Today I made and bottled the ginger beer. The bottles I use are from The Duke’s Coopers brew kit. They are 740ml plastic bottles. I made 9 bottles and here they are.
They are now in a box in the under the stairs where it is cool and it will be ready to drink for Christmas.
The other thing I wanted to show you is the linen top I made a few weeks ago. I finally remembered to get a photo of me wearing it.
I have never considered either minimalist or survivalist as terms I would use to describe myself but I have read a couple of things recently including this post from Kim at Extra Organized which have made me stop and think.
Over a period of months, even years I have been slowly but surely divesting myself of ‘stuff’ that does not add value to our lives. I have made considerable progress but there is always more to be done.
However, at the same time I have created and maintained a well-stocked pantry. I also keep back-up supplies of toiletries and general household needs such as batteries and light bulbs. This may seem to be the complete antithesis of minimalism but I do not believe that is necessarily the case. There is one basic principle which must be adhered to in order for a stockpile to work:
“Eat what you store and store what you eat”.
This is my stock cupboard in the kitchen. On the other side of the refrigerator is my pantry (shown below).
The wire baskets under the shelves on the left-hand side hold spices and other small jars.
My pantry is where I keep the items for day-to-day use and I replenish as needed from the stock cupboard and also from the buckets of bulk dry goods (flour, cereals, dried fruit etc). These are stored in a cupboard downstairs.
I do not hoard massive quantities of food but I work with a level of supply which I believe would easily feed us for 3 months and could probably be stretched to 6 months with some creative meals. It means that I can shop when it is convenient for me and not have to shop every week or even every fortnight. I am not dependent on the ‘just in time’ supply lines that supermarkets use nor will I be in the panic-buying queues in times of impending natural disaster such as flood or cyclone.
By having a relatively uncluttered house I have plenty of room to store extra food. I also minimise the trips to the shops which in turn minimises petrol use and wear and tear on my vehicle. Less time at the shops offers less temptation to spend on unnecessary items.
We usually but enough meat at once to last about 2 – 3 months. This tends to be used up before we buy more, so in theory, depending on the timing of a disaster I could be caught with next to no meat but I do not see this as a major problem because we eat plenty of vegetarian meals now and that would just become the ‘norm’.
I also ‘shop’ from my garden and we always have eggs from the chickens. Our menus are based on seasonal produce, either from our own garden or what we buy from the local markets.
I am not what anyone would truly describe as a minimalist, although I do have a lot less ‘stuff’ than many of my friends and colleagues. On the other hand, I know I would not survive long-term if left to my own devices as I simply do not have the skills and knowledge to fend for myself completely without outside help and support.
I do know that I am happy and contented with my life as it is, my demands on the planet are relatively light and I have taken reasonable steps to be as self-reliant as possible.
Today is the beginning of a new feature, ‘Friday Favourites’ where I will share one of my favourite recipes. I hope to include a photo as well as the hints, tips, variations and shortcuts that are what makes a ‘tried and true’ recipe so appealing.
How often have you made a recipe that simply does not live up to the description or the photo which attracted you to it in the first place? Here is an opportunity to bypass the less than stellar successes.
Streamline and simplify your cooking and recipes, then you will be more inclined to cook. Remember the line, “whip up a batch of scones”? It was what women of my grandmother’s generation could do when company was imminent. The recipe and method were simple, ingredients always to hand and they knew the recipe off by heart. I do not pretend to be able to make scones so I will stick to what I can do well.
It seems that there as many banana cake recipes as there are people in the world and I feel as though I have tried most of them. In my opinion this one is as good as you will get.
BANANA CAKE
1/3 cup oil
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed banana (2-3 bananas, depending on size)
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 cups plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup milk
Beat oil and sugar until smooth. Add beaten eggs, one at a time then beat in mashed banana and vanilla. Sift flour and combine dry ingredients, add alternately with the milk and stir until mixed well. Pour into a greased, lined loaf tin. Bake at 180 degrees for 45 mins or until an inserted skewer comes out cleanly.
That is the recipe, now for the reality.
This is a great recipe and it can be made using 2 utensils – a mixing bowl and a wooden spoon.
I do not sift the flour – in fact I do not own a sifter!
I use 1/8 cup of skim milk powder mixed with the dry ingredients and add ½ cup of water in lieu of the milk.
The eggs are not pre-beaten before I add them at the same time.
I use an empty butter wrapper to line the base a halfway up the side of the tin. I keep used wrappers in the refrigerator specifically for lining cake tins.
The cake may be iced with your choice of frosting but it is just as nice plain. I slice and freeze the cake in a container in the freezer. Individual slices can easily be removed for snacks or packed lunches.
Enjoy and have great weekend.
When we moved into this house 6 years ago there were no curtains. There are still no curtains.
Since we moved we have had all of the windows replaced and redecorated all of the rooms except for the bathroom. We live on a local road in a rural area with no immediate neighbours. The native shrubs planted on the verge provide quite a good screen and privacy is not an issue.
I have half-heartedly debated the need for curtains and until recently my laziness has won. However, a couple of months ago I was actually contemplating getting blinds/curtains to suit the living room as well as 2 of the bedrooms and the study. Sanity prevailed and I realised that I would be spending money on soft furnishings that would make the rooms look smaller, need maintenance and were really not required. What was I thinking?
We have stunning views of our gardens and surrounding vegetation which are far better than the fanciest window treatments so we are going to keep the windows ‘au naturale’.
The only exception is the living room where it would be nice to draw something across the wide expanse of glass during the winter evenings. Now I have to try to decide what is the most suitable covering. There are floor to ceiling louvres at the end of the room as well as other louvres immediately above a low bookcase and yet more near the fireplace. Whatever I choose needs to be simple and streamlined to stay in keeping with the style of the house and be safe near the fireplace. I would love to hear your experiences and suggestions.
These are the louvres at the end of the living room. It is very obvious that they definitely need cleaning which is the only downside of no window coverings. Today I have done the kitchen windows as well as the laundry and toilet windows. I hope to finish the rest of the house on the weekend.
A view like this makes washing up almost fun.
I need to work out a schedule for cleaning windows and I think that I need to do the kitchen and living room every 2-3 months. The bedroom ones can probably go a little longer. How often do you clean your windows? Do you do all of the windows or do you completely clean room by room?
Minimalism and decluttering should not simply be an excuse for a massive clean-up followed by more of the same – buy, buy, buying of stuff.
Downsizing, voluntary simplicity, minimalism – whatever terminology you wish to use – is a complete change of mindset which requires constant vigilance to ensure that clutter does not creep back into your life.
I try to do something every day to streamline my life and enhance the way we live. Yesterday I unsubscribed from 2 email mailing lists so that is several more emails that I do not have to delete every week. It is much easier to eliminate things at the source rather than constantly trying remove unnecessary intrusions, regardless of their form.
There is so much we can do to simplify our lives but it is important to remember that we did not acquire all of this ‘stuff’ overnight, so it is a ridiculous goal to attempt to clear out the excess in our lives in a short space of time. Slow down and appreciate the benefits of the space (mental and physical) you create with every small step.
By creating space you are able to embrace special opportunities that present themselves. I am looking forward one such occasion tonight. The Duke and I are going to a show with Belle and Missy. It will be great to spend time together as a family doing something that means a lot to all of us. This possible because we have plenty of space in our schedules which is often unusual this close to Christmas. Over the past few years we have eliminated many of the Christmas functions which we attended due to a feeling of obligation rather than a real desire to celebrate. Now we do exactly what is important and meaningful to us and a lot of the stress has been removed.
Have you simplified aspects of your life?
As promised here is the recipe for the ginger beer I am making to have on hand for the festive season. This recipe came from the Simple Savings website.
GINGER BEER
Plant:
In a large jar place the following:
1 tsp brewer’s yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
500ml warm water.
Stir these together and place in a warm place (for example, window sill). ‘Feed’ the plant with 1 tsp of sugar and 1 tsp of ginger every day for one week. Then plant is ready. Sediment from plant can be reused to start new plant without the addition of more yeast. Excess fluid can be returned to plant.
Ginger Beer:
1kg sugar
1.5L hot/boiling water
4.5L cool water
Juice of 2 lemons
250ml liquid from plant
Place sugar in bucket and pour on boiling water. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add cool water and lemon juice. Stir in liquid from plant. Bottle. Ready for use after one week. Better after 2+ weeks.
To sterilize bottles I just clean thoroughly first with detergent (pay special attention to the bottle top and use a bottle brush), then rinse to remove all suds. I then soak in VERY hot water just before use. This seems to work well.
I will be making and bottling the ginger beer next weekend so I will do another post then.
The Duke also brews his own beer and we have a Soda Stream soft drink maker. We do not buy the flavouring but just make soda water to add to the lemon cordial that I make.
Having a selection of home-made drinks means that we do not need to spend as much money on drinks for entertaining.
The byline for this blog is ‘An organised, sustainable life’. Perhaps you wonder where the link is between organisation and sustainability. If you think about it, the connection is there every day in everything you do but never is it more obvious than in the lead up to celebratory events such as Christmas and birthdays.
Tomorrow we will be going to Miss O’s 4th birthday party and I have been planning and preparing her gift. Here is a dress that I have made for her.
The fabric has been in my stash for a couple of years, the facings are scraps from a dress that had been unpicked, the buttons (originally used on a dress for Belle about 20 years ago) came out of the button jar and I bought 20cm of contrast fabric for the pockets.
We bought a wooden jigsaw puzzle from Amazen. They have a shop at Montville, which is about 15 minutes drive from us. The range of quality children’s toys and games in excellent.
I made a bag to store the puzzle pieces as it does not come in a box.
Once again, this was created entirely from scraps. I think it looks really effective and hope it will be useful.
I wrapped the gift using recycled paper and ribbon that I have saved. I made a card using some white card and an offcut of the paper.
Being organised means that you can easily locate items that have been stored for future use. Equipment is easily accessible. Planning ahead is essential if you do not want to be rushing to the shop and grabbing something at the last minute.
It is 4 weeks until Christmas so now is definitely the time to think seriously about preparations for Christmas. I have already tested a couple of recipes for things I am making as gifts. Tomorrow I will start the ginger beer plant so that the finished product is ready for Christmas. I will share the details of that in my next post.
Now I am off to make up a platter that we are taking to a ‘Christmas drinks and nibbles’ function this evening. It will include balsamic dipping sauce from the recipe I posted the other day and guacamole made with our own avocadoes. I made sure I picked some avocadoes earlier in the week so that they would be ripe for today.
What have you done to get organised for Christmas? Will it minimise the last-minute rush and inevitable overspending that seem to go hand-in-hand?
Last weekend I sorted through the non-fiction books on the bookshelves and put aside about 25 assorted books which were no longer loved or relevant.
I listed the books on Freecycle and had one response from a lady who wanted 2 particular titles. So, today I took the books into Maleny with the vague idea that I would take them to the op shop or maybe the secondhand bookshop. I tried the bookshop first and was delighted to receive $30 for about 7 of the books. The rest then went to the op shop.
This has been a win-win exercise on all fronts. I have more shelf space and $30. People have the opportunity to buy a book in excellent condition. The op shop will make some money and the secondhand shop has some more stock.
What do you do with items that you declutter?
As promised, here is the recipe for another sauce you can easily make. This is an excellent replica of the specialty product which is marketed as balsamic glaze, balsamic syrup or ‘aged’ balsamic. I cannot take the credit for the recipe as it was posted by Mimi on Simple Savings.
Here is the recipe:
BALSAMIC SYRUP
500ml balsamic vinegar
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup port
Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Simmer gently until required consistency is reached (approximately 30 minutes). Watch carefully and stir regularly to ensure it does not catch or burn.
Cool and pour into small jars or bottles. This makes an excellent gift and a list of uses could be attached.
Here are a couple of serving suggestions.
A small quantity in a tiny dish with good-quality olive oil makes a perfect dipping sauce.
Mix with orange juice for a marinade for chicken.
Drizzle over your favourite salad.
It is a great addition to the festive menu and I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.
Last week I mentioned that I was reading “The Joy of Less” by Francine Jay. In amongst the decluttering guide are some real gems. One stuck in my mind and I find myself thinking about it as I look around the clear spaces in my home.
I quote from the book:
“Music is the space between the notes.” My interpretation of composer Claude Debussy’s words: beauty requires a certain amount of emptiness to be appreciated – otherwise, you have only chaos and cacophony.
For our purposes, we’ll put a minimal twist on this idea and say, “Life is the space between our things.”
This can also be applied to our lives in general. I am trying hard to have some space to just ‘be’ and it feels good. It is something we should all try.
Enjoy the space. 🙂
