Category Archives: Homemaking

Made to Measure

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I am always open to new ways of preparing or cooking food to simplify the process.

Since buying the airfryer about 18 months ago I have successfully modified my cooking methods for several recipes. One of these was zucchini quiche which I have converted to mini quiches made in the airfryer using muffin rings.

I recently took this a step further and made them in a muffin pan. Of course, a full-sized muffin pan does not fit in my small airfryer so I said to GMan that I needed to get another one so that he could cut it down to size. I had imagined that I might find one in an op shop but I did not even have to go that far. We were walking the dog one day and noticed a pile and goods on the verge to give away. Yes, it included a somewhat rusty muffin pan. GMan clean it up and cut in into some smaller sections that now fit in the airfryer.

I was very pleased with these zucchini muffins I made yesterday.

There will be no stopping me now. It will be so easy to whip up a small quantity of muffins fresh at anytime without having to heat the huge oven.

A Dog’s Day

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During the past few days my time has been consumed by some admin work I am doing for a local community group so it has not really been suitable material for a blog post.

However, today I got back to some serious mending and it was all about our dog. She is now nearly 4 years old and has lost many of her destructive tendencies but a few persist.

We bought her a small foam couch 12 months ago when we moved here and it had remained intact until a couple of days ago. She was in the sewing room in the sun when GMan discovered her latest antics. A significant piece of the fabric had been destroyed and there were several small pieces of foam being chewed off. I was not pleased at this apparent brain snap. Anyway, I have hand-stitched a decent-sized denim patch to cover the damaged area and I hope we do not have a repeat performance any time soon.

The other project was to revamp her bed which was definitely looking much the worse for wear.

That is actually the second version in almost exactly 2 years. You can read about the first one here.

It is just as well that my fabric stash includes a number of quite heavy upholstery fabric pieces so it was a simple matter of finding another suitable piece to make yet another new cover.

Here it is – ready for bedtime.

Winter Winners

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We were out and about today in a town about 40 minutes drive from home. The purpose of our visit was see 2 different exhibitions about nursing and midwifery which were of particular interest to me. One was in the local museum so we also saw other local historical memorabilia. We also caught up with some extended family at a local cafe.

Since we were walking down the street between venues I spotted an op shop so we decided to check it out. They had a lovely selection which was nicely displayed. GMan found a white tshirt which had been on his ‘to buy’ list so I was just idly waiting while he tried it on when I spied a coat. It was red. Be still my beating heart.

This vintage red duffle coat is all I could have hoped for. It is wool/cashmere blend, fully lined, made in Australia from Italian fabric. A perfect fit and cost me $20.

It has definitely been a successful week of op shopping. When we were in Bendigo on Wednesday I bought a red wool blend jumper for $6 which also appears to be a vintage piece as well as a long sleeve shirt which is white with navy spots in a soft cotton fabric for the princely sum of $2.50. It will be more suitable for spring than winter, though.

My other purchase which does not rate a photograph was a king-size doona cover for $8 which I unpicked so that I could use the back of it for the backing of the recently finished patchwork quilt. I took that to be quilted today so I should be able to show you the finished product in a week or so.

Nearly Finished & A New One

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Today I sewed all of the patchwork blocks together.

My next step is to contact a lady who has a longarm machine to do the quilting. Once that is done I will bind the edges and the quilt for our daughter will be complete. I am hoping that I will have it done in the next 2 weeks so that it is finished in time for her birthday.

I am already planning my next project which is a similar quilt for our elder granddaughter. My goal is to have it done for her 18th birthday which is at the end of 2025. I know that sounds a long way away but it does take time to source suitable fabric and cut the squares before you even start sewing the blocks. Of course, I don’t work on them consistently as there is always other sewing to do as well cooking, gardening and simply having a life.

I have made a start by finding the precut pink fabric I had on hand as well as beginning to cut some larger pieces. I need 378 5 inch squares to make a QS quilt.

Do you have any long-term craft projects that you return to from time to time?

42 Finished

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This morning I completed the last stage of the final seven blocks for the patchwork quilt I am working on for my daughter.

The pile of 42 blocks does not look particularly impressive for the amount of work that went into them

However, the work is more evident once they are all spread out. The next step was to adjust the blocks to get the best balance of colours and patterns.

I think I am happy with this layout.

Flowers and Food

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Late autumn is well and truly upon us and in fact the apparent temperature at 7am this morning was -0.3C. This is the first time I have seen it dip below 0C this year. However, it is beautiful and sunny with a forecast maximum of 18C today so it seemed like a good time to head out to the garden and get stuck into some jobs.

First up was planting the sweet peas which I had nurtured from seed. They had been outdoors overnight for the past couple of weeks to acclimatise and harden off before planting.

There was a fish pond in the back garden when we moved here last year. Actually, our first year anniversary in this house was last Friday. Anyway, the fish pond has been dismantled and the area is going to be a herb garden. However, I have seconded a strip at the back for the sweet peas. The main reason is because there is a paling fence with chicken wire on the inside which will be a perfect trellis for the sweet peas.

Next were the lettuce seedlings which had come up self-sown from some plants that went to seed last year. I have about 30 of varying sizes. I will keep some and plan to sell some punnets of lettuce seedlings at the next LETS market.

Last weekend I bought a large pot containing several rhubarb crowns from LETS. I divided them today and added to the single rhubarb plant which I have had for several months. This bed will hopefully become an abundance of rhubarb in time.

Finally, the brassica seedlings seem to be almost doubling in size overnight. I have now covered this bed with fine netting to keep the would-be predators away.

I am happy with what I achieved in a couple of hours this morning and look forward to reaping the rewards of food to eat and beautiful flowers in the coming months.

An Original Design

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My sewing project today was rather different from anything I had done before.

When we left Queensland GMan sold his large mulcher which was very useful for our small acreage with plenty of vegetation but he could not see a use for it on a suburban block. Nevertheless, he found a need for a smaller version so bought this one secondhand several months ago.

It does have a minor design flaw and the mulched material tends to spray everywhere. So, he asked me to make a ‘skirt’ to direct the mulch into the collection receptacle. I have been considering this rather bizarre request for a few weeks and today I finally came up with a plan.

I found a pair of heavy denim shorts in my collection of assorted discarded fabrics and (mostly) unwearable garments. The fabric was integral to their suitability for the project and GMan’s comment was, “you could just use one leg” gave me the general idea.

This was what I ended up with. I used the waistband of the unused half of the shorts to make the straps. The straps fasten around the legs of the mulcher and are attached with 2 velcro strips.

It is not the fanciest sewing I have ever done but I think it is going to be effective.

This photo shows the new ‘skirt’ in place on the mulcher.

I am pretty happy with the end result and it cost me nothing apart from about 30 minutes of my time. We will see how it works when GMan next uses the mulcher. Some modifications my be required.

A Bunch of Basil

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I grew a very successful crop of basil during the summer.

I made some pesto early in the season and also used some of it fresh. However, it is now going to seed and taking up space that I want to use for winter crops so it is really time for it to go. Yesterday I picked an armful of the younger shoots, stripped the leaves and rinsed them.

This haul was 4 tightly-packed cups of basil leaves so it was time to make more pesto.

Here is my recipe.

BASIL PESTO

4 cups basil leaves, tightly packed
7 tablespoons sunflower seeds
4 cloves garlic
1 lemon, juice and rind
5 tablespoons nutritional yeast
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Place the basil, sunflower seeds and garlic in food processor and process until finely chopped and combined. Add the lemon juice, rind and nutritional yeast. Process until thoroughly combined. Gradually add the olive oil until desired consistency is reached. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I have chosen to replace the traditional ingredients of cheese and pine nuts with nutritional yeast and sunflower seeds which makes this recipe not only gluten-free but also nut and dairy free.

It was rather exciting to know that I had used basil, lemon and garlic which I had grown as well as locally produced olive oil.

A Replacement

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We recently purchased a new pizza maker as our old one had finally ceased to work properly. I am not sure how old it was but we had definitely had it for more than 8 years. When we first bought the original pizza maker it took about 3-4 minutes to cook a pizza with toppings. Over time this gradually increased until it was taking 7-8 minutes and then finally was not cooking them properly at all. In fact, the dough tasted uncooked which was definitely not our preference.

So, we decided to replace the appliance as it gets well-used and is an efficient use of electricity rather than heating an entire oven. After a bit of research we chose one that is the same size as the original but with some slightly upgraded features.

Better positioned handles that minimise the risk of burns. Also, a glass window in the lid so that you can observe the cooking progress.

A removable pizza stone insert which makes cleaning a bit easier. However, it does not get washed – merely scraped or brushed to remove any debris.

A couple of stainless steel paddles which make it a breeze to lift the pizza in and out of the oven.

We have used the new pizza maker twice so far and I am very pleased to once again have a perfectly cooked pizza in 3-4 minutes.

I know that single-purpose appliances generally get a bad rap as they are expensive to buy, a nuisance to store and only suitable for a very specific purpose. However, we really enjoy making our own pizzas, I have plenty of space to store the item, it is an efficient use of electricity and for me, this is definitely a worthwhile purchase.

Choice Chutney

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I recently encountered a new ‘problem’. Here in central Victoria the weather had definitely turned quite cool. Summer is well and truly behind us and I was left with an abundance of green tomatoes. This never happened in Queensland as tomatoes literally ripened all the year round.

It was time to remove the tomato bushes so that we could reuse the garden bed so I harvested the tomatoes and found that I could use them to make chutney.

The first step was to wash them thoroughly.

I then sliced the tomatoes and layered them with the diced onion and sprinkled with salt. Then I covered the bowls and left them to stand overnight.

This morning it was time to make the chutney.

GREEN TOMATO CHUTNEY

Ingredients

2.5kg green tomatoes, sliced
500g onions, finely diced
1 tablespoon salt
500g sultanas
500g sugar
500g apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1100ml vinegar, I used half white vinegar and half apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
30g ground allspice
30g ground cloves

Combine all ingredients in a large stockpot/preserving pan. Simmer gently for about 3 hours. I used a stick blender sparingly to mash the tomatoes a bit more. I kept the pot covered for about 2 hours and then removed the lid for the final hour.

The mixture should be rich, thick and caramel coloured.

Spoon into hot, sterilised jars. This recipe yielded 12 jars so the pantry will be well-stocked.