A perfect day for a pie

I love apple pie although I don't really get the chance to eat it often, I guess that fruit pies just aren't that popular in New-Zealand. But this morning when I was at the farmers market they had the most gorgeous Granny Smith apples and as we were having friends and family around for a BBQ, I decided to make an apple pie for dessert, I've only made it once before in my life so I thought I did quite well.

I however did change the recipe I found around quite alot, I also decided at the last minute to throw in some blackberries, there was alot of juice left over from the apple/berry mix so I'm going to use in it the Strawberry Jam that I plan on making on Monday

I love baking, it truly is one of my greatest joys in life.

Plum picking

Yesterday Aviva and I headed out on a trip about an hours drive from the place we have been staying to go fruit picking. Unfortunately the strawberry patch was closed but the plum trees were just bursting with fruit, so we had a great day picking buckets of plums and this afternoon I plan on making plum jam and was going to make some plum cordial but could not find a recipe that did not include alcohol so instead I am going to try my hand at making ginger beer-I'm a little nervous because I've heard many stories of the bottles blowing up in the fermenting process, but nothing lost, nothing gained I suppose!

Is it still summer?

The rain is still coming down for the third day in a row. My tomatoes remain unripened on the vine due to lack of sun, the washing drips forlornly on the line and whole world seems to have turned a shade of grey.

But inside is a different story! To shake off my dreary mood we are playing colourful Portuguese music and knitting beautiful, bright scarfs in preparation for winter. Black bean chili is bubbling away on the stove for dinner tonight and the smell of corn bread wafts through the house. Aviva has now retreated to the living room to work on her maths but still the festive spirit continues-I can hear her whistling and singing away as she does her subtraction.

Part of today will be spent on trawling the Internet and my cooking books for the perfect valentines day dinner. It makes it hard when I am a vegetarian and my husband is not but I am determined to come up with something gorgeous. We celebrate Shabbat on a Friday night so it will mean spending two nights cooking big meals. We are not Jewish however after reading this article from Above Rubies I became so inspired to make this beautiful tradition a part of our week.

My plans for the rest of the day include organising our wardrobe, doing some mending and doing some baking for our home school art session that we do jointly with some friends. I am about to start making a big pot of minestrone soup for lunch as we haven't had soup for so long as it is been far too hot! I am enjoying our faux winter break :)

Roughing it part two

Above you can see some of the pictures I took at camp, although I was hesitant at first about sleeping in tents we had a fantastic time!!

On our first night there none of us slept well, the girls stayed up chatting, ducks tried to wander into our tent and we had our ministers three year old daughter sleeping with us in our air bed so it wasn't exactly roomy. However the next day the weather was just beautiful and as we left the first session we met a couple who were missionaries in Turkey for seven years and could speak fluent Turkish-what a blessing for my husband!! I don't think people often realize how much it means to have others pray with you in your first language if they are never deprived of it. As it stands there appears to be not one other Turkish christian in this country. And they are just the loveliest couple, truly we feel so blessed to have met them and hope to keep in further contact with them.

The speakers were wonderful, the worship annointed-how beautiful and amazing to fill the hall to the rafters with voices singing God's praises. I cannot put into words the feeling of awe I experienced as I was filled with praises for God. Sometimes it is so easy to get so busy trying to be the ideal wife and mother that God gets left out. And although our usual day is filled with learning,singing and talking about God as well as praying sometimes I guess I am guilty of not keeping it real with God as we all do at some point.I have to say to have the time to just sit there and say 'Here I am lord' was really I think just what I needed

Anyway other exciting news is that while we were there my husband was baptised! Ozcan was brought up as a muslim and when we first met and became friends is when he started exploring christianity. He had been waiting for some time (as our church only performs them about once a year when they have enough people) I have to say that to see my husband make a full commitment to turn his life to Jesus was the best day of my life.

Roughing it

Tomorrow we leave for five days of exciting christian fellowship and teaching. Our family has been looking forward to this for a year now and it is finally here! The downside of it is that we are staying in tents. For many women this would not be a problem but I am most certainly not those women.

I like being able to plug in my hair dryer and turn on the light in the middle of the night. I love that I can talk with my husband when the lights go out and not have half the campsite hear what I'm saying. Most of all I love being able to have a shower in privacy and not sneak quietly along the wet grass at the crack of dawn to the showers so that I don't run into someone seeing me in my pyjamas and dressing gown (as modest as they may be). Nope I am just not the outdoors type.

This fact is often obvious to friends and family when in the past they have made the mistake of suggesting to my shock and horror a bush walk! I love the idea in theory-beautiful native trees, the singing of birds and the absolute beauty of the world that our God has created. But in theory wearing track pants, getting sweaty and slipping in the mud is just not my idea of a good time. However show me a library or a museum and I am one happy girl.

I'm probably not as bad as I make out after all this afternoon I'm going blueberry picking with a friend. However knowing that my car (and the prospect of home) are mere minutes away sure does make the difference for me.

However my darling husband and I have had very different childhoods because for three months every year his family would stay on a mountain for three months (with bears and wolves and all sorts of things that can eat you!) tenting with his family. This makes me so, so grateful that I live in a country that harbours no poisonous (or people eating) creatures. So this trip is just a walk in the park for him.

I have decided to try to be excited for the children's sake and I have always been a strong believer that something is usually what you make of it and so I am going to make this a positive, exciting adventure that the girls will hopefully remember fondly for years to come! I am just going to be grateful that I don't have to cook over a gas BBQ or use an outdoor toilet!

p.s sorry if there are multiple grammar and spelling problems, the spellcheck has decided not to work today.

Quiet days at home

I Love this time of year in New-Zealand, the summer days seem to last forever and people seem to slow down so much more. I don't know if it's because of the weather or because people are still in holiday mode but I love it.

Today we visited friends of mine and literally picked our lunch from the garden. Liz has an extensive knowledge of the medicinal properties of herbs so we brewed a huge pot of herbal tea with herbs from her garden and it was so lovely. When we left her house I took with me a big bunch of parsley so I can make Tabbouleh for dinner and some rhubarb which I plan to stew and serve with yogurt.

There are many things I should be doing this month before school resumes but so far I have been enjoying just taking things slowly. Spending an hour in the garden reading a book with Aviva, making batches of crumpets in the afternoon, knitting in the sun. It has been such a joy to just take things as they come and enjoy the time off. Today we went to the Thrift shop and found some wonderful books such as Black beauty and the Wind in the willows and various other classics. I also found Good Wives by Louisa M. Alcott which is the follow on from Little Women, what a beautiful book! It truly is from other time when wives held their husbands in such high reverence and respect and understood the true benefits and joy from living as truly submissive to their husbands.

This afternoon I plan to make some zucchini Relish in a way to deal with the never ending glut of them, I found a beautiful recipe and thought I would share it here.

Zucchini Relish

INGREDIENTS
2 pounds small zucchini
1 tart apple, peeled and cored
1 medium onion
1 green pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup vinegar
1 (2 ounce) jar chopped pimientos, drained
1 tablespoon fresh ginger root
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
Peel zucchini and discard any large seeds; chop into small pieces (about 5 cups). Finely chop apple, onion and green pepper; place in a Dutch oven along with zucchini and remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce hat and simmer, uncovered, over medium heat until thick, about 45-55 minutes, stirring often. Cool. Ladle into jars; cover and refrigerate.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Zucchini-Chutney/Detail.aspx

I don't have a dutch oven and I will adjust some of the spices but It looks like a beautiful and fail proof recipe.

Summer vegetables

The solitary cucumber, after the rest died.

The marigolds which really brighten the whole garden up!

The courgettes which I simply cannot keep up with because they grow so quickly.

I love summer!I love the floaty, feminine skirts I can wear, I love hot days at the beach having picnics, I love the break from normal homeschooling so I can teach Aviva more practical skills and this year I love it even more because my garden is full of vegetables. I planted about thirty tomato plants and now they are all bearing small green fruit. I have been able to make huge salads every night and in a few weeks I will begin preserving and drying msot of it. I think back to only a few months ago when lettuces were selling selling for five dollars each at the super market! I had run out of ideas for the courgettes though until I found this recipe which I have adapted, it makes a great Vegetarian dish as it is high in protein.

Baked Courgettes

4 Courgettes

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup grated cheese

2 eggs

Seasonings

Grate courgettes and chop onions and add to lightly beaten eggs.Spoon into an ovenproof dish and sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 15 minutes at 200 degrees.

Serves four

Note: The original recipe had only 2 courgettes so for a heavier dish you can omit the two I have added.