Amazing spinach and bacon quiche

I love school holidays.
Despite the kids' fights, and the tears, and far too much TV, I love that in the past couple of weeks I've had time to indulge in some of the things I most love - the garden, a spot of reading, and a little bit of retail therapy.
Yesterday we picked about 3kg of tomatoes (of various colours, shapes and sizes) from our garden.
Now, if you're anything like me, and detest those poor excuses for tomatoes that they try to sell us at the supermarket and greengrocer, then you'd know I was quite literally in heaven.
We spent the afternoon making a batch of pasta sauce (onions, garlic, tomatoes, fresh basil and oregano, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and sugar) and then bottled it for later use.
(Photography by Alice - age 6)

About 4 o'clock I was feeling a bit peckish, so I ducked down to the shops for a loaf of organic sourdough. It took me all of 10 minutes to slice it, toast it, rub on some fresh garlic (from the farm) and top it in diced tomatoes, basil from the garden, salt, pepper and oil. And it was the best tasting bruschetta I've ever had (yes, I was even compelled to share it on Facebook).

For dinner, we cooked a lamb mince bolognese-type dish with meat from the farm, some leftover chorizo and capsicum from the garden. The kids thought it was awesome.
Today, after another day of sunshine, we harvested another kilo of tomatoes - gorgeous yellow and red cherry tomatoes, romas and a beautiful round variety of which I wish I could remember the name!
We delivered two paper bags full to the neighbours and then I set to work on tonight's dinner... which kind of brings me to the point of this post!
I made a delicious quiche. And it went something like this:

Spinach, bacon, caramalised onion and roasted tomato quiche

Start by roasting your cherry tomatoes in a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper. You want them soft and golden, without being burnt.
Blind bake some frozen shortcrust pastry according to the manufacturer's directions.
Roughly chop about two or three rashers of bacon and fry them off in a pan. Remove.
Now, I used the same pan for this but you could use a clean one. Slice two red onions and pop them into your pan with a small knob of butter, stirring until translucent. Add a small amount of water, to soften the onions, and cook until almost dry. Stir in a splash of balsamic vinegar and two teaspoons of brown sugar. What you want to end up with is a relish-type consistency. When they're done, set them aside.
Rinse and chop three stalks of silverbeet (or baby spinach, if you prefer) and with some water still on the leaves, pop it inside a sealed freezer bag in the microwave for about 45 seconds, to wilt.
Dice up about half a block of feta cheese.
Whisk four or five eggs with about half a cup of cream (I used the Philadelphia Cream for Cooking) and a splash of milk. Add salt, and pepper.
Once your tomatoes are done, and your pastry, it's time to assemble.
Spread your caramalised onion over the base, then fill the quiche dish with spinach, bacon, tomatoes and feta. Pour over your egg and cream mixture. Grate a little parmesan cheese over the top and pop it in a 180 degree oven until your egg mix has set and the top is golden.
Serve with a garden salad.

Mine was washed down with a nice Barossa red wine (my first drink since New Year's Eve!). And no, I don't have photos, because everyone was in too much of a hurry to eat! Needless to say though, it was amazing!

Happy Birthday Lucy!

My second baby Lucy celebrates her birthday on December 30 and it's always been such a difficult time of year for hosting parties!
This year though, for her 4th birthday, we decided to invite some special little friends for a New Year's Day 'Lemonade and Lollipops' party.
And oh what fun we had!

 

 

Thanks to super-cousin Eliza for the face painting, Bloom Designs Online for the invitations and printables, The Little Big Company for the drinks dispenser and lovely lollipops and Occasion by Design for the buckets and other bits and pieces.

DIY fabric-covered pencil tin

If you want to give your workspace or the kids’ craft table an instant lift, here’s a quick and easy project that even the older kids will be able to do themselves. These would also make a great gift for school teachers or grandparents.

 

Supplies:

1 empty food can (400g size), washed thoroughly, labels removed
Fabric of your choice (a 15cm cut or fat quarter will be ample)
Heavy fusible interfacing
Spray adhesive
Craft glue

 

Step 1: Make sure you are using a can with no sharp edges. Measure the height of your can (not including that little round lip on the top and bottom edge) and add 2cm (you will have a measurement of about 12.5cm).

Step 2: Next, mark out and cut (or cut using a rotary cutter and rule) a rectangle of interfacing that is 26cm wide x the height you measured in step 1 (12.5cm).

 



 

Step 3: Fuse your interfacing to your fabric, and if you have a directional print remember that the long sides of the interfacing will be the top and bottom of your can.

 

Step 4: Cut around the piece of interfacing.

 

Step 5: Using a piece of cardboard if you have one, mark a pencil line 1cm from the long edge of your card. This will form your pressing template. Starting on the two long sides, turn under and press a neat 1cm hem. Topstitch each of the long sides down, about 5mm in from the edge. If you don’t have a sewing machine, this could also be done by hand.

 

Step 6: Turn under ONE short end and press a 1cm hem. Top stitch as above. There is no need to hem the other short end. You should then having something that looks like this:

 

Step 7: Apply spray adhesive to the back of your fabric and starting with the raw end, carefully roll your fabric around the can. When you get to the hemmed end, apply a small amount of craft or hot glue and press down firmly.

 

HAVE FUN!

 

 

 

 

First of the season

We picked out first basket of strawberries this afternoon. Those store-bought ones have nothing on these! Now... where's that bottle of bubbly?

 

Backyard farming

Spring is well and truly here in the Capital now, and we've been making the most of the warmer weather out in the garden.
We've built fences, pulled weeds, planted fruit trees, dug compost and planted, planted, planted our summer vegetable crop.
We've got corn, beans, peas, broccoli, silverbeet, cabbage, tomatoes, Chinese greens, lettuce, raddishes, potatoes, zucchini, pumpkins and cucumber all planted.
In the way of fruit, we've gone for strawberries (of course), watermelon, apples, pears, apricots and of course lemons. We already had a little plum tree and (what I think) is a kaffir lime.
That beautiful thyme you see below is an heirloom plant we dug from Clinton's Nanna's garden at Willowvale - I'd guess it could be 50 years old or more.

Do you like my French garden stakes? I picked up a set at an antique market in Nice during 2005 (the baggage check-in lady at the airport thought I was a bit nuts standing there at the check-in counter transferring them into my carry-on luggage to get my bag back under 32kg).

Pink lady apples are my favourite - I just have to keep those pesky parrots away!

The next job is a climber (probably passionfruit) to grow over and shade the chook-pen.

Our mini-orchard tucked away in the back corner. Can't wait to get some apricots off that tree!

And there's Charlie...
It makes me super-happy when I look around an imagine this place in another year or two!

Crafternoon Tea

I am so happy right now.
It's spring. The Japanese maple trees are in full leaf. Our vegetable garden is thriving. The chickens are laying. Our house (now with a beautiful new kitchen) is feeling like a home.
I'm also happy because today we celebrated my baby girl's 6th birthday.

It was a Crafternoon Tea Party for a small group of eight friends. And what an afternoon it was!
We started with healthy snacks - fruit, vegetable sticks, iced fruit tea (pink of course) and homemade pikelets with sugar-free jam and cream.

By the time the last guest arrived, the girls were already asking: "When can we start the craft?" And so it began.

Project one was a colouring-in activity. I found a cute butterfly line drawing online and with a bit of Photoshop editing turned it into an image suitable to be printed onto fabric using the amazing US-based website Spoonflower.
My goal was to have the children colour in the butterfly using fabric markers (we found ours at Officeworks) and then mount it in an embroidery hoop (I used Birch bamboo hoops - available at Spotlight). And you know what - it went exactly to plan! If you're trying this project, when you're setting up your image file for Spoonflower, remember to leave enough white space around your artwork to fill the frame.
After a short break for swinging, party pies and pink milk (mini milk bottles and crates available from Little Toot Creations) it was on to project two - fabric covered buttons.



Each of the children received a little bag containing five sets of 28mm buttons and a button making template and tool (from Pack It In). I had pre-cut fabric circles from my (ridiculous) scrap stash and stocked up on hair elastics, which I popped into jars decorated with washi tape. And together with the mums (who I think enjoyed this project even more than the kids!) we made a whole bunch of pretty hair accessories.
We still had a little time, so using this printable I found at How About Orange we made some good old-fashioned Fortune Tellers (also called a Chatterbox).



Because the children are still early readers, I printed out a list of short, fun, phrases they could copy onto their fortune teller. If I had my time over, I'd have used ordinary paper instead of cardstock, as the folding was quite tricky!




And finally, it was time for cupcakes (cupcake teacups and recipe available from Little Toot Creations).



The kids had such a blast, and I was so thrilled that our party concept was embraced with such enthusiasm by our new school friends.
Special mention too, to Sparrow Bee Designs (Alice's skirt), Cassidy's Collection (Alice's lace headband) and Style Me Gorgeous (invitations and party printables). Oh, and my mate Jane for the Armenian Spice Cake recipe!

PS. Last week, while I was feeling a tad guilty about all the time and effort I was putting into this event, I happened to pick up the latest edition of LittleONE Kids magazine. Editor Amy Doak, in the publisher's letter, had this to say about the trend towards amazingly styled kids' rooms and parties:
"The parents we met loved doing their kids' room, or party. They didn't do it to impress anyone, they just did it because they wanted to. It made them happy."

And so, I am happy.

x Bec