Orange & Fennel Pulled Pork

I made this a little while ago and it really is so easy to make.  It melts in your mouth and jam packed with flavour.  It is a perfect dish to prepare the night before, place into the crockpot the next morning and it's all ready to devour that night -  not to mention the aroma that fills the house while it's cooking. 

If you don't have a blender, then don't worry.  Simply chop everything up and throw it all together.  As long as the flavours get into the pork that's all that matters.

Ingredients
1.5 - 2 kg pork shoulder
2 tablespoons of fennel seeds
2 cups of fresh orange juice
1 red chilli - deseeded
2 cloves of garlic
1 knobs of ginger
Sea salt & cracked pepper

Method
Blend all the ingredients (except the pork) in a blender until everything is smooth.

Remove any skin from the pork and pierce as many times as possible.  Place the pork into an oven dish OR crockpot and add the marinade making sure all those wonderful flavours get into the pork.

Cover and cook on 140 c for 6-8 hours until the pork begins to pull apart nicely. Alternatively you can place on low on the crockpot for 8 hours.

In the same dish, pull the meat apart with two forks then cover and leave warm until ready to serve.

Serves 8-10 people

Happy living peeps!!

Hutch Makeover

I purchased a hutch dresser for $30 off trademe over 18 months ago with the view to give it a new life.   At the time of purchase it needed some serious TLC as it had been stored at a diary farm shed for a number of years.  It had a bad brown/orange 80's look which I really wasn't feeling, but it also had some interesting detail which I thought would be interesting.

Sadly it sat in our shed for 18 months before my husband and I gave it a good clean up.  He repaired what needed doing, while I sorted the colour scheme.  My choice being Annie Sloan duck egg blue for the outside of the dresser and Annie Sloan graphite for the inside of the shelves, drawers, cupboards and handles.  I finished the graphite with dark wax, while the duck egg blue is finished with clear wax.

There was a bit of discussion whether to keep the doors on the upper part of the dresser, but we decided it would be better left off.  What do you think?

Inside the house

I had originally thought of selling this piece, but as usual once it was finished we all fell in love with it inside the house.

Happy living peeps!!

Pineapple & Avocado Salsa

I made this recipe years ago when I was experimenting.  I wanted a nice refreshing side to go with some cajun fish and this was perfect!  It's light, tasty, extremely refreshing and delicious.

Ingredients

2 cups diced pineapple
1 cup chopped coriander
1 avocado, diced
1 red chilli, seeded, finely chopped OR a pinch of chilli flakes
1 red capsium - diced
1/2 cup diced red onion
2 Tbsp. lime juice
Salt & pepper

Method
Place everything in a bowl and toss gently.  Season with salt and pepper.

Serves 4

Happy living peeps!

Home Grown Goodness

We are going on our 5th year since moving to the ponderosa and life just keeps getting better in terms of all our wonderful home grown goodness.  In saying this, our home grown ventures haven't always been an easy road with a few trial and errors occurring. 

Reflecting on some past blogs we didn't get any plants from PROPAGATING FROM THE GARDEN.  Unfortunately I forgot to change the timer on the sprinkler within the greenhouse which proved disastrous!

THE OLIVE GROVE is still there, however a few of them were attacked by the local rabbits.  They weren't eating the trees, but they were burrowing into their root system which made it difficult to get established but they are starting to get going now.  Especially when we decided to get rid of the pine trees.

Trimming the chooks wings is a must or trying to grow a vegetable garden turns into a losing battle.  There was a time there when our chook numbers were going to decline at a fast rate and keeping sheep inside a paddock can prove more challenging than we thought.  They definitely aren't like beef, that's for sure!

With all the trials and errors, we have learnt from them to look to improve and learn from the experiences and the results are only getting better.

Happy living peeps!