Vegetable Patch: Week 3

There’s a new new additions in the garden including:

Laugh = Growing Well

  • Chilli – Red Cayenne Laugh
  • Lettuce – Baby Mixed Leaf
  • Broccoli
  • Cauliflour
  • Spinach
  • Carrot Seeds
  • Tomatoes – Dwarf Cherry
  • Snow Peas – Bikini Dwarf Laugh
  • Capsicum – Yolo Wonder Laugh
  • Capsicum – Sweet Pimento Laugh
  • Parsley – Afro Laugh
  • Basil – Sweet Laugh
  • Carrots – Little Fingers
  • Chives Laugh

Garden Bed

As I had half a trailer of leftover soil that needed to go somewhere I’ve built a new garden bed in a position that gets a lot of sunlight. There’s nothing in it at the moment, still deciding on what to grow. The black recycling container has a packet of carrot seeds in it and should provide adequate depth.

Lattice

To give the snow peas something to cling onto, I got some lattice and built a frame to support it. The snow peas are looking good so far.

Slugs!

It didn’t take long for the slugs to find the lettuce and overnight they got trashed. I picked up some pellets to try and manage those but it’ll take a while for the lettuce to regrow.

Tomatoes

The tomatos are not looking good at all, we think this is due to the constant rain we’re getting at the moment and lack of sunshine has kept the soil a bit too wet.

 

The Ultimate Caramel Slice

After many years of trial and error I think I’ve finally got the perfect recipe that is a combination of many.

Ingredients:

Base:

  • 1 cup – plain flour
  • 1 cup – desiccated coconut
  • 1/2 cup – brown sugar
  • 125g – melted butter
Caramel Filling:

  • 2x 400g – sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 tbsp – golden syrup
  • 100g – melted butter
  • 1/3 cup – caster sugar
Chocolate Topping:

  • 200g – cooking chocolate

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180°c.
  2. Line a 25cm x 30cm tray with baking paper. (Spray the tray with oil to stop baking paper from slipping).

Base:

  1. Mix flour, coconut, brown sugar and butter in a medium sized bowl.
  2. Spread and press mixture onto tray using the back of a spoon.
  3. Bake for 15mins or until golden brown.

Filling:

  1. Mix sweetened condensed milk, butter, golden syrup and caster sugar in a saucepan on low heat.
  2. Continue to stir for approximately 10mins until mixture slightly thickens and has a consistent darker appearance.
  3. Pour filling over base.
  4. Return to oven for 15-20mins until the centre has browned.
  5. Allow to cool before adding chocolate topping.

Chocolate Topping:

  1. Melt chocolate and pour over caramel filling.
  2. Allow to cool then enjoy!

Coconut Slice

Ingredients:

Base

Topping

  • 90g Butter
  • 1/2 Cup Caster Sugar
  • 1 Egg
  • 1/3 Cup Self Raising Flour
  • 2/3 Cup Plain Flour
  • 1/2 Cup Rasperry Jam (or any other of your choice)
  • 2 Eggs
  • 2 Cups Coconut
  • 1/3 Cup Sugar

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180°c.
  2. Grease or apply baking paper to 25cm x 30cm tray.
  3. Cream butter, sugar and egg in small bowl with an electric mixer until light an fluffy.
  4. Stir in sifted flour in 2 batches.
  5. Spread mixture evenly over base of prepared oven pan.
  6. Spread an even layer of jam.
  7. Mix Topping
  8. Beat eggs lightly with fork in bowl.
  9. Beat in sugar and coconut.
  10. Spread Topping
  11. Bake in moderate oven for about 35 minutes.
  12. Cool in pan and cut when cold.

Variations:

  • Use 1 cup of coconut and 1 cup of almond meal in topping.