Sometimes you just have to be sneaky...

RMan is a definite meat eater.  If he had his way he would eat meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner - 7 days a week / 365 days a year.

And - eating veggies?

Nope - not interested.

So, I have to be sneaky.

I add chopped veggies to every soup - sometimes - in an effort to "hide them", they're even blitzed into a puree.

Chopped sauteed veggies even get transformed into an omlette filling.

Salads - he'll eat them, providing the ingredients are chopped really small - and, trust me, that can be tedious at times.  I mean salads are meant to be easy, aren't they?

I have just discovered that we have a new publication in South Africa.  It's called "go! Platteland" and it has some really fantastic articles.

As well as some recipes.

Paging through it I came across a recipe for Chickpea fritters.  By the time I had finished ready the ingredients, and method, I was salivating.  It is just my kind of recipe.

And, it would be a perfect way to serve hide RMan veggies :)

The recipe is as follows:

Chickpea fritters

Serves 4

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

2 tablespoons (30ml) olive oil

1 grated carrot (I used 2 - 3 medium sized)

1 grated onion

2 garlic cloves

pinch salt

1/4 cup (60ml) fresh parsley - chopped finely

400gm cooked or tinned chickpeas

2 tablespoons (30ml) breadcrumbs

1 tablespoon (15ml) tahini

1 teaspoon (5ml) smoked paprika

Optional:

1 teaspoon (5ml) cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, fennel seeds

Onions caramelising ready to have the grated
carrots added.  The carrot skins - why, they're
for the alpacas - they love carrots :)

Finely chopped fresh 
parsley is a breeze with
this handy little manual
 gadget

Method:

Heat the oil and saute the carrots, onion and garlic until soft and caramelised. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Stir the parsley through the mixture and remove from the heat.

Pulse (or if using tinned merely squish through your fingers) the chickpeas and then mash with a fork until fine enough to form a pattie but not so fine as to be a puree. A granular texture is perfect.

Stir in the remaining ingredients and combine well.  Take a spoonful and shape into a pattie.  Shallow fry over a medium heat until cooked through and crisp-ish

Serve with a tomato chutney (or any chutney) or chilli sauce of your choice.

The chickpea fritters prior to being gently fried in
 a little oil

I didn't add the cumin - RMan doesn't like the taste, nor did I add the garlic and onion powder - I mean, c'mon, I've already added them as fresh ingredients...? But, I did add roughly 1½ inches of freshly chopped ginger and a sprinkling of fennel seeds.

Finely chopped home-grown tomatoes, red
 pepper and broccoli

I topped them off with some grated 6 month mature cheddar and the side dish of (finely) chopped tomatoes, red pepper and broccoli complimented the meal. (And I got some extra veggies into RMan.  Because they were chopped small.)

Finally, a sprinkling of grated carrot - yum, t'was
delicious

The patties themselves are delicious on their own - perhaps a bit bland but that is my fault for not adding the optional flavourings, but the chutney / chilli sauce livens them up perfectly.  Hot, as in freshly cooked, or cold, as in leftovers (of which I have just partaken) confirms that they would also be good as cocktail bite sized pieces with a chilli dipping sauce.

RMan's comment was the fritters are almost like very fine minced meat, and yes, he would eat them again...  And, no, he doesn't know that he consumed carrots, chickpeas, parsley or tahini.  Nor broccoli :)

Another plan that works!!

RMan and I had the above for dinner on Wednesday night.  Last night we had some neighbours round for a cold tapas type meal and I made bite sized portions.  Consensus - delicious :)

Cape Gooseberries

I learnt my lesson last year when my tomatoes got blossom end rot.  This year the soil has plenty of calcium :)

My first harvest of cocktail tomatoes

My cocktail tomato plants (more like bushes) are all producing madly - all of the cocktail tomato plants are self-seeded from last year.  The large heirloom tomatoes are a bit slow - but I don't mind as we have more than enough to keep us going at the moment.  I would also prefer them to ripen closer to winter - that way I can use the Rosie to preserve them.  I battled initially to get them to grow - well, that and the ruddy slugs kept eating them...

I saved all of the shells from the eggs we ate
over the past year...

 ...even though they had a good border of crushed egg shells. 

...and got RMan to crush them with his great
clodhoppers, before sprinkling them generously
on the soil around the tomato plants.
In my crop rotation, I decided this year to
grow my tomatoes in our repurposed
tyres - filled with alpaca poo.  They are
working a treat - the plants are all huge
and doing very well :)

As I was harvesting the cocktail tomatoes I passed a self-seeded Cape Gooseberry bush which is growing next to my shadecloth veggie hut and noticed that the time (and fruit) was ripe.

S'funny, I don't often see anyone else mention growing gooseberries - they are dead easy to grow, and provide a wonderfully tart jam / sauce.

So, for those of you who don't have gooseberries in your garden, here's some info.

Aha!!  I spy ripe gooseberries

It is easy to spot the gooseberries which are ripe.  The outer sheath / capsule turns brown and dry.  Harvesting gooseberries involves grabbing the capsule between your fingers and gently pulling - the fruit easily parts from the capsule

The capsule on the unripe gooseberries is green

Unripe gooseberries are in the green capsules - it won't take long for them to ripen.

Enough gooseberries in my bowl to make some
gooseberry sauce

Remove the remaining, stubborn capsule(s) from the fruit...

The gooseberries sans the capsule

...give the fruit a quick rinse...

Gooseberries are high in pectin and don't take
long to soften

...pop them in a pot with some water and sugar, and in literally 10 - 15 minutes, you have a perfect sauce to dribble over your ice cream.  I didn't measure the quantities, as I was making gooseberry sauce to put on ice cream after dinner. The sugar was added to taste.

Gooseberry sauce, and jam, are a sweet but tart treat.

The seeds inside the gooseberries are very fertile
 and produce offspring easily.  In fact, if you don't
keep an eye out, they can become a pest

I love the delicate, flimsy and extremely fragile capsule that enfolds the gooseberry - it becomes paper thin and crisp as the fruit ripens.  I know I can use them for some craft - I just need to put my thinking cap on... :) 

I wish the gooseberry capsule was
a tad bigger.  There is a craft out
there somewhere which would benefit
from the gooseberry capsule :)

If the capsues were bigger they would make adorable tea light candle holders I reckon.

In for a penny...

...to save a pound in the long term.

Being a typical female I have been very, very grateful for my 320lt LG larger-than-the-undercounter bar-sized Defy fridge that we originally had here.

But, the LG was an 8-year-old fridge (B rated??) and it was chowing away at our stored solar power.  And it had a small freezer section with just enough space to hold a week or so's worth of food.  Plus, the fridge was always chockers - and needed re-arranging everytime I wanted to add something new to it's innards.  (Those damn half-full homemade sauce / jam / mustard bottles - they always take up so much space in a fridge, don't they?)

At the end of last summer I decided that I needed a freezer big enough to hold excess harvests from my garden.  It's just as well that I made that decision - as i found out 3 months ago that our local, and the only glass jar manufacturer in this country (Consol) has decided to stop making their preserving jars with the metal lid and metal ring seal!!!  What is wrong with them?

Anyway, I digress...  I have a chest freezer, but simultaneously adding the daily electrical consumption of a chest freezer to that of our old fridge would not be an ideal situation for our limited solar power.  It would effectively double up our power consumption.  Which we could handle in summer, but wouldn't be good in winter.

So, a-googling I went.

There are plenty of (expensive) imported A+ and even A++ fridges out there and which are actually available in South Africa.  But, I'm not looking to take out a bank loan.  Nor is RMan.

So, in April 2014 I wrote to the Defy manufacturer in Durban to find out if they had an A+ fridge.

Nope.

Nothing.

At that moment.

But, they were planning on releasing their latest model available from the end of September 2014.  And it was going to be an A+ model with a consumption of 484 KwH / year - roughly 133KwH / 24 hours.

Perfect.

I can wait.

I have patience.

Sometimes.

You cannot purchase directly from them (have they not heard of factory shops?) and have to purchase a Defy through a retail agent, and our closest one was the co-op in Swellendam.  I spoke to the lady in the kitchen appliances section and, after giving her the model number I had been supplied with by the manufacturing company, I asked her to please make a note in her diary and if she wouldn't mind contacting Defy closer to the time.

She did.

To make a very long story short (regarding Defy's web page and their displaying 3 models all with the same model number, but which are completely different fridges, one of which was ordered by the co-op, delivered to me, and swiftly returned the same day as incorrect) I finally, with the assistance of the Coastal Divisional Manager, received the correct fridge on Monday, 22 December 2014 - three weeks after I took delivery of the first incorrect fridge!!!  It seems none of their sales staff knew which was their latest model and which consumed 484kWh / year.  Hmmm....?

But, all's well that ends well.  It's a cracker :)

554 ltrs of
fridge and
freezer space :)

It uses only 1.33kWh / 24 hours compared to the old LG which used 2.1 kWh / 24 hours.  That gives us roughly an additional 800 watts - per day - to use on other things, or to be available during those dark, totally overcast winter days when the lights go on earlier and running the PC or laptop is required.

A+ rating with plenty of storage
 space

It's a beauty too :)

The old LG fridge freezer on the right
and the new Defy side-by-side A+ model
on the left.  I had hoped to get a white
model, but that will only be available
in February 2015.  I don't have that much
patience LOL so the stainless steel look
will have to do.

I have gained 120% more freezer space, and 98% more fridge space.  Nothing wrong with that, is there? :)

I have cleaned out the old LG, spruced it up, and it will be sold on - thereby recouping some of the cost (roughly a fifth) of the new Defy.  The chest freezer? We debated and came to the conclusion that we will keep it - just in case something goes wrong with the new fridge/freezer and it has to go in for repairs. I'd hate to have to throw away a whole bunch of (mainly frozen) food because I have nowhere to store it.  The chest freezer is in the garage, and is not in our way.

I was very chuffed, because it arrived in time to freeze the very last of the strawberries and youngberries, and will also hold home grown tomato puree ice cubes, and peppers, swiss chard, carrots and beans, etc for use when they are out of season.

Sometimes you have to spend a bit to save a bit in the long term.

Why?

Well, not only does this freezer now allow me to freeze a good portion of what I harvest, but this larger fridge / freezer will also make it possible for us to only have to go through to town once every 10 - 14 days, instead of every week, thereby saving on the fuel cost / transport footprint.

Happy days :)

The saga continues...

I know this subject has been covered a couple of times before on my blog.  But, my problem continues.  And, having watched one of our previous dogs (a wonderful, sweet-tempered [seriously] Great Dane) kill RMan's cat, Muts, in the kitchen right in front of my eyes, I need to be really, really sure that it won't happen again...

Our dog, Scallywag, is not a cat-friendly dog.  Plus, with RMan's new found relationship with Coo, the tame Cape Turtle Dove, RMan is very hesitant regarding the acquisition of a kitten / cat.

But I seriously think that a feline - of any age - is a must.  A definite.  Non-avoidable.

I was never mad about cats.  I also don't recall our family having a cat when I was a child - puppies and dogs, yes - kittens and cats - no memory.  When I met RMan - yonks ago - he had a cat called Muts.  This thing was vicious - RMan liked a bit of spirit ;)  It would sit on the floor in front of me - nervously perched on RMan's couch when I was visiting - and growl at me - warning me off.  I kid you not.  When I gave birth to Natasha, our daughter, it would lie in the dark - in wait.  As I walked down the passage from the bedroom to the kitchen to get her 2 a.m. bottle, it would attack my legs - frightening the life out of me and drawing blood with it's claws.  It never forgave me for entering RMan's life.  Perhaps the fact that RMan's long-time girlfriend gave it to him had something to do with its objection to me...?

As a result cats and I have a so-so relationship.

But, the time has come for the circle to close.

We-need-a-cat.

The field mouse problem is growing.

Let me explain.

Last week, RMan had to go to Cape Town for the day.  As he tends to return at +/- 9.30 - 10.15p.m. (it's a 550 - 600km round trip of +/- 5 - 6 hours before he attends any meetings / does any work)

I stay behind on our smallholding for the animals.

When I swept the kitchen floor that morning I found some dog food on the floor next to the Rosie.  A fleeting thought occurred, but I swept it away - and I put it own to Scallywag "dropping" some food from his jowls after eating his dinner the evening before.

Then, later that evening, I was sitting on my chair watching TV when I noticed, in my peripheral vision, the curtains moving next to the TV.

But, there was no wind.

Re-focusing my eyes from the TV to the curtain I saw a field mouse peeking out from behind it. 

Whhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaat???

It nimbly hopped off the curtain and onto the floor and made it's way to the kitchen area.

Ho-boy! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

Okey-dokey - well - it'll just have to have a feast.  I'm not doing anything about a mouse in the house at 9.30p.m. (I don't tend to do more than climb on top of the dining room table normally anyway.)  So I stayed firmly put in my chair.

When RMan got home a half-an-hour or so later I told him what I had seen.  Being tired and half believing me, he had a cursory look around, poked under a couple of cupboards / sideboards with the end of a broom handle, but couldn't find anything.  We left the mouse to it, and went to bed.  Naturally, the bedroom door was firmly closed on it too ;)

Aha! A clue!!
The temporary fly screen is definitely
 at odds with it's usual position on the
 window

But, the next morning, I noticed that one of the temporary fly screens I had put up at the window where the mouse had hopped off the curtain the night before was hanging open.  Again, there had been no wind during the night...

Mice can climb walls, and I reckon
this is the route it uses / used

Being fairly accomplished in the art of detecting, I advised RMan that, in my expert opinion, the mouse had entered the house through the window.

Yeah, yeah.  Condescendingly, he patted my shoulder.  And carried on with his day.

But I kept an eye out.

And firmly closed and locked the window through which I believed it had entered the house.

Not a single mouse did I find, but we did notice that behind the Rosie, which I had vacuumed only the day before, there were further dog food pellets.  In a spot completely inaccessible to Scallywag.

The next morning they were gone!  And a half chewed baby potato was there in their place.

That definitely wasn't Scallywags handiwork!

So, now RMan had hard proof that a mouse had been (was still?) in the house.  But, we still couldn't find it.

Talking about laying a water bucket trap the next day, we settled down to watch TV for the evening.  At 9.15p.m. RMan suddenly sat up, and looked towards the fly screen doors.  Being closer to the noise, he'd heard something that I hadn't.  Grabbing the torch which he keeps handy in order to help Scallywag (who is 14 years old) go outside to relieve himself (he's an old dog who doesn't see very well anymore), he shone it at the screen door which was screening the open patio doors in order to keep the night insects out.

And RMan saw a mouse.

Trying to chew it's way through the aluminium fly screen.

Mice teeth marks on the aluminium flyscreen
material.  I swear, given enough time, it would've 
eaten it's way through to it's "larder"

RMan was blown away.

He kept saying "I shone the torch on it and it just stood there - looking straight at me.

It just stood there!  And we're here, in the lounge, with the lights and TV on."

He couldn't believe how brazen it was.

And Scallywag didn't budge / hear it / see it.  (So much for protecting me.)  Actually, earlier this year I saw a mouse almost walk over Scallywags legs and he did nothing but calmly watch it on it's way.

I think I can safely say that no help is ever going to come from that quarter.

Mouse catching bucket
deployed

Needless to say, the trap, liberally baited with peanut butter, was put out first thing next morning.

But, I am of the opinion that only a cat is going to help us to resolve this problem.  The bucket trap in my shadecloth veggie patch is catching 4 - 6 field mice a day.  We definitely have a field mouse overload here this year - even with all the food / seeds in the farmers fields around us!  And, if one incy-wincy mouse has laid down a "trail" into the house, more are likely to follow...

So, now to convince RMan that his precious Coo isn't going to be nabbed by the Cat, and that Scallywag probably won't take any notice of it either...

Closure on this saga would be a really good way to start the new year.

Isn't life in the countryside fun :)

As this will be my last posting for 2014, I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year.  I hope your year is filled with all, and more, than you hope for.

In the heat of the moment

I know from Sky News that those in the UK were spared a White Christmas. Personally, I'd love to be subjected to a White Christmas, but that is my British roots shouting at me...

I mean, seriously, how many people would like to cook their Christmas dinner in temperatures like this:

Clicking on the
image will reveal
a temperature of
31oC at 2.20p.m.
on Christmas Eve
- in the shade

I definitely cannot light up the Rosie in that kind of heat - the additional heat it would produce indoors would be suicidal!  So, we use our outside barbeque as an oven - and leave the heat outside where it belongs.  This works well and normally, within 2 - 3 hours, our turkey is perfectly cooked.  However, Christmas pudding is 100% out of the question.  Far to "starchy" for our temperature.  If we could celebrate Christmas in winter, when one needs the additional starch intake in order to create warmth within the body, then it would definitely be on the menu.  I have wonderful childhood memories of helping to boil 6d's (and even a tickey in the early years immediately after immigrating to this country) and hiding them within the pud, prior to cooking it.  I wonder if that still happens overseas?

But, strangely enough, Mike, our grandson who spent the weekend prior to Christmas with us, commented that "Christmas isn't Christmas without snow".  Seems as though the concept of a cold, white, snow-bedecked Christmas, either originating from the traditional Christmas images reproduced on Christmas cards, or his grandmother's roots, are rearing their head within him, and leaving him feeling a yearning for a White Christmas - just like his Nana :)

Christmas greetings

To all whole read this post, I'd like to wish you a Happy Christmas.  May it be filled with that special wonder of the season, excitement, happiness, contentment and compassion.

As always, in honour of RMan's German Christmas tradition, we have our Christmas meal on Christmas Eve night.  So today is my day in the kitchen... :)

Happy Christmas

First attempts at weaving...

... with alpaca wool are on my other blog :

http://sustainablefibressa.blogspot.com/2014/12/first-attempts-at-weaving.html

"Oh me, oh my...

... do I have a pot big enough to cook this monster in?" was the question that popped into my head when I saw this.

RMan's size 9 shoe for size comparison

This "beetroot" was grown in a bed in my shadecloth veggie patch - in soil that had had a healthy dose of alpaca poo added 2 months ago.  And nothing but alpaca poo.

Trimmed of it's leaves, my hand is in the lower
left hand corner

It was "hiding" behind some red veined swiss chard leaves.  In fact, I started harvesting some leaves of what I thought was swiss chard to make my creamed spinach recipe when I happened to glance down and saw the beetroot "globe" peeking out of the soil beneath the leaves.

The giant beetroot inside a 10lt pot

There is no sign of the beetroot bolting, so once it is cooked the flesh inside should be good and tender.  And plentiful.

Ha!!  Two for the price of one :)  We enjoyed creamed spinach (a.k.a. swiss chard / beetroot) with our dinner on Friay night, and today (Saturday) I am cooking the beetroot.

Update prior to posting:

Tender all the way through - eventually :)

It took a full hour to cook that baby but I started early enough and RMan and I enjoyed a helping with our dinner that night.

2.5 kgs of beetroot relish - enough for us
and to give as a gift

I still have plain beetroot slices in the fridge, and, yesterday, I made 2.5 kgs of beetroot relish.  RMan will enjoy that with his braai-ed boerewors (barbecue sausage) and ostrich sausage, and, we'll enjoy it with a roast chicken dinner too.  Not to mention putting a dollop on top of a cheese filled cracker...

Yum.