Pantry Overhaul

6 Comments

Even though my pantry was reasonably organised, I decided to give it an overhaul today.  I had noticed that there were a few things stashed in containers at the front of the shelf that needed to be used or relocated.

This is what it looked like before I started.

2012-02-12 01The photo does not show the top shelf which has 2 tubs of glass jars – ones with pop-top lids in one tub and those without in the other.  I sorted all of the jars, made sure they all had lids, labels had been removed and were ready to be used when I need them.

I took a lot of the stuff out and re-arranged the jar storage system so inevitably things looked a lot worse before they got better.  Here is a view of the kitchen earlier this afternoon.

2012-02-12 02And more….

2012-02-12 03To add some interest to my day, The Duke announced at lunchtime that there were 3 branches that needed trimming of the lime tree but they were laden with fruit.  He was prepared to leave them for the time being but since the tree is never completely dormant I decided now was as good a time as any.  I picked a 10 litre bucket full of limes and cut the offending branches off.  So, in the midst of the pantry project I juiced the limes and have frozen them – some in ice-cube trays and some in 400ml blocks.

I moved a couple of things from the pantry to the sideboard so we cast a critical eye over the contents of the sideboard.  The Duke and I agreed that a few things could go.  A true minimalist would probably get rid of almost the entire contents but that is not my style.  However, it is good to refresh your memory of what is actually stored and I have resolved to use some of my ‘good’ things more regularly.

My op shop bag is now full and ready to go when I am next going to town.  I also have a bag of a few items for Belle.  I always offer anything which I think may be useful to my daughters before I consider sending it to the op shop or Freecycle.  However, they understand that there is no compulsion for them to accept it and I will not be mortally wounded if they say no.

I have finally finished revamping the pantry and this is the result.

2012-02-12 04Bottom shelves

2012-02-12 05I threw out a couple of bits of foodstuff – a few crumbs of powdered mustard in a tin that must be at least 10 years old, some jam that had gone mouldy and a handful of glace cherries that  were over 12 months old and were all dried and shrivelled.  I had about 3 bottles with a tiny bit of oil in each so that was all decanted into the current bottle.

I now know that everything in the pantry is useful, in working order  or fit to be eaten.  I also know exactly what is there and can work on using up some of the odd items which are not part of my regular basic stores.

Friday Favourites – Date & Ginger Loaf

2 Comments

This is my variation on a gingerbread recipe I have had for years.  It is a soft, cake-like gingerbread, not hard, biscuit-style gingerbread.  The recipe came from my mother but I do not know any more about the origin of it.

GINGERBREAD

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1 cup treacle
1 cup hot water
2 and 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped dates

Cream the butter and sugar, add egg and beat well.  Combine water and treacle.  Combine all of the remaining ingredients except the dates.  Add the treacle mixture alternately with the dry ingredients.  Finally, mix in the dates.  Pour into a greased, lined tin.  Bake at 170 degrees for 45 – 55 minutes.

2012-02-10 02The original recipe did not have the dates in it.  This is a versatile cake as it can be served as a dessert  with custard, sweet white sauce or caramel sauce.  It is also makes a nice cake for morning tea.  I usually slice it and add to our packed lunches.

2012-02-10 03

Remember Lazy Brownie?

Leave a comment

Early in January, I wrote a post about my Christmas plans for 2012.  It is here.

As I suspected I did not get everything done on 25th January as planned but I am making progress.  Here is what I had on the list.

January

  • Sort and file Christmas cards and letters – DONE
  • Make sure any contact details are updated in address book – DONE
  • Update Christmas card list – DONE
  • Set up complete contact list for 2012 e-cards – NEEDS A BIT MORE WORK

In conjunction with updating the contact details in my address book I embarked on another project which took me a couple of weeks.  I have made sure that I have current contact details for all of my friends and relatives in my physical address book as well as my email contacts address book and my mobile phone address book.  The Duke checked that he had the relevant ones in his mobile phone and we also have some that we need at our fingertips in the home phone speed dial.  Now all I have to do is make sure that I update all locations when I am given new contact details for anyone.  I really hope that I keep on top of this issue as I do not want to have to do the sorting and cross-referencing of the past couple of weeks.  The memory of that should be enough to keep me on track.

2012-02-09 01I have also been doing some sewing today and have finished making the first 2 of my Christmas gift bags.  They are not for anything or anyone in particular but my aim is to have a collection in a variety of sizes so that I will have one suitable for whatever the gift happens to be.

2012-02-09 02

Take One Pair of Trousers

9 Comments

I have a pair of ¾ length lightweight travel pants that I bought about 8 or 9 years ago.  I have been wearing them for some time with a patch just below one knee, however, the fabric around the patch has given way, too.  I love these trousers as they are really comfortable and have several deep pockets.

I decided to salvage what I could from them.  The latest buzzword seems to ‘upcycling’ but you could call it ‘refashioning’, ‘making do’ or just plain ‘thrift’.  I cut the lower legs off and was left with a pair of knee-length shorts which just needed hemming.  Since they are an existing garment I know that the fit and function of them will be perfect.

002The bottom of the legs had drawstrings so I removed them and they will be used for the drawstrings in two of the Christmas gift bags I am making as they match the material rather well.

003There were a couple of button tabs on the lower legs so I removed the buttons to add to my collection.

008All I had left was the lower leg pieces.

005So I cut them into strips to use for tying up plants in the garden.

006Here are my ‘new’ shorts and nothing else has been wasted.  I hope to get a few more years wear from them.

007I would love to hear your thrifty/upcycling stories.

A Precious Resource

4 Comments

When we think of resources many would think of water, electricity or the minerals in the ground.

For those embracing a simple life, one of the greatest resources is time.  Time to make your food from scratch, time to repair your possessions, time to refashion clothes, time to spend in the garden growing your own food and so on.

Time is a valuable resource and it is in our best interests to use it wisely.  As some of you would know from previous posts, I am not a great fan of multi-tasking.  Nor do I expect that we should be ‘doing’ something all of the time.  Taking time out to just ‘be’ is as important as any task.

Sometimes it is worth looking to see if you can identify time which is just being wasted.  For me it would be the 2.5 hours I spend travelling on the train each day.  I often use the time to write my blog, reply to emails, plan menus for the week or update my diary.  Sometimes I knit or do some hand sewing.  Today I have redone the hem of a dress for Missy.  I also stitched the facings down as they had tend to roll out otherwise.

Do you have any windows of time in your day that you could use to take the pressure off what you try to fit into 24 hours?  Perhaps it is while waiting to pick up children from school or a sports event?

Garden Planning

5 Comments

After a few weeks of mostly wet weather, our vegetable garden is pretty well non-existent.  While the weather was fine on the weekend, I took the opportunity to examine what is left.  The cucumbers, zucchini and tomatoes all need to be pulled out.  There are a few corn growing and I don’t know whether the cobs will mature but I will leave them for the time being.  The same goes for the button squash which have weathered the wet conditions much better than the zucchini.  There is Greek basil still going under all the weeds so that will stay.  The cherry tomatoes are wild and threatening to take over the garden.

I also was able to pick some figs.  There are a lot more on the tree so I am hoping to get enough to make some fig jam (my favourite) and perhaps to try drying some as well.

2012-02-06 01Next weekend I hope that the weather is fine and we will remove all of the old plants and start preparing the beds for our winter crops.  It is time to get some more mushroom compost again and hopefully some mushrooms as a bonus.

Although it is still most definitely summer it is time to get prepared as we have a relatively short and mild winter.  I will be planting onion and leek seeds this week as it takes about 10 – 12 weeks before they are ready to plant out and that takes us through till the beginning of May.  Although I have grown onions successfully in previous years, our winter is not long enough for the tops to die down and dry off.  I have to pick the onions with the tops still green so they do not store well.  I have diced and frozen the onions previously but this year I hope to dehydrate at least some of them.

I checked the seeds that I have to see what else I need to buy.  I keep my seeds in a container in the refrigerator.

2012-02-06 03I buy my seeds from Green Harvest so am going to spend some time checking out the catalogue.  Fortunately for me, Green Harvest are located in Maleny, near my home so I can pick up my order in person.  I need more broccoli seeds and am going to try to grow cauliflower and cabbage from seed as well.  I may have another go a growing carrots which are my nemesis.

2012-02-06 02My ideal is to plant my first crop of broccoli seedlings around St Patrick’s Day (March 17th) so I want to get the seeds planted as soon as possible.

Squirrel It Away

4 Comments

I have had a very productive weekend.  Following on from yesterday’s post about the Tabasco sauce I wanted to show you my other achievements in the kitchen.

The bell chillies were dried and the 4 trays of sliced chillies ended up reducing to this.

2012-02-05 01I then ground them in the spice grinder attachment for my food processor.

2012-02-05 02This is what I ended up with.  45g of powdered chilli – grown about 20 metres from the back door with no chemical sprays.  The smaller jar is the residue after I had sieved it mixed with some avocado oil.  I will use the chilli oil to add a little bit of flavour when cooking.

2012-02-05 03Today we went to the Caboolture Markets.  I bought the fruit and vegetables that I needed as well as 9kg of tomatoes.  These were being sold for 99c/kg so I filled my Ecosilk bag.

2012-02-05 04I decided to make tomato pasta sauce that I will be able to use in a variety of ways.  The ingredients are tomatoes, onions, basil, tomato paste and red wine.  The onions were from our crop last winter which were diced and frozen, the basil from the garden, tomato paste and red wine from the cupboard.

I forgot to take any photos as I was working flat out to get this done this afternoon but here is the end result.

2012-02-05 05The sauce in the plastic containers will be frozen and the jars of sauce were processed in a hot water bath so they will be stored in the cupboard.  This was my first attempt at processing anything in a hot water bath.  I am confident that it has worked well as the pop-tops have all been vacuum sealed.

I am definitely going to do some more research and learn more about this method.  It means that I can preserve food without using the freezer and being reliant on a consistent supply of electricity.  There is also a small matter of available space in the freezer, too.

Any tips or recommendations of resources on preserving would be appreciated.

A Chilli Kind of Day

1 Comment

I went down to the garden this morning to pick the bell chillies. Here they are ready for me to slice and de-seed them.

2012-02-04 01While I was picking them I noticed the other chilli bush which I call Birdseye chillies.  I have never picked or used them as I am sure they would be too hot.  The bush looks pretty in the garden, especially as the chillies ripen.

2012-02-04 02Here is the bush after I had picked most of the red ones.  I decided to check Google and see if I could make Tabasco sauce as I knew I was getting to the point where I would need to buy some more.  Sure enough, there are dozens of recipes on the internet so I decided to try it.  From the photos I saw on the internet my bush is what are called tabasco chillies in the USA.

First I covered my hands with a couple of bread bags and secured them with rubber bands.

2012-02-04 03Then I set to work.

2012-02-04 04Here are 4 trays of sliced and de-seeded bell chillies ready to go in the dehydrator.  Once they are dried I will be grinding them to make chilli powder.

I adapted a couple of recipes I found for the tabasco sauce and this is my version.

TABASCO SAUCE

150g of hot chillies
165ml white vinegar
3/4 teaspoon salt

165ml white vinegar, extra

2012-02-04 05Chop the chillies (including seeds) roughly (I actually put them in whole), place in a small saucepan with vinegar and salt.  Bring to the boil, simmer gently for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.  Blend until smooth.  Add another 2/3 cup vinegar and combine.  Press through a fine strainer.  Discard the residue.  Pour liquid into sterilised bottles.  Store for 2 weeks before use.

2012-02-04 06WARNING:  THIS IS VERY HOT!!

Friday Favourites – Tuna Patties

2 Comments

I posted a comment on this post at Frugal Downunder this morning and promised that I would do my Tuna Pattie recipe for Friday Favourites this week

TUNA PATTIES

425g can of tuna
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
2 large potatoes, cooked and mashed
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Black pepper

Drain and flake the tuna.  Place in a bowl with other ingredients and combine thoroughly.  Form into patties, dust lightly with flour and fry in a little oil.

Drain and serve with salad or steamed vegetables.

HINTS & MODIFICATIONS

I have tried all sorts of variations when making these patties but find that the combination of potato and rice provides the best binding agent.

I use arborio rice but any shortgrain rice which is well-cooked should work.  Do not add any milk or butter when mashing the potatoes.  The quantities are fairly flexible depending on how far you are trying stretch a tin of tuna.

I freeze these patties and they make a quick and easy meal when you are pushed for time.

You can vary them by using salmon or any freshly cooked fish.  I have made them using leftover poached salmon and they were really delicious.  Seasoning can be adjusted to suit – I have used lime juice, celery salt and French mustard at various times.  You are limited only by your imagination.

I do not have any photos to go along with this post but I do hope you are inspired to experiment with this very basic recipe.

Another Step to Self-reliance

8 Comments

Here is my latest acquisition – a food dehydrator.

2012-02-02 01I have dreamed of getting one for many years but it has never quite made to the top of my list of priorities.

My girlfriend had this one which she no longer used and asked if I was interested so I bought it from her.  I have lots of ideas of things I will be able to do but my first project on the weekend will be to pick the ripe bell chillies and dehydrate them.  I intend to grind them once they are dried, using the spice grinder attachment for my food processor.  Hopefully, powdered chilli will be another thing that I can cross off my shopping list forever.

Do you have a dehydrator?  I would love to hear how you use it.  Please share your ideas, successes and any failures.