Monthly Archives: September 2015

A Blast from the Past

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Last week I had lunch at a local cafe and I chose a salmon and dill tart which was listed as gluten-free.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the base was actually rice!  I remembered a long-forgotten recipe which I used to make that was exactly the same except mine used tuna rather than salmon.

You could use any variation of a quiche filling that you wish but this is the idea for the base which is simple and gluten-free.

A quantity of cooked rice – about 1 – 1.5 cups and 1 well-beaten egg.  Stir the egg into the hot rice and press into a pie/flan dish.  Chill until firm then fill and bake as per any quiche recipe.

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No Visible Change

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I have finally made it to my sewing room and done a small project.

This is one of 4 dresses that I own which are all the same style.

They are perfect in every way – except one.  The do not have any pockets.

001I have another dress that I bought recently and to my delight it has 2 large set-in pockets which are really handy but totally invisible.  This made me realise that it would be a simple project to add pockets to the existing dresses.

The first pocket is done and I am very happy with the result.

002Here is a view looking into the pocket.

003Finally, this is the inside of the dress.

004While this may not be feasible in a tight, fitted dress it is certainly easy in a dress with some fullness below the waistline.

I wear these dresses to work and as I am in an open office I tend to listen to music with earphones on my iPod.  I can leave the iPod on the desk but it is much easier to have it in my pocket so that it comes with me whenever I jump up from the desk to go to the printer/photocopier etc.  Handy to pop a handkerchief in, too.

Do you look for pockets in garments?

Bulk Cooking

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Since there are only 2 of us to cook for, I do not prepare huge quantities of food but it is nice to have a few meals planned and prepared.  The other factor that influences my decision is that I prefer to use the oven efficiently when it is turned on.

Yesterday I sorted out what was lurking in the freezer and decided that this week we would eat what I could make using freezer and pantry ingredients.  I should really only need to buy some fresh fruit and vegetables.

I started by making gluten-free pizza bases.  I par-cook these in the oven then freeze them for later use.

Here they are ready to freeze.  I have some old cereal packets which I use to separate the bases when they go in the freezer.

002It is simply a matter of adding the toppings and cooking in the bench-top pizza-maker.

005Next, I decided to make some gluten-free muffins which turned out to quite acceptable using a standard recipe and simply substituting gluten-free flour.  I made 2 batches – orange, walnut and sultanas in one and the other were banana, walnut and mixed spice.  The catalyst for these were the sad looking banana that I rescued from the fridge at work on Friday and some orange pulp I found in my freezer.

004At the same time I made some gluten-free wraps for lunches.

003These are cooked in a hot, dry frying pan and can be stored in the fridge for a few days.

A pack of sausages which had been left in the freezer by our house-sitters were grilled and sliced then made into a sausage casserole which made 4 serves.

005I usually cook a bulk amount of dried red kidney beans in the slowcooker and freeze them in portions ready to use.  I found a pack in the freezer as well as a pack of diced beef so I put them in the slowcooker with frozen cherry tomatoes from last season, frozen diced onion and some spices to make 4 serves of chilli beef.  That bubbled along all day while I was doing the other cooking.

So, I have the basis of 15 serves of dinners, 6 serves of lunches and 20 muffins.

Do you cook more than one meal at a time?  A big occasional cook-up, perhaps?

Swap and Share

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One of the things that I constantly feel is lacking in our society today is the willingness and ability to share and co-operate with people in our wider community.

Today I headed into Maleny as I had a few things to do.  Since it is a 16km round trip I try to make sure that I make the travel worthwhile.

Before I left home I gathered up what I needed.

Some eggs to swap.

003Clothes to take to the recycle boutique where thy are sold on consignment.

001Some pieces of fabric for my sister.  She is making a costume for a school event.

002First I met up with some other keen gardeners and swapped the eggs for some worm juice.

004This can be diluted 1 :10 in water and used as fertiliser on fruit and vegetables.  My seedlings will get a boost.

Next, I headed to the recycle boutique but sadly it is closed on Thursdays.  I have left the bag of clothes in the car and will take them on Saturday.  I have also made a note to remember the opening hours in future.

Finally, I met my sister and we had a leisurely lunch at the Upfront Club.

When I came home I replaced the buttons on the sleeves of the coat that my sister gave me last week.  You can see that the buttons are not identical to the ones on the front opening, however, they tone in nicely.

005Also in the spirit of sharing, we have Air BnB guests arriving on Saturday for 3 nights so I have made up the bed in the guest room and made it ready for their arrival.

A Prime Minister

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As usual with any blog posts which deal with politics, I offer the following disclaimer.

WARNING:  This post is a political piece which contains my personal opinions.

2015-09-23This article by Meshel Laurie was written almost 2 years ago but I have only just discovered it.  It captures my feelings perfectly and I only wish that I had written it.

Will we ever have another Prime Minister who has the courage of his or her convictions and who is prepared to make decisions for the future good of Australia rather than simply eyeing off their own re-election?

Red, Recycled & Revamped

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It is definitely spring-cleaning time and it seems that many of us are taking a long, hard look at what is in the wardrobe.

i 001This is a gorgeous, lightweight trenchcoat that my sister retrieved from her wardrobe recently.  She offered it to me as she admitted that it was really a bit too big for her and she had never felt entirely comfortable with it.  The coat fits me perfectly and being the perfect shade of red made it doubly attractive.

She did point out that the buttons on one sleeve had been damaged with one completely missing and the other one broken in half.

i 002I went to Lincraft in the city today and found some buttons to replace them with.

i 003They are the same size and style as the originals but are plain red rather than a variegated red/black as the others are.  I am going to replace all 4 buttons on the sleeves and while they will be slightly different to the ones on the front opening, I don’t think that is going to matter.

I am looking forward to doing the necessary repairs so that this coat is ready to be a really useful addition to my wardrobe.

This is the sort of positive story that is happening every day when you choose to let go of things that are not quite right and languishing in the cupboard.  There is someone out there for whom it will be perfect.  They may be a family member, an op shopper or someone looking on eBay or even a Facebook Buy, Swap, Sell page.

And Now He is Gone

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WARNING:  This post is a political piece which contains my personal opinions.

Australia has a new Prime Minister.  Tony Abbott is gone and Malcolm Turnbull is now the leader of this country.

2015-09-15 01There has been much written about this change and the merits or otherwise.  Regardless of political allegiance we all deserve a national leader who is articulate and can represent this country appropriately on the world stage.  Tony Abbott did not.  Here is a sample to illustrate my point.

The Cupboard was Bare – Not Really

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We arrived home early this morning after an overnight flight from Singapore.  I had pretty well cleared out the refrigerator before we left and shopping was the last thing on my mind this morning.  The house-sitters had bought fresh milk for us and GMan made a loaf of bread.

This afternoon I began to think about what we might have for dinner and I really was not in the right frame of mind to go grocery shopping shopping so I decided to make do with what we had on hand.  There were sausages in the freezer as well as some pre-cooked rice and diced raw onion.

I grilled the sausages and then sliced them up. Next, I fried the onion in the pan, added 1/4 teaspoon of chilli powder, sliced celery (from the garden) and a broccoli stalk which was also lurking in the freezer.  A can of tomatoes and 5 olives which was all that was left from a jar in the frig completed the sauce.  I added the thawed rice and sliced sausages and heated the mixture before putting it in a Pyrex dish.

2015-09-13 01I topped it with a mixture of grated cheddar and parmesan cheese mixed with flaxseed meal and ground pepitas and popped it under the grill for a few minutes.

2015-09-13 02Since we had not bought any fruit and vegetables today,  I served it with a generous helping of kale from the garden which I chopped and stir-fried with a sprinkle of chilli powder and squeeze of lime juice.

GMan and I ate one half of this tonight and the other half has been divided into 3 serves for my lunches this week.

Happy Birthday

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On this day, 33 years ago my life changed forever with the arrival of my first-born child.

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There was no internet, Skype, Instagram or Facebook.  We did not even think to take a photo while in hospital.  This is the first photo of our newborn daughter at 7days, once we were home from hospital.

It seems like yesterday but so much has happened in those intervening years.

There have been highs, lows and plenty of challenges but I am so proud of what she has achieved and the woman she has become.

2015-09-03 02Happy Birthday, darling and best wishes for an amazing future.