Creamed spinach recipe

Leigh asked me if I'd care to share my Creamed Spinach recipe.


Well, here it is.  It's dead easy:


You need a nice large bunch of fresh spinach from your garden.

Soak it to remove any grains of sand.  Shake dry.


If the ribs are very thick, remove them.  Otherwise just "roll" up / bunch up the leaves together with the rib and chop finely.


Pour 250 - 300ml (just over a cup) of milk in a saucepan.  Add a knob of butter (about a tablespoon), a grind of salt and pepper and a sprinkling of nutmeg as required.  I like nutmeg so I have quite a heavy hand when adding it to the milk.


Bring the above to the boil.


Meanwhile, add a couple of teaspoons of Maizena (cornflour) to a small container and add enough water to make a thick mixture.  When the contents of the pan are at boiling point, add the cornflour mixture, stirring constantly, until the sauce is thick and bubbling.


Alternatively, if you know how to make a roux with flour and butter, then that should be done before adding the milk, S&P and ground nutmeg.  Then boil gently, stirring constantly, until it is thick and bubbling like a witches cauldron :)


Then add 62.5mls (1/4 cup) to 125mls (1/2 cup) of fresh cream and your finely chopped spinach, and turning down the heat to low, cook for 4 - 5 minutes stirring gently to prevent it catching on the base of the pan.


If you like, you could add some grated cheese, or feta cheese to the mixture - stirring it in just prior to serving.

Creamed spinach and egg

Enjoy :)


To all those who were affected by the horrific events of 2001 - my thoughts and prayers are with you.

Soap part 2

The Rugby World Cup has started, so RMan will be kept busy for the next 39-odd days.  That means I can blog to my hearts content LOL


I had always been frightened of using caustic soda, so I first took the soap making plunge only in March this year.  Since then I have made two further batches - we seem to be whizzing our way through the stock...


But I wasn't happy with just making blocks of soap, so I searched on-line for silicone molds and came across a company in South Africa which had just what I needed :)


So, with my stock running low, I made my third batch on Wednesday using those molds.

Fill the molds with your mixture - to just on the rim

What a pleasure they are to use.  And so simple.  All you do is pour the soap mixture into the mold, let it sit for 12 - 18 hours and then de-mold.


How? Just peel the silicone mold back...

Just peel the mold away from the hardening bar of soap

... and place your soap on the rack to cure for 3 weeks.

3rd batch of soap - using silicone molds

I bought three different shaped molds and love them all.  They look like they will give a better bar than my hodge-podge slicing of a rectangle of soap.

1st batch of soap

Don't get me wrong - I still love the squares of soap - but variety is the spice of life :)


And I can use the silicone molds in baking too!

Three times the power production?!

Oh boy, I'm so excited.


Not only will creating wind power become more efficient and effective, but it will also become cheaper.  And hopefully, not only cheaper for the national grid, but also for our home applications.

How?  Well, I received this information in the mail today from Simply Green (South Africa)


But, for more detail check out this link.


If you'd like to see the video:

Wind Lens video

This could certainly help with the eco-footprint of electricity production.  And if it can obviate the need for nuclear power - good grief, wouldn't we be so bloody much better off?

The idea is hectic - and so incredibly simple.  I LOVE clever people :)


Maybe our wind turbine will yet become a reality...

Hey buds below...

Hey buds below ... up is where to grow

Up with which below can't compare with.

Hurry - it's lovely up here ...

Life down a hole takes an awful toll,

What with not a soul there to share with

Hurry - it’s lovely up here!

Wake up, bestir yourself, it's time that you disinter yourself

You’ve got a spot to fill - a pot to fill 

And what a gift package of showers, sun and love 

You’ll be met above everywhere with,

Fondled and sniffed by millions who drift by,

Life here is rosy - if you’re a posy

Hurry it's lovely here!

Lyrics from the song "Hey buds below" from the 1970 movie "On A Clear Day"

featuring Barbra Streisand and Yves Montand

One of the penalties of having a house that faces a view is the fact that the view is to the south, which means inside the house is generally freezing when compared to outside.  For instance, today we have a temperature of 18oC inside and outside it is 24oC. 

Perfect weather for all those little plants to pop their heads above ground, or burst out of their winter hibernation.  The grape vine has produced new growth on a branch which, to all intents and purposes, looked dead.

Our grape vine - bursting
out of itself

My strawberry plants are popping out flowers...

...and the baby strawberry plants I captured from last season are coming along nicely.

Even my pomegranate tree is producing buds - it's now entering it's fourth year - perhaps this year I'll be able to harvest some fruit from it?

Pomegranate bud

I know that the reward of tending and taking care of all the plants in my vegetable patch is yummy, fresh, chemical free and "prop full of goodness" meals on our table.  Such as one of our favourites...

Home grown spinach - picked just minutes
before cooking

...creamed spinach for dinner.  This is one of the few vegetarian meals that RMan will eat...

Creamed spinach and egg with a fresh roll - yummy!

... he's such a silly man - he doesn't know what he is missing the rest of the time.  But I'm working on him...

Garden visitor

Man, oh man, the roots from our neighbours trees were encroaching into the one side of the shade cloth tunnel, and I sorely needed RMan to help me pull them out.  Then he helped me mix some compost into the beds - in preparation for when my seedlings are big enough to transplant.


As we were getting on with our various tasks we heard Scampi growling and noticed that he was backing off s-l-o-w-l-y.  Scampi had been lying just outside the veggie patch, in a small patch of sun and we knew there was nothing that he should be growling at, unless...

Sure enough, Scampi had, for once, been useful LOL  Using the garden fork RMAn managed to catch a small mole* snake and place it in the bucket.

It looks like a brown mole* snake - harmless to us humans... but apparently not to the snail that it happened to slither past.  The snake proceeded to shove it's head inside the shell - obviously to eat it from the inside out...

Brave Scampi with RMan - looking at the enemy and it's prey.  Guess bravado is in order when you know you're not the intended target - this time...  Or is it RMan's protective arm around Scampi which is giving him courage?

The snail was so determined to get away it started climbing up the inside wall of the bucket - dragging the snake with it...

Reckon the snake munched too much of the snail - from inside the shell.  It couldn't get away...

When we came back the snake had gone, and the snail was history.


Now, that has got to be written up an another eco-friendly way of getting rid of snails...  Looks like perhaps Mother Nature will be on my side this season...?

Update:  Thanks to Diana of Elephant's Eye, I now know that the snake is not a brown mole snake, but in fact is a harmless (to humans) tabakrolletjie (tobacco roll) - whose sole purpose in life appears to be the consumption of slugs and snails!  It produces 6 - 22 young in late summer - hopefully they all stay in my garden :)

Better late than...

Sorry about the silence on my blog - it was an up-and-down week last week, and then yesterday I had to have a (back) tooth extracted, which left me feeling sorry for myself for most of the day...


I have come to the conclusion that I have been over confident.  I thought our house would sell quite quickly.  Guess I didn't work the effect of the recession enough into the equation.  Only two viewings in three months - looks like we could be in it for the long haul...  Even the property over the road, which is also for sale, has only had two viewings in three months.

And, because of the potential sale of our home, I have not given much thought to my town veggie garden this year.  I wasn't terribly inclined to put my heart and soul into it - in fact, honestly, I barely gave it a thought - all my energies have been channeled into planning on getting the farm one up and running.  The truck loads of compost (and some topsoil) which will have to be delivered and mixed in with the clay, the purchase of the poles for the "shelter", the purchase of the shadecloth, and to run, and connect, the irrigation from the timer - well, someone has to water it when we're not there. LOL

A much smaller version of the shade cloth
shelter that I anticipate having on the farm..

However, given that we could be here in town for far longer than thought, I now need to do some serious work on getting my seeds prepared and planted for the coming summer.

So in the past week I have sown four different types of tomatoes, a whole bunch of capsicum, mixed lettuce seeds, radish, beans and I have ordered some seeds from my heirloom seed suppliers up country.

I already have some parsnips, carrots, swiss chard, beetroot, garlic and onions,  growing - although they need more sun than they are currently getting.

That also is a major problem with my town garden.  Definitely not enough sun in the winter months.


What am I complaining about, I hear you thinking, for you in the colder northern hemisphere, who are restricted to growing your vegetables in the spring / summer only.


But my winter vegetables need sun!  Just like my solar oven... 


LOL  In fact, talking about capsicum - I found this one hidden in a corner and still growing from last season - it is still bearing a pepper - in perfect condition.  I'm going to leave it, and see if it bears any more, for the top of the plant has new shoots...

Last season's capsicum - the plant looks bedraggled
but there is new growth at the top

Ah well, I guess having my seeds planted into trays, pots, loo rolls and empty egg shells and lined up like a marching column of soldiers in the thin sliver of sun that I have in my "nursery" area, will have to do - for now.

My nursery area - with
some of my seed sowing -
in the thin sliver of sun I have available.
Note that the loo rolls
are only filled 3/4 full - to allow some
loo roll to protect the tender seedling
above ground against cutworm
when it is planted into the bed.

At least this season I am also equipped with new pest control ideas to hopefully combat the snails and cutworm.

I'm sure, between the loo rolls...

...the copper scouring pads...

...the egg shell halves...


...and the diatomaceous earth...

...I should be able to thwart most of their nasty advances.

This is a work in progress - and I WILL let you know which methods are successful and which aren't - after all, sharing is caring LOL

By the way, I also found this somewhere on the Net.  If you have a surplus of CD covers, (or your children / grandchildren do) this looks like a nifty way of putting them to good recycled use...

Whatever works - and doesn't involve chemicals in any form, and is fulfilling a recycled purpose - is definitely a plus in my book.

Eggcellent

Another eco-friendly form of pest control?


Break open an egg shell...

Try and break it as close as possible to the top of the shell - I didn't this time...

Fill the egg shell with some seedling mix, add your seed (tomato in this instance) and cover with some more seedling mix.  Water well.

As it grows I will naturally make a hole / smash a crack in the base of the shell, so that the roots can spread into the larger container it will then be housed in.  Using the egg shell as a seedling "pot" should ensure that it also gets a dose of calcium as it's growing :)


But I'm thinking - this may also be eggcellent cutworm deterrent.  I'll just have to ensure I break the shell nearer the top of the egg, and that I have at least 1 cm (1/2 ") of the egg shell sticking above ground when it comes time to plant the seedling in the veggie patch.


Happy days :) 

Signs of Spring

After our last cold snap, it seems that my town garden is bursting at the seams to show off the first sings of Spring.  Literally, in the last week all hell has broken loose - if you don't believe me, here's proof...

The pomegranate in our back garden - it's 4 years old this year - so hopefully it will bear some fruit...?  The nursery that I originally purchased it from didn't know which species it was, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see what fruit it produces.

The Mission Olive tree is budding - but the wretched south easter always seems to blow off any fruit that forms

A very confused Aubergine plant - it's from last season...

The peach tree is in blossom... 

My first geranium flower - I reckon it's a stunning, striking colour.

This Jasmine plant has always struggled, but it seems to be flowering beautifully this year.

Our Yellowood tree is bursting out its' whorls of new leaves...

Podocarpus falcatus

My first nasturtium flower of the season...

And finally, I have just purchased some catnip, and before I could even plant it in the ground, it would appear that one of the neighbours cats has sampled it... :)

We have a major cold front due to hit us tomorrow - hopefully it doesn't cause too much damage.