Easy Peasy Bread Sticks

Guess what? I didn't get very far tidying my studio today. I remembered a recipe that I saw on the Make it Do blog the other day and had to give it a go. I made them for lunch today (a scrummy lunch is all part of a good pottering day as far as I'm concerned!). They are soooo good. You have to try them.

When I took the bread sticks out of the oven, I was so impressed I said "Wow, check out these puppies". Miss 6 was walking passed at the time looked at me with eyebrows raised. A few moments later, when Miss 3 joined her at the table and said "What are those?". Miss 6 proudly answered "They are puppies."

The recipe and instructions for the bread sticks (aka puppies if you are a child in my house) are here.

I've adjusted it slightly for Kiwi users. Recipes always seem to work differently in different countries.

Here's the sightly adjusted version of Calli's recipe. This one makes 18-20 bread sticks (I made mine more like baby baguettes than sticks):

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tsp salt
1 Tbsp red cap yeast
4 cups plain flour
1/2 cup parmasan or tasty cheese, finely grated
1 tsp garlic seasoning (optional, or use seasoning of your choice)
1/4 cup melted butter

Equipment
2 greased baking sheets
measuring jug
measuring spoons
mixing bowl
fork
knife
cheese grater
pastry brush

• Preheat your oven to 200 degrees (fan forced)
• Put your water into your measuring jug and add sugar, salt and yeast. Put to one side for 10  mins until it is bubbly.
• Grate your cheese and put it to one side
• Put your flour, 3/4 of the cheese and your chosen seasoning into a large bowl and pour in the yeast. Use a fork to mix it together and then use your hands to knead it into a large ball.
• Tip the dough out onto a floured bench/board and pat it down. Using a knife, cut it into 18 skinny and even portions.
• Roll each portion of dough between your palms to make a snake. Pop it onto a greased baking sheet. Continue to do the same with all your dough. I got 9 bread sticks on each tray.
• Melt your butter and using a pastry brush coat the tops of all the bread sticks. Turn them all over and do the other sides. Carefully sprinkle the remaining parmasan over each bread stick.
• Put them into your oven for 12-15 mins.

We ate ours with homegrown/homemade leek and potato soup (Edmonds cook book) with a dollop of low fat ricotta cheese floating in the middle... yum!!!

Feeling Green

I had a bit of a stash busting day on Friday. I have all my fabric scraps colour co-ordinated in vegetable racks and I was in a green kind of mood. I grabbed an armful (yes, my scrap bins are pretty full!) and decided to have a go with Alicia Paulson's patchwork technique. These large patches are the result.

I'm not sure what they are going to be yet. Possibly bags. Possibly a big picnic rug (I've got some more green patches to use up). Any suggestions?

I also finished this too-cute-for-words embroidery. I got the pattern from this fab blog. It's going to be a peg bag when I get around to it!

It's been divine weather over the weekend and we've been picnicking at the beach and listening to great music here.

(This is a view of Rangitoto Island from Cheltenham Beach at 6pm. The tide is right out and the girls had a great time picking up beautiful starfish and showing them off before returning them to the sea)

Finally, the girls and my wonderful resident obsessive gardener have been hard at work picking lots of scrummy veggies this morning (and making a little art with them).

Garden goodies

I am not a gardener. There. I've said it. It's hard to admit to it because so many people love to garden, particularly crafty people, but I don't.

I don't mind getting dirty and I really enjoy seeing things grow but what I can't stand is the weeds. No sooner have you done the work, you have to start all over again because nature has an annoying habit of taking over. I like things that stay as they are when you have worked hard to finish them. What I do like however, is cooking with beautiful fresh vegetables straight out of the garden and of course the wonderful flavours and smells that you get with freshly picked produce.

Luckily my other half is a very keen gardener (I've even caught him sneaking in to the garden to have a look at his veggies before he comes in to say hello to us) and most of the time I'm very happy to make something yummy from them (the exceptions are the feijoas which I whinge incessantly about for a month when they ripen and the silverbeet and spinach which are currently occupying the entire bottom drawer of our freezer).

My favourite time of year for veggies is of course Summer and this year Richard has planted the most incredibly sweet and beautiful little cherry tomatos. We had them tonight on pizza. They are a perfect summer dinner. Just throw them onto a ready made pizza base with lots of fresh basil and fetta and some crushed garlic. Add salt and pepper and put in the oven for about 12 minutes. Heaven!

I did help out in the garden over the weekend by trimming our flax which has gone a little crazy. I love the colour of this flax. It's a beautiful greeny black and attracts a multitude of native birds. I couldn't bear to throw out all the leaves and seed pods so some came inside with me. I tucked the ends of the leaves in to the top of the vase to create a rough woven effect. Who needs gerberas or roses?