photos outside. Yesterday was a gloriously sunny day though, it was awesome to see blue skies and feel the suns warmth, what there was of it. Izzy played at the neighbours and I pushed Summer up the shops, bought her an ice cream and walked home again. Awesome.

I took the girls to the coffee shop early last week, something I haven't done for ages. They loved it, it was a novelty. We nabbed a couch and a coffee table and lounged about, I with a zero coke and the kids had an ice cream. Someone had their thinking cap on when they went with covers for the couches. We'll definitely be doing more coffee shop lounging from now on. I wonder how long I can get away with not 'having' change for the car though. 

Mini grapefruit cheesecakes

My dear old Dad is retired now. He likes to go on short walks a couple of times a day. While on one of his walks he noticed a tree laden with fruit, asking the lady who owned the tree if he could pick some, he hurried home to get his wheelbarrow.

He was proud of punch when Mum came home, "Look at all these big lemons I got". Mum had a look, only to shake her head and wonder what she was going to do with all those grapefruit.

Mum googled and started the grapefruit diet, I took one home out of curiosity, I always like to try new things. It sat on my kitchen bench, and probably would have perished. 

Good thing I came across a cute little cheesecake recipe in an old magazine, and I didn't mind eating the rest here and there. It's actually not too bad in small doses. 

The original recipe used lemon rind and juice, and you could substitute that instead of the grapefruit I used.
I used a 6 large muffin tin and about 8 spaces of a smaller 12 muffin tin, with large muffin cases. 

A packet of gingernut biscuits
85 gram pkt lemon jelly crystals
1 teaspoon grapefruit rind and 2 tablespoons juice
250 grams cream cheese
2 tablespoons caster sugar

Place a biscuit in the bottom of the muffin cases.
Combine 2 tablespoons of the jelly crystals with a quarter cup of boiling water, mix in rind and juice and sit in the fridge to cool.

Beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Gradually add the lemon jelly, rind and juice mix, beating well between each addition until smooth and thick. 

Spoon over biscuit bases and smooth tops. Refrigerate for at least two hours or overnight. 

Hot tip: Be careful not to separate the cream cheese mix from the muffin cases around the edges as the jelly will not set on the top, it will seep through to the bottom of case.

Mix remaining jelly crystals with 2/3 cup of boiling water, and place in fridge. When cool, pour over cheesecakes and let set for at least 30 minutes.

There may be not enough jelly to do them all, I decorated some with grated chocolate or strawberries. 

Sculptures of Beachport SA

A sculpture

My place in time #32

I took the kids for a drive to Beachport, Tuesday of last week. I needed a drive, or needed to strap the kids in their seats, turn on the radio and just drive. It always seems to do the trick. 

We spent an hour at the playground, luckily it didn't rain, but it was windy as, so we didn't worry about taking our buckets to the beach. A stroll down the beach, digging, collecting; would have been awesome. Next time. 

It's been awhile since we've been in Beachport. I spotted a sculpture tied to a couple of posts out the front of Bompas, one of the fine local establishments. I'm not sure how long it's been here, maybe I have seen her before and hadn't really taken too much notice. 

She looks right at home, carefree, riding her bike along the foreshore streets of the sleepy seaside town. She could also just as well fit in when Beachport is bursting at the seems with holiday makers, bringing their bikes on the back of vans and cars for leisurely rides on sunny days.

'My place in time' is a local history project started by Blackcurrant photography

Crostoli

What do you do with leftover pasta dough? We make crustoli. Well, we do now. 

I remember these from my childhood, Mum used to make them quite a bit. I had no idea how until recently, I mentioned to her I had some spare dough after making ravioli. You could make crostoli, she said, it's just made with flour and egg anyway.

Mum never made homemade pasta, but she had a lot of Italian friends who probably let her in on how to make crostoli. Us kids loved them and they never lasted long, there was five of us! 

It's very simple, there are lots of involved recipes on the net, and you could go looking. I just used my leftover pasta dough, which is 100 grams of flour to 1 whole egg and mixed to a dough. 

For the amount of pasta in the picture, enough for a lasagne, and two strips on the bench,  I used 300 grams and 3 eggs, a pinch of salt and a bit of olive oil if it is a bit dry coming together. Knead until smooth and let it sit for about 20 minutes.

Roll the dough in the pasta machine, then cut into about 15 cm lengths and cut small slits along the middle of the strip.

Deep fry* until lightly golden, drain on paper, then dust with icing sugar. 

Bobs your uncle (fanny's your aunt). 

If I made it again, I would maybe not machine the dough so thin(mine were the thinnest setting), I was making lasagne sheets. 

*When I say deep fry, I used a deep fry pan with about a centimetre of two of oil in it.

Stuff with Dad