Technicolour salad

Pretty, isn't it? This was adapted (downsized) from Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion.

Orange, Mint and Radish Salad

1-2 oranges

4 radishes, grated and squeezed to remove moisture (about 1/2 cup grated)

1 tbs (or so...) mint leaves

1 tbs olive oil

1 tsp lemon juice (optional)

salt, to taste

1 tsp chilli powder (optional, or to taste)

Cut the peel from the orange, then use a knife to cut the flesh out of each segment, leaving the membranous skeleton behind. Reserve any juice. Arrange the orange segments on a plate, scatter over the radish and mint. Whisk the olive oil with about 2 tbs orange juice, adding lemon juice, salt and chilli powder to taste, and pour over the salad.

Salad Season

It's not really been salad weather- maxima of 12-15 degrees most days and rainy periods (not that I'm complaining!) are soup and casserole weather in my book. But it's perfect salad-growing weather- my lettuce always bolts at the merest hint of summer! Here are a couple of versions I remembered to photograph:

Lettuce, radish, grated beetroot

Lettuce and alfalfa

All homegrown!

Hot and sour soup: another home grown meal!

Without thinking, tonight's dinner was again about as home-grown as I can manage. I feel pretty proud :)

Hot and Sour Chicken Noodle Soup
(loosely based on a recipe from Nigella Bites)
For the soup, boil together:
3 cups stock
1 stem lemongrass, finely chopped
2 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped
Juice of 1 lime (from a playgroup mum's awesome garden)
1 tablespoon chilli sauce (to taste)
4 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon sugar

Green beans, chopped and cooked in the soup
Leftover roast chicken, shredded and heated in the soup
Cooked homemade pasta, shredded bok choi, silverbeet and radish in each bowl

Ladle the hot soup, beans and chicken over the noodles and greens, slurp!

Milestone Dinner

On the menu:

Radish and lettuce salad

Broadbean salad: cooked broadbeans, avocado, red onion, olive oil, lemon juice

Cauliflower persillade: 1 head cauliflower, broken up and drizzled with olive oil, cooked at ~200C in the barbecue for 15 minutes, then topped with ~1/2 cup breadcrumbs, a large handful of parsley and crushed garlic and cooked a further 10 minutes. (Adapted from my favourite cauliflower recipe)

Why was this a milestone? It was all home grown except for olive oil, avocado, onion, garlic, breadcrumbs and the lemon juice (which was from our neighbours' tree).

Life is sweet.

New plot on the block

I'm always wanting more space to plant vegies. Our garden has brick-and-mortar edging and paved areas put in by the previous owners, so it's hard to adjust the size of the garden beds. And despite all the talk in the blogosphere about the "green cancer" of lawns in gardens, B and I like to have a grassy patch at home for the boys to run around on. So I was quite pleased to finally turn my thoughts into action and put some large pots in an unused corner 10 days ago.

They're on a rarely-used rear driveway behind the garage, so it is not an area we would permanently convert to garden, but it's a good addition to the regular beds. The fence faces North, but is shaded in the afternoon by the garage, which I hope will reduce overheating in summer.

Big Bro was thrilled to have the chance to do some "seeding" and watering, and has proudly shown off "his" plot to visitors. We planted some strawberries and lettuce seedlings around the corners, radish and carrot seeds in the middle (I'm hoping that the muncher won't find them) and climbing beans at the back; I'll put some lattice up on the fence for the climbers. On the far right is my out-of-season feral tomato that was evicted from the mini-greenhouse to make room for seedlings.

And who says you can't have fun planting radishes?