Quick Biscuit Recipe - Shortbread Cookies

This is the first year my children have been socially out and about.
So, with lots of Children, its Christmas time, and how do I make lots of small treats?
This is an awesome shortbread recipe I found on the side of a box of cookie cutters. So I adopted it as one of my favs - Ive been making two batches at once and get around 120 small cookies or 80 thicker ones.
Decorate as you like - we went for icing & 100s and 1000s  for the dance, as the theme for the disco was *Stars in Your Eyes*
We went for blue icing for the second batch, as that is Mr 12's fav colour.
We packaged them up for his class party tomorrow.

It was hard finding a nice blue, but he is happy with what we did. We ended up painting on the icing, it was the easiest way to get them all done...
In total, I think we ate more than we painted, between all of us :-)
Theyre really easy to make and very tasty!
They also store well and dont go too soft overnight etc.

COOKIE DOUGH - Shortbread
120 grams butter (can be unsalted)
1/2 cup of sugar

1 whole egg
2 cups of self raising flour
3-4 drops of vanilla essence.

Preheat oven to 170C
Cut butter into small cubes, rub into dry ingredients, mix egg in.
Knead together, put in fridge til it hardens a little. (approx 20mins)
Take out and roll flat, use cookie cutter shape if you like, or if youve put it in the fridge in a roll, you can just slice off the cookies, and prick them with a fork (the traditional shortbread way)

Place on tray, Bake around 5-7 minutes til very lightly browing.
Remove and let cool
Ice as you like... vanilla or almond icing is great for Christmas cookies.
Sprinkle with 100s and 1000s
Or coconut... or whatever.

Have been enjoying more strawberries. Its become the favourite thing to do first thing,  the kids checking out the new ones. It was the best thing ever leaving some of the plants to grow their suckers out! We may have a strawberry farm yet! Some potash and some crushed poo has given them a bit more oompf and theyre away again.

Well, another week down, another one on its way... Im loving these beautiful if windy days, roll on Summer :)




Take care,
Oh and if I didnt say it already -
Have a wonderful festive season... Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas!
Love
EB

Bit shaky Saturday... Lights and Things

Its been a bit shaky this week. Two of significance, but not huge ones, just little wobbly shakes to remind us we are still in Christchurch I think!
Its been a busy week. Classes finished for us almost - one more child to finish, and then we are off on holiday. It is a good feeling to almost be there :) We are all really excited about getting away for Christmas day. We have always been home, but this year we arent tied at home with visitors. Of course, with the older children doing their own thing, this could change!

Last night the children got to go into town with some friends to visit the Christmas Grotto. They came home well after dark (10.45pm) and the Littles were well and truly tired but soooo happy! Apparently it was awesome. Music, bright colourful sparkly lights and lots of Christmas things from blow up sleighs to Santa himself! What more could you ask for at this time of the year when you are six and twelve!
Weve had a day of laziness, just catching up after our late night at the disco - a good success - 70 kids and around 30 adults. It was so much fun - the dj was awesome, the music really went down well, and the kids were well behaved generally. My baking even worked, and the star shaped cookies we took lasted all of three minutes.

Have had a very good crop of strawberries this year (*Chandler* variety). Once the birds knew they had to move along, and the wind chimes were put in place, weve been taking between 20-50 off the plants every couple of days. Ive started giving them to the neighbours, no complaints there :) The Alpine strawberries are not as good this year, and I dont think I ll give them much room next year.

I have fresh swede, mesculun, foxglove, aquilegia, calendula, marigold, parsley and red kale seed. The black kale is still drying, as is the red cabbage. I have had a lot of fun trying to figure out the easiest winnowing method, and will keep working on it.
Have lost a lot of my taller plants this year to the mighty winds we have had.  I need to investigate adding further wind breaks, despite putting two new breaks up this year. I guess this is something we have happen every year in between spring and summer. I just have to work around it.
Because of the constant mulching, I seem to have found a good medium - the ground retains the water better than last year, and the strawberries and their solid growth is an indication of this. I will be mulching furiously again once the growing season has slowed a little.
The comfrey has gone native, and Im pulling leaves off to add to the main compost pile almost daily. It responds really well to the night showers we have had!

Ive realized this month, after watching things in the garden go from small to tall, neat and tidy to sprawling and untidy, that collecting seed means untidy mostly!
There are always going to be things that look untidy... none of that clipped manicured look of gardening here!
Still, it is colourful this year, theres a lot of places to hide (ask Miss 6 who loves hide and seek amongst things!) and Im loving it.

More later, once things get less crazy :)

Seasons Greetings to You and Yours
From my Garden to Yours
EBUTTERFLY
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Machinery Stuff, Wind and Seeds!

Hows about one of these?
http://www.realseeds.co.uk/seedcleaner.html
A DIY Seed cleaner aspirator.
I love the idea, but not being the brightest technical mind there is, I ll leave it to the experts. After winnowing by hand, I can see how these could be extremely useful :)

One of the windiest, hottest days in the year... It has been today! (sounds a lot like Yoda!)
Im not sure of temps yet, its nearly weather time, but boy! Win-dddddy!
Have lost several large poppies, a huge silverbeet, and have spent the afternoon tethering other plants, just to be safe. Its amazing how much potential you can lose if you lose something that you are expecting to seed for next season... lesson learnt!

Found out what my random flower is. Salsify. Theres a few things creeping into my garden this year that I didnt plant, its so wonderful... We have spotted a beautiful blue larkspur this afternoon. Did you know, Larkspur can be used to treat hemorrhoids? :-) The seeds can also be used as a natural insecticide!

Am also a bit on the pink side, a little touch of sunburn. Love the smell of sunscreen though, slathered thickly... Bring it on! Would rather this than a cooler day :)

Have had another handful of strawbs today, and about 500g of red currants. Into the freezer with them, to wait for Christmas and the pavlova - Yay! The bush was laden!
I see the birds have found the raspberries, but thats ok, because we have LOTs this year. I dont mind sharing too much...

Seeding now - carrot - paris ball, st valery and nutri red.
Just planted - Purple dragon carrot, solar white carrot.
Drying on the rack - Swede, Cavolo Nero (Black Kale) and Red Cabbage.
Potatoes are flowering, yams and ulloco are all bushy. The ulloco top leaves can be used as you would use spinach, and taste similar, also put into salads. It is nice when sprinkled with some feta cheese!
Hope all is well with you, wherever you are.
Hang on to your hat, if youre in Canterbury, youre bound to be chasing it down the street.

Take care
E BUTTERFLY
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First of the Season...

Lots happening here and there, it goes with the time of year I guess :)
We have some new faces popping up through the garden, it is so nice to have some good long hot days in Canterbury!

Harvesting the berries this week, we have had great success with the strawberries (Chandler especially!) and have a pottle or two of other mixed berries - black currant, red currant, raspberries.



Shame about the wind, but its what we are famous for I guess - the ole Nor' West wind!
The tomatoes are starting to appreciate the weather and are growing accordingly - slowly but surely.
A healthy dose of composted pooh and some seaweed is helping.

Have harvested some seeds in the past two weeks and learned how to winnow fine seeds successfully.  Swede, Red Cabbage, Mesculun varieties such as rocket, mizuna and mibuna, Black Kale and two varieties of carrot, and two of lettuce.

Sunflower - Giant Russian (6ft and still growing!)

Salmon pink Hollyhock

The first of my flowers are coming to flower this week - more of the red opium poppies, but after losing one to the wind, I have staked the remainder.

 I also found a purple variety which have just started flowering, and theyre quite smart - an unusual colour, so quite striking and very tall like their red cousin.

Thats all for now,
Happy Gardening!!
Take care
EB
XX

Long Shaking Nights, Cold days...

Have just been out, on my way inside, to check on the plants.

Have suffered no losses so far, thanks to the shelter.

Early days tho.  I see the strawberries have taken off, dancing across the garden and digging in whereever they like. Some even have flowers which makes me kind of keen to nurture them, strawberries in winter sounds awesome! I bet the birds think so too, and quite frankly, they need them more than we do.

Its been very cold today, another sign of impending doom (lol) theres obviously more where that came from and Im not sure Im a winter person. I feel sorry for the school kids with shorts on :(

We had a shaky night - just one, but close, and rather sharp and shallow, which meant I had a small person by my side afterward, which kept me quite warm!

While waiting in hospital hallways of late, Ive felt the need to be getting my Knit on, so Im getting rid of the stash to knit some hats... 

At the moment, I need a good hat eh! Still Im in good company, and I cant knit them fast enough to keep my fingers warm...

Riding on, getting those fingers clacking!
See you next time, not sure when! :)
E B

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