The Family Table { Our first harvest }

The vegetable garden, has yielded it's first harvest. Yellow cherry tomatoes. They have been slowly ripening over the last week, and today I decided, they were yellow enough. Ripe enough to eat.
I planned to make a salad with them for our dinner tonight. To celebrate our first taste of home grown vegetable.

But my eldest daughter had other plans. Quietly eating, next to all of them, while they sat in the small blue bowl I'd left them in. Well, they were for eating I suppose. And who could blame her. Once I tried one, I completely understood. These were the most sweetest tasting tomatoes that I'd tasted in a long time. I'd forgotten what a "real" homegrown tomato tasted like.

It's a rare thing, for my children to spontaneously eat vegetables like this. Perhaps the novelty of watching them grow for weeks and picking them together, made them all that more enticing to eat.
Whatever the reason, I'm pleased to see her eating them with such joy.

The Mine Tour

I wasn't going to post this post.

It's so unglamorous. But then, so is this place. There's no point pretending it's any better than it actually is. Looking at these photos makes me wonder, what are we doing up here exactly? This part of the world, this lifestyle, it's really not me at all. Or us. But, this is the reason we're here. Living in such an isolated place. Mining. My husbands work.

A family day at the mine. A chance to look around the office and area where my husband works. To see where all that red dust, which settles on everything and everyone in town, comes from.

 

 

 

 

Doesn't it just make you want to move here?!

The Garden Share Collective { Our Vegetable garden at 7 weeks }

A monthly (and my first), post for the Garden Share Collective. Started by the lovely Liz from The Strayed Table to encourage more people to grow their own organic food. A blogging community, who share a garden update about their own vegetable patches, big or small. What is growing, what has been harvested and what has made it to the do-list.

Well, my garden at seven weeks young, is slowly blossoming. We created it, to both grow our own vegetables, but to also instil the joy of looking after, and watching plants grow with our two young daughters. It is our first vegetable garden. We are growing vegetables, sunflowers and marigolds from a mixture of seedlings and plants.

 

Our climate is a little on the hot side in this part of the country. Most days are in the high 30's. And, at the moment, it keeps getting gradually hotter and hotter by the week. Despite this, with twice daily watering, it still continues to thrive.

What do we have growing in our garden at the moment? Yellow and red tomatoes, cucumbers, purple runner beans, zucchini, chilli's, parsley, lettuce, coriander, and corn. We also have a potted Valencia Orange tree, lemon tree, and a New Norcia Olive tree which were relocated with the rest of our belongings from Perth. We had a limited amount of seedlings available to choose from when we first planted the vegetable garden, and as my brother was helping us with the construction of the vegetable garden, he was the one who quickly chose seeds and seedlings to plant. A lot of things that were on my shopping wish list to plant and grow, were not in stock unfortunately. The joys of living in a remote part of the country. You can read my post about the making of our vegetable garden here. As time goes on, I hope to be more organised in what we plant to eat at our table. I can already see, that we're going to have more purple runner beans than our small family could ever need. We haven't quite found a balance of planting that works for us yet. But this was a vegetable garden, planted in haste, before the temperatures became too warm. 

What do I have on my to do for next month. Some more considered planting, basil, carrots, and spring onions. All of which I use often in the kitchen. And to look into a small compost bin system for our food scraps. And, of course, a little bit of weeding. They grow as quickly as our vegetables.

'Til next month!

Mr Mo

It's November. Which means it's Movember time. The annual, putting down of the razors, and shaping of the facial hair, all in the name of charity. All in the name of changing the face of men's health. That being, prostate and testicular cancer, and mental health.
I just love what the Mr Men series of books have unveiled in time for this annual charity event, a tache-twirling Mr Mo.

Isn't he the cutest! Almost makes me want to grow my own Mo.

My husband is still undecided if he will repeat last years attempt at growing a Mo. Last year's was somewhere between the undercover and the trucker style mo. Personally, I hope he does, it's a great cause. Aside from minor pash rash, it's fun to watch a carefully constructed Mo grow. But maybe something a little softer and wispier this year would be nice. More like Mr Mo's.

20% from every Mr Mo book sold will be donated to Movember. So if you can't or won't grow a Mo, maybe this is the best way to go! You can buy Mr Mo here from Puffin books.

The Family Table { The Recipe Journal }

"Family ties are precious threads, 

no matter where we roam. 

They draw us close to those we love, 

and pull our hearts toward home."

My recipe journal. A handwritten walk down memory lane of food shared. The best of the best recipes, that I've eaten throughout my life. It was something I started after seeing my Mum's own recipe journal, on one of her trips to visit us. The sort of sentimental possession that travels only in your hand luggage. Too precious for a suitcase. Too irreplaceable if lost.

Flipping through the pages, I always feel nostalgic. Dinners remembered. Moments shared from a younger more simple time. Recipes that I associate with their "true" owners. That are shared seldomly, and only with a select few. My recipe journal, is a testament, to the large, extended family that I was lucky to grow up with. Of strong characters who lived, and still live, long fulfilling lives. Passing down stories. Recipes. Of people still present. And of people who have passed on, but who's presence is still felt in conversation.

Food, and the sharing of food, has always been a large part of my family. It has shaped my memories in more ways then I realised. It makes me sentimental for certain people, who made a recipe their own, in such a way, that nobody can ever quite make it as well. For those afternoons, of endless cups of coffees around Nanna and Grandads table with chocolate cake.

Voices speak to me through their individually, distinctive handwriting. And confirm, that this recipe was theirs, to be shared and enjoyed by others.

Eating around our family table, now that we are together as a family every night, feels more important to me now than ever before. So many of my family memories, from my childhood, involve sitting down together, sharing food, talking. It is something, that I also want to pass on to my children.

Don't get me wrong. My daughters are two and a half years, and fourteen months old. Dinner time is often a rowdy, noisy, messy affair. Consisting of a little gentle coaxing for my eldest, who is often full after 1 or 2 mouthfuls, as only a toddler could be. And sadly, on those days where everybody has reached breaking point by dinner time, and toddler and adult tantrums loom, we might just be watching Peppa Pig while eating too. Whatever works, right? But the aims there. To create that family feel. To create our own family traditions and ways of doing things. There's no gourmet fair cooked daily here. Just good home cooked, mostly healthy meals, with lots of flavour, that aim to feed and please all 4 of us. Without fuss, in a minimum amount of time.

At our table, there is one recipe, that everybody loves. That the girls both eat seconds of (a rare occurrence). My recipe, that I'm now known for in our house. And it has even made Mum's recipe journal. Worthy of putting my name in front of. Hope it's as popular in your home.


Carla's Oven-baked Tuna Risotto
875ml chicken stock
10g butter
2 tspns olive oil
1 medium brown onion, chopped finely
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
425g can tuna in oil, drained gently
1 cup frozen peas
250g cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbspns lemon juice
Preheat oven to 180C, or 160C fan forced.
Bring stock to boil in medium sized saucepan. Meanwhile, melt butter with olive oil in large saucepan, cook onion and garlic, stirring, until onion softens. Add rice, stir to coat in onion mixture. Stir in hot stock and tuna.
Place risotto mixture in a large shallow baking dish, cover with foil. Bake in oven, 15 min, stirring halfway through cooking time. Uncover, bake another 20 minutes. Stir in peas, top with tomatoes, bake uncovered, about 15 minutes or until rice is tender. Remove from oven, stir in lemon juice.


A family table series. That I aim to blog about regularly. Sharing thoughts,occasional recipes and memories, of all that occurs and has occured around our family table.

2014- A year to get organised

I missed the RSVP date to a wedding invitation today. When we had our wedding in 2008, we had the same thing happen to us. It is so annoying, having to chase up RSVP's to your own wedding. I lamented to my husband, "how rude of them", "what a waste of an invitation." All those things.
And now I've gone and done exactly the thing that I couldn't stand myself, to somebody else.

This was to a girl, who I've known a long time. Our Mothers were high school friends, and we kind of grew up with each other, despite living in different states. I think of Lauren, and I think of endless afternoon games of Rummikub, and Milo's at her Nanna's house during Lauren's school holiday visits. And, to be honest, they are afternoons that I have often thought of . Because, I love Rummikub, and have never been able to find anyone else since, who is happy to play back to back games with me. (I tried with my husband, but he was completely disinterested. He prefers to play Scrabble and cheat using words that aren't really words.)

I'll be honest. Organisation, is not my strong suit. After our first child, my attempts at organisation were hanging by a thread. Now after our second, it's kind of gone completely out of the window. If something has a due date, whether it be a bill, library book, or RSVP (!!!), then you can almost guarantee, that I'm going to miss that due date.

After sending a heartfelt apology and explanation, regarding my still ongoing case of baby brain, I decided that I REALLY need to sort my shit out from now on. Pre-girls, I would never have done such a thing.

So my attempt to get myself organised, starts now.

In the past, I've tried all types of diaries and layouts, in an attempt to be as organised as possible. I've tried a digital type diary, on both my ipad and my phone. The reminders were great when they popped up, but it did actually require you to enter the details into the diary for that to work. Suffice to say, it didn't last too long. The reality is, I'm a visual person. I need to see and flick through the pages of my diary to really appreciate what is on my to do list for that day and week.

What I have found that works for me. A 7 days to a page diary. A5 size. Not too big to be overly bulky, not too small to be useless and difficult to write in. Unless you're a man. Than a big diary seems to be always the more popular choice. And if you're a daily list maker like my husband. Than the biggest diary you can find.

This year I've chosen this lovely little number from Kikki K. Yellow (of course).

And coloured pens, to highlight different appointments, birthdays, activities, due dates for bills and so on.

Typically, I've always kept my diary away in a corner somewhere, nice and neat. Pulled it out, when I needed to use it. But I'm aiming to keep it in a new reserved spot in the kitchen, to compensate for my lack of a desk (let's not analyse the kitchen being my now new office spot.) And a new routine to go with it. After making the girls their breakfast, and while I'm making my morning coffee and own breakfast, I will visit my diary. Every morning. Glance at my day. My week ahead. Like a normal person would do. Sounds basic doesn't it! And makes me wonder, why I haven't been doing this all along.

How do you diary? And keep on top of all those to do's, whilst being totally distracted by looking after young children.

A little Giveaway { Closed }

This year I am organised for Christmas. Santa Claus can put down the credit card now.
With my only option being online shopping, I made sure I shopped with a list. Both girls, are notoriously well looked after in the gift department at any given time. But there is something about the sweetness (mostly) of daughters, that always makes you feel that you need to buy them just that little something else.

That would be me and childrens books. I just can't help myself when it comes to buying books for the girls. Childrens books are just the loveliest of things. Their innocence captures me everytime. As do the illustrations. We buy. We borrow from the library. And I never quite tire from them.

I started this blog with relatively strong feelings of embarrassment, and well, awkwardness. Which still exists. I still haven't shared the existence of this blog with people that I've met while living in this part of the world. A blog, just feels so, self-promontional. Which isn't really me. So as a little thankyou for reading my blog. And for all your support, lovely messages and encouragement, a small giveaway. Two childrens books that I'm currently in love with. One set aside for Christmas. One that we already read and enjoy. I'm sorry if you are the Mum of boys. Both of these books are a little girly. But they'd make a great present for somebody else I'm sure!






Ruby Red Shoes by Kate Knapp.
The charming story of an adorable little hare who lives in a colourful caravan with her grandmother. The story and the illustrations are just gorgeous, and so heart warming. And Ruby's vegetable garden, is just amazing. Mine, falls dismally short of hers. I can't wait for Santa to deliver this book for Christmas.
















Grace has a Secret by Prudence Holling and Phillipa Ray.
I have blogged about this book here. This book has such a lovely storyline and simple message, about a little girl with a big heart, who tries to change the world through a simple act of kindness. It is also illustrated by the lovely and talented Liz Braid, who designed the header for my blog.








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