Afternoon tea - Blueberry Clafoutis

Our little blueberry bush is starting to get flower buds all over it and I am determined to actually get some off it this year, unlike last year.

But whilst impatiently waiting for it to fruit I purchased a punnet this week and made a Blueberry Clafoutis, yum!

Clafoutis is ridiculously easy to make and can be used with a variety of fruits, plums, berries and traditionally, cherries.  It is heavy on the eggs and light on the flour so it ends up something like a baked custard.

Blueberry Clafoutis

Ingredients
1 punnet blueberries (or fruit of your choice)
1/2 cup plain flour
1/3 cup sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup milk
25g unsalted butter, melted
Additional melted butter for greasing
icing sugar to dust

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Brush shallow pie plate with additional melted butter.

Spread blueberries onto pie plate.

Sift the flour, add sugar and make a well. Gradually add combined milk, eggs and butter, whisking constantly to ensure it is smooth and free of lumps.

Pour batter over berries. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until risen and golden. Remove from oven and dust with icing sugar when cool.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

The baby house is sold

The baby house is what my cousin calls the house you bring your babies home to, and today the cooling off period closed for the sale of our baby house. Definitely mixed emotions here.

Sad, because we bought the land as an engaged couple, built our dream house on it, making every decision on what the house would look like, colour of the bricks and roof tiles, kitchen cupboards and countertops, paint colours, light fightings, everything. And we had it just about perfect, having finally bought all the furniture to fill it and to have it looking like we wanted it to. But unfortunately we outgrew the backyard some years ago, our yearning for big vegie gardens and orchards meant we were destined to move at some point.

And this year was the year it happened. We went from a 735 square metre block to a 19 980 one. And we love it. And even though we know we can and will make this place just as lovely, we miss our beautiful house.

But we are also happy, because now we can get one with making this place our home. Build the big shed, extend the house, start the vegie patch and orchard. Whilst dreaming of making it just as perfect for us as our baby house was.

xx

The first frost

Yesterday we woke to a frost, our first ever!

And I mean ever. Despite living only 10 minutes from here for the past 15 or so years, we never experienced a frost at our old place. No doubt because it was an area of predominantly brick homes with lots of asphalt road, all adding up to create it's own little microclimate.

But out here, this is real weather!

Sadly the spot we are starting to work over for the vege patch was also affected. We had originally decided to put the vege patch down the bottom of the property but changed our minds as we knew the bottom section would be affected by frost and so moved it to the highest point. Grrr.

We are now battening down the hatches as we are experiencing some very high winds. We haven't had many big winds since being out here so fingers crossed everything will be ok.

The three little pigs

Yesterday Mama Guinea Pig gave birth to three little pigs!

One of the pigs from the last litter next to two of the new babies. They are so tiny.

Aren't they cute?

Meniere's Disease

At last a diagnosis... Meniere's Disease.

Someone asked me around 10 years ago if I had Meniere's Disease, to which I promptly answered 'no' (and then when straight home and googled it) so the idea that this is what it may've been has been floating around in my head for a long time. And I always thought I would be shattered if it turned out to be Meniere's, until the specialist told me in a very relieved voice (after checking my MRI results) that he thought he was going to have to tell me I had a brain tumour. He thought I was in 'serious trouble'. After that, Meniere's seemed like a relief!

The specialist also told me it and Otosclerosis are often found together, some of the symptoms overlapping, which is why I haven't had an earlier diagnosis. There is no definitive test for Meniere's, just eliminating the other possibilities until it's all you have left.

So after almost 5 months of being almost constantly dizzy we are on track to managing it, because that appears to be all I can do, manage it. There is no cure and other treatments to eliminate it appear to be quite drastic.

So after a couple of weeks on the medication I was (overly) optimistic on how I was going so I went back to work last week.

Bad move.

The first day was ok, I was in training so the slight dizziness I felt didn't really affect my day, but by day 2, when they put me back in front of the computers, well, to put it nicely I was stuffed. The constant head turning (they have dual monitors) and writing stuff down and then head up and down from the page to the screen was all too much. Can't say I wasn't warned though, the specialist stated there probably wasn't a worse environment for me at this stage.

So now I am back home, contemplating what to do about work as I will most likely have to resign. Not that that is such a hardship, I'm certainly not going to miss that work. But with the downturn in Mr Homespun's industry and the possibility that soon both of us could be out of a job it is a bit of a worry. And the stress of that is not doing the Meniere's any favours either.

But it could be worse.

Cheers

The new tractor

This week Mr Homespun got his new tractor delivered.

He was like a kid waiting for Santa, watching the road for any sign of the delivery truck.

It is a very fast red colour (yes, the colour is more important than what it can do for some of us!). We put it to work as soon as it was off the truck.

This is the area we will make into the vegie garden so we gave it a bit of a run.

I even had a bit of a go and I'll happily admit it was a bit fun, even if I didn't get out of first gear!

Cheers

World's Best Pizza Dough Recipe

Maybe a slight exaggeration there, but it is still the best I have ever had!

This is probably the most used recipe in the Homespun kitchen. We have pizza at least once a fortnight, sometimes once a week. The recipe I used to use was a great tasting base but frankly it was hard work, a tough dough to knead and it had to be rolled out with a rolling pin. But this one is lovely and 'soft'. I can knead it with one hand if needed (ha ha) and it is just fingered pressed onto the trays.

Ingredients
3 cups plain flour
Large pinch of caster sugar
2 tspns yeast
Small pinch of salt
1 tblspn olive oil
1 1/4 cups warm water

Method
Place flour, yeast and sugar in a large mixing bowl and give a little mix until ingredients are combined. Add salt, olive oil and 1 cup of warm water and mix, adding additional water if needed. Knead for 10 (ish) minutes or until elastic and smooth. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean, damp cloth.

Leave for 30 minutes, or until doubled in size. This part will depend on how warm your kitchen is, if it is a bit chilly it may need a little longer. Punch down and knead until it is about the same size as it was before the rise.

Your dough is now ready!

Just press out onto lightly oiled trays. This makes two large pizzas or you can use to make smaller ones.

Cover with your desired toppings and pop into an oven preheated to 230 degrees celsius for around 10 minutes.

I originally found this recipe here, but I have omitted a couple of bits to make it easier. I'll post some of our favourite toppings another day.

Cheers