Muffin experiments

There were some apples becoming a little over matured to eat so I decided that I should use them before they ended up as chicken fodder.

I quite enjoy muffins, but haven't made apple muffins for years, so I did an internet search and discovered this recipe. The recipe appealed to me as it uses wholemeal flour, and contains other ingredients I would normally have stocked in my cupboard or pantry, so no special grocery shopping was required.

 Before baking. Handy that there's no guess work as the muffin cups are just filled to the top with the mix. Obviously more practice is needed to ensure equality of size 😄.

The finished products. Due to the wholemeal flour used they are a tad denser than a white flour based muffin but, I feel, nicely light and moist throughout for a fruit muffin with a great flavour. I used Pink Lady apples.

PC can't eat fruit so I made him some chocolate muffins, using grated fresh beetroot, as this is another recipe I've wanted to try as it is supposed to keep the muffins moist while they are stored.

I decided to grate the beetroot in the sink wearing rubber gloves to minimise the mess.

This mixture was more fluid than the apple muffins so a little easier to ensure equality in size.

PC commented that they are chocolatey enough and there is a mild sweet aftertaste that is not unpleasant. He tried 3 just to be sure! The texture is light and fluffy.

Both recipes are supposed to freeze well. More information on that at a later date.

After the preparation, baking and cooling (not too much cooling!) we decided to try them for afternoon tea with a cuppa.

Scrumptious!

Do you have a new or favourite muffin recipe that you use?

Cheers,
Robyn Louise xo

Peanut Butter Cookies

I'm not prone to making a short post with a picture but I had a jar of peanut butter that had to be used and PC had eaten all the biscuits I'd baked previously.

He keeps saying "those darn ants they'll eat anything!".
It's a bit of a joke between us.

I've never baked peanut butter cookies so I found a recipe and tried it out this afternoon. I added my own touch by adding a chocolate drop to the centre, as there's only a few of these left, and they need to be used as well.

Here's about half the quantity baked as the others needed to cool more before I removed them from the baking tray. They taste as good as they look 😋.

Try not to gobble them up too quickly.

Cheers,

Robyn Louise xo

Gardening in Winter

It’s been a strange Winter so far.

There have been some quite warm days, at 20 deg Celsius, but also cold nights down to minus 3 Celsius a few times. No wonder the plants are confused!

In the few weeks I’ve been pruning roses a couple of them have put out new shoots, even though there has been heavy overnight frost.  

The bed of stinging nettles hasn’t died off. The bed is on the north side of the yard and, due to the fencing, they are in a warm micro-climate but I am surprised the nettles have remained alive let alone continued to grow.  

The garlic in the front row is an experiment and, if it succeeds, I'll have around 30 heads.

Due to the warmer weather I am still able to grow some loose leaf lettuce and radishes. I have planted some broccoli and roquette(arugula) seedlings that will feature a photo when not so tiny! The leafy vegetables are sheltered by suspended shade cloth to prevent the frost from being in direct contact with them. 

Even the Tahitian lime tree hasn’t suffered this Winter, though that may change.  

Now is the time of year I feed the cherry tree in preparation for flowering/fruiting in October/November. I’ve forked the ground to loosen it, mulched/fed it with horse and matured chicken manure, added a sprinkle of lime, then watered it thoroughly. Mulch straw needs to be purchased to form the final layer. We’ve been doing some burning of dead wood so wood ash will be collected and stored to use on any cherry slugs that appear when the leaves have grown. 

The apricot tree will need a chainsaw pruning this year. This photo was taken last year. I've posted it, rather than a one of a bare tree, as the apricot branches are difficult to see against the plethora of eucalypt trees in the background. The branches were so heavy with fruit last year that a few broke.

What grows in your garden in Winter?

Cheers,

Robyn Louise xo

Blogging Mixup - Part III

Are you bored with this yet, readers?

Well.....TA-DA! 
I think I've corrected it. 😏
I'm not as IT deficient as I thought I was!

I searched the Blogger Help Community pages and tried some suggested changes, including deleting some HTML, that had a 404 error, when viewed through the developer tools option. Changing some of the settings in the dashboard seemed to make a difference, as well, and I am now able to reply to individual comments under each of my posts.

Unsure why the notifications began coming through on my email again but it could just be that I deleted then re-entered my email address and it somehow rebooted the comment notifications. I'm just pleased to have it functioning again.

Now to decide the ordering of my future posts as this mixup has messed up posting in chronological order!

Cheers,
RobynLouise xo

Blogging Mixup - part II!

Gee, I have to laugh or I'd stress out or cry. Blogger has decided that it won't publish my answering comments to any one.

I have a personal situation to attend to at present so  I don't have the time, or mindset, to research how to correct this via Blogger help/forums. I do appreciate those who read my blog and enjoy the comments from those who post them. I'm aware there are readers who are not blog commenters, and I've been a "fence sitter" at times, but enjoyed the information a blogger has shared.

Bear with me everyone. When I have the opportunity I'll wrangle this internet beast and persuade it to comply.

Meanwhile, I shall continue to be more consistent with my blog posts and update my blog to suit what I need it to be now.

Thanks for your patience.

Cheers,
RobynLouise xo.