World's best carrot cake.

Carribean Carrot Cake........................

I've died and gone to heaven.

I'm just going to put a photo up here, no explanation or description is needed.

Except.....maybe I need to explain why I still can't focus the camera.  Why is that?  I should know what I'm doing by now.

I'm the world's best cook and the world's worst photographer!

Snail Trap Fiasco

A few weeks ago I arranged to have some u-beaut, guaranteed to work, pet friendly, fail safe, suitable for organics, kind to the earth snail traps sent all the way from Victoria.  The only thing I had to do according to the directions, was put them into the vegie patch level with the ground and pour a little drop of beer into them.......which of course everyone knows is absolutely irresistible to snails.  (Irresistible to husbands as well).

So how many snails did I catch?

Take a look.........

None, zilch, zero, nil..................not one.
Just three days worth of dirt, and one dead leaf.

And how many snails remain snuggled up amongst my rocket and asparagus?

Millions...............

Honestly.

I don't know why I just don't use snail pellets and be done with it.

I should never have read that book 'Wild Snail Eating'...............I haven't been the same since.

Fig Jam

From tree to table.....................

Yum.....

Here's the Recipe.

1 Kilo figs washed and quartered.

500 grams raw sugar.

1 tablespoon lemon juice.

Simmer gently together until jam gels when tested.  Mine took not quite an hour.  Blend out larger lumps with a stick blender if desired and bottle into hot sterilised jars.

I sterilise my jars by washing in hot soapy water, rinsing in really hot water, and then placing upright onto a tea towell placed into the baking dish in the oven.  Heat for approx 20 mins at 100c.  The jars are then hot, upright and ready to fill (like me!)

Home Made Soap

I've spent the last 12 months since finishing work, cleaning, de-cluttering and generally simplifying our lives. Then by chance I stumbled across a fabulous blog the other day here which prompted me to make a batch of soap of all things (yes I know....go figure).

I already had all the ingredients needed for a plain vegetable soap, plus I put a little fragrance into it so it smells just divine!  The finished soap is very rustic because I had to fight it out of the Tupperware container I used for a mold.  Why I didn't think to line the container with baking paper or something is beyond me.  Although 'rustic' works for me. 

Anyway take a look........ 

It works too!  Lovely and creamy and soft.  I can't wait to make the next batch.

(I think I must be reverting back to my hippie days!)

Camping fun.....again!

Well, I've spent several days without a shower, been tangled up in a 'willy-willy', ran out of happy hour dip & chips, suffered a blown up stove and lost the elastic in my bathers.........the joys of camping.

But oh my......the open spaces, the awesome beaches, the amazing & fun friendships, the spectacular sunsets and the inexhaustible supply of dumb questions from inside the beer bottle tops made it all worthwhile!