Category Archives: Homemaking

Patience Pays Off

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A few weeks ago I wrote this post about cleaning up the workshop area downstairs.  One of the photos showed the old kitchen cupboards which we had been using as storage in this area for the last 7 years.  We decided that it was time for them to go as the chipboard was all breaking up and we had eliminated enough stuff to longer require them as storage.

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GMan cut the shelving into smaller pieces and broke down the cupboard shells and drawers.  We only have a half size (120 litre) wheelie bin so we filled it with the cut pieces each week for 4 weeks.

Now it is completely gone.

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The alternative was to pack it into the ute, drive 20kms to the nearest rubbish dump and pay about $15 to dump it.  The end result is the same – it goes to landfill, which is not ideal but there is really no alternative for this sort of thing.  However, we managed it at zero cost to us because we chose to take our time and dispose of it bit by bit.

Food as Fuel

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Sometimes I think food is over-rated.  Thanks to shows like Masterchef and others in the same vein, we have been conned into thinking that every meal needs to be a creation and cooking is a competition.

Cooking for your family is actually providing fuel for their bodies to perform the necessary tasks – nothing more, nothing less.

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing I love more than creating a special meal for family and friends.  However, we need to look past the hype of cooking shows and concentrate on what is important – nutritious food to re-fuel.

Tonight I want to show you what I am making for dinner.  It is not overly fancy but I know we will enjoy a wholesome meal made with basic ingredients.

Beef Casserole with Sweet Potato Mash, Broccoli and Balsamic-Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

I made the casserole a couple of weeks ago in the slow-cooker and divided it into 2 containers.  One container is 2 serves.  This has been defrosting since I took it out of the freezer this morning.  The sweet potato is already cooked and mashed from Sunday evening when I made a double quantity.

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I will serve this with steamed broccoli and the cherry tomatoes.

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I made the casserole using gravy beef (3 pieces), 1 onion (diced), 400g frozen cherry tomatoes (you can use a can of crushed tomatoes) and 1/4 cup homemade Worcestershire sauce.  Place all ingredients in the slow cooker on High for about 6 hours or until the meat is tender and breaks apart easily with a fork.  Add 1 heaped tablespoon of cornflour or arrowroot blended in 1/4 cup of water to thicken the mixture.  This can been done in the last hour of cooking or transfer the casserole to a saucepan and cook for an additional 5 minutes.  If you are going to freeze the casserole you may prefer to thicken it when you are ready to use it.

The sweet potato is mashed with some butter and a sprinkle of nutmeg for extra flavour.

To roast the cherry tomatoes place about 2 teaspoons of oil and an equal amount of balsamic syrup in a small pan with the tomatoes and place in an oven at 180C for 10 minutes.  If you do not have the oven on, you can do it equally as well under the griller for about 5 – 8 minutes on ‘High’.

The sweet potato and cherry tomatoes are both from our garden.

Here is the meal served and ready to eat.

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What is on your dinner plate tonight?

Welcome & the Work Begins

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This is just a quick blog post to welcome anyone who is new to the blog.  If you are here for recipes, be sure to check out the tab ‘Recipes – Food’ at the top of the page.  I have tried to add all of the recipes scattered throughout the blog to links on that page.  There will be more add all the time.

In other breaking news, the work on replacing some of the verandah boards and all of the railings as well as some concreting and a new entrance to the verandah will be starting tomorrow.  The will be some blog posts with photos coming up to show the progress.

This is what it currently looks like.

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Behind the Scenes

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Just because I have not posted very much recently does not mean there is nothing going on here at ‘The Castle’.

We have had 2 phone calls in the past 48 hours to confirm that some of our plans are coming to fruition.  The first was from a tree lopper to confirm that he will be here early next week to remove a couple of very large trees and mulch them as well as the smaller ones that GMan cleared recently.

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Once this is done we will be able to consider the next step in some of our long-term landscaping plans.

Yesterday we received a quote from the builder for the next major renovations.  This will include replacement of some of the verandah floorboards, new railings, cafe blinds and screening and gate to provide added security to the verandah area.  Some more concreting to finish the path near the steps and provide a base for an additional water tank will also be done.  We will discuss the finer details with him this weekend and hope that the work will be completed with the next couple of months.

It is great to feel that some of our planning to beginning to come to fruition.

Nothing Matches…….

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……..but at least it is tidy.  The workshop area contains a mish-mash of storage cupboards and shelving.  It does not look particularly pretty but is effective.

Yesterday was the last day of our long weekend and GMan decided to continue his goal of clearing up downstairs.  On Saturday he had swept and water-blasted the open concreted area under the house so yesterday he turned his attention to the workshop area.  I do not have any ‘before’ photos but here are a few shots of the end result.

The dismantled cupboards in the right-hand photo are from our old kitchen (renovated 7 years ago) which were repurposed as temporary storage.  They are now destined to be rubbish as the chipboard is all breaking up and we simply no longer need them.  GMan will cut them into smaller pieces and gradually dispose of them via our regular rubbish collection.

Cupboards and shelves were re-arranged.  Worn-out or useless rubbish were discarded.  Items no longer required were listed on Facebook Buy/Swap/Sell sites.  Bits of wood were cut up for firewood.

The area is by no means decluttered completely but we have got rid of some stuff, made sure similar items are stored together and generally know what we have.

As always, it is a work in progress but it feels good to have taken another step towards keeping only those things that we really need.

Luxury of a Long Weekend

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Thank you for your kind words after my last post and patience while I collect my thoughts.

This morning I woke and lay in bed contemplating the unusual situation of 3 days at home (it is a long weekend here in Queensland) and no commitments.  That is right – nothing, nobody, nowhere.  We had no plans.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love catching up with family and friends, entertaining and going places but it is such a novelty not to have anything planned.

The weather is cool and humid with showers of rain threatening.

GMan and I began by taking the outdoor table downstairs to clean it in preparation for painting.  Next, we have cleaned all of the concreted area under the house – swept, vacuumed and cleaned with the high-pressure water spray.

After using the outdoor vacuum cleaner GMan discovered that the filter bag was falling to bits.

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I decided that I could make a new one which appears to have been a success.

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Here it is attached to the lid of the vacuum cleaner.

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There are lots of other things we can work on and there will be more about those in upcoming posts.

I hope you are having a safe and relaxing weekend wherever you are.

A Replacement

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A couple of weeks ago we suddenly lost power in one section of the house.  After a bit of investigation, we discovered that one circuit had been tripped and it did not take long to locate the culprit – the sandwich maker.  Each time we plugged it in it tripped the circuit so we decided that after many years of faithful service it needed to go in the bin.

When an appliance ceases to work, it is a good time to review whether or not you really need to replace it.  Although we eat very little bread we decided that a replacement was necessary as we use this handy little appliance frequently.

Buckwheat pancakes

The thing I cook most on it are these gluten-free buckwheat pancakes.  I find they cook much better on this surface than in a frying pan.  I also use it for tuna patties, vegie burgers and meat patties.

I did my research and decided on another Sunbeam Cafe Grill.  I like the floating handle which is hinged in the centre and allows the top to apply even pressure across the whole plate rather than being hinged at the back.

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The new one is smaller than our previous one but that suits us.

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I am looking forward to making some pancakes this weekend.

Field Day, Freebies & a Film

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Just in case you think I spend all my time cooking, washing, ironing, mending and gardening this post is to tell you otherwise.

Yesterday we started the weekend much the same as most others – washing and kitchen chores for me and GMan mowing the front lawn.  However, we had a grand plan.

We headed out after an early lunch so that we could go to the local hardware store before it closed at 1pm.  They have an excellent nursery section and our plan was to buy some more blueberry bushes.  We are now the proud owners of 6 new blueberries ready to plant.  We continued further afield to Conondale where the council were holding a field day to showcase information about feral animals and weeds.  We gleaned some useful information on weeds in our area as well as the prevalence of wild dogs.  The best part was the 8 free trees we were given.

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The trees were all in small tubes, however, GMan has repotted them into slightly larger pots in the hope of getting them more established before we plant them out.  The area where we want to plant them is on the steep, fairly inaccessible escarpment at the back of our property where they will have to fend for themselves once they are planted.  No mollycoddling around here.

A loop drive through Kenilworth and the Obi Obi road took us back home via Mapleton and Montville.  We stopped at the cheese factory in Kenilworth where we bought a large (2.4kg) block of cheese and treated ourselves to an ice-cream.

Our final stop was at Montville Joinery to review the progress of the restoration of an old chest of drawers which Hans is working on for us.  This is the ‘before’ shot.

Chest of drawers

Once it is finished I will do a blog post showing the end result.

Last night was film night at the Maleny Film Society, where we saw a contemporary Australian film, ‘Saving Grace’.  While it is perhaps not the best film I have ever seen it was interesting with a couple of unexpected twists.

Dinner – BBQ Salmon

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Some of our meals are very inexpensive, particularly those based on eggs (from our own chickens) or vegetables and dried legumes.  At the other end of the scale, tonight’s meal might seem quite extravagant.

We had salmon which GMan cooked on the BBQ.  I buy the salmon from a large fish and chip shop in Caloundra and pay about $36/kg for it.  I buy 4 large pieces at a time and freeze them.  It works out at about $10 per piece, however, 1 piece is sufficient to serve the two of us.

Tonight I served it with sweet potato chips, cherry tomatoes and a creation which I call Waldorf coleslaw.  It is shredded cabbage, chopped apple and chopped walnuts tossed with some mayonnaise.

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The sweet potatoes and cherry tomatoes are free from the garden.  I mean totally free – they cost nothing to plant – both came up self-sown in the compost and they receive no supplementary water or fertiliser.  If I allowed $2 for the coleslaw I would be being generous.  So, we end up with a meal that cost $6 per serve.  While that is relatively extravagant compared to many of the meals I make and possibly out of reach for someone on a really tight budget, I am very pleased with the quality and content of this meal.