Coconut Cake

One of the residents where I worked made a coconut loaf - it was delicious. The only problem was, it wasn't big enough. So I decided to make it into a cake, by adding extra of each ingredient. It is such an easy recipe to make -

four ingredients; coconut, flour, sugar and milk.

To make the loaf, just use one cup of each, to make a smallish round cake, 1.5 cups of each.

It really is easy and I love the chewiness of the edges of the cake. The tin must be either oiled and floured, or lined with baking paper, as the cake does stick. I cooked it for 40 mins at 180 degrees Celsius. Try it, I guarantee, if you like coconut, you'll love this cake. It doesn't last long at work, that's for sure. One of the residents puts a berry jam on it - which I think is a little weird, but each to their own. I can just imagine sitting at a cafe with a cup of coffee, latte, hot chocolate and being served this with cream and a dusting of icing sugar.
Enjoy.

3 comments Baking, Cake

Fitness Equipment

I don't know about you but I enjoy using a variety of fitness equipment when I train, as it helps me to

SkiErg Machine (looks harmless doesn't it?)

 not get too bored. I attend one of the local gyms and they have, naturally a large range of free weights, cardio machines, assisted weight machines and now, 'monkey bars' which I am staying right away from.  Then, when I go to the beach class, our trainer brings down her Viprs, sandbag and boxing gloves and pads. Her studio has other equipment in it too. She has introduced me to the Skierg, which I have to say I really enjoy using. It mimics using ski poles and if done correctly, uses the same leg and back position that you would if you were skiing, not that I ski. The 'resistance' can be increased, making ones arms, and scapular (I think that's what they're called) muscles and those down the sides of your ribs, work hard, as well as get a good sweat up. Using this is good practice and builds up the muscles needed to use walking poles, which I certainly will be using on the Kokoda Challenge in 2018.

Blade roller - instrument of pain

My least favourite piece of equipment is the blade roller - no, unfortunately not like the roller blades of my children's teen years, this thing is designed to cause pain, while "rolling" out muscles, and finding all the really really sore spots in the process. On Wednesday, Susanna, my PT was a 'pain angel', getting stuck into my shoulder, the back of my triceps, right down the three trigger points - finding one in particular that made me break out in a sweat. Suze uses a little torturous device that lives inside the roller blade and looks like an innocent half hard ball to break up the 'fascia' which is where lots of tightness and pain originate from. I have silly shoulders and my right one is giving me plenty of grief at the moment, so as much as I resist having the muscles around it "heated up" with the little torturous device, I know in the long run, it does loosen the muscles and assist in letting my shoulder have a much greater range of movement than it currently does.

Vipr's, Kettlebells, rollers

I also have weights etc at home, that are gathering dust. I always have good intentions to use them when I add to my collection - honestly.

1 comment Fitness

Cold, Cough and Flu

Finally the dreaded lurgy has got me. Late evening Friday night I suddenly got a wicked sore throat, I could have sworn whenever I swollowed it felt like a razor blade was cutting into the inside of my throat. As I've been fighting this cold off for about three weeks, I chewed another 500mg Vitamin C tablet, swallowed two Doterra On Guard caplets and went to bed, expecting it to have disappeared by morning, but no such luck. Woke up feeling like I'd been caught by the cat, chewed on, dragged backwards through a blackberry bush or two, though a cowpat then dumped on the doorstep. As I had my granddaughter's birthday party, it was onward and upward, until 12.30pm, when I gave in to it, and retreated to bed.

Root ginger, NZ clover honey and hot water

Sunday, I abandoned all thought of going to yoga, instead dragging myself around the house in a vain attempt to find something that would miraculously make me feel better, or at least occupy my mind. That was a waste of time. Can you tell by now I'm not good at being sick, nor do I have much sympathy for people who are sick - a nurse was definitely not my calling. So, I jumped in my car and headed off to my Aunts wonderful apartment, went with her to a local store to purchase an upright smallish "stick" vacuum cleaner each, then back to her place and rested for the rest of the afternoon until it was "end of winter drinks and nibbles" with the other residents of her apartment block. That took my mind of myself for a couple of hours.  I stayed the night at her place.

I rocked up to work Monday morning, but they rudely told me to go away - for some reason they didn't like me sharing my snotty, sneezing, coughing illness - my mum always told me to share :) So home I went to fresh root ginger cut up with beautiful NZ clover honey in boiling water, some sweet potato chips and maybe an ice cream even, while watching Prophet Preys and The Handmaids Tale. Tomorrow is another day.

Well unfortunately tomorrow arrived this morning, after a night of violent coughing fits, and limited sleep. Another day off work with little energy to do anything other than sit on the couch, do stuff on my computer and watch TV.  Luckily I made it to the supermarket last night and managed to buy more root ginger and a couple of lemons. Really can't even be bothered reading my book.

Leave a Comment On being Sick

Birthday Cake Making

It was my granddaughter's 4th birthday on Thursday. She had her party on Saturday and I helped her mum decorate the cake.

We had some pretty big shoes to fill, as my husband, Pete is the cake decorator in our family.  Last year, Annika was really into Peppa Pig, however, we decided that the 'pig in mud' cake was near enough, so Pete made this for her third birthday. Unfortunately he isn't home this time around, so it was left to Bernie and myself - oh dear. Neither of us are particularly arty or creative.

Annika chose the picture out of a very old Woman's Weekly Birthday Cake cookbook - a house. I'm not going to show you what the picture looked like, as ours isn't really anything like it - except for the 'smarties' on the roof. We modernised it - well, that's our excuse and we are sticking to it.



Construction began with
 cutting the loaf tin cake into two then cutting the rounded top off - those two slices made up the roof. We used the cut off rounded piece to prop the roof up. Then skewers were inserted to hold it together.  Then the fun part began - spreading the icing - we cheated and bought pottles of ready made butter icing - much easier and quicker than making it ourselves, and we could guarantee the consistency.  Mini trees were made up 'gluing' icing flowers on top of little chocolate coated finger biscuits and sticking them to the icing around the base. It looked a bit bare, so we made some green icing, put an 'edging' around it with snake lollies and added mini trees and flowers to the garden.

Doors were made from wafer biscuits cut in half and a dab of icing for handles. The chimney is also half a wafer biscuit.

 You may be able to see the 'retaining' wall along the back of the house - wafer biscuits, topped with pineapple lumps and on the outside face, more smarties.  The birthday girl was very happy with her cake - success. We have decided, Grandpa Pete must be home next year!!!

1 comment Birthday party, family

Fleeting visit

My eldest son briefly visited us on Wednesday night. He flew in from Queenstown, NZ and had a nights stopover on his way to the Solomon Islands for a 10 day diving trip. I picked him up from the airport and delivered him to his younger brother's house, so he could be there the next morning for his nieces 4th birthday, briefly, before heading back to the airport to continue his journey.

Uncle Adam 'eating' wooden fruit salad

It was so lovely to see him, even if only for a short stay. Annika was thrilled to wake up to Uncle Adam being there and bringing her a present (which Gran had thoughtfully bought and wrapped for him to give her) at 5.20am. Even though Annika hasn't seen her Uncle Adam since her 2nd birthday, when he arrived unannounced as a surprise for everyone, she had no hesitation in chatting away to him and sharing her chocolate and making him a fruit salad with her new wooden fruit. It is as if she "knows" instinctively who he is - she is like this with most of her large extended family, even when she hasn't seen them for a long time. We do talk about family a lot, which I am sure helps.

I last saw Adam in January when my Mum and I visited him and his partner in Arrowtown where they were living. They moved into their own home in Cromwell late last month. He will be returning again in 10 days for another fleeting overnight visit. It is at times like this when I miss living in NZ and see the majority of my family on a regular basis. I wish I could split myself in two sometimes.

1 comment Family visit

Napoli Sauce

Due to the large crop of tomatoes I have grown successfully grown this year, I have been able to make a big batch of my take on Napoli Sauce, which I freeze in 2 cup amounts.

Here is two picks I did, one on Thursday and the next on Saturday. I will need to do another in a couple more days. They are slowing down now and I will have a gap between the big Mortgage Lifter  and Apollo plants finishing and the next lot starting to ripen.  I really need to get some into the freezer for sauce. The pinkish looking ones are Mortgage Lifter.

To make Napoli Sauce, I chop up onion, celery, leeks and garlic and 'sweat' it down in some coconut oil in the bottom of my stock pot. Then I added chopped up carrot and some mushrooms. Next is a few sprigs of herbs, thyme and basil for this lot, which I pick out once the sauce has cooked. I also stripped some of the thyme leaves off the sprigs and left them in the sauce. I love the flavour that fresh herbs give it.

 This photo doesn't do the onion mix justice. Unfortunately the flash on my phone wouldn't go off. You can see the sprigs of herbs sitting on top of the mixture. Into this goes tomato paste, and homemade vegetable stock, salt and pepper. It should have sugar in it, according to the recipe I originally followed, but my toms are sweet enough. I roast the tomatoes, capsicums and eggplant, then dice up the eggplant and capsicum before adding them to the mix. The tomatoes go through my whizz to make a puree.





The tomatoes all roasted and the diced up eggplant and capsicum. Roasting the tomatoes brings out the sweetness in them, removing the need to add sugar to the sauce. Once it is all in the pot, I let it bubble away for around 20 mins, stirring occasionally to stop it sticking to the bottom of the pot. The end result of this batch was quite a chunky mix, unlike my normal napoli sauce, which I often use my whizz stick on to puree up. I like the extra chunkiness, it adds texture to whatever you use it with. I had it over wholemeal pasta spirals and added chicken for my lunch yesterday and will have the same today. I use it in mince and chicken dishes. It is really handy to have frozen, so easy to pull a pottle out when I get home, thaw it and use it.

Do you have a favourite sauce you make and use?

1 comment Healthy food, home cooking, Sauce

Australia Zoo Visit

On Saturday I went to Australia Zoo with my daughter-in-law and two grand-daughters. We are very luck to have the zoo just down the road from where we live. I know some people don't like zoo's, however, I feel, if they are run correctly, they have a great educational place in our community. I used to go fortnightly with the older of the two girls when we had our 'Gran' day. We had hoped to see the Meercats, however their display is still under construction and won't be open for a few more weeks. We will go back once it's open as we have yearly passes, which are great.

When we go in the mornings, they have some of the animals out for the public to see and touch, if that is appropriate.  We always pat the snake and it is a good opportunity to reinforce that the only place we go near snakes or touch them is at the zoo, when a keeper is there, NOT at home.  Here my youngest grand daughter is having her first introduction to snakes. She was quite happy to touch it, proving the point that children inherit their fears from their parents and those around them. Little Tamara is extra special, having been born at 26 weeks gestation, weighing only 786gm. She will be a year old next month and apart from being 'little' is doing everything she should be.

An albino Burmese python.

Casper the crocodile. 

We always stop by to see Casper and if we go to the zoo in the afternoons, we are sometimes lucky enough to see them feeding him and getting him to jump up out of the water. One time we were there they were measuring the above python. She is a grand old lady and it took a number of men to hold her. She is much loved by the staff and public alike.                                                                                                                                                                                    
Today we were lucky enough to see the dingo's out having a play in the Crocoseum, where the daily show is held. The dingoes were having so much fun running around. As you can see, I didn't quite manage to get them both in the photo as they ran passed us, mock fighting, and jumping at each other.

The other thing we always do is feed the kangaroo's.  This one came to see if I had any food, but it lucked out, as Annika had it all. They are so soft to stroke and gentle as they take the pellets and corn out of your hand.

It's ok, there is a thick glass window between Annika and the Bengal tiger in this photo. This is the second time I have been able to get a photo like this, although with the other one, the tiger had it's back against the window, so it looked like Annika was sitting right beside it's head.  I could add so many photos from our many visits here - perhaps another time, especially of the wombats.

Leave a Comment Animals, Grandchildren, leisure, zoo

Inspirational Quotes

I admit it, I'm a collector of inspirational quotes or just quotes that I happen to like. I have a rather large number of them, on USB sticks, on an external hard-drive, and I'm beginning to get a new collection on my new computer. I've used them when working with teenagers, making them up into small books for them or printing them out and sticking them on the back of a deck of cards, or printing and laminating them on A4 paper so they can go up on their walls. I love them. Do you have a particular quote that you keep referring back to or that inspires you?



I'm going to share a few of the ones I've got in my Quotes folder on this computer. I hope you enjoy them.

1 comment Inspiration, Life, Quotes

Produce from the garden

On arriving home last night after work I went out to feed my worm farm and water the garden. I ended up picking a large bowl of tomatoes and noted that I needed to go back out in the morning and pick some of the cherry type toms as well. We are having warm sunny days at present with no rain, so the garden and my tubs dry out rapidly. Our water bill will rise over the next few months.

Above are a mixture of Apollo, Rogue de Marmade and Mortgage Lifter. To the left are mainly my cherry type which grown on long trusses. I had wanted to cut the whole truss off the bush, however there are still small toms forming at the end, so I'll just have to keep picking them as they ripen. I'm taking a bowl full in to work today. The spring onions are also out of my garden. I have a patch of them all ready now. I am going to have to start freezing the tomatoes so I can get 3 kgs worth to make my sauce. I'll share that recipe with you later when I make it. I use two very old recipes combined.

I also picked silverbeet and herbs from the garden this morning, which I am going to take into work along with half an eggplant and a small zucchini out of my fridge. What we will cook with them I have no idea.  It will be a surprise to me as well as everyone else.

Purple sage, thyme, rosemary, garlic chives and basil.  I will have to spend some time in this garden tonight or on the weekend. It needs a good weed, feed and water and a bit of rejuvenating. The sage is looking rather woody and could do with a good cut back and as the garden gets sun from midday on, it is very dry and I'm surprised these herbs haven't wilted away.

1 comment herbs, leisure, Vegetable harvest

Food Plant Solutions

I do some voluntary work for Food Plant Solutions (FPS), all through the internet. My role is officially that of a "technical writer", which sounds very grand. I don't 'write' as one would imagine writing entails, instead using a database, I compile draft food plant lists for mostly 3rd world countries in an effort to assist the local people to achieve food security for themselves and their families. The link for Food Plant Solutions website is below. Please have a look. I have also included a link to their youtube video. The third link is to Food Plants International, which is where the database is - you are welcome to access it as a guest and look up the vegetables you eat and see what nutrition, if any, you are gaining from them.

https://foodplantsolutions.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTOmdU4uvbg

http://foodplantsinternational.com/

I am quite passionate about food security. Did you know that approximately 5 children per minute under the age of five die of malnutrition?  Even here in Australia we have children going to school hungry every day. I am a firm believer that every school should have a productive vegetable garden and gardening should be a part of the curriculum. The produce could be used at school to feed the children or sent home for them to cook at home. I know some schools are already doing this.

Did you know that the most nutritious part of a watermelon is the part most of us throw away - the seed. The seeds per 100gm's have 28.3gm of protein, 7.3mg of iron and 10.2mg of zinc. Children need over 15mg of iron in their diet per day for healthy growth and depending on your age, the same for zinc, although children need a lot less.  Our daily needs for energy, protein, provitA, VitC, Fe and Zn can be met through a varied plant based diet and for third world countries, where meat is a luxury and not very often available for consumption, it is important that they are able to access easy to produce vegetables, nuts, seeds and fruits, that grow naturally in the environment they live in, able to withstand droughts, monsoons, or whatever nature throws at each particular country.

Leave a Comment Food, Nutrition, Vegetables, Volunteer work

The EKKA

On Sunday I went to The Ekka for the first time. I was expecting a bit like a NZ Agricultural Show, with animals, Country Woman's Institute competitions, side shows and rides, but I was really blown away by the size of the Ekka. It certainly is larger than any Royal Show I've been to in NZ, similar, just on a grander scale.

I went with a friends - a girls day out. We traveled down to Brisbane by train, which can be an experience in itself, depending on who you are sharing the carriage with. Travelling by train, with pre-purchased Ekka tickets is the cheapest way to get there and takes the stress out of driving into Brisbane, trying to find a park, etc, etc.

Our first port of call once at Ekka was the animals, well, second actually, the first was food and beverage :) I'm a country girl at heart, having grown up spending school holidays and weekends on my Aunts and Uncles farms, so the smells of cattle, horses and sheep, and their by-products does not worry me, nor the size some of the bulls get too. We did have a giggle hearing an obviously 'townie' lady saying 'look at the big dairy cow, she must give lots of milk' - it was a bull! The photo above and to the left is a Brahman Angus cross bull who was as gentle as a lamb. He loved a scratch behind the ear, especially from the ladies, as you can see from the photo on the right.  I am on the left and my friend Helen on the right.

I could have spent a lot longer looking at the art work, all the competition cakes, pikelets, scones, smocked dresses etc. The quilts were amazing. I wish I could have taken photos of them to share with you, however that was not allowed. I can't begin to imagine the hours and hours and patience needed to complete these quilts. Some were as large as a king sized bed - just mind blowing. I managed to get some photos of the horticultural society displays. Having a horticultural background, I worked in horticulture in NZ for 18 years, I would have loved to seen more of these, but we had limited time and lots of ground to cover.

Called "A bed of flowers" and it was in a bed frame

A floral display in one of the horticultural displays.

I was absolutely gobsmacked when I got taken to the  "show bag" building. I thought 'show bags' were plastic bags that you had to pay exorbitant amounts for, containing lollies and other junk. I was so very wrong. I ended up buying an exercise based one - the leg weights in it were worth the amount I paid and they were only the beginning of the goodies the "gym" bag that was the 'show bag' contained. I could have done my Xmas Shopping there, if only I had known - oh well, there is always next year.




We stayed to watch the "family fireworks". I have to admit to being a bit disappointed in them, but I was told they are only the "early ones" and to see the really big display, you have to come on closing night. Still, I got a couple of semi-descent photos.

All in all, I had a good time, and wouldn't hesitate to go again next year. I'd go on the Saturday though and get there at opening time, so I could sit at the main arena and watch some of the show jumping as well as see some of the cattle being judged.  I'd also make sure I was better prepared for the monetary outlay that attending a show likes this entails. Everything, food, water, rides, side shows seems to cost an arm and a leg, not that I'm interested in the rides or sideshows.

We did find and buy these amazing scarf things that you wet with cold tap water, wring out, shake vigorously 5 or 6 times and then wrap around your neck - they are cold and when they get a bit warm, just re-shake and they are instantly cold again - marvelous for us menopausal, hot flushing ladies, or just because it is a hot day and you want to cool down. We also tasted Balsamic Reductions, all different flavours - I got a card of them and will be ordering some on-line. The dessert Salted Caramel, I could have just drunk from the bottle. I tried again, and this time like some beef jerky. I even bought a bag of the Teriyaki flavoured one and will take on my big walks as a light, easy to eat, low fat protein.

I'll leave you with a photo of this wool fellow, who wasn't sporting an incredible fleece like his camera shy mate in the pen next door. We don't see merino's like this where I come from in the North Island of NZ, so he rather took my fancy. NZ does breed and produce very fine fleeced merino wool in the South Island and there is nothing nicer to wear on a cold winters day than an NZ merino/possum jersey. I wouldn't like to come in contact with those horns though.

Leave a Comment Animals, Fireworks, Flowers, Friends, Fun, leisure

Walking with the Aunts and friends

Today I went for a 12 km walk with my two paternal Aunts, a 1st cousin of theirs, which makes her a cousin of some sort of mine and three friends of my Aunts. It was one Aunts 75 birthday on Wednesday and my other Aunt, the cousin and two friends were over from NZ to help her celebrate. My Aunt, myself and her other friend who was on the walk all live here.  So, we drove up to Mapleton and parked down Delicia Rd at the start of the Linda Garret walk.

I was a bit horrified to read about the leeches, but due to the dry conditions, fortunately, none seemed to be around, which I was very very thankful for.

We walked the Delicia Rd Circuit.  

One of the many fallen giants. 

It ambled through bush and forest tracks and was easy walking. The bush is so peaceful to walk through, if you can get the humans to be quiet, that is. We briefly glimpsed a wallaby bounding off, scared away by the chatter of the ladies, I imagine and I saw a small snake, slither quickly away into the undergrowth - I kept quiet about that one, didn't want to scare the kiwi's too much. 



We had a brief stop for morning tea and I had a quiet chuckle to myself, as out came the "throw" to put over the log, I did wonder if the wine and cheese was going to appear next, however, it didn't, just chai latte in a thermos.

At the top of the Mary Valley 

We stopped at the Ubajee Walkers Camp for lunch and to use the composting toilet, which surprisingly, wasn't the slightest bit smelly.  The veiw from the Ubajee lookout was wonderful.


From there we wound our way down the track to the bottom of the valley, which my Aunt tells is the Mary Valley and I'm not going to argue with her.  The below sign gave us a bit of a giggle, however we all told the sign we were experienced so it was ok for us to keep walking.

Going down was good, however, with every downhill, there is usually an uphill and we weren't disappointed. Up, up, up we went. 

Here they come, up, up, the track towards the road.

Half way up the climb to the road, we decided myself and one of my Aunts friends would walk ahead, and once we reached the road, head back to the cars and bring two of them down to pick the other 5 up. The cousin was perfectly capable of completing the walk, but two of the others were starting to feel the pain. 

The walk from the road back to the cars was 2.6 km's of gravel road going uphill. The first 1 km of the road felt like it was straight up. A man and his son stopped beside us and commented on how hard the 'going' was and said they'd stop on their way back and give us a ride to our car. Unfortunately by the time they came back we were only 30 m's from our cars, but he stopped and congratulated us on our effort - very kind of him - I think. 

Anyway, after driving down to pick up the ladies and they saw the climb back to the cars, they were very thankful they hadn't had to walk it. We retreated to a cafe in Mapleton for a cuppa and then off home. It was a lovely hot shower for me and some delightful smelling rub into my calf muscles; they were feeling that climb.

It's a good place for training for the Kokoda Challenge and I'll be back there.

2 comments family, Fitness, leisure, walking

Walking Mt Ngungun

As part of my training for doing the Kokoda Challenge, I am going to attempt to walk up Mt Ngungun every Thursday morning, or if not Ngungun, perhaps Mt Beerberrum. Both of these are a part of the Glass House Mountains. Beerberrum is nasty - a short, but very steep climb up a concreted path - yep, concrete. When it's wet, it can be very, very slippery. There is a fire tower on the top, which in the dry season is manned during daylight hours. The view from the first platform, where walkers can climb to, is quite something.

Sunrise. Looking out to the Sunshine Coast

It takes me about 20 to 22 mins to get from the car park to the top of Mt Ngungun. I'd really like to get that time down to 18 mins and then be able to do it twice in a row. As the mornings get lighter I should be able to achieve it. I do enjoy watching the sunrise from up there and sunset is just as stunning. A couple of years ago my husband and I carried a little cooler bag up, with cheese, crackers and some other delicious snacks and of course a beverage and watched the sun setting. We took head torches to make our descent safer. The path down is quite rocky and it is easy to "go over" on your ankle if you aren't careful.

About half way up, there is a lovely spot to stop and catch your breath and gaze out at Mt Tibrogaran, the father of all the Glasshouse Mountains. From certain angles, he looks like a gorilla sitting down.

Mt Tibrogaran

Mt Beerwah is Mum and the rest of them are their children.  Here is the link to the legend of the Glass House Mountains. http://www.coolrunning.com.au/ultra/glasshouse/glassh3.shtml

Mt Beerwah with Mt Coonowrin in front.

I'm really lucky that the Glass House Mountains are all within easy travelling distance; I think it takes me about 5 mins to get to Ngungun. If I'm at my son's house, it is literally out the back door and onto the fire trail that runs around the base of the mountain. We all used to walk up it regularly with my little granddaughter in the backpack. Now at 4 years of age, she walks it herself, which is great, but does slow the process down a great deal.

Leave a Comment Fitness, Glasshouse Mountains, Hiking, leisure