The Perils of Emily | Warning: columnist alert | Help! Addresses Needed
New Books | Schedule for this Year | March in the Garden
A Few Recipes -
. Infinitely variable 60 Second pancakes
. Double Apple-Apple Cake
. Zucchini and Other Veg Muffins
. Sweet Potato and Curry Muffins
. Home Made Hummus
The Perils of Emily
Emily likes to bounce, mostly over the daises in the lawn or through the dahlias. She likes to play with shadows, too. She isn’t fond of grass. She loves apples, as long as they aren’t too big for her paws to hold, and when the wind blows hot or cold she sprints across the lawn and dives headfirst back into Rosie’s pouch. Mostly she still likes milk, so after ten minutes dedicated bouncing she sticks her head into the pouch again for a drink.
We’ve been watching Emily since she looked like a hopping mouse, her fur like grey velvet, darting across the grass behind the bathroom while Rosie picked the early apples and at them delicately, wiping her paws on her fur.
Joeys grow fast. Rosie has to stand taller these days, so her pouch doesn’t drag along the ground, and even then Emily doesn’t quite fit inside. Most times it’s her feet that are sticking out- giant ones, almost as long as she is.
It’s been a gentle summer here, mostly, apart from two weeks of pizza oven heat. There hasn’t been much rain, but there’s been enough, so the wallabies are fat and so are the wombats, and there are joeys leaping from bush to bush and lyrebirds trying to clamber up the apples tree to build new nests.
I thought it would be a reasonable season when I saw the wombats mate last year- lots of enthusiasm usually means an okay summer. The indigophera hardly flowered at all, either, and the black wattle didn’t do much either. Both germinate well in bush fire summers, so they don’t bother blooming madly when seasons are good- good for humans, wallabies and wombats, that is, not indigophera and wattle.
The trouble with relying on wombat weather forecasting is that wombats don’t care what the weather will be like over the ridges, only in their own patch of bush. At the moment all the signs here point to an okay winter, too, with enough grass to feed Rosie’s next joey. But unless you live within munching distance of our place, our wombat weather forecast probably won’t apply to you.
It’s been hard to explain to people overseas- and even to some enquirers from Australian cities- that despite the horror in Victoria, it’s been quite a different season here. In fact it’s been a better season in this end of the valley than a few kilometres away. The mists have hung over the ridges night after night here, just as they used to back in the early 70’s, moisture dripping down the leaves and the back of your neck if you go for a walk. It hasn’t been enough to seep into the water table, but it’s enough to keep the grass growing, and the garden green, part from the brown patches on the leaves from the February heat wave.
So we are in our usual early Autumn; apples in the larder, apples in the fridge, apple cake and apple crumble, and luckily enough friends who love apple and carry away a few bags full when they come to visit. The wallabies have invited all their friends and relations- or maybe it was the scent of apples baking in the heatwave that did it-because the garden looked up and hopped away whenever we opened the front door at night, and you could hear crunching at 2 am from a dozen points around the house.
The bower birds discovered the pears before the fruit fly did; the early quinces are ready, and Bryan is eating passionfruit for breakfast again. The pomegranates are at that delicate moment when they innards are sweet and crunchy and perfect in salads; a few weeks more and the seeds will break your teeth, though the juice will be even better to turn into salad dressing or cordial or to add flavour to a sautéed hunk of chicken .
It won’t always be like this, of course. A few searing days in March can turn the valley brown, the gum trees into torches waiting to ignite. But only cities give you the illusion of permanence. Here the world outside changes from day to day, hour to hour, and season by season. But just now it’s good.
Warning: columnist alert!
This is a confession. On matters concerning fashion, pop music, cold fusion, varieties of cheese, tennis, golf and how to bake a frozen pizza I have no idea what I’m talking about.
Don’t trust my judgement either on cricket, who’s going to win the footie, sub atomic particles, and recipes for sheep’s head cheese. If I express an opinion on any of those I’ve just read an article or been talking to someone in the café, and should have my forehead tattooed saying ‘columnist alert! Doesn’t know what she’s talking a bout!’
There have been many columns giving opinions lately about how to survive bushfires or reduce bushfire risk. I’ve only come across two- both written by people who’ve worked in the area- who remotely know what they’re talking about. Which is dangerous, because it’s people’s lives we’re talking about here, and the things they love, and the creatures we mostly ignore like wombats and tiger quolls whose lives are destroyed too. Maybe anyone who writes a column should volunteer to do a short exam on the subject first. If they can’t pass the equivalent of a year 12 exam then they shouldn’t give a public opinion- especially where others may listen to what they say, simply because it’s been dignified by being in a newspaper.
I’ve been through fires. I’ve fought fires. I am also 99.7% ignorant about fires- I’ve learned to know there are vast areas where I just don’t know enough.
I do know:
. that in extreme fire weather i.e. hot, dry, and with high winds, ANY area will burn, even those that have been controlled burned six weeks beforehand. I have seen the same area burn three times in a fortnight; the last time the ground itself seemed to burn.
. that control burning SOME areas makes an area MORE bushfire prone , by encouraging species that need fire to germinate- often the more inflammable species. In other areas, control burning makes an area somewhat safer if there’s a medium fire- though not safe in severe fire weather.
Australia isn’t one country ecologically, even if we are politically. What works in one place doesn’t work in another. Any bushfire regime that tries to dictate to the vastness of our continent is going to be a stupid one. Anyone who tries to order a ‘one size fits all’ vastly oversimplified bushfire policy needs to be shoved into a fire truck and made to face the fire line for a few years, till they shut up and learn.
Sorry. I think many people’s tempers are frayed just now. But why on earth does anyone think that the only way to reduce a bushfire ‘load’ is by burning it, adding to global warming and pollution? Of the last eight major fires near here, six were ‘control fires’ that turned into blazes out of control.
Woody weeds and bark strips can be a valuable resource.
A damn sight too valuable to burn.
Help! Addresses Needed
I received a wonderful letter today, with pictures of Mothball the wombat and Rosie wallaby, and a plea at the bottom ‘please write back’
I’d like to- but there was no address on the letter. Other letters arrive without a surname, just ‘love from Tammy’, or without a postcode or state, which can be difficult with a place like Araluen, where there’s one in several states.
I try to answer all letters, though when there’s a family crisis it might be several months before you get a reply. But if I haven’t answered, perhaps it’s been because there was no address, or only an address on the envelope addressed to Harper Collins, and the envelope wasn’t forwarded, or I have answered, but the letters has gone astray because there wasn’t quite enough address. If you think this may be the case...or if you know someone who hasn’t had a reply- please write again, with an address on the letter...and maybe a self addressed envelope too, just to make sure. (and also save my tired eyes …it’s a heck of a lot easier to write a note and just bung it in an addressed envelope…)
New Books
The Donkey Who Carried the Wounded
This is coming out on April 1, and will be launched at the Australian War Memorial on April 8.
Most Australians know the story of Simpson and his donkey; the courageous digger and his mate who became heroes at Gallipoli for transporting the wounded to safety.
Yet while Simpson has gone down in ANZAC folklore, few people know the story of the donkey. Where did he come from? What happened to him after Gallipoli?
The Donkey Who Carried the Wounded is the story of that small, unassuming animal but also the story of the infamous battle of Gallipoli, of Jack Simpson, and of the New Zealander stretcher-bearer Richard Henderson, who literally took up the reins after Simpson was killed.
Other Recent Books
How High Can a Kangaroo Hop…all you never realised you didn’t know about our best known marsupial.
A Rose for the Anzac Boys: World War 1 seen through the eyes of three courageous young women
Emily and the Big Bad Bunyip: another hilarious Shaggy Gully picture book with the magic Bruce Whatley
The Camel who Crossed Australia: The Burke and Wills expedition seen through the eyes of Bell Sing, otherwise known as ‘he who Spits Further Than the Storm’ , the young cameleer Dost Mahomet and Englishman John King.
Later this year:
The Night They Stormed Eureka
School for Heroes, Book 1: Lessons for a Werewolf warrior
Baby Wombat’s Week
Schedule for ‘09
I’m afraid I won’t be able to manage much more than the list below. (It doesn’t include all the other things that have to be crammed into my life.) I usually receive at least one invitation to give talks or workshops each day, sometimes several. Much as I’d love to, I just can’t do them all – or even most of them. Mostly I choose events with the biggest audience (at least 200, preferably 600 or more) because this means that I can speak to more people in the time I have available. I find that about eight hours of travelling is all I can manage a day, too- and it takes three hours to catch a plane from here. I’m just not able to travel to Sydney, Melbourne or any cities that I have to fly to, and then make it back home the same day. A one hour talk can mean two days travelling.
Please forgive me if I can’t come to your town, school or event – it doesn’t mean I don’t want to. I wish I were Superwoman and could do them all, and respond to every request for help or mentoring too, and give long answers to every kid who emails for material for projects. But I only have two hands and 24 crammed hours in a day.
March 23-27, ‘09: All Saint’s Festival talks, Perth, including a gardening talk one evening. Contact All Saints for details.
April 1–3, ‘09: Newington College Literary Festival, Sydney
April 8 Canberra FREE book launch for The Donkey Who Carried the Wounded at the War Memorial, 10.30, with a kid’s workshop afterwards, also free. Contact the Australian War Memorial for more details and bookings.
Afternoon: Teacher’s PD, 'Teaching History with Fiction, and Teaching Fiction with History'. The PD is suitable for both primary and secondary school teachers. Contact Samantha Tidy at the Australian War Memorial for details and bookings. Bookings essential.
May 5 – 7: Talks in Brisbane. June 20 Eurobodalla Slow Food Festival
August Book Week: talks in Sydney. Contact Lateral Learning for bookings.
September 9, 10,11, 12: Brisbane Writer’s Festival
September 19 & 20: EYES Conference and possibly other talks in Fremantle and Perth
Sept 5& 6; October 3,4,5, and 9,10, 11: three talks each day at the Floriade Festival Canberra. Contact Floriade for details or see the Floriade programme later in the year.
October 28: Children’s Day, Canberra
November 7 and 8: Open Garden workshops at our place. Contact the Open Garden organizers for bookings, not us.
March in the Garden
Over the past few years I’ve realised I’ve been changing when I grow things. Summers here are not only hotter these days, they’re drier- it’s been years since I’ve had any water for the garden in mid summer. So instead of one big planting in spring, I now plant quick spring crops- early beans, some corn, drought tolerant zucchini an tomatoes, and then in mid summer we eat the hardy perennials like Italian red ribbed chicory instead of water loving lettuce.
But come the end of February I start planting again for winter. There isn’t much time left before winter, but it’s just enough, as autumn crops grow FAST- there really is an autumn flush, with everything racing to mature before it gets cold. Winter lettuce, caulies, broccoli, silver beet, spinach, more things like spring onions for next year…
This is a great time to plant things. Bung in fruit trees now, too, so they too have a chance to establish before the cold of winter, and are nicely settled before next summer’s heat.
Other jobs:
* move shrubs and small trees while the weather is cool, but still arm enough for them to put out new roots
* take rose cuttings: - snappable wood about as long as you hand. Fill a box with clean sand and plant so just the top third is poking out. Keep moist and in semi shade; pant out your new roses next winter
* leave pumpkins in a sunny spot i.e. the shed roof or on paving) for a few days to 'cure' so their skins will harden before storing them (on their sides- moisture collects in the tops and bottoms and the pumpkin may rot)
* Plant more peas or broad beans for ‘green manure’: slash them in late winter or early spring, just as they start to flower, to provide mulch and fertiliser for spring planting in a ‘no-dig’ garden.
* Start to prepare for frost now: work out which trees are vulnerable – like avocados, citrus and tamarillo – and start building shelters for them.
* Cover part of the garden with weed mat or clear plastic to make a weed-free area for winter-planted onions.
* Get rid of most of your tomato glut by drying them: just halve the tomatoes, place them on aluminium foil in the sun, and take them inside or cover them at night, They should take about three to four days to dry. Place them in a jar, and cover them with olive oil – and garlic and herbs if you want to
What to Plant in March
Hot climates.
Plant to eat: garlic, macadamias, avocados, bananas, custard apples, lychees, sapodilla, star fruit, paw paws, mangoes, passionfruit, citrus, strawberry plants, capsicum, carrots, chilli, cauliflowers, eggplant, okra, potatoes, silver beet, sweet corn, zucchini.
Plants for beauty: hibiscus bushes, calendula, poppy, primula, snapdragon, sunflower, salvias; fill bare spots with ferns.
Temperate:
Plants to eat: garlic, macadamias, avocado trees, citrus, strawberries, beetroot, broccoli, broad beans, cabbage, carrots (mini or 'French round' carrots mature fastest), cauliflower, garlic, leeks, parsnips, spinach, beans, celery, fast maturing Asian veg like tatsoi, pak choi and mitsuba, winter lettuce.
Plants for beauty: bulbs, including liliums, agapanthus, iris; multi stemmed jonquils, heat hardy tulip varieties, flowers like alyssum, dianthus, pansies, primulas, salvias, poppies, sweet peas, stock. Grevilleas for nectar for the birds (Superb and Robyn Gordon and her relatives bloom throughout the year)
Cold climates:
Plants to eat: garlic, strawberry runners, broad beans, spinach, onions, seedlings of broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, fast maturing Asian veg like tasto, pak choi and mitsuba, small lettuce like red mignonette.
Plants for beauty: bulbs like daffodils, jonquils, tulips, anemones, hyacinths, freesias, ranunculi, seedlings of Iceland poppy, primulas, pansies, polyanthus, sweet peas.
What to harvest
Vegetables
Melons and okra will be ripening. As well as most summer vegetables, early cabbages and other winter vegetables may be starting to mature. This is a good time for peas, and for digging sweet potato roots.
Fruit
Olives, oranges, lemons, cumquats, figs, late peaches, late nectarines, apples, passionfruit, pepino, babaco, pawpaw or mountain pawpaw in warm areas, sapote, mulberries, hazelnuts, almonds, orange, lemon, tamarillo, strawberries, raspberries, brambleberries, early quinces, early persimmons, pears, melons, pecans, bunya nuts, late grapes, and banana passionfruit.
Pests
Most pests will be vanishing as the weather cools down. Keep up fruit fly lures until none have been caught for three weeks.
The self-seeding garden
Most of the crops in our garden were planted more than seven years ago. They have simply gone to seed, died and then their offspring have sprouted up in their place.
. Plants that seed themselves naturally self-select the most hardy, the most suited to your area. Flowering veg are also one of the best predator attractors you can have. In addition, your ground is never totally bare, and bare ground is an invitation to weeds and results in soil and nutrient loss. The weeds in my garden are parsnips and radishes: I have to pull out handfuls to make space for other self-sown seeds to germinate. Once a bunch of radish is removed, up come lettuce, silver beet and leeks.
Always let the best of your plants self-seed. Stake them well so they don’t topple over and rot. If you don’t want them to grow in the same spot, transplant them – the shock of transplanting may well send them to seed earlier.
Remember that hybrid plants will not seed true-to-type, and that many plants will cross-pollinate. In spite of that I have found that in actual fact I do get relatively stable, and usually excellent self-sown crops.
Amaranth: can’t stop it.
Burdock: self seeds forever, and once started you’ll always have plants available.
Carrots
Grow several sorts or, depending on the time of year, you may have carrots that go to seed without forming roots. It took several years for my self-sown carrots to produce roots, instead of germinating in autumn and springing to seed in spring. You may have to keep some seed to sow too.
Celery: self seeds surprisingly well, though you may need to wait after the first gone to seed plant in summer to get seedlings come up next spring. If they’re small or tough from neglect, use the leaves instead o the stems.
Chicory, Italian red stemmed: you’ll soon get a most hardy selection, available whenever you want them.
Chinese cabbage
Chinese cabbage cross-pollinates. You will get some strange results, but all mine have not only been edible but good.
Leeks
When leeks self-sow you get a clump of very small but very tender leeks. Eat them, top and all.
Lettuce
Grow varieties that will thrive all year round – like oak leaf, freckles, red and green mignonette, and cos. Other lettuce will germinate but may go to seed without being useful, or the young plant may be frosted off. Once you have let two or three crops of red mignonette go to seed, you should have them all year round.
Mitsuba and mizuna: a delight, as they self sow, survive years in dry soil, and come up after rain.
Parsley
This has formed a thicket that even couch grass can’t penetrate.
Pumpkin
When you eat a pumpkin throw the seeds into the garden – or hope your compost was too cool and the seeds will survive. A pumpkin left in the garden will slowly rot, and the seeds will germinate in spring. They seem much stronger grown in their own debris.
Radish
I grow long red, and long white radish. They crowded out the short red ones and I no longer get them. The older the radish, the hotter it tastes. I eat them cooked like asparagus – delicious. Radish self-sow so easily they become a weed.
Salsify: self seeds easily and well.
Silver beet
This self-sows readily. Either thin out the plants or let them grow together and pluck them out as you need to use them. The main disadvantage of self-sown silver beet is that you won’t get a continuous supply the first year, as the seeds won’t germinate until well after the parent plants’ prime. But irregular germination will solve that problem in successive years.
Sorrel
Once you have French sorrel you always have it. Unlike the weed sorrel it is rarely a nuisance.
Spring onions
I never pull these. I just pick the tops. The clumps go on expanding: year-round greens that don’t have to be stored like bulb onions.
Tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes seem to reseed better than other varieties. But it is a rare tomato patch that doesn’t have seedlings the following year. Cherry tomatoes grown in a thicket of other crops will bear throughout winter – or plant them in a pot and bring it indoors.
Making the most of vegetables
Using waste bits
Parts of vegetables can be ‘harvested’ even if they aren’t really mature. Try parsnip tops. Use them like celery in stews and soup, or finely grated in salads. Beetroot tops can substitute for silver beet, as can turnip tops. If these are young and tender they are also excellent raw. Try young turnip tops grated up in mashed potatoes. Try eating garlic tops instead of the bulbs – again, raw or cooked – and try the leafy tips of broad beans, broccoli or brussel sprout leaves, young sweet corn teased out from next to the stalk, or zucchini or pumpkin flowers.
The latter are wonderful. Stuff them with leftover fried rice and stew them in stock, or dip them stuffed or empty in egg, then breadcrumbs, and deep-fry them. Serve with lemon juice or hollandaise sauce.
You can tell the male flowers, most of which are expendable, by looking for the swelling at the base of the flower.
Using immature vegetables
* Try very young cucumbers. Pick them when they’re no longer than your little finger or even smaller. Slice them thinly so they are almost transparent and quickly stir-fry them. A Chinese friend introduced me to them and they have become my favourite vegetable.
* Immature corn cobs can be kept on the stalk by bending it over them, to shelter them from frost and rain so they won’t rot before they mature. They will continue to mature slowly this way until the stalks are almost brittle. Young corn, Chinese style, is delicious. Whenever you pull out a corn stalk, run your fingers down the leaves to make sure an immature cob isn’t forming. If it is pluck, stir-fry and enjoy.
* Pumpkins can be eaten as soon as they form behind the flower – just like small squash, which in fact is what they are. They won’t taste as sweet as mature pumpkins. They are more mellow and nutty, like zucchini.
* Try pickling small watermelons before they turn pink inside. Use a sweet, well-spiced marinade. Not that the melon will taste of much – all you’ll taste will be the pickling solution – but the texture will be excellent.
* Carrots, beetroot, parsnips, turnips and the like can be picked and eaten as soon as you can be bothered. The smaller the sweeter. But all should continue to mature through winter as long as the ground doesn’t freeze – especially under a thick bed of mulch.
* Cook lettuce that hasn’t hearted, in stock to eat by itself and for lettuce soup, or wrap it round rice for stuffed ‘cabbage’.
* Pickle green tomatoes, or make green-tomato chutney or jam.
A Few Recipes
Infinitely Variable Pancakes
These are fluffy pancakes- much easier to make then crepes, in fact so easy that kids can make them the next time, as long as you keep an eye out to make sure they don't burn themselves, the cat or the house.
They can be eaten plain, with jam and cream, butter and jam, lemon and brown sugar, or maple syrup, or you can add to them, making them sweet or savory. Both the fruit and vegie ones are perfect for a kid's- or grown up's- lunch box, as they stay much moister and more delicious than a piece of bread.
Just like a pizza, you can eat them with your fingers in front of a good DVD. And yes, if you like you can smother the vegie ones in tomato sauce, home made or bottled.
They're also great for breakfast; try adding a poached egg, or stewed fruit, though not at the same time.
Ease of making: simple
Time taken: 1 minute to gather ingredients and mix batter; 1 minute to eating your first pancake; ten minutes to cook the rest
Serves: depends how much vegies and other stuff you add to the recipe; say 4 people for dinner (16 pancakes) , but you can stretch them much much further....
Ingredients
2 cups SR flour
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
Optional:
1 cup cooked or grated apple, peach or pear (add 1 tb lemon juice so the fruit doesn't brown) or chopped pineapple
or
1 cup chopped walnuts or macadamias (these can be added as well as the fruit)
or
1 cup mashed pumpkin or sweet potato, with an optional flavouring of 1 tb curry paste. Nuts can be added to these, too.
or
1 cup grated zucchini, optional 1 tb chopped chives, 1 tb chopped parsley, half cup grated cheese, half cup chopped cooked bacon or chopped ham. Grated carrot can also be added.
or
1 cup finely chopped cooked spinach or silverbeet, optional half cup grated cheese- cheddar, feta, camembert, your choice.
or
1/2 cup finely chopped roast capsicum, 2 tb chopped chives, 2 tb finely chopped celery
Call the apple ones Apple Fritters, the Pumpkin ones Pumpkin fritters, and the vegie ones vegie pancakes etc.
Method: heat a pan for a few minutes- it needs to be warmed all the way through. Keep it on 'low' though- these are thick pancakes, and they need a low heat to cook properly. (A thin crepe on the other hand needs a hot fast heat).
Add a tsp of butter or oil- my pan though is smooth and 'well tempered' and it doesn't need greasing. Try a bit of butter or olive oil to begin with, but you may find you don't need it as you get better at pancake making.
Glop in a spoonful...a big spoon will make a big pancake, a small one a small pancake. Wait till it bubbles; turn over; wait about the same time again, flip out and eat...or place on a plate under a clean tea towel while you make more.
Double Apple-Apple Cake
Ease of making: medium
Serves: 12 generous slices
Time taken: ten minutes to mix, 40 minutes to cook.
125 gm butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
juice half lemon
1 cup stewed or grated apple
half cup plain flour
half cup SR flour
2 tsp vanilla paste or essence
3 apples, thinly sliced and cored
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one by one, mixing till the batter is smooth again. Add everything else but the sliced apple. Mix gentle. Place in a cake tin lined with baking paper, or greased and floured. The tin can be wide or narrow- it will just change the shape and thickness of the cake. it can also be made in a shallow tray as an apple slice.
Now poke the slices of apple into the cake long wise. You will be surprised how much you can fit in. The cake should double in size by the time all the apple slices have slid into the batter.
Bake in a preheated oven at 200C for about 40 minutes, or until the cake is brown on top and springs back when you press the edges. The exact amount of time will vary, depending on the shape of the cake tin- a shallow cake will cook faster.
Keep in a sealed container for up to a week, or in the fridge for longer. The cake will keep moist for weeks, but the apple tends to grow green whiskers. Throw out at the first sign of a green beard.
Zucchini and lots of Vegies Muffins
These are superb in kids’ lunch boxes. They freeze beautifully. Make a big batch once a month and take out as you need them.
Ease of making: medium
Time taken: 10 minutes grating etc. 30 minutes to cook.
Serves: about 12 muffins, though sizes vary. Recipe can be tripled etc to make more.
1 cup SR flour
4 grated zucchini
1 grated carrot
2 rashes bacon or chopped lean ham
2 red onions, chopped
1 stick celery, chopped
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
5 eggs
1 cup grated low fat cheddar cheese
I sometimes add chopped parley, chopped chives, cooked chopped spinach or silverbeet, grated parsnip, chopped garlic. Cook them all with the carrot etc.
Cook the onion, bacon, carrot and celery till the onion is soft in a little of the oil. Leave to cool.
Mix all ingredients. Place in greased and floured muffin trays. Bake at 200C for 30 minutes or till lightly browned and firm to touch on the top. Small muffins will take less time than large ones. Eat hot, cold or tepid.
Curried Sweet Potato Muffins
NB There is no sugar in these muffins- they're savoury, not sweet.
Ease of making: medium
Time taken: 10 minutes grating etc. 30 minutes to cook.
Serves: about 12 muffins, though sizes vary. Recipe can be tripled etc to make more.
1 cup mashed sweet potato
2 tsp curry paste
1 tb chopped chives
2 cups SR flour
half cup low fat grated cheddar cheese
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup orange juice...a little more or less may be needed, depending on how moist the sweet potato is
3 eggs
1 cup grated low fat cheddar cheese
Mix all ingredients. Place in greased and floured muffin trays. bake at 200C for 30 minutes or till lightly browned and firm to touch on the top. Small muffins will take less time than large ones. Eat hot, cold or tepid. They are good by themselves, or buttered.
Home Made Hummus
Ease of making: simple
Time taken: 2 minutes
Serve: about 20 people on crackers or sandwiches
This is a very light, slightly spicy hummus.
Blend:
1 cup lemon juice
3 tb tahini
3 large cloves garlic
3 chillies, seeded
Add:
3 cups cooked chickpeas and a little of the fluid they were cooked in.
Blend again.
Don't blend to a paste- it's best with about a third of the chickpeas still lumpy. Store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to a week.
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