mickle's pickle

23 January, 2010

Back to normal

Another cold southerly blast arrives in Wellington!

I took these photos about 8 minutes apart:

I shouldn't have been suprised - it is my Birthday and this is exactly how I remember it being from childhood. Yep - Summer in Wellington.

A few hours later and the horizontal rain started to lash at the windows. This has the advantage of cleaning the outside of the windows, but then the grubbyness shows on the inside!

20 January, 2010

Sunshine on my Shoulder .....

... really had me smiling on Tuesday. This is the view from my driveway looking to the southeast across southern Wellington to - yes - the blue, blue South Pacific Ocean!

(please do click on the photo for an enlargement)

16 January, 2010

Please, may we have our Summer back

Not nice in Wellington yesterday, now and for tomorrow. Currently have horizontal rain whacking at the windows from a wet, windy and soggy Southerly storm, Humidity at 100% and temperature at 10C but with wind chill will feel like 7C outside.

Dear Weather Daeities, please give Wellywood back her summer ........ soon, pretty please.

Even Zebbycat, lover of heat, snoozle and sleep, my much loved feline lad is fed up. He is sleeping under his quilt as much as he can in between food, litter tray stops, cuddles and Mickle brushing his fine yet very thick feline coat at least once daily. Mickle does the litter tray clean ups.His next cuddle stop is coming up as Mickle goes to bed.

Keep warm and dry, Northern Hemispherers, we'll work on the dryness factor for Wellywood and much rain for the northern bits of NZ like my dear Dad's veggie garden,

xxxx Mickle and sleeping Zebby, xxxx

12 January, 2010

Jewels from my garden

Gale force winds last week lashed at my hydrangea and broke a branch off, but at least I could enjoy the broken branch's blooms inside for a few days

Harvested on Sunday, the radish leaves went into soup (thanks Marjie) and the lush globes will be in salads this week

10 January, 2010

Carrot and Orange Soup

This is from "Insatiable, Recipes by Peta Mathias"

Golden Soup

This soup gets its golden colour from oranges and carrots. The heart of every good sauce and soup is the caramelisation of carrots, celery and onions. So you firstly saute a small amount of these three to provide the solid basis upon which the orange and carrot will rest. Other wise you may as well just heat a bottle of orange juice and carrot juice together and enjoy the superficial results.

Serves 6

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp butter
1 small carrot, peeled and diced
1 small onion, peeled and diced
1/2 stalk celery, washed and diced
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
sprig of mint
bouquet garni in a muslin bag (parsley, bay leaf and thyme tied together)
strip of orange peel
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
500 gr (1.1 pounds) carrots, peeled and finely sliced
1 litre (4 cups) chicken or vegetable stock or water
cream for garnish (optional)
chopped mint for garnish

1 In a large pot heat oil and butter and saute diced vegetables till golden and caramelised.

2 Add orange juice, scraping up bits of vegetable stuck to bottom of pot.

3 Add all other ingrdients except cream and garnish. Bring to boil then reduce to a simmer. Cook covered until carrots are tender.

4 Allow to cool, remove mint, bouquet garni and orange peel and blend till perfectly smooth and velvety. Season to taste.

Serve in deep bowls with a swirl of cream and a cloud of mint.

Mickle comments:

Please don't try to hurry step 1, it is essential for a full flavour. And don't be too tough on yourself over quantities - when I made it for Christmas I had just one orange so I used all of the zest and left the zest in when it was blended.

This is delicious hot or chilled so dear friends freezing in the Northern hemisphere and being fried in Australia can all enjoy the soup right now. And, if like me you don't like the taste of cooked carrots, still go ahead and make this because it doesn't taste cooked carroty all. This soup freezes well too.

Cook and Enjoy