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| Tres Leches Cake |
First of all, thank you, everyone, for your birthday wishes! They truly made my birthday feel extra special! I'm sure you will all approve of the fact that celebrations continued, today, as well! LOL.
Since I couldn't sleep in, yesterday, I slept in, this morning, instead! Then, I had half of a scone for my brunch, along with a serving of the beans I had prepared, earlier!
It was another sunny, gloriously warm (a high of 96F!) day, today! Since I love warm weather, it was absolutely perfect!
In the afternoon, I replied to blog comments, visited a few blogs, and checked on the garden. M came to tend to the garden in the afternoon and he brought me the tres leches cake, pictured above, to celebrate my birthday! He brought one for my daughter, too! So very kind and considerate of him! I served him one of the birthday scones and he enjoyed that very much.
Today, I asked M to harvest the last watermelon (Baby II) that was growing in the garden; it wasn't quite ripe, but, the leaves had all died and the vine had dried up.
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| Baby II |
The slice of watermelon pot holder next to the plate is something I crocheted after seeing something similar in a magazine! I didn't have a pattern to follow, so, just crocheted a round and folded it in half; I probably shouldn't have increased the outer rounds quite as much as I did, because, it made a crescent shaped slice of watermelon! Oops!
I cut the watermelon we picked today and shared a slice with M - it was sweet, but, could have ripened a bit more!
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| Baby II |
The watermelon was not the only fruit we harvested from the garden, today! The pineapple guava (feijoa) tree had only a few guavas, this year (nothing like the abundant crop we had a couple of years ago), but, we were able to pick some of the fruit that had fallen:
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| Pineapple Guava (Feijoa) |
I've been noticing a brave squirrel visiting the garden, recently, and now I know why - there was a partially eaten guava on the ground! I love squirrels and for years, I've mourned the fact that the garden cats have kept the squirrels away! But, this particular squirrel is very brave (or foolhardy!) I watched him scampering around the garden, yesterday, stopping for a drink of water from the cats' bowl, watched by three pairs of cat eyes, until, finally, Snowball gave chase and the other two cats joined her! But, squirrel escaped and ran up the telephone pole at the end of the garden! Today, I watched him as he returned to the garden and checked the mango plants, etc. This time, Snowball just watched him, but, when the squirrel saw Snowball, he scampered up the curry leaf tree and ran! There is at east one more guava left on the tree for him to eat, if he likes.
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| More Fresh, Ripe Guavas |
There are two types of guavas in this bowl - some are white inside and the others are pink; the pink ones are sweeter.
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| Passionfruit Vine Cuttings Kept to Root |
You are supposed to strip most of the leaves from the cuttings before dipping the ends of the cuttings in the rooting hormone and potting them up. I took most of the leaves and kept them in a bowl of water to keep them fresh. Then, today, I took the leaves out of the water:
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| Passionfruit Leaf |
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| Shredded Passionfruit Leaves |
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| Passionfruit Leaf Mallung |
- M tending to the garden and bringing me a dessert to help celebrate my birthday
- Watermelons and guavas from the garden
- Daughter making my Covid booster shot appointment for me
- The lovely warm weather
Your Tres Leches Cake looks divine. I love squirrels too and how lovely to have one very brave one visit your garden. Is bunny still around? I do like your crocheted water melon mat and it looks perfect to me. I'm glad you had such a good birthday and the celebrations continued.
ReplyDeleteThe cake tasted every bit as delicious as it looked! I am not even going to think about the calories and sugar! :D Bunny has not been seen in the past few days! Maybe removing the cardboard barriers made it too easy for him and he lost interest? It wasn't challenging enough, anymore? Or, maybe he's visiting when I'm not looking! Or, maybe he's giving the garden a chance to grow before he visits, again. :)
DeleteYour garden has been very productive for you this year. That is another great harvest.
ReplyDeleteHow kind of M to bring you the cakes. They look delicious. X
The garden has been very productive, hasn't it? I am so happy I was able to harvest as much as I did! All those zucchinis! Who will ever forget them?! LOL. The cake was absolutely delicious and I will have to go on a diet as soon as possible! :D
DeleteSo glad that the guavas from T's garden didn't go to waste after all!
DeleteOn the subject of zucchini, like you I was swamped with them over the summer, what with my, G's and my parents' crops. I gifted loads and crammed dozens into the freezer ... but I didn't make any pickles because I still had lots from last year. Then what happened? I did a table sale and they all sold out! I quickly made a new batch using my last large courgette and about 500kg of bought ones. Got five jars out of them and thought that would probably be enough till next season: one jar for me and four for the table. WRONG!! This morning I got a call from my mum saying someone had rung the bell asking for four more jars! She wants some more for herself, but also to give as Christmas gifts! So now they are all gone and I have to either buy some if I want to make more, or just be without until next summer. How ironic, after the deluge that I have had (and are still clogging up my freezer.) Oh it made me laugh!
Consider your pickles to be a best seller! I suppose the frozen zucchini can't be made into pickles? I am hoping to use some of my frozen zucchini to make a batch of chutney, although I've never made chutney with frozen fruit before!
DeleteNo, I need fresh courgettes for these pickles. The gourds need to be sliced thinly, then drained using salt, and finally they're steeped in a hot vinegar solution. Apart from the fact that the frozen ones are in chunks, they'd turn to mush for sure. However I'm fairly certain that you can make chutney with frozen courgettes, assuming it's the recipe you showed before, blending everything together and reducing over the hob? The final result may differ slightly but I doubt it would be a problem. I often use frozen fruit for preserving, including a rhubarb chutney which I worried about the first time, but it reacts exactly the same as fresh rhubarb and the final consistency is as it should be. Let me know how you get along!
DeleteOh, PS. 500g! Blame autocorrect!
DeleteHa, ha, I thought 500kg was a lot of zucchini! :D
DeleteWell, I guess you might have to buy some fresh courgettes, if you want to make more pickles before the Christmas holidays. Next year, you might have to anticipate that more people will want your pickles and make a bigger batch! I will be using the same basic chutney recipe/method; I will definitely let you know how the frozen zucchini works out for chutney. Maybe something you can add to your stock of items to sell? People might be happy to have chutney instead of pickles. :)
I guess even you didn't have 500kg of zucchini!
DeleteI've bought three packs of courgettes ... all the way from Spain. They are still quite plentiful so not too expensive yet but I don't want to make a habit of this. The ethos behind my preserving was very much to use local/homegrown produce, recycle jars, support community fairs, give away a decent proportion etc. Contributing to climate change, adding food miles etc. was not in the plan! Anyway, it's just one of those things. I bet if I had made more pickles when the courgettes were in abundance, I'd have been struggling to shift them! One year, I had lots of people requesting damson jam. I duly made a batch and carried them from market to market unable to garner any interest whatsoever! Never mind, it's all a bit of fun. I did make a courgette relish one year, which I really liked. I've thought about chutney but couldn't get inspired. Maybe I need to revisit that. Perhaps if I could sample yours when I come to dinner, I will be able to make a better decision..!
No, even I didn't have anything close to 500 kg. :D
DeleteWell, I'm glad you were able to get some courgettes at a reasonable price to make the pickles since the demand was there. :) I'll be sure to keep a jar of zucchini chutney for your visit! I really like how it turned out!
What do you eat your courgette chutney with? Curry, or in a sandwich, or with cheese...? Yes it's sod's law trying to predict what will or won't be in demand. When I first started I just made using any and everything that came to hand. The idea that I would end up with regular customers making specific requests and repeat orders never entered my head! It's a nice "problem" to have!
DeleteI usually eat the chutney (any type of chutney, including the zucchini chutney) with rice and curry. We consider it a condiment. Sometimes, when I make what I call curry puffs (curried meat or fish filling enclosed in puff pastry), I will spread a little chutney on the baked curry puff before eating.
DeleteYes, regular customers with specific requests and repeat orders is a good problem to have. :) At some point, you might want to tell your regulars to put their orders in early to make sure you have sufficient quantities of their favorites. :)
Ah I suppose things might change in time but I can't imagine saying that to anyone! I don't ever solicit orders, just tell three or four people (who requested I do so) if I'm planning to do a sale and the rest is passing traffic. It's always a huge surprise and pleasure if anyone tracks me down subsequently. I think it best they take the initiative.
DeleteOf course, you must continue to do what has worked well so far for you! :) It sounds like you are building up a nice group of customers based on the quality of your products! :)
DeleteI never knew you could eat passionfruit leaves. Good to see that you are getting your vegetables in variety. That cake looks delicious.
ReplyDeleteWe have nothing special planned for today, but there is plenty of puttering to be done!
Yes, they can be eaten raw or cooked or made into a tea. They are supposed to be very nutritious. :)
DeletePuttering is good! I hope you have a lovely day and enjoy your puttering! :)
I'll tell you why the squirrel has appeared - because the word is out on the street that your place is the place to be! lol
ReplyDeleteLots going on there food-wise and animal-wise, lots of plant life and a kind generous caretaker too.
The chopped mixture you made, the mallung, looks very good. I bet it added a nice bright fresh taste to your meal.
Ha, ha, you might be right, Debra! Although, I might not be quite so welcoming to the squirrels once the peach tree, etc., come into fruit!
DeleteMallung is considered an essential side dish for a proper Sri Lankan meal, although I don't always make one. But, if you want to try making a mallung, you can use any type of leafy greens such as kale, collards, etc. and you could use unsweetened dehydrated coconut and add a little water to it to reconstitute it. :)
Happy Belated Birthday, Bless! And many more.
ReplyDeleteThank you, June. :)
DeleteAm I correct in assuming you can use any leafy green for the mallung? It looks like the sort of thing I'd like. Part of my brain thinks I may have tried it before but I'm not sure, so will be adding it to the menu.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed your birthday and how lovely of M to gift you the cake.
Your garden continues to provide. How are the new seedlings you planted recently doing?
You are correct, Eileen; you can use any leafy green for mallung - kale, collards, even parsley. I wouldn't recommend spinach, though. If you can't get fresh or frozen grated coconut, unsweetened dehydrated coconut will work well; just add a little bit of water to reconstitute it, first.
DeleteThe new seedlings are coming along nicely. In fact, I've a garden update post ready for today! :)