Around here - School Holidays

Around here we have had the first week of the school holidays and it was great to have a break from the routines of ironing uniforms and getting the kids off to school each day with school lunches.  We went on a BBQ, a day trip to Bribie, played cards and board games, got new chickens, went to the farmers markets, we have Billy the dog and Ziggy the bird having a stay-cation at our place while my friend and sister are away on holidays.  Here's a few pics from our week.

We went for a BBQ at Lake Samsonvale.

Having fun in the outdoors.

We do simple BBQ's sausages, onion, bread rolls and sauce.

Playing with the frisbee toy.

Sienna's new wall hanging she made with a bunch of plastic flowers, fishing line and a twig.

Saturday night board games.

Beautiful day at Bribie Island.

My teenager at Bribie.

My other teenager at Bribie.

Home made ice cream and home made waffles...delicious.

We went to the NASA exhibition at the Queensland Museum.  It's here for 6 months and Brisbane is the only place in Australia it is being held.

At the Discovery Centre at the Queensland Museum...a Bilby which is very appropriate it's Easter.  This exhibition of stuffed Australian animals is amazing and free to see.

Billy enjoying hanging with Sienna.

Looking forward to growing these Billy Button flowers.  You pop the seeds on the top of the surface as they need sunlight to grow.

My home grown tomatoes I took off the vine after a possum ate 2 of them so ripening them inside.

We got 3 new chickens on Sunday after having them for 8 years we had a year off after the last one died.  Meet Poppy [the black one] Ginger and Nemo.

I also made sure I had an enclosure for them as I was sick of having chicken poo all over my entertainment area and trying to keep them out of the veggie garden. This fence is 1.5 mtrs high so they have a nice area to free range during the day.

Around here - Recipes

Around here it's School Holidays and the Autumn weather is so beautiful.  It's my favourite time of the year, that and Spring where it's a little cool in the mornings and evenings and beautiful days of 25-28 degrees.  Where we live we don't really get big seasonal changes like Autumn trees [only one in our neighbourhood on the main road] but the weather is glorious at this time of the year.

Given the kids are home for school holidays I thought I would do a round up of some recipes that will come in handy.

Home made biscuits that will fill your freezer.  I made this recipe 2 weeks ago and put half in the freezer and bakked the other half the recipe.  I use a sheet of alfoil and then place a piece of baking paper on top and then flatten the dough into a rectangle and fold it up like a parcel then put it in a big zip lock back with the instructions for the oven and cooking time on the front.  That way you only make one mess in the kitchen with the bowls and when you want to make another batch of biscuites just thaw it out and cook them.  You can put any thing on top, chocolate chips, sprinkles or make jam drops which I did all three last time.  I then put them in containers in the freezer for school lunches and afternoon tea.

The easiest bread roll recipe to make for lunches. They are soft like a Bakers Delight Bap roll.  Just start 3 hours before you want to eat them.

If you want to whip up some Rustic Olive Oil Crackers to have with some dip these are super quick, super easy and super cheap and if you stick them all in a glass jar standing up on your platter they also look super fancy.

These Raspberry Lemon Muffins are amazing and super easy.

These home made Dumplings we first made in 2014 are amazing.  This is usually a holiday treat we make together and enjoy.   This recipe is from Celia's blog and she is the Sourdough baking queen also.  We have already decided we are making these next week.  Don't you love how little my kids were when we first made these....the next morning the kids marched around the kitchen with home made signs demanding we have them for breakfast because they were so good. They made signs and everything.  I still remember them doing it now and it makes me laugh.  Such good memories.

This Chicken & Leek Pie recipe mixture can also be used in crepes as well.  You can make a large family pie or individual pies.  You can also add frozen peas and carrots or corn to the recipe to make it a chicken and veggie pie recipe.  This recipe is super simple and delicious.

Home made pizza base recipe.

One thing I try to do when I link to recipes on other people's blogs is write them out on here too because I often refer to this blog for recipes.  Unfortunately as some of my older posts only has the link to the blog which no longer exists means some of my links don't have recipes anymore.  That's why I love writing them out here so I have them forever.

I hope you try a few of these recipes over the school holidays as we will be doing so.

In light of my renewed excitement in the veggie patch I got out our photo book from 2010 at our previous house where I started with two square patches.  We had an abundance of food from those two little patches and my first time having a go at growing veggies.  Sienna used to walk out into the garden and pick her lettuce leaves for her sandwiches for kindy.  She loved grated carrot, lettuce and I think from memory jam.  This was Easter 2010 and that little garden brought me so much joy.

Around here - Seeds & Veggie Garden Update

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago sharing my efforts with growing my veggies from seed for the first time and it's been great fun. My dwarf beans are now planted out in the veggie garden with the corn.  The butternut pumpkin is still in my seed trays as I'm not sure where to plant these.  I also grew some extra beans and pumpkin seeds and took the seedlings over to my friend's place for her garden.  It has proved to be good timing because we've had rain over the past week so everything is thriving.

My late corn is going well and the iceberg lettuce is finished so I've planted out my favourite butterhead lettuce now.  I've also planted 4 capsicums and a new rosemary bush and really enjoying getting into the garden now it's not so hot.

For the first time in many years I've actually planted some dwarf sweet peas.  Every year since we have been here [8 years] I buy the seeds and then never plant them so this year I finally did it.  I bought a little veggie box from Aldi to grow them in and after I grew the seedsthe I planted them in the little veggie box.  I can't wait to have some pretty flowers to put in a vase.  When we were kids I remember my Mother planting sweet peas every year against a big trellis and we had heaps of beautiful flowers.  Here's some photos of my garden.

These are the dwaft beans I grew from seed and ready to be planted in the garden.

I love watching the plant sprout from the bean seed...so much fun.

New rosemary plant now in the garden.

I planted the dwarf beans around the edge of the corn stalks and they have tripled in size in week.

The corn bed.

My one tomato bush is going well in the pot.

Corn is thriving and I saw 8 bees the other day at the top of the stalks so that was a good sign.

The two new colourbond veggie boxes are going well. The oregano in the left bed is going crazy.

View from the back of the yard.

Beans growing well.

This is the little Aldi veggie box I planted out my dwarf sweet peas in.

Everything is green from the recent rains we have had.

The lettuce has gone to seed and I have been giving it to my friend for her chickens.

Corn husks.