The best vege garden in suburbia

That's what I have always wanted.  And it still, to this day, it eludes me.  I am thinking of running off to live with Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall - here ...

River Cottage in Dorset UK

Then I could have chooks!

We built the house we currently live in 11 years ago.  It's smack bang in the middle of other houses, and although we have the beautiful Swan River only metres away, it's still suburbia.  To make my position worse, we live on a battle axe block next to, and I mean right next to, the train line.  We have neighbours on every side, including the front.  Now I know this is perfectly normal, and in fact we are lucky as the house at the back of us is on an acre of land and has huge, bushy gardens, but its still suburbia.  And I am still a country girl.

When I sit out the front yard I hear every word and movement of 2 neighbours.  If I sit out the side I can hear the side neighbour flush his toilet.  Really, the only place it is remotely peaceful is the side where the trains are ... and that's only for 15 minutes between trains!  I long, and yearn for my country retreat.  But in the meantime I try and have a little farm here.  Well sort of.

We can't have chickens because:

• Every square cm of the yard is being used or is paved/concreted
• I want to free range them and they will poo on the doormats (even when we had 26 acres and I let the girls out, they would still come and poo on the doormats - what's with that?)
• We have a border collie that will round them up 24hrs a day
• There just isn't the room!
• The neighbours on the side where we could squeeze a chicken pen have their entertaining area there and she is terrified that chooks will bring snakes.

OK, so no chickens, surely I can have a vege patch?

• The only spaces available are also walkways - and racing tracks for the dog
• I tried once to have a patch and it got run over by the dog, the cat used it as a loo, the dog thought that's a good idea and also used it as a loo, the couch came in and took over - fertilised by cat/dog manure.
• I asked Mr K if we could dig up our lawn and put in raised garden beds - apparently that was an affront to every red blooded Aussie male - to mess with his lawn
• For the past 5 years I have grown vege in pots - lots and lots of pots.  It cost me a fortune in pots, potting mix, Thrive and water.  Each tomato (although yummy) cost us $57! (approx!)
• I begged Mr K again to build me a raised bed, one I could keep pets off, grass out of and large enough not to dry out.  The colourbond sheets and timber are still sitting on the ground, no doubt now home to a family of dugites.
• I NEED to grow things in real soil and worm castings and sheep poo.  It's like breathing to me.

So I found this place and am going to order some raised beds and have them delivered and then the cat, dog, couch, Mr K and dugites can all go get nicked. 

I take out a mortgage today to pay for them!  Cost of tomatoes has just gone up to $90 each.

Curtains

Wow!  Now I know why we have never really had curtains in this house - or any house for that matter!  Just had a quote from Spotlight to do 4 bedrooms and 3 windows in the lounge at a cost of $4500!!  It must be because I am a nudist/exhibitionist/cheapskate at heart - but I have never ever thought of curtains as a necessary item in a house.  Just another thing to wash, and keep clean and decide on.  I was a little more interested in these soft furnishings when we moved to the city and we had neighbours for the first time, well close neighbours, ones that could see you naked if they looked out their loungeroom window, kind of closeness.  Rather than scare little children with our heathen, country ways, I put up (VERY temporarily) 'curtains' in the bedrooms.  11 years later and they are still there. 

Very ingenious they are too  - take a white plastic coated rod, pop a little rubber stopper in one end and on the other end is a cap with a big spring in it.  Cut the rod so that it will fit inside the window frame, quickly sew a pocket across the top of some material (hemming is optional) and thread the material onto the rod.  Push in the end with the spring and shove it all into the window frame.  Viola - curtains!

Now that we have done the rooms up nicely, and we are grown-ups now, I thought it time to do things properly and put up real curtains.  Out came a lovely lady from Spotlight, with her book and tape measure and samples to give me a 'free measure and quote'.  That was the last of the bargains!

She did have a very good eye and taste, suggesting the material that I had already bought as a sample from Ikea - funny that spotlight have it too!!  So, guest bedroom sorted -  three pinch pleats, 2.5m of material for each window with a long drop to the floor.  With rod, clips etc and fitted - $1000!  Now I know this material is $14.95 a metre.  It will take 6m per window so about $90 x 2 = $180.  Add the tape at $10, 2 rods and rings at $50 and it comes to a total of $240 all up for 2 windows.  Well you do the maths, its $240 as opposed to $1000!  For a little sewing and persuading Mr K to put up some brackets, I think this will be a DIY project with $760 in my pocket.  That pays for my new lounge in the reading room.

The other windows I am having white PVC shutters, easy to buy and install at a cost of $170 per window.  Same quality, same effect - savings of $1000.

The lounge/dining 'sheers' can wait for another day.  We have lived without them just fine so far, and a few thousand dollars saved is, well, a few thousand saved!  I did have romantic visions of a sparkling spring day, warm breeze billowing the curtains, while I laughed carefree and martha-esk.  But then I realised it wasn't my vision at all, but a toilet paper commercial on TV and I went right off the idea.

Throughout this process, all I could think of was that if I was where I wanted to be - on my farm - we wouldn't even be having a curtain conversation!  We would be talking about the pro's and con's of having a chicken pen with laying boxes that you could access from the outside.

Today was the first time in ages that I have thought about, and pined for, the other life I want to live.  This hasn't happened for at least 3 months and it kinda shocked me when it did.  I was ironing, Mr K's work shirt and then some placemats.  Don't know why but I started thinking about my folks escape to the country - their good life freedom.  It made me a bit scared and panicked as I felt old and that we might have left this all too late? 

For so many years it has been an almost daily thought, my dreams of being on a farm and self sufficient and earthy and close to the bones of life.  The vision that appears in my thoughts is kinda like this -

Well sort of.  I haven't found a picture yet that embodies my deep desire in its entirety.  There are so many elements and feelings that make up the dream.

Here are a series of pictures that make my heart glad, my mind smile and keep the dream alive inside my soul.  The images are bittersweet - they represent the things I want most of all, but at the same time are the things that are so far away from what my life is now.

I just hope I reach them before its too late.

I want to watch and wonder at new life

I want to only eat food that is in season

I want to feel the thrill of creating something from nothing

The best sign in the world (unless its my farm!)

Coming home ...

Guard Geese

Milk and Cream and Big Licks

Oh, I can dream big can't I ?!?

Memories of a life past

Chicken Tante Celestine

This is my recipe for Tante (french for Aunt) Celestine's Chicken. I have adapted it from Margaret Fulton's Superb Restaurant Dishes published in 1982, and she was given this recipe from M Jean Delaunay, the demonstration chef of Marnier-Lapostolle of Paris.  Grand Marnier, an orange flavoured cognac, is the star ingredient here and the original liqueur was created in 1880 by Louis-Alexandre Marnier Lapostolle. A delicate blend of fine cognacs and distilled essence of tropical oranges with Marnier-Lapostolle's secret touch. Bitter orange flavours are enhanced by the cognac with nuances of orange marmalade and hazelnuts. The finish is long and harmonious... lovely tasting notes but I am not drinking it yet.. not until I have cooked with it.

This recipe was my tried and tested and well loved dinner party favorite. This was back in the 80's when dinner parties and perms were all the rage. I hadn't cooked it since then, and re-discovered the cookbook recently, nostalgia propelling me to make it again.

It's not a very PC recipe.  The first ingredient calls for chicken pieces with skin on.  Do you know how hard it is to find this?  I tried about 5 different places that sell chicken - everyone of them said that they don't sell chicken with skin on.  A few said, "oh yeah we get asked that all the time".  But I guess the fat police are monitoring them.  Maybe I need to find the black market of chicken that is not destined for the catwalk!  So, without the first ingredient, I had to improvise and get naked breasts .. free range of course.  I use breast meat as I like the whiteness of it and I can cook it very little and keep it moist.

I have to forewarn guests about this dish, just in case they have a heart condition.  I start with the prelude that it is a real french dish.  They nod knowingly that they understand and pop one of their angina pills in anticipation. It has a whole stick of butter, a few cups of cream and of course lots of alcohol.  But I do cheer up their heart surgeon and say its got fruit (apple) and nuts (almonds).  Apart from a little chicken stock, that's the total of the ingredients. 

I don't think it was a French peasant dish, or at least not an everyday peasant dish. I am yet to find the origins of this, maybe it was indeed a recipe devised by the makers of Grand Marnier after all?  A quick search of the net shows me that it is a known recipe, but not very well known.  It has been said that its a perfect date night meal - there is no onion or garlic. 

For my bachelor friend, who sampled this last night and said it would be a good dish to impress a girl, here is the recipe and my notes ..

6 chicken breasts (skin on if you have contacts with the black market)
Flour seasoned with freshly ground black pepper and sea salt
100g of unsalted good butter
6 tablespoons of Grand Marnier
6 tablespoons of chicken stock
2 cups cream

Cut each breast into 3 even pieces.  Put into a bag with the flour and salt and pepper and shake until well coated.

Melt the butter in a heavy based (french if you have it) pan
In batches, fry the chicken pieces until they are browned.  Don't over crowd the pan as they will stew.

When all browned, put all pieces back into the pan and spoon over the Grand Marnier.  It will sizzle in the remaining butter and smell delicious.  I get a little carried away at this stage and often add a few more glugs.  Then do the same with the chicken stock, but leave out the extras.

Turn down to very low, cover tightly and simmer for 25 minutes or until tender.  Remove the chicken to a serving dish and keep warm.

Turn up the heat, add the cream and scrape up all the bits on the pan, stir and simmer until reduced.  Taste for seasoning.  Pour over chicken. 

Garnish with apples and almonds .. see below..

Apple and Almond Garnish - prepare this before you start.

6 granny smith apples
2 tablespoons of Grand Marnier
50 g butter
60g flaked almonds

Peal and core apples.  Cut into bite size pieces and put into a shallow baking dish in one layer.  Melt butter and pour over the apples.  Toss to coat evenly.  Bake in a preheated oven 180c for 15 minutes.  Keep warm.
Toast almonds in a hot dry pan.  Set aside.

Must be eaten with real French wine, however bad.  I serve this with boiled baby potatoes, green beans and steamed carrots.  Its very rich, so serve the vegies very plain. Unless you want an 80's nostalgic moment - serve the carrots with honey, butter and sesame seeds, the beans fried with bacon and onions and potatoes dauphinoise.

Serves 6 .. or 3 greedy people with leftovers the next day.  Also good the next day, heated, for a hangover lunch after all the bad French wine.

I want the serving dish in the picture, copper and very expensive.  Maybe I will charge every person I serve this dish to $20 and I can put this towards buying a copper dish.