Wet weather cook up

The weather here in 'Sunny' QLD has been horrid over the last few weeks. I can't remember how many inches of rain we have had, although considerably less than further north that is suffering terrible flooding right now, but I still have my gripe about my back yard resembling a swamp. Its yucky, and smelly, and I'm having a gawd-awful time keeping the kids out of the stinking filth.

However the rain has been fantastic for my vege gardens!

The older one has been going on and off for a couple of years now, but we have finally got its soil to a decent standard by composting and mulching, and what was once dust is now beautiful soil. However my only real successes so far are lettuce, which I eat by the tonne (while trying to lose 22kgs - 14 down, 8 to go) and beans, which I appear to be the only person in the house to really appreciate. I'm sure Jamie Oliver would like my beans. Honestly, freshly picked beans from garden to stove to plate in the same hour are just delicious and so much better than the half shriveled up, dehydrated, touched by god knows how many dirty hands beans they sell at the local shops. We've also managed 3 pumpkins, 1 very small but tasty watermelon, and plenty of cherry tomatoes which the boys (the guinea pigs - Zhra Zhra and Igor as named by 'Chicken') gobble up super quickly.

Currently I also have some zucchini, cucumbers and radish growing. Now that I've discovered a natural treatment for powered mildew (watered down milk sprayed on the leaves - can you believe it!) on my zuchs and cucqs, I might actually get some produce from this crop.

Garden number 2 is all of a week or 2 old. Still in its early stages, layers of cardboard, old hay bails and a ute load of dirt to get things started. Its currently growing a green manure crop of peas and different grain out of the guinea pig grain mix, which then after its cut down, will be topped with fresh compost which is on the cook right now and a good layer of mulch. The plan is to have it ready for my winter veges crop of broccoli and caulis and whatever else I can in amoungst it.

So we are loving our regular rains in regards to my veges. However the kids are driving me nuts!

Chicken and Buggels have cabin fever, I have no car and we are sick of looking at each other. here's a list of thing I have discovered to make the day go quicker.

Baking!

Bake biscuits - these yummy cornflake and choc chip ones are yummy. Leave a bit of mixture in the bowl for them to munch on (outside under the pergola away from me) so as they get a little queasy, quieten down a tad, and also be less likely to scoff the whole batch before I get to sample one.

Review: These are like the old days when my Mum used to bake goodies for school. I feel like I'm 12 eating these babies.

Bake a cake - Jam Swirl butter cake anyone?. (tip: avoid this one if watching weight, 250gs of butter can't be a good thing) The best thing about cake... the beaters! This is why I only have 2 kids; 2 beaters. Imagine the shit fight if there was a 3rd. Ok, so there's the bowl, but its so much more fun to watch the kids try to get their heads in the bowl at the same time so they can lick it.

Review: Very tasty with my afternoon coffee, and use whatever jam you've got handy.

So on top of a little humour and peace for Mum, a little boredom killing for the kids, I've managed to get some snacks in the freezer and cupboard for lunches for Grumbles and the feral rugrats. Easy peasy!

And on top of that, I also managed to toss a couple of old family favs (beef casserole and apricot chicken) in the oven to stash in the freezer for days I'm late, to tired or just can't be assed cooking. Even better!