Author Archives: thisgirlinmotion

May10

52 Shades of My Veggie Patch: Week 36

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Autumn 2013

tomatoesweek36

The  veggie patch is 70% wastelands at the moment as I pulled up the dead and finished capsicum, tomato, zucchini and (forgotten) bean plants. It is all part of the rebuild the garden plan. A bit depressing in the meantime, though. All bare.

I got about 3kg of tomatoes off the plants (left some particularly hard green ones on the plants to go to waste). They will be made into Green Tomato Chutney as per Stephanie Alexander’s recipe.

tomvarieteiesThe tomatoes really were a raging success this year. Sure, some more so than others, but overall I couldn’t be happier. My plant selection was pretty good: Principe Borghese, Health Kick, Reggae Roma, Green Zebra and Beams Yellow Pear. The winner was the pear. Both for taste and yield. The green zebra tasted great, but my plant was a bit stunted so I got tiny tomatoes and not many of them!! The borghese were also really delicious. The health kick tasted good, but I didn’t get a whole heap. Same with the Reggae Roma. This is all in comparison to how many I got from the pear. I’m not sure if it is because the reggae roma and health kick were in pots or if that is just how much larger varieties yield.

Next year I am going to plant different large ones. Maybe those ones that are all kind of bumpy (obviously, some research needed).

week36

 

May3

52 Shades of My Veggie Patch: Week 35

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Autumn 2013

I haven’t actually been out in my vegie patch this week. I’ve been rotten sick and hating every second of it.

It did however give me some time to look for inspirational garden design pictures for when we re-do the vege garden. It sort of solidified my thoughts on needing a bigger space, but I’m not going to move the patch to a completely different spot. Instead I need to work on finding a new solution for the clothes line. At the moment I have a Hill’s Hoist which takes up a lot of space that could otherwise be garden. I need to look into getting one of those retractable lines and attaching it to the shed….some how.

Here are some picture I found. I like the idea of garden beds with tall posts on the corners to accommodate netting and trellis. My tomatoes were an absolute mess of netting and wobbly stick this year. I want something stable and reliable (said every girl ever).

8-vegetable-garden-lrg   AJ505952 Small-Vegetable-Garden-Design-337x450   sfg

Apr29

Vegan Mud Cake….it’s a TARDIS! – Monday Made

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“Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey.”~The Doctor

Had a big party on the weekend. Made a big cake for it that kind of speaks for itself. It was vegan. It was delicious. It was bigger on the inside.

TARDIScake-1   TARDIScake-2   TARDIScake-3

TARDIScake-4   TARDIScake-5   TARDIScake-6

TARDIScake-1371   TARDIScake-1347  TARDIScake-7

I used a 30cm square tin and did a triple batch of the recipe, cooked it for 1 hour 50 minutes at 150deg fan forced. I wrapped up my tin in a couple of brown paper layers so the edges wouldn’t dry out. Cut it into quarters, stacked it up using plenty of peanut butter icing as glue and then set to work on the fondant….

For just a regular everyday cake, I make this recipe in a 22cm round tin as follows:

What you need:

  • 2 cups plain flour (could try GF flour….)
  • 2/3 cup cocoa powder (good, heavy dense stuff….I wish I’d weighed mine to give a more accurate measurement)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons bi-carb soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ cups raw sugar
  • 1 ½ cups rice milk (or espresso)
  • ½ lemon, juiced
  • ½ cup vegetable oil (I don’t really recommend olive oil unless you REALLY like that taste)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla pod)

What to do:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees fan forced (165, normal). Line a 22cm round tin with paper.
  2. Sift all the dry ingredients, except sugar, together in a mixing bowl. Add wet ingredients and mix until well combined. You can do this by hand or on a medium speed in an electric mixer.
  3. Pour mixture into tin and bake for 50-60 minutes. Do not open the oven before 45 minutes. I usually wait until the cake pulls away from the side a bit or doesn’t stay completely sunk when you push the top. It will not “spring back” because it does not contain a lot of rising agent. Waiting for it to do so will lead to over cooking. ICK!
  4. I like my chocolate cake with a bit of peanut butter icing on top. I talk about how to make that in general terms here at the very last point in the “what to do’s”. It is not an exact science. Make it to your own taste. For something a little more grown up, try a coffee icing…….