Day Out and A Door

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I went to Melbourne today as I needed to stock on on some of the dry goods that I buy in Melbourne – usually every 3 – 4 months. Graina at Moonee Ponds was my destination and I specifically chose to go today as each Tuesday there is a 20% discount if you bring your own containers. I think that is a pretty worthwhile incentive so I headed off with a list and a bag of containers of various sizes.

I also ventured to Footscray to Cheaper Buy Miles. There are stores at Footscray, Flemington, Fitzroy and Brunswick. The stock is end of lines, short-dated, unpopular flavours etc and varies from week to week. There is generally a good selection of gluten free and plant-based foods. The great thing about buying from here is that as well as saving money you are also doing something positive about saving stuff that would otherwise end up in landfill.

Today I picked up 3 x 350g packs of GF penne and 2 packets of GF crispbreads for the sum total of $7.

I caught the train to Melbourne then used the suburban train and trams to get to Moonee Ponds and Footscray before the train trip home. I was reminded of how easy it is to take familiar scenery for granted. This is a view from the train as we sped towards home.

The reason that I went by myself was that GMan needed to be at home as we had a carpenter coming to install a door at the end of the hallway. This will make it much easier to heat or cool the family/dining room and kitchen in the future as the benefit from the reverse cycle airconditioner will not be bowing directly down the hall.

There is still some finishing touches to be done on Thursday but I am really excited by this relatively minor alteration. It is going to make a significant difference.

What’s For Dinner?

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I do not often post our main meals these days as we mostly eat a selection of the meals already on the index. However, a couple of weeks ago I made a new creation which was a great success so tonight I photographed the steps when making it again.

CREAMY MUSTARD CHICKEN – serves 2

Ingredients

Half onion
Handful of silverbeet
1 chicken breast fillet
1 medium mushroom
250ml cauliflower white sauce** (recipe here) or you could use regular white sauce
2 spoons of mustard mayonnaise

Method

Finely slice the onion, cut and finely slice the silverbeet stalks. Shred the silverbeet leaves and slice the mushroom. Cut the chicken fillet into small strips. Cook the chicken lightly until cooked but not browned. (I cook the chicken in the airfryer). Set the chicken aside.

Saute the onion and stalks, add sliced mushroom and chicken. Cook for 5 minutes. Add cauliflower sauce and mustard. Finally, stir in the shredded silverbeet and cook for a few more minutes until the silverbeet is softened and the mixture is all heated through.

I served the chicken dish with mashed potato, carrots and green beans. It works equally well with rice which I chose previously or pasta could be another option.

Patchwork Prep

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Now that the last quilt has been completed and is with its new owner, it is time to show you my future patchwork plans.

I have been cutting out blocks ready for a quilt that is predominantly pink. It will be an 18th birthday gift for our elder granddaughter at the end of next year so I have plenty of time. I have about two-thirds of the total number of squares required. These all came from various pieces that were in my stash. Now that I have sorted out exactly what I have I know what I am looking for as I peruse fabrics and garments in the op shops. I am looking forward to getting started on sewing some of the blocks. However, unlike previous patchwork projects, I have decided that I am not going to actually start sewing until I have cut out all of the blocks I need.

Meanwhile, I have begun assembling some fabrics for another possible project. This is not much more than a vague idea at the moment but I am thinking of red, black and white.

Of course, my sewing is not limited to the patchwork. I am generally tackling several sewing projects concurrently. I also have socks to mend, a pair of denim shorts to modify slightly and several linen tops/dresses which I plan to refashion for summer. My other goal is to make some fabric tote bags to donate to our local community pantry for people to use when collecting groceries.

Birthday Lunch & Harvest Time

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I mentioned in my last post that I had been cooking.

We hosted lunch on Sunday for GMan’s birthday. There were 17 of us altogether and I did almost all of the preparation beforehand.

Here is a list of what we ate.

NIBBLES

Raisins
Spiced peanuts*
Dips – beetroot, tzatziki, hummus*
Cheese – brie
Biscuits – water crackers, GF crackers, pita chips

HOT SNACKS

Mini meatballs*
Kofta balls*
Potato wedges*

Sour cream
Tomato sauce*

MAINS

Green chicken curry*
Beef casserole*
Rice

DESSERT

Mulberry and apple crumble*
Ice cream
Cream

The spiced peanuts and tomato sauce are homemade pantry items and wedges were made on the day but everything else that I made was prepared in advance and either refrigerated or frozen. This made for relatively easy catering.

There are very few photos, however, here are a couple from when I was making the dessert.

I retrieved about 1kg of mulberries that had been in the freezer since December. I think we picked and froze about 6kg. It is great to have them to use at other times.

The mulberries and apple combined and ready to be refrigerated. I made the crumble topping and froze it. I assembled the crumbles and popped them in the oven on the day.

It is great to eat seasonal produce but it is fairly easy to store some things for a treat in the off season. It is difficult to imagine this mulberry tree laden with fruit but that is exactly what it will be like in another 4 months. It is in a public space in our town and the fruit is appreciated by many.

Meanwhile, there is abundance of citrus everywhere at the moment. These grapefruit were being given away.

So, I made more marmalade. That should keep GMan supplied with breakfast condiments until next winter.

A Spot of Sewing

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Food preparation and cooking has been my main focus for the past few days as we prepare to host a birthday lunch for GMan on Sunday. There will be more details about what is on the menu in a future post.

Today I managed to do a bit of sewing in between the cooking. I had noticed that the covers on a couple of the spare pillows were looking a bit stained and generally less than ideal. So, I decided that it could not be too difficult to replace them.

The first step was to carefully slit the end of the cover and remove it. The inside of the pillow is simply no more than a compressed bundle of microfibre filling in the appropriate shape.

I used the old cover to cut a new piece of fabric from some offcuts of sheeting in my stash and stitched 3 sides before carefully replacing the pillow inside.

The end was then pinned.

Finally, I stitched and finished the seam with bias binding.

The 2 revamped pillows in their pillowcases and back on the bed.

Birthday Boy

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Today has been a bit of a mixed bag.

We went to Bendigo after lunch. First up, I had an appointment then we did the shopping. We went to the supermarket, greengrocer, bottle shop and butcher as well as filling the car with fuel. Most of the shopping was for a special lunch I am preparing for Sunday.

You see, today is GMan’s birthday.

Tonight we went out for dinner and on Sunday we will be celebrating at home with a small group of extended family and friends. The festivities look set to continue intermittently over the next 4 months as we catch up with other friends and family who can’t be with us this week.

Finished and Delivered

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I have been working furiously over the past couple of days to finish handsewing the binding on the quilt. I had set myself a deadline as we were going to visit our daughter today. It is no mean feat to hand sew tiny stitches around 8 metres of binding but it is now all done and the quilt is firmly ensconced with its new owner.

Here is the final result.

Apparently, someone else thinks it is pretty good too.

Now that I have completed that job I can turn my attention to a few other jobs around the house that need doing.

Back In Town

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It is 3 days since we arrived back in Australia from our overseas trip. We were away for 4.5 weeks and visited Scandinavia 9Denmark, Sweden and Norway). I know that a lot of you followed our adventures but if you have not seen the blog here is the link. https://mobilecastle.wordpress.com/

Meanwhile, life is beginning to return to normal here. Bags are unpacked and everything mostly put away. One load of washing done and meals prepared. GMan is making bread. Yesterday we did some shopping. The bonus of a comfortably stocked pantry and freezer is that it was really only milk, cheese and fresh fruit and vegetables that we needed.

Yesterday I was occupied dealing with some admin work as a result of some of the mail that arrived while we were away. Today I have been working on hemming the binding on a quilt. I need to have it finished by Saturday and it is a long way around a queen sized quilt with tiny hand stitches. It will be worth it when finished. I hope to show you the finished product in a couple of days.

There is not too much exciting for blog photos so this is our dinner tonight. I made a big pot of bolognese sauce and the remainder will go in the freezer for future meals.

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.