The recipe, preserving, and a Christ-mas devotional...

 

As so many of you asked for this recipe I have it all prepared for you today as an easy download. One thing I would like to remind those of you who make this bread, is that it is made from 100% wholemeal spelt flour, not white spelt or a refined version. I buy spelt grains and mill them myself, or when I run out of grains I have a supply in my freezer of 100% organic wholemeal spelt flour from a trusted supplier here in Australia.

You could also use wholewheat, or another type of wheat grain. Check the dough is not too dry if using a different wheat to spelt, as spelt tends to use slightly less water than regular wheat. 

If you make this loaf please let me know your results - and if you made any tweaks I'd love for you to share in the comments so we can all learn from your experience. Breadmaking is one of my absolute favourite things to do and trying new things with dough is always exciting!

**DOWNLOAD the recipe here**

MANGO MANIA

You saw our glut of mangoes last week, right? I had so many plans for using them up before they became too ripe and have almost accomplished crossing everything off my list. It was ghastly hot and humid, as is usual here, so I really needed to pace myself in the kitchen with plenty of cool drinks and rest breaks. My knee was acting up something dreadful, and my numb fingers were a slight challenge, but my arm managed very well, so thank you for your prayers. xx

I began with chopping mangoes for freezing and now have a jolly good supply for hubby's autumn and winter smoothies. Then it was on to mango chutney. We normally buy it at the supermarket, but with a hundred mangoes on hand I went looking for a simple but delicious recipe to try. The first batch was just three jars, as I was not sure how good it would taste - well, it was delicious!

I then made a larger second batch, and will make another batch on Boxing Day - it's too good not to. 

Then I moved on to mango jam, something I have never seen in a store and never tasted. This was an overnighter, the fruit and sugar needing to be left to marinate in a large saucepan until the next day. I make loads of different jams, so I assumed this would cook up quickly, but when I re-read the recipe (from the Queensland CWA 1959 Cookbook) it had to boil for 3-4 hours. 

Well, after 2 1/2 hours it was still mostly liquid (and I had only used 2/3 of the sugar given in the recipe because we do not like really sweet jams)...so I added pectin, and another ten minutes of boiling gave me a nice jammy consistency. We are yet to try this, and as I have jars to give away over Christ-mas it seems we had better slice some bread tonight and do a taste test! If it does not pass muster, my gift recipients will receive mango chutney instead (which really makes me determined to cook up another batch on Boxing Day so we don't run out ourselves). I shall let you know after Christ-mas how the jam fared. 

I've also dehydrated about ten large mangoes so far. I gave them a try on the weekend when I made mango and coconut muffins to take on our drive (we take a thermos of home-brewed iced coffee and home-baked muffins for breakfast every Sunday) and they were lovely. Dehydrating the mango intensfies the flavour a great deal. 

Some of the second batch of chutney I put in small 200ml jars for gifts if needed, and as I had some nectarines to use up, a quick batch of nectarine relish was made for Blossom, who absolutely LOVES nectarine season. 

I took about sixteen mangoes over to her at the weekend, and she was thrilled to have them fresh to eat as the children eat a lot of fruit. Ross asked for my quick mango ice-cream recipe and jotted it down on his phone, intent on making it the next day. I reminded him its actually Jamie Oliver's recipe from over a decade ago, but he'll still call it "Mum's Mango Ice-Cream". ;-)

Oh, and I made a simple mango mousse on Saturday night from fresh chopped mangoes, coconut cream, honey and a little gelatine. Hubby is dairy free, which is why I used coconut cream, but apparently the common recipe uses condensed milk and whipped cream with the mangoes.

Our elder tree continues to offer an abundance of elderberries so I am air drying them in the covered back porch. This is the second batch dried, and I have three more batches yet to be plucked off their stems. 

 If you'd like any of the recipes, just let me know in the comments and I'll type them up to share in the New Year.

REPLYING TO COMMENTS

In the previous blog post I slowly started replying to some of the comments, and I'll continue to do that from now on. As long as I rest my fingers every so often, it's manageable to type again. However, I do miss knitting, crochet and embroidery, so if you'd like to offer up a little Christ-mas prayer for healing of my arm and fingers that would be just lovely. 

THE ABIGAIL STUDY

Nothing quite like a gentle reminder from a loved one that we're only days from Christ-mas and perhaps it would be wise to begin the study in the New Year. Wisdom indeed shone through.

MERRY & BLESSED CHRIST-MAS....

Something that always leaves me quiet with an extended moment of wonder, is a truth, which as a mother of many babies rings even truer in my heart this time of year, and this is it. 

Jesus our God, and Saviour, and Redeemer, left His throne in heaven to be born from the womb of a young girl whose first experience as a mother would be to nourish and nurture God in the flesh. Every one of my newborn babies was born helpless, totally dependent on me for their sustenance, their comfort, their rest, their health, and their 24/7 care, so, to imagine the King of Glory, who chose to leave His home in heaven where He had absolute authority, being the Creator of heaven and earth - that He would choose to be a helpless babe, the first child of a young woman, a poor woman, but a young woman of absolute faith and humility, a maid who would carry Him first in her womb, then in her arms, and then in her sorrows as He hung on a cross, leaves me breathless and in awe.

This Jesus, this Lord of all, this Lamb of God...when I awake Christ-mas morning, it is He whom I shall once again worship, just as I do every day of my life, and I shall rejoice just as His mother did when He rose again, and remember his promise to come back for me one day. I hope you hold fast to that promise. I hope you hold fast to Jesus, our Jesus, this Christ-mas. 

Till the New Year, God bless all of you... 

New Bible study, and home life...

 

HOME...

Every morning when I step into the garden, the sounds that greet me are both chatter and songs from a myriad of birds in all shapes, sizes and colours. They know me, and I know them. Those that have visited for a long while are not bothered when I walk up close to say good morning and ask how they're doing. Whether hanging around in the elder tree, or busy having a breakfast of stale bread and mango leftovers, they seem to be quite at ease with my delight in their company, and my own chatter or song as I pass them by and head towards the pool for my daily exercises and to feed our 15yo cat, Sophie, who took up residence in the pool enclosure when we adopted Kelly-dog last April. Since then I have placed things there solely for her comfort and the other day I remarked to hubby that her 'enclosure' looks a bit like a feline holiday resort. Though Kelly-dog is never welcome in the pool enclosure (they are mortal enemies, sadly) Sophie does quite enjoy the visiting birds who drop by.

It is mango season again, and most homes around us have huge mango trees laden with fruit. There's quite a bit of fruit sharing generosity abounding, so neighbours or work friends will gladly drop a bucket or two or three or four (!) in for others to enjoy! The father of one of my husband's co-workers came to the car yard with a trailer load for the employees, and hubby gladly accepted this delicious bounty on Monday night.

Some of the mangoes are almost as large as a football, while others are 'normal size'. We found a couple of ripe ones immediately and enjoyed them, but the rest are not ripe yet. I intend making jars of mango chutney, dehydrated slices to keep for use in cakes and muffins until next season, and frozen pieces for hubby's breakfast smoothies. Shall also try a green mango salad tomorrow. 

We decided to purchase a large order of organic spelt grain last week, as our regular health food & bulk food supplier is closing down and they had a few bags left on the shelf. I placed the seven kilos we bought in the freezer for a week, as in our hot and humid tropical climate it is so easy to have any grains inundated with bugs. The bug eggs are in the organic grains, so at this time of the year the weather is perfect for them to hatch out. Placing the grain in the freezer for at least 48 hours kills the eggs, but I choose to leave them in for a week just to be sure, and have not had an outbreak of bugs since starting this practice. Milling the whole grains into flour is quite exciting to me and I never tire of it.

I baked this loaf at the weekend and it is delicious, especially when toasted. I love the crunch of a wholegrain slice when it is toasted, then spread with avocado or peanut butter. Let me know if you'd like the recipe.

SORROW...

I imagine nearly all of you have heard of, or seen footage of, the terrorist massacre here in Australia by now. I will never grasp the mindset of evil that can set out to kill and destroy innocent lives, whether it be children, or the elderly and all ages in between, because their belief and faith is not the same as their victims. 

I shall say no more, and really want to avoid a clash in politics or ideaology here on the blog, but what I do hope we can all do, is pray for those families who now need comfort, and for those who were injured in the shooting and are still recovering or fighting for their lives in hospital. 

Fifteen innocents dead, over 40 innocents shot and recovering. Lives forever changed. 

Lord be with them. Lord heal them. Lord comfort them. Lord, teach us to follow your commandments and live lives worthy of Christ's sacrifice. Lord thank you for those brave people who stepped in and risked their lives to save others. Amen.

BIBLE...

Early this year in my diary I listed some deep dive Bible studies to do throughout 2025. First in my list was Abigail, who became a wife to King David (1 Samuel 25). I wrote some basic notes about her character, before studying the Scriptures for the ancient Hebrew meanings of the words used. You know, it didn't take long for me to recognise a similarity to the Proverbs 31 woman we studied throughout 2024, except, as I wrote back then, the Proverbs 31 woman wasn't an actual person. King Lemuel's mother listed those beautiful attributes as a description of the kind of wife the King should look for, the wife she would be proud to have her son marry. That's why I said at the time that the entire Proverbs 31 chapter should be taught to boys and young men, so that they would know what to look for in a spouse, and choose wisely when the age of marriage came upon them.

But with Abigail...she was a real woman, a humble and courageous woman. And that's what stood out to me when I began looking closely at her life, almost right on the heels of the previous year's P31 study. 

Just before I said goodbye to you all in June this year, I had written in the previous post about sharing a study of a woman from the Bible, but as you know, I decided to close blogging from my life - and despite what some of you dear ladies have said in comments, it was indeed the Lord who led me to stop when I did. He had many lessons for me to learn, and they could only be fully understood and applied if I thought my blogging days were at an end. His timing is perfect, and always for reasons that may not be understood right then and there, but sometimes, not always, He gives us the revelation and all becomes clear. 

I have that clarity now. I know what needed to be learned (and is still being learned I should add), and it's an honour to be loved so much by our Saviour that He will not allow me to stay the same, but will continue to smooth off my sharp edges until the day (God willing) He takes me home. 

So...back to Abigail.

I like to decorate the pages of my notebooks when I'm studying a topic or person in God's Word, and maybe you do that too? Then I thought, as I was pretty much bound to a chair these past few days with my knee and arm injuries, that I could make up some pretty notepaper for you to print out and use if you'd like. I do everything very slowly at the moment, and it would be easier to sit in a chair or lay on the bed and just rest through the pain, but God never made me that way. So as long as my mind is able to function I will find a way to create something lovely, even if it takes way longer than before these injuries.

Here's the notepaper which you can download and use to write your own notes on Abigail. Use the link below to download the file. They are a free gift. 

Just be sure to choose 'actual size' or 'do not scale' before printing the file. 

DOWNLOAD the Abigail sheets for your own personal study notes

I advise you to read 1 Samuel 25 first, then pray for the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of your understanding and read it again. Write down the things that stand out to you. Something I always do when it comes to a Bible study, is to go through the book, or passages about the topic or person, and take my own notes before I ever read or listen to anyone else's teaching on the subject. 

With this relaxed, unhurried, and intentional study of Abigail's character and life, I'll write a little bit in each blog post, and REALLY look forward to your own thoughts as we go along. Early next week I'll begin with my notes on the background at the time in Israel, and the first three verses of 1 Samuel chapter 25.

For now, I need to rest. It has taken all day to write this post thus far, but it has brought joy to my heart to connect with you again, especially with so much sadness in my country this week. Bless you for all your comments, and the insights into your own day to day lives. Soon I hope to be able to write back in the comments or in email, but for now, I ask for continued grace as I put my numb and tingling fingers to work writing here. 

God bless dear ones, and may you be ever assured of the love our God and Saviour has for you, for the tears you shed and which He catches in His own hand, and for the open arms with which He waits to welcome you when you have strayed from Him and gone your own way. Lift up your eyes, my dear ones, for our redemption draws near! Luke 21:28

My free newsletter is back. Just sign up HERE and you'll receive it every couple of weeks. 

Those missing months...

Sometimes when thinking about events that happened months before, it can seem as though it were only weeks ago. So then I look at the date, usually from a photo taken on my phone, and am genuinely surprised at how swiftly time has passed by. 

Here at home, during the many months between my 'goodbye' post in June and last week's return blog, life carried on with many of our normal routines, in spite of the physical ailments. I thought today I would share a kind of 'catch-up' post for you. xxxx

During the long blogging absence I still baked bread, made cordial, jams and preserves...

Spent time with the grandkids... 

(Charlie is always the one that makes us laugh!)

(Cully May is the happiest 9yo I have ever known. We spent a day designing cards and she chose to create her own Christmas cards. In the process she learned about using a light box, scanning her design, and printing it up on cardstock - brilliant!)

(Rafaella loves to cook and sew. We spent a day sewing Christmas ornaments in felt with beads, and learning very simple recipes such as trifle that she could make without assistance for her family - and she did make it that following night and her mum and dad were very impressed!)

Hubby and I still took long country drives with the Kelly-dog every weekend...

I continued doing what I could in the garden, and absolutely loved making notes in my garden diary and gathering fresh herbs each day for teas and seasonings.

(diary entry written before the knee injury)

(diary entry written after the knee injury)

I continued working on deep Bible studies, and in the past six months have loved digging into the books of James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1 and 2 Timothy, Revelation, and am currently in Titus. The most wonderful helps have been the in-depth studies from David Pawson which I purchase on Kindle for just $5 each (the paperbacks would be wonderful, but are out of our budget at around $30 each). Still, the Kindle versions are excellent for highlighting texts and making notes, so I feel VERY blessed to have this option. Hubby is currently delving into Isaiah. 

(There are Youtube videos of David's teachings, but they are not like the books - the books have SO much depth and truly draw you closer to the Lord and living a life more worthy of Christ's sacrifice)

I tried a few new things when making gifts, such as this oval pot holder from a free pattern by Ali of Arabesque Scissors...

...and the knitted tea cosies I showed you last week. One thing I did this week was crochet around the bottom edge of the tea cosy I made for my daughter Kezzie, and it really added to the overall effect!

Also this week, I decided to use up some smaller fabric pieces, wadding offcuts, and scraps of yarn to make coasters. Simple, but lovely as these were some favourite fabrics once...

Today Blossom and I took the kids to Bunnings. They have fun at the indoor playground while Bloss and I have coffee, and then we wander around to see what we can find for the garden, or home repairs. I got some zinnia seedlings, and she got new rollers for the back screen door. 

Then the kids did crafts...and I say kids collectively because Blossom is my big kid. ;-)

Update on my nerve pain issue. Mmm...this was incredible, and totally not expected. After a long list of tests my excellent doctor sent me for on Monday, it turns out that as well as the radial tunnel syndrome (tennis elbow), the peripheral neuropathy in my hand is not caused by it. It's caused by a B6 toxicity, with a magnesium toxicity thrown in for good (bad!) measure. It may take many months to rectify this and get my levels back in normal range so that my fingers return to normal, but what a relief to have this diagnosis. It answered so many questions, and has opened the door for healing. Praise God! :-)

THANK YOU for every single comment last week, for the emails, the advice, the love, care and prayers, and just for 'being here' to welcome me back to blogging. I prayed for everyone, and I shed more than a few tears from the kindnesses offered. YOU are amazing women, a blessing in anyone's life, but especially in mine. 

I did not respond to anyone as after that long post, my numb and tingly fingers needed days to improve, though just barely. Again, I know blogging will affect my fingers, but its truly worth it to be 'back in touch' with you all. 

So, I shall sign off now, and go water the front garden, which is parched as the wet season still has not arrived...but I'll be back next week with some thoughts from my Bible studies. Hope you enjoyed today's catch up. God bless your dear hearts, and may He show you every day that while you still have breath, He has a plan for you...you will never be without purpose, sweetheart. How precious you are!

PS: That design on the cover of my garden diary is still a free pattern here on the blog. Just head HERE to download it. x

An unimagined rest...

Almost six months ago I wrote my final blog post saying goodbye to seventeen years of blogging and sixteen years of designing hand embroideries. 

So here we are at very end of November and for a variety of reasons, and after a long season of physical injuries and enforced rest (still), the desire to write for you again, to share a simple life through the pages of my blog, has been restored. 

When I closed the door on blogging, it was with a genuine permanence of heart. During the first two weeks of stepping away, I cleaned out every cupboard and drawer and file system, shredding more than a decade of Elefantz business paperwork, and donating a great deal of fabric and sewing notions. A weight lifted, and I was excited to begin a full makeover and clean up of our quarter acre.  

For the next three weeks, after the household chores were done, I worked hard in the gardens, bringing long awaited plans to fruition, and creatively making more. My to-do list for the front and back gardens was long indeed, but I was content, and incredibly happy, to start from the top and work my way through - as well as adding to what was quickly becoming an even longer list!

But then, I had an accident with my knee. Weeks and then a month went by, and the doctor I'd been seeing for quite a while could not diagnose what was wrong. Pain was rather dreadful and I could barely walk, and certainly could not attempt gardening. Eventually I requested an MRI and it was discovered the meniscus in my right knee had detached, and it also had a horizontal tear right through the centre. The delay in diagnosis had made things worse and I was eventually informed that with physio it may take up to a year for healing. 

For a few days after the accident (before the eventual diagnosis) I sat on the couch, unable to do much else, feeling rather sorry for myself, lamenting my ability to work in the garden and pleading with the Lord to heal me. By the third day, I decided reading would be better than watching old episodes of Poirot, and peering over at one of my bookshelves, I spied "Knitted Tea Cosies", a book I'd purchased at a sale many years ago but had never even browsed through. A plan was born, and after gathering yarn and knitting needles, I was already a quarter way through my first tea cosy when hubby arrived home from work. The following three months were spent knitting almost every day...

I practiced a few different styles, learned to knit leaves a couple of different ways, knitted berries and swirly things, all with the idea that they'd make lovely Christmas gifts at year's end. This was my very first completed tea cosy, made for myself as it was late July at this stage and mid-winter here in the tropics of Northern Australia (though a very warm winter as it turned out) and herbal teas were a daily treat using mint, tulsi, lemongrass, fresh ginger and lemon balm - all grown in our garden...

These leaves were knitted with garter stitch but I later began knitting leaves in stocking stitch. I got so fast with them that I ended up with a whole container of leaves in different colours. I made another tea cosy with cabled rows, another in moss stitch, and so things went on. I had absolutely no desire to do any hand embroidery. When I stepped away from blogging that day in mid June, I did not realise my desire to embroider would be set aside as well. 

My daughter Kezzie loves colour, and so I began a cosy for her, using a teapot from my collection, and choosing colours to blend with the design on it. She will love this...

A softer pink for a friend...

...and an autumn themed cosy for myself, still waiting to be assembled. 

I also knitted a bunny with dress and shoes for Rafaella, though at this stage I am yet to sew the bunny together and stuff it. 

And spying this gorgeous cropped cardigan pattern in Blossom's extensive collection of The Art of Knitting magazines, and knowing she would love a cropped cardie knitted in cotton yarn, I made it for her during the month of October. I don't have a photo of her wearing it, as she is rather camera shy, but it is worn to church every Sunday due to the air conditioning being even cooler than we have at home (we skipped spring and went straight to summer from the last week of winter/August!)...

And therein lies the next hurdle to my physical health. A trapped nerve in my elbow from the endless knitting for months on end. I've had an ultrasound and an MRI again, which ruled out a few things, and landed on Radial Tunnel Syndrome. The nerve pain was intense and endless. As you can imagine, knitting has stopped, although after four weeks since this happened, I did try to knit on Wednesday this week but after twelve stitches, no way...the pain! I stirred things up, which was quite unwise. My knee is still healing but I am coping well with both arm and knee pain now, and have almost finished weaning myself off the painkillers (they gave me a lot of dreadful side effects). 

So here's the thing. God steered me away from the blog that day in June and I needed to remove myself permanently, or so I thought. There have been times the past two months when I have considered coming back for two reasons - to share about Jesus, and to steer those who are interested in embroidery patterns back to my Etsy Shop. I want to be transparent, as I hope I have always been here, which is why I'm sharing that desire to increase Shop earnings due to hard times here at home, as one of those two reasons.

But then I pushed them aside, deciding that God gives the increase anyway, and so unless I had a real prompting from the Lord, I'd stay away. Many weeks have passed, many human decisions for and against, but then surrender to Jesus and His will be done. There's a testimony of Jesus, day by day in life, that needs to be shared. I still have a massive readership here on the blog every month, over 200,000 - and that's a God-gifted platform to share about Him. 

He also gave me a personal epiphany about what I needed to learn about myself from Him during the unimagined rest these past many months.

For sixteen years I have designed hand embroideries, quite successfully. By the gifting of God the designs came easily, the JOY to create and stitch them overflowed. I was just turning 50 when God gave me that gift, and after years of homeschooling, He was opening a new door for me. It was to be a lot of years of lessons from Him and His Word, and so many opportunties to share them with you in my blog posts...but in June, He had a new lesson for me.

I didn't get it at first. Busyness from clearing out the paperwork and the sewing room, daily jumping in to the garden and setting to work on my garden dreams, not once picking up my camera to take photos along the way, and ever so slowly separating myself from Jenny of Elefantz.

When He had me off my feet and needing to rest limbs for months, I was able to face a few things - such as 'who am I' now that I'm not designing? Was it easy for me to leave the blog because I no longer wanted to design?

Friends, the truth I have discovered is this - I no longer got the same delight in designing because of the pressure to do so. Being that for sixteen years I'd shared a free block of the month, sometimes two or three, EVERY single year since 2009, the dread of needing to keep coming up with ideas for another year was swallowing my peace. My heart wanted to stop, but how? That day when the hard drive crashed to the floor, and I thought everything about Elefantz, all the digital files over so many years, were lost...well, I felt God closing the door. I was shocked, sad, and yet secretly relieved. And He did close the door, but for a reason I never knew until recently. 

(By the way, when my husband arrived home that day and picked up the hard drive with its rattling of little pieces, he thought all was lost too. And then he plugged it in to my computer, and it worked perfectly. That still gives me goosebumps.) 

You see, I had become 'Jenny of Elefantz, an embroidery designer', and I wasn't sure how to be anyone else publicly. Behind the blog I am just Jennifer to my husband, Mum to my kids, and Nana to my grandchildren - and oh how I love that. 

The enforced slowing of the past four and half months from injuries has brought forth great fruit in how I view myself, and now, how I view the blog. Elefantz is the name God gave me in a dream way back in 2003 or 2004, and I thought it would be the name of a bookshop/cafe one day. Ha ha! God was so far ahead of me with His plans. So I cherish the name of my blog! But me, I am just Jennifer, and from today I look forward to writing here again about the things that matter in my life...Faith, Family and Home.

Sorry for the very long post, but I hope you'll drop back soon as things return to the simplicity of homemaking, God, garden, and my family. Allowing God to strip away the expectations I'd attached to myself was worth the injuries and the enforced rest. He led me beside still waters, and He restored my soul. Just call me blessed.

I've often prayed for you, and that won't change. Chat soon...

NOTE: I did pop in once after waving goodbye, in September, to offer some biblical thoughts about a sad event, and to share some of my dear Nana's wisdom, however, I eventually deleted it due to the harsh nature of some comments, an outcome I had never intended, and which served to prompt the removal of that blog post. Elefantz was never intended as a place for anger and hostility; it was, and is again, a place of refreshment, encouragement, faith, crafting and the love of homemaking. God bless!

PS: As of November 30, 2025, and after many requests, I have re-published the September blog post mentioned above. You'll find it below (dated September 22, 2025).