Winter is here

Winter has come.  Depending on the weather it can be a balmy 20 degrees outside if the sun is shining, then down to low double digits or less if there's been overnight rain and the cloud is hanging about.  I've been working every second weekend and this weekend was my weekend off.  A chance to catch up on general house stuff, get back to the blog and into the kitchen.  As luck would have it, the weather was both sunny and warm and overcast and cool which meant perfect opportunities to get the outside and inside work done; even if it did rain just after we hung out the washing.

The chooks were well and truly due for a good clean out.  The Isas are so greedy they were even interested in the bucket of their own excrement!  Silly chooks.  They have been finding various hidey-holes in the grass for their eggs.  We were wondering if they'd stopped for winter - rather suspiciously all at once - until hubby found their secret stash of 13 eggs mid this week.  I try to leave an egg in one of the nest boxes but only one or two of them seem to understand.

While on the topic of chooks I have some sad news - It's been 8 days since my little cluck monster passed away.  I went out to feed the girls last Friday morning to find her lying on the grass.  She had no marks on her and not a single feather out of place which means I'm still at a loss to say exactly how she died - it may have been old age or perhaps lack of food coming into winter due to the bullying of the new chooks.  My main regret is that she never got to be a mummy chook.  RIP little Goldilocks, AKA cluck monster, fluffy pyjama feet, Little One, or as the neighbour's called her Mo.

Winter heralds the onslaught of the Colliwats; the first of which was picked today.  We were lining up for at least 20 of them until the Isas virtually demolished any of the vine that was remaining on their side of the fence.  Weighing in neatly at 4.5kg, this pumpkin is the biggest and first of the glut salvaged from destructive beaks.

Shortly after the pumpkin rescue the skies clouded over and rain was threatening to drench the newly hung out washing; which in due course it did.  Time to head inside and make even more of a mess of the kitchen.  I started with home made muesli bars.  You'll realise how much of rip off the shop bought ones are when you make your own, and also that they're probably not really all that healthy for you despite what the ads say.  In any case they are quick to make and a good pick me up if you need that sugar hit at work.  You can change the ingredients easily to accommodate your tastes or to suit what you have available in the cupboard.  These are raisin, mixed nuts, sesame and sunflower seed.  Dried apricot and coconut is also nice and I usually add pepitas but had run out this time.  I also use a little less butter than the recipe asks for (100 instead of 125g).  You can find the recipe here: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/1457/homemade+muesli+bars  Do you make your own muesli bars?  I'd love to know what variations you use.  I'm keen to try cranberry and white chocolate some time.

Homemade muesli bars

Continuing my kitchen day I started a sourdough loaf of cinnamon and raisin toast.  For some reason I've been craving it all weekend.  It's possibly due to going a whole week without bread because I didn't have the time to make any last weekend.  It's funny that I've had raisins sitting in the cupboard for months and yet I've nearly used them all up in one weekend.

Sourdough raisin bread

The dough doesn't rise all that well on the bench in winter so keeping it next to the laptop air vent or in our lap does the trick!  You can probably tell hubby is helping out with this one today.  No doubt he'll ask for his dues once the loaf is done cooking.

While the dough was proofing it was time to try out one of Mel Kettle's recipes.  I'd been waiting months to find some tiny unopened button mushrooms and the time to put my mind to making this one.  I finally found some perfect sized mushrooms at the Rocklea markets yesterday and at $4.99 a kilo I was in there like a shot stuffing my reused paper bag to the brim.

This recipe combines so many my favourite things: mushrooms, lemon, vinegar, garlic, good quality olive oil and herbs fresh from the garden.  I can't wait until they're ready.

Lemon, thyme and garlic marinated mushrooms

When it's wet outside you have to bring the garden inside so I spent a bit of time preparing these asparagus seeds - some for the new place and some to give away at the next crop swap.  I know most people grow from crowns but the seeds germinate readily and mature fairly quickly.  I have a few tiny plants at the bottom of the ramp when I spilled some berries last season - read left them out so long they got knocked over into the gravel and rained on .  Please note the red berries are poisonous so if you have little ones make sure they don't pop them in their mouths.

Seeds - Aspargus "Mary Washington"

Now to tackle the mountain of dishes...

  

The cluck monster cometh

I go out to feed the chooks in the morning and perform the usual headcount 2,3...Where's number 4? As sense of dread fills me as I head over to the smaller cage and peer in through the window.  A shrill cry greets my intrusion, followed closely by tut-tutting as if I have broken the cardinal rule of chickens.  Opening the window to the nesting area, a beady eye glares at me from the back of the cage.  This is no chicken - what once was Goldilocks the bantam is now possessed by the daemon Cluck Monster.  As a werewolf is changed by the moon, so this chicken is transformed each cycle; its soft calls become the warning that great evil is afoot, downy feathers stand on end as the beast enlarges ready to strike at any vagrant hand that should dare seek her brood.  She emerges from her den but twice per day to drink the blood of the sky and dine on the hearts of grain.

No strategy works to expel the daemon.  Fortunately for all mankind as the passing of the full moon returns the werewolf to human form, so the bantam is returned to her former self after 11 days.  The curse lifts and following a week of recuperation, she plies this unsuspecting food-giver with 12-13 eggs.  At the end of this the cycle is complete and her goodness has once again been depleted.  The daemon takes hold of her fluffy feet and slightly-larger-than-a-pigeon-sized body once more and the only way to retrieve the precious brood from underneath her is to take a deep breath, summon all reserves of courage and, well, simply pick her up and move her actually.