Cooking

Hello!
How is your 2021 progressing so far?
Things are just rolling along here, lots of things to do in the kitchen. Like cook a million plums

I have de-pipped and moolied them and made some into plum/raspberry jam (and I tried that this morning and was really happy about it!)
I also made some plum/raspberry fruit leather… although I popped it back into the dehydrator as it was a bit sticky still. I did put a little sugar into it… and the taste is good… a bit sour and sweet at the same time!

Also made some straight raspberry jam, which has also been taste tested 🙂

I picked a heap of basil.. hopefully the trimming will make the plants bush out and produce a lot more leaves.
I wanted to make pesto of course… baked the garlic.. then discovered I had forgotten I needed parmesan cheese.
Couldn’t dash into town because the car went doo-lally on us the other day and it was taken into the mechanics.
There was only one mechanic in the district open.. apparently everyone else takes extended holidays at this time of year!
It was ready today but they were so flat out there was no-one available to drive it out to us.
Being a one car family… I had to walk into town to get it.

The walk down the side of the highway isn’t great, but the walk through town, stickybeaking at peoples front yards and gardens was nice!!
Anyway, got the car, got the cheese, back home to some cooking

Looking forward to having this in a meal! (I like making chicken, pesto, pasta)
Maybe even with a side salad??

I have started dehydrating some strawberries.
Oh they are so good like that. I am trying not to eat them though.
They make a wonderful addition to trail mix or in home made muesli bars

I did get into the garden yesterday… to sort out this poor tomato patch.
There were 6 tomatoes planted… but my compost produced a ton more!
I literally had to weed out tomatoes!
I put a post on the local noticeboard for anyone to come get the plants but.. surprisingly no takers…
Will have to try again and do the word FREE bigger 🙂

Hopefully they now flourish.

I squeezed in making a loaf of Wasabi Fragranced soap.
I think there is a local market in February… so if I want more stuff cured in time I need to make a couple more batches. Just hard to fit it into the kitchen schedule right now.
There is only so much washing up one wants to do…

There’s my handsome blue-eyed boy!!
Currently curled up on my lap.
He is being a bit of a snot-head at night at the moment.
He knows when I am fixing his food and about to put him into the laundry for the night and he hides under the couch… its a really awkward spot to get to. I have to lie down on the floor behind the couch and try to reach him… usually means grabbing an extremity and carefully trying to drag him out without hurting him until I can get a better hold.
He goes like a limp tea bag and is extremely unhelpful about the whole situation – apart from purring his head off!
Last night I shut him in the bathroom while I sorted his food and bed out so I didn’t have to go through the whole ordeal!!
Pest! (Lucky I love him)

Ok… thats all from my end of the world
Hope you are all doing fine and keeping healthy!
Cheers

(The ‘look’ I get when I’ve taken too many photos)