Ben Harper: Fight for your mind.

This is the next installment of my 'Sharing the lovley music of Ben Harper with you' posts, as I get more and more excited about seeing him! It's next week infact! So, as I said, I would play you my favourite song off each album, and today, it's from his second album, Fight for your mind.

My favourite song off this album is called 'Give a man a home'.

I hope you enjoy!

Taz

Banana and Blueberry cake with cream cheese icing.

Each week, hubby and I like to have something baked in the house, ready to eat for afternoon tea or take to work. The past week, it's been a very delicious Banana and Blueberry cake.

 

I followed the recipe for my chocolate banana cake, but left out the cocoa and added 3/4 cup of blueberries. I also iced it using my homemade cream cheese, and it was oh so delicious!

 

 

You will need:

 

1 1/2-2 ripe bananas, mashed

1 egg

1 cup rapadura sugar

1 tbs honey

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup milk

3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

pinch salt

1 1/2 cups spelt flour (or normal flour)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

 

Throw everything in a large mixing bowl. Mix well. Pour into a greased cake tin, or patty pans, and bake for 30-35 min at 180C or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before icing.

 

Honey Vanilla Cream Cheese Icing:

1/3-1/2 cup homemade cream cheese or store bought

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbs honey, or to taste

 

Mix the icing ingredients in a bowl until smooth and creamy and the flavour is to your liking.

 

 

Spread onto your cooled cake. Cut a generous slice for yourself and enjoy!

 

 

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Taz



 

 

 



Latest fete finds...



Yes, fetes are still going and I must say, they keep on getting better each week. Over the past two weekends, ive been to 7 fetes. Ive had alot of cake. Alot. Ive also found lovely treasures. Two weekends ago, some friends and I went to 3 fetes. The weekend just past, my lovely sis in law and her hubby and kids, joined Percy and I on a '4 fetes in a day' day! It was great. Here are some of my favourite things I found over the past 2 weeks!

Cute fabric

 

Some new clothes

 

 

Cute birthday cards

 

This doily cushion cover

This cushion

A picture with the BEST fabric

 

These handmade fingerless gloves

 

Some vegies and herbs for hubbys garden

A cute chicken bunting for my sewing toom

 

Playing cards for when Percy is older

Found this cute cross stitched lion to put on something

New glasses (5c each)

 

This pretty material is a wrap around skirt

A handmade bag bag for our facewashers

 

Homemade biscuits of course!

 

Ive also found sewing supplies, gardening tools, a shirt for hubby. Now you can see exactly why I love fetes so much! Ive written about others here and here. My sis in law at mezzmakesstuff shared what she found on the weekend too!

 

So, have you gone to a fete yet???

 

Taz 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nourishing Traditions

I own a very good book. Its a cookbook, as well as a very well thought out book on what foods make sense to eat. For example, butter is completely natural, so doesn't it make sense to eat that over margerine! I like that way of thinking, and eating, as its much more delicious! It's not a diet book, but it gets you thinking about what you eat. It's a book that teaches you how to make food from scratch and foods that were traditionally eaten and how they were traditionally made years ago. It's called Nourashing Traditions and it's pretty much open everyday, sitting on my kitchen table.

 

I've been busy cooking recently, and will share with you the recipes i've made so you too can make good food from scratch. I've made mayonaise, cream cheese, and apple cider.

 

For the mayonaise, you will need:

 



 

1 whole egg, at room temp

1 egg yolk, at room temp

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 1/2 tbs lemon juice

3/4 - 1 cup extra virgin olive oil

generous pinch of sea salt

pepper

 

Combine everything but the oil in a food processor for about 30 seconds. With the motor running, add the oil very slowly. Check the flavour and add more seasoning or lemon juice if you need. Place in a jar and refrigerate. Lasts abour 2 weeks if not eaten before! Delicious on cold boiled eggs!

 

 

 

For the next two recipes, whey was required. I made this, by draining a tub of yogurt for almost 2 days, but it will depend on how much you have. The book gives you a recipe for making the yogurt, but I had a tub of good quality organic yogurt that I used.

 

 

 

Place your yogurt in a sieve lined with a clean tea towel or cheesecloth. Place the sieve over a bowl and let the whey drip out for a few hours. Then tie the cloth to a wooden spoon and hang over the bowl to allow more whey to drip out. Only once the whey competely stops dripping is it ready. This was overnight and all day for me.

 

 

 Place the whey in an airtight glass jar and refrigerate. It will last for about 6 months. There are so many uses for it (one is coming up) so don't throw it out. You can use it instead of milk or water in your baking recipes too! And with the left over solids(this is the exciting bit), thats the cream cheese! Its ready to use. I stored mine in a covered glass bowl in the fridge. It was delicious on sandwiches, used as a dip with vegies as well as on some sourdough fruit loaf with a sprinkle of cinnamon.

 

 

 And for the last recipe..for now of course...is homemade apple cider!

 

 

 I quatered this recipe as I wasn't sure if I would like it so didn't want to use too many apples. But, as I thought it would be, it was delicious so will make it again with the full amount of ingredients.

 

This makes a gallon.

 

4 dozen organic apples

1 heaped tbs sea salt

1/2 cup whey

 

Wash, core and pass the apples through a juicer. Scrape off all the foam that gatheres on the top.

 









 

Place in a large bowl, cover with a cloth and let it sit at room temperature for 3 days. Skim foam off that may have risen to the top, then pour into glass containers, seal and refrigerate. Flavours will develop over several weeks and the cider will become slightly fizzy.

 

 



 

 The apple cider is really refreshing. Its not overly sweet even though so many apples were used, and if your worried about it being salty, its not either. I've tasted it after about 2 weeks in the fridge, but am looking forward to trying it as it sits in the fridge longer. Next time I will try it with green apples and see how the flavours change.

 

I'm now brewing homemade ginger beer from this book, so will share that recipe when its ready.

 

I hope you enjoyed this and hope you feel encouraged to try making some food from scratch!

 

Taz



Ben Harper: Welcome to the cruel world

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm a little bit excited (a big bit excited), to be seeing Ben Harper play live in less than a month. Im going to share with you my favourite song off each of his albums as I coundown the days till seeing him, so you may enjoy his lovliness too!

This is his first album, called Welcome to the cruel world, and my favourite song is 'Waiting on an angel'.  Enjoy!

 

 

Appologies for dodgy video I found!

 

Thanks for listening!

 

Taz

Happy Birthday!

I was supposed to write this post in June, but had forgotten. I think baby coming was taking over my brain! This is just to show you what I made for one very cute little boy for his 1st birthday (which was in June)! As tiredness was high then and not knowing what a one year old really needs, I got a little creative. I made this simple picture for his room.

 

I chose bright fabrics and cut out different shapes and machine sewed them onto rectangle fabric, which was then attatched to a piece of felt. Attatched all four pictures onto a large piece of fabric, that fit a frame, and framed it.

 

 

 

 

 

Although this is not something the birthday boy can play with, i'm sure he will enjoy pointing at the picture and learning to say the words 'Trees' 'Car' 'Sun' and 'Bird'.

 

 

Happy birthday again...even though i'm 4 months behind!

 

Taz

 



I'm going to see Ben Harper!

In less than a month, hubby and myself are heading out on the town, to see a very favourite, if not my favourite singer, Ben Harper. My lovely brother and sis-in-law bought us tickets and are babysitting Percy. I have every one of Ben Harpers albums, and find he will be what I turn on to listen to most days. He has just released a new album, By My Side, which is a compilation of his favourite ballady songs from his other albums.

The album is just perfect and I often have it on repeat. As I am sooo excited to see him play live, I thought I would share with you, my favourite song on each of his albums, to get you to experience the lovliness that is Ben Harper!

Ben Harper recorded a new song for this new compilation album, and its up there as a favourite, so that will be todays song.

Crazy Amazing

Hope you enjoyed this song!

Taz

 

Roasted almond and caramel ice cream.

I've been in the mood again for ice cream lately, and this excited me as I make my own these days and I wanted to think of a yummy flavour to make. It WAS going to be blackberry ice cream, but became roasted almond and caramel. How you ask? My hubby and I recently, were trying to make almond brittle. It didn't set how we thought it would, so churned the still gooey and delicious almond brittle into a basic ice cream custard mixture. It was a very very pleasant suprise! Infact, it will be a flavour I make again! Blackberry ice cream will happen soon, and I will share the recipe then. But for now, here is the recipe for homemade roasted almond and caramel ice cream.

 

 

I used this basic recipe, from my Passionfruit and vanilla ice cream, but left out the vanilla and passionfruit of course! This custard was made with no sugar, as all the sugar was in the brittle mixture. The brittle recipe came from this lovely book.

 

For the ice cream:

 

300ml full cream milk

1 egg, well beaten

225 ml full fat cream

 

 

For the brittle: (remember, ours didn't set, so although you can make brittle with this recipe, we didn't cook the sugar long enough so it was still gooey..but delicious!

 

175 gm rapadura sugar

110 gm roasted almonds

 

 

Make the ice cream custard by combining the milk and egg in a saucepan over medium heat til thickend. Remove from heat and let it cool. Meanwhile, make your roasted almonds and caramel. Roast the almonds in the oven for about 15 min or until browned at 180C. Melt your sugar in a saucepan on low heat until dissolved then bring to the boil for about 5 minutes. If you want to make brittle, boil until the mixture turns a chestnut colour. As we used a brown sugar, it was hard to see when this was, so perhaps use white sugar if you want to make brittle. Pour over your roasted almonds on a lined baking tray and let cool.

 

 

 

Add the cooled, unset caramel/almond mixture and the cream to the cooled custard mixture and mix well.

 

 

 

Pour into a ice cream maker and churn for 30 minutes then place in a container to freeze till you want to serve it.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Taz

 

 



My Sewing Space

A few posts ago, I told you, my lovely readers, that I was in a crafty mood, but that my sewing space was not allowing me to do something about that. It needed organising, culling, cleaning and I needed inspiration! Well, it's done, and I am so happy! Although I did find time (and table space somehow) to sew my niece some birthday pressies recently, i've really only been able to organise and clean, which i'm glad is now over! I can get back into my sewing and craft, which is perfect, as Christmas is coming up!

My lovely hubby, Percy and myself, live in quite a small house. We love it, and really wouldn't want it any other way, but we have to be creative with our space. Funnily, we have one bedroom, but 3 bathrooms!!! Too hard to explain, but thats the situation. Of course we have a lounge and kitchen. My husband, cute as he is, turned one of the bathrooms into a music studio! Yes it can be done! This meant, I could have his old 'music studio', which was a hallway we didn't need, and my old sewing space which was in our bedroom which I made into two rooms with a curtain, can now be Percy's room. Anyway, I love my new sewing room. Its quirky and small, but exactly what I need! Here is my new favourite place to be, besides the kitchen!

Table space for fresh flowers and a cup of tea

My lovely sewing machine

My collection of opshopped wrapping paper

 

My pile of sewing and craft inspiration!

Bits and pieces

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some favourite tape from my holiday in Japan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed the little tour of my new sewing space. I look forward to showing you what I create in there.

 

 

Taz