And From Elizabeth in Appreciation

An epic shout out to my awesome family, friends and even the random strangers who have bent over backwards, in hell and high waters, to help me this last week.

I was just downstairs watching my big brother pressure cleaning my now empty garage…nearly $500 on a skip and 10hrs of labour later (unofficially, he's officially my favourite brother; just keep it on the down low, I don't need my other bro hearing about it)…

My Mum whom I almost drowned and sent home wearing a towel over the weekend…the Olivers (half of whom I almost drowned) whom have a bright future in furniture, toy and bike delivery (great rates too)…my incredibly generous Grandparents whom have a bright future in bunk bed assembly…Bree who may or may not have gone to work this arvo looking like my Nubian Cabbage Patch doll after spending all day in my sooty garage…Mandy & Co. for the mattress delivery and giggles (we had a ball camping out that first night)…

I've been totally overwhelmed with everybody's generosity, offers of child sitting (crazy bastards, you know who you are!) and furniture/appliance offers, new bikes, etc, etc. I'm totally feeling the good vibes coming in from Britain, Canada, a drill site somewhere up north, Bunbury, strangers on local FB pages… you're all incredibly, amazingly, unbelievably awesome and I can't ever repay you. And if I've forgotten you, don't feel bad; I can't even remember what day it is at the moment.

Family, nothing more, nothing less

xxx

House Fire and Twitch Pics

What a looong weekend....on Friday morning an electrical fire started in the garage of my daughter's home...it destroyed everything in there but fortunately the car and motor bike were out. Gone are a fridge, beds, the childrens' bikes, a dryer, baby photos, sewing machine, all her husband's tools and his guitar and amp, 3 of Elizabeth's best paintings and lots of other things but no-one was injured so we are very grateful for that. Unfortunately the smoke filled up the garage next door and caused a great of damage to the two valuable cars parked in there and the fireman had to break open the roller door to gain entry to turn off the power...

DD was in the process of moving out and got the keys to her new flat that afternoon so we have the spent a cold weekend moving her into there...family and friends quickly rallied and delivered 4 beds, a fridge and lots of kitchen equipment so we are very grateful for their work. You know who you are.
Even 7 yr old Baxter came over with another bike and some Lego and other toys for Caleb and David.

David is not staying under the bed btw

I'm having a quiet day at home today, baking muffins for Joe and for Elizabeth and my grandsons...I am using my Mum's recipe and my Nana's big spoon...five generations of love in that bowl and that makes me happy. 12 muffins are mixed berry and 12 are date and pear...Mum's recipe is here but these days I use 1/3 cup of apple puree/sauce instead of the oil. I put chocolate drops on the top of the second batch but they burned...learn something new every day!

Chilli sauce guaranteed to put hairs on your chest!

Our neighbour's pawpaws/papaya are huge now and this is only one of her 6 trees...she grew them all from the seeds of a pawpaw she bought locally...

I finished a knitted bunny in the Fremantle Dockers football colours for some-one who loves rabbits and the Dockers ;)

Yesterday evening I glanced outside and saw Twitch sitting in the mint planter so that he could reach the chilli bush...he was eating it's leaves! Joe grabbed the camera and took these lovely photos and Twitch made my day with his cuteness...

 He looks like a toy when he stands on his hind legs...it's called periscoping and rabbits often do that to see better or to reach tasty treats as in this case :) He's very cheeky and you can see he's fully recovered from EC illness he had recently.

Time to wash my baking dishes now, hope all is well in your neck of the woods,
Love from Sue
xx

Khoresh Bademjan or Spicy Eggplant in the Slow-cooker!

This was so very good that I didn't remember to take a photo until later on in the evening!

Khoresh Bademjan

Rinku at the Spice Chronicles had made Alu Gobi(spicy cauli and spuds) in her slow cooker and mentioned cooking this eggplant dish in it as well...so I tried it on Saturday and was thrilled with the result and the other bonus is that eggplant are in season now and quite inexpensive...here is my adaptation of her recipe

One large eggplant/aubergine peeled and chopped into 2 cm squares, it weighed about a kilo
1 tablespoon of oil
1 finely chopped onion
4 crushed cloves of garlic
1/4 cup tomato paste and a large cup of boiling water
1 teaspoon each of cumin and turmeric
3/4 teaspoon of salt(there is no need to salt the eggplant beforehand)
1/2 teaspoon each of cinnamon, paprika and pepper

I put the hot water, tomato paste and spices in the cooker first and blended them together with a spoon
Add the vegetables and stir well.
Cook until tender which was about 2 1/2 hours on High/Auto and stir 2-3 times to coat the eggplant in the sauce.
Add some frozen peas/corn/beans after an hour if you like.

That's it...sooooo easy! Served with a dollop of plain yoghurt, rice or naan bread and some Indian style pickles it was wonderful.

Today I am going to try the Alu Gobi recipe and my other recent success in the kitchen was Jamie Oliver's Happy Fish Pie without the fish tail. I used shark fillets and had sour cream instead of the cream and lemon juice...another very easy recipe as it's made without a white sauce...the three photos I took were spectacularly bad even for me...sorry :/

Yesterday I made 3 big jars of mandarin orange marmalade for the pantry, it's much tastier than using regular oranges.

On Sunday we had some fun news...my photo of Twitch won a prize in a local pet photo competition run by KiraJay at Phone a Mum The pic was taken when he was quite unwell recently so is extra special to me; not surprisingly he was the only rabbit entered with lots of cats and dogs and one lion(I think they were pulling our legs!)

We had a rather wild storm 2 nights ago with several planters being knocked over by the wind...it was refreshingly cold enough for woollies yesterday, I need to go and get some kale and silverbeet seedlings later today. Terry next door has planted lots of turnips, parsnips and carrots so we'll have a good variety....he's 80 yrs old and was joking about growing enough in his tiny garden to sell to Woolworths!

Hope you are keeping warm or enjoying Spring days where-ever you might be,
Love from Sue
xxx