Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve!

I tried some Christmas lights bokeh last week. I think it turned out pretty well.

Merry Christmas from my family to you xx

 

 

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Clothesline antics of a serial day pyjama wearer

This one loves to live in her pyjamas. She only got changed into clothes half an hour before we left for our annual carols in the shearing shed. It's actually the first time we've been. 

She cut her fringe a few weeks ago. According to her she didn't. Apparently it was my fault, I'd cut it while trying to tidy up the hack job she did.

Summer won the values award for her class at the end of the year. It was a lovely surprise, it makes the occasional meltdowns she has after her school day somehow easier to stomach.

She loves to play outside, you can see the grass worn under the swing set where she plays on the bar. I don't mind her playing on the clothesline, as long as she swings on the inside bars and not the outside!

I took the camera out to her as I am trying to use manual mode more, all these settings are hard to get working all together.

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Broad bean burgers

Broad bean burger with ricotta cheese, avocado, spring onion and parsley. 

I love growing my own veggies. The best part is picking them to use in my kitchen. You would not believe how much better they taste and how better the texture is if you grow them yourself.

Just imagine harvesting a cucumber for example, and two minutes later serving it in a salad. Crunch, flavour and freshness, like you've never experienced before! Shits all over the plastic covered ones from the supermarket.

I recently harvested all of my broad beans. I have five freezer bags full in the freezer. I podded them all and then froze the individual beans. They defrost fine and is a great way to save them for use way after they have finished growing in the garden.

I made these delicious burgers, which I created and ate in several different ways, by changing the ingredients I used with the broad beans.

My hinting of a new food processor for Christmas has hopefully paid off, because I only had my mini processor to make these, which required me to pulse the broad beans in a few batches. There's a largish wrapped box under the tree, fingers crossed it's a new one.

I have taken to buying fresh beetroot and grating it into salads instead of buying it canned. It is lovely roasted too.

My favourite, poached eggs. A Broad bean burger instead of bread. Served up with avocado, spiralised zucchini and grated beetroot. I briefly blanched the zucchini swirls in the poaching water, removing before I cooked the eggs.

This is a basic recipe. I made it using a can of lentils the first time, and used a can of peas and corn the second. Both were good. Drain the canned veg well. With the lentils I used a handful of fresh chopped up coriander instead of ground. Use whatever you have in the pantry. If you don't have pepitas use sunflower seeds, sesame seeds or pine nuts etc. Experiment!


350 grams broad beans
1 can lentils, drained well
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 heaped tablespoon pepitas
80 grams plain flour
1 tablespoon olive oil

In a food processor, pulse broad beans until coarsely ground. Add lentils, spices, salt and pepitas and mix until combined. Stir through flour.

Shape into five patties, about 1cm thick. Place on a plate lined with greaseproof paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Heat oil in a large pan on medium heat. Add patties and fry about 7 minutes each side, until golden brown and cooked through. Serve in burgers or how ever you like. 

They are quite delicious.

Fair enough I could only fit four in my pan. I froze the uncooked patty wrapped in greaseproof paper, in a freezer bag and used it another time. 

I kept leftover cooked patties in fridge and reheated in the toaster in the morning for poached eggs. Worked a treat, a broad bean burger pop tart! As I am desperately trying to cut down on bread, particularly my beloved slices of sourdough bread at breakfast with eggs, these were awesome as a replacement.

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December (already!) garden

The first of December came with the thermometer in the high twenties and an afternoon thunderstorm, with loads of rain. 

It was a slow weekend, one I absolutely needed and have been longing for.

Two weeks of the school term left for this year, and six wonderful weeks of sleeping in! Yay! 

Lots of colour in the garden, along with all sorts of bug life. I unknowingly captured a couple mini beasts, that I didn't see until I edited these photos. Also one human mini beast who protested about me shooting in her direction.

I love the changing seasons in the garden, always something to enjoy.

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2018 Mount Gambier christmas pageant

This is one of my favourite days of the year. It means Christmas is ON like Donkey Kong. 

We traditionally put up our Christmas tree this weekend, not a day before!

I get just as excited as the kids do. Probably more so, as I wave back a the happy smiling people on the floats. The pageant has such a fantastic cheery, friendly atmosphere. How can anyone not feel good here?!

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