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Dinner – Tumeric Chicken

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This was on the menu plan for last week but got bumped as I did not have time to marinate the chicken.

The original recipe is for chicken skewers cooked on a barbecue.  Here is the recipe.

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As with most recipes, I have adapted this to suit our own requirements.  Since I am cooking 1 chicken breast fillet to serve 2 of us this is what I do.

I make up a bulk amount of the spice mixture (dry ingredients) using the proportions in the original recipe.  I use considerably more of this mixture than the recipe as I found it very light on flavour if you use the quantity stated for 2.5kg of chicken.

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In my version there are 4 ingredients.

20ml olive oil
Juice of 1 lime
1 chicken breast fillet (diced)
1 and 1/2  tablespoons of pre-made spice mix

Mix all ingredients thoroughly.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

You can use lemon juice but lime is better.

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Fry in a pan with a little oil until cooked.

I serve mine with brown rice, vegetables and fresh cherry tomatoes.

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Loads of Laundry

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We live in a relatively high rainfall area and I have written before about the challenges of getting the washing done, and more importantly, getting it dry.   I do have a clothes dryer but choose to use it as little as possible.  Apart from the power required to run it, the wear and tear on your clothes is significant and can result in substantially shortening their lifespan.

Despite the high humidity and showery weather, I needed to do the washing today.  Much like women of previous generations, I spent the day doing the washing.  However, I was not slaving over a scrubbing board and copper.  I was kept busy trying to make the most of the intermittent breeze and small snatches of sunshine.

I hung some of the smaller items on the airer.

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I had to race out and move it under the verandah every time a shower of rain started but I did manage to get it dry.

The rest of the clothes were hung on the line under the verandah.

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I also did the ironing from the washing I did last weekend.  When the atmosphere is so damp, I do not like to put them away in the cupboard until they are absolutely dry.

I use the portable dehumidifier in the bathroom and close the door.  Within a couple of hours the room and the clothes are warm and dry.

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I also have a portable rotary clothesline and in the cooler months I hang washing on it and the airer and set them up in the lounge room in front of the fireplace.

There are many options for drying clothes.  What are your creative solutions?

Simple Style

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Welcome to those of you who have discovered my blog for the first time this week.  I hope you are enjoying the recipes but please take some time to search through the almost 5 years worth of posts related to simple living which encompass sewing, gardening, decluttering and organisation.

A break tonight from dinner recipes and photos.  We had sausages, salad and sweet potato chips.  You need neither a recipe or photograph for that, although I will do a future post on oven-baked sweet potato chips -Yum!!

Sometimes you realise that you have embraced simplicity quite unconsciously.

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I bought a new pair of glasses recently to wear when working on the computer.  They are the black framed ones at the front of the photograph.  I did not notice until I arrived home how similar they were to my existing glasses that I wear all of the time.  I had bought them a few months previously and when I looked closely at the two pairs together they are the same brand and a very similar shape.

When I considered this, it made sense.  I have been wearing glasses for 44 years and have worn numerous styles, some of which did not suit me at all.  These days I can walk into an optical store and dismiss almost all of the frames on offer in a single glance as I know what suits me and I choose accordingly.  Buying frames is really no different to any other fashion choice – know your style and stick to it.

What I Wear – 2 Month Update

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At the end of November I wrote this post outlining my plan to track what clothes I wear.

It is now 2 months since I began this project on 1st December.

I listed every item of clothing that I own on an Excel spreadsheet.  I included scarves but not socks, underwear or pyjamas.  The list started at 90 items, then increased to 95 during December when I bought 5 new tops.

In the past 2 months I have worn 65 of the 95 items listed.  Most of the unworn ones are winter woollens and coats/jackets.

I have now discarded 3 pieces so am back to 92.  They were this pair of trousers which i finally ripped beyond repair, an old polo shirt when I realised I had more than enough gardening clothes and a dress.  When I was ironing the dress, I discovered it had a tear in the centre front of the skirt.  I had bought it from a recycle boutique, had plenty of wear out of it and was not devastated to let it go.  It was the black and white dress second from the left hand end of the rack.

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I returned to work on 4th January after 2 weeks break.  My work outfits are not substantially different and a lot of the separates are also worn for casual wear.  The exception is shorts – I do not not wear them to the office.

We have had a week or 2 of hot weather and more coming up.  At this time of the year my outfits are very simple and straightforward.  There is limited opportunity for mixing and matching.

Today is a summer dress and sandals.

You can follow my daily clothes posts on Instagram.

More Holiday Shopping

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We have been home from our holiday for 3 days now and it is over a week since my last post.

I hope you all had a relaxed and happy Christmas, wherever you were and whatever you did.  We had a delightful day which we shared with our daughters and some festive food but did not over-indulge.

The other shopping I did on my holiday was a little more planned than the random collection from my last post.  I went to my favourite shop in Melbourne, Rivette & Blair, where I replenished my supply of tops.

The are all simple styles and basic colours that will mix and match with existing pieces in my wardrobe.

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A simple v-neck black and white tee.

The same style in plain red.

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3/4 sleeve red with scoop neck for cooler days.

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Both of the red ones are waiting to be ironed.

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Plain black linen with pleats at neckline.  This is the same style as 2 spotted tops I already had.

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Finally, a loose navy v-neck top in very fine polyester.  It is super light and cool.

I look forward to sharing the different ways I wear these as I mix and match with shorts, trousers and skirts.

Christmas Cheer

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Unlike some other years I have written very little about Christmas this year.

We decided not to put up the tree this year as we will be away for Christmas.

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Yesterday we had a small Christmas celebration with my immediate family as we will not see them on Christmas Day.  We went out for a casual lunch, then went to the local playground so that our 2 granddaughters could use up some excess energy.  Finally, we adjourned to my brother’s place were we shared some sweet nibbles and drinks while we opened our gifts.  It was a low-key but perfect day.

The only thing that I had not done was send cards/letter/emails.  This afternoon I sat done and wrote a generic letter, added a couple of relevant photographs and sent it off to various corners of Australia and overseas with a couple of clicks.  I still have a small number of cards to post and I will do that tomorrow and hopefully they will still arrive in time for Christmas.

I am not sure how many blog posts will happen over the next week so I will take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a safe and peaceful New Year.

 

Tomato Trial

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I apologise for the break in posts but my computer access has been somewhat curtailed due to some repairs to the main computer.  It is all resolved, thanks to the local computer shop, and we are back in business.

Today I want to share my latest success in preserving our bumper harvest of cherry tomatoes.

After removing the stalks and rinsing the tomatoes, I blitzed them in the blender.

My dehydrator has solid sheets for making fruit leathers so I poured the resulting puree onto the sheets.

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Here is the same tray after drying for about 8 hours.

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I removed the dried tomato and broke it up.

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It was quite leathery and pliable so still had some moisture.  I returned the pieces to the dehydrator and dried them some more.

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Finally, I ground the dried pieces in the blender and this is the result.

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From a couple of kilos of cherry tomatoes I have 1 jar of powdered tomato concentrate.  This can be blended with water to make tomato paste which I can use on pizzas or added directly to casseroles or soups.  I am sure there will be a hundred and one uses for it and the great part is that I have a single jar which stores easily in the door of the refrigerator.

What I Wear – First 2 Weeks

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It is almost 2 weeks since I began my latest project of keeping track of what I wear.  The purpose of this exercise is to identify what (if any) clothes just hang in my wardrobe without being worn.  I don’t think there are any that fall into this category but I want to prove that to myself.

Since I began recording what I wear each day (via Instagram), I have worn 4 different dresses, 2 skirts, 4 tops and 5 pairs of shorts/trousers.

The weather has been quite changeable so the jeans and 3/4 sleeve top from last Friday were set aside when the weather became quite hot during the week but today has been cool and wet so I was back in the jeans and top.  In fact, tonight I have even dragged out my polar fleece jacket which has not been worn for several months.  Conversely, the shorts and top from last Sunday were worn again yesterday when it was 34C.

I have one more week at work before 2 weeks of holidays so it may well be the New Year before I repeat any of the outfits I have worn to work so far.

This is one of the dresses I have yet to wear this month.

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My next challenge will be working out what I need to pack for 6 days in Melbourne over Christmas.  I will leave my final decision until the day before we travel so I have a better idea of what the weather is likel to be while we are there.

I am working from the rather slow laptop as we have some issues with the desktop computer so posts may be somewhat intermittent until we get that sorted out.

Breakfast

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I am working from home today and I had time to try out my new blender for the first time.  I decided to make a green smoothie for breakfast.

Here are the ingredients all prepared and ready.

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There is kale, celery and an orange from the garden, pineapple which I had already chopped so it is probably a bit smaller than necessary, 2 cubes of frozen passionfruit pulp.  This was from our vine a few months ago.  The small bottle contains powdered ginger.  The root ginger came from my sister’s garden and I dehydrated and ground it.  I added a teaspoonful to my smoothie.

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Loaded into the blender and ready to go.  I added about 300ml of water.

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The end result.  I had a large glass of this for breakfast and have enough for tomorrow as well.

This was an easy and successful introduction to my new, high-speed blender and I am looking forward to using it to create many more healthy options to add to our diet.

Weekend Washing

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You all know the never-ending cycle of housework – washing, ironing, cooking and cleaning.  That seems to be the routine every weekend as I ready myself for the week ahead.

This weekend was all about washing, and not just clothes, although I did that as well.

I washed my car which is a fairly rare occurrence.  It positively sparkled in the sunshine by the time I had finished.

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Then GMan and I washed 3 sides of the exterior of the house.  The long side which faces the street and the 2 ends are done and we will tackle the long, back wall next weekend.  The part that we have done is relatively easy as there is verandah on those 3 sides so access is not difficult.  The last side is a different story as the house is high-set at the back.  We will assemble the scaffolding to reach this part.  It takes a lot more time as you constantly need to move and re-position the scaffolding along with climbing up and down but it will be worth it.

Finally, I washed and cleaned all of the kitchen windows.  There will be more to do once the back wall is cleaned but it is definitely a job worth doing.