Making More In My Kitchen

 With the kids home because of school holidays, its very important to have the cupboards full with baking. It stops the temptation to buy things we don't need, and makes great bribes (I mean encouragement hee hee) to behave and be helpful. Yes even the teen boys :)

I started with making Afghan biscuits, don't need a lot of ingredients for these. A great use for our walnuts :)

Next Gingerbread Men, DS8 helped with the icing. Next time will make car ones. As DS8 does like his Gingerbread cookies :)

Then I made Feijoa Jelly. This is my first time, and I was please to see it's as easy as making Crab Apple Jelly. A great use of fruit that kids weren't eating (the small sized feijoas, that a teaspoon don't fit). Now I know they will eat on pikelets and scones (with some fresh whipped cream YUM!)

Look at those beautiful Autumn colours. Feijoa and Crab Apple Jellies make a pretty stain glass window for my kitchen :)

Now I can focus on catching up on washing (got behind after boys came back from camp), and cleaning. Need my lounge back :)

Autumn In My Kitchen

Do you love the colours of Autumn? I sure do :)
Even better when you find them in your kitchen with the autumn flavours to go with them.

Washing crab apples to make crab apple jelly. I love the red, oranges and yellows.

The finished Crab Apple Jelly is also very pretty with the sun shining on them. Had them by the kitchen window to cool.

Orange of carrots and the browns of walnuts. Getting ready to make carrot cake.

Homemade Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing. YUM! Perfect for an autumn afternoon tea (or dessert)

Also made chicken stock for tonight's dinner, more for comfort food then colours. The carrot cake I made double batch so half could go into the freezer for a day when I don't have time to bake.
Came away from the kitchen today very happy. now DH has cooked us dinner :)

Country Drive = Cheap Food

Our family driving through the Karangahake Gorge. Love our country :)

 DS13 and DS14 have been on a christian kids camp as junior leaders. The camp is at Waihi Beach, a lovely place (beautiful beach). It means having a country drive to and from, but well worth it. The boys had a great time, and we got to pick up some cheap fresh food.

The results from a night of cracking walnut shells.

There was a couple of cute kids selling walnuts on the side of the road. We had to stop and buy a bag. It cost a $10, but well worth it when we almost filled to jars with them. To buy them from the shops and fill the same jars would cost over $28. So plans are to use them for carrot cake and yummy dinners of Bacon and Walnut Gnocchi. Also should make a batch of Afghan biscuits with walnuts on top :)
But that was not all we got. At a fruit and veggie shop heading home (before the city) , we picked up some carrots and onions. 20kg onions for $6.99 and 15kg carrots for $7.99.
At another shop brought 500g of garlic for $5, we love our garlic.
Now I need to prepare some of our carrots for the freezer, to make them last like our broccoli we did. With this type of buying I might be able to get our grocery budget lower than $100 per week. That would be helpful.

Waihi Beach on the day I dropped the boys off to their camp. Could of stayed there for the week myself :)

Christmas Is Coming

And it's going to be a very simple, old fashion Christmas for us.
With one thing after another happening in the past few weeks, have left us with very little to spend this Christmas.
But no worries, we will make it into a trip back in time to a simpler meaningful Christmas.
Reading this article helped make this choice for this year.
How has Christmas in New Zealand changed in 150 years?
So for us it means family time, picnic lunch (might be inside picnic, depends on the weather)
And presents will be either homemade or low cost. Talking with DH we decide that this year for us and the kids we are going to put our names in a hat and choose one. That is the person we are getting a gift for. Hopefully teaching the kids about the gift of giving.
The kids have been helping me with the Christmas cards, and soon will help with the Christmas baking.
And you know what it's making me excited about Christmas.

Looking forward to making popcorn and watching "It's a Wonderful Life!"with my family :)

Time For Our Christmas Boxes

Today brought the Christmas Boxes out of storage.

We have 3 boxes that have traveled with us for over 10 years.

Lots of memories and Christmas treasures in there.

We have decorations, dvds, books, cards, craft items, music..... alot of helpful items to make this coming season fun. Always good when you have children home with school holidays.
Looking forward to going through the boxes with my children. Or should I say my 2 youngest. DS14 and DS13 (both November birthdays) are typical teens who enjoy from a distance.
I'm making plans for Christmas presents. Will be a simple homemade Christmas this year.

Holiday

Today we are having our 1 Day Holiday :)
Each one of us today are relaxing, and doing whatever we feel like doing.
And it's been wonderful :)
Everyone is so relaxed. DH been hardware shopping. Just getting bits and pieces, but having no kids or real work to do, its been a break for him. DS13 is out spending his pocket money. DS12 is playing games with friends, same as DD10. DS7 has loved having time on the PlayStation without others having their say. Me well I have been working on the chicken tractor, just bits here and there.
We will all be back to work tomorrow, but for today PEACE :)

Would rather be in the garden

But stuck inside with kids and a baby. Outside the sun is shining, wonderful after days with rain. The birds are singing, and weeds are growing (I so want to deal with those weeds). But at least I can tend to our seedling growing inside. And when I'm busy feeding baby, I can keep an eye on DS11 who is baking a cake.

Our seedlings growing. We don't have a green house yet, so our bedroom window has to do.

Cute little Butternut Squash seedling.

Homemade plastic house for our Sugar Baby Watermelon seeds. Hope they grow.

DS11 baking a cake in our little kitchen. Can't wait to try it.

Today we are going to eat cake. Didn't DS11 do well.

I did sneak out and picked a strawberry for my morning tea. Sun kissed sweet strawberry.