More spoils from the garden....

We have had loads of chillies and zucchinis for a few weeks but the other day we proudly harvested these:


And here's some succulents we've been propogating to give to some friends:

beans beans beans....

Ever tried making your own baked beans?
Like many, you may be fearful of certain side effects. Treehugger gives some solutions here.

here's a yummy recipes I found recently. I'm going to give it a go (once the weather is cooler) but by making the beans from scratch:

Veggie Chili with Cornbread Dumplings

Ingredients:

1 white onion, medium diced
2 small cans pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 can diced tomatoes,

2 links vegetarian sausage (kinda spicy), or 8 oz. other veggie meat of your choice, cut into bite size chunks
2 T. olive oil
salt
optional: tabasco, chili flakes, chili powder, ground ancho chilis, green chilis, whatever heat you like
grated cheddar for serving
3/4 c. cornmeal
1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/4 c. yogurt
1/4 c. whole milk
1 egg
2 T. vegetable oil

instructions:

Preheat the onion to 400 degrees.

Put the onions, pinto beans, tomatoes, veggie sausage and olive oil in a casserole. Season with salt and add optional heat to your taste. Cover and put in oven to start heating while you make the dumplings.

Mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt in one bowl. Beat the yogurt, milk, egg, and vegetable oil in another. Quickly mix the wet and dry ingredients without overbeating.

Remove the casserole from the oven, remove the lid, and drop the dumpling dough on in chunks a bit smaller than a golf ball, leaving spaces between them. (See picture above)

Bake about 20 minutes or so (uncovered) until the beans are hot and the dumplings are golden brown and baked through. Check them with a toothpick if you aren't sure.
Serve it up with grated cheddar and hot sauce on the side.

Do you have a favourite baked beans recipe? I'd love to hear it :)

How green is Google?

Or indeed the Internet?

Most of us browse the web and utilise the Internet on a frequent basis (you're here aren't you?) without really questioning the implications of doing so, here's an interesting article specifically about Google that might get you thinking...

www.thegreenpages.com.au/index.asp?page_id=1050

Gardening meets sport....

I love this installation by Madrid urban artist Spy...it particularly resonates with those of us who live/work in a concrete jungle and dislike sport.

Green as a thistle!

Recently I stumbled across Green as a Thistle a blog (and now book) by journalist Vanessa who documents her endeavours at living a greener life. Her challenge was to:

"Spend each day, for an entire calendar year, doing one thing that betters the environment. The idea was that everything I did, I kept doing (so if I switched brands, it was a permanent switch; if I turned down my thermostat, I kept it down), so that by day 365, I'd be living as green a lifestyle as it gets. It was a gruelling year, but in the end, it proved that being an environmentalist doesn't necessarily mean being a smug hippie, nor does it have to mean compromising aesthetic values or good wine.

You can read the list here of her lifestyle changes. I was interested to read that many of the things trialed are common practice in Australia like reusable shopping bags, recycling glass and paper, reducing water use and using recycled toilet paper.

How many of this list do you practice? I found we practice lots of the ideas (not all were relevant to us of course) like cloth napkins, rechargable batteries, using organic and recycled materials where often and the link. I also found a few ideas I haven't heard of and got reminded of my pledge to ban tissues in the home (not really an option at work as many of my clients are in tears). I'll make a list of challenges for myself I think.

Simplicity is living...

I love these free downloadable posters from Readymade.com, inspired by social art of the 'great depression era, designed by Christopher Silas Neal and Nick Dewar respectively. They are part of a series of five and you can download yours here

Do you make your own bread?

I was interested to read this article about the environmental benefits of making your own bread, with a breadmaker. These include the use of bulk materials and less travel and packaging. Further, it is alleged that a bread machine can do doughs, artisan breads, gluten-free loafs, and even jams and chutneys.

In our house we're not big bread eaters. We struggle to finish a loaf in a week. So for us it would most likely not be cost effective. Further I'm not meant to eat wheat so we invariably buy some kind of organic, whole loaf anyway. But for a big family it may be the way to go, what do you think?

Are there other things you make from scratch rather than buy? A dear friend makes the most amazing jams and chutneys and I've featured the benefits of making your own shortbread and I also like to make scones. We'll also soon be subject to an influx of zucchinis which will nessitate some busy baking. I'd also like to try making tomato sauces for presents.

The Slow Guide to Melbourne (& our 100th post!!)

The Slow Guides – Melbourne
Affirm Press
$29.95
www.slowguides.com.au

‘Slow’ is an increasingly popular worldwide movement encouraging us to all, well, slow down. To take time out from our increasingly (and frequently self inflicted) hectic lives to appreciate what is around us, to take time to notice little things that were previously unnoticed, investigate places un-investigated, try new experiences and treat the world in a different, more relaxed and inquisitive manner.
Affirm Press’s ‘Slow Guides’ to Melbourne and Sydney are the first (of hopefully many) in a series of handbooks to an alternative way of enjoying your favourite city. This review will focus on the Melbourne edition as it’s where I live and the city I know best.
The guide is beautifully produced with a uniform mellowing combination of black, white and green throughout the book accompanying some finely crafted text, beautiful photos and illustrations. I’ve not lived in Melbourne for that long, so a lot of the places and experiences mentioned were new and surprising to me, but my wife has been here over ten years and most still surprised her, so there’s your proof that we all spend far too much time rushing around like headless chickens, so that we need a book to tell us how to really discover our home city.

Some of my favourite snippets and factoid from the book include :

• Final confirmation that the Keith Haring-esque painting nears the Tote in Collingwood is actually an original Keith Haring.
• The old Melways tour of Melbourne to discover which buildings have come and gone since the edition was published.
• A very long list of unique (and generally free) views of Melbourne.
• The best places to indulge some of your more under-appreciated senses, such as smell.
• Why the visually appealing tiles outside of so many Melbourne pubs are at they height they are. (You wont touch them ever again…)

This is an easy and inspiring read, perfect to pop in your bag or even squeeze into a large pocket as you wander the streets with nothing in particular to do, but be warned, the book could cause some contradictory behaviour as you rush to leave work or study as rapidly as possible to get out into the big wide world and soak up some of the wonderful experiences mentioned.

Our first zucchini!

We were very excited to find our first zucchini grown in the veggie patch! The zucchinis are a light pale green with a soft prickly fur on the outside, ensuring no bugs get near!

As we were going for Dalyesford for the weekend, I proceeded to make a zucchini cake! I varied the recipe somewhat and used dates instead of raisins and sultanas and almonds instead of walnuts and added some grated carrot. Very yummy!