Here's to hidden treasures!

Bye to my nice organised looking garden. Hello cucurbits who pay no attention to boundaries, real or otherwise!

All is forgiven. I found a hidden rockmelon today that I never even knew was there...
:)

Harvest!

After being away for 3 weeks over summer, I was over the moon to discover nothing had died (in the vege garden at least) and I had fresh veges to pick for tea.
Small consolation at least because we'd had hot weather and RAIN!
Humidity is NOT my friend!

P.S. the eggplant is a happy surprise. I have 2 "restored" plants from my previous vege garden...of over a year ago. The eggplant was the sole survivor of 3 plants that got riddled with worms and I gave up on them. Overgrown with weeds I was amazed to discover it living on in unbelievable conditions. My mint plant also survived. It's got tough leaves but I'm sure that will change with time..
I guess some things in our gardens are tougher than we give them credit for!

Dressed for dinner - potatoes with extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice dressing

Thanks Jamie!
Food tonight consisted of barbequed steak to keep the men happy with potatoes dressed with olive oil, coriander, chilli and lemon. All served up on a wooden cutting board a la Jamie Oliver.

1 medium potato
2 sweet potatoes
1/2 lemon
1 fresh red chilli
A bunch of coriander
50g feta cheese

Serves approx 4.

Wash the potatoes and halve lengthways. Put them in a large microwave safe bowl with 1/2 a lemon (I used the whole lemon, it was small so I just chopped it in half and put the two halves in cut side sitting up)

Cover and microwave on full power for 15 mins.

Drizzle evo over a large wooden chopping board, sprinkle coarsely ground salt and black pepper over it.
Finely chop the red chilli (I used only 1/2 in case it was too hot...it wasn't, I'll use more next time) and most of the coriander on the board, mixing as you go. Add the feta and keep chopping and mixing.

Pull the potatoes out of the microwave, check they are cooked and using tongs squeeze the lemon halves over the potatoes. Discard the lemons. Put the cooked potatoes onto the board and chop them roughly combining the cheese, chilli and coriander.

At this point I probably should have drizzled with more oil. I will next time. Although the recipe doesn't say to do it, the potatoes and cheese absorb the oil on the board fairly quickly. You could probably drizzle with a bit of lemon juice as well.

I may never make ordinary potato salad again!
Really, really, awesomely easy summer food.
Let me know what you think if you make it.
:)

It's been a bit hot

It's no good trying to garden or do anything productive when it's so warm.
I decided that my very worn gold polish needed an update. After pulling out the Revlon gold again and a sparkly Miki teal colour and of course my current fav, China Glaze Watermelon Rind I was on my way to a fun afternoon.
I quite like fiddling with gradients, it feels a bit like I imagine painting with oil paints must feel like. This one was relatively simple with just the 3 colours. I did however go over the graduation lines a few times to try to soften the boundaries as much as possible.
I painted the gold on first, then I went over with a very light coat of the teal but starting a third of the way up the nail to make sure some of the gold was still exposed. Then I did the same thing with the Watermelon Rind starting two thirds of the way up the nail, trying to contour the boundaries a bit. Then any hard lines I wasn't happy with, I just went over with one of the lighter colours until it all blended well enough.
A top coat of Seche Vite and it's all done.
It's really much less difficult than it looks and works really well to make even short nails look snazzy!
;)