Saturday in the 'burbs

A sultana cake for a friend whose brother died -
and the recipe, because this is one of my all time faves. Easy to make, easy to take, yummy to eat. Back in the day, I used to double the recipe and make two every time I made it.

SULTANA CAKE
450g sultanas​
225g butter
​3 eggs
1 ¼ cups sugar​
350g flour​
1 teaspn baking powder
lemon, vanilla and almond essence

Cover sultanas with water and boil five minutes. Drain, add butter while still hot, stir. Beat eggs and sugar together with essences and add to sultanas. Beat together and mix well. Add flour and baking powder. Bake 1 hour at 160°.

Oscar enjoying his ice cream

My celery is ready for harvesting, but it's still summer and I will mostly use it for winter soups and stews, so into the freezer it goes. Celery is great to freeze - just wash, chop and free flow freeze! (And as we're in the middle of a drought here, the water used for washing the celery gets poured over a wilting cape gooseberry plant.)
The container I'm using for the celery - well last week, there I was with my son and grandson, sitting in the sun in Napier having an ice cream, when the shop owner came out with these two empty 5 litre ice cream containers and lids, (the sort the ice cream is in, in shops that sell cone ice cream) and asked us if we wanted them. Son didn't, but I could see they'd find a use, and they have! My method of free-flowing celery in bulk is to wash and chop, and put in a container in the freezer, making sure it's no more than three-quarters full.   I set the timer for 20 mins, and every time it beeps, I give the container a good shake until the celery ends up free flow frozen! (You'll notice also that I use the leaves as well as the stems - they're full of flavour and goodness too!)  My freezer is pretty full at the moment, and there isn't any room for trays. This is easier and works well!


And a loaf of bread.
This is my "regular everyday bread". Delicious and healthy!

100% WHOLEMEAL BREAD
320 ml water (1 ¼ cups)​
1 teaspoon salt​
2 tblspns milk powder
2 tblspns oil​
1 tblspn treacle​
3 cups wholemeal flour
3 teaspoons Surebake yeast

Regular wholemeal setting.

My 100% wholemeal bread

Cauliflower and Broccoli

It's a couple of years since I've grown cauliflower or broccoli because they get so savaged by the white cabbage butterfly as it lays its eggs there and they hatch into hungry caterpillars, but this year I read that interplanting with celery deters these pests, so I gave it a go.

Unqualified success!

The broccoli all matured at once, a couple of days before Christmas, so was hastily blanched and frozen. There wasn't ONE caterpillar or other nasty on any of it!

Today I harvested the first row of cauliflower - it wasn't as pretty as the broccoli, there was a bit of interleaving (don't know the correct name, but little leaves growing between the florets), but likewise not one caterpillar.
It's really unusual - when I blanch cauliflower, (2mins) there are usually a few dead caterpillars left floating in the pan!

So now there's celery that can get some fresh air with the brassicas gone, and can grow strong and hearty for winter soups and stews.  I love companion planting!!
Nice to have some vegetables in the freezer ready for winter too!