January 2018 – MakeCookGrow.com

How to Make a Living Ivy Topiary Wreath

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Easy to do, great looking and a lovely gift, its time to start growing an ivy topiary wreath if you want to give it as a Mothers’ Day gift or just as a pretty addition to your courtyard or garden. They are attractive and need little care except watering and twisting the growth around the wire frame. Well established wreaths need clipping back about twice a year.

You need:

* four or five ivy cuttings

* vase or jar with water

* potting mix

* pot

* clothes hanger

Select the size ivy depending on the wreath you want to make. This is a small leaf variety. I have two made with bigger ivy leaves which are much bigger wreaths.

Put four or five cuttings in water until small, thread like roots appear. I leave the vase out of sunlight in the kitchen until the roots appear.

Plant out the ivy and leave it for about six weeks to get established. I only use a fish emulsion on the new plant, but water regularly and keep it in dappled shade.

Now shape a coat hanger and bend the hook to a right angle to secure in the pot. I’ve made the circular frame from wire before but now just use coat hangers. I’ve also secured the base in a cut out circle of polystyrene in the past but now just embed the hanger in the soil.

Transfer the ivy to its final pot or embed the hanger in the existing pot. Gently twist the ivy around the frame. You’ll need to keep doing this every month. Soon you’ll have a pretty Ivy Topiary Wreath.

Today is Australia Day, the day Austalians reflect on what it means to be Australian, to celebrate contemporary Australia and to acknowledge our history. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and people from nearly every country in the would have created a dynamic society in an amazingly beautiful country. Today many Australians will enjoy a barbecue with friends and family and then, tonight, the wonderful fireworks all around the country.

Happy Australia Day!

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Making Scones

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This is sultana scone dough almost ready to be cut into scones. I use a small rolling pin to roll out the dough which was my son’s Play Dough rolling pin many years ago and is the perfect size for this job.

I prefer plain scones but these sultana scones were very good… although they look funny!

Scones are thought to have originated in Scotland in the 1500s. They remain an important part of morning and afternoon tea rituals around the world. Scones can be savoury, such as cheese or pumpkin scones, or sweet, like date and sultana. They can be served hot with butter or cold with jam and cream. Generally, they are round but can be square, triangular or diamond shapes.

This recipe is from The Golden Wattle Cookery Book. Printed in 1968 I use it so often. It includes instructions for rendering fat, making baking powder and self raising flour, how to brine and smoke bacon, how to freshen bread and scones and even instructions for making tea ( in a pot) and coffee. Interesting to read and reliable recipes.

Scones and strong tea go together so well! I grew up on a farm and our sheep were shorn during the school holidays. It was my job to carry the wicker basket to the shearing shed with morning tea for the shearers. It had scones and some cut cake or slice, all wrapped in grease proof paper. There was a jar of sugar, a bottle of milk and teaspoons. The billy of tea was carried separately and was strong and aromatic. It smelt wonderful! I don’t drink tea but like the smell so much I have a candle called French Morning Tea.

Hot, delicious sultana scones, just add butter. They were gone very quickly.

Winnie The Pooh

Yesterday was A A (Allan Alexander) Milne’s birthday. He was born in 1882. Best known as the author of many childrens’ books, but particularly Winnie the Pooh, he was a well respected playwright before this book was published. It became hugely successful and over shadowed his previous works.

“It’s more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words, like ” What about lunch?”

Winnie the Pooh

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What Are Your New Year Resolutions?

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What does New Year mean to you? Here in the Southern Hemisphere it is summer and long school holidays, so many Australians are meeting friends and family, enjoying time with their children, trying to keep cool and making plans for the New Year.

Lots of people are talking about their New Year resolutions, their goals for the year and even their “word” for the year. My goal for this year is to waste less food, so much the same as last year, but I must try harder.

Changes made last year included a worm farm for scraps and peelings, fridge soup to use up vegetables, turning almost anything leftover into a soufflé or frittata, but plans change or food gets overlooked and things end up being thrown out.

We have a very small garden area. I have tried composting ( hello rats) and a bokashi bin ( hello evil smell) so gave up on both. My research points to meal planning. I’ve printed meal planning sheets before but only stuck to the plan for about a week. More effort required!

I’ll keep reading blogs written by highly organised women, (and so far they have all been women), and I’ll discuss options with the family, write a list, shop, then try hard to stick to the plan. This is my plan! What’s your New Year plan?

Yum cha with friends. So tasty, so relaxing, great company.

Lovely lunch.

When my Mother saw these Hot Cross Buns in the supermarket she said,

” We’ve just celebrated his birth and now we’re crucifying him!”

Did you know January 11th was Morse Code day? One of the most important innovations in communications in the 19th century, it was the basis of the World’s first high speed communications systems.

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Eating From The Garden

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Several sorts of chillis growing in the garden. Above are Numex Twilight Rainbow. They are so pretty but quite feisty!

Gathering cayenne peppers to make chilli jam.

Our son split the peppers and scraped out the seeds, then put the chillis into the food processor.

Processed to a pulp.

Then cooked with apple cider vinegar, sugar, water and pectin, following Nigella’s Chilli Jam recipe.

Pouring the jam into sterilised jars. Strong chilli aroma!

The finished chilli jam. Very pretty, very strong.

Our son adds the jam to “pep up” lots of dishes.

Picked spinach which I chopped and steamed for dinner, adding it to baby beans and diced bacon. Stirred in a jar of pasta sauce and poured it over tortellini.

Picked some baby beetroot, then oven roasted them for salad.

The roasted beetroot with roasted kumara (sweet potato), cos lettuce, thin slices of Camembert, sage from my Mother’s garden and traditional oil and vinegar dressing. A delicious salad and worth getting stained fingers preparing the beetroot.

Not edible, but also from the garden, the pink and red Pierre de Ronsard roses are in full bloom.

January is BRAIN TEASER month, so enjoy a cryptic crossword, play a game of cards, complete the quick crossword in the paper or settle to an online strategy game. I find keeping the rats off the tomatoes sufficiently brain teasing. Let me know what is successful, please.

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