Creamy Celery Soup

I whipped this up for Greg and I for lunch today.  Greg works from home on a Wednesday, so I tend to try and make something a little more interesting for us to eat.  The creaminess of this soup comes from cashews, so it’s dairy free and using my thermomix, I don’t use any oil. Tastes lovely and leaves you wanting a second helping.  Of course you can make it on the stovetop too.  I love that this soup is filling without the addition of dairy, wheat or meat and the nuts help to keep you feeling full for longer.  I hope you try it out!

Ingredients:
(Makes approximately 6 serves)

1 potato, roughly chopped
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic
4 stalks of celery, roughly chopped
100gm unsalted cashews or measure as a good handful, raw or roasted
salt to taste

Thermomix method:

Chop onion and garlic roughly and place in thermomix. Blend on speed 4-5 for 5 seconds.  Set temperature to 100 degrees and cook for 2 minutes on speed 2.  Add the rest of the vegetables and cashews to the onions and garlic.  Blend on speed 7 for 5 seconds.  Pour in approximately 800gms water.  Set temperature to 100 degrees on speed 3 for 20 minutes.  Add salt or preferred seasoning and blend on speed 7 for 60 seconds to achieve a smooth consistency.

Conventional method:

Place chopped onions and garlic in a saucepan with a small amount of oil.  Cook off for a couple of minutes.  Add the rest of the chopped vegetables and cashews.  Pour in about 800ml to 1 litre of water.  Simmer for about 20-25 minutes until vegetables are cooked through.  Add salt or vegetable stock to taste.  Blend the soup to a smooth consistency with a food processor or handheld blender, using caution due to heat.

Cream of Celery Soup

Enjoy, Jacinta x

Posted in Gastronomic Explosions - aka Yummy Food/Recipes, Thermomix | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Four ~ Celebrating Jairah

Our sweet boy, Jairah turned 4 today.  Always smiling and always finding mischief, this sunny boy keeps us on our toes, but oh how we love him.  I was all teary and emotional at dinner time tonight, thinking about how very blessed we are having happy and healthy children to celebrate.  Such a gift they are.  They girls really honoured their little brother today too which was lovely to see.

The highlight of Jairah’s day, after his rocket ship gift from us and a helicopter sent over from his New Zealand grandparents was a rainbow rocket birthday cake.  There was lots of ‘oh wows’ coming from him indeed!  Alas, we will be eating rainbow rocket cake for some time to come!

The rainbow inside.

One thing I am loving about this blog is being able to look back on previous posts.  Here is one from his 3rd birthday and this one is from his 2nd birthday, which was my first ever post.  That means I have been blogging for two years now!  Oh, and can’t forget this post of pictures from his early days.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane, I know I did!  Thanks to those who have been reading here over the last two years.  Your lovely comments certainly help to keep me coming back to this space to share our journey as a family with you.

Jacinta x

 

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This Moment

From Soulemama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo, ok two photos capturing a moment (or two) from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.

I love your moments too.  So feel free to leave a link in the comment section for us all to see.  Have a beautiful weekend.  Jacinta x

Posted in Family Life, This Moment | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Butter, Enough Said!

It’s the simple things in life that give pleasure, butter being one of them, well for me anyway.  I used my thermomix to make it, following the recipe from the Everyday Thermomix Recipe Book, but regular hand held beaters or a food processor will create the same result.  Only use pure cream to make butter.  I used some beautiful organic cream and the flavour was amazing.  You can use the buttermilk in cooking too.  I used it in my pancake mixture.

Ingredients:

approximately 600ml pure cream
salt to taste

Method:

Beat cream until the the solids and buttermilk separate, approximately 5 mins.  The solids, butter, will take on a distinctive yellow colour and the buttermilk is very watery.  Pour off the buttermilk and set aside for use in another recipe of your choice.  Add about 500ml ice cold water over the butter solids and mix for about 5 seconds, rinse.  Pour off this liquid and discard.  Add salt to taste and mix until combined.  Store in fridge.

How gorgeous is this shade of yellow! Pure sunshine.

Enjoy!  Jacinta x

 

Posted in Gastronomic Explosions - aka Yummy Food/Recipes | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

This Moment

From Soulemama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – some words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.

I love your moments too.  So feel free to leave a link in the comment section for us all to see.  Have a beautiful weekend.  Jacinta x

Posted in The Natives, This Moment | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments

Holiday Time

The girls are currently on school holidays, so if it is a little quiet around these parts, you know we are off having fun.  All three kids had a sleepover at my mum’s on Monday.  It was my first child free 24 hours for 4 years.  I almost didn’t know what to do with myself.  Of course I have been trying to fend off a sinus infection, so I spent most of my time resting.  I did a little bit of quilting on the picnic quilt, which I am now ready to quilt.  Fingers crossed I can finish it before the end of the holidays so we can put it to good use.

I had a lovely quiet car trip to pick up the children.  A whole 2 1/2 hours listening to music and of course I needed to break the trip with a stop at the Ballart Patchwork shop.  It’s well worth a visit.  There was so many beautiful fabrics, I had a hard time choosing.  Although, I see that as a good dilemma.

My fabric loot

The kids had a wonderful time at mum’s and helped with the goats and chickens.  They are already talking about the next visit and what they will do on their return.  I’m very impressed with Jairah, as it was his first night away from us.  They all love the outdoors and it makes me realise that our half acre block is not ideal, but property around our area is crazy expensive, especially if you want larger acreage.  Scarlett is always trying to talk us into getting her a horse.  Oh how I wish I could grant her that.  I was horse crazy growing up, so I totally understand her desire.

I believe this one is called Elvis!

Scarlett has a friend sleeping over tonight, so I think we are off to the tulip farm tomorrow before we miss the gorgeous display.  Jacinta x

Posted in Family Life | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

This {Rare} Moment

From Soulemama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – some words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.

I love your moments too.  So feel free to leave a link in the comment section for us all to see.  Have a beautiful weekend.  Jacinta x

Posted in This Moment | Tagged , | 9 Comments

I Am Cute Dresses by Sato Wantanabe

I completely forgot about this book until today.  I ordered it many months ago, from here, flicked through it, placed it in my bedside table drawer, then promptly forgot about it.  While bathing in the beautiful sunshine that was filtering through our dining room window this afternoon, I was daydreaming about some craft projects I’d like to make for myself, when the book suddenly popped into mind (a craft epiphany perhaps?).

The book was one of those purchases where the dress on the front cover won me over, ok the title helped some too, but wasn’t sure what other projects were in the book.  Google didn’t show up much about the book, so on a whim, I ordered it.  I’m happy to say that there are quite a few projects I love and can’t wait to start on.  There are no paper patterns per say, but detailed diagrams of measurements.  The dresses are designed to be loose fitting and are kind of one-size-fits-all.  Could be interesting, but then I like to sew by the seat of my pants and as my sewing opportunities are very few and far between, anything that saves time, means I am more likely to finish a project as opposed to adding to my UFO stash!

Cute dress indeed!

Excuse the fingers, but the book wouldn’t stay open. I love this tunic top. Would be lovely over pants.

 

Cute dress and fabric.

A couple more I love. Hmm, chances of actually getting just one sewn?

Now to find the perfect material.  Life is terrible isn’t it!  If you have a favourite clothing book, please feel free to share.  There are so many out there it’s nice to hear recommendations.  Jacinta x

Posted in Books, Craft, Recommendations | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Sacrificing Craft (Literally)

I’d been thinking about writing this post most of the day.  I was so exited that you would be getting a sneak peak of my next craft project.  A good part of an hour placing was spent arranging pieces of fabric that were to become a picnic quilt.  I managed to take a few in progress photos before heading out the door for the school run.  My hopes were high that on my return home, I could work on the final layout and take more photos for reference of fabric placement, before beginning on sewing.
Of course the evening had other ideas, which means the fabric was left lying unattended during the period of time dinner was being made and helping the girls with homework.  Can you guess where this is going?  Hmm, yes my dear sweet son thought I might like a modern take on fabric reconstruction and quite happily rearranged my quilt into a pile in the middle of the room.  Perhaps this is the new ‘modern’ quilting.  I should glue it on canvas and sell it as a form of artwork.  I’d definitely have a lot more completed craft projects to show you!  Suffice to say, the pile of fabric still lying on the floor.  I will face it tomorrow with fresh eyes and hopefully start again.  Perhaps my second design will be better than the first, that’s if the day doesn’t have other plans for my time.  Suffice to say, this was originally going to be titled “What Do You Sacrifice For Craft”, but alas “Sacrificing Craft” seems more appropriate.

Sneak peak ‘Before’

Another ‘before’ featuring the fabric I’m going to use for the backing and binding.

The ‘after’ sneak peak, artistic isn’t it.

Anyway, I’m interested, what do you sacrifice for your craft?  I’m hoping not your sanity. Jacinta x

Posted in Craft, Family Life | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments