Sewing, baking and travelling

Hello my friends. I've had a busy week here working on Christmas sewing, mending, gardening and ripping out most of our tomato bushes, tidying up my workroom, cooking and baking. The main event though is preparing to drive to Wollongong to visit my dear friend Rose who is very ill.  Hanno will stay at home with Jamie and Gracie. Consequently, there will be no Weekend Reading this week because I haven't had time to do much reading. This will be my last post until mid next week.

A little bunny in sundress and undies for someone special.

I thought I'd share a very simple but versatile recipe with you today. It's something I whipped up during the week and it fed us for three meals.  It's a pastry-free quiche.  

The basic recipe is a mixture of: 

• 8 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese (or cheese of your choice)
• 250ml (one cup) cream
• crushed garlic
• salt and pepper

Into that mix add whatever vegetables you have on hand that you like the taste of or need to use.  I had some asparagus that sat on top of the egg mix. In the egg mixture, pre-cooked in a frying pan, were:

• 1 onion, chopped
• parsley, chopped
• 1 red capsicum, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 4 mushrooms, sliced
• 1 zucchini, chopped

but the choice of vegetables depends on what you have on hand. It will work with most vegies. Pour the mixture into an oven-proof container and bake in a 170C oven until it's golden brown on top and still has a slight wobble.

I also like to use cooked sweet potato or potato with a scattering of peas. It's delicious hot but I prefer it on the following days, cold from the fridge.  It would be an excellent lunch box meal because it travels well.  

Above is a photo of the last ginger syrup I made. I made an interesting discovery with this syrup. I left it on the stove top, covered in a saucepan, for 48 hours instead of the 24 hours I usually leave it. They were warm days. When I poured the liquid into the storage bottle I noticed a few bubbles and was pleased that it had started to ferment. After two days in the cupboard, there were more bubbles so I released the gasses in the glass bottle and moved it into the fridge to slow down the fermentation process. I always use plastic bottles when I make ginger beer. When I made it up and tasted it, it was delicious! It was smooth with a more complex, slightly alcoholic flavour than the ginger syrup I usually make. Now I have two bottles - one my usual syrup and one that has natural fermentation. I think I'll put in some more work on the next batch of ginger syrup and see where that takes me.

And finally, I realised a couple of days ago though that the second instalment of the Great British Sewing Bee wasn't shown here last Saturday, so I wrote to the TV channel and asked why.  Email back today says it continues this Saturday at 7pm. It will be followed by the Great Chelsea Garden Challenge. If you live in Australia, was it on where you live?

Don't forget, I'll be away for a week. I'll see you next Wednesday.

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