The Power of One

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Posted on January 22, 2013

This morning I opened a drawer in the sideboard – it was empty.

Surprised? I was about to put away the things that I store in it – the vinyl cloth for the outdoor table and the net food cover. The drawer was empty because I had been using these items and I only have one of each of them.

This started me thinking about other things of which I only have one. Do I need more than one of them? Are there things that could be reduced to a single item?

Here are some things that I own a single item whereas I know many people have multiples.

Dress
Washing basket
Pillow per spare bed
Television
Sheet set for for single bed and trundle bed
Camera
Mascara

I have also managed to just have 1 bottle each of conditioner and shampoo. We both use the same and have no need for an array of fancy specialist products.

I am working towards having 1 bottle of body lotion and 1 lipstick (have 2 at the moment) but that will take time as I prefer to use things up rather than just toss them for the sake of it.

We are not so good with other things, such as:

2 laptops as well as a desktop computer
2 sets of good tablemats
2 mops
3 hammers (all the same size)
I could go on but this just gives you an idea of some of how easily we can acquire (and keep) multiples of various items.

What is limited/streamlined at your place and what seems to multiply?

Doubled-Up No More

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Posted on January 15, 2013

We have been given a large number of titles for our Kindles so on the weekend I decided to check if some were double-ups of hard copies that we already owned. Sure enough, there were over 80 books that we already had on our bookshelves.

Here are some of the books which we will be letting go. It will mean less to store, dust etc. We will even have some empty shelf space.

I have listed some of the books to give away on a couple of sites including Freecycle but have not had any luck.

If any of my Australian readers have suggestions as to where I can give them away where they will be appreciated that would be great. In fact, if you are interested in any and live in south-east Queensland or are prepared to pay postage please let me know and I can send you a list of the available titles.

Tomatoes – Tall Tales and True

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Posted on January 13, 2013

Six months ago I watched on wistfully as my Northern Hemisphere blogging friends struggled to bottle, preserve and freeze their abundance of tomatoes. It was winter here, and although the ground is not covered with snow, it was far too cool to be thinking about growing tomatoes, let alone harvesting them. I hoped that my turn would come, and sure enough, it has.

A couple of weeks ago I made tomato sauce and blogged about it here.

As well as the wild cherry tomatoes we are growing Roma tomatoes for the first time and they have been a runaway success. The next tomato project I decided to try was tomato paste. As usual, I found several recipes on the internet, compared them and then made it to fit my available ingredients and quantity of tomatoes. The site which I referred to most is here. You will see that I used much less oil than suggested. Also, please remember not to mix up pounds and kilograms. I used 5 kgs which is 11 pounds.These are 4kg of Roma tomatoes which I picked yesterday.

And another 1kg of cherry tomatoes which I had in the freezer.

I roughly chopped the Roma tomatoes.

5kg tomatoes, 125ml olive oil and 1 & 1/2 teaspoons sea salt into the stockpot and simmer for about 10minutes.

Then it is time to put all of the liquid and tomatoes through a food mill.

All of the liquid and puree went into a large saucepan and the skins and seeds into a separate bowl to be discarded.

Simmer the liquid for 1 – 2 hours or until reduced and thickened.

Pour the thickened puree into shallow oven trays and bake in the oven at 180C for 30 minutes and then for another 30 minutes at 140C.

Check the mixture about every 15 minutes and be sure to stir any caramelised bits on the edge back into the middle of the puree.

Transfer the paste to hot, sterilised jars. Be sure to tap the jars to remove any air bubbles as you pack it in. Place the lids on the jars and process in a hot water bath for 30 minutes. For your health and safety, please refer to more detailed instructions about hot water bath processing.

Remove the jars, allow to cool and check that the vacuum seal is intact before storing them.

This is an easy but somewhat time-consuming process. It is a great way to be able to store a large quantity of tomatoes for later use. 5kg of tomatoes made these 6 small jars plus a couple of spoonfuls that I have in a container in the refrigerator which will be used in the next day or so.

The harvest continues. Here are more that I picked today and there are still heaps more of the Roma tomatoes on the bushes.

Finally, here are the first 2 full-sized tomatoes that I have grown for several years with plenty more to come. I cannot remember what variety they are. They have some imperfections but those can easily be removed.

And one final photo for Mrs Thrift from Not Just Green Fingers who asked how we managed to garden in the heat we are having. I live in an area of Australia where we have a more temperate climate due to the elevation and also a good rainfall. In fact it is sometimes more than we need. However, the last 6 months have been particularly dry and very hot for the past week. The tomatoes and red peppers have coped well but with more hot weather forecast I decided to rig up some protection for them today. The main covering is a large piece of shadecloth which came from my parents’ home. It has timber frames at each end and eyelets in the corners so was very easy to attach to the star pickets at the corners of the fence. The extra piece is an old curtain (very thin) which is covering the peppers.

Despite the heat we are still managing to produce some of our own food. There are plenty of chillies, we also have figs and peaches. The fruit are unfortunately attacked by fruit fly but I salvage what I can even if it is just one bite. I am going to see if I can rescue enough peaches to perhaps preserve a bottle or two to enjoy in mid-winter. The first cantaloupe was picked yesterday because the side that was touching the ground had started to rot. It was a little early so not superbly full-flavoured but I diced it up and mixed with some locally grown pineapple was very enjoyable for breakfast.

Do you have anything growing in you garden at the moment? How do you cope when you have a glut of a particular fruit or vegetable?

Look forward to hearing your comments.

Clear The Clutter

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Posted on January 6, 2013

I have spent several years gradually decluttering in an effort to simplify my life. I am not sure what the end point of this journey looks like, or even whether there is a destination. Since I have most areas in my house fairly clear and streamlined, I am certainly at the point where it is easy to recognise potential clutter before it becomes entrenched.

It is important to identify things before they become clutter. An example is a plastic water jug that was in our refrigerator. It had obviously developed a hairline crack because I discovered a pool of water on the shelf where it was standing. Until yesterday this was a perfectly functional item in our kitchen, today it will not hold water which is what I use it for. So, I have thrown it in the garbage. Some people would suggest that it could be used to store/display non-liquid items or be refashioned into something else. I am all for minimising the amount of stuff that goes to landfill, however, I do not need this jug for any other purpose other than holding water, so out it goes.

Do I need another plastic water jug? I am trying to use more glass and less plastic in the kitchen so my plan is to look for a suitable glass jug. It is not desperately urgent so I may check out the op shops when I have time.

My sewing room is one area where I still have quite a bit of ‘stuff’. I am gradually working through it so tonight I did a little more. Just before Christmas it was a bit of a mad flurry to get the sewing table (folding) cleared so that I could fit bedding for 4 children in this room. I have previously resisted stashing things away without sorting them properly but as time was limited I carefully folded the remaining fabric and half-finished projects into 2 lidded boxes. I put the boxes in the wardrobe but as soon as Christmas was over and the table re-instated I brought the boxes out and placed them on the table as a reminder to me that I had to sort through the contents.

There are several garments which I had bought from the op shop last year with a view to using the fabric for my patchwork. I had begun unpicking this blouse which was in the box so I decided to finish that job.

Here is the material that I have for use in my patchwork project.

The buttons have been salvaged and are now in my button collection.

The scraps of fabric have been discarded.

I now have 1 less thing in my ‘to do’ pile. Here are another couple of garments which are the next things I plan to deconstruct and use for patchwork.

By having the things confined in a box I can easily see that I am making progress in clearing them out.

Do you have a particular room or type of items that present a decluttering challenge to you?

A Saucy Tale

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Posted on December 31, 2012

Yesterday I picked 2 kg of cherry tomatoes from the bushes that grow wild in various parts of our garden.

Firstly, I removed the stalks and rinsed them and then added the 1.5 kg that were already prepared and frozen from a couple of weeks ago. It was time to make some tomato sauce (ketchup). The recipe is super simple and is written near the end of this post.

Home-grown cherry tomatoes have a very short shelf life so unless you are feeding an army, it makes sense to freeze the excess immediately or otherwise they go to waste rather quickly.

You will need a large saucepan or stockpot depending on the quantity of tomatoes that you are processing. Mine is a stainless steel one with a heavy base which helps to stop the food burning. This is important because by their very nature, most jams, pickles and preserves have a high proportion of sugar. Many of the old-style preserving pans are aluminium, however, I do not use aluminium for perceived health reasons.

Apart from the tomatoes, you will need a few other ingredients.

Here is the recipe.

TOMATO SAUCE

Ingredients

3kg ripe tomatoes
15g whole cloves
15g whole allspice
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
250ml vinegar
375g sugar
60g salt
500g onions

Method

Place the cloves and allspice in a muslin bag. Roughly chop the onions and tomatoes. Place all ingredients in the stockpot and simmer for approximately 2 hours, stirring regularly. Remove spice bag and discard. Strain or process mixture in a blender to required consistency.

Return mixture to a clean saucepan and bring to the boil for 5 minutes before pouring into warm, sterilised jars. Seal jars and store appropriately.

Notes

When using cherry tomatoes for this recipe there is no need to chop them.

I used chilli powder instead of cayenne, powdered instead of whole allspice and I always use raw sugar. The powdered spices and raw sugar tend to make the finished product slightly darker.

I use a hand-held stick blender to process the mixture. Whatever method you use, be very careful when handling the hot liquid as it can be unpredictable.

The original recipe can be found here. It is also in Sally Wise’s book, ‘A Year in A Bottle’.

This is a tasty tomato sauce which bears no resemblance to the commercial varieties. Enjoy!

A Year in Review

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Posted on December 30, 2012

Here we are, almost at the end of another year and as usual I try to take time to think about what I have done and my plans for the new year.

I was looking back at some of my posts from around 12 moths ago and although I have achieved a lot this year, some of my lofty ideals did not come to fruition. You can check out my goals here. The photo project was an epic failure but everything else (and much besides was done).

The organising for Christmas also fell by the wayside but it was all achieved before 25th December. My goal is to do better in 2013.

The important thing when you find that the achievement did not measure up to the goal you set is to simply pick yourself up, dust off and try again. That is what I love about a new year – it is a clean slate.

I have my 2013 diary and have resolved to use it properly this year instead of cluttering my brain with 1001 things I have to remember. An Excel spreadsheet is set up to record our spending so that we can see where the money goes. The emails are sorted/deleted/archived/actioned/unsubscribed as required and I will keep this up-to-date each week.

Our holiday in March is planned and booked.

How was your 2012? What do you plan to achieve or do differently next year?

A Green Christmas – Gift Bags

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Posted on December 17, 2012

We celebrate Christmas and exchange gifts while still trying to remain true to a reasonably simple, low-consumption lifestyle. It can be be so easy to get swept up in the hype.

This year I am doing my bit for the environment by shunning the wrapping paper and choosing to make reuseable cloth bags from Christmas fabric which I bought in the sales last year.

Here are a couple of gifts already packaged.

I have made a range of sizes in a few different fabrics.

It will be good not to be collecting up armfuls of ripped wrapping paper to go in the recycle bin on Christmas morning.

Gift Giving

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Posted on December 15, 2012

Even though I do not buy many gifts it can still be a challenge to find the perfect gift. I try to make choices that fit with my values and will be truly appreciated by the recipient.

This year The Duke and I have agreed that we are not buying ‘stuff’ for each other and that our trip to the USA was our gift to each other.

Belle, Missy and my immediate family will receive a combination of money, home-made goodies and Oxfam Unwrapped gifts. These are well worth checking out if you are not familiar with the concept.

Blanket

Miss O and Izz have more than enough toys and clothes so I bought them each a special Christmas ornament when we were overseas and also a couple of cloth badges. I have recently given them the camp blankets which belonged to Belle and Missy when they were younger and collected badges. Their main gifts are experiences rather than stuff – tickets to shows. I will take Izz to see a stage production of Hairy McLary and Miss O to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. These will both be in January and I am really looking forward to sharing the joy with each of them.

At work our team (about 10 of us) used to do a Secret Santa but a couple of years ago we all agreed that it was really unnecessary and we would make a donation to World Vision using their gift catalogue. We have lots of fun choosing what animals we will ‘buy’.

I feel that my gift-giving will not just add more stuff to people’s lives but make a positive contribution in several ways. It has also meant that I have no need to spend hours trawling the malls with a million other stressed shoppers so I am happy about that, too.

Made to Measure

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Posted on December 9, 2012

There are all sorts of things that you can make to measure. Clothes are just one of them.

Today I modified a game so that is more suitable for our granddaughters. Miss O is keen to play a game of ‘Animal Memory’ which we have had since our children were small. There are 36 pairs of matching cards which feature adult and baby animals which need to be matched up. She manages quite well, however, tends to lose interest after a while so I have decided to modify it slightly.

I sorted the cards and selected 18 pairs for each set and placed them in ziplock bags. We now have 2 smaller versions of the game. These can be combined later on if we choose.