I thought about it. Big falafel is stodgy. Small falafel is crispy and delicious.

And then all the pieces seemed to fit into place. What a sucker I’d been. What a fool. The answer was there all the time. That’s how I discovered the secret – two thin falafel patties, separated by cheese!

Edit: I bring glad tidings from our kitchen-lab! This burger is even better if you replace the fried onions with some tabouleh.

Ingredients

You will need (per burger):

• Burger bun
• 90gm falafel (Lebanese Delicious Snack Company is a good brand)
• 0.25 tsp baking powder
• pinch baking soda
• two patty sized pieces of baking paper
• half a chopped onion
• 1-2 tbsp hummus (LDSC is again good)
• 1 slice cheddar cheese
• two slices tomato
• 1 tbsp Moroccan chutney (or similar)
• lettuce
• olive oil for frying

Method

Do all your prep first:

• Mix the falafel with the baking powder and baking soda
• Chop the onion
• Slice the cheese
• Slice the tomato
• Cut the bun in half

Turn on the oven to 180c (for lightly toasting the buns later), then put a small frying pan and a large frying pan onto medium heat and add some olive oil.

While they heat up:

1. Tear the baking paper into patty sized pieces.
2. Shape half the falafel into a patty on the paper as shown in the picture, then repeat for the other half. Leave each one on the paper.

Put the onions into the small frying pan and lightly saute (i.e. stir them every so often until cooked).

Put the falafel patties into the large frying pan, falafel side down.

Cook the patties for a bit and then carefully peel off the paper. It may be useful to have a tool you can use to stop the patties tearing if the paper is sticking.

When done on the first side, flip the patties over and put the cheese on top to melt.

While the second side cooks, toast the buns briefly in the oven (a minute or two, just enough to get them warm and slightly crunchy).

When everything is done, assemble the burgers in this order from bottom to top:

1. Bottom bun
2. Moroccan chutney
3. Fried onions
4. Falafel patty with cheese on top
5. Other falafel patty
6. Tomato
7. Lettuce
8. Hummus (apply to top bun)
9. Top bun

Eat!

1. Cut bananas and put in freezer for one to two hours
2. Blend
3. Nom

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/stay-cool/how-to-make-creamy-ice-cream-with-just-one-ingredient-093414

3 Tbls Olive Oil
1 Medium Onion
3 Cloves Garlic, chopped
Half tsp Fresh Ginger – Grated
1 *Fresh Chilli- Chopped
Half Tsp Ground Cumin
4 Kumara (sweet potatoes), peeled and sliced
4 cups water or vegetable stock
1 Tbls Peanut Butter
Extra water if needed
Salt and Pepper

Put oil in heavy pot and add the onion, garlic, ginger, chilli, cumin and kumara. Sauté over a medium heat until lightly cooked. Cover with the stock or water and simmer until the kumara is mushy. Add the peanut butter and using a wand, processor or blender, puree until very smooth. If the soup is to thick, add more water or stock to make a smooth soupy consistency. Season with salt and pepper, reheat and serve.

This soup freezes well. So if you make too much, put the remainder in a container and freeze for later use.

*If you are unable to get fresh chillies, dried chillies can be used, as can chilli powder. Try adding a little at first as the chilli is meant to give the soup a “bite” and should not overpower the Kumara.

(Photo also taken by Caycos)

I am now complete.

Step 1: Buy an old window from the tip

We found the following wee gem from the local tip for $10.

Step 2: Put some structure in place and have a cat patting break

Step 3: Put on the outer border

Step 4. Put on the outer border again (after removing the earlier attempt).

Apparently hardboard warps when wet. Not ideal for an outdoor construction (this time round we used treated plywood).

Step 5. Paint! We felt brave at the paint shop and purchased a paint called Blushingham. I had buyers remorse almost immediately but I actually really love it now.

Step 6. Put plants inside. This was my favourite bit. In this picture we have eggplants, capsicums, pumpkins, zucchini, various types of tomatoes, sunflowers, nasturtiums, basil, corn, leeks and chives.

The window is going to be turned into a mini cold greenhouse. A cold greenhouse is one that isn’t intended for use in winter and therefore doesn’t need to be heated. Apparently the ideal conditions for a greenhouse are between 0°C – 37.7°C with ventilation equivalent to 17% of floor area.   I think I need something that will automatically report back the temperature to me via my phone. I’m going to paint it and stencil flowers on the wood (because I can).

In other garden news I’ve planted two different types of raspberries. It amused me greatly to plant the southern variety at the southern end of our property. I’ve also started zucchini and leek seeds off and put my seed potatoes in the sun. I planted rhubarb too but Thomas is more excited about that than I am :-)

Today we started on a retaining wall for a walkway area to the front garden. I’m glad we got the outdoor bath in early because I’m really looking forward to getting in the bath with a beer as soon as we finish.

1. Begin by forming a ball, if it stays together, then proceed to the next shape. If it does not form a ball, then you have a sandy soil.
2. If you can flatten the ball without it breaking up, then you have a silty sand or a loamy sand.
3. If you can roll the flattened ball into a thick sausage shape, then you have loam
4. A soil that can be rolled into a think sausage is a clay loam
5. if you can bend the soil into a horseshoe or ring shape, then you have clay soil.

My soil got to stage 3. It nearly managed stage 4.

Which means I have loam. Loams are a mixture of sand, silt and clay. You can have either a light or heavy loam. Getting to stage 3 would be a light loam and getting to stage 4 would mean a heavy loam. Since I got to stage 3.5 I believe I have a medium loam. Medium loams can be a really good soil mixture, they have the advantages of light and heavy soils without the disadvantage of either.  Yay.

* Thanks to "The Organic Gardener" by Christine and Michael Lavelle.

My garden obsession is growing. I want to grow every single vegetable that I like (as well as peas and beans because they are pretty). So far I have seeds, seedling and plants for:

• Capsicum
• Tomato
• Eggplant
• Cucumber
• Pumpkin
• Strawberries
• Mint
• Rosemary
• Lemon thyme
• Garlic
• Basil
• Lettuce
• Chives
• Nasturtiums
• Lemons

I really want to add:

• Potato
• Corn
• Zucchini
• Raspberries
• Gooseberries
• Blueberries
• Grapes
• Asparagus
• Rhubarb
• Artichoke

I’m trying to be an organic gardener and work with companion planting and non toxic sprays.  My mint has a fungi infection which apparently shouldn’t stop you eating it but does hurt the plant in the long run. After chatting to the garden centre lady and using the Google I have found that the best way to tackle the problem is with a spray of one part trim milk to nine parts water. I’m deeply suspicious of remedies that don’t have research behind them so was reassured after reading a research paper on the use on trim milk/water spray on commercial melon growing operations in NZ. We’ll see how my lovely Mojito producing Mint survives.

Here is a picture of my pumpkin seedlings. I love the way the seeds sit on top like hats.

• I’ve keeping an eye out on Trademe for a nice old window to turn into a seedling glasshouse on our front deck.
• I’ve been watching "At Home with Jamie Oliver". He has a most amazing garden (also a gardener) and I quite enjoy watching/listening to him cook as well. He even cooks at least one or two vegetarian items per show.
• I’ve also been watching "An edible garden" which is also British and is extremely entertaining. 

I think my worms are happier now. The instructions for my worm garden hadn’t mentioned requiring wet paper or carpet over the food which may be why my worms looked a little sad. I’ve added carpet with a little handle to make food applying easier so hopefully they will breed like crazy soon so they can take most of our kitchen scraps.