Bakin' stitchin' and a country drive...

 Hi everyone! 

How have you been? Are you enjoying the final month of the season, wherever you are across the globe? It's almost the end of winter here, and we've had a bumper harvest of tomatoes, rocket, spring onions, numerous herbs, cucumbers and radishes. I'm hoping we can harvest for a wee bit longer before it gets too hot again, but just this week the dreaded 'green vegetable bugs' have returned and that's always a quick marker to empty the tomato beds within a couple of weeks as they pretty much decimate them. 

No complaints though as the freezer has a bountiful supply of baby roma tomatoes and yellow pear tomatoes for pasta dishes in spring and summer, and we still have plenty in the fridge for enjoying now, plus there's hubby's large and delicious Rouge de Marmande tomatoes which he grew for the first time this season and will become a winter regular in the raised beds. 

The other day I made a cous cous salad using tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions, radishes, and coriander (cilantro) fresh picked from the garden.

I completed the large strawberry cross stitch and am very happy with it, but have not yet made a decision on whether to lightly tea-dye it (for more of an aged look) or leave it as it is. 

Now I've begun a new cross stitch pattern that I work on in the evenings. It's a lovely floral duck design which would look nice on a decorative tea towel to hang on the oven door...again, it's just an idea and I'll wait until its complete before making a final decision. 

Baking has been high on the agenda recently, especially Fat Rascals, which were baked two times in a week as they are just the kind of baked treat hubby and I enjoy! There are many varied recipes online, but the one I chose was 'just right' and we shall stick with it...

For the first time in months my leg behaved and I was able to travel in the car for a fairly decent Sunday drive (180 klm round trip), and we celebrated with home-brewed iced coffees and Fat Rascals on the way. They really do make the perfect travelling brekky!

Our trip was up the Mingela Range to the tiny town of Mingela. The town has only a handful of residents, but was once a beautifully quaint country stop for those who lived there and the farmers around the area. Today there's an old pub, which is currently undergoing refurbishment and has camping facilities, but the rest of the town is what you can see in the photos below...

The train line going out west runs parallel to the main street, and just beside it we found a bower's nest under one of the bouganvillea trees...

Some other baking recently was a Lemon Kefir Pound Cake, as I had some excess kefir to use up. The recipe also had a lemon syrup drizzle, but I chose not to do that as I really didn't want it too sweet - just a simple, moist lemon pound cake to have with a morning tea cuppa. This is another recipe I'll be making over and over, and probably one day with the drizzle too...

It made a large loaf size cake so I sliced up half of it and froze the slices for quick treats. In fact I freeze quite a lot these days as it's nice to just pull something out of the freezer to have with cuppas or as a dessert, or to take on a drive. 

I enjoy grinding my own spelt grain to make flour for sourdough or regular breads, but I have begun using it for other baked items as well. I mostly use the Nourishing Traditions method of soaking the freshly ground flour in liquid (yoghurt or kefir or whey mostly) for 24-48 hours before adding other ingredients. Below is the most recent bake, with a flour/kefir mixture after 48 hours...

Then I added honey, eggs, vanilla, orange zest, baking soda and cranberries, with slivered almonds across the top. Baked in a loaf tin, this was soooooo good!! When the freshly ground grain is soaked this way, it gives you a beautifully soft texture when baked.

This was sliced, half of it frozen for another day, and the rest enjoyed with butter over three days. Delicious!

Next week I shall be returning to regular blogging, and will share some of my hopes for the future. 

God has been abundantly gracious in my life, and even though I'm still in the midst of treatment for this painful knee/leg injury and must be mindful of activity, He has stirred my creativity once more, and I am looking forward to working on some new things, whilst remaking some older projects. 

Recently I told my husband I was feeling quite obsolete, and he laughed. And when he laughs he makes me laugh! We chatted and he understood what was going on in my mind after such a long period of stepping away from a few of the things I loved (such as long Sunday drives, blogging, driving the car to visit the grandkids, sewing, doing my own grocery shop, visiting a friend)...and I was encouraged to simply do what makes me happy NOW, and use the gifts God gave me. Even if its just in a very small way. So the sewing room got a slow, deep clean this week, and that filled my heart with joy. 

God bless you dear ones, and if you've been feeling a bit obsolete too (hubby still laughs at that description) then take a step back and pray for encouragement to see the bigger picture, and focus on the things you CAN do, rather than what you cannot. It might bring joy...

Until next time,

PS: My Etsy Shop is always open, so please drop by if you are in the mood for something new to stitch.

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