A tough Ramadan

If I thought last year's Ramadan was challenging, I've changed my mind now.  This year, Ramadan fell smack into the middle of summer.  This is the period when daylight hours are at their longest, which means more hours of fasting.  For the first week of fasting, we could only break our fast no earlier than 9.45pm.  We had to make sure we don't eat too much so that we could sleep.  We would try to fall asleep no later than midnight before waking up again at 2am to have our morning meal.

Other than the long hours, the weather has been quite harsh.  Temperatures are mostly high, above 24C and the sun shines brightly every day. Also, the air is very dry with humidity at nothing higher than 50% some days. I think, for the whole of July, there were only two days of light rain and a couple of cloudy, windy days.

So, as you can imagine, it has been tough to fast under these conditions.  But we soldier on.  We try not to think about the thirst and the hunger.  We try to keep cool - splashing water on our faces, having the fan on the whole day, even dipping our feet in cold water while we sit by the tub.  Luckily I am on my school vacation.  I could stay home when it's too hot outside.  

Having said that, we do go out almost every day on our daily walks.  We try to go as early as possible to avoid the hot afternoon sun.  Or we could go out during the evenings.  The sun would still be out, but the temperature would have dropped to make it a comfortable walk.

Now, it's only ten more days of fasting left.  The task seemed insurmountable when the weather got hotter and hotter, but we hung on and tried our best.  A few more days of fasting, and then we could celebrate our steely resolution and determination.  Celebrate I definitely would, because of all my more than 30 years of Ramadan, this is by far the toughest.

My perfect brownie

I love brownies, but not just any brownie.  I'm quite picky when it comes to these chocolatey squares.  I only love the fudgy, rich brownies.  The type that has a shiny, slightly cracked top, dense texture and just a tiny bit crumbly.  Not too crumbly or it just means the brownie is too dry and overbaked.  Also, I prefer mine plain without nuts.  If there are chocolate chips or chunks in there, all the better.  

I hate the cakey ones with walnuts in and on them.  A brownie is a brownie.  Chocolate cake and brownies do not taste alike.  A brownie is not a flat chocolate cake. It's not simply a matter of using a chocolate cake recipe and omitting the leavening agents such as baking powder or baking soda.  Nor is it a flatter chocolate cake.  It's not supposed to be fluffy.  If I want to eat chocolate cake, I will make chocolate cake. 

The brownies that I want should be dense with a very rich chocolate flavour.  The top should be a bit crunchy and the inside should be gooey, but not too wet.  They shouldn't be too sweet, either.  For me, the brownie is all about the chocolate.  Sometimes I would have cravings for chocolate and brownies would make the perfect substitute if I don't have any chocolate bars with me.  I would eat them on their own with a nice, cold glass of milk.  Or with a small scoop of ice cream.  Divine!

I have experimented with several brownie recipes over the years.  Some resulted in the cakey ones and when I'm lucky to get the perfect brownie, I would lose or forget the recipes.  Finally, last week, I managed to find a recipe I like.  So, I'm going to post it here so I will not lose it again.

The recipe uses the usual method of making brownies.  You start with melting the chocolate and butter.  Then while that is cooling, you whisk the eggs and sugar.  Then you add the melted chocolate and fold in the dry ingredients.  Then bake.  It's not hard but you need to keep your eye on the timer.  Don't let the brownie over cook or else it'll be dry.  Also, the size of the baking pan will effect your baking time.  Here, the suggested size is a 20cm square tin.  You bake till the brownie just pulls away from the sides and the centre is still a bit jiggly.  I didn't have the right pan.  I only have large ones so I baked them in muffin cups.  They are about 3cm high.  They took between 20-25 minutes.  So, depending on your baking tin, try to adjust the baking time.  Check early and don't overbake!

Brownies

185g butter

185g dark or semi-sweet chocolate, broken into smaller pieces

85g plain flour

40g cocoa powder

3 eggs

250g caster sugar 

Optional : a handful (about 80-100g) chocolate chips or chunks or even chopped nuts if you like

Heat the oven to 180C and prepare the 20cm square tin by lining with baking paper or aluminium foil. This makes it easier to get the brownie out of the tin.

Melt the butter and chocolate over a double boiler.  That means to put the bowl of butter and chocolate over a pan slightly filled with water.  Use low heat and slowly stir the mixture until all the butter and chocolate have melted.  Let the mixture cool slightly.

Beat the eggs and sugar until double in volume and the mixture looks pale.  This should take about 5minutes.

Add the melted chocolate mixture and stir until well-combined.

Sift in the flour and cocoa powder then gently fold in.  Make sure there are no streaks of flour.

Stir in the chocolate chips/chunks or nuts, if using then pour into the prepared baking tin.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

After you take out the tin, let the brownie cool in the tin.  

Once cold, you can lift it out and then cut into squares.

Harvesting gems

The past week has been very hot and dry.  The sky has been clear blue, with hardly any dot of cloud.  And rain is not expected to fall any time soon.  Naturally, the grass has turned brown and dry and we have had to make sure our plants in the garden are well watered.  

The balcony gets extremely hot during the day as well, since it gets the full blast of the afternoon sun that can shine and heat up the room for up to 7 hours.  I've had to water my plants there twice or even three times a day.  It's amazing how dry they can get in the heat.  The poor plants will droop and wilt if it gets too hot so I have to open up the windows so let the cool wind in and the heat out.  

However, with all the sun were having, the vegetables are doing well.  Lots of French beans and snap peas are ready to be harvested with even more tiny ones waiting to grow bigger.  The carrots are also growing well.  Their green tops are so bushy and we can see the carrots just beneath the ground getting bigger.  The potatoes are also starting to wilt and turn brown.

All that just means that our favourite part has come: harvesting!  Yesterday, we harvested the first row of potatoes. From about 8 small plants, we got a hefty 3 kilos of spuds.  It's really fun to harvest them.  Just dig carefully around the plants and pull them out.  Some potatoes would be attached to the plant but the fun bit is to carefully search the soil and uncover the gems.  And to me, they are gems.  I just love potatoes.  The potatoes we got were very well formed.  Some are as big as my palm and some are as tiny as a grape.  

I made French fries out of some of them yesterday and mashed some to make the shepherd's pie we had just now.  They have a very nice texture - not too soft nor too firm.  I forgot which types of potatoes these were.  We planted several types but we didn't label them.  Doesn't matter though because I love all types of potatoes.  We still have some in the kitchen.  Maybe I will make potato bread tomorrow.  And after harvesting more, I will experiment with other potato recipes.  We still have four rows of potatoes to be harvested.  We will harvest them only when we need them so that they'll be nice and fresh.  

We have already started harvesting the beans and peas last week.  They are really good.  I love how they are so juicy and fresh.  For two years, they have been high yielding plants and they are quite easy to grow too.  Looks like we will continue to grow them again next year.  We only need to make sure we rabbit-proof them at the beginning since the rabbits love to eat the baby pea shoots.  Once they are bigger, the rabbits would leave them alone.

We also harvested a few carrots.  They are still thin so they can be left in the ground to fatten up.  This year, we planted a mix of white, purple and the usual orange carrots.  We can't really tell the colour until we pull them out of the ground.  This time, we got the white and orange ones.  They are really lovely.  I love fresh carrots just out of the ground.  They are sweet, crunchy and very carroty!  Again, we would only pick them when we need them.  I think I'll try making carrot soup when the weather gets colder.  Carrot soup with potato bread on a cold, windy day.  That would be lovely.

The pumpkin thief strikes again!

Last week's great weather brought us to the garden more often.  We have cleared a lot of the weeds so most of the time, we go there to do a bit more weeding (that's a never ending job) and checking up on our maturing harvests.  So, we know exactly how many potato plants are flowering, how many carrots are in a row and how many pumpkins are developing.  We've even taken some pictures to track their growth.

Then, last Saturday, a rude shock greeted us.  Our fence has clearly been damaged.  It looked like it had been kicked or pushed down.  Some sections of the fence even had parts broken and screws whacked off.  But someone had tried to cover up the damage by propping up the broken fence with some wooden planks.  The gate is also busted.  It doesn't fit well anymore.  Maybe the culprits tried to lift it out of the ground to try force an opening.

My first instinct was to check the pumpkin patch and true enough, the biggest pumpkin has been cut off.  The cut on the stem looks clean and wet, so it might have happened just earlier that day.  The clean cut suggests that it was planned - who would walk around with a knife with them?  Anyway, Pete and I got very upset.  And to make matters worse, someone let their dog take a dump just outside our gate and didn't pick up the poop.

The pumpkin on Monday.

The pumpkin on Wednesday.

Gone!

We were simply too upset and disappointed to be angry.  We were disappointed enough to be thinking of giving up this plot.  Since we've started gardening here, we've had our first fence ruined and one of the poles stolen, found dog poop outside and even inside our garden, a gardening fork I left there by mistake stolen and vegetables and even whole plants stolen.  Even his mum, who only started her garden in the plot beside us this spring, had her strawberry plants stolen and her huge rhubarb plants ripped out.  She had this ancient wooden chest from 1825 put in an inconspicuous corner of the garden where she would store her tools.  We figured the chest was heavy enough to be left alone but still thieves managed to steal it.  And now this.

Sigh.  Pete and I are now so sad about how this is turning out.  I am usually excited to go to the garden but not anymore.  Looking at it, I don't think we would be able to get any pumpkins or cucumber or butternut squash by the end of the season.  Looks like the thieves would strike first before we could harvest them.  So, we are not going to get our hopes up.  Hopefully, we would at least get to harvest our beans, peas, carrots and potatoes.  

The thing is, the stolen pumpkin is nowhere near ready to be picked.  It's a winter pumpkin and its only the middle of summer.  You can see that it's hardly ripe.  Yes, it's big but it is only maybe half the size it should be.  Why take it?  It can't be eaten.  Anyway, it's better that this happens now.  If this were to happen after I have painstakingly cared for it month after month until its ready and then it got stolen, I would be even more crushed.  At least now I realise that this would probably happen again.  It's hard to accept but that's how it's going to be.

I wonder why the thieves like to target our garden.  Ours is clearly very amateurish and we don't grow much there. Other gardens are so much better than ours with more luscious and plentiful crop.  Why not pick on them?  Why us?  Sigh.

We don't want to give up this plot.  We really enjoy the gardening and enjoying our harvests after that.  And this plot is very big.  But the location, which is right next to the bike and walking lanes makes it very open to unscrupulous people.  If we were to stay, we would need a much better fence but then again, if people are determined to get inside, they would find a way to wreck it.  Well, we'll just have to see how it goes later.  If things continue to go missing, we have no choice but to look for another plot somewhere else.  

Oatmeal Cookies

It's been awhile since I posted a recipe.  Here's a quick and easy one to do.  It's for oatmeal cookies.  Since we would be starting our fast soon, we try to clear the pantry of stuff like biscuits or chocolates.  We also haven't bought any junk food since we wouldn't be able to snack during the day.  The only things remaining in the pantry are the staples such as flour, sugar, spices and oatmeal.  

Pete and I took a very long walk today - about 10km, so once home, we were ravenous.  We had lunch soon after but I got a serious case of the munchies.  I craved for something sweet.  I looked at my pantry - no bread, cookies or cake.  But I had the ingredients to bake something quick.  I decided to make oatmeal cookies.  I could also throw in whatever was left of a dark chocolate bar I had in the fridge.

Since its a warm day, it didn't take long for me to soften the butter.  I only had to put the bowl in the balcony and let the sun do its thing.  While waiting for the butter to soften, I measured out the other ingredients.  One thing about cookies is that they don't need much work.  Once the butter is soft, you only need to beat it together with the sugar for about 2 minutes on high.  Then, after adding the other ingredients, the cookies should be ready to bake within 10 minutes.  Depending on the size of the cookies, you could be enjoying them within 15 minutes.  Quick and simple.

Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Chunks and Coconut

1/2 cup butter or margarine, soft

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

A pinch of ground cloves

A pinch of ground nutmeg

1 1/2 cup oatmeal 

60g of dark chocolate, chopped into chunks ( or simply use chocolate chips)

A handful of grated coconut (optional)

Preheat the oven to 190C.

Beat the butter with the sugars until well combined.

Add the egg and continue beating on high speed for another minute.

Add the vanilla and mix well.

Add the flour, baking soda, salt and spices.  Stir well and then add the oatmeal.

Lastly, add the chocolate chunks and coconut.

Shape the mixture into balls (mine were the size of boiled egg yolk) and place them slightly apart on a lined baking tray.  Press them a bit to flatten them a bit.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.  If you want the cookies to be soft, take them out earlier.

Before the harvest

Although this summer has been mild, with lots of cloudy days, it didn't affect our vegetables in the garden.  They got enough sun and more than enough water to grow well.  The rabbits and some thieves have robbed us of some butternut squash and lots of pea shoots, but most of the stuff we planted are thriving.  

We have not started harvesting anything yet.  I expect the peas and beans to be ready in a week or two.  The potatoes are doing well and have started flowering.  We only need to wait until the leaves turn yellow before we can dig up the potatoes.  I think that would be in a couple of weeks.  The first batch of carrots are doing well.  Tiny carrots have started to form.  In a few weeks, they would be big enough to be pulled up.

The cabbage and broccoli would take longer.  I think they would be ready only in autumn.  Same for the pumpkins.  As of now, we have spotted three small pumpkins and some flowers.  They would continue to grow until autumn or even early winter.  That would be great since nothing beats a bowl of hot pumpkin soup and homemade bread when it starts getting cold outside.  I have planted two types of pumpkin - winter pumpkins and giant pumpkins.  The winter pumpkins are growing faster than the giant ones.  The cucumber and butternut squash are flowering but not fruiting yet.  

So, before the harvesting starts, here's a peek at our garden:

The rows and rows of potatoes.

A close-up of potato flowers.

Three out of the four rows of carrots. You can see the first two rows are bigger since they have been planted two weeks earlier.

The rows of peas which are towering and hiding the shorter bean plants behind them.  Next year I would plant them separately. 

The pumpkin and cucumber patch.  See the ugly, empty space where the two butternut squash plants should have been.  I still get upset when I look there.

A pumpkin flower.

The bigger of the three growing pumpkins.

One of my flowering lavender bushes.I might harvest the flowers to freshen up our home.

A Losing Battle

After a week of neglect, we got a shock when our garden looked more like a jungle.  I exaggerate, of course, but really, the weeds have grown so tall and so plentiful.  The tall weeds almost blocked our view of the tall potato plants and the luscious pumpkin plants.  Some vines were climbing up the pea plants and some even invaded the tiny carrots that were trying to grow. 

Needless to say, we had to work real hard today to clear the weeds.  I was very happy with our work before this, but the days and days of bad weather didn't allow us to do our weeding.  The rain and long daylight hours helped the weeds to thrive and it was amazing how fast they grow.

It's really like fighting a battle that we can't win.  Every time we managed to clear the weeds, they would simply grow back.  Sometimes I suspect the weeds grow twice as fast after we cleared them, sort of like they were saying "na nana na na" at our pathetic attempts to get rid of them.  It's impossible to be there every single day and pluck out each weed as they pop out, because that's exactly what I feel like doing after another long battle with them.  I feel like if I don't, they'll double or even triple themselves and take over the garden within a day or two.

I would have been more conscientious about weeding if the weather hasn't been so bad.  Last year was nice and sunny so we were at the garden a lot.  This year, there has been more rainy and cloudy days making it feel like summer has never been here, so we had to stay away more often.  I guess, I would have to be less uptight over the weeds.  Since it is not possible to keep the weeds out totally, I have to learn to accept that the garden would not be perfect and that weeds would always be a part of the garden.  I just need to make sure more of the beautiful vegetable beds are viable and not crowded out by the weeds.

If I were to look past the weeds, I suppose I could be happy with the vegetable beds.  The potatoes are growing well and have even started flowering.  The carrots are growing nicely as well.  I had to thin them out, which means I had to pull out those that are growing too close together to allow for more space in between for them to grow big.  The ones that I had to pull out looks nice and smells so carroty.

The peas and beans are also growing well.  They have started flowering and I guess we will soon harvest our first beans and peas.  The second group of peas that I planted weren't doing well though.  They have been attacked by rabbits again.  It seems like the rabbits love to eat baby pea plants, but I have plenty of other pea plants that have survived.

The broccoli and cabbage are doing well too.  The leaves look very strong and healthy.  My lavender plants are getting bushier too.  But the biggest growers there would have to be the pumpkin.  The plants are huge! They have even grown out of the allocated bed.  Luckily there is an empty space beside the bed.  That was to have been a walking path but its ok that they have taken over that space.  They can grow as big as they like, as long as they produce some good sized pumpkin by the time autumn comes around.  In fact, we could spot a couple of cute, round pumpkin developing.  I just hope they are hidden from view so that they won't attract other people to go in and steal them.

Weeds, rabbits, thieves.  The problems of a gardener.