Beach Days

This week saw us getting up at 2.30am and heading on down to Pambula Beach to watch the sunrise.

Avoided hitting on the way 1 Kangaroo in the middle of the road, 3 Wombats strolling across the road with not a care in the world.

What a sunrise well worth the early morning.

Spot of fishing. 

Detecting....... for treasure, Andrew's way.

Fishing Boat at Eden.

Ice Cream for Sally Girl, Andrew spoils her.

Beach combing and looking for treasure, Nicole's way.

At a beach in Merimbula.

Happy Adventures Nicole, Andrew & Sally Girl

Camp Cooking * Bread

Best Ever Bread

This is my Best bread ever recipe over on my Going Green Blog.

The loaf was a little smaller as we got back too late so i pull out about a hand full of dough and used it to make nann bread.

3 cups Bread Flour
1/2 tsp Yeast
1 3/4 tsp Salt
1 1/2 cups Warm Water
for the full recipe instructions for the oven follow the above link.

Mix altogether to form a shaggy dough, leave in the bowl and cover, depending on the weather and how much time you have, leave to rise in a warm spot for at least a few hours longer if its not a warm day and you have to rise it outside.
This loaf ended up sitting for 2 days before i got to cook it.

As i have learned from a previous try you must have the bread dish up off the bottom of the camp oven or all you will get is a black loaf that's still doughy inside.

This bread took about 40 mins to cook, i hung it over the fire for the whole bake time, turning a couple of times. For the last 10 mins i placed coals on the lid to brown up the top.

The loaf may have been smaller bit it still had a good crust with a fluffy soft centre.

Enough to have with our Sausage Hot Pot and four thick slices for poached eggs the next morning.

I did notice that it didn't rise as much but that was due to all the cold weather and not much sun.

Happy Adventures Nicole, Andrew & Sally Girl

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Camp Life

Little bit of rain is a bit of an understatement especially when your camping every thing seems wet, cold and miserable.

The clothes don't dry and your towels are wet before you even use them.

We went into town to do the wash the other day as it was the first lot of sun we had seen in over a week. Washed it all and took it back to camp to hang on the line, the sun didn't last long and the rain was on and off, then it got cold so in came the washing. 

The following day it was raining and miserable so we went back into town and put all the washing through the clothes dryer. 

Anyone who knows me knows i don't use dryers they are a huge waste of power and your clothes shrink.

Well clearly i forgot about the shrinking in my water addled mind and now all my long sleeved shirts are now 3/4 sleeves,  not to mention how short they now are i can barely tuck them into my jeans. They weren't the only things to shrink and unfortunately it was all my stuff and Andrew got away with all his clothes still the same size.

This is a bridge on New Line Road at Creewah, only after a little bit of rain. It did clean Betty's tires and rims but that was short lived, cause there is always another lot of mud to drive/slide through.

Today we went into Merimbula and picked up some LED Strip Lighting, well i can tell you they are well worth the $70 we spent. It makes night like day well almost and now when we get back after dark it makes cooking a whole lot easier than with just lanterns.

Maybe now we will stay up past 8pm, well unless its too cold that is and our nice warm bed calls to us as it has been known to do ( i swear ).

Curry Chicken for Andrew's dinner tonight but with no chicken as the chicken isn't delivered to the butcher till tomorrow. Cooked under the new lighting, oh its like Christmas......

A bit of time spent at the beach in Pambula.
The best part of going to the beach when its cold or raining is you get it to yourself.

No matter the weather, we love the beach.

Despite all the rain and shrinking clothes we are still having fun.


Happy Adventures Nicole, Andrew & Sally Girl

Camp Life

All in a days work.........

New spark plug in the chain saw.

Cutting up some fire wood.

Doing the washing.

Using the facilities.

Hanging out by the fire.

Sally Girl with her new coat.

A man's work is never done........

Happy Adventures Nicole, Andrew & Sally Girl

Camp Oven Cooking * Sausage Hot Pot

Sausage Hot Pot

This is for two but again you can size it up to however many you need to feed.

4 Sausages 

1 Tbl Onion flakes or 1/2 a fresh onion if you have it

2 cups Beef Stock

1/4 cup Rice (uncooked)

1 Tbl  Mixed Herbs

1 Piece of ham chopped or a slice of bacon

small clove of Garlic grated

a few dried mushrooms or fresh if you have them

Salt and Pepper

Worcestershire Sauce a good couple of splashes

Brown your sausages in a fry pan.
Add to your camp oven rice, herbs, salt and pepper, worcestershire, stock, mushrooms and onion if dried.
Cut up the sausages and add to your camp oven, I use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut them up so much easier.

Now fry up your ham and garlic.
If using fresh onion and mushrooms fry them at the same time until onion is caramelized.
Add all to the camp oven and place over the fire just off to the side.
Stir every 10 mins of so and turn the pot so it cooks even and does not burn on one side.
You Dont want a huge amount of flames or coles under it or it will burn and not cook.

About 40 mins over the fire give or take depending on the amount of heat, then its cook and ready to serve.

I like to serve it with mashed potato and crusty bread.

No bread this time as i have not mastered bread in the camp oven yet.

Side Note: i like to use a spicy bbq sausage. 

If your gravy is not thick enough then add a little flour and stir to thicken ( a little goes a long way when it comes to the flour).

If you dont have mixed herbs then it is also nice with 1/2 tsp Thyme and 1/2 tsp Parsley.

I made this recipe up for the slow cooker but it is heaps nicer in the camp oven.

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Happy Adventures Nicole, Andrew & Sally Girl

Camp Oven Cooking * Beef Stew and Dumplings

Camp Oven Beef Stew with Herb Dumplings 

This recipe is for 2, however it can be up sized to how ever many you need to feed.

250g diced Chuck Steak

3 Tbl Flour

Salt & Pepper

Oil to fry

1 Carrot diced chunky

1 Potato diced chunky

couple of dried Mushrooms or fresh if you have them

1tsp Onion Flakes

1 cup Beef Stock

1 cup water with 1 1/2 tbl Beef Stew Season

Herb Dumplings

1 cup SR Flour

Mixed Herbs

Salt

1Tbl Oil

1/2 tsp Onion Flakes

Water to make a soft dough

Mix flour, salt and pepper, use to coat meat.
Brown in the camp oven in a little oil.
Add veg and stocks.

Cook over a low heat on the fire about 45 mins
Siring and turning the oven to make sure it cooks even.

Mix up the Dumpling dough, pat it into a round about 2 cm thick and cut into pie pieces.
Add to top of stew 10 mins before serving.

I am not a fan of all those stews that have tin tomatoes, and this one has none.  It is very tasty and can also be cooked in the oven or slow cooker.
Below you will find the recipe for my Beef Stew Season.

Beef Stew Season    

If you love a rich hearty stew then this seasoning will bring out the flavour of  even the cheapest cuts of meat.

1 cup Flour

2 tsp Oregano

1 Tbl Basil

2 Tbl +1 tsp Salt

1 1/2 tsp Black Papper

2 Tbl + 1 tsp Garlic Powder

2 Tbl + 1 tsp Paprika

1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper

1 Tbl Celery seed or ground dry celery

2 Tbl + 1 tsp Onion Powder or onion flakes

1 tsp Rosemary

Place all into a jar and shake well, don't forget to label it.

To use add 1 1/2 to 2 Tbl per kilo of meat.

Add it to your stock and mix.

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Happy Adventures Nicole, Andrew & Sally Girl

Easter Weekend Monday

The Bombala River is highlighted in yellow

The Bombala River in South East NSW starts below Brown Mountain at an elevation of 1170m and ends at an elevation of 635m merging with the Delegate River.

The Bombala River drops around 535m over its 87.4 km length.

Platypus Reserve Bombala

The Bombala River

Ah the elusive, secretive and rarely seen platypus.

 Some Platypus facts....

 They live along the banks of rivers and streams. They spend a lot of time in the water, up to 14 hours per day feeding.

*  They have a thick coat of slightly oily fur, one coarser outside hair with finer thicker under hair, which keeps them warm if the water is really cold.

*  Their strong webbed front feet pull them through the water when they are swimming. Their tails are used for steering.  They generally don't change direction underwater.

*  The bill is soft and rubbery and has 2 holes that are their nostrils near the end. The bill is very sensitive and is used to find their food on the bottom of the river. 

*  The platypus likes to eat worms, shrimps and small crayfish.

*  They must come up to the surface to breathe. They drown if they get caught in underwater fishing nets or crayfish traps.

*  They live in shallow holes in the banks of the river during most of the year.

*  When the female is going to lay her eggs, she digs a long winding burrow in the bank.  The entrance to the burrow is small so the mother has to squeeze through and this acts as a scrapper to remove all the excess water from her fur before reaching the platypups.

*  Females lay up to 3 eggs. When they hatch, the babies lick milk from the fur on their mother's stomach.

*  Six months later they'll have learnt to look after themselves and they'll have to find their own quiet bit of riverbed.

For those who have not seen a platypus 

this is a stock photo not one i have taken.

Happy Adventures Nicole, Andrew & Sally Girl