Around the home: update

The granola is in the oven cooking, can you smell the apple sauce, maple syrup, honey and spices.  The whole house has that lovely aroma wafting through it!  Whilst it is baking (and I need to check on it every 15 mins) I thought I would do a "around the home" update. 


Last week I finished the bottle of rosemary and garlic oil that I had made, so today I have made a new bottle.  It was very successful and added a little extra flavour to the dishes I used it in.  When I had finished the oil, I removed the garlic and added it to the roast potatoes I was making that night and it was YUMMY!
While I was cutting up garlic, I thought I would do a few more and made a jar of garlic and peppercorns.  I didn't quite have enough garlic to fill the jar, I will get some more this week. This jar will be useful if I run low on fresh garlic and they are great to throw into roast potato or into soups. 

As part of "jazzing up" my boring laundry, I found a company in the US (on eBay - link) that sells all sorts of wording to stick on doors and walls. I thought this was fun for my laundry door! I would love to buy more of these "word stickers" but I might run out of places to put them!!


Over the past few weeks I have bought a few cookbooks.  The two on jams, chutneys and preserves are so I can learn more about making my own. They are both full of ideas and I am eager to try out some of the recipes as soon as the fruit are in season. My son asked me to buy the Mexican cookbook as he said "I wasn't very good at Mexican cooking" - good when kids are honest!!  The Christmas miniatures is full of yummy things to eat - all year round!!


I also buy some very boring things that need to be bought!
With all this rain I have a big problem with snails and caterpillars - these should help me tackled the problem. And with so much rain (not complaining) I need to fertilize the veggies - which, by the way, are doing very well.  The pansies from winter have all been removed and I have planted the marigolds (below) and surrounded them with lots of snail bait.  I have also planted some baby beets,  2 common mint plants (so I can make mint jelly in a few months) and 2 varieties of chilli.  Hopefully I get enough chillies to bottle some like I have done with the garlic.

The garden is looking very lush at the moment after the rain - its a bit of a jungle!

I better finish off now and look at the granola. It smells like it is done. Time to add the remaining ingredients.
PS All done . . . if only you could smell the cheese crackers or join me in eating some. . . time to put up the feet and relax . . . maybe have a cup of tea.

~oOo~

Comments

  1. Your cooking endeavours sound like lots of fun - looking forward to hearing how your jams turn out!
    The word stickers are cool - I saw some another blogger put in their house just recently, too!!
    Your garden is doing well - I need to get out there and do some work in ours too. The slugs and snails aren't bothering with ours at the moment, but we have SO many other insects out there lately (including a large variety of caterpillars eating holes in our plants)!

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  2. I will be right over, the granola and crackers look very inviting. your Garden is very lush and beautiful.
    Thank you for sharing your day. It is inspiring to see what others are doing. I might think about getting out of bed now and starting my day. Well it is only 7.30 here.
    Thank you for popping by my site I love reading your comments. for the monent I am just planning on painting the plaster cast. I would love to put it out in my garden but I don't know if It will stand getting wet even after I have painted and sealed it. I guess there is only one way to find out..
    and that's to do it and wait and see.
    Blessings to you
    NEll

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  3. What a great post..I was just given come garlic, so I must do this. As for the vinyl letters...well they are on my photo wall and I have so enjoyed them...yours are great

    Fun and informative post...so enjoyed

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  4. Your invitation is so warm and friendly....if only you lived next door I'd be over In a jiffy:)

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  5. Joyfulmum - I will put the kettle on. I rarely get the opportunity to share tea with other Christain ladies, it is something I really miss.

    Sadly I wouldn't be able to offer you any of those cheese crackers. My eldest son came to visit tonight and found them so yummy he eat almost all:). Now my dear husband would like some more made as there isn't enough for him.

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  6. I like seeing the pictures of the things you are doing around your house. Your garden is quite lush! Right now we are covered in a blanket of snow.

    Blessings, Friend,
    Mrs. Q

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  7. For a moment I completely forgot that you lived in Australia and I was wondering where you were that was so green and lush still! Even in So Cal, we are looking pretty wintery.

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