Saucy Sisters

Prawn and Cucumber Soup

2012-02-01T19:28:00.000+08:00

Mealplan and books, ready to go!

Steak and salad for lunch!

Prawn and Cucumber Soup

A Month of Food

2012-01-31T16:54:00.001+08:00

On my original blog at Livejournal I would occasionally do a Month of Food, where I would aim to make a cuisine's dishes at least three times a week for four weeks in a row. Of course, this came with pictures! It's the most requested feature on blog, and I've had a very busy few years now and haven't had the time and energy to do another one.

Until now.

So, I'll be doing a Month of Food. This one is going to be a reflection of my current diet, which is the Harcombe Diet. It's primarily whole foods based, with little to no processed food. I'll only be photographing dinners as breakfasts are pretty boring (bacon and eggs in some form for most of it) and lunches are also boring (salad and tuna, salad and steak, salad and chicken legs, salad and cheese).

The basic guidelines of this diet are outlined below. I followed this diet for four months and lost about ten kilos. After the car accident and my trip to America, I didn't bother to return to the diet until after Christmas, and yet I am back at my previous car crash weight within two weeks. I was pretty excited about that! I've lost about 8 - 9 kilos. I fluctuate a lot with my weight, often staying the same weight or gaining three weeks in a row, and then lose between 1.5 - 3 kilos in the week I get my period. It turns out a lot of women lose weight that way! So for those of you who give up within a couple of weeks, you need to try for longer!
:)

The Harcombe Diet is developed by Zoe Harcombe. Her into video is here:
http://youtu.be/QMCU_tjeg2k
Webpage:
http://www.theharcombediet.com/
Book:
http://www.bookdepository.com/Harcom.../9781906125080

Basics:
1) The reasons why we over eat are usually one of three reasons: food intolerances, candida, or hypoglycemia. To deal with those, stage 1 is five days long, and focuses on no sugar, no wheat, no dairy-free except for Natural Yoghurt, no caffeine. During phase one, mixing fats and carbs is fine as the focus is on the issues, not on weight loss. I lost 3.7 kilos in the first 5 days, and John lost 1.5 kilos (he is much smaller than me and he kept his caffeine and milk) when we did this in May.

2) Stage 2 is the weight loss section in which the basic theory is moderate/low carbs and high fat. Meals are primarily fat meals, though if you want, you can have a carb meal but it should be low in fat if you do. There are three rules:

a) Don't eat processed foods
b) Don't eat fats and carbohydrates at the same meal
c) Don't eat foods that cause YOUR cravings.

Stage three means you get to cheat

Rules for Phase 3 are:

a) Don't 'cheat' too much;
b) Don't 'cheat' too often;
c) Be alert and stay in control

Most of the recipes in the future month are from her cookbooks, which I am working my way through. The cookbooks don't actually have much beef in them. There's a wide variety of meat and fish in the recipes, which I rather like.

My menu plan for the month includes Prawn and Cucumber Soup, Roast Pork, Spicy Moroccan Chicken Legs and osso bucco. Hope you enjoy the month!

Sarah P

Pick the Right Party!

2012-01-21T09:21:00.000+08:00

How to Pick the Right Party Plan for You

There's so many new party plans out there that I thought it might be handy for me to put up a few questions for people to consider about how to pick the right party plan for you. Everyone has different needs and expectations, and there are so many party plans out there, how do you know what one is right for you?

What sort of hours do you like to work?

The first thing you should think about is how many hours, and which hours you wish to work in a week. Various party plans will say you can get away with as little as three hours per party, but what does those three hours entail? What parts will you enjoy? How much of it will be a drag and how much will be fun? And what sort of hours do you want to work? Three hours per party sounds fine, but then if you like to do adult parties, you will find prime time to be Friday and Saturday nights.

What are you good at?

Party plans need to be considered the same way a job interview is considered. What are you strengths and weaknesses? Who will help you overcome those issues? Is your manager or up-line supportive and competent? Do they already have supportive systems and structures in place to make your job easier? Is everything laid out and easy to follow?

How do you do the party?

What is expected of you? Are you expected to know your product inside and out beforehand. What is your prime directive within the party plan system? (And if you think it is to make sales, you are doing it wrong! Prime directive is to answer your customers' needs as best you can!)

Outlay and initial costs

You need to be very aware of how much your start up business is going to cost. Don't think for a second that your own party plan business is NOT a business - it is. You need to treat your business with the respect and attention it deserves. To be really successful, you need to do something every single day to develop your business further.

Financial issues

There is still every chance you will lose money. How much is an acceptable loss to you? How much investment is acceptable before you need to cut the losses? It is hard to lose money in party plan but it is not impossible. Consider how much you spend on new stock versus how much you are making. If your business is covering the costs and still leaving you with enough money as income, then well done! If you are a low to medium sales demonstrator, then this may be a crucial piece of information. A spreadsheet detailing outgoings and incomings are crucial.

Is the product something you can believe in?

Party plan products should be of excellent quality and of excellent value for money. The first thing a customer does is examine the product for quality as soon it arrives, and if it is found lacking, you will be very lucky If they tell you. If they do tell you, this is a rare opportunity to put the customer first, and do everything in your power to turn that customer into a loyal customer by looking after their interests as best you can.

Party plan is a lot of work. Returns, exchanges and other minor problems will take up a surprising amount of time. It may be easier than a lot of other income streams, but it takes an amazing amount if dedication and self-motivation. You also need to have good people skills, and if you don't have then, then be open to learning them. Having clear and concise idea of your shortcomings is as important as knowing your strengths.

Having said all that, party plans can be so much fun! As well as making people happy, it's an excellent opportunity to make friends, meet other inspiring people and make a good income. Good luck with your party plan shopping!

Sarah P

Grocery List/Coupon Holder on Lanyard - Sew4Home

2012-01-18T21:47:00.000+08:00

A cute idea to try and help make your shopping trip easier!
Grocery List/Coupon Holder on Lanyard - Sew4Home

Start Your Meal Plan Now!

2012-01-14T09:23:00.000+08:00

How to Get your Meal Plan to Live!

Every one has a system that will work for them. Every one can do it differently and still enjoy all the benefits! Meal planning saves you time, money and effort. It makes shopping easier and more streamlined, saving yet more time and money!

Track your meals!

What did you have for dinner last night? The night before? Most people can't even remember last night, let alone a week ago. Do you know what you are having do dinner tomorrow? The night after tomorrow? Do you already have the ingredients?

For a minimum of two weeks, write down all the recipes you use. And now you have a potential meal plan! Do it for a month and you will start to see patterns emerging. Write down your favourite meals, and your special event dinners. Ask the family! They will all have new ideas to add to the plan.

Now you have pages of how you have had your meals, next is to do the planning!

Audit time!

What's in your fridge? What's in your freezer? What's in your pantry? I find this to be fun! Go through your cupboards, fridge and freezer and write a list of everything you currently own. Is anything close to, or passed the use by date? Anything you may have collected slot of, and never realised before?

Now that you have all these lists,what do you do with them?

To start with, get an old calendar, or print one out. Make a new list of dinners you can make with foods already on your list, targeting items you have an oversupply of. Then sit down with your family and the calendar, and plan every social activity for the next week. Work out what nights you will be busy, what nights will be someone else's turn to cook, and what nights you are eating out of the house. Using these questions, your calendar should fill pretty quickly!

Now for the exciting bit!

Match a recipe from your list to each night of the week. Write it on the calendar. Write down who gets to cook it, and make one last final list of items you think you will need for the week. You can always substitute ingredients, which can help reduce your excess tins, can, jars and frozen food.

All done. Now what?

Pin this to the fridge or handy central location. The next person who says 'what's fir dinner' wins the prize of reading the meal plan and collecting all the ingredients to help the chef. Or they can win the grand prize of cooking dinner!

What else can I do with meal plan?

You can also meal plan snacks, lunches and breakfast. You can use your system to manage your baking and food or drink preparation, particularly for soaking of dried beans and legumes, defrosting frozen items, and minimising last minute purchases.

Sarah P

Approachably Reclusive: A day down the toilet, why boys don't read fiction anymore, and the how-to of personhood

2012-01-11T08:00:00.000+08:00

Approachably Reclusive: A day down the toilet, why boys don't read fiction anymore, and the how-to of personhood: And that, I think, is at the heart of the "why don't boys read and what can we do about it" perennial uproar. (No, not hanging out in bars and looking hot, which I'm sure has fans of both genders.) I mean that crucial difference between valuing experience and relationship to other people, versus achievement and relationship to the self.

BBC - Food - Recipes : Chocolate peanut butter cheesecake

2012-01-07T09:47:00.000+08:00

BBC - Food - Recipes : Chocolate peanut butter cheesecake:

I feel a bit apologetic for the overindulgent vulgarity that is this cheesecake here. But, really, why should I be sorry? You won’t be once you’ve eaten it; though perhaps I should warn that it’s not for the faint-hearted. Unashamed indulgence, wallowingly so, is what this recipe is all about.

Birthday cheesecake! And... it looked exactly like it does in the picture on the BBC website. It was lovely, and it never got gooey like Nigella warns it might, even when it was room temperature.

I have never made a cheesecake in the food processor before, but now I am a complete convert. Oh my goodness, it was so easy! And really delish too!

Tom Naughton has ideas on the Rise of Crohn and Colitis in Children

2012-01-04T19:21:00.000+08:00

Fat Head � Yes, We’re Aware of Crohn’s and Colitis … So What?: Considering that kids are eating wheat products that contain both more gluten overall and mutant gluten with a protein sequence that never existed until around 40 years ago, I think it’s entirely possible that Crohn’s and colitis are on the rise because kids (and adults) are consuming glutens their bodies can’t handle. These are, after all, auto-immune diseases. It’s not unreasonable to suspect that when these strange glutens seep in our systems, our bodies attack them and end up attacking our own tissues at the same time.

Crochet Project Two

2011-12-31T09:31:00.000+08:00

The second baby blankey, which has been claimed by J.

I like this join better than the previous one as the blanket lays completely flat.

Sarah P

Braised Chicken Thighs - World Famous | Stella Culinary

2011-12-28T09:44:00.000+08:00

Braised Chicken Thighs - World Famous | Stella Culinary: Braised chicken thighs are by far one of my favorite things to cook and eat. Working as a chef in an upscale restaurant, serving things like duck pate, prime beef and sous-vide yada yada up the yin yang, all I want to eat on my days off is something simple and comforting. For me, braised chicken thighs always does the trick.

In one of my forum posts I asked the readers to play a game with me, a little game called "the death row meal". It is a game that chefs and cooks have been playing for centuries, a good ice breaker to find out what a fellow food lover is all about.

Well, for me, this is it. If I were to die tomorrow, this is what I would eat tonight. Chicken thighs are the most used muscle of the animal, making it full or all sorts of great flavor. You see, the more exercise an animal’s muscle gets, the more connective tissue and collagen it is able to build up. This makes the cut of meat tough if cooked incorrectly (read seared rare), but if cooked low and slow in a braising liquid, all that collagen and tissue breaks down into gastronomic heaven!
Fe sent me this link, and I have had it opened for months. I wanted to try it for my Birthday celebration, but I accidentally had 14 people over, so I didn't think I had enough frying pan space to attempt this! Having said that though, I did manage to cook 9 T Bones and provide a cream sauce, a new record for me!

Crochet Project One

2011-12-24T09:30:00.000+08:00

Baby blankey! This one is a six panel, with a very simple border.

The joins on this blanket were sewn together. I don't like the ridged effect from it though.

Sarah P

Sorry Mrs. O, but jumping jacks aren’t enough | Grist

2011-12-23T13:03:00.000+08:00

Sorry Mrs. O, but jumping jacks aren’t enough | Grist

Call for Photos - a Project on Real Women

2011-12-21T08:00:00.000+08:00

Welcome - My Body Gallery - What Real Women Look Like: SUBMIT YOUR OWN PHOTOS

The My Body Gallery project needs real women! We are just starting out and need your help to develop the project and build a collection of photos that will help more women see themselves more clearly. Upload a picture of your full body in any pose. Our photo submission process also allows you to block out part of the image to protect your identity, if you wish. Click here to begin.

What The Vitamin Industry Does Not Want You To Know � The Mommypotamus

2011-12-14T09:37:00.000+08:00

What The Vitamin Industry Does Not Want You To Know � The Mommypotamus: Do you pick up your child’s dinner plate – sigh over the untouched veggies – and then think “oh well, at least he/she takes vitamins!”? Well then, I have good news and bad news. First – and you are going to LOVE me for this – it’s okay if your child doesn’t eat tons of veggies.

I haven't talked about food on this blog much, but I have been thinking about it quite a lot. My diet has slowly shifted over time, moving away from wheat based and/or processed foods and settling firmly into the whole foods camp. It's part low to mod carb diet, part paleo with dairy, and lots of fun.

I've been reading a few articles on food, so I'll start posting them here, and maybe we can get some discussion going. I liked this article I found, as it supports some of the thoughts I have had about food and nutrition. Multivitamins are a processed food, after all, and I've always wondered if they are as useful as people think they are. While the article talks primarily about children, a lot of the discussion is applicable to adults too.

ideas for little people presents

2011-11-29T10:10:00.003+08:00

Around this time of year a lot of people ask me what my kids would like for Christmas, the truth is they love anything that comes wrapped in cheerful paper with their name on it, but I understand that this isn't very helpful for those doing the asking. So let me first reassure you that anything you give is lovely, and like wise you are not obligated to give anything at all as the greatest gift you can really give them is your time. And with that out of the way let me give you some more specific suggestions to help you buy gifts for the little ones in your life.

The perfect present to me is something that fits on the shelf, that is self contained, and that the kids can take off the shelf, do something entertaining with, and put back on the shelf easily on their own. Where possible I prefer items that are made from materials other than plastic and that do not require batteries.

Nature Play Toys have an amazing assortment of items all made from natural materials. Many of their wares are available to order through their website which is very convenient, but if you are able to visit their store in the Samford Valley it is a beautiful experience.

Like wise, Dragonfly toys have a lot to offer in their online store. Check out the cable car basket!

Within Australia I find Aldi to be a good source of toys, their jack n jill range has lots of appealing wooden, felt and tin toys, though these are randomly (well, semi randomly) available throughout the year, so this is the kind of thing you have to collect when it appears and then put it away for later.

Australia post is often a good source of affordable and entertaining items. On my visit today I saw a junior gardening kit, a microscope and what looked to be some interesting 'make and do' books. I am sure the exact items vary from store to store, but post office shops seem to regularly carry things in that kind of spirit.

The Early Learning Centre, though it has a lot of plastic, has toys with purposeful play in mind. They arrange their toys in age range and chances are that anything you buy from here is something that your giftee is going to get a lot of use out of. They do have a selection of wooden toys, most of which carry a forest friendly wood logo. I particularly like their balance bikes for younger kids, the trike with the wagon, and best of all the little post box. The post box is brilliant value at $25 and is something I know both my girls would play with over and over, even though it is in the toddler section—what can I say, kids just love posting stuff!

Books are always a good gift, this can be tricky though, as we are avid readers there is always a chance we have the more common titles. A book that you yourself loved as a child and a personal note about why you liked it always goes down well though. I like the book depository because they have free postage, which means you can send them directly to far away friends for hassle free gift giving. Miss Moo the elder is particularly interested in this sewing book.

We are particularly fond of dress ups here and have a dedicated dress up rack. Dress ups are great because you can get a ready made outfit straight off the shelf at most department or toy stores, or you can collect bits and pieces or even sew your own. A little bag with an eye patch, some coins and a sash is an instant pirate kit, some sparkly shoes and a necklace tucked in an old handbag becomes an outfit for a sophisticated lady. I also love the idea of play silks. These are simply rectangular pieces of silk, finished at the edges and dyed in beautiful colours. Play silks can be dress up skirts or capes or sashes, they can be fort covers or picnic blankets. Very versatile and great for imaginative play.

Craft kits are another great thing, again you can make your own by filling a container with assorted bits and pieces, or you can buy ready made kits from most department stores, toy shops or discount/two dollar shops. As long as these are self contained (i.e. come in a box that they can be put back into) these are a gift as much to parents as they are to children.

Happy shopping everyone!

A New Hobby (well, kind of new!)

2011-06-06T09:28:00.000+08:00

I always used to moan about how the only thing my hands were good for was typing. (Oh, and cooking!) But then someone sat next to me and patiently taught me to crochet. It was fun, kinda, and for a while there were small granny squares littered around the house, and we'd kick them out of the way. I think in the end, I disposed of them thoughtfully.

However... this year I I decided I would actually make some projects. The granny square thing never amounted to anything, and I liked the crochet bit but not the ending or beginning bit. So I decided I would make a blanket, but with GIGANTIC granny squares! I would only need to start once, and finish once, per ball of wool!

What an awesome idea!!

Anyway, this helped me to make 2 blankets, and since then I have been on fire. It also helped me get over my dislike of starting and finishing, and so I have started numerous other projects and have no problems doing the smaller fiddly bits that used to annoy me.

I will post pics as we go, otherwise I am on Ravelry and FB. The pic above is one of my sick day scarves. One of the things I have learned is that one ball of wool because you like it isn't enough. New rule is a minimum of three balls if I actually intend to finish something!

Sarah P

Back Up Box!

2011-05-30T09:13:00.000+08:00

Starting a Backup Box

I hate shopping. Let me just say that up front and get it out there. I resent the fact I need o spend time buying similar items every two weeks for my entire life. I like to daydream ways to minimise the time I spend shopping!

Today's post is about a backup box. It's for when my re-ordering systems fail me for whatever reason, and I find myself genuinely without an item and I don't want to go to the shop for a few more days yet.

Things that mean my household grinds to a halt and I have to go to the shop...

Dishwasher pellets

Milk

Bread

Sandwich fillings

Toilet paper

I think everything else I can put off. So in my backup box I should have...

Dishwasher powder

Powdered milk

Flour and yeast

Vegemite

Toilet paper

If I am serious about this, then I should be able to make my fortnightly shop last a proper fourteen days despite minor emergencies. If I really wanted to be hard about this, I would include stock cubes and a packet of dried soup mix so we always have tasty emergency soup too!

What would you have in your Backup Box? Would you include a main meal backup?

Sarah P

Potato and Eggplant Curry

2011-04-17T18:22:00.001+08:00

Potato (2 lg, 3 med or 5 small, in large cubes)
Eggplant (300gs in similar sized cubes)
4 tbsn oil
1 tbsp garam marsala
1 tbsn cumin
1 tbsn ginger
1 tbsn garlic
1 large fat onion
6 tomatoes
Salt

1 can of coconut milk

Use a blender or food processor to mince the onion, garlic and ginger into mush. Fry in oil with salt until it starts to go red brown. Add the garam marsala and cumin and fry until fragrant. Add more oil if need be. Process the tomatoes in the blender until liquid, add to frying pan and simmer until reduced. Add potato and eggplant and any water you might need to almost cover the vegetables. Simmer until sauce is very thick, and vegetables mostly cooked. Add coconut milk and simmer until sauce is at a consistency you like and vegetables are cooked.

Serve with rice!

--
Sarah P

Rokk96 Colour of the Week - 320, It's Blitz

2011-04-10T09:55:00.000+08:00

It's Blitz, colour 320. It's a deep indigo with a real depth to it.

Today's colour is 320 "It's Blitz." To be honest, I'm not entirely happy with this colour. This is one layer base/topcoat, one of colour, and one of base/topcoat, and yet an entire nail's worth of polish stripped off within 24 hours. It also seems to chip faster than any of the other Rokk96 colours I am using. It does dry amazingly fast though, so I was able to repair the damage very quickly before heading out to my party last night, and I do rather love the intensity of the colour.

Sarah P

Twinkle Toes by Rokk96

2011-03-25T08:49:00.000+08:00

While mooching around the other day spotted this gorgeous blue glitter. Three polishes for $19 later, I have two shades of blue and a purple/blue sheen.

This is three coats of the glitter and one clear top coat. This is Twinkle Toes (611) by Rokk96.

--
Sarah P

Pretty Nails!

2011-03-22T07:49:00.000+08:00

Trialling a new nailpolish for Mum. It's got a gold base and a purple crackle top.

Sarah P

MamaMoontime: Thoughts on Nature Tables...

2011-02-27T09:11:00.000+08:00

Something for amusement. This looks like a lovely idea. I cleaned and decluttered all yesterday; so I even have space to do something like this! How awesome would that be??

MamaMoontime: Thoughts on Nature Tables...

French Manicure Set

2011-02-18T08:43:00.000+08:00

Naked Nail with Sticker

A friend gave me a French Manicure Set on the weekend, as I love French Manicures when they are done well, and she wasn't having a lot of joy from it. So I bought some more stickers, and when it was time to treat myself, I sat down and did a proper French Manicure for me.

I'm pretty picky about my French Manicures. I hate it when the white tips look like white-out. It should be subtle; it should not be glaringly obviously. If someone spots you have had your nails done, then it's too obvious for me!

White tips done. Some have 2 layers but they all looked the same at the end.

I have tried many professionals, but the one person who's job I liked no longer does them. Once my nails had so much polish on them they looked like acrylics! I wasn't very happy about that at all!

So anyway, I promised photos for those curious about the whole process. I've never used the stickers before, so we were on a Voyage of Discovery, and one that seemed to work out very well.

Stickers removed. The tips are painted and dry, and the inside parts naked.

Drying my nails in my NAIL GADGET!

The creamy pink goes over the the entire nail including the tips

Finally a single coat of clear topcoat.

Verdict: I like the look. It's really shiny too, which is lovely. It seemed to dry very quickly which was a bonus, but since this was the first time I spent a lot of time doing it peice by peice. Next time the whole process should take a lot less time since I will have a better idea of what I am doing. They seem to be hard wearing too - I haven't managed to dent a single one overnight, when usually I end up with sheet marks and dents in any nail polish I apply.

Baking for Beginners: An Introduction to Temperature - Joanne Chang - Food - The Atlantic

2011-02-15T08:00:00.002+08:00

The science behind why temperature is so crucial to baking:

Baking for Beginners: An Introduction to Temperature - Joanne Chang - Food - The Atlantic

The Barefoot Renovator

2011-02-10T10:54:00.004+08:00

I tend to think of myself as a 'barefoot renovator'. Let me begin by explaining that I mean 'barefoot' in spirit, like a barefoot doctor, rather than a strict preference for naked feet, and when I am working with tools or performing an act of destruction or construction or any other thing that common sense would suggest is shoe worthy I do indeed make an effort to put shoes on. Safety first kids :)

My family and I have been lucky enough to buy our first house. It is an awesome dwelling that is in a location that is very convenient to us, a size that has exceeded our hopes and expectations, a style that we love and with a price tag we could actually afford. As I said, very lucky. The trade-off for all this awesomeness and affordability is that it is what one might call 'a fixer-upperer'. (The phrase that seems to be popular among realestate agents at the moment to describe this is 'opportunity to add your own value'.)

Pretty much every room needs a make-over. In a big way. Really big.

But that is okay because the house itself is fantastic and when I look at it I see nothing but potential (well, potential and faux wood paneling!) and I see a hundred little projects--the kind that bring me great joy and satisfaction.

The only potential stumbling block here is the fact that since we put all our money into getting our house and will continue to put all our money into paying off the giant loan that enabled us to get our house our renovation budget is pretty much nil. But this is okay too since I like a challenge, particularly a creative challenge, and since we have found a house that fits us so well we are planning to be here long term, thus time is also on our side.

Out of this my renovation philosophy has been born--I am trying my best to first use what is already available (things I already own, things left on the property by previous owners, materials I have removed from one place that might have a new use in another). When that is not possible I try and find something that I can reuse from another source--trash and treasure, opp-shops, verge collection, rubbish tips etc. In all my renovating endeavors I aim to do things in a way that is affordable (but not "cheap"), environmentally responsible, and fun. Good for me, good for the planet and good for my pocket. I am a barefoot renovator.

Money and Goals

2011-02-08T08:00:00.001+08:00

I am sure none of us are issue free when it comes to money. I'm not sure that it is possible. But how you navigate your issues is important, and how you communicate about money is as important as every other facet of your partnership or marriage with another person. Money can be about control, security, reliability, fear, and love. And all this for something that is, in itself, worthless.

For DH and I, he's never really been interested in money. I find it fascinating. And, since I am the stay-at-home-parent, I think it's my responsibility to design the budget, meal plan, and make sure we're running Okay. And do all that stuff. I have no problems saying "our" money when it comes to the income DH earns. It is our money. I've worked just as hard, though in a different way, for it. But really, it's the household's money, not ours. We get an allowance each month, just like the kids will when they are old enough. That is a personal "our" money. The money DH earns through his workplace is household money.

We have one mortgage, one linked bank account, one linked credit card, and a couple of accounts we rarely use. That's it. We're doing especially okay when you consider we bought this house eleven years ago. It's worth about three times what we paid for it last time we checked. So when we needed to extend the mortgage, the banks have been perfectly fine with that idea!

Our basic theory is that we both work for the family unit. DH's work results in payments, and my work results in happiness, full bellies, security and savings. We both work together to make the family unit whole. Money is only one aspect of this, and we share responsibilities equally.

Part of the problem is that when I want to save, I want to run out and do stuff to save stuff now! I'm a doing type of person. I want to get out and do! Now! But saving doesn't work like that. Saving is having a system, and sticking to it, even when it's boring, or annoying, or doesn't make you feel any excitement. Our big projects make me excited. Travelling makes me excited. Experiences, hotels, strangers, writing... all of these make me excited. Sitting around not spending money does not get me excited.

But now I have something exciting in mind, so I am going to weigh every purchase against it. I have a firecracker! In a personal place! To remind me... how much do I want this thing? Do I want this more than I want to go to San Diego?

Home is where my He{Art} is: UKScrappers Team Scrapbooking Class - 'Blank Canvas'

2011-02-07T11:13:00.000+08:00

Add this to my 'Bad Ideas I Want to Try' file! A friend sent me this as a suggestion for stuff to do with some canvasses I have lying around. These look fantastic, and I love some of the ideas on this post! Hmmmm.... the last thing I need is yet another craft project...

:-)

Home is where my He{Art} is: UKScrappers Team Scrapbooking Class - 'Blank Canvas'

Wool Felt Birthday Crown Tutorial

2011-02-07T11:09:00.000+08:00

Frontier Dreams: Wool Felt Birthday Crown Tutorial

A friend's little boy is preparing for his birthday soon, and has asked for a crown and wand for his present! His Mum has found this webpage, which has just GORGEOUS crowns on it. Lucky boy, my birthday is too far away to ask for one too!

Microwave Bottling

2011-02-04T20:57:00.000+08:00

I have a new book to play with!

These are bottled rhubarb and pears, plus I pickled some eggplant. I am testing out microwave bottling! I find it incredibly exciting. I'm still in the testing and learning phase. This is the first time I have tried to bottle fruit. I'm happy with jam, done that heaps of times now.

They have both sealed, however when I opened the pears they fizzed a little. I guess I need to nuke them for a couple of minutes more. I'm making mistakes at the moment, and working out the best times for my microwave. As I said, it's all testing and learning right now. I was very pleased when they sealed! Next is to make sure I cook them a bit longer so they don't fizz!

--
Sarah

Tom’s Planner Dinner Chart Plans Your Day For Holiday Cooking | Lifehacker Australia

2011-01-29T19:04:00.000+08:00

For people who like to be crystal clear with their scheduling, cooking can often be a bit of a problem. Cooking can be quite haphazard, especially if you're using new, untried recipes, or recieving help from unskilled hands.

One way to help make sure dinner runs on time is charts and plans like this one:

Tom’s Planner Dinner Chart Plans Your Day For Holiday Cooking | Lifehacker Australia

This is a Gantt chart, set up to show you visually the overlapping cooking times for items on your menu. From someone who has had parties where she needed to schedule the oven usage - this sort of thing can be a lifesaver!

Chicken and Mango Salad

2011-01-22T19:50:00.000+08:00


I have been testing recipes for my BIG SECRET cookbook already! Here's a delicious hint of what's to come!

--
Sarah P

Vegetable Soup

2011-01-21T20:50:00.001+08:00

1 cup Soup Mix
1 litre chicken stock (home made)
2 litres water with
8 teaspoons of Vegeta
1 Soup Pack (one stick celery, three small potatoes, one turnip, one parsnip, half a swede, two carrots, one onion)
Left over vegies as desired (this time about a cup of finely chopped brocolli stalks.)

Put all in slowcooker, cook on auto until done. (I let it go for abpout 6 - 8 hours.)

Soup Mix: 50 cents
Chicken stock: Free with last roast chicken
Vegeta... gosh, no idea.
Soup pack: $2
Left over vegies: Free with broccoli from last coop shop.

This made 5 litres of soup!

--
Sarah P

Good chook pen? | Green garden | ACF Greenhome

2011-01-17T08:55:00.000+08:00

I've always wanted chickens. For various reasons they haven't come just yet - but I figure this is a good thing. When I can keep a garden watered for a whole 12 conistent months, then maybe I will be qualified to keep chickens fed and watered for an equal length of time.

This is a fantastic beginning guide to have chickens. There's a lot of on the job skill with chickens, but for the most part every one who blogs about it talks about how easy it is. Less work than cats or dogs, chickens are fun, productive and useful in the garden.

Personally, I just like watching them interact with each other and play in the garden. The eggs would be an awsome bonus!

Good chook pen? | Green garden | ACF Greenhome

Blogging Challenge!

2011-01-15T10:55:00.002+08:00

Hello and Welcome!

Wish me good luck! Wish me well! Wish me some awesome words! I've joined up for a blogging challenge. What was I thinking?? I have been dared to write two blog posts a week for the next 111 days. Gosh that's a lot of days!

I hope every one's braced and ready! I have heaps of things I'm going to chat about, and I hope you will all let me know which ones you like, don't like, or even love.

I am joining the Julie Isaacs SHINE Challenge.

This is what I have agreed to do:

1. Decide how many times per week you want to blog--preferably twice a week or more

I've gone with twice, since I also have other blogs I am updating

2. Add a comment on this post with your blog address, and how many posts per week you're committing to

Done!

3. Use the hashtag #SHINEonline to communicate with other bloggers who are participating in this challenge
Did that! When I decided I was joining.

4. Sign-up below if you would like to get blog tips and articles sent to you, along with blog challenge updates, and information on free teleconferences.

Yeah, did this too. It will be interesting to see what we get. :-)
5. Start blogging!

Ta da! Am doing!

SaucySisters is an important blog to me as it's a forum I love to play with - feminism, homemaking, and the ways we interact with our homely duties. Also, I have loved blogging with my Sister Sarah, and our Guest Sarahs too. Mostly I like to also invite people into my world, show pics of cute kids and also show the things I like to do in my house, such as the ROI on my Garden and the preserves, jams, and recipes I like to play with. I am doing some projects which directly tie into how I like to run my household, and I'm hoping every one will appreciate the things we do every day to make sure JOY has space in our lives.

So watch out world, here we come!

Clean Plate : The Second Obstacle to Sensible Eating: Money

2011-01-13T20:32:00.000+08:00

Clean Plate : The Second Obstacle to Sensible Eating: Money

This is an interesting article looking at one of the other barriers to being able to eat nutritious, healthy food. It's not an in depth article, but the links it provides to various American sources of what Americans should be spending on food is interesting.

I have often read the American food plans provided for those of low income, and from my point of view they are fascinating for their cultural differences.

How much do we spend on food in a week is a crucial question these days as inflation, floods, fire, famine and world economies affect our loaves of bread. How much do you spend on food?

My aim this year is to spend $400 or less per month on food for the four of us. This does not apply to now, of course. With the operation last week, I have bought $400 worth of pre-prepared foods to make life as easy as possible during my convalescence. If we're super organized, we'll spend about $80 on fruit and veg until February.

However, we're only human, and to be honest we just had Dominoes Pizza for dinner, which if I included in the food budget was another $26. But my budgeting adventures can start properly in February, when I'm back onto my feet and with my gaze firmly on the future.

I have holidays to save for, dammit! Swancon ahoy!

Feed for Saucy Sisters on Livejournal

2011-01-03T13:24:00.002+08:00

How to add SaucySisters to your Livejournal feed:

Click here!

Then click on ADD!

Ta da!

--
Sarah

Secret Project!

2011-01-03T12:22:00.000+08:00

I am working on a secret project!

Ssssshhhhhh!

As any one who follows this know, I love to play with numbers. Income, outgoings, spending, ROI, costs, budgets.... FRUGALITY!

Frugality is no longer 'making do' as we're now in a WORLD OF PLENTY! Now, frugality making CONSCIOUS CHOICES ABOUT YOUR TIME, FINANCES AND LIFE.

What does this mean??

It means making informed choices based around YOUR LIFE CHOICES before you even spend a cent!

I have a new motto and new plans.

My plan is to provide you, my awesome and lovely readers, with PLANS and SYSTEMS to help you get your home life under control! And in the extra time you save, with the extra money you save, and with the extra LIFE you save, I want YOU to provide JOY!

I will help make your life EASY if you provide the JOY in doing so!

I am so excited! Sarah P's New Secret Project is in the formative stages. Stay tuned for more exciting new snippets and hints to come!

--
Sarah P

Spring Growth

2010-09-20T18:38:00.000+08:00

--
Sarah

Trouble Leading More Trouble

2010-07-12T08:00:00.002+08:00

--
Sarah P

A Plateful of Pirates

2010-07-05T08:00:00.002+08:00

Youngest Son (J) has his second birthday in November. We had a pirate theme, and a whole bunch of kids of all sorts of ages came along, and had a ball. All the kids were given a cardboard boat and sword, and we had facepaint at the ready. The pride of place definitely went to the birthday cakes!

--
Sarah P

Russian Garlic

2010-06-28T08:00:00.000+08:00

I am excited! I am growing Russian Garlic in my garden! There's so many lovely things growing out there, I find the whole thing really exciting.

That is one clove that DS2 is holding. There's maybe 5 cloves in a bulb. It has a mild flavour, and I'm really looking forward to roasting it!

--
Sarah

Dragon Tongue Bean Flowers

2010-06-21T08:00:00.000+08:00

So pretty!

--
Sarah P

Unfriendly Neighbours

2010-06-14T16:20:00.005+08:00

We have big plans this year.

One of them is to rip out the ivy next to the house, and replace it with a passionfruit vine. I started snipping cutting and ripping, and then discovered this. I thought it would be better to leave it alone! A few days later they all hatched! EEEEEK! And they don't seem to want to move on.

--
Sarah P

Small Child and Victim

2010-06-07T16:21:00.002+08:00

DS2 was having a bit of fun in the garden with his sword. He was running around trying to smack the cat with it!

I would have been worried if the cat was actually in some form of danger!

--
Sarah P

Forays into Morrocco - Orange Blossom Carrots

2010-05-29T08:00:00.001+08:00

I have been getting random vegetable boxes from Coles for some time now, so I have also been trying out their random fruit boxes. This means an influx of things I am much less likely to know what to do with!

I have never been a huge orange eater. I've never been so in love with the taste or flesh that I have bypassed the inherent messiness and sheer annoyance of having to peel and then segment the damned things. However, with four of the blighters arriving on my doorstep every other week, I had to find ways to cope!

Meet the Moroccan Orange and Carrot salad.

This is actually a pic of the left overs, since we ate it too fast to take a picture. This was lovely, and a fantastic way to use oranges! Yum!

Strangely enough, I don't mind prepping oranges to make salad out of it. I just resent it when I intend to eat it. Yes, I am a bit weird sometimes.

--
Sarah P

In The Raw

2010-05-25T08:00:00.001+08:00

In the Raw!

I had a raw meal. I was fascinated by the idea that we could eat RAW PUMPKIN! I was fascinated and a bit hesitant. Pumpkin is my favourite vegetable, and I love it baked, mashed, stuffed, pureed, and growing. Raw... was a bit unusual.

I have been following a friend's blog as she did 30 Days of Raw. Her recipes sounded fantastic, and I always love to try new things, so I tried this one, which is Pumpkin noodles with a sundried tomato sauce.

Unfortunately, I ended up very sick that night, vomiting and feeling very unwell. The food was Ok - I was hoping to really fall in love with it a lot more than I did. It was tasty, but the textures didn't work for me, and then I was sick all night. Not fun. Not raw food's fault either, so when we hit Brisbane I leapt at the chance to try a few more raw foods.

I tried a raw felafel with raw chutney, and that was ... interesting. It needed a damn good cooking if you ask me! Again, the texture of sprouted chick peas or broad beans then ground into a paste and dried didn't quite work for me. I think my preconceptions were getting in the way of my really enjoying these sorts of foods, so we also tried some desserts.

There was a mint chocolate slice, which was very nice, but my big favourite was definitely some avocado chocolate pies we purchased. And it turns out they were low carbs, which was awesome! I was no-carbing at the time. We loved the dark chocolate avocado pie, and so did our 4yo! Our 2yo loves anything that's edible, so we knew he would love it too.

--
Sarah

Autumn!

2010-04-30T18:41:00.000+08:00

I AM LOVING THIS WEATHER!

I missed the entire growing season last year, which made me very sad. However I spent a good chunk of it being very distracted by my operation, or by being on the drugs after the operation, or being dreadfully surprised and how much the operation affected me! Then Egoboo hit, then Christmas hit, then our trip over east hit, and then Swancon hit... gosh, this *has* been a very busy six months!

So... what are we up to now?

Well, last week we had a garden party! And not one of those wishy washy garden parties with a nice cup of tea and a biscuit (I've yet to be invited to one of those, so I shall continue to poo-poo them until I get an invite, at which time I shall squeal in a whole new level of SQUEE! and rush off to pick a frock weeks before the party). No. I'm talking about a garden party with poo! (Only one poo. As in, manure. Sheeps' poo, to be precise.)

So, expect some pics of growing, budding, living, unfurling, developing, uplifting stuff, and Saucy Sisters can take off once again!

--
Sarah P

Cookie Monster!

2010-02-05T08:00:00.008+08:00

I've bought a copy of 'The $21 Challenge' and one of the recipes in the book is the 120 cookies for $4 recipe.

I've been testing it a bit, playing around with the basic idea and seeing what works and what doesn't. I haven't had any misses yet, but have had a lot of fun with the dough.This dough can be frozen and then cooked with minimal thawing. I freeze it in logs, and use a sharp knife when the dough can be cut. My freezer is a bit enthusiastic, and tends to run at -21 degrees C.

This batch is 108 cookies, roughly in thirds with Oat and Maple Syrup, Date and Walnuts, and Chocolate Chip.

It works really well for a recipe with kids. Because there's so much of it, I find I am less worried if the kids try to eat their own body weight in cookie dough. (They like to try.) And it's a fantastic recipe to use with kids.

500gs Margarine (one tub)
One tin of sweetened condensed milk (440g)
1/2 - 1 cup of sugar (I go with the half)
5 cups of self raising flour

Cream margarine and sugar, add sweetened condensed milk, and then add flour. Add extras as you wish, bake for 8 - 12 minutes until cooked.

This dough is also great in the cookie gun. If you don't have one of these and you make a lot of cookies, then you should buy one. This cookie dough, and the custard powder cookie dough through the cookie gun makes the best cookies to go with a good cup of tea.

This recipe gets the thumbs up, and has become a regular in our household. When we run out of food, we always have flour, sweetened condensed milk, sugar and margarine just in case. You can make this recipe with butter if prefered, the only difference will be the biscuits will no longer come in at under $4!

--
Sarah

Friends Who Bring Food

2010-01-29T08:00:00.001+08:00

I love to bring food. This brownie tower was brought along for our son's birthday party, and was a complete, and rather awesome, surprise.

Do you like to take food to friends' houses? Do you have a special favourite recipe you like to share, or a family dish you like to give? I love doing a different thing each time, having fun with the recipe and the food. I've learnt a lot about food, and I like to try and make it look as appealing as possible. This brownie tower above had a few simple additions, and it just looks so welcoming!

This is why I love to make cakes for people. I think it's the look on their faces when I make them something amazing. It can take hours of creativity and work, but it's always been worth it.

I think bringing food also shows you care very deeply about someone. Enough to ensure they have a full belly, and that they share bread with you. It's a sharing of a very special bond.

--
Sarah

Growing Season has Passed

2010-01-22T08:00:00.000+08:00

I did try this year!

Unfortunately, I had an operation in October which absolutely knocked me about. The weeks before were spent preparing as much as I could, and the weeks after were spent drug hazed and then incredibly busy with obligations. I did start a whole pile of diggers seeds, unfortunately I wasn't able to plant them soon enough, and my 2 year old discovered how much fun they could be! They lasted quite a while, given who was playing with them so much...

--
Sarah

Dinner Parties with Friends

2010-01-15T08:00:00.001+08:00

Food is an important part of life in many different ways. Most of human life has been taken up with the never ending quest to hunt, gather, and prepare, food.

The other important aspect of food is sharing. Sharing food is essential for survival, and essential for good will and good humours. Food may be a necessity, but it also answers so many other needs in humans such as comfort, security, and well being. We had a dinner party the other day with a slight difference - the guests all helped cook.

I took my friend shopping and let her make all the creative choices, and then when her partner and his boyfriend arrived, we set ourselves to work.

We used a home grown pumpkin to make pumpkin, walnut, goats cheese and sage sauce for the pasta, which was also home made by my husband and our guests. Mynxii's partner and his boyfriend made marscapone cream, chopped fruit and handled some quick and dirty child rearing. I made pancakes, realising only afterwards that we were one egg short, so instead of individual pancake servings we made one huge marscapone cream with strawberries pancake cake. I made sure every one had what they needed when they needed it! Garlic bread went in for appertiser, the kids choose 2 minute noodles, and we were good to go. Our main course was roast chicken with salad and stuffing.

(Picture above shows matching plates, soup bowls, tumblers and champagne flutes with a bottle of Chandon Champagne and the pasta with punkin, sage, goatscheese, ready to serve.)

And the food was fantastic! But I am sure it all tasted better for the experience of cooking, and then eating, together.

(Picture above shows roast chicken cut into peices, served on a matching plate, with a garden salad, and a small bowl of stuffing in an old Chinese rice bowl.)

Food is an important part of companionship, and I really love working with my friends on things like this. I'm hoping we get to do more of it in future!

Picture above shows the layers of pancake, strawberries marinated in icing sugar, and marscapone cream. Hald the cake is cut away so we can see the layers. The juice from the strawberries has escaped the piped marscapone cream and dribbled over the cake plate.)

--
Sarah

What have I been doing?

2009-12-05T20:50:00.000+08:00

It was 37 degrees today! Gosh it was hot! Nevertheless, my husband and I managed this! We're pretty damn proud of ourselves!

--
Sarah

Toys, Toys, Toys - A Shopper's Guide to Australian Toy Stores

2009-11-29T15:16:00.005+08:00

Today's Post is brought to you by guest Sarah Emma_in_Oz. A huge thank you to letting us re-post this article here. I hope every one enjoys it as much as we did.

First the bad news - there is no one stop shop which sells a wide array of beautifully crafted,
educationally and developmentally appropriate, reasonably priced, ethically made, non-toxic toys. Well, not that I've found.

But the good news - there are a heap of neat Australian toy stores which you can order from online, in the comfort of your own home.

This is going to be a massively long post so I shall begin with some definitions of terms and background explanations of what I was looking for. Yes, I spent that much time researching it that I feel the need to define terms.

What I was Looking For

I don't like plastic toys. I don't like them for a whole heap of reasons, beginning with the fact that they are hideously ugly, moving on to the often cheap quality, their tendency to break, the fact that they are often made in sweatshops, and ending up with them often being toxic. Oh, also , bad for the environment, often developmentally inappropriate, are often designed to inculcate violent or sexist behaviour, and with ridiculous amounts of branding so your child can be groomed as a consumer. As you can see, some strong feelings there.

Though I should note that Pearl owns a ton of plastic toys, despite my feelings. Cos they are so
ubiquitous. It's so hard to find anything else.

Let me go through those one by one.

1, Plastic toys are hideously ugly. Having Pearl has made me realise that I may actually suffer from one of those disorders in which you are overwhelmed by bright colours and loud noises. I find the bright colours of plastic toys literally give me a headache. I can't be around them without actually, literally, getting a head ache.

The batteries have been removed from all of Pearl's electronic toys because I cannot handle that noise. I don't care if she bangs on pots and pans or her drum but the sound of cheap synthesisers playing You are My Sunshine does my head in.

2, Plastic toys are low quality. Not all, of course but there is a whole array of cheap toys actually
designed by companies to be things that parents buy for their kids to shut them up. (See: Eric Clark, The Real Toy Story, 2007).

3, Plastic toys often break. Because the type of plastic used when you want to make as much profit as possible is cheap and it breaks quickly. And even quality plastic goes funny over time and then it kind of snaps.

4, Plastic toys are made in sweatshops. 80% of toys available in America are made in China, and I assume the figures are similar here. It is extremely likely that they are made in sweat shops. (See: Eric Clark, The Real Toy Story, 2007 and Susan Gregory Thomas, Buy Baby Buy, 2007).

Of course this is the case for all toys, not just plastic ones.

5, Plastic toys are toxic for children. Plastics contain dioxins and often phthalates.
(http://www.everythingkids.net/nontoxic.php) The Healthy Toys site has been checking toys off the shelves in America for heavy metals and they have had very disturbing results.
(http://www.healthytoys.org/)

6, Plastic toys are toxic for the environment. (http://www.fakeplasticfish.com/)

7, Plastic toys are developmentally inappropriate. More accurately, many commercially available toys, many of which are made from plastic. I assert that kids need are really simple traditional toys like dolls, blocks, push and pull toys. Not electronic stuff that beeps.
(http://notquitecrunchyparent.blogspot.com/2008/11/best-toys-for-holidays-2008.html)

8, Plastic toys are designed to encourage violent or sexist behaviour. Again, more accurately,
commercially available toys, many of which are plastic, are often designed in this way. Bratz and Barbie are ridiculously sexualised; toy guns and action figures are ridiculously violent. (See: Eric Clark, The Real Toy Story, 2007 and Carl Honore, Under Pressure, 2007).

9, Plastic toys are designed to groom children as consumers. Toys are linked to TV shows which are often indistinguishable from half hour long ads. These branded toys are collectables, not stand alones. There is always one more that needs to be collected. (Susan Gregory Thomas, Buy Baby Buy, 2007)

This is what prompted me to compile my handy-dandy list of toy shops which sell non-plastic toys.

Definition of Terms

Australian-made - There is a very limited toy manufacturing base in Australia.
While there are some wonderful toy makers in Australia, most of them do not produce in sufficient quantities to supply other retailers, and because of the labour intensive, handcrafted nature of their work the toys are expensive.

Most Australian-made toys are made in what I am here calling micro-businesses. Businesses so small they are in fact someone's garage or living room in which they carve or stitch. (I kind of like buying from this kind of company. I know the money is going to actual people. And then those people pay taxes and the money comes back to me in the form of roads, and hospitals, and libraries.)

Fair Trade - Fair trade is an approach that aims to help producers in developing countries and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods.

I have noted where stores stock fair trade goods, but I have not explored whether they meet the
standards of the FairTrade Labeling Organisations International (FINE) or whether they are using the term loosely.

Organic - Organic toys are made from natural materials, without pesticides or toxins. The term organic can be woolly - to be sure you are getting an organic product you need to check whether it has been certified. I have noted where stores stock organic toys, but I have not explored whether they are certified as organic.

Greenish - A lot of toys arenâ€™t organic (which has a strict meaning). But some companies do greenish things - like some reuse packaging, make donations to charities, stock toys made from recycled materials.

Places to Shop

Well if you want to avoid plastic, obviously not mainstream toy stores or places like Target or Toys R Us (though I am informed that the local Toys R Us now has a row of wooden toys).

Unfortunately, op shops and fairs offer a pretty limited selection in my experience. They tend to look like chuck out day from the McDonalds happy meal detrius farm. Sometimes you strike it lucky. Though of course you can't tell as you look at them whether they are safe or not.

Once you get home you can check on the Australian Product Safety website to see if the products have been recalled. And you can look at HealthyToys to see if they happen to have been tested for chemical levels. HealthyToys is a consumer group which tests toys off the shelf in America - about a third of them have measurable levels of chemicals like lead, bromine, arsenic, cadmium, mercury and chlorine.

http://www.recalls.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/952867
http://www.healthytoys.org/

Where you are much more likely to find something nice is online craft fairs like Etsy.
(http://www.etsy.com/) You can get wooden toys and homemade cloth stuffed toys from Etsy. Very pretty stuff, and the money you spend goes to actual people rather than faceless corporations.

You may also want to consider a toy library. I paid $65 to join a library. I can then get out three toys at a time for a year, including big ticket items like toy cars and slides which I could not afford on my own.

You only use the toys for as long as they are developmentally appropriate and then they go back to the library for some other child - very green and economical too.

Or you can consider a toy shop. This is a list - no doubt partial - of places that sell what I am calling non-plastic toys. They are either made in Australia or they are free trade or organic or in some way not the generally available plastic toys.

Australia Online
http://www.australianaonline.com.au/

Australian-made goods of various sorts, including soft toys (Australian animals and teddies), and jigsaw puzzles. Most places stocking Australian-made toys have outrageous prices, but these are fairly reasonable.

Bentsticks
http://www.bentsticks.com.au

They say: 'All Bentsticks toys are original designs that are handcrafted with pride from recycled Australian timbers. Their smooth safe finish is achieved with environmentally friendly natural products i.e. They are "chewable".'

These are seriously the most beautiful wooden toys I've ever seen. The doll's treehouse isn't just a toy, it's a work of art with a trapdoor, a slippery slide, a rope ladder, and a rope pulley. In fact, I'm going to ask them if they want to exhibit at the Aussiecon 4 art show becuase this is just amazing.

It's a micro business.

Seriously I have to reiterate that the work is stunningly beautiful.

Biome
http://www.biome.com.au/
This site mostly features organic clothes, lotions and notions, but there is a small range of organic baby toys and soft toys - some made in Australia.

Develop Your Kids

http://www.developyourkids.com.au/

They have an excellent search engine (though no information on the greenness of the toys). They have a good range educational toys

Down to Earth Organics
http://www.downtoearthorganics.com.au/Default
They have a small range of teethers, soft and wooden toys. The products are organic but not made in Australia. The site mostly emphasises items like clothes, bottles, etc. Definitely only for the littlies.

Dragonfly Toys
http://www.dragonflytoys.com.au/
I really like this store. They have a really good range of books, toys, games, puzzles, for babies to older children. And, what is more, excellent service. I wrote in, asking about where the stock came from and got a really detailed response The majority of the products are made in Europe - primarily Germany, but also some other countries such as Sweden, Poland, Holland etc. All of these European companies have long traditions of producing beautifully crafted wooden toys and they have strong ethical and environmental policies.

There is a range of toys made in the USA from recycled plastic milk bottles. And also a stock of fair trade items made in Nepal, India, Africa and other countries. These are made by small co-operatives and they help to provide employment and an income to the craftspeople.Â

As the owner points out, quality toys cost more but last longer and are so much more beautiful.

Early Rider
http://www.earlyrider.com.au/Home.html
Wooden bikes!

Earth Tribe
http://earthtribe.com.au/
They state that their principles are fair trade, embodying:
Concern for people and their environment
Ethical and effective workplaces
Fair prices for products
Equal employment opportunities for both genders
Transparency and accountability in business practices
Advocacy and education about Fair Trade
Capacity building (sharing skills to allow producers to become self reliant)
No Child labour

They stock soft and wooden toys, including the world's coolest wooden pull-along Stegasaurus.

Eco Toys
http://www.ecotoys.com.au/store/
This is one of my favourite sites because of the excellent service, including giving me a partial refund when the ear fell off a wooden toy dog's ear (and even though I could not provide a picture because I glued it back on before I emailed them).

You can select a small range Australian toys or organic toys. They have a pretty good selection of
educational toys, musical instruments, soft toys, dolls, pretend play, building, baby toys, games,
puzzles, and wooden toys.

Entropy Toys

http://www.entropy.com.au/

I like this store. It's an online general toy store. You can search for Australian made toys, for eco friendly and educational toys, also special needs toys.

They say: 'All of the products we stock are about getting children active - either their bodies or brains. No fads, no gimmicks, no batteries and no plastic throwaways. We stock quality wooden and educational toys, games, sports and activity equipment; and craft and craft kits.'

They include PDFs on child development and play.

Fair Go Trading
http://www.fairgotrading.com.au/
The store motto is: 'Fair trade for a fair go!' They stock multicultural dolls, musical intruments, and puppets. An excellent feature is that each item is tagged with information telling you where it is from and what made of.

Fairground Child

http://www.fairgroundchild.com/

They offer toys that are:

Fair trade
Organic
Sustainable
Multicultural

though not made in Australia

The goods are reasonably priced and there's a really good range - includes balls, clothes, art supplies, educational games, multicultural books as well as soft toys and wooden toys.

Generation Wonder
http://www.generationwonder.com
Organic and free trade, a very socially aware place to shop. They stock a reasonable selection of games, puzzles, soft toys, dolls and four wooden cars (four!). You can actually search for items priced under $15 which is pretty good value for this kind of shopping. Best of all, each item comes with a description of where it comes from and what it is made of.

Goodness
http://www.goodness.com.au/store
Specialising in organic food, they also have an interesting range of craft supplies.

Grassroots Eco Store
http://www.grassrootsecostore.com.au/
They sell a range of eco-products including toys. I particularly like that each product is marked to show if it is recycled, organic, Australian made, free trade, sustainable, or non toxic. Accurate and accessible information! Yes!

Honeybee Toys
http://www.honeybeetoys.com.au/
This is one of my favourite toy stores. It’s certainly one of the biggest.
They say: ‘Welcome to Honeybee Toys online toy store where you will find Australia's largest range of natural wooden toys, organic and handcrafted toys for imaginative and creative play. We honour children and our earth - bringing you a unique range of eco toys that are educational, fun, beautiful, ethically made and eco friendly. We stock the highest quality European toys, reputable brands and Australian designed toys.’
There’s a really good range of toys, and toys for a range of ages, not just babies!

Indigo Inspirations

http://www.indigoinspirations.net.au/about.html

This is a micro-business. My thanks to the owner for providing such detailed information on where the toys came from when I wrote to them.

They stock Steiner toys made from natural materials. This includes Waldorf dolls, wool felt, craft kits, wooden toys and games.

Just Wood Toys

http://justwoodtoys.com.au/

These are lovely toys and puzzles. Mostly imported, some puzzles made in Australia. I do like the tactile pleasure of wood.

The Kid Store

http://www.thekidsstore.com.au/

I find the by-line off putting: 'For fashion conscious toddlers'. How many of those can there be?

But it does stock a fairly wide range of goods, including some in natural materials. It does not say where they come from.

Koala Express

http://www.koalaexpress.com.au/

A small range of expensive, Australian-made Australian animals as stuffed toys.

Koala Soft Toys
http://www.extonaustralia.com/category85_1.htm
Stuffed toy koalas, made in Australia from synthetic materials - just like the mainstream ones only more expensive!

Lark
http://www.larkmade.com.au/
They say: 'Lark aims to make products that are not only beautiful and well-made, but also socially and environmentally responsible.'
I like it!
It has clothes, gifts for adults, also for kids and babies including craft and baking kits. The kits! Too cute! And the vintage Ladybird style rucksacks! Oh, so gorgeous in a retro-hip way!

Learning House
http://www.learninghouse.com.au/
They stock educational toys. I like that you can search by age, brand or type but where is the information on individual items? It does include sections on organic and free trade toys.

Little Sparrow
http://www.littlesparrow.net.au/
This site is visually appealing but I can't seem to find the section on their philosophy. It brands itself as natural, but I can't see the basis on which the stock is chosen. I recognise some of the toys as imported. They have a very stylish looking selection of toys, dolls, craft items (including quality pens, paint etc) and books.

Meemoh
http://www.meemoh.net/
Hand made, really funky soft toys. It's lovely to see some non-Steiner stuffed toys with a more stylish aesthetic.

Milimoomoo
http://www.mellimoomoo.com.au/

They say: ‘Mellimoomoo specialises in unique and aesthetically beautiful toys and gifts that will inspire your children's imagination - while being gentle on the earth and its workers. We only stock ethically created products. Our designers, artisans and boutique producers are committed to fair trade working practices and are conscious of their impact on the environment. We oppose child labour and any form of worker exploitation.’
Organic, not really expensive, lovely quality, baby and kids toys. Also, a small range of vintage originals, clothes, arts and crafts, accessories for bedrooms and so on.

I like the descriptions of the products which tell you where they are from. Some are Australian made.

Mini Eco
http://www.minieco.com.au

Stocks a range of organic products, including soft toys, bpa-free rattles, wooden toys, toys for bigger kids, non-toxic craft supplies, cards and invitations, and organic lollies.

Mudd Kids
http://muddkids.com.au/

Most of the stock is children’s clothing, but there is also a collection of wooden toys, soft toys, books, pencils and cloth blocks . All the goods are organic and fair trade.

Multipowered Products
http://www.multipoweredproducts.com.au

This is mostly a store for wind and solar powered tools and devices, and it includes a really really nifty section of solar powered toys. I imagine this fills a real gap in the toy market - it’s hard to see the modern child being endlessly satisfied with a rubber band powered wooden boat (though, maybe? what do I know?). This way they can have their whirly toys and there’s an educational and environmental upside.

They also have cool kits for making hydrolic lifts and solar powered robots and so on. I am actually all excited about getting one of these for Pearl (in about seven years time).

The Natural Newborn
http://thenaturalnewborn.com.au/

As you may have guessed from the name, they sell organic toys for littlies. Cuddly toys, wooden toys, rattles and teethers.

Nature Play Australia
http://www.natureplay.com.au/

They stock a pretty extensive range of locally made, eco-friendly, wooden toys or dolls, dolls houses, farm toy, nature craft, wooden cars, trucks, and play stands. Also a range of sustainably made toys and games from around the world but in particular from Europe, Germany, and New Zealand including art supplies, certified organic babywear & baby toys, fair trade products, craft and Steiner Waldorf books, silks and lots more.

I like this site though it is not always easy to tell where something comes from and whether it is fair trade.

OK4Kids
http://www.ok4kids.com.au/

They stock educational toys. They are often plastic toys, and there is no information on where they are from. But... interesting toys.

Oxfam
http://www.oxfamshop.org.au/

They have a small but good range of fair trade games, balls, wooden toys and soft toys. It was particularly good to see the soccer balls as outdoor and active play toys are really hard to find.

Peanut Gallery
http://www.peanutgallery.com.au/

They say: ‘Our aim is to provide a broad selection of unique and traditional toys for kids aged birth to 8 that will be cherished by children and their parents alike. At a time when children are increasingly reliant on electronic devices and media for entertainment, we believe providing children with the right age-appropriate products, will foster their creativity, encourage use of their imaginations and build confidence in their own abilities.’

Peanut Gallery stocks wooden toys, educational products, dolls, pretend play equipment, musical instruments, toys for bath time, dress up clothes, games and books. You can search by age or by brand.
Unfortunately the product descriptions do not include information on where the toys are from or what they are made of. They don’t seem to stock Australian made or free trade toys. Random clicking shows toys from Germany, Poland, and the USA.

No plastic which is always a plus.

Rosie Pose
http://www.rosiepose.com.au/

They say: ‘Rosie Pose is not just another online children’s boutique, we have a range of popular labels which you will recognize and love but we invite you to have a good browse as we specialise in Australian Made products and support small businesses here in Australia.’

The have stock for babies and kids to eight. The site is a pain to search but does have stylish though pricey items, including a range of organic toys and clothes.

Rudy and the Dodo
http://rudyandthedodo.com.au/

I find a by-line like ‘terribly fabulous stuff for little individuals’ profoundly annoying. It might as well say ‘stuff you can buy to make your child avatar look cool’.

And yet I am torn, because, in point of fact, they stock the kind of whimsical, funky stuff that I love. Randomly choosing the recommendations for three year olds, I see ‘I love Paris’ Eiffel Tower blocks which look pretty neat. Also Babushka doll hair clips, and a wooden Elephant game.

What I like absolutely the most are the craft and baking kits. Not eco-friendly, not organic, not fair traded, not made in Australia, and yet so stylish and fun-looking that I want to buy one straight away for some child of my acquaintance.

Sam’s Crafts
http:/www.samscrafts.com.au

This is an Australian micro-business making wooden push-pull toys, blocks, ride on toys, cradles, etc. The prices are really quite good and the who-are-we section is endearing with its pictures of their workroom.

Sankofa
http://www.sankofa.com.au/

Fair trade goods, including toys for babies, novelties, dolls, and wooden toys. Really pretty stuff.

Special Friends
http://www.specialfriendswaldorfdolls.com/

A micro business making fairly expensive but pretty cuddly Waldorf dolls.

Spiral Garden
http://spiralgarden.com.au/

A very hippy site, with Steiner toys. They stock dolls, craft, Debresk Swedish wooden vehicles, and some dolls hand made in Australia. Pricey.

Thinking Toys
http://www.thinkingtoys.com.au/

The focus of this shop is on puzzles suitable for teens, educational toys, and wooden toys. The emphasis on teens is nice as almost none of the other stores carry goods for this age group.

They say: ‘We only supply toys and games that are environmentally friendly and safe (for age 3+). Most of our toys are made from plantation rubberwood (Hevea brasilensis) which is harvested at the end of its life and is now used for toys and furniture instead of being burned. It has very low shrinkage and warping qualities so it is ideal for use in toys, especially in the Australian climate.’

Tittle Tattle
http://www.tittletattle.com.au

Tittle Tattle is one of those stores that stock ‘unusual, quirky , fun & fabulous’ toys. One can’t help but think they are intended for the mother who likes to shop.

Nonetheless, cough, nice stuff, especially the puppets and theatres. They also stock educational games, puzzles, toys for infants, musical instruments, dolls, and wooden toys.

Their stock is imported and not organic. But not plastic.

Todae
http://www.todae.com.au/

Todae has all kinds of eco-products, including a small range of toys. I was particularly struck by the solar powered cars and toy houses and the water powered clock which are unusual and fun.

It is relatively easy to find organic dolls, but finding green options for children who prefer other forms of play is a lot harder.

The Toy Bug
http://www.thetoybug.com.au

They have a pretty big range - many educational toys, some made from natural materials. There are activity, books, building toys, games, puzzles, wooden toys, soft toys, musical instruments and pretend toys.

There’s no information on where they come from.

Tree Frog Toys
www.treefrogtoys.com.au

First off, a big shout out to Tree Frog Toys for sending me a really detailed email when I wrote to them about where their stock comes from.

They stock:

• Baby Toys - Safe, natural wooden toys and organic toys for baby
• Creative Toys - Eco friendly art and craft supplies for children of all ages
• Educational Toys - Wooden puzzles and preschool toys for curious kids
• Inspiring Toys - Wonderful wooden toys for imaginative and pretend play
• Green Toys - Eco toys, from wooden toys to innovative green toys for modern kids
• Wooden Toys - Heirloom quality, environmentally friendly wooden toys
• Fair Trade Toys - Eco friendly toys produced ethically under Fair trade conditions

Waldorf Dolls
http://www.waldorfdolls.com.au/

This is a micro business. Dolls, nature tables and some craft products are made by hand in Western Australia. I’ve got to say these are seriously pricey dolls. The odds of me being happy with paying $150 for a rag doll? Not high.

Windmill Educational Toys
http://www.windmill.net.au/

Windmill supplies educational toys and equipment, playground equipment, kindergarten equipment and supplies, quality toys, books and crafts for kids. The stock includes specialty items like teaching aids, furniture and toys for special needs children.

Astonishingly, this is a chain! More than one store! They have a really huge range. The downside is some plastic toys, not terribly green and it does not say where they come from but they appear to be imported.

Wood Puzzles
http://www.woodpuzzles.com.au/

Hand made, Australian made jigsaws, toys, games, educational toys and children’s furniture.

World Wildlife Fund
http://www.wwf.org.au/shop/

They have a small range soft toys and puppets. Proceeds to a good cause.

Some other sites you might want to consider are ones that review handmade craft and green sites. Meta-sites, effectively.

Indie Art and Design
http://www.indie.com.au/

A weblog featuring products made by independent Australian artists, designers and craftspeople. Here you will find signposts to many wonderful items, which are not easily found through search engines alone.
You can search for toys (with emphasis on funky soft toys).

Made It
http://www.madeit.com.au/index.asp

Hand made stuff made in Australia, includes a section on soft toys, reasonably priced and all from micro businesses.

Handmadekids
http://www.handmadekids.com.au/

This site reviews Australian hand made toy producers (and other sites).

Growing Up Green
http://growingupgreen.com.au/

Another overview site - beautiful graphics.

Five Minute Artisan Bread - Recipe Three

2009-09-22T20:57:00.000+08:00

Bread!

I have been working on my soups this year, and I have learnt a lot. I like to make the bread to go with soups too, and enjoy a lovely chewy artisan style by preference with soup. I find that sandwich bread tends towards mush, whereas artisan soup adds texture and flavour of it's own to an otherwise mushy (or pureed) dish.

I really like this dough for the simple reason that I can pull off as much or as little as I need, and let it rise and cook. There's not much wastage, and if I felt enthused I could make buns or sticks or anything. One day I could even make bowls out of bread for a good solid stoo.

I'm afraid this is the last post on *this* batch of dough. I did not finish the dough, there's still a good chunk left to use, but this is now past the 2 week limit. My diet has changed somewhat, and there's a lot less wheat at present! But when I start wheat again, I'll cover some of the other recipes.

--
Sarah P

Five Minute Artisan Bread - Recipe Two

2009-09-18T20:52:00.001+08:00

PIZZA!

I made the kids help put the toppings on, there's even tiny mini pizzas shaped by my 4yo. Yum!

--
Sarah P

Maharajah's Chutney

2009-09-15T09:49:00.000+08:00

This is a slowcooker recipe from "Year Round Recipes for Crockpots and Slowcookers," by Simon and Alison Holst. It's a rather lovely book, with good solid recipes that seem to suit my family and I. They tend to be tasty and reasonably cheap, and include a number of meals that are not just a stoo or soup. They do have some fantastic soups in here, though I have not tried any stoos.

This recipe is called Maharajah's Chutney, and I was pleased to discover it did look like thepicture in the book if I cooked it long enough. It's a standard chutney based on sultanas, onions, vinegar and spices, with a nice Indian tang to it.

I have used up all my small jam jars for this! Oops. The big jar is for home use, and the smaller ones will be for Christmas presents - if it lasts that long!

I found the chutney itself to be a tad grainy, but it's still acceptable. This particular chutney involved roasting and then pounding spices using the mortar and pestle. I was a bit worried it would be VERY grainey, since I have not had the best of luck with pounding coriander seeds into powder.

But this has worked out rather well, and goes brilliantly with ham, cheese, and wherever you might use a sweet chutney. The original recipe calls for chili, but with two small kids in the house I'm still avoiding having it in the house!

--
Sarah P

Stage Two of Worcestershire Sauce

2009-09-11T09:00:00.000+08:00

Now we wait for two weeks!

Random sampling at present says "It's not as salty as Worcestershire sauce, but very good."

--
Sarah P

Sprouted Nourishment

2009-09-07T15:56:00.007+08:00

Sally Fallon's back to basics cook book Nourishing Traditions is an inspirational guide to old school nutrition. And when I say back to basics I don't mean like the CWA cook book (thought that is an absolute gem in itself) I mean really back to traditional ways of preparing food for maximum nutritional benefit. It is a bit scary to think that to return to the practices discussed in the book would require a complete overhaul of our current popular methods of food preparation.

Now that I am no longer pregnant and the consequences of mildly poisoning myself are not quite so huge I am planing to slowly and steadily introduce these practices into my kitchen.

This weeks adventure into nutrient enhanced food is... sprouts!

I have been looking forward to getting back into sprouting for a while now (sprouts are one of the foods recommended against during pregnancy due to food poisoning risk (I think salmonella? maybe listeria??) Mind you, I do wonder which risk is greater during pregnancy--food poisoning or malnutrition considering how many generally healthy foods are recommended against at this time... but that is another post entirely...)

So, yes, where was I? Oh yes, sprouts. Basically sprouting takes food that is already pretty good--legumes, grains, nuts and seeds--and by letting it do what it does naturally, it decreases the harmful chemicals and increases the available nutrients. Fallon writes:

The process of germination not only produces vitamin C but also changes the composition of grain and seeds in numerous beneficial ways. Sprouting increases vitamin B content, especially B2, B5 and B6. Carotene increases dramatically--sometimes eightfold. Even more important, sprouting neutralizes phytic acid, a substance present in the bran of all grains that inhibits the absorption of calcium, magnesium, copper and zinc; sprouting also reduces enzyme inhibitors present in all seeds.

She also mentions that sprouts are easier to digest than unsprouted grains/seeds as they have an increase in digestive enzymes and a reduction in gas causing complex sugars.

Fallon adds a few cautions, she recommends against the over consumption of raw sprouts, advising light steaming instead, and also recommends against the eating of alfalfa saying that this seed can inhibit the immune system and also contribute to inflammatory arthritis and lupus.

Another great thing about sprouts is that they dramatically increase the volume of your food substance, making them an extremely economical way to prepare the food source. The picture above is of mung bean sprouts--I started with a handful of dried mung beans, soaked overnight then rinsed in clean water twice a day and three days later had a jar full of food.

Also, they are actually incredibly tasty. Even monkey moo will eat them!

Ruminations on the Vegie Patch - Supply and Demand

2009-09-07T09:06:00.000+08:00

The old garden bed is still going. I have put in potatoes in one end, and in the other I will probably be putting in either herbs or some of the many seedlings I have growing. The eggplants suffered quite a lot during a snail plague, and unfortunately I had to dump the cauliflower and broccoli that were growing, partially due toimmense snail damage, but also my old friends the aphids.

I have been thinking occasionally on emergency plans. Diggers offers an emergency seed kit to people with a healthcare card. A healthcare card is a card you can access if you earn below a certain income, and gets your pharmaceuticals and other bills cheaper than usual. The seed packets boast hundreds of kilos of food from nine packets, and is very cheap. Diggers also have a very cheap support your family kit for $20, which is what I purchased last year.

I found that there's a requirement for intensive farming and planning to be able to make use of it as instructed, and a lot of the mass weight came from lettuce. While we like lettuce somewhat, we're not about to start living on it, and this once againt drew my attention to the great divide between what we have and what we want.

The big problems with budgeting food and developing a garden is supply and demand. If the silverbeet is the only thing in season, then you need to be eating silverbeet. And if it's the only thing ready for a week, then you're going to run out of ways you can prep it up and serve it up. Whether it's you or the family who hits the point of ENOUGH first, it's going to happen. So no only do we need to think of fresh vegetables and boredom, but we also need to consider - do we know what to do with excess harvest when we get it?

So not only do we need to learn what grows well in our backyards, and how to look after it, and grow it, and stop bugs getting to it, but we also need to learn to plan well in advance so we *don't* end up eating silverbeet for three weeks running, and if we do, find ways to preserve it for times when you want silverbeet, and it's not fresh. It's easier, of course, to go down to Coles or Woollies and buy something, but it feels like a hollow traitorous act.

Diggers also have a self sufficiency plan free for use. Link here:
http://www.diggers.com.au/pdf/MiniPlotPlan.pdf

In the Diggers book they provide illustrations about where you can slide in a square metre of vegies, cane plants or fruit trees. I find this all to be a very handy tool as I stumble about in my apprenticeship, struggling to learn everything I can while I have the luxury of time.

If we suddenly had no source of income, I would invest in Asian greens. Fast to grow, minimal space, I can stirfy them a thousand ways. I love eggplants, they have been prolific and a good support for a lot of dishes. I am finding the celery to be very useful in my quest to make better soups. I can't stand to eat it, but it does season stocks beautifully. I love the flat leafed parsley I have, so would love to develop my herb garden some more. We've bought the pots for our grape vines, so they will be in very shortly.

--
Sarah

Strawberry Surprise!

2009-09-04T14:35:00.004+08:00

Yesterday I went to my local veggie shop looking particularly for cheap produce that I could buy in bulk for cooking, pureeing and freezing and that sort of thing. I came home with, among other things, a case of local strawberries. All up there are 15 punnets, which equals 3.75kg of strawberries, at a total cost of $6.90--considering I paid nearly this much for 2 punnets last week I snapped the box up right away. I think they were cheap because they are the small variety, which for me is a bonus rather than a negative because smaller = tastier.

I have put a few punnets aside for eating as is, and de-leaved and washed a few punnets for freezing and making into ice cream (we have one of those niffty juicers that you put frozen fruit into and it comes out as ice cream). I am thinking there will be some frozen fruit kebabs happening in our near future and maybe some choc dipped strawberries.

That leaves about 2kg to play with. Most will probably be frozen for later use, but I'd love to hear peoples best strawberry ideas--the easier the better!

Coles Seasonal Vegetable Box

2009-09-04T10:46:00.000+08:00

What's in the box??

A few days ago I ordered Coles delivery as I stuffed my knee, and the last thing I wanted to do was wander around a supermarket for 2 hours while hobbling. Since my preferred stupidmarket doesn't deliver to me, I usually go with GroceryZone, but this time I thought I would give Coles a try. Coles only recently started to deliver in my area.

My first hint that this was a well thought out concept was booking a delivery time. A two hour delivery window was $13, a three hour delivery window was $11, and a four hour delivery window was $9. I think 2 hours of my time is definitely worth $4.50 an hour! I hate shopping. Did you know that? I do. I love delivery. I like to do my grocery shopping monthly, and my fresh fruit and veg during the month. I hate shopping so much I'd rather meal plan and get it all done in one big shop so I don't have to do it again. I resent wandering around a stupidmarket, making faces at all the food. I must amuse some people if they notice!

Another thing I liked - when I checked out, it told me that a) my credit card would be debited once the order was picked and packed, and that if I wanted to, I could log in and change the order up until mid-day the day before delivery. I logged in three separate times over the weekend to add 'just one more thing'!

I hate Coles. I have always found their vegetables to be awful, and the range to be uninspiring. Coles is not the cheapest, and it doesn't have what gourmet items I do like, so Woollies has always received less ire from me. I don't like it, but I hate Woollies less than Coles!

And Coles has Seasonal Vegetable Boxes! I was so excited! I love random boxes of fruit and veg, and have been a part of a couple of co-ops, and also companies which deliver boxes of random F&F many a time. Some just stopped delivery for some reason, or others let their quality slip, so I was ecstatic when the Armadale Farmers Market started up recently. So, I ticked the box, and waited with great excitement.

Getting boxes of random vegetables are a great way to expand your recipe repertoire, and also to make sure you EAT MORE VEGETABLES. Getting the fortnightly boxes FULL of vegies meant that we also had a deadline! These days we're much better at it, but sometimes we slip.

I am impressed. I am very impressed. All of the vegetables were top quality, and there is heaps.

1 x whole cabbage
1 x medium zucchini
4 x onions
4 x carrots
4 x potatoes
2 x broccoli
1/4 punkin (Like I need more. I still haven't bothered to catalogue the ROI on my single pumpkin plant)
1 x red capsicum
1 x green capsicum
1 x punnet of mushrooms

I love the fact there's basics as well as more exciting items. I love the fact there's a red capsicum and a green capsicum. I love the fact there's a mix of stuff that will last quite a while and stuff that needs to be used ASAP.

Coles, I hate to say it, but I'm impressed. Now I'm all sad because WOOLLIES SHOULD HURRY UP AND FOLLOW YOUR LEAD! And give me Rewards points too LOL

Also, for those who do the Flybuys thing, Coles will put your flybuys onto your account with online shopping.

So I would have to give Coles an 'AWESOMECOOKIES!' rating for their home delivery service. If they had a partnership with Qantas, I'd totally be all over them.
--
Sarah

Five Minute Artisan Bread - Recipe One

2009-09-02T08:10:00.002+08:00

Five Minute Artisan bread after a few days and one recipe.

This is a basic flat bread. I pulled off tiny balls of dough, literally about 2 tablespoons full, dumped lots of flour on top and rolled them as flat as possible before frying in a non-stick frying pan with a tiny bit of oil.

It was just a snack, so we ate them with jam on top, and they were lovely.

--
Sarah P

Introducing mini moo

2009-08-30T17:28:00.004+08:00

You may have noticed that I have not been blogging much lately. Well, this would be why:

Mini moo was born on the 23rd August, at the convenient time of 1:30pm. She is 4.25kg, 55cm long, and has a head full of blondy-brown hair.

My favourite things so far are the way she curls her toes around my finger when I tickle her feet, and the way she raises her eyebrows when she feeds as if to say 'ooh, something interesting is happening here!'

In other news, Mr X just gave an excited yell, which I take it to mean he has secured second place in his footy tipping comp--a big week all round for the household :)

Five Minute Artisan Bread

2009-08-30T12:12:00.002+08:00

Simple Savings also brought this amazing idea to me - Five Minute Artisan Bread. I was amused by my bread section in my home made recipe book - 24 Hour Bread, One Hour Bread, and then Five Minute Bread.

The theory behind this bread is that you whip up a batch, let it sit for 2 - 5 hours, and then stick it in the fridge. When you need bread, you pull out as much as you think you will need, shape it, let it rise and then cook in a very hot, moist oven, and tada! Five minutes is the shaping time.

This bread can be used to make Naan bread, pitas, flatbread, loaves, frybread, fougasse, buns, baguettes, and pizza.

There are now a couple of books on these breads. This is a standard slow rise bread, and the authors recommend re-using the dough remnants to make the next batch develop the sour dough style flavours faster. The dough keeps in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Another bread is a brioche style, using a dozen eggs to enrich the dough, and also has a shelf life in the fridge of 2 weeks.

The books are now available on Amazon, and a number of people have had success asking their libraries to find them copies. Once the basics are down, this seems like a very handy, and very easy, thing to have in your fridge at all times.

More information:
http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

--
Sarah P

Home Made Christmas Gifts Part One

2009-08-26T11:49:00.004+08:00

Home Made Worcestershire Sauce

This is yet another recipe from Simple Savings. Oops, looks like I forgot the bottle of treacle from the pic! Ah well.

The original recipe is for 2 litres of vinegar, but since I only had a half a jar of treacle, this worked out well, so I halved the recipe. I don't use a lot of Worcestershire sauce, and since this is an untried recipe I didn't want to make gallons of it. I have a couple of pretty bottles ready to go, plus I have a planned trip to Plasdene to look at what sort of options we have. Christmas this year is going to be awesome!

So far the recipe has used stuff I already had in the cupboard, or else provided by friends. (Lemons) so has been very frugal indeed. I have had the treacle for a long time now, and wasn't sure what to do with it. Yay, I have that space back!

So now I stir it once a day for six days, and then we see if it's any good! I'll post the proper recipe when I post the finished product, and a review.

Spring is Around the Corner!

2009-08-26T11:16:00.001+08:00

Spring! It's coming... fast some days and slow on others.

I managed to fail on the 'labelling of seed trays' front, and so I am guessing as to what has come up and what hasn't (yet). We have the Digger's tomatoes, Punkin Delicata, Australian Butter Punkin, Ha-ogen rockmelons, beans and peas. We planted them only about 2 weeks ago, and now look!
--
Sarah

Birthday Cake!

2009-08-20T19:52:00.001+08:00

The Big V turned four a couple of weeks ago! I can't believe it! Four! Years! Old!

When he was born, he was so tiny. His eyes were so huge! And black. I remember when he was just a few hours old, lying in bed between us and looking up at us with these huge obsidian eyes. I think I lost myself in those depths, and I'm glad I never found my way out!

So, birthdays. Cake: yes. Party pies: yes. Cocktail franks: yes. Lolly bags: yes. And OH MY GOSH the balloons. I have renamed myself Killer of Balloons after today where I popped about twenty sad, sick little balloons. Chesh made this cake, I'm pleased to say! I'm not the only talented cook in the house!

We've been sick on and off for about 8 weeks before the renewal (a month ago) and now I have been sick on and off for the last month as well. I have been diagnosed as having a gallstone, and so my energy levels have been very low. We bought pretty much everything for the birthday party, and the lovely Linstar was an absolute champion and made a rather awesome brownie stack and cob loaf and all sorts of extra yummies.

Unfortunately, my gallstone decided that the party was a great time to attack me again, and I spent most of it stoned. And while this may sound like a great party for some, I really like my life and would rather not be stoned while it happens thanks. Time and place and all that guff. Having said that, oh thank goodness for painkillers!
:-)

Now we're all on Baby-Watch, waiting waiting waiting. My sickness and gallstone meant i couldn't be onsite for Sarah X's new addition to the family, but we can all hurry up and wait for a baby no matter what side of the continent we're on. My goodness life has been exciting this year!

I have been spending a lot of time reading the Simple Savings website again, and I have been working on a recipe I found there. When I'm happy with it, I'll be posting some pics and some ideas!

--
Sarah P

Baking and Bread

2009-08-13T19:22:00.001+08:00

It's been a baking kind of week around here. At the beginning of the week, I heard about Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day, and was so excited to try it out! So, I have been making bread all week, and while in the groove of things I have been baking other stuff too.

Tonight we had Mexican for dinner. I used some home made baked beans, added heaps of cumin, served with a home made salsa and fresh tomato, lettuce and cheese, on what is basically a frybread made using the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day recipe. Now I am thinking I want to get my hands onto the actual book!

I love ciabatta style chewy loaves, and this loaf fits that bill quite nicely. It's a bit dense, but since I'm just using black and gold white flour, I'm not surprised. It's crusty and yummy, just how I like it. I have been eyeing off recipes in Jamie's Italy, which has heaps of old ciabatta bread ideas.

This summer is going to be a Summer of Salads. I have been experimenting already. Expect a post a week as we explore all sorts of exciting salads.

--
Sarah P

Pumpkins Pumpkins and More Pumpkins

2009-05-28T21:28:00.001+08:00

So, I have four pumpkins. Plus the little baby one.

Outstanding: $170.00
May the 14th: $46.50
Total Cost (still) : $123.50

The pumpkins are valued at $11 each at the web page I am using for comparison, so I guess that's $44 I can take off the total owing.

Outstanding: $123.50
May the 28th: $44
Total Cost (still) : $79.50

--
Sarah

Cake!

2009-05-28T21:15:00.001+08:00

I have been a bit busy!

--
Sarah P

Butternut Pumpkin Ahoy!

2009-05-14T20:39:00.001+08:00

Have I mentioned how much I love pumpkins? I don't know why I find them so fascinating. I just do. I love the flavour of pumpkins, love cooking with them, and it turns out I love growing them too.

This is my second butternut this year. The first one was 2 kilos, a good solid size and beautifully sweet. We had half as a soup and half as chunks roasted with vegeta seasoning, and it was lovely. This little... er... big honey is still whole. I've put it her away for future thought!

I've also been harvesting the Maximas too. One of our maximas was swinging from the vine, and eventually the pumpkin grew big enough that it was dropped. It was almost 19 pounds of pumpkin! We got enthused, and have now harvest the next three of similar size. I now have over 30 kilos of Maxima pumkpkin (a Queensland Blue from the look of things) sitting in my backyard... looking pumpkinny. I think I will give one of these babies to the woman who gave us the seedling! And there's still another ten smaller pumpkins growing! Good thing I love them so.

Anyway, on to what we are here for - the ROI of my garden.
:-)

So... what have I harvested since I last updated? Ihave been giving away eggplants left right and centre. There's been 11 good sized eggplants going now. Still beautiful. It looks like the eggplants will continue through winter, so next year I won't even lose any time to adolescent growth. Good thing I like eggplants!

So, 11 eggplants at $3 as they are bigger than the previous harvests. I cut some broccolli, but only one was viable. So we had that in dinner. Unfortunately, the aphids appear to have destroyed the rest of the crop. I could have eaten the stalks, on further reflection, as they are excellent stirfry vegies. I realised this after I have pulled up most of them and put them into the compost bin. Oops. And 3 kilos of butternut pumpkin. Butternuts are going for $3.49 a kilo at Woolies.

Eggplants: 11 x $3 = $33
Broccoli: 1 x $3.99= $3
Butternut Pumpkin: 3 x 3.49 = $10.50

So, together we have: $46.50

I'll tally the maximas up properly later.

Outstanding: $170.00
May the 14th: $46.50
Total Cost (still) : $123.50

So, we still haven't quite recovered costs yet. I think the maxima punkins will definitely put a big dent in the remaining money, and there's still tomatoes being grown, I have just failed to harvest them. I am thinking of planting potatoes where the broccoli were, to make sure of the next few seasons while the eggplants still produce.

We have a new bed in place now, so there's twice as much fun to be had in the garden!

Sarah P

Vegie Win!

2009-05-04T19:19:00.001+08:00

Tonight's dinner was awesome! Chesh and I have a couple of favourite Japanese restaurants - the kind of places where we always order exactly the same thing every time. One of these places is Mr Samurai, who does an amazing Tempura B special, which is tempura made of julienne carrot, potato and onion with a drizzle of a sweet and soy sauce, rice, and kara-age. That's what I have every time I go! Chesh has the beef rice bowl, which I believe I have already mastered!

Over the weekend I went to a lovely Hen's Night in a Japanese resturaunt, and one of the many many tiny entrees they served was a tempura fried eggplant with a dollop of tonkatsu sauce. Since I happen to be giving away eggplants more often than I am eating them, I was excited to find a new way of serving it. And it was good, but the other tempura was definitely the star of this dinner!

Mr Samurai Tempura

Batter
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 cup icey water

Vegetables - all in similar lengths and widths, julienned (matchstick size)
One small onion
One medium potato
One carrot
One eggplant, other vegies, or even a couple of prawns.

Drizzling Sauce
Honey
Soy sauce
drop of sesame oil

Method
Slice and dice your vegies. I chunked the eggplant up, and used the above batter for all of the vegies in this recipe, and the eggplant. I wanted thick chunks for the eggplant to provide a bit more aesthetic appeal, and to be able to withstand uncertain frying. I'm still learning the ins and outs of frying, but after tonight I am very happy!

Make the drizzling sauce by mixing the three items together. I microwaved it for 20 seconds to loosen the honey up.
Put the rice cooker on.
Start the oil heating for deep frying.

Make the batter last. It should still be cold when you are frying. This gives it the tempura lightness and crispiness. You just mix it up. It should still be lumpy.

Do the eggplant or extra vegies first, dipping them into the batter and then dropping them into the oil. If you are doing prawns, do them last. Also, if you want the traditionally straight prawns, you need to use a skewer with each prawn.

Once that is all done and cooling, chuck in the julienned vegies. I dried mine a little with a tea towel first, since I had kept them in water, and then used a hand to mix them up and then put small handfuls into the oil.

When all done, serve with steamed rice, and drizzle the sauce over the top! We served the eggplant with a homestyle tonkatsu sauce.

How simple, and yet awesome, is that? All I need now is some sesame icecream, and life would be perfect!

--
Sarah

Aphids Suck!

2009-05-01T14:24:00.002+08:00

Aphids have destroyed almost all of my broccoli. We ate some of it, but most of it looks very unhappy.
:-(

--
Sarah

chick-chick-chickens!

2009-05-01T09:32:00.004+08:00

We have been planning to get backyard chickens for a while now, and we got the plan into action this week after finding out that Monkey Moo's day care centre were having Henny Penny chicken hatching this week. Henny Penny is a company that supplies schools and other appropriate businesses with eggs and an incubator so that kids can see and learn about the hatching process The chicks hatch and stay at the venue in a special cage for 12 days and then they are given away to any parents that want to take them home, and any left are taken back by the Henny Penny franchisee and given to a farm.

I had been planning to get a couple of herritage breed hens, but decided this was too good an opportunity to pass up. Although they are hybrids, all the breeds they listed as using--autralorps, black and white leghorns, sussex, and lohmanns--were ones I would like and are egg laying breeds, so we decided to take our chances.

They were not sexed at hatching, so it was a case of taking a bunch and playing rooster lotto--apparently now we will not be able to tell the hens from the roosters until about 6-8 weeks of age, at which time we will re-home the roosters and/or excess hens.

In the end we decided to take six, two of each kind available, two blackies, two yellowies and two brownie/yellowies. I am not sure what breeds they are, I have tried searching google images for clues but I am not really finding any difinitive answers there. I am really looking forward to seeing what they grow into.

Garden Project

2009-03-30T20:27:00.003+08:00

The garden has had a lot of work done this week, but this post right now is about the cost analysis of the original haybale. We had a huge garden bee this weekend, and we are now the proud care-takers of a second raised bed garden, this one made with corrugated iron instead
of hay.

But back to the current garden.

Garden was started on the 13th of November.
Cost of Garden: $278
Dec 15th: Saved: $2
Total Cost $276

February 5th: $31.96
Total cost: $244.04

Since the above tally, we've had more! More more more!

One large butter-nut pumpkin has been plucked. About three kilos of tomatoes. 11 more decent sized eggplants. Eggplants have been so awesome. We got a HUGE watermelon, but it wasn't very sweet. Next time... there's three more coming along!

$22 - eggplants
$21.54 (3 x $7.18) roma, cherry, and other tomatoes
$6 of Butternut Pumpkin (2 kilos at $3 a kilo)
$20 of Watermelon. The website I am using for comparisons is
GroceryZone, and they have seedless half watermelons at $13. So a whole watermelon would be $26. But it wasn't the sweetest, so I've just guessed it at $20.
$2.88 for another bunch of beetroot roasted with balsamic vinegar and
enjoyed greatly.
$1.59 Zucchini x 1

$74.04

Outstanding: $244.04
March 30th: $74.04
Total Cost (still) : $170.03

What's still coming? The broccoli are all starting to flower. The eggplants are going ballistic again. There's a trombone shaped butter nut pumpkin coming along beautifully, and two mature sized maxima pumpkins plus another two developing very nicely (past the football size). There's still more tomatoes on the plants, and more watermelons developing too. Plus the cabbages will probably start to develop shortly too. I was hoping to use this bed in the new bed, but I think this one will be going for quite some time yet!

--
Sarah P

Zucchini and Eggplant Stirfry

2009-03-30T19:56:00.001+08:00

Ingredients
- Trio ginger/garlic/spring onions
- Oil
- 100ish grams of beef mince

Vegies
- one smallish/medium sized eggplant in one inch cubes
- one zucchini in one inch cubes
- can water chestnuts, drained

Sauce (mix up ready to go)
- 125 mls chicken stock
- 125 mls chicken master stock (or just use normal chicken stock)
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoons kecap manis
- 2 tablespoons CHILI BEAN IN SOYA OIL
- 1 tablespoon Chinese vinegar

- Cornflour slurry to thicken

------
1) heat wok, add oil, add trio, fry for ten seconds, add beef mince as
crumbled as possible. Let it fry for a bit until it's mostly brown,
and then start tossing it about a bit to make sure it's all done.

2) Add vegies and stirfry for a few minutes, tossing around. Add sauce
and bring to boil with lid on. Maybe 5 minutes? Then take lid off and
check it out. Eggplant should be mostly done, so stir it around a bit
more to release more water from the sauce and finalise cooking.
Eggplant should be in cubes still, not turned into mush. (I have
learnt a lot about cooking eggplants LOL)

3) Add slurry, stifry until it's thick and done, put in serving plate.
I had fresh chopped spring onion greens on top, but I think a drizzle
of toasted sesame oil would be the perfect trick. Chesh also suggested
toasted sesame seeds instead of oil.

--
Sarah P

Autumn Harvests

2009-03-27T14:12:00.002+09:00

Autumn seems to have brought a sudden new lease on life in the garden. The eggplants have started to produce waves of fat black globes again, the watermelons now have three babies, and the pumpkins are getting very excited about the cooler weather. I'm still not sure when I am
supposed to harvest all these produce, but I'm learning.

Sarah P

Semi Dried Tomatoes

2009-03-06T13:52:00.005+09:00

I had a whole lot of tomatoes in left over from my weekly veggie box last week, a mix of lovely little cherry tomatoes and some beautifully sweet black russians. One of the fun things about the random veggie box is thinking of things to do with the produce that you might not have normally gone out and bought. We are not huge tomato eaters in this family, owing mostly to their high salicylate and amine content, so while I have used a few in stews and sauces I still had plenty left over.Washed and chopped and into the dehydrator they went.

Several hours later I put the shriveled little red lumps into a jar and drowned them in olive oil and added a few cloves of garlic...

Yum!

Jelly

2009-02-27T17:48:00.005+09:00

One of our staple snacks around here are cups of fruit juice jelly. Vegetarians avert you eyes.

I make a few batches per week and they are great for lunch boxes and just all round anytime snacks. The recipe I use is adapted from one I found on Pecan Bread, but I do it a little differently, mostly because I have been unable to find gelatin without preservative 220 in it, so I boil it to get rid of that. It is pretty simple, but it took me a while to find the right method for me so I thought I would share it here. Apart from the 220, which should boil off, if you use pure juice they are sugar and additive free.

Fruit Jelly Cups
2 tbs powdered gelatin
2 cups of water
2 cups of fruit juice (any flavour)

Boil one cup of water and mix with the gelatin in a saucepan. Boil rapidly for a few minutes. Remove from heat and add the second cup of cold water and the two cups of cold fruit juice. Stir until well combined and pour into molds. Set in fridge. Because it is made with mostly cold liquids it sets quite quickly.

So far I have only used bottled juices but I am looking forward to trying it with fresh pressed pear and apple juice.

Tomatoes!

2009-02-23T20:39:00.001+09:00

This is two day's worth of yields. :-)

I also picked two more eggplants to give away, and then raided my next door neighbour's Chinese greens for stir fry for dinner. I left the eggplants in a plastic bag on their front door, but then I ran into her in the backyard! She picked heaps of the greens for me, and then was amused when I said I stir fry them together! Dinner tonight was awesomely simple - a jar of sweet and sour and the left over cold chicken for one dish, and Chinese greens with oyster sauce, ginger, garlic and onions in the other with a big pot of jasmine rice. Just a fantastic meal. Really, we could have gone without the sweet and sour chicken!

I made a joke with DH that if the economic downturn really hits, then I would buy another 10 kilo bag of rice, and a few seed packets for Asian greens! The grow quickly, and are full of fantastic nutrition and don't take up much space. A few very simple ingredients later and tasty stirfries for ever.

I think tomorrow night I might have to think of something yummy starting around eggplants and tomato!
--
SarahP

Seasonal Tastes

2009-02-18T20:53:00.002+09:00

I find myself examining my attitudes to food and to the cycle of life more and more as I develop as a person.

I have been thinking on the nature of food quite a lot lately, as most of us should know I love to cook. I love love love cooking, I love Indian cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Italian cuisine, Japanese cuisine, and all food from my Arabesque cookbook. Now that I have a vegetable patch, I am starting to get a greater sense for the Wheel of Life.

Not only is food good for you, but you're good for food. We take food into our bodies and process it into bits and pieces and return the goodness back into the soil. Things start to get very complicated when you include long distance travel, crop development and 'customer expectation' and mega-corporations ruling our food.

Now let's take that last sentence apart a bit.

Long distance travel. I'd love to be a locavore. It would make me happy. But in the same way that I can not feed my family sustainably from my own back yard, it makes sense to grow things in places where they grow well, and then trade/share/exchange in some mutually useful situation. But how far is too far? How far is far enough? Strawberries from California made their way to Perth supermarkets last year - and this calls into question 'customer expectation' and the lengths megacorporations will go to fulfil this imaginary need.

Crop development is also a fascinating cog in this rather awesome wheel. To read the Diggers paraphernalia, every megacorp is out to get us, via genetically modified, tasteless produce designed to survive the sale and look good rather than taste good, and to be ready for harvest all at once for best harvesting conditions... Diggers have a whole lot of very interesting views on megacorporations and how we select foods that reflect out choices as people.

I also want to examine 'customer expectation.' I've heard that word used to define a meaningless ideal that megacorporation managers want consumers to have. It's an excuse; far too often a market is developed simply by creating a need within the consumer. The most obvious case in point is the beauty industry, more specifically hair care. Customers originally needed to be trained to believe that hair needed to be washed often and with various special items for desirable characteristics. Previously, people made do with what they had. These days, there's a shampoo and matching conditioner for every imagined condition under the sun. I really do believe that the idea of 'customer expectation' is a phantom used by decision makers to make choices they have already made.

Now, all of this in relation to my own little patch of dirt and pumpkins, is that I am re-examining the way I select and prepare food. I've noticed a few things.

1) If I chose one style or cuisine, I could dump a full 50% of my kitchen utensils.
2) If I continue to grow my own vegetables, I expect to make more health conscious choices based around seasonal foods.
3) I am more aware of what vegetables are supposed to look and smell like.
4) My menus would be a lot simpler
5) My skills at cooking a particular set of foods would increase

My point is that we have been presented with such an array of choices in food that it is bewildering. Strawberries from California when WA could no longer grow their own! And they were so sweet! The advice of "select vegetables that are in season for cheap produce" is flawed simply by the virtue that not that many people know what produce is ripe in what season.

The myth of 'customer requirements' is that someone else, somewhere else, makes a choice that I will want strawberries out of season, and provides them to me in a windowless, airless supermarket where I can't even tell if it's raining, let alone what season it is, and then we get toasted by the media for demanding items out of season. We've been trained to expect foods at odd times of the year; we've been trained to cook five different cuisines a week using packets and sachets and jars, and we fail to realise that voluntary simplicity will pay us back a thousand fold.

I am re-learning my relationship to food. Last week the UK relaxed laws about the presentation of vegetables in supermarkets. Apparently 20% of vegetables were being dumped due to aesthetic reasons. This is unthinkable.

My biggest problem is that every night is a different cuisine. For example, the other night we had five spice chicken with stirfry vegies and rice. I made a big pot of rice to make fried rice for the next day. But the menu plan is for corned beef. Corned beef is traditionally served with potato, carrot, cabbage if you have it... but what do I do with the rice? The beef is next on the menu as it is in the fridge. When I selected the meat at the supermarket, what was ins eason to go with vegetables was the last thing on my mind. (To be honest, it was "That's cheap, I'll grab that again! Plus it's DH's favourite meal!)

When I cooked a month of Morrocan, Turkish and Lebanese food (from Arabesque, of course!) I purchased a number of items only used in those cuisines. When I cook Japanese foods, I also buy items only used in Japanese cooking. The same for Chinese, and Australian. If I selected one cuisine, and then stayed with that cuisine, I would lower my food costs, save myself bench space, and connect more fully within the cycle that I am beginning to perceive.

Our view of food is an astounding privilege. We need to be more cognisant of this fact so we can be more appreciative of the struggle and sacrifice that brings us full bellies.

And maybe, just sometimes, rethink some of ways we look at the food we eat.

MealPlan Monday - SarahP

2009-02-16T16:53:00.003+09:00

Monday - Five Spice Chicken (stolen from VeganAboutTown and bastardized)
Tuesday - Corned Beef
Wednesday - Mother's making Quiche
Thursday - Sausages and salad
Friday - Dinner with friends
Saturday - Lentil Pie with Sweet Potato Topping (also stolen from VeganAboutTown)
Sunday - Nanna's 80th Birthday Party, so Leftovers!

Salmon, Pickle, and Goat Cheese Pancakes

2009-02-16T07:32:00.005+09:00

This morning for breakfast I made pancakes at monkey moo's request. Also at monkey moo's request we had them topped with salmon*.

In addition to the salmon on mine I added some sliced gherkins (the only pickles I could find in the supermarket without preservatives or msg added!) and some shaved kasseri cheese (a hard cheese made from goat and sheep milk). Mmmm... is there anything that goes together better than gherkins and melty cheese?

It was very tasty, but it made me laugh to think that I seem to be displaying outragously cliche pregnant woman food preferences at the moment.

I haven't eaten gherkins for a while, (about a year), because of diet trials and restrictions, so I found the comercial pickles both way too acid and way too sugary in flavour. I am now on a mission to make my own.

*Actually her request was for tuna, which is her favourite food at the moment, but I have secretly replaced our tuna stash with salmon for the increased calcium content.

Present from the Next Door Neighbours!

2009-02-14T15:37:00.002+09:00

I got a present! Yesterday, hanging over my fence was this! Our next door neighbour grew an awesome mess of cherry tomatoes, before she and her husband realised they don't actually eat tomatoes all that often - if at all. My kids, however, have already had about four kilos of free cherry tomatoes from these bushes, so when she said she was going to pull them soon, I said I'd pluck the remainders off the dead bits if she liked.

And obviously, she liked! Plus this will add more vegetable matter to the next no dig bed which I am currently planning. The next one is going to have tin sides rather than the haybales, and will use my parents-in-law's Christmas present of a trailor load of manure. Yay!

There will be a meet of some sort in March, if any one wishes to join us!

--
Sarah

Rhubarb Champange

2009-02-13T18:24:00.002+09:00

I found a recipe for Rhubarb Champagne, and since I happen to like Rhubarb, I thought I would give it a go.

The recipe is from Simplesavings, and is:

Rhubarb Champagne
20 cps cold water
1 lemon
3 1/2 cups Rhubarb
3 1/2 cups sugar
11 tablesp cider vinegar
Wash Rhubarb and Lemon don't peel. Cut up roughly. Add to water and sugar. (in a plastic bucket) Stand 48 hours no longer or the Rhubarb will sour.Strain,bottle and cap. Ready in 2 to 3 weeks. Makes 9 beer bottles.
Red Rhubarb = Pink Champagne Green Rhubarb = White Champagne

I gave it a try, hoping it would be nice. I used vanilla sugar, since that was all I had, and I was pretty excited to be making something again. The recipe was so simple, and I couldn't find my steriliser so the bottles were just cleaned and then rinsed with fresh water, and then used. I used grolsh bottles with new seals, and one that was crown capped.

And it was awesome!

The first thing I noticed when we popped the first grolsh bottle was the intense bubbles! One or two later bottles even fizzed out of the top! The next thing I noticed was the lovely scent of vanilla. A closer sniff also involved other complex flavours, and on pouring, the champagne was definitely champagne like, and pink! Everything we hoped for! The bubbles stayed as well, and the drink was a really nice lemonade with something else. It really does have to be tried to understand! It was fantastic. Very refreshing, not sickenly sweet, no chemical taste, and fresh.

I'm definitely making this one again!

10/10!

Sarah P

Visits from Friends

2009-02-13T18:18:00.003+09:00

We had a visit today from some close friends, for a bit of fun we let the kids loose in the vegie patch! Look at the haul!
Today was just so lovely. We had a nice cup of tea, the kids had lemonade jelly, and they ran around in circle screaming themselves hoarse. What a great way to enjoy the gentle weather!

--
Sarah P

Goat Yogurt

2009-02-13T08:40:00.003+09:00

I have recently abandoned all powdered milks, and homogenised milk products (after reading, among other things, Sally Fallons Nourishing Traditions--a dedicated post likely coming this way soon) and have been trying to make yogurt out of raw goats milk. Since becoming pregnant I do actually heat the milk to 80 degrees c for a few minutes and then let it cool, as I currently have listeria phobia*, but this doesn't seem to alter the result at all. It seems there is not enough of something in the milk I am using, I suspect it needs more cream, and I end up with a very runny drinking type yogurt. Since I am the kind of person who likes very solid, more of a greek style yogurt I have been finding this a real barrier to my desire to eat the resulting product.

I think I may have found a solution in my last batch. To my litre of warm milk and starter I added two teaspoons of gelatin desolved in a little boiling water and then put the whole thing in the yogurt thermos and left it over night as usual.

After refrigeration the result was a much firmer yogurt that, with a little honey, was very edible.

*Ah, listeria phobia. So many huge precautions taken in order to avoid a disease that only affects 10 women in Australia per year, causing miscariges in aproimately 5. And yet, the stakes are so high, and the guilt factor from both outside and inside sources so intense that we just can't bring oursleves (me included) to not follow the rules 'just in case'.

What's in the Box? (with bonus recipe for bratwurst and sauerkraut)

2009-02-06T08:29:00.006+09:00

Hi everyone,
I am back from my ISP enforced internetlessness and ready to start meal planning again. My Monday meal plans are more likely to be Tuesday meal plans from now on because Tuesdays are when I get my delicious box of mystery from food connect. I got my first box (a standard veggie box) last Tuesday and it was awesome. The produce was top quality fresh and tasty, and it looks like a standard size box is just about right for our family, although we are eating a lot of vegetables at the moment so we may go up to a family size box in the future.

First out of the box on Tuesday night came the potatoes. I am not sure what variety they were, but they were white skinned and very firm, so firm in fact that even after fully cooking they still had an almost crunchy quality to them--not undercooked, but not at all soggy. I used them to make one of my favourite dishes shown to me by one of my favourite friends, an Eastern European dish of potatoes, sauerkraut and pork. I did a makeshift version of the recipe that went like this:

several potatoes, diced in medium chunks;
an onion, sliced;
a big helping of sauerkraut (about half a jar);
5 or so gluten free bratwurst;
a very large dollop of extra virgin olive oil;
salt.
had I not forgotten I would have also added large amounts of crushed garlic.

I pre-cooked the bratwurst in a frypan while I chopped everything else, then chopped the bratwurst into small chunks. Threw everything into an oven dish and coated it liberally with the olive oil, then put it into a 200 degree (c) oven for about 45 minutes. Delicious!

Wednesday was gadogado style steamed veggies (broccoli, corn, carrot, beans, onion) with a sliced boiled egg each and peanut/cashew sauce.

Thursday, roast veggie stacks with a tomato oregano, basil and garlic sauce.

The veggie stack was made up of slices of roast potato, butternut pumpkin, red capsicum, zucchini, carrot and onion, and the tomato sauce was made from black/purpley tomatoes out of the box. Everything in that meal came out of the box except for the basil, which was from the garden, and the pumpkin and garlic which I had purchased previously.

Tonight we have had a request from monkey moo for chicken, so I am thinking chicken and veggie burgers (though moo has requested 'no veggies' for her please, so they may need to be hidden vegetables this time).

We still have from the box: beans; carrots; some beautiful big mushrooms; a bunch of silverbeet; cauliflower; a large chunk of ginger; a bunch and a half of broccoli; what looks like a daikon radish; onions; one potato; two tomatoes; a couple of sweet potatoes; a cos lettuce; and half a zucchini. Definitely enough for three more meals there. In addition to that list I also have on hand: garlic; a couple of red capsicums, 2 ears of corn; half a cabbage; and a bunch of spring onions. I am thinking some kind of silverbeet and sweet potato pie or fritatta for Saturday, and I will likely pickle the cabbage and radish. That leaves Sunday and Monday dinners plus a few veggie lunches. Any suggestions of the best way to utilise this delicious produce?

Gardeny Goodness

2009-02-05T09:58:00.004+09:00

The garden has been very busily growing, I am pleased to say! My pumpkins are trying to take over the world, and we have been harvesting corn, eggplants and beetroot. There's a big fast watermelon growing, and a big fat butter nut pumpkin coming along too. It's all good!

So, how is the tally going?

Eggplants: six small ones, but perfect quality and organic grown. I've seen these for about $4 for same quality but bigger, so I'll go with $2 per eggplant. They are going to be perfect stuffed in tomato sauce for dinner tonight (a middle eastern recipe) $12

Corn: We picked six ears so far, of which only two were perfect. I think we were a bit enthused about picking the others, but it's all a learning process, and we ate them anyway. Corn is expensive at the moment. $1.65 each for corn, so $9.90 of corn already.

Beetroot: $2.88 each apparently in some places, but I shall take it as $2.88 per bunch, and say we've pulled a bunch of them. Some have died, and because I planted them badly or wrong, they're waiting for me to pull and get rid of them. I'll do better next year! I like them tiny.

Tomatoes: The Roma tomatoes have started to ripen, but I never get them inside the house! The kids eat them out of my hands before I can get up the stairs! So, um... there's been about ten of them, all of them about $100ish grams, so a kilo of Romas, $7.18. Gosh.

Garden was started on the 13th of November.
Cost of Garden: $278
Dec 15th: Saved: $2
Total Cost $276

February 5th: $31.96
Total cost: $244.04

Ponderings on Marketing Machines

2009-01-30T19:15:00.002+09:00

I am briefly raising my head from being deeply submerged in a blog written by a group of up and coming authoresses. It's made me think about a few things.

It looks slick. It looks nice. There's weekly give aways, advertising to all the relevant books down the side, it's friendly and it's black with colours, like most of the book covers I have seen these days. And it's a funny little read, a whole bunch 0f authoresses who may or may not actually know each other, group blogging about ...something to do with writing, I guess.

And here's where I think the use of the blog as a publicity machine fails. They all talk about writing. They talk about deadlines, they talk about word counts, they talk about seducing their muses... they talk about writing. I found it all very interesting, but I'm not actually a reader. I'm a writer too.

And I'm not buying books at the moment because I am too busy working on my own!

So why, if your marketing department tells you have a blog to catch more readers, didn't they do a little more thinking or research, and actually design the page for the readers. Talk about the books themselves. Have snippets of the books. Interview the lead characters. They're all producing trilogies, so there must be some things the characters can discuss. I think they need to concentrate on making the readers of the blog interested in the characters, not in the authors.

I got what I wanted - information about the publishing industry. I did not find myself at all interested in any of the books on the right hand side. Nor did I find myself at all interested in the authoress pages. They have failed in securing my $$.

Beeeeep, try again!

Monday Meal Plan

2009-01-27T18:00:00.002+09:00

- Monday - Picnic at Ma and Pa's
- Tuesday - Beef Pinwheels with Ratatouille with home grown eggplant and neighbour's cherry tomatoes
- Wednesday - Tomato and Bean Rollups
- Thursday - Lingerie Party. Not entire surely how many I will be feeding. Possible Vietnames Spring Rolls
- Friday - Sausages and Vegies
- Saturday - Mince something.
- Sunday - Eat far too much at 2year old's birthday. :-)

Meal Plan Monday

2009-01-05T01:59:00.001+09:00

Oh my goodness, the heat!

It's so hot! I think I'll be using the slowcooker, and cooking outside on days when it's too hot to cook inside, and lots of BBQs if it's cool enough to stand outside over a hotplate. At 5:30, it's often still 30plus degrees outside. YUCK!

Monday Meal Plan

- Monday - Chicken Stirfry
- Tuesday - Sausages and Salad
- Wednesday - Porcupines and veg
- Thursday - Feebeez's meatloaf, this time with green/brown lentils
- Friday - Home Made
- Saturday - Girlie Night In! Maybe some morrocan cooking - turkish style kebabs
- Sunday - Chicken Curry

Monday Meal Plan

2008-12-29T11:14:00.004+09:00

Well, this week was all planned out... but then went awry.

Factors: the rubber chicken was stretched a different way with the invite to Mum and Dad to come to dinner. Monday is another Christmas party at my brother's house. Thursday is up in the air with travelling friends. Who knows what will happen next?

In theory my calendar shows no appointments for this week. With New Year's Eve and Day, however, I am unsure what we're going to end up doing.

Monday - Dinner at Brother's
Tuesday - Sausages
Wednesday - No idea. Sausages?
Thursday- Somewhere with friends. Possibly NYE party. No idea.
Friday - See Wednesday.
Saturday - ooo, I found some mince! Possibly Turkish style kebabs if I make some yoghurt.
Sunday - Something fresh I expect. Probably monthly shop time.

Meal Plan Monday

2008-12-22T20:52:00.001+09:00

Whee! Holidays! No meal plan for me as we're spending a few days at DH's parent's house.

Yay!

:-)

Merry Christmas every one! Have a great Christmas!

Adventy Goodness

2008-12-17T15:34:00.004+09:00

I really love the idea of Advent calendars, the kind where you open up a little window and get a small present each day in the lead up to Christmas. Rather than buy one covered in Bratz characters or full of cheap crappy candy that she wouldn't be able to eat I decided to make my own for monkey moo this year. I found a set of 24 mini Christmas books at a discount book store and decided to make a little stocking for each one and hang it from a string on the mantle piece.

I started by making up 12 stockings out of some left over stocking fabric, followed by 12 little draw string bags in other coordinating fabrics.

I stuffed them each with one of the little books and another treasure such as a little wooden tree ornament, some bangles, or a little porcelain animal--all of which I found quite cheaply at the Saturday markets.

I mixed up the colours and pegged all the stockings on the string with mini bulldog clips.

We have been choosing a stocking as part of our bed time routing and reading the little books as before bed stories. Interestingly she picked all the stocking shaped ones first--and particularly enjoys wearing them on her feet!

The best part about this calendar is that I will be able to pack the stockings and bags away with the Christmas decorations and refill and reuse them again next year :)

Dinner From The Garden

2008-12-15T19:24:00.002+09:00

Tonight we had San Choy Bau using lettuce grown in my own garden! How amazing is that! And it was great!

DH liked the home grown lettuce, and we had some iceberg my Dad had got for us, and I'd like to grow some iceberg too, but DH says he prefers the mignonette lettuce. Hee! I am so chuffed!

One of the things that used to annoy me about the credo that to save money you should start a vegie patch is that no one ever talks about the set up costs and the return on investments you get out of it. I have a great time gardening, and I enjoy looking out my window to see verdant greenery which produces food I like to eat, but I always wanted to make sure this was going to be worth my time and effort.

Tomatoes are now $5 a kilo for the cheap ones. I am seriously considering frozen and tinned vegetables simply because of the cost. The quality of the vegetables are variable, and it's disheartening to be paying so much money for something that doesn't even look good. If nothing else, the sheer freshness factor is always a good argument for a vegie garden.

So far, the garden has cost $278. That covered a no-dig haybale garden bed, a second equal length garden bed that I am filling with corn, and decent compost and manure to improve other parts of the garden as well. However it's an investment as well as an outlay. I'm still in my apprenticeship. When the next few years are done, I will have a more permanent lay out, chickens, probably a compost corner, and much more knowledge and confidence. My friends and I have built this together. I can't thank them enough for their time and expertise, which is another factor in the outlay and setup I needed to consider.

So, I am going to tally up my garden here. Every time I eat from the garden, I shall count that as savings. I want to make sure that I get $278 worth of vegetables out of my garden. So, I guess salad greens for two adults and a 3year old... I'd say $2. I haven't bought lettuce in a very long time, actually, so I am guessing wildly. There's tomatoes growning already, so I have high hopes. I did plant a LOT of them!

Garden was started on the 13th of November.
Cost of Garden: $278
Saved: $2

Total Cost $276
--
Sarah

Monday Meal Plan

2008-12-15T08:32:00.000+09:00

Factors: It's Christmas so everything is up in the air at any given second.

Tuesday - Steak and salad.
Wednesday - Corporate Orphans Lunch - Sweet and Sour Asian Meatballs and Rice using frozen asian meatballs and a jar of sweet and sour sauce from the pantry
Thursday - DH's work Christmas Party (Family invited)
Friday - DH sailing - chicken sausages and salad
Saturday - L's Birthday Party - take meat for BBQ
Sunday - DF's side of family Christmas Party Lunch (I expect we'll be too full to eat a full dinner too) Sandwiches or pasta and tomato sauce
Monday - Night before going to DH's Parents place - leftovers or freezer roast pork with gravy and vegies

(slightly belated) Monday Meal Plan

2008-12-09T13:07:00.000+09:00

Monnday--fish and chips
Tuesday--satay chicken and ribbon veggie noodles (requested by mrX)
Wednesday--vegetable quiche
Thursday--crock pot chicken and veggies
Friday--omelet friday
Saturday--san choy bow with thin potato noodles
Sunday--bbq meat and veggies

This weeks missions: 1) test the new veggie spiralizer; and 2) use as much as you can of food already in cupboards and fridge in preparation for moving house in January.

MealPlan Monday - SarahP

2008-12-09T08:28:00.000+09:00

Oops, a day late, and in a hurry ...

Tuesday - (tonight) Spaghetti Bolognaise or Lasagne, depending on my enthusiasm for making pasta today
Wednesday - chicken (leg) casserole (probably slowcooked)
Thursday - Dinner at Mum's
Friday - my birthday! No idea. Maybe ... nope, still no idea.
Saturday - Chicken breasts
Sunday - That damned tuna bake which I have avoided the last three weeks
Monday - Mince - possible Turkish style kebabs but that requires tomato... or meatloaf again...

I have no tomato! No tomato tins, no fresh, nothing! I am at a loss! I was going to make chicken curry, but it requires tomato. Gosh! I am feeling the lack!

Tree Blogging

2008-12-04T07:44:00.000+09:00

1st of December is usually tree decorating day at our house, but this year we went a day early on account of doing it on the Sunday being much more convenient as a family. I took some photos of the process.

We started with a big pile of boxes containing decorations and a tree, and an empty space on the floor.

First up went the tree, then on went lights, followed by tinsel and garland then baubles.

We finished with a few special ornaments and made monkey moo wait to put the star on as the very last piece. She was most excited about putting the star on top and talked about it for days before hand. It seemed cruel to make her wait, but she managed to hold on til the very end.