Lately I have been quite slack with my art work. I am determined to work on my energy levels, motivation and build up my confidence.

I attempted drawing glasses.

One lesson was to draw horses heads from imagination and also at different angles. I did these sketches this morning, am happy with the result.

My last sketch today is a horse with a few more details.

Thats the end of horsing around.

My next lesson is when I start learning to draw a basic human head.

Zucchini and Bacon Bake

Ingredients:

Grated Zuchinni x1 , 2 tbsp of chopped onion, rasher of smokey bacon, cubes of goats cheese, 3 tsps cornflour, 2 eggs, salt and pepper.

Method :

Mix all ingredients together. Place in cake pan. Cook in Airfryer 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

I made up this recipe on the spur of the moment. Simply delicious and no reflux 🤣.

Keeping cool and hydrated during the heatwave season in Brisbane.

My friend gave me this old recipe from a Family Circle Magazine.

I have adapted it to suit my taste.

First of all I soaked 225g of mixed fruit in cold tea overnight

I then followed the recipe and added flour, sugar and beaten egg in that order. I also put in a dash of almond and vanilla essences.

Definitely no butter or oil required, trust me it works.

Note: My kitchen scales are not working so I winged it so to speak.

I had previously prepared a loaf tin, lined with baking paper.

Once spooned into the loaf tin I sprinkled over some walnuts.

Cook in a preheated 180 oven for one hour or until cooked.

It turned out really well. Moist and quite sweet. Next time I will measure accurately and maybe put slightly less sugar in it. ( Tomorrow I am shouting myself a new digital kitchen scale…budget one).

It looks a tad overbaked, but really it wasn’t.

Of course I had to do the taste test….delicious 😋😋😋

Wishing my WordPress family a safe and very happy Christmas. Love from Ally ❤xx

No I haven’t been to IKEA 😂

Several years ago I bought a flat pack Christmas Tree. It’s been packed and unpacked several times. I finally got the motivation to do something with it.

Getting it’s first paint

All painted but needs a some decorations

Still needs more enhancement

Now I think it’s ready for the shelf, a tad rustic and that’s how I like it.

It kinda looks like Christmas at my place 🎄🍒.

Every November the DELONIX regia (poinciana) trees bloom brightly. I call them the Australian Christmas Tree. I am always truly amazed by their rich orange red stunning colour.

Here’s the recipe from the Edmonds Sure To Rise Cookery Book New Zealand. I shared this recipe last year, it’s tried and tested and really works, I ❤ love it.

I grew up using this wonderful cook book. I made the Ginger Ale Fruit Cake last year, gluten and preservative free, it was a real hit.

Fruit was soaked in ginger ale overnight. I compromised and put less dates in and topped it up with apricots.

I lined the tin using baking paper, was restricted on height because I used my bench top breville oven.

I mixed all the ingredients according to the recipe, real easy to do. I then carefully spooned the mixture into the tin. I placed a few walnuts on top.

Placed in a preheated oven 140 degrees for 3 hours.

When it had for cooked 2 hours 40 minutes I tested it with a skewer, it came out clean so I turned off the oven and left it there.

This morning I removed it from the tin and wrapped it tightly in cling film and tin foil. Because of heat wave temps here the cake is stored in the fridge. I have done this for years and it’s fine.

Sorry I can’t show you the inside of the cake, it is a gift to my darling son and family. I normally cut about 1/4 of it for me but this year I have enough dried fruit left over to make a smaller one for me.

Shock horror today to find worm bugs had attacked my tomatoes .

The plant had been given a real bashing from the hail a few weeks ago but was managing to survive in parts.

Because part of the plant was dying I decided to rescue tomatoes that the worm bug hadn’t got to and then put the plant out and start again.

I managed to save few, washed them, dried in a tea towel.

I will put them in a paper bag and place in a warm spot to ripen up. If not successful it’s no big deal because I can buy punnets of cherry tomatoes for under $4.00.