Holidays

Well, things are finally settling down a little bit here after the Christmas break. We had a very quiet and relaxing Christmas here at the palace. On Christmas Eve, we decided to follow the Germanic tradition of having dinner and opening gifts.  We spent the evening with Sandra's mother and ordered Indian Take Away for dinner.

The food was delicious! We had a selection of spring rolls and Samosas for entree, and for main course, we ordered Mumbai Fish (mild), Navaratan Vegetable Korma (Medium) and a Traditional Goat Curry (Hot) accompanied by Naan Bread and Brown rice. Everything was very flavoursome and not too hard on the tastebuds for spice. We added some Ginger and Mango Chutney and drank Blood Orange Soda to wash it down with. All in all, it was a very nice dinner, topped off with ice cream to cool the palate for dessert.

Christmas day, Sandra and I spent at home together and ate lightly, just made ourselves some Vietnamese style rice paper rolls and had them with sweet chilli dipping sauce. Christmas Night we had fresh bread rolls with Seafood mix on them and Sandra tried her hand at making a Thousand Island dressing which worked out very well!

The Hensington Palace Hens were not forgotten on Christmas and enjoyed a special treat for their dinner. We thawed some Kangaroo Meat ( a favourite with the girls!) and doled it out to everyone, from the youngest chicks right up to the guest hens we have staying with us over the Christmas holidays. It was a hit with one and all, and gave them all plenty to cluck about as they retired to their roosts for the night.

The kangaroo meat was particularly enjoyed by the hen we had in Hensington Hospital. Her reaction made me wish I had brought the video camera with me. It's hard to describe the sound she made on tasting her first mouthful of Kangaroo, but if a hen was capable of squealing in delight, that is what that sound would be. She did it after the second mouthful too, and I swear it is the nearest approximation to "OOOH! Yummy!" A chicken could possibly make!

As thanks, the girls all delivered an egg each on Boxing Day, which was lovely of them, but meant I needed to find a means to deal with the eggs we already had! In keeping with the holiday, though, I didn't do anything about it that day. Instead, I took myself to the movies to see War Horse, whilst Sandra settled happily in front of the TV to watch the beginning of the Boxing Day Cricket Test.

War Horse is a beautiful film. There are some sad/painful moments in it, but you'd expect that with a film that is dealing with war. World War I is a particular interest for me, so I was keen to see this film. I thought the cinematography was amazing as one would expect from Stephen Spielberg and the storyline was moving. There is a goose in the early parts of the film, too who steals the show and adds some wonderful comedic relief. I recommend this film, but be sure to take a few tissues with you. There was not a dry eye in the house at the end of the film! Well, except for mine...I was moved by it, but I think I used up all my tears on Christmas night, Watching Judy Dench and Maggie Smith in Ladies in Lavender.

The day after Boxing Day, and I still had the dilemma of what to do with excess eggs. I had been thinking of trying my hand at pickling some for a while now, so decided this would be as good a time as any! I found a recipe online and decided I'd give it a go since I had all of the ingredients, particularly the 12 eggs the recipe called for. So I set out to make "Garlic-Curry Pickled Eggs"

The pickling juice I made for this smelled delicious and I had fun with it. Peeling a dozen hard boiled eggs is not easy! Some of my hens lay eggs with particularly hard shells and strong membranes! I got it done, though, and here is the end result.

It looks, and smells wonderful, but we won't know how it tastes until two weeks from now as they need to mature before eating. I will keep you posted!

Well, that about sums up the Christmas break here at Hensington Palace! I hope all of my readers have had a happy, healthy and safe holiday and I wish you all the best for 2012.

Still waiting....

Today marks the 11th day of Bertha's long incubation of her eggs. It seems so much longer since we set the eggs under her, but I have checked and double checked the date we set her, and it is definitely day 11. I am tempted to candle the eggs, but as I wouldn't even know what I am looking at, I have refrained from doing so. What will be, will be. I just hope they're progressing and we will end up with chicks out of all this.

I went up to the coops today with some kangaroo mince which I fed to the other three girls, and when Bertha smelled it and heard the special "Ohhhh we have goodies!" call of the other hens, she decided to get off her nest. I gave her some of the mince, which she gobbled down happily, along with some grains and then she proceeded to have a drink, and a leisurely dustbath. She is looking quite scruffy because she has pulled out a lot of her feathers to line her nest. I was going to snap a photo to show everyone, but by the time I went back up there with the camera she was just settling back on her eggs and I didn't want to disturb her again. She looks well and happy otherwise, so I think she is going to see this through.

In the meantime, we have been busy in our garden again and spent yesterday planting seeds and seedlings. We finally got our seed potatoes into the ground, along with planting out the pumpkin seedlings I have been nurturing. We also planted rockmelons, watermelon, beans, zucchini and button squash.

Seed Potatoes.

Yes, there really are little pumpkin plants here!

The chooks were busy, too! (A couple of these were from the day before)

They really enjoy their summer coop!

A well deserved lunch after the hard work.

And this is what Solly, my cat, thinks of hard work!

 It was good to get the planting done, and relax in front of the telly with our special "Grand Finals" cheese and vege platters for lunch!

Food for Thought

Yesterday, Sandra and I attended the Sunshine Coast Real Food Festival. This kind of thing is one of the reasons that I really love living on the Sunshine Coast! A lot of people in the region are very much into sustainability, self-sufficiency and alternative therapies, health and all of that sort of thing. Since living here, I have become increasingly aware of the environment and carbon footprints and such. I've been doing my best of late to reduce, reuse and recycle as well as to lead a more self-sufficient lifestyle, so this festival was right up my alley!

We went to three different presentations on nutrition and health, and gleaned a lot from them. Some of the stuff that people said was contradictory, but that was because one of them was into whole food, which also allows for cooked foods, while another was into raw foods, so it is necessary to sort out what works for us from those opposing views and go with that. There was so much to see and do, we spent hours just browsing around, looking at exhibits, flicking through books, chatting to exhibitors, watching demonstrations, and of course, sampling some of the fine food and produce on offer!

As always, I carried my trusty iPhone with it's camera with me, and snapped a few pics.

A litter of cute little piglets. They had just had some sunblock put on as they were getting a little bit sunburned.

A leghorn hen with her beautiful, fashionable hat. Just the thing for a sunny outing in the country!

This is an Australorp hen. My favourite breed! There is something about the eyes of these chickens that I find intriguing. I call them 'Spanish eyes' Don't know why they strike me as particularly Spanish, though.

The delicious woodfired pizza we had for lunch!

It was a wonderful day, and we brought home lots of new ideas, and information about food, nutrition and health.