Preserved Roasted Capsicum

As a young girl I would spend long summer holidays at my grandmother's farm, they would be my most fond childhood memories. My grandmother would roast Capsicums each morning for breakfast for us children and would be accompanied with some fresh cow's or goat's milk.

Well I don't own a cow or a goat but I have access to capsicums and roasted capsicums are a staple in our fridge but I wanted to preserve them and I have been lucky enough to have a friend like Rosa my favourite Italian nonna, she has been able to inspire me and help me to have our own little batch of preserves.

A couple of weeks ago I preserved roasted capsicums  for the first time, they are so delish and Rosa tells me that the flavour will be even better as the weeks and months go by.

These are so easy and delish to make they will make the best present for anyone and for you to eat with anything and everything.

Enjoy.
Karla

ROASTED CAPSICUM

1kg red capsicum
1 cup olive oil
1/4 red wine vinegar
2 garlic cloves - thinly sliced
a good pinch of salt and pepper

METHOD

1. sterilise jars and let them dry

2. cut capsicums in half remove seeds and white bits.

3.char grill them on the BBQ or oven grill until skin becomes black

4. place them in a bowl and cover with cling wrap to allow them to sweat for approx. 15 minutes then remove the skin as best as you can.

5. While the capsicums are sweating prepared the vinaigrette by mixing the olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic cloves, salt and pepper whisk them all together.

6. Place the roasted capsicum in jars and fill with the vinaigrette making sure there are no air bubbles and are filled right to the top.

and VIOLA!!!! you have made preserve roasted capsicum

They should last 6 months to 1 year in the fridge.


HOW TO STERILISED YOUR OWN JARS.

I usually sterilise them in the hottest setting in the dishwasher but you can also sterilised the bottles in the oven at 150 degrees for 30 minutes.

make sure bottles do not touch and let them dry fully before placing the preserve in them.

Winter Harvest Festival

Anyone that knows me knows two things, I love the countryside and winter, the other day when we visited Kalfresh at Kalbar we found out that the Winter Harvest Festival was on at Aratula, the neighbouring town, not soon had they told us that we were on our merry way to the festival, gosh words can not describe how beautiful the setting was ,there were local fresh produce stores ,cooking lessons by the amazing Alastair McLeod, outside the podium there were free rides for the children, live music, and delish food, we had the potato leak and bacon soup, (vegetarians look away) we had the most delish pork ribs, I am still dreaming of them.

Somehow Farmer Joe got roped into the tractor pulling competition, we were cheering like crazy people the munchkins loved playing with the hay bales, while I enjoyed all the yummy food and the scenery.

The Winter Harvest Festival was part of the eat local week that runs through the scenic rim and Aratula was the last pit stop of a week of food and indulgence on local produce from the region, who knew not me! but we are definitely putting this in the calendar for next year.

On the way back home we stumbled upon a farm shed with an honesty box, they had fruit and vegies and I found the most gorgeous potato bag ever, needless to say it came home with us, it wouldn't be a road trip if we didn't get produce from the side of the road right!

How much fun it was, my two favourite things combined winter and the countryside, I was as happy as a piggy in mud.

Carrot Picking at Kalfresh

This past weekend we went carrots picking at Kalfresh at Kalbar near Boonah, I must say it is one of the most fun things we have done in a while.

The people at Kalfresh open their doors once a year for all us to learn all things carrots, and they did an amazing job we got to have a tour of the production shed, we learnt about where carrots are grown, the process it takes from picking to your plate, fascinating, the munchkins had so much fun asking questions, half the battle for me was preventing them from trying to take a carrot or two from the cleaning machines.

After the tour we enjoyed a free sausage sizzle the kids got to enjoy climbing onto the farm tractors while Farmer Joe and I enjoyed a huge piece of carrot cake.

We had a long chat to my favourite carrot farmers Richard and Alice they were so welcoming and friendly and they know all things carrots. Alice is just fab and it's not secret she is living my life she had a wonderful blog where she talks about country life, family, work and carrots Farmer Has a Wife she also has magnificent photo gallery on instagram "FARMERHASAWIFE" check her out.

After the Kalfresh tour we got to get down and dirty, we couldn't control our excitement as we got to go to a carrot field were we got to pick our own carrots to take home and can I say this is SO much fun the kids were running around they were working hard at dislodging those carrots from the ground, they were eating carrots, dirt and all just wonderful to see.

Well we got so many carrots that we now officially have night vision, 20/20 vision, our IQ is super high or we have turned into bunnies.
(according to Me who does NOT have a medical or scientist degree).

Well I don't know if we have all those things mentioned above but two things I know Kalfresh hosted a fantastic day and we are enjoying eating our freshly picked carrots.

Cheers,
Karla

Karla's Pumpkin Soup

We bought a pumpkin for $3 from a honesty box on our trip to Boonah last month. It's been sitting at the bottom of our pantry until today, the weather calls for it, just perfect for a wintery Sunday.

I called my friend Mary to see if she wanted to join us for soup but when she answered the phone she sounded terrible with the flu so I am on my way to her house to drop some soup to her.

Enjoy

 

KARLA'S PUMPKIN SOUP

Ingredients

1.5kg pumpkin
2 large carrots
1LT  vegetable stock
1TBSP cumin
1TBSP ground coriander
Sour cream
cracked pepper

Method

1. Dice pumpkin and carrot
2. Place the pumpkin, carrot, vegetable stock, cumin and ground coriander into a pot
3. Simmer for 25 minutes or until the vegies are really soft
4. Pour into handheld mixer or blender and blitz it
5. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and crack pepper

The Cupcake Lady - Gluten Free Chocolate cupcakes

I make these gluten chocolate cupcakes for the school tuckshop, they are a hit with the mums and the munchkins.

They are delicious and easy to make.

Enjoy
The Cupcake Lady

MAKES 12

125g soft margarine

125g caster sugar

150 self raising flour

2 large eggs

2 TBSP cocoa powder

½ TSP baking powder

2 TBSP milk

ICING

85g butter

175g icing sugar (gluten free)

 2 TSBP Cocoa powder

a dash of hot water

METHOD

*Pre heat oven to 180oc fan force. Put 12 paper cupcakes cases in a cupcake tray

*Place ALL ingredients in an Electric mixer/ beater and beat until smooth

*Place the mix into the cupcake cases but ONLY fill ¾ full

*bake for 15 minutes or until springy to touch

*Cool down and decorate.

ICING

Place all ingredients in the electric mixer and beat until smooth

If too thick – add a little more of hot water

If too runny – add more icing sugar

IMPORTANT –

THE ONLY FLOUR I HAVE FOUND TO RISE LIKE A NORMAL FLOUR IS “WHITE WINGS GLUTEN FREE

also this recipe can be modify to a normal cupcake recipe by using wheat self raising flour

The life of a girl and her GO CARD

Well no car yet which means I have been busing it everywhere, well when I say everywhere it is from home to school but I have to do a stop over in the Brisbane CBD.

I have been enjoying this public transport gig, I have eaten sushi every single day for 6 days in a row, I feel fit from pushing the pram and miss munchkin.

The other thing that has been fun is that I have been stopping at the Brisbane City Library so miss munchkin can have a play in the children's area while I read all the home décor magazines, let me tell you the choices are endless I immerse myself when reading them.

Today I had to run errands in town so I went early it was time for baby munchkin's nap so I decided to go back to the library it was quiet, I got a bunch of magazines and placed my toosh on the very comfy seat in the corner, baby munchkin was dead to the world sleeping.

When the librarian came around the corner and she said in a loud voice

Librarian: "HELLO" I am just checking who was sitting here.

ME:  I responded " the baby is sleeping so I thought I would sit in a quiet place.

Librarian: We always check this spot as we get people canoodling in this seat.

ME: I smiled politely and she went on her merry way

What I wanted to said to the librarian was: great I am sitting in the pash-a-thon seat and believe me lady all that canoodling is what got me into trouble three kids and no car, but instead I smiled politely

Who knew!!!! people go to the library to kiss and canoodle

I must be getting old, here I was thinking that the library was for reading, using the internet, children to play in the children area and for me to read squillions of magazine.

The Library is not boring after all it caters for all :)

I might mix it up tomorrow and have a Californian roll instead of the tuna salad.

Cheers,
Karla

From little things big things grow

A year ago we planted some citrus and this year they have giving us some lemons. I was not sure if they were going to produce fruit because they are in pots but no they have done well and we got fruit.

We did not have enough lemons to make a mojito but we had enough to make the next best thing Lemon cake.

What a great way to start the first day of Winter.

LEMON CAKE

 

 

INGREDIENTS

 

125g butter

185g sugar

185g self raising flour

4 tablespoons milk

2 large eggs

2 lemons, rind grated

 

 

syrup

 

6 TBSP fresh lemon juice

6 rounded tablespoon icing sugar

 

METHOD

 

1. pre-heat oven to 160 C

 

2. Grease and line a loaf tin with baking paper

 

3.cream butter and sugar until smooth then beat eggs

 

4.add flour lemon rind and milk and mix well

 

5. pour into tin and smooth top

 

6. bake for 30-40 minutes

 

7. Syrup - mix lemon juice and sugar

 

8.after removing cake from the oven prick the top with a skewer

 

9. pour over the lemon juice while cake still hot

 

10. leave until cold before removing from tin

 

Enjoy!

The Cupcake Lady