Category Archives: Homemaking

Introducing Friday Favourites – Best Banana Cake

4 Comments

Today is the beginning of a new feature, ‘Friday Favourites’ where I will share one of my favourite recipes.  I hope to include a photo as well as the hints, tips, variations and shortcuts that are what makes a ‘tried and true’ recipe so appealing.

How often have you made a recipe that simply does not live up to the description or the photo which attracted you to it in the first place?  Here is an opportunity to bypass the less than stellar successes.

Streamline and simplify your cooking and recipes, then you will be more inclined to cook.  Remember the line, “whip up a batch of scones”?  It was what women of my grandmother’s generation could do when company was imminent.  The recipe and method were simple, ingredients always to hand and they knew the recipe off by heart.  I do not pretend to be able to make scones so I will stick to what I can do well.

It seems that there as many banana cake recipes as there are people in the world and I feel as though I have tried most of them.  In my opinion this one is as good as you will get.

BANANA CAKE

1/3 cup oil
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed banana (2-3 bananas, depending on size)
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 cups plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup milk

Beat oil and sugar until smooth.  Add beaten eggs, one at a time then beat in mashed banana and vanilla.  Sift flour and combine dry ingredients, add alternately with the milk and stir until mixed well.  Pour into a greased, lined loaf tin.  Bake at 180 degrees for 45 mins or until an inserted skewer comes out cleanly.

That is the recipe, now for the reality.

This is a great recipe and it can be made using 2 utensils – a mixing bowl and a wooden spoon.

I do not sift the flour – in fact I do not own a sifter!

I use 1/8 cup of skim milk powder mixed with the dry ingredients and add ½ cup of water in lieu of the milk.

The eggs are not pre-beaten before I add them at the same time.

I use an empty butter wrapper to line the base a halfway up the side of the tin.  I keep used wrappers in the refrigerator specifically for lining cake tins.

The cake may be iced with your choice of frosting but it is just as nice plain.  I slice and freeze the cake in a container in the freezer.  Individual slices can easily be removed for snacks or packed lunches.

Enjoy and have great weekend.

Christmas, Birthdays, Anything……..

Leave a comment

The byline for this blog is ‘An organised, sustainable life’.  Perhaps you wonder where the link is between organisation and sustainability.  If you think about it, the connection is there every day in everything you do but never is it more obvious than in the lead up to celebratory events such as Christmas and birthdays.

Tomorrow we will be going to Miss O’s 4th birthday party and I have been planning and preparing her gift.  Here is a dress that I have made for her.

2011-11-26 01The fabric has been in my stash for a couple of years, the facings are scraps from a dress that had been unpicked, the buttons (originally used on a dress for Belle about 20 years ago) came out of the button jar and I bought 20cm of contrast fabric for the pockets.

We bought a wooden jigsaw puzzle from Amazen.  They have a shop at Montville, which is about 15 minutes drive from us.  The range of quality children’s toys and games in excellent.

2011-11-26 02I made a bag to store the puzzle pieces as it does not come in a box.

2011-11-26 03Once again, this was created entirely from scraps.  I think it looks really effective and hope it will be useful.

I wrapped the gift using recycled paper and ribbon that I have saved.  I made a card using some white card and an offcut of the paper.

2011-11-26 04Being organised means that you can easily locate items that have been stored for future use.  Equipment is easily accessible.  Planning ahead is essential if you do not want to be rushing to the shop and grabbing something at the last minute.

It is 4 weeks until Christmas so now is definitely the time  to think seriously about preparations for Christmas.  I have already tested a couple of recipes for things I am making as gifts.  Tomorrow I will start the ginger beer plant so that the finished product is ready for Christmas.  I will share the details of that in my next post.

Now I am off to make up a platter that we are taking to a ‘Christmas drinks and nibbles’ function this evening.  It will include balsamic dipping sauce from the recipe I posted the other day and guacamole made with our own avocadoes.  I made sure I picked some avocadoes earlier in the week so that they would be ripe for today.

What have you done to get organised for Christmas?  Will it minimise the last-minute rush and inevitable overspending that seem to go hand-in-hand?

Make Your Own Condiments – Part 2

1 Comment

As promised, here is the recipe for another sauce you can easily make.  This is an excellent replica of the specialty product which is marketed as balsamic glaze, balsamic syrup or ‘aged’ balsamic.  I cannot take the credit for the recipe as it was posted by Mimi on Simple Savings.

Here is the recipe:

BALSAMIC SYRUP

500ml balsamic vinegar
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup port

Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.  Simmer gently until required consistency is reached (approximately 30 minutes).  Watch carefully and stir regularly to ensure it does not catch or burn.

Cool and pour into small jars or bottles.  This makes an excellent gift and a list of uses could be attached.

Here are a couple of serving suggestions.

A small quantity in a tiny dish with good-quality olive oil makes a perfect dipping sauce.

Mix with orange juice for a marinade for chicken.

Drizzle over your favourite salad.

It is a great addition to the festive menu and I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

Salad, Saving & Sewing

2 Comments

I finally finished the summer pyjamas for Miss O.  Here is the top.

And the pants.

On Tuesday I went out to lunch with some of my work colleagues.  In the interests of both my waistline and my purse I opted to have the salad.  For $15 I had a full-sized plate of 3 different salads – noodle, green bean and Greek salads.  The flavours were delicious and it was a substantial meal.

After lunch I went to Lincraft to look for some buttons.  I have a piece of linen fabric that I bought a couple of years ago  and I want to make a summer top that buttons down the back so I wanted some really special buttons for it.  I used all the money I saved on my lunch and more when I bought 5 buttons for $2.82 each.

This is the fabric and buttons.  The fabric is pure linen with a pattern embroidered in gold thread.  I think the fabric was about $25 and the buttons were $14.  While this seems extravagant it is still much better value than buying a blouse of similar quality.

I will make the blouse when we get back from our holidays.

Crafting for a Reason

3 Comments

When I read today’s post at Down to Earth I realised that much of it rang true for me.  None more so than this section where Rhonda writes:

“Many of the older readers here would know that I don’t consider craft to be a hobby. For me it’s part of my housework. I sew, mend and knit so we have good quality and long wearing scarves, cardigans, jumpers, hats, dishcloths, tablecloths and napkins. I see that as part of my homemaker’s work, not a hobby. Back in my great grandmothers’ day, making clothing and woollens for the family was part of almost every women’s home tasks. Somehow those tasks where either moved to become separate hobbies or were not done at all. They still hold an important place here, I still do all of them, still enjoy them, and they’re a part of my work.”

Any craft that I do is almost exclusively for practical purposes.  I remember being invited to join a patchwork group some years ago.  I probably could have been a bit more tactful but my response was along the lines of, “Why would you cut up perfectly good fabric so that you can sew it back together again?”  I also reminded my friend that I had had quite enough sewing to fill my days making clothes for all the members of my family.

I am appalled by the amount of time and money that is spent on useless and impractical craft materials such as patchwork fabric.  Patchwork evolved as a way of making use of every last bit of fabric, often being unpicked and re-made into other items.

Here are a couple of examples of making the most of scraps of material.

I made this bag last week using the facing from the hem of a dress.  You can read more about it here.  Scroll down towards the end of the post.

Here is a photo of Belle (in 1993) wearing a patchwork jacket I made using up scraps of sweatshirt fabric.  I sewed the scraps together to make a large piece of fabric and then cut the pattern pieces out as if it was a normal piece of fabric.

Do you do any practical crafts?

 

UFO’s

3 Comments

I haven’t posted for a few days as I was determined to clear my sewing room of some of the unfinished projects.  Some of them were physically started and not completed and others were just in my imagination and not even started.

Anyway, here  are some of the finished items.

Shorts for Izz.

And a pair for Miss O.

This is another pair of shorts for Miss O using a different pattern.

This playsuit is one that I didn’t finish when Miss O was a baby (I did make 7 others) so it will be donated to charity.  Perhaps they will be able to use it in Christmas gifts.

A tiny blouse for my niece for her birthday.

And a pinafore to go with the blouse.  This is made from the leftovers of the pinafore I made for Miss O earlier in the year.

A summer blouse for myself.  I have had the material for 2.5 years and started making it last summer.  This is a tried and true pattern that I made from a purchased blouse.  I have made several using the same pattern.

This is not strictly something that I made.  I bought this dress for Miss O a few weeks ago at an op shop for $8.  It is ‘Fred Bare’ brand and in excellent condition.  There were a couple of small stains which were removed using Sard Wonder soap and a good wash.  The hemline is scalloped at the sideseams and had a facing which was pulling away in places.  I removed it a replaced it using plain fabric.  I salvaged the facing fabric and used some of it to make this matching shoulder bag.

It is a great feeling to have a collection of finished items ready for use rather than half-finished projects and fabric taking up space.

I still have several things to do including a pair of summer pyjamas for Miss O, dress for Belle and 2 polo shirts for The Duke.  I have drafted the pattern for the pyjamas from an old Enid Gilchrist pattern book and am about to start cutting them out.

What unfinished projects do you have?

Through a Child’s Eyes

1 Comment

I mentioned yesterday that this simple living can be darned hard work – gardening, planting, harvesting, preserving, storing and cooking from scratch – not to mention the million and one other things that need to be done.

A sure-fire way to rejuvenate the enthusiasm is to see the ‘chores’ through the eyes of a child.  Our granddaughters stayed here this weekend and spending an hour or so in the backyard with them was a sheer delight.

2011-10-02 01Collecting the eggs.

2011-10-02 02Checking out the onion patch.

2011-10-02 03Splitting open beans to retrieve the seeds.

2011-10-02 04The excitement of finding a bean seed.  We will be letting them dry out and saving to replant.  We have also saved snow pea seeds.  Miss O had fun sorting the bean and pea seeds into separate containers.

2011-10-02 05Helping with the harvest.

There were lots of other things that did not get captured on film.  Pulling up the spent broccoli and cauliflower plants and dragging the up to the compost bin as well as pulling the old snow pea vine off the trellis.

Miss O helped me cook and we made a fruit slice with passionfruit icing as well as currant, orange and poppyseed muffins.  The girls took some muffins home to put in their lunchboxes for daycare tomorrow.

I also managed to get a little sewing done.  2 pairs of shorts are finished.  Here they are on the models.

2011-10-02 06And the second pair.

2011-10-02 07It is a pleasure to see the sheer delight on the faces of my grandchildren when they can help with the jobs we do every day.  I am reminded that what I am doing is ‘right’ and I look forward to sharing many more things as they get older.

What We Have

Leave a comment

One of the principles of living simply is to make the most of whatever you happen to have.  Sometimes doing this is jolly hard work, especially when you are holding down a full-time paid job as well.

The harvest from our garden recently has been excellent but that has meant that I have a responsibility to use and store it safely and not let things go to waste.

I have made cauliflower and bacon soup.

Juiced and frozen many litres of grapefruit and lemon juice.

Prepared grapefuit for The Duke for breakfast.

Made more lemon cordial.

2011-10-01 04We have also been eating broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and snow peas as part of our dinner almost every night.

I was given about 30 apples at work the other day so those have now been stewed and frozen.  I will use them in apple pies and crumbles.  Here they are ready to go in the freezer.

2011-10-01 05I am struggling to find enough containers to freeze  everything.  I think I will need to get some more at some stage.

What do you do when you have a glut of a particular fruit or vegetable?


Thrifted and Gifted

Leave a comment

In my post on Thursday I showed you the fabric and buttons I had for a sewing project I hoped to do on the weekend.

I have spent the day sewing and have almost finished the dress, along with some other things.

Here is the dress – I just need to finish stitching the yoke facings and turn the hem.

When I was with Belle yesterday she commented that Miss O and Izz needed more shorts for summer and asked if I would be able to make some.  So, today I sorted through my fabric and found enough to make 4 pairs of shorts.  They are not finished – still need waist casing and elastic as well as hemming the bottom of the legs but here they are so you can see what I have been doing.

And some stripes….

Frills on the bottom……

Pink pockets…..

All of these things were made with fabric that was left over from another project and saved in my stash or gifted from my mother, mother-in-law or friend.

I have also set aside two more pieces.  This one is left from the pinafore I made for Miss O and will be enough to make a pinafore for my niece.

I plan to make some summer pyjamas for Miss O with this piece which was also given to me.

Finally, Belle bought this Fred Bare dress for Miss O from the op shop for $8 yesterday.  It needs a little repair to the hem where the fabric has pulled away from the stitching but otherwise it is just perfect.  Thanks, Duchess for the tip about the shop.

A New Idea and a New Toy

2 Comments

It is now 6 months since I began this blog.  A couple of previous efforts had fallen by the wayside for a variety of reasons but I was determined to make this an ongoing project.  I decided that the best way to make blogging a habit was to do it every day.  I have managed to stick to my plan pretty consistently except for while we were on holidays and a couple of other glitches.  Therefore, I apologise for the lack of posts in the last couple of days.

I have decided to reassess how I go about maintaining my blog, keeping it interesting and relevant for those who read it and still find time to go to work and do the very things that provide the basis of my blog posts.

So, from now on there will not necessarily be a post every day, although sometimes there will be.  My goal is to generally have 3 – 4 posts each week with a minimum of 2 posts each week.

I know how frustrating it is to go to a blog and find that there is nothing new since last time you visited so here is my suggestion.  Go to the ‘Email Subscription’ on the right-hand side of the blog and click the button marked “Sign Me Up”.  This means that you subscribe to the blog and will receive an email each time there is a new post.  You can change the settings in the future if you wish.  Alternatively, you can be friends with me on Facebook and you will see each new post that I make from the Facebook page.

Thank you for your interest in the blog and comments.

And now, the new toy.Kitchen Aid mixer

This is my Kitchen Aid mixer which I got a couple of years ago.  One of the reasons I chose it was because I could purchase additional attachments which run directly from the driveshaft.  My main interest was the pasta maker attachment. The Duke did all of the research on the internet and found the best price of $285 which compared favourably with the initial price on the Kitchen Aid site of $349.  Whilst it seems like a lot of money I feel confident that it will be worthwhile.

Today the parcel arrived.

So it was time to unpack.

There are 3 attachments – lasagne roller, fettucine cutter and spaghetti cutter.

I have made my own pasta previously but found that the manual pasta maker was too difficult and time-consuming – not to mention that it ended up breaking.  Hopefully, these will be a great success and I will never buy dried pasta again.  The bonus is that I will not have the packets which are non-recyclable.

Watch for a post when I make the first batch – perhaps on the weekend!