A Protracted Project

Yes after 2.5 years I have finally finished the Hussif (short for housewife - a term from the roll of needles, thread etc men took with them to war). I still need to make a needle case and put a few bits and pieces in. So it is not quite finished but sort of is.

I made the applique pattern and did the applique over two years ago, we had a different caravan even. Aaron has been hassling me for AGES saying why can't I get a Hussif done for the caravan when I make so many. Hmph.

Anyway I am pleased it is done and it is good practise as I have enrolled for the zip purse swap with chocolate over at Sew Delicious. Am brainstorming about what I am going to do for that.

Plum Cake

What to do with that ever increasing pile of plums? Make cake of course.
When we were urban foraging the other day we almost had to physically pull him off the plum trees. He just could not stop picking. Now I love plum jam but not too many in my family do so I still have some from last year. Then I had a brainwave - make plum cake.

I pulled out recipes but could not find what I wanted so here is what I made. (I made four mini cakes as I am doing dinner for Alison and Richard as we are visiting their new baby Lucas today.)

Plum Cake  (recipe by me)
Put oven onto 180oC. Line your cake tin as the plums are sticky. I used non stick tins but still butter and floured them.
150g butter
3/4 Cup sugar
3 eggs
1.5 Cup flour
2t Baking Powder
1/4 Cup milk

cream butter and sugar and add eggs. Sift in flour and BP, stir in milk. Put mixture into your tin in blobs - this is important. Do not put mixture in and smooth it around the tin or the plums will only sit on top.

Cut plum flesh of stones. Just roughly until you have 400g fruit. Add 1T flour, 1tsp cinamon and 1/4cup sugar. Note that as soon as sugar is added to plums the juice runs. So do this at the last minute. Stir and sprinkle over the cake mixture. Some should sink in. Do not use the juice that could be at the bottom of your plum bowl.

Bake approx 40-50 minutes.

The plums are quite sharp on this cake so I served with Chantilly cream (whipped cream with icing sugar and real vanilla)

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Urban Foraging - Christchurch

The finished cake delivered that night

On Sunday it was clean up day. Duncan, Debs and Jack left on Saturday and Robin and Sophia were leaving by plane late in the afternoon. So beds stripped, cleaning done.

First we made a cake for Aaron's new work colleague. He has moved his whole family down to Christchurch to work at RACE. Quite an upheaval. So a banana cake was made in the morning to cool down while we went out.

Then I took all the kids urban foraging. I needed lemons so we headed out to the old house at Aarnst Place in Christchurch. Lots of the houses have now been demolished so you can wander around the sections. We picked lemons from three different trees, got a pile of plums, some broad beans, a tiny amount of potatoes, lots of lovely roses and some bay leaves. We also found some HUGE walnut trees to go back to in the autumn as well as heaps of apple trees and a couple of pear trees. But sigh... only one feijoa tree and it was not flowering much. I forgot to take photos of us exploring. We had a fantastic time. Though it was hot and dusty. Next time take gumboots as the weeds are sometimes waist high. Also some secateurs as the roses were awful to cut without something.

But we filled all our bags, we were happy and on the way home we had the last real fruit ice cream for the holidays.

The results of our foraging

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All seasons on one holiday

Walking in the rain

Eating in the rain

Seeing Himalayan Lillies in the sun

Cozy in the caravan

Taking lots of photos

Exploring waterfalls

The last food after being rained and winded out

Gorgeous sunsets while camping

Great family photos

The boy cousins all together

Some exploring of limestone cliffs

Croissant for Xmas morning breakfast

Mayhem and all the family for Xmas lunch

We had a lovely holiday. Like most people in NZ there was rain at the end. Actually absolutely amazing thunderstorms!! In our caravan we were all snuggly but it was the wind at our campsite that did the damage. So many people lost tents and awnings. But we had a fabulous time. All my family were together for camping on Xmas Day. Later Mother and Dad left and Mark and Anna went off for their honeymoon, the rest of us stayed behind. Sometimes swimming five times a day due to excessive heat, sometimes in rainjackets and merino jumpers!! But all in all it was great. We are relaxed and have just said goodbye to my brother, wife and one child. The others fly out tomorrow. Our house will seem HUGE as we will have gone from 9 living in it to plain old 4 and the dog.

A Foraging Paradise

Just arrived home from 13 fantastic nights away. Incredibly fluctuating weather from 33oC to thunderstorms and wind. But what did not fluctuate was the constant great foraging finds.

Gooseberries found and stewing

The foragers with the spoils - this time gooseberry

Gooseberry Jam made.

Hot scones to eat the gooseberry jam on.

Lots of plum trees laden 

Walnut trees ready to be collected in Autumn

Hazelnut trees budding

Hazelnuts in my handbag

I made this up when camping. Don't know if anyone else has a recipe the same but had to do it on the fly.

Gooseberry Jam recipe

We had 2 kg of gooseberries which I put 1 cup of water with and simmered until soft.

Then I measured out 3 cups of the gooseberries into another pot. To that I added 3 cups of sugar and then simmered for 10 minutes and put in jars that had been sterilising in boiling water.

That made a jar of jam for every family camping.

The leftover gooseberries I put 1/2 that amount of sugar with and we had a gooseberry sauce. We had that with scones and cream and the next day made gooseberry fool. Yummy yum yum.

What a great wedding

I loved the hat that Anna got me

 The wedding was yesterday. Fantastic, everything my sister had planned just went into action. Amazing clowns on bouncy stilts entertaining kids for hours, bouncy castles, awesome food and drink and to finish a display by the fire people Highly Flammable.

The Wedding Party. Anna, Mark and their kids

The boys all looked great in the silk waistcoat and bow ties that I made. Montana-Rose asked to do a speech and it was to say thanks to Aunty Karen for doing her hair. I was so blown away - she made me feel very special. She looked amazing.

Albie

The younger boy cousins all together.

Yes I did wear this before the ceremony!!

My brother and the kids. Robyn and Sophia stayed with us for a couple of days first. LOVED having them

My immediate family. Not been together since my brothers wedding  7 years ago.

Upcycling a shelf

From This

To this

Yes it did look like this

All fitted into the wardrobe.

In amongst having no kitchen, laundry, dining room and lounge - I finally finished the redo of a shelving system for Eli's bedroom. Thanks to Dawn for giving me her old shelving. With a bit of sanding and lots of painting, rescrewing and some furniture tacks we have a new look. Way back here I re painted his room and put up new curtains. (If you click on that you can see what his wardrobe used to look like!!). But now I have redone his cupboard. Cube shelving up on what was one big, hard to use space, and a matching shelving set for all his toys etc. Goodness we can actually close his wardrobe doors now. All I have left to do in his room is put handles on the wardrobe doors and make a pinboard and recover a cushion. So the house was madness but is now calming down.
In the process of all this Eli went through all his stuff and we have completed a massive declutter and throw out. It has been fantastic.
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