Easter Monday

A perfect morning for a walk.

Chilli Oil

I'm still overwhelmed with study and assignment writing but took a short time out this morning to make some Chilli oil.  Our Chilli bush is one of the few things in the garden that has liked the ridiculous amount of rain we have had.

Last Subject

Last week I started the last subject in my Masters of Learning and Development.  Normally I don't post stuff about work or uni on this blog as it really doesn't suit the theme.  My reason for mentioning it now is that blogging over the next 10 weeks will be a bit intermittent.  Although I have studied and blogged before I didn't really focus enough on studying and my purpose now is to put in a very strong finish for my Masters.

I have created a blog for my current subject "Online Pedagogy" and while most will find this of no interest at all, some of my training buddies may.  The blog link is http://edc8114journal-jen.blogspot.com.au/ and I will also add it to my list of favourite blogs on the side.   This blog will form part of my final assessment where I need submit a reflective journal.

I will post the odd "simple life blog" when I can.  It's currently pouring again and I'm looking at a river outside my office window.  We planted around 40 seedlings in the vegie garden yesterday and I fear that most of them will have washed away.   Ohhhh the life of a farmer !

Red Curry Sweet Potato Soup

I used some of our recent crop of Sweet Potato to make this soup.

Recipe

500 Grams of Sweet Potato slowed cooked in the oven with the skin still on.  Once cooked scoop the flesh away from the skin.  (fed the skin to the dogs)

1 Brown Onion, 2 cloves garlic and 2 sticks of celery (chopped) all cooked in 3 tablespoons of olive oil.

Then add 2 tablespoons of Red Curry Paste (maybe less next time)

Add the sweet potato flesh and 1 litre of vegetable stock.

Cook over a slow heat for 30 - 45 mins.  

I then used the stick mixer to blend out all the lumps.

Reheated just before serving and added one can of coconut milk (440ml)

Served with a dollop of sour cream and a sprig of mint.

It was delicious but maybe just a touch to spicy 

Rain, Rain and More Rain

We are soooo sick of the rain.  Yesterday afternoon it just poured and poured and this was the follow on from a huge storm the night before that also dropped heaps of rain.   I took these photos yesterday afternoon.  Really hoping for some sunshine soon.

You can see our wood pile and outdoor fire almost completely covered by water

There are some kids swimming in the dam a couple of blocks up.  There is no way I would do that.  All the snakes wash down with this kind of rain.   We had a Red Belly Black in the front yard last week.

Seems that we put our fence up at just the right point.  Our block goes all the way to the back of the dam.

Lilly also wishing the sun would come out so I'd take her for a walk

Sweet Potato

2.2kg

Our first attempt at growing Sweet Potato has been a huge sucess.   I bought a Beauregard Sweet Potato from the Diggers Club in October and planted it straight away in a dedicated garden bed.   I wasn't too sure when to dig it up but when I took a look at it last Sunday I realised I'd possibly left it too long.  We had a huge mound of sweet potato errupting like a volcano out of the soil. 

As you can see we had a couple of very very large sweet potato but the majority of the crop are a perfect size.   In total we dug up 8.5kg !

Now it's time to look for those sweet potato recipes.  We'll also cook and freeze a lot to have later in the year.  



The Whole Crop

This Week's Favourite Pictures

We've been having very tropical weather this week.  Some very heavy downpours at night followed by hot humid days.  Great weather for frogs and mozzies.  I'm starting to look forward to the dry cold winter.  (although I'm sure I'll change my mind when it's here).

The grass is growing as we watch it and Garry is spending 3 hours a week on the ride-on mower.  I'm sure he is looking forward to winter to.

There have been some great photo opportunities this week. Here are my favourites.

Sunset reflected in the dam

This is the road we live on.  You can see how heavy the sky is and how lush the grass is.  You can just see our dam on the right

Daddy Frog and Baby Frog

Lilly under my chair staying dry