Planning For Christmas

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It is a little over 7 weeks until Christmas so it is time I at least gave some thought to plans for the festive season.

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This year we will be at home for Christmas and most of the family will be joining us with some coming from interstate and overseas.  It is a few years since we have been at home for Christmas Day as the last 3 years have included 2 Christmases in Melbourne and another at the beach.  I am looking forward to the opportunity to be together and share a meal on Christmas Day.  That is the essence of Christmas for me.  I expect there will be fun times and other meals to share during the extended break at that time.

I will most likely be catering for 9 adults and 3 children (9, 7 and 6).  There are food allergies/preferences to consider so there will be no gluten, seafood, nuts, roast pork or kiwifruit.  I will have to put my thinking cap on as I like to come up with some new things to try as well as tried and true favourites.

We tend to keep the gift-giving modest and low-key as most of us do not really need more ‘stuff’ in our lives.  I try to include experience gifts for our grandchildren as they will remember those far more readily than another pile of toys.

What do your Christmas preparations include?

 

Just Another Day

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Well, today has hardly been the stuff that makes for riveting blog posts.

I worked from home on an overcast day with some morning drizzle and a brief thunderstorm this afternoon.  I made the bed, did a load of washing and created dinner from things in the freezer as per the meal plan.

A large percentage of the country indulged in the craziness that is the Melbourne Cup, a horse race that is known as the race that stops a nation.

I don’t think the billboard is new this year but is apt for today and timely to think about, particularly as the government have recently indicated even more stringent measures against refugees.  Have we forgotten how to care?

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Something Different

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We usually eat salmon once every fortnight.  It is cooked the same way each time – GMan grills it on the barbecue.  I vary the accompaniments – sometimes it is kale salad or coleslaw and sweet potato fries, other times it is a a bed of sweet potato mash or wilted bok choy plus other vegetables on the side.

The other day I came across this link on Facebook.  So, I decided that I would try one for a change from our normal grilled salmon.

I made the Tomato Pesto Salmon and this is what it looked like once I had assembled it.

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Cooked, served and ready to eat.

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Even better, was the fact that the basil, tomatoes, zucchini and sweet potato were all from the garden.

I know that fresh salmon is not exactly a budget meal but with almost everything else home-grown it means that we can splash out a little on good quality meat and fish.

Ferreting in the Freezer

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After 5 1/2 years of writing this blog, I sometimes feel like I am just going over same territory again and again.  Tonight I want to share something that came to me in a blinding flash this morning.

I had done a menu plan for the next week and almost everything was from the freezer.  I wanted to check what I had with a view to using some of it up.  The fridge in the kitchen has a sizeable freezer at the bottom which is 2 large drawers and we have a small, upright freezer (the size of a bar fridge) downstairs.

Once I had cleaned the freezer in the kitchen, I had the bright idea of collecting all of the items I need for the meals for the week and put them all together on the left-hand side of the top-drawer.

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There will be no more discovering that there is no pre-cooked rice left or that I need to make a new batch of refried beans and so on.  I am not sure why I did not think of this years ago but I guess it is better late than never.  It means that each week I will do a mini-stocktake of the freezer and locate what I need for meals in the coming week.

The home-made pizza bases are on top of the other containers and the rest of the space on the right-hand side has other meals for future meal plans.  Having them here together means that at a glance I can see what meals I have available.

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I have tried various lists and inventories of my freezer but none have been terribly successful as the state of my freezer is dynamic, a moveable feast, you could say.  I am hopeful that simply having the next things that I plan to use all in the same place will assist in keeping some order in the freezer.

Technology Marches On

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I planned to write this post several days ago but life managed to get in the way.

Anyway, here I am back again.

We are usually fairly prompt in organising our tax details to send to our tax agent but this year was a different story.  We headed overseas in the middle of July and did not return until the end of August.  There were plenty of other things that seemed to demand our attention so the tax was put aside.  Last weekend we finally collected up everything we needed to send.  There were several digital files which we saved and attached to the email.

However, a couple of things almost defeated us.  There was an email which we needed and we could not figure out a way to save an email as a file so decided to print it and then scan it and save the scan.  Sounds easy?  I thought so but that did not turn out to be the case.

We have recently upgraded our desktop computer and have a Microsoft tablet/laptop.  Both of these are running on Windows 10 and we discovered (after much trial and error) that our printer is not compatible with Windows 10.  Aargh!!

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The printer sits on top of the desk and is very rarely used.  We could have waited until the next day and printed the email at work but decided to resort to another rather circuitous route.  GMan retrieved our old laptop from the cupboard where it had been gathering dust and connected the printer to it.  Thankfully, that laptop was still running Windows 7.  So, we printed the email, scanned and saved it on the old laptop, copied it to a USB drive and thus transferred it to a folder on the desktop computer and we were back on track.  It was a somewhat convoluted process but worked adequately for our needs.

At some stage we need to decide what to do about getting a new printer/scanner.  It is something we want to have but are not desperate to have it immediately when we know that we have a workaround solution.

If anyone knows of a way to save an email as a file (preferably a pdf) I would love to know about it.

 

Finally Finished

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I finished making a top for myself which has been a long, drawn-out process.  I bought the material about 3 years ago because it caught my eye.

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Am I happy with it?  Not entirely.

Will I wear it?  Definitely.

What is there not to like?  It is a bit on the short side but still wearable.  The style is too boxy so I would not make it again.  I would prefer something with more shaping through the body of the garment.  However, the fabric I used is a knit but does not have a lot of stretch so probably would not work in a more fitted style.

I am happy with the final finish on the v-neck which was my own creation.  I did have 3 attempts before I was satisfied.

I have been making clothes for the best part of 50 years but I still struggle with sewing knit fabrics, in particular, getting a professional-looking finish on necklines and hemlines.  I have never owned an overlocker and continue to vacillate about the value of them.  Would it make a real difference to sewing knit fabrics?

Since the spotted fabric did not have a lot of stretch, I managed a hem that looked acceptable.  I then turned my attention to a plain navy top which I bought in Canada.  It ticked almost all of the boxes – navy, v-neck, fitted style – the only thing wrong is that it was too long on me.  It was quite a bargain so I decided to buy it despite the length as I felt that I would be able to shorten it.

I did the alteration but due to the fact that the fabric has some elastane in it and consequently more stretch, the finish is less than perfect.  Once it was pressed it is OK and I will wear it but I still feel a degree of disappointment in the result.

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I really want to be able to make my own v-neck and scooped neck fitted knit tops in a range of sleeve lengths from sleeveless  and short sleeved to 3/4 sleeve and long sleeved versions that are the correct length in the body for me.  This would allow me to choose colours and designs that I like and not be limited to the range which some fashion buyer has deemed will be available this year.

Would an overlocker help, do you think?  All comments gratefully accepted.

Meanwhile, I will go back to sewing garments from several pieces of woven fabric which are awaiting my attention.

A Quick Return

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Today I picked the first zucchinis of the season.  For an outlay of $2.50 for a punnet of 4 healthy seedlings on 12th September I have harvested 4 zucchini with a total weight of 1.2kg.

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This is only the start as there are plenty more small zucchini and flowers yet to mature.

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In just less than 6 weeks – 40 days to be precise – the transformation was complete.  The leaves are drooping in the heat of the day.  You can also see the last of the lettuce and bok choy which were planted at the same time and we had been harvesting for about 3 weeks.

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I have not grown a great deal over the past couple of years as I just seem to have been too busy but I am determined to make more of an effort and successes like these definitely inspire me to keep going.

 

 

 

 

My Favourite Salad

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Does anyone else take notes on the ingredients and structure of dishes which you enjoy when dining out?

During our recent trip to the USA and Canada we ate at ‘Antique Taco’ in Wicker Park, Chicago.  We discovered it because it was rated as one of the 10 best tacos in the USA by Fodor’s Travel.  After reading the email containing this information, it was an absolute must-do when we were in Chicago and we were not disappointed.

The kale salad was amazing and I have managed to create something similar at home.

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This is what was left in the bowl after dinner tonight and using some for lunch tomorrow.

There are no specific quantities for the ingredients.

Curly kale (thick vein removed and finely chopped)
Finely chopped red onion
Diced capsicum
Dried cranberries (chopped)
Spiced peanuts (I buy raw peanuts and toss them in a bit of oil, chilli powder, cumin and sea salt)
Dressing

Lime juice
Red wine vinegar
Pomegranate molasses
Olive oil
Herb salt
Black pepper

Use the dressing sparingly.  Tos salad well to ensure that all surfaces are coated.

Unlike most salads, I think this improves after standing for 6 – 12 hours.

If you decide to try this, please let me know what you think.

 

A New Chair

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Last week in this post I mentioned that I had moved the chair from the office desk.  I addition to the arms banging the desk I did not mention that the finish of the upholstery was all cracking a flaking.  The wear on the front edge of the seat was so bad that I had previously made an elasticised fabric cover for the seat and I noticed that the back was showing the same tendencies.

It was definitely time for the chair to go.  I was not hopeful of finding a new home for it but placed an ad on the local Facebook Buy, Swap, Sell page give it away.  Happily, it was just what someone wanted so it has gone.

The dining chair was not a suitable long-term replacement so yesterday we looked for a replacement at Officeworks.

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We were a bit like Goldilocks trying out all of the various options which ranged from very lightweight and uncomfortable to positively luxurious and everything in between.  In the end this is what we chose.  It is sturdy, comfortable and relatively compact.

It fits neatly under the desk and I am very happy with our new chair.

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One Year On

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It is almost exactly a year since I wrote this post about decluttering emails in October last year.

I was astounded to see the number of emails which I mentioned was well in excess of 4,000 in all folders at the time.

I had regularly kept it to around 500 or less since then until it blew out of control a bit while we were on holidays and I have not been super diligent since our return.

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Last night I made a start on clearing out the emails and made some more progress with the task this morning.  After being at about 1,900 emails we are now back to a more manageable 470 or so.

Despite the number of emails, I am pleased that I have generally been better at regularly cleaning and culling my inbox and have renewed enthusiasm to keep it this way in the future.

During the process of tidying up the emails, I have also taken the opportunity to action some emails that I had been hanging onto as I needed to ‘do something’ before deleting them.  Sometimes this was as simple as adding some details to my ‘Contacts’.