Spiced Chocolate Courgette Cake and a Natural Tooth Whitener

We've got neighbours coming over for dinner tonight and I want to cook using ingredients from our garden. Sounds good? But they all have gardens too, and I'm thinking, how do I do this so that they don't go oh no, not beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes and basil again!
So I have made an aubergine (home grown) dish, layered with a refried bean/ tomato/ onion mix, interspersed with sour cream and grated cheese, and a little pesto thrown in for good luck.

layered aubergine dish

After kebabs and lamb chops from the barbecue, green salad, baked layered potato/cream/cheese/onion and cucumber raita, I will be serving this chocolate courgette cake (sneaky eh?), but instead of icing there will be stewed apples and custard. 

Spiced chocolate courgette cake

This was my sample piece to make sure it was edible - it passed with flying colours.

Spiced Chocolate Courgette Cake

250g butter
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1/2 cup light olive oil
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa
2 tsp chinese five spice powder or mixed spice
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 courgettes, grated ( 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup unsweetened plain yoghurt

Beat the butter and sugar and oil together until thick and creamy. Beat in the eggs.
Sift the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, and fold in with the yoghurt and courgettes.
Turn into a well greased and lined 23cm cake tin. Bake at 180c for approx 1 hour until cooked.
If you wish to add chocolate glaze, wait until the cake is cool.
Chocolate Glaze
2oog dark chocolate
3/4 cup of cream
Melt together the chocolate and cream in the microwave on high for 2 minutes. Stir until smooth.



Tumeric tooth whitener

In a recent post from a blog I follow quateracrelifestyle there was a post about using tumeric as a tooth whitener, which I had never heard of before but was interested to try. I've only tried it once and there wasn't a noticeable difference, but I think it takes longer than that, so I plan to try it for a while off and on.
 Anyway it wasn't too unpalatable, although we are advised to use an old toothbrush, protect surfaces and use an old facecloth or suchlike to catch drips as it stains whatever it lands on.
Mix 3/4 teaspoon of tumeric powder with a little water and brush teeth for 1 minute, after which rinse and clean teeth as usual.

A Bedroom Revamp

We have Derek's 12 year old daughter coming to live with us and we thought we would surprise her with a spruce up of her room.
The only input she's had was a mention of her favourite colour aqua. Normally I wouldn't consider doing this for an almost teenager without more of her input, but Katie is easy to please, and we are pretty sure she will be delighted.

Spruced up room waiting for the occupant's finishing touches

There's no before photo, because honestly it was so overloaded with everybody's stuff that I didn't want to take one.
We have been busy for days with painting and making curtains and looking for the right shelves and mirror.
Most of the things in there we already had, some got a little paint up. We tried to find what we could second hand, but had to resort to new for some of it.
The dear little desk we found on Trademe - all painted up like that.
I've made the lined curtains, which was a mission for me as I can't do anything in a straight line. They might not win any prizes but they look ok.
Thank goodness for tutorials on the internet.

A Summer's Day and Keeping it Great

There is nothing like a New Zealand Summer - blue skies and gentle breezes.
I don't mean to sound boasty, but we don't go away for a holiday in Summer because it is just perfect where we are. 
Today we took the boat across the road to the river, and within 15 minutes were at this beach - which has no public road access.

New Zealand Summer,the beach 15 minutes from home

We spent the day driftwood gathering, reading in the shade and having a picnic lunch. Divine!
That's me under the huge old Pohutukawa tree.

Pohutukawa tree, New Zealand

We picked up a bit of rubbish while we were there. There was quite a lot of pumice so that came back too for me to make more pumice totems (see in an earlier post)

The beach rubbish pick up

We met a young man on the beach when we arrived...shame I didn't ask for a photo, but not the done thing. He was of Maori descent, on his family land for a holiday with his two gorgeous children. He was in nice shape, with plentiful tattoos and a turret shell through each earlobe.
The most remarkable thing about him though was his passion for the land. He was making sure we weren't going to disturb nesting birds, and I loved how he said he taught his children to pick up rubbish off the beach.
We talked about how the fishing and shellfish beds were no longer as good, and his disgust with people who take greedily.
It was a conversation strangely like what I have been reading about in this very interesting book - Confessions of an Eco Sinner by Fred Pearce.
The author traces where his stuff comes from to give their story with an eco slant.

"A T-shirt for instance. Britain imports almost half a billion T-shirts each year. About eight each. They often cost little more than the price of a beer. Yet to make the cotton for the average 250 gram T-shirt requires 80 grams of fertilizer, 3 grams of active ingredient in pesticides, and between 2,000 and 7,000 litres of water, or upwards of 30 bath tubs full. For one T-shirt."
Fred Pearce travels the world and his stories aren't all statistics, they are mostly about the people. Pick this book up if you see it.

Hey Pesto and Toothpowder

Pesto
Experiment! I've found pesto can be made without expensive pinenuts - roasted cashews work well, or what about toasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds. It doesn't have to be olive oil if you have none left, and even different herbs work - although basil is my favourite here, but it could be a mix. 

Big handful of basil
1-2 cloves of garlic (roasted preferably but not essential)
1 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup of lightly roasted nuts - pinenuts or otherwise
pinch of salt

Place them all in the food processor and add 1/2 cup of olive oil slowly with the motor running.
This keeps in the fridge for up to a week, or will freeze, but better without the cheese which can be added later. It's great stirred through pasta.

Home made pesto with crispy french bread crostini bases

This past year I challenged myself not to buy any more dips and pestos or baba ganoush and have not only saved money but not brought home heaps of little plastic containers. Home made is sooo nice.

I've been buying day old french loaves from the supermarket, which is just fine for making these crostini bases. Thinly slice and brush both sides with oil, then bake approx 15 mins at 160c. I can get 2 loaves for $3.00 and it makes lots. They store well in airtight jars. 

Tooth Powder
I'm nearly out of the tooth tabs I bought from "Lush" and decided to have a go at making my own powder. It turned out great - and left my teeth feeling super clean. I made this up from a mix of recipes - just experiment I say. 
This only makes a small sample amount so you can see if you like it. If you find it too strong add more baking soda. 
I just dip my wet toothbrush into it then brush. 

2 teaspoons of Baking Soda
A pinch of stevia powder
2 drops of peppermint essence
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Mix them together and store in a little container.

Home made tooth powder - never buy toothpaste again!

Disappointment in the Garden
This happens. The potatoes died back, but next to no potatoes on them - I don't know why.
The garlic crop has failed for the second year in a row, sigh.
And we are battling with green shield beetles. They have arrived in multitudes and I spend ages squashing the stinky little b#!x*#<. They pierce the beans and corn and suck the life out of plants. If it's not one pest it's another.

immature green shield beetles

On a Brighter Note.
The courgettes and cucumbers and beans are doing well. We are getting tomatoes and aubergines and basil and spring onions. The thornless blackberry has a good crop coming on for the first time, and the possums have left our fruit trees alone. 

Time to Reflect and Plan

I've been having a little blogging break over the holiday time as it has been busy with travel, family and playing sax.
We have been making room for a family member who is moving in. This means that I have gone from originally having a walk in wardrobe to myself, to a double closet to myself, to now sharing that double closet. Time to organize!
We have both removed a lot of clothing (from the wardrobes) and I have just found this blog with great refashioning ideas and uses for unwanted items called The Renegade Seamstress 

I'm looking forward to some creative sewing and posting the results.

New Year Plans
I'm not big on New Year's resolutions - I prefer to set goals, make plans. You might think that is the same thing, but it is different.
 My plans include giving our old caravan a revamp for some extra chill out space, but also to accommodate family and friends when we have a houseful.

This is the before photo

Before - sad looking interior

The caravan is permanently parked in the garden and in great need of work.
I have just seen a gorgeous caravan revamp in the latest copy of NZ Life and Leisure magazine (which I got a sub to for Christmas)

This isn't the one in the magazine, but we would be happy if ours turned out half this good looking.
I will be posting some before and after photos of that too. I hope.

After the recent rain our courgette plants have gone mad, so I'm thinking there will probably be 365 ways with courgettes coming up too.

Pity I don't like cape gooseberries because there are loads of these ripening now, but we do have family members who love them. Cape gooseberries grow like weeds here, and I'm often pulling them out. I love their little fairy lantern cases though.

Cape Gooseberry plant

Cape Gooseberries

I hope you have a Happy New Year and you come back to visit my blog in 2014. I'm going to be seeing the New Year in playing with the band in Paihia.
May 2014 see you making plenty of deposits into the Bank of Life. 
Cheers! 

Keeping strawberries, Gingerbread Men

Christmas in New Zealand means strawberry season.

A handful of fragrance - strawberries and basil

Our strawberries have done really well this year. I wanted to check that I was keeping them the best way possible so looked on this great website www.stilltasty.com which gives the best way to keep all kinds of foods, and for how long. A great idea to reduce food wastage.
So strawberries will keep in the fridge for 2 days, stored single layer, covered and don't wash them first as the extra moisture could cause them to deteriorate.
Corn cobs are also best kept in the fridge with their husks still on for approx 2 days.

Gingerbread Men
I decided today would be a great day to throw on my Kenny Gee Miracles album of Christmas Saxophone Music while there is no one else around to complain...and cook up a storm before Christmas.
I wanted to make some gingerbread men to include in the girls' Christmas Santa sacks
I'm not sure that anyone else would like to tackle making these at this stage of the pre Christmas rush...but I did today and they turned out great.

Gingerbread People

725 g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves (I skipped this as I didn't have any)
225g solid white vegetable shortening. ( I used coconut oil and it worked fine)
225g castor sugar
300g golden syrup
2 eggs, beaten

Into a bowl sieve together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices.
Put the shortening in a pan and melt slowly. Add the sugar and golden syrup and mix until runny.
Pour the fat mixture into the flour and add the eggs.
Mix well together until smooth. Wrap in baking paper until ready to use.
Roll it out between two sheets of baking paper and cut your shapes.
Bake at 180c for approx 8 minutes on fanbake - depending on how thick you have cut your shapes. Thinner = crisper, thicker = chewier texture.
This makes a lot - twice as much as what is shown in my picture, and can be used to make gingerbread houses too.

Royal Icing for piping
175g icing sugar
1 egg white, beaten stiff.

Gradually add in the icing sugar to the beaten egg white until smooth. Consistency should be of soft peaks.
I used an empty icing sugar bag with a tiny hole cut in one corner for piping. 

So Merry Christmas to you. I hope it is a happy occasion at your house. Ours will be a little spread out, with taking several days to catch up with extended family. Hopefully we will dig some new potatoes to go with Christmas dinner...fingers crossed.
Cheers!

Eco Wrap and Gotu Kola

Eco Gift Wrapping
The other day I just popped in to an op shop in the little town of Hikurangi on my way through and was delighted to find a stash of vintage wallpaper - just when I needed it for giftwrapping. 

all this paper for just a $3 donation to a charity

I thought the Christmas presents looked lovely with little added touches from the supply of things I already had.

gifts wrapped in recycled papers

I already had the old sea chart, which makes lovely giftwrap for a coastal Christmas theme.

We needed new Santa sacks for the girls, as red and green ones weren't going to cut it this year. I was pleased to use some old crocheted table cloths and a gauzy food throw - all of which had seen better days and were waiting to be repurposed.

Santa sacks made from old table cloths and food cover.

Gotu Kola

Gotu Kola - wonder herb.

I read about this the other day as being a wonder herb, but nearly didn't buy it as I thought it looked like a weed. However the list of it's benefits goes like this...antispasmodic, antibacterial, anti inflammatory, antiviral, an adrenal strengthener, blood purifier, sedative and tonic, compounds to heal all manner of injuries.
Probably it's best known use is for it's ability to improve memory and cognitive function.
It's also used to reduce high blood pressure and improve cholesterol levels. Numerous studies show that it can improve circulation to the lower legs and reduce swelling.
It also is known to reduce arthritic pain.
Is there anything this plant can't do - and how come the whole world is not taking it?
The comprehensive 2 page article I read is in the NZ Gardener December 2012. It gives instruction on how to use the herb for different purposes, and what time of day is best to take it - as apparently it can keep you awake if taken too late in the day.