If You Like Butter Chicken, You Will Love Butter Chickpeas!

This recipe, which I found in The Ultimate Vegetarian Cookbook, by New Zealanders Alison and Simon Holst, is a winner.

It's quick and easy - which meets my cooking criteria, is a tasty meat alternative and is healthy too - no butter in this butter chickpea recipe, and the flavour is that of butter chicken.

Butter Chickpeas - now I wish I had picked up that piece of potato that fell over!

I cook my chickpeas from dried and soaked, then freeze them, but you can use canned chickpeas. Likewise, you can use ready-made garam masala or concoct your own, as I did (recipe for this at the end)

Butter Chickpeas

310g can of chickpeas
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons of canola oil
2 tsp curry powder
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp  ground cumin
300g can of condensed tomato soup
1/2 cup of cream (I used canned reduced cream)
200 grams of boiled, cubed potatoes
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the canola oil in a large saucepan, add the onion and garlic, cook.
Stir in the curry powder and spices, stir and cook for 1-2 minutes.
Add the tomato soup, cream, chickpeas and potatoes.
Simmer for about 5 minutes.
Serve topped with chopped coriander on a bed of Basmati rice, with some Naan bread.


Garam Masala

2 Tbsp coriander seeds
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
1 Tbsp cardamom seeds
1 Tbsp black peppercorns
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cloves
2 dried chillies (no seeds)
2 Tbsp ground turmeric

Toast the seeds in a frypan, then grind all - or if you are like me, I just approximated the above ingredients using the powdered forms that I already had in the pantry and the recipe was still delicious.

Something For The Allergy Sufferers and a Simple but Clever Idea

Derek's two daughters are fondly referred to by me as Sniffy and Sneezy, the Allergy Sisters. This time of the year (Spring in New Zealand) is not fun for them, finding them often with stuffy noses from allergy.

I made an essential oil concoction that I read about, with equal parts of eucalyptus, peppermint and lavender essential oils, of which the sufferer puts a wee dab just at the entrance to each nostril. And it worked! Nose cleared.

So I stopped in to the Himalayan Trading Post in Whangarei where they sell lots of these dear little cork-stoppered glass bottles - lots of different shapes and sizes. This one was $1.50. 

I added a tiny little screw-in eyelet to the cork, and a silver jump ring. The little bottle was then filled with the essential oil mix so that the girls can wear them and use as required.

A Good Idea To Reduce Single Use Coffee Cups
This idea came through on my Facebook page the other day and I thought how simple but clever, by the Cuppow company. We don't have this company's products here, but I just loved the idea.

I could have left it there, but thought it was an idea worthy of sharing. I have started messaging local cafes with this picture to see if any of them will run with it.
The beauty of the idea is that it doesn't just reward a single patron who brings their own refillable cup, but encourages a group effort and makes it an interesting concept - right there on their counter. 

A Giftwrap Idea
It has been years now since I purchased giftwrap - preferring to recycle all manner of paper and materials to make a gift still look as attractive as possible.
For a culinary themed gift last week, I pulled out one of the old cookbooks that I bought for not much, and that I use to cut up for collage etc. 

The page on celebratory cakes made perfect giftwrap for this little gift don't you think?

Finding Inspiration

We had a young English family member visiting last week and she was telling me that she would like to paint, but can never think what to paint. I laughed and pointed out to her what she had just been photographing - a cool shot of ducks swimming around mangrove trees and suggested she should look among her photos. Inspiration is everywhere, we just have to grab it.

I've just finished reading Think Like An Artist...and Lead a More Creative, Productive Life, by Will Gompertz, where I found the above quote (the one on the mossy tree). The author talked about how we all steal ideas, but a real artist twists that idea to make it unique.
One artist he includes is Luc Tuymans, who photgraphed paintings by Henry Raeburn, but then painted the faces very close up to make unique paintings - you can see them here.
He profiles many great artists, with how they got to their point of greatness, what made their point of difference. Interesting stuff.
There was another quote in there that I liked...
             "Creativity is contagious, pass it on"
                                                              Albert Einstein.

More Inspiration
If you have a spare 30 minutes to get inspired have a look at the talks and podcasts on Creative Mornings - fabulous for starting the day, especially if it's raining. These are by some creative, interesting people - I love them!


Inspiring Blooms?
Derek brought home these gorgeous dried blooms the other day, that grow at the side of the road. We've put them in a bowl to admire - love the colours.

They are Rewarewa, an evergreen New Zealand native tree which grows to 30 metres. It was known as New Zealand honeysuckle by the early settlers as it's flowers are a great source for honey production.

The Power of the Mind

So, I've been a little distracted lately preparing for an event that our band played at last weekend - the It! Festival in Paihia. We were on just before The Black Seeds, a top New Zealand band.

The wet weather didn't dampen any spirits

My point is - what you imagine often comes true, in sometimes strange ways.
Since I was young, I have always thought that being able to do what you love - and make a living from it has got to be the epitome of a good life. I thought that being a paid singer or musician would be just the coolest thing.
I didn't have this in mind at all when I decided to learn to play the saxophone at age 42, it was just that I loved it.

Then sometime around age 52, I found myself playing in a classic rock band. It has taken me quite some time to get comfortable with that - but then the boys wanted me to start adding backing vocals in there... and that is how I found myself playing and singing in front of a crowd of about 2,000 people last weekend. Oh, and we got paid to do it.

What you form in your mind can come to be. So you might as well make it something great.

I Have Always Aspired To Be....

A hippie! Right from when I was a teenager, but not your weed smoking type out of the 70's. I just wanted to live in the country, grow things, make things and not have to go to work. Tick.

So this week as I was out working in the garden on yet another beautiful morning, I reflected on how perfect it all is. I'm out there in my swimsuit top and shorts, working gently on a healthy tan to suit my outfit for this weekend coming, when our band will play at a wine and food festival in the Bay of Islands - for about 2,000 people. 

I'm not the young thing I once was however, and was thinking I need a better swimsuit - one with a bit more, ahem, support.
I found this idea somewhere under refashioned clothes, and it has worked perfectly. I've just sewn a previously unused strapless bra to the lining. Huge improvement!

Sorry, not modelling this one - too shy

Back to the garden - I love how the flowers work in there. I've grown alssyum and lavender, calendulars and geranium, and they bring in the bees. 
We had visitors from Auckland last week, and I'm proud to say the 14 year old boy got his first ever bee sting here. It looked really red, and I wondered out loud if maybe he was allergic to bees, but he said it was because his Dad told him to slap it, it would help. I've never heard of that before (chuckles to self), so I got out the lavender oil, which takes the sting away almost immediately.

The rhubarb and peas have grown back nicely since we caught all the possums, and there is barely any evidence of other pests in there at the moment.

I'm about to be feeding courgettes to hundreds of people soon as all four plants start producing - but I am prepared. I've bought myself one of those gizmos that turn courgettes into healthy spaghetti - will keep you posted. 

This is our other overflow garden - not so pretty and needs more work on the soil, but it's getting there. That's my garlic crop.
Thanks for visiting.

Makin' Bacon - Vegan Style

 Some posts back, I shared the recipe for this Raw Broccoli Salad which is totally delicious. I am always looking for ways to make recipes healthier, and in this instance cheaper and better for the environment too.
One of the changes I now make to that recipe is to leave the sugar out of the dressing altogether. The other change is using ....

Vegan Bacon

Crispy and bacon-tasting! Made from coconut.

This is simple to make, and there are a few different recipes around - some using maple syrup, oils, and others with smoke flavouring, but mine just uses

1 cup of coconut flakes
1 tsp of tamari soy
1/2 tsp of smoked paprika
salt to taste

Mix these ingredients together, spread it on a tray and bake at 180 Celsius for approx 10 minutes.
Watch that it doesn't burn!
Cool and store in a glass jar. 
Add to salads, sandwiches, and other places where you would use some crispy bacon. 


And a shot of our apple tree - so hoping for another good crop in autumn.

Apple blossom - love Spring!

Last year's apples lasted for months and months, individually wrapped in paper and stored in the studio fridge.

Reuse, Reuse, Reuse!

As I mentioned in my last post, Derek's work has moved office and has cast out lots of old office equipment, which they have auctioned off to staff, or donated to charities, and then what was left unwanted has gone to the dump.
We have scored several new shelves, which has finally prompted a tidy up of the studio store room. Bliss, I can find things again. I have a lot of art and sewing supplies in there!

The little paintings? - the old house is a copy of one done by Derek, the other is one of mine

As someone who has pledged not to buy more giftwrap, I badly needed a place to sort all of my collected paper. I now have this really ugly pigeon-hole cabinet, which I will be covering up with a vintage tablecloth.

Organization of sorts for my stash of papers

The new paper section is for those among us who struggle to use recycled paper and were freebies from magazines.

One of the stranger things to come home was this out of date surveyors instrument. Derek has great vision for such things, and one day in the future this will become part of a sculpture of some sort. (Hopefully). Along with a big pile of the bits of ply, which are great for painting on, or making signs.

And my latest find, from the Habitat for Humanity shop - a great little stainless steel container with lid for $5 - perfect for storing leftovers in the fridge.

Reuse, reuse, reuse - it's actually much more fun don't you think? I think it requires far more creativity.