The Ginger Factory

 Its school holidays and already they are winding down so I invited my daughter to a girls only lunch date thinking we would meet about halfway between us. But she suggested going north to the ginger factory about 70 kms from my place, she would pick me up and drive.

Oh boy, it was school holidays and the place was packed, only obe tabke available so we made a beeline for it. I love their ginger scones served with ginger jam and cream, thinking that we would have half each only to discover that she doesnt share my love of ginger.

The cafe is surrounded by big trees and palms, it does have a roof and also huge fans to move the air around. Lunch was pretty good, we had ordered a grazing plate and a poke bowl plus my scone. 

Then we walked the gardens, which has been quite a small area but it has been extended and now is a great ramble especialy for kids as through the trees are dotted cut outs of dragons and dinasoars.

We were particularly taken by an art display of colourful umbrellas.

Several lanes had these hanging above

Cool through the nature walk with different flowering  bushes. A small train goes through the park and then there are some shops on the side. We didnt shop as we didnt want or need anything. A pleasant way to spend a few hours.

Meatless Monday

 Not often we have a meatless meal but I saw this on one of the cooking shows and decided to give it a go.

It was called a mushroom pie. Five ingredients.

As usual I did change the recipe a bit!

So first cook off onions and mushrooms, they didnt give out quanties but it looked like about three onions and maybe 500gms of mushrooms.  The pie bit was a flat bread and they wet it with water and put it into a pie dish that had been lined with baking paper. Next went in some ricotta cheese and spread over the bottom, add in the mushroom and onion mixture. The flat bread came up the sides a little and was molded over but it didnt cover the whole top. Oven for forty minutes, that seems a long time to me as everything was actually cooked. Served with a dollop of ricotta.

I had some of the ingredients so I set to work. 

No onions so I did have a couple of spring onions and half a can of sweet corn, did have mushrooms.  Cooked them.

No flat bread but there were a couple of wraps so prepared the tin. No ricotta but some tofu in the fridge. Whizzed up a red pepper, garlic and the tofu with some olive oil to take the place of the ricotta. Red pepper was getting a little past its prime so cut and threw in with the mushrooms. The wrap only covered the base of the baking tin so I added anither wrap on top, pierced a few holes and added some parm cheese, only baked it for 20 minutes.

This was left over. The wrap on top went crispy with the parm cheese. Followed the recipe to a T, at least I had mushrooms! 

Todays lunch was left over musroom pie in scrambled eggs. We didnt eat the bottom wrap. Def would make again with proper flat bread, not as many onions are orginal recipe used.

Board game

 Warren decided to make a game for when we hosted Christmas. He went to Totworld and luckily thet had trivia questions so that was the biggie out of the way.  We found small animals which he glued to bottle tops making the tokens. The rest he did himself.

Its upside down on the table. Needed a couple of tweaks but it was good fun and took roughly ninety minutes to play, cant remember who won. The questions were all Australian trivia , so some of us learnt a thing or two as well. The questions had three possible answers so didnt need to think too hard just pick 1,2 or 3.

Overlocker

 Now that I am sewing for charity, some are amazed that I dont have an overlocker to finish of seams. I generally sew the seam with a straight stutch and then zigzag the edges therefore taking twice as long.

The main organgisor of Uniforms for kids asked if I would like to borrow an overlocker as she had one that she wasnt using. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, I said that I didnt know how to use one.

Not a problem, I could visit and she would give me a lesson. This happened before Christmas. Trouble was that I didnt really have anywhere to put it and therefore I put off using it but felt as though I should get on to it.

Warren came up with a solution which involved moving my iron and irining board out and adding a fold up table.

Here it is in place.

Scary looking thing. With moving it and setting it up, a couple of the cottons got tangled. Luckily I have a resident techo here and with the manual and a head torch, he was able to thread it up and then I gave it a tentative test run.

Yay, it works! It does only do straight lines and as it trims the fabric at the same time, its no good for hemming but does save a lot of time.

Boxing day sales are on so after a bit more practise, I am going to buy my own.

Even with other stuff happening today, I managed to make three little dresses so I will probably make my self challenge of 42 items by 18 Jan.

Christmas lights

 There have been a few houses of note featured on the news about the Christnas lights. When local newspapers were around (bc, or before covid) addresses were advertised and it was a bit of a tradition of the Christmas season to drive around to check out the lights.

With covid, cost of electricity and general cant be bothered, there are nit as many out there as there used to be.

We havent put ours up for a couple of years but Warren was clearing out a cupboard and found some and he placed them around the front a few days ago. They are all solar, work for about three hours then turn off until the next night.

Nothing spectacular but they do make the place look a bit special.

They change colour every few seconds.

A display on our garage door, also change colour and formation.

Pirates of Penance

 Warren bought tickets to see this on Sunday afternoon. 

He did well with the seats, we were in row G on the end of the row. Usually we dont go out at half time but it was easier to do that rather than get up every time someone else wanted to go out.

The orchestra was on stage the whole time which surprised us, there didnt seem to be enough room for the players but they managed it.

First half was quite loud and mainly singing.

We had seen the preformance before in Canberra years ago but good to revisit.

A bite with Alice

 A 30 minute program on TV that we have been watching just before the news. Dont know who Alice is but she does some good recipes.

The other night she cooked a roast chicken. I have cooked chicken as a roast but bever to sure about it so usually buy a roast chicken from the supermarket.

However Alice had some good tips and also how long to cook it. I thought I would have a go.

First dry the chicken by leaving it uncovered in the fridge for a day or so. Place breast side down in pan and oil, rub the oil all over the bird. 180 degrees for 40 minutes then 200 for another 20 minutes. DO NOT turn chicken.

I did a pan of root vegetables as well and added to the oven.

We bought a new cooktop and oven just after lockdown in 2020, since buying an airfryer, I havent used the oven. Needed the extra space so had to dig around for instructions.  Oops, I forgot, oven has a timer similar to the airfryer.

Select fan forced 200 degrees, 70 minutes. I want my chicken cooked through.

So so easy, crispy skin, juices ran clear, vegies were moist.

Then I made a sauce/gravy, Alice called it a gravy. A spoonful of chicken schamtz, basically the bottom of the pan juices, add ginger garlic sweet chilli sauce blitz it and you have a pouring sauce. Yummo, never done that before either.

No photo but I will be cooking it again. Two chickens cost $8, roast chook from supermarket is now $13. Not that this was a money saving exercise, jyst wanted to see if I could roast a decent chicken and yes I can.

Aluce says not to turn chicken as the breast being the tenderist will dry out so needs to stay in the oil and the legs and thighs need more heat and will get that by being uppermost.

Good old Alice.