New Zealand Garden Diary: What to Cook When You Have a Lot of Kale
My submission for Lyttelton's Harbour Kitchen cookbook uses something I have in the garden all year around (and store cupboard ingredients). Don't you love kale?
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Quick Kale and Cashew Stir Fry
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Ingredients (per person)
Small handful of kale
One serving of noodles
Small handful of salted cashews
Dash of soy sauce
Dash of sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) or sweet chilli sauce
Dash of sesame oil and enough sunflower oil to coat pan
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Method
If you want the recipe to be vegetarian, wash the kale. Then drain, pat dry and remove the big central ribs before cutting it finely.
Boil noodles until done, drain and set-aside.
Get the oils hot in a pan and stir fry kale until it all turns dark green, throw in cashew nuts and warm through for one minute.
Add cooked noodles and soy sauces/sweet chili sauce, stir through and serve.
Living in New Zealand: Dog Friendly Mini Break in Peel Forest
It's handy to have friends with holiday homes. We spent a weekend in one in Peel Forest. Our friends have a lovely big dog called Fred who tolerated Molly very well. Molly made herself quite at home.
Because there is a lot of agriculture in the area, you can't swim in the rivers. It's a shame as there is a beautiful river walk in Geraldine, but even the dogs aren't supposed to drink the water.
Geraldine river walk
At least there are a lot of dog friendly walks and Molly and Fred had a great time. Well, Molly did for sure.
The best part of the trip was going to see friends of our friends who have built a house in the woods. There is a QEII covenant on the land and we walked through a forest with lots of old native trees (checking trap lines that had caught hedgehogs and a feral cat). It was beautiful and Molly preferred it to swimming in the river
Molly, me, Fred and a kahikatea
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Homebound puppy was exhausted
Living in New Zealand: Mini Break to the Hurunui With Off Leash Puppy
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We have friends with a bach in the Hurunui in the high country of Canterbury, New Zealand and we joined them there for a weekend.
Molly loved being off leash
My other half went fly fishing but I had a lot more fun swimming in the deep water pools. It is fairly safe to do this in the high country as there is not so much run-off from agriculture, particularly as there are no dairy farms there.
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Molly learned to swim across the river, which she preferred to old rickety bridges. She taunted her new friend, Marlowe, who was not that keen to get wet.
It was a fantastic weekend…
…but it’s always good to head home.
FAB Club 3 is a Finalist in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards
I’ve just heard that FAB Club 3 – The Big Match is a finalist in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards.
I love these awards as they are judged by teachers and children.
FAB Club 3 is the final book in my chapter book series about standing up to bullying. You can get it at all good bookshops and at the Leslies in Lyttelton... ;-)
