Trees, some eggs, sticky date pudding and more trees

 

Hi everyone,

 

Today I want to share my ultimate sticky date pudding recipe with you.....to quote the lion king " it's to die for Simba"

 

Ingredients for pudding:

• 1 and 1/4 cups pitted dates (chopped)
• 1 and a quarter cups boiling water
• 1 tsp bicarb
• 3/4 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
• 60g butter
• 2 Eggs
• 1 cup SR flour
• 1/4 tsp vanilla essence

Ingredients for sauce:

• 1 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
• 100g butter (chopped)
• 300ml cream
• 1/4 tsp vanilla essence

Method for pudding:

1. Put chopped dates & boiling water on stove, heat until water evaporates, keep stirring constantly towards the end (it should be nice and moist)

 

4. Add bicarb to dates and stir (froth) take off heat
5. Cream butter and sugar, stir in eggs, add dates mixture (allow to cool slightly) & gradually stir in siffed flower, then add vanilla

 

6. Add mixture to 20cm cake tine (greased)

7. Cook in 180' for 40 -45 mins
8. Once pudding has risen (around 20-25 mins) add 1/2 your sauce mixture and let cook for
 remainder of time... THIS PART IS CRUCIAL FOR PUDDING SUCCESS

Method for sauce:

1. Melt butter and sugar in saucepan over high heat.
2. Stir in cream, allow to boil (stirring constantly) then reduce heat & stir until dissolved and smooth, then add vanilla.

 And finally:

 

'Serve warm with ice cream, the yummy sauce and if calories don't matter...add some cream.... '

 

Trees a crowd....

We been a planting, digging, stakin and breakin (our backs!) in our latest crusade to establish the foundations for the garden....

 

With no tractor or those funny curly things that make holes for you, we relied on the old faithful shovel and hard graft to create our holes for the trees. You can see we had a quality control officer on board...we passed!

 

 

  Brookie dug away

 

I shared the load, but someone had to take the progress and development photos... so here's Brookie again a bit further on

 

And after 5 hours the first day, and 7 the second, we were done diggin...sorry about the ball!!

We used the magic compost again to help the wee trees on the way, it's just lovely to work with. 

 

Green means go!!!!

 

We have also been busy getting the vege garden ready to rock'n roll with the new season greens...Brooke turned over all 4 gardens, took away old stock and gave it to the chooks, she then set the carrots, onions, lettuce, beetroot, tomatoes, garlic, silver beet, broccoli and spinach...yippee, love them all.

The cost of the initial purchase compared to how much they would cost to buy at the supermarket is really unbelievable. 

The money you save, and the quality you gain is huge.

I really encourage anyone who has some space around them to "get growing ".

 

 

 

 

Eggs and chooks and labels.

I'm testing out a wee label for our cottage eggs, it's kinda quirky and a little bit cool....ideas welcome for any improvements... we are getting between 5 & 7 eggs a day now.We are loving them and so are our workmates... even wee Georgia who has been the last one to adjust to her new surroundings has been having a go...she had really dry legs a few weeks ago when she arrived, but we have been treating her with wonder powder it's called diatomaceous earth and it is amazing..please have a read about it.

Eggs and label

 

 

 

Sign for our wee gate:

We wanted to have a nice wee welcome sign at the front gate and our lovely friend made us one. I painted to background first, then once it was dry, I filled in the letters.

 

And found a nice wee spot on the front gate to hang it.

 

So my friendly followers...it's been a good week, I think if you feel satisfied with your efforts and that the energy you spend was worthwhile, it can only be a good thing.

 

And my words for the week are relative to exactly how I feel...

 

Spending energy is the same as spending money.... choose wisely where it goes, and always know, that you will only ever get a quality return for a quality investment, giving less and and expecting more does not happen...

 

BE - DO - HAVE