Happy Hook Day

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It really does not take much to make me smile and today was no exception.

I have a stainless steel hanger which I use for socks and undies which I have owned for a few years. It can be a bit tricky to store but it generally lives on the shelf above the laundry bench.

However, I bought a second one a few months ago and there did not seem to be any easy answer to storing both of them. They cannot be adjacent to each other as the pegs get all tangled up.

Yesterday GMan suggested that perhaps we could hang them up. He found 4 small white cup hooks and then it was an easy matter of positioning them into the timber strip immediately below the shelf.

This is the end result.

A simple but effective solution which makes me very happy.

A Deliberate Delay

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It is now 5 weeks since we returned from our New Zealand holiday and I have not written a single blog post.

I came home knowing that I had several big tasks which were somewhat time sensitive so instead of trying to grab a moment here and there to try to write blog posts, I made a conscious decision to set blogging aside until the other jobs were completed or at least sufficiently underway.

Things I did:

  • Finished a dress alteration for a friend before she went on holidays
  • Made 5 pairs of loose, lightweight trousers for another friend to take on holidays and repaired 2 skirts as well
  • Made 35 metres of bunting for a fundraising fete to be held at the end of October
  • Made 12 jars of grapefruit marmalade
  • Created questions for an upcoming fundraising trivia night
  • Sourced screening rights for films to be offered for voting for the 2027 program for our local film society
  • Created and printed voting sheets (with film description and image) for film society voting on Thursday
  • Culled, sorted, numbered and named the photos from our New Zealand trip
  • Wrote and published 5 blog posts on my travel blog

Apart from that there have been all of the usual jobs that keep the household running as well as plenty of volunteering.

Here are a few photos.

Marmalade – hopefully enough for the year.

Bunting – all made from scraps from my stash – I may have put a slight dent in one or two piles of fabric.

A pair of trousers

The inside of the trousers. I French seamed all of them as the fabric was very lightweight and could be prone to fray.

It is good to be back because even after 15.5 years I still enjoy blogging and sharing snippets with you.

Creating Community Collaboration

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Today I want to share a project I am working on which I think highlights what community is really about.

I am cutting out fabric triangles to make bunting. I have calculated that I will need 232 pieces to make ten 3.5 metres lengths. I have cut out 117 pieces so far.

I had previously used a cardboard template for a pattern for cutting the fabric. However, I decided that I needed a sturdier template for this project. So, I enlisted the help of the volunteers at the Men’s Shed. I now have a durable plywood template which is lightweight, easy to handle and will last long beyond this project.

The bunting is to be used for decoration at a Village Fete in a couple of months. It is a fundraising event being organised by our local Community Pantry. The funds raised will support the Pantry to continue providing a helping hand to all in our local community.

Clean Up, Cook Up

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Contrary to the statement in my last post, regular blogging did not return. It is almost 3 weeks since my last post and I have been doing everything except writing about it. If I am honest, I keep delaying trying to figure out how to easily use the tablet for blogging, particularly with respect to uploading photos. Hopefully, I have it sorted and I will be testing my skills on our upcoming trip.

I am now in the midst of getting ready to head off on a holiday to New Zealand.

One of the important tasks is to make sure that there is no perishable food which would go to waste while we are away. So, I have had a cook up over the past couple of days.

Here is the result.

There are at least 4 serves each of Tuscan Bean Stew, Chickpea and Vegetable Curry and Mushroom Stroganoff. These are now all in the freezer for future quick meals.

I hope to squeeze in one more post before we go away but as always I will be posting holiday updates on my other blog.

Op Shopping Anywhere

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We have been in Adelaide for a couple of days this week. Shopping was not my prime focus but I did manage to pop into a couple of op shops when we were out and about. It is always fun to check out shops in different locations.

I found a lovely pale blue/lilac short sleeve top which will be perfect when the weather warms up a bit and it would work well under a jacket, too.

It was a short trip which you can read about here and we are now home again so blog posts should return pretty much to normal soon.

Updated Technology

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For several years we have had 2 laptops and we have taken the smaller one when we are out and about as well as when we have travelled both interstate and overseas. From time to time we have wondered about getting a tablet but never taken it any further.

A couple of months ago one of the hinge brackets on the smaller laptop broke but somehow or other the laptop still works. However, we cannot close it nor easily transport it. We enquired about having it repaired but the cost was almost more than a new device.

After a bit of research we ended up deciding on a Lenovo tablet which we are confident will be sufficient for our needs. It is considerably lighter than the laptop particularly for travelling.

Once we picked up the new tablet and unpacked it I realised how delicate and vulnerable the screen was so I decided that some sort of a case was going to be necessary.

So, I set to work with some fabric and materials from my stash. This was the result. It is not super fancy but it is functional.

A view of the inside.

Why a Wok?

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Last week we were doing the grocery shopping and I fell victim to the centre aisle in Aldi. For anyone who is not familiar with Aldi in Australia (and possibly elsewhere), the centre aisle is a relvolving door of special buys which include everything from furniture to homewares, garden supplies and clothing.

Anyway, I bought a wok.

It is not the first wok I have ever owned. Many moons ago I had a lightweight aluminium one, however, that went by the wayside and was replaced by a fancy ‘non-stick’ wok which had a small flat base which was more effective on the cooktop I was using at the time. That eventually was deemed unusable due to wear and tear on the surface and it was really too big for our current requirements for just the 2 of us. I have not had a wok for a couple of years but instead used a large stainless steel frying pan which was adequate at best.

It is now just over 12 months since we changed from gas burners to an induction cooktop. You can read about that here. I was fortunate to have stainless steel saucepans which work perfectly on the induction cooktop but the large frying pan from the same set would not work. I have a smaller cast-iron pan which I love but it is really not large enough for stir-fries so a debate about getting a wok or large pan ensued but with no clear outcome.

That was………until we walked into Aldi and GMan spotted this medium-sized stainless steel wok with an added steaming rack for $50.

Last night I made a vegetable stirfry which turned out perfectly. There will definitely be more stirfries, curries and risottos coming up.

This is the steaming rack which I have yet to try.

Cooking, Brewing, Bottling and Freezing

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It is nearly 2 weeks since the family came to visit and we celebrated a milestone birthday for our younger daughter. Thank you for your patience while I get back into the swing of regular blog posts.

There was afternoon tea and socialising with friends and family. Of course, there was cake!!

Dinner with the extended family. It was so good to be together.

So, now it is back to regular transmission.

Today was a busy one in the kitchen.

GMan bottled the latest batch of home brew.

He also started 2 more loaves of sourdough bread. These will be baked tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I had a large bunch of celery and a leek which I had bought earlier in the week with a plan to make soup. I ended up with 14 serves of celery soup and 12 of leek, poato and broccoli soup. It is really just leek and potato with the addition of whatever broccoli stalk I have in the freezer. Today there were 5 large stalks.

I also retrieved a bag of frozen cherry tomatoes from the freezer and made another batch of tomato sauce.

The links to the recipes for all of these can be found in the recipe index.

Here is the result of my handiwork.

All of this was done between 11am and 2pm to make use of the free electricity offer from our energy retailer.

Rewind and Replay

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This blog is hosted on the WordPress platform and about a month ago I noticed that my notifications now include reminders about blog posts that I made on a particular day in the past. Since this blog is now over 15 years old there is plenty of old material.

I have begun re-reading the old posts in the notifications and was fascinated to see this post from June 28th 2023. It is now 3 years later and I was doing exactly the same preparation for the same guests who arrived yesterday.

The bedrooms set up and beds are made. You will notice a few differences from the original post which was barely 6 weeks after we moved into this house.

The 2nd bedroom which is a designated guest room has had a change of bed in the intervening time.

The 3rd bedroom has a sofa bed which had previously been in the family room.

Finally, the 2 granddaughters are now of an age that they prefer not to share a bed so the air mattress is set up in the sewing room so that everyone has their own space.

We have quite a bit of family socialising and events coming up over the few days so I may be a bit quiet here until next week.

A New Favourite

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I have bought sunflower seeds in bulk for several years now as they are one of the ingredients in my home-made gluten-free muesli. Additionally, I discovered that I could use them to make vegan ‘sour cream’. Personally, I do struggle a bit to see the resemblance to sour cream, however, it makes quite a nice savoury sauce/salad dressing.

Recently, I have begun toasting sunflower seeds to use. You do need to be careful and stir them constantly or they can go from raw to burnt very quickly.

I generally toast more than I need and store them in a sealed jar.

The toasted seeds add crunch and a pleasant nutty flavour to salads and savoury dishes.

I make a crunchy topping which is a mix of flaxseed meal, toasted sunflower seeds and nutritional yeast and seasoned with black pepper and garlic salt. Then I add a small amount of grated cheese but you could omit the cheese if you want an entirely plant-based topping.

Tonight’s dinner was a pasta casserole with the topping to add some extra interest and nutrients.