Smoking chicken and the garden

Hello again, do you like smoked food? Paul has had a few attempts at smoking a split chook and this time he used part of our little bbq kettle in the bottom of the new large smoker as not enough air flow (which we discovered and later read about) and the temperature at least rose to near 100 Celsius

It certainly was a lot hotter and more efficient ☺ 

A bit of a blurry shot of the big bbq smoker in action.....

The chook smelt great and had clear juices but.....

to be on the safe side we gave it a further short cook in the oven ☺ it was delish and skin crisped up a bit better

I have been meaning to split the rhubarb which I had in the front lawn area for a few years so......

split I have, and do hope they survive as now have 3 plants ☺☺ and I have attacked all the weeds now....

The moon was looking larger on Tuesday afternoon, so of course I took a pic.....full moon is expected here Friday...it is a special friends birthday that day so "Happy birthday" Diana ♥ and enjoy the full moon's smile on you ☺☺

The rosemary has been going really well and I have quite a few plants ☺

Another thriving.......

Plenty of weeding has been needed as I have neglected for a while....

Newspaper and even a pizza box helps keep those pesky weeds at bay lol 

Oregano and thyme going crazy ☺

The garden along the back of the house, with even a plant that smells and tastes like olives ☺and a couple of sage and lemon thyme as well 

The succulents and aloe vera have been cut back as going crazy, even though I have never actually watered this area......

Today (Thursday), I have now put down plenty of sugar cane mulch ready for the Autumn time in the garden so lets hope the weeds get lost under all that......

A good feeling to finally have fixed this area up and will plant more herbs as at least I CAN grown them, they are very forgiving lol 

And I made this cute owl crochet hat over 2 days and do hope a certain little baby likes this, oh and her Mum and Dad too ♥♥ The pattern is available for free crochet-owl-hat-pattern thanks to a lovely blog lady Sarah ☺☺

It is for a 6-12 mth size so plenty of time to wear over winter ♥

Well how is the weather/life where you are? Here the weather has been incredibly dry as I have said on other posts....with Autumn now here lets hope some rain falls as this area where I live is normally quite wet.....take care out there xoxo

Vodka Rhubarb ready!!

Well do you remember when I started to make this??? post here It has done the 2months wait so yesterday I decided to strain it off.

Isn't it a great colour, wonder what it would be like eating the pieces of fruit, slightly intoxicating.... lol

Goes well in the red square bottle and is now living in the freezer to sample when we feel like a little kick. It tastes rather nice, not too sweet with a hint of rhubarb ☺

Here is something we were hoping to pick up from aldi's as one of their specials starting on Saturday. The man went down to our local Aldi to see if they had any left on Sunday, but no.  So a drive over to another town and they had 3 left, one white and 2 black so we chose the black one's and got 2, 1 for each of us.

Look!! The fold up bike all unfolded, rather neat. We are now going to take these away when we are in the caravan or not wanting to have our mountain bikes hanging off the back of the car as they fit nicely in a bag in the back of the car. Now no excuse for not getting extra exercise.

And here is Mr 11 happily enjoying Granny's baby computer playing Plants_vs._Zombies a different game for young and old lol. ☺☺

Decided on a BBQ out the back after picking up some chicken sausages as Mr 11 was getting pretty hungry.

He came out to check if all was cooked. Don't you love my hanging arrangement amongst my wind chimes lol. It is great when the weather turns hideous, which is often here, but as luck would have it the sun came back and I could have left all the clothes out on the back yard clothes line, oh well lol.

One a day Tuesday tomorrow so I better get one with adding rows to that granny stripe blanket.

Food

Been on a bit of a food/cooking/making frenzy last 2 days and thought I would share, not really very exciting but...... These are rice paper rolls, which I love and don't very often make up my own. Mixed up some smoked salmon, diced red onion, capers, light cream cheese and then place in the rice rolls and rolled them on up.  Made a sauce of Wasabi, Soy and dash of tomato.  I have weird tastes some say in food, but hey it tasted good ☺☺

Have gone back to making bread too and keep forgetting to take shots of the loaves. Well, here is today's after I cut it up. Some has been sliced and frozen (easy toasting), the other on the bench to eat, and another good size piece I am taking to my Mum's to have with the next item, while I visit her.

Good old pumpkin soup, Mum does like it or at least I really hope so as between me and one of my sisters she gets to eat this quite a bit lol. Butternut pumpkin, some red onion, garlic, stock and simmer then puree, easy.

This is what me and the man are going to sample tonight, lets hope it turns out alright. Has leftover Chicken/mushroom dish from last night in the middle and the bottom and top are those wraps that you buy, you know like pita bread or souvlaki bread. Thought I would see how this goes as a pie case. If it fails we will be just be eating the salad lol.

The Rhubarb is growing well so thought and am pretty sure Mum likes rhubarb so knocked up a Rhubarb crumble with oats.  Going to leave a bit here at home and take the rest to her to enjoy.

And this is the salad of home grown lettuce, shop bought tomato, avocado and a little cheese that may be our meal if that pie fails. Also went a bit cleaning mad and have the van spotless ready for our next trip next week and cleaned some of the house too.  Think it was because today was a beautiful sunny day. Cool but sunny. Always makes you feel better.

Packing up to go to Mum's for a night. Of course I will take my crochet and knitting ☺☺

Oh and looks like road will be out of action tomorrow and next day eeeek.....