A rare sighting of miss c and Broccoli with Garlic Soup

I have begun to investigate slow cooking. With the arrival of Daisy’s calf fast approaching, and Sheila the Babe (hopefully this week), then the  milking and the cheese making, I will have at least another two hours work a day and that does not include the clean up. The barn I can clean with a hose. Don’t you wish you could do the same with the kitchen! So I need to find ways to save time. The crock pot has never appealed to me. I honestly prefer my food freshly picked and prepared. But until I get my head around this new regime I am going to have to resort to making dinner in the early afternoon then leaving it to cook alone. My other problem is my old rickety gas stove that has not quite worn itself out yet,  needs supervision. It cannot be left on in the house when I am out of the house. So I am reconsidering the less than sexy crock pot.

Yesterday was a case in point, we were racing to get the fencing finished and Daisy’s milking parlour ready.  There was no time to muck about in the kitchen.  The Kitchens Garden had garlic  almost ready to harvest and the broccoli was going to shoot in the terribly hot winds we had yesterday.  The lettuce has gone past it. So no quick salad. 

So the dinner ingredients were already decided. That is the best garlic we have grown.  

The challenge: what can you make in a crockpot with these ingredients and leave to cook inside while you are outside for hours. Broccoli and Garlic Soup. Adapted from Not Your Mothers Slow Cooker Cookbook. 

Chop up  the peeled broccoli stalks as well as the florets.  In the slow cooker add oil, thyme, lemon juice, chicken stock and salt and pepper. Muddle in a whole bulb of chopped and crushed garlic.  I cooked it on low for about three hours, then pureed most of it.

It is not a pretty soup but it was good. And fast to serve with minimal clean up.

And now a wee surprise. Daisy and I.   Daisy is walking like a cowboy now and not going very far, and so when we were not fencing  (again the heat was in the high nineties but this time with gale force winds) I was hanging out with her under the trees. John took the camera from its fencepost and managed to nick an unflattering shot of me in his nieces T-shirt, which I redesigned with a pair of kitchen scissors, and my work skirt,  my hair blown straight up, looking like I have been dragged through a bush backwards.

This is probably the first time I have included a full picture of me in the blog. But I have been thinking of perspective lately.  How to show size in the shots. A box of matches and Daisy would be silly. And this image does give you an idea of how large Daisy really is.  I am 5’7″. Now look at the size of her head again. She just needs to swing that head to dislodge a fly and she has inadvertantly knocked me for a six.   She is a gentle giant lately though. Such a big animal to have in my care. Stepping so carefully, poor fat cow in the heat.

Good morning.  Queenie Wineti, The Bobby (this years steer) and  Hairy MacLairy are all out in the newly fenced Dairy Mistress paddock.  They are more than happy with their new field.  I can check them from my kitchen window which makes life very easy. And gives me something to look at when I do the dishes.  (Where is that hose!)

I think we have an ordinary day ahead of us. The usual chores and rounds. So it will be a good solid and peaceful day. There are no surprises in the plan.  Touch wood.  You have a lovely day too.

celi