My Terrible Addiction.

I am a bit of a contradiction really*, I embrace the simplified life but at the same time I have to admit that as I get older I am becoming a bit of a technology addict.  

Perhaps not in the way you would expect, yes I have a smart phone now (a hand me down from a nephew) and yes I am typing this on a new (to me) net book, I even got a new DVD player (yes they still have them, at Op Shops for $15!) but that’s not the technology I mean. I am talking kitchen appliances. The addiction sneaks up, you know, nobody sets out to become addicted (actually my husband tried to become a chain smoking alcoholic during the divorce from his first wife but failed miserably, he kept forgetting to drink or smoke but I am aware that he is the exception).

 It started off with the usual suspects, a microwave here, a juicer there, maybe a second hand popcorn maker and a mixer and before you know it you have cupboards overflowing with gadgets. I don’t regret it, not even for a second. This is not a post about the remorse I feel for so many appliances. There is joy in my admission!

A quick roundup in my cupboard reveals my current inventory:

• ·         A breadmaker
• ·         A pressure cooker (not appliance really more of a gadget right? Not an electric one maybe shouldn’t be on the list)
• ·         Thermomix (all hail the HypnoMix, I mean Thermomix, your new God, HAIL it!)
• ·         Tefal Actifry (a recent present from inlaws)
• ·         Sunbeam frying pan (ancient, reliable, $5 from a garage sale)
• ·         Dehydrator (cheap from an auction)
• ·         Automatic sprouter
• ·         Another breadmaker (yes a backup, or to make dough in or something- leave me alone!)
• ·         Two yoghurt makers,
• ·         A pasta machine (this came with the dehydrator at the Auction- I haven’t actually used this one at all yet but it is so wonderfully shiny!)
• ·         A potato ricer
• ·         A mandolin slicer
• ·         Pancake factory

 I do use many of my gadgets. My breadmaker does not languish, I rarely buy bread so it is used between two and five times a week… sure the backup one doesn’t get much use but I am loathe to get rid of it as it does me no harm .

The Thermomix is used every day and truth be told it didn’t replace all my other appliances- it did replace the food processor and the stand mixer but I still use the breadmaker and the yoghurt maker and the stovetop and the pressure cooker and the electric fry pan (an ancient sunbeam classic)  . Less used but still valued are the newest addition the Actifry, the dehydrator (come summer I predict more use!) the Automatic sprouter (yes I use it, yes it is pure indulgence) and the pancake maker ( this is a contentious appliance- the story is worthy of it’s our post I think..).

 I still covet MORE! I sort of fancy a slow cooker and I saw that the opshops are now brimming with novelty single use appliances(donut, pie, cupcake makers) for as little as three dollars.  I didn’t used to be this way, I used to live in a hut next to a shed in the hills there was no mains power, no running water, I cooked on a gas ring which also had to power a gas mantle lantern showers were from a bucket with a tiny pump powered by a battery.

Washing clothes was fun, I had an old pickle barrel which I filled with water soaped up the clothes and popped the lid on, then I would rock it from side to side as vigorously as I could muster, replace the solid lid with mesh and kick it down the hill (my version of a spin cycle) at the bottom of the hill I would hang the clothes on the five wire fence. Low tech and truth be told not particularly effective but not having the cleanest clothes doesn’t really affect your social standing when you are in your early twenties in Northern NSW.

But I am not in my early twenties now, it is ten years on, three children and let’s be frank I like a bit of comfort nowadays.  So, heap on the kitchen technology! It makes my life easier and is less harmful than a drug addiction, (as long as I stay away from the $7.50 appliances from K-Mart – they CANNOT be good for you- like cheap junk food!). I don’t want a juicer or soup maker or a grain grinder or ice crusher (the Thermomix really does replace them for me) but have you seen the HotMixPro? Oooh it’s a Thermal cooker similar to the Thermomix but can cook at higher temperatures.. but the price. Ah I can dream can’t I it’s good to have something to aspire to.

What’s that you say Internet? I really do need a slow cooker? Well all right then, who am I to argue?

*like most human beings.

Dull Roar Breakfasting

I am a terrible breakfaster.
I just somehow don't breakfast. I am not one who feels sick in the mornings or any plausible sounding excuse. I do get swept away in the chaos of the day two children to get ready for school, breastfeed the baby, get everyone else breakfast, manage to make a couple of cappucinos for myself and long suffering Husband etc and before I know it it is lunch time and the blood sugar is plummeting. 

Not good, not slimming either. It seems to have something to do with keeping your metabolism cranked up and not letting your blood sugar get so low you are inhaling pumpkin gingerbread by 11.50am. (by the way I LOVE pumpkin gingerbread. I am also aware that it probably negates the redeeming features of having healthful, ingredients if I eat eight slices in a sitting, which I have done- did I mention I liked it?).

So I know that eating breakfast has a multitude of benefits but only if you keep that blood sugar steady (so no sugar coated flakes with milk). I also know if something isn't mindblowingly quick and easy I will simply not do it because I can be rather lazy. Doing My Blackmores program has been a little bit of a challenge but it does tend to fit in with lifestyles of the rushed and lazy fairly well so inspired by the meal plans I have a couple of faithful breakfasts I am actually managing to make and eat for more than two weeks now!
Busy parent breakfasts:
Eggs and Spinach on toast:
Take a small handful of frozen spinach, pop it in the microwave on a saucer, microwave for 30 secs, crack and egg onto it (pierce yolk AND white with eggshell or a fork if you are all lah-di-dah about it) salt and pepper, cover with a side plate and microwave for another 45 seconds to a minute whilst a piece of toast (from the freezer). Serve the egg and spinach on the toast and on the side plate used for cooking. Easy, healthy, bugger all washing up.
Porridge: use proper rolled oats not those gluey quick oats, use boiling water from the kettle. If you are feeling really lazy eat from pot with a pinch of salt and soak pot all day. Or you could add frozen bluberries. Babies like this too.
Yoghurt and muesli with frozen berries: (oh c'mon you don't need me to describe it do you?- just watch the portion sizes- scales are good for this).
 I will get a bit more experimental with breaky- maybe mix it up with a smoothie or two or a muffin I made earlier but for now I am delighted that I have found breakfasts I am actually eating I don't want to complicate things too much. 

What about you, do you breakfast? What do you eat? How do you manage it?

Sunshine and Muffins

The sun was out today and we found ourselves basking and busy in it, the leggy pea seedlings were plopped outside to try to "harden the f**k up" (hmm I don't think that's right- I think that's Chopper from the Ronnie Johns Half Hour- strong language warning) but I am scared to plant them out yet as I think the frost will kill them when she reappears. Every year in late July early August we think that Spring is arriving and every year the return of the cold takes us by surprise!
I am however surprised to find that the Moroccan mint, oregano, Lemon balm and French Tarragon seem to be growing back after a period of dormancy. I rather thought they were simply dead but I am as delighted as a new parent when her baby poos well to see tiny sprigs of green growth. Daffodil, freesia and garlic are starting to cautiously poke their heads above ground. I have been sitting in the sun with my two boys getting them to crack hazelnuts as we were all out of almonds and needed biscotti (apparently in this house you can need biscotti like you need air, water and sleep). Very cheering activity. Almost as cheering as the resultant chocolate and hazelnut biscotti. 
I have found some very old shriveled up but originally lovely passion-fruits and rather optimistically I am trying to sprout the seed with the hopes of a growing vine or two over the pergola (yes we got rid of the wisteria which isn't edible but is very messy and grows too fast) and having a bountiful harvest. Considering to date I have managed to kill two (or is it three?) grafted passion-fruit I think this is a pipe dream but there is no harm in trying.
I have also made raspberry muffins. for lunch boxes (because you know you can't have nuts, chocolate or smearable eggs and things have to look healthy or the children can't eat them and mine won't eat fish or rice salad or pasta salad or sushi, scrolls or scones (unless they are hot) and the teacher can't get the lid off the hot food bowl I was sending so we can't use that any more ARRRRGH!!! the rules- if they want so many rules why don't they supply the sodding lunches!!!)
Anyway.
My raspberry muffin recipe.

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour(300g) 2 teaspoons baking powder 3/4 cup rapadura (about 170g) 1 egg 1 cup milk 50g butter, melted 1 cup frozen raspberries

Doing it 1. Preheat oven to 190 C. grease muffin pan- you know a normal 12 muffin one. I like my professional aluminium one best. you could use paper cases if you were organised enough to have some. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and sugar. Actually if you have a Thermomix just whizz it all up for 10 seconds at speed 8. I don't know if you can sift rapadura as I use the Thermomix as I am lazy 2. In another bowl, melt butter in microwave until, well you know; melted,whisk together egg, milk and butter. Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients along with the raspberries. Mix until just combined. If using the Thermomix dump all the wet stuff in and put it on interval setting on reverse for 15 seconds. 3. Use one of those icecream scoops with the little trigger on the side to scoop even amounts into muffin tray (you know the ones- they are useless for icecream but actually great for cupcakes and muffins) bake for about 20 mins , when they are springy to touch they are cooked. Now try not to eat them all when they are warm and actually put some in the lunch boxes.

Productive times...

I have been feeling like I am being lazy and not making the most of things but when I take stock of what has been happening over the last couple of months I haven't been doing as badly as I thought I had. there has been foraging and growing and cooking and all sorts...
I have been picking blackberries and made jam and apple and blackberry crumble topped pie.
Foraged some elderberries and made elderberry cordial. I would post a recipe but it is a bit from here and a bit from there and no firm recipe. I did use honey and cloves as I wanted it to be a wee bit medicinal and hopefully ward off winter coughs and sniffles

I have started ordering seasonal local veg boxes again and due to having two large cauliflowers I have now tried my hand at making piccalilli. I am supposed to wait 5 weeks before eating ...5 weeks? Oh dear, patience is not my strong point at all. My recipe is based a bit on the hairy bikers and a bit on the River Cottage recipe, if it is good I shall claim it is my own and if it is terrible I shall blame Hugh Fearnley-Whittingsall! Having the boxes is a great fun challenge, finding ways to use such lovely produce and have as little as possible go to waste. there are lots of leafy greens as well in this one.
The garden (being a courtyard really) has courgettes, chillis, volunteer pumpkins (seemingly ubiquitous and follow me around to every house I move too!) little tomatoes and we found some baby carrots today (gobbled very fast by two small boys!) as well as all our usual herbs. 
Today we planted purple sprouting broccoli (hopefully not too late) radishes (I think it is too hot but master 5 reaaaally wanted some) and some beetroot having rejuvenated the soil with some blood and bone, chicken manure and cow manure.
I am now attempting to rest a while as it is over 30 degrees C again. Oh and I must go check on the solar dehydrator  I have made from a silver lined insulated bag and see how the pears and apples are doing now.
OK, so writing it all down makes me feel better, throw in making a few loaves of bread, several kilos of yoghurt, some blogging on a major parenting site, eldest starting school (now that has mucked up my schedules!) and expecting baby number three in September ( I think the nausea is subsiding now) whilst still running the business things have been reasonably productive (and reproductive!) in their modest pootling along sort of way, sometimes taking stock of your life can be very beneficial!

Almost human...

Christmas and New Years is chaos for everyone I know but I feel we manage to make it that bit more chaotic than other people. Not with our outrageous purchases or cooking or familial discord but through having our own business to run full throttle when there are public holidays all over the place, everyone else is relaxing, we can't get any services done and the children have no daycare! Christmas is our busiest time of year and after a very quiet year it came as a shock! Our boys seem to have finally decided to work in with us a bit (and finding that the younger one has been suffering with lactose intolerance has helped his behaviour a bit- not quite as cranky!) on occasion and we do love spending time together but with such a flurry of activity  I forget how to do normal things like think of what to have for dinner, or put a loaf of bread in the bread maker, ditto the yoghurt...(we have been eating out a lot...Pizza anyone?) but I am every so smugly pleased to report that the boys have been asking for my homemade food because it apparently very yummy (or Master five is trying to get something from me...). 
The challenge of late for me has been the boys attending a new day care for the holidays, just for two weeks. The centre is nut free and egg free and combined with Little L's newly found lactose intolerance and Master J's self taught rampant vegetarianism I have been forced to get my thinking cap on for nut free, egg free, dairy free, meat free meals. Lots of internet trawling and I have found some new vegan recipes to try, I have nearly assembled enough ingredients to make this Vegan "cheese" -have a look at this blog, it is incredibly cute! I will report back once made...I have also been hitting the Thermomix hard, dairy free smoothies, banana icecream (just frozen bananas whizzed up to make a creamy substance), homemade soyamilk (very soybeany!) and a concoction I made with seeds, coconut butter, dates, cocoa, rapadura and  quinoa flakes made a rich fudgy stuff without wheat, eggs, dairy, nuts, refined sugar (makes one wonder if it had anything at all in it!).
Soon I will start feeling like a person again and will definitely report back when that happens!

How to be a perfect Housewife?

I started this post with a right Royal whinge about the weather coming over all cold when it shouldn't be this way until May but today we had beautiful weather so we went for a traipse to the Seaside and had lunch at Georgetown and saw some Penguin Burrows with Penguins in them and have fitted a (new- well one from the spare room to replace the awful one in the sitting room) woodheater and so now things don't seem so grim if it is cold from now on.

So I had to find a new topic to blog on.

Then I made a bread and butter pudding from one of the many old cookbooks I have collected over the years "Our Cooking"with Flora Pell. It was awful, tasteless bland soggy pap and not like the firm golden dense puddingsI have had of late. Does anyone know a good tried and true bread and butter pudding recipe?

I have found that although I can't stop collecting them, my old cookbooks are nearly useless when it comes to assisting you to make decent food. I did make a decent rough puff pastry from a turn of the 20th Century book but by and large the results are underwhelming at best and jolly abysmal at worst. This is partly due to the vagueness of many of the old recipes where you find a previously unmentioned yet vital ingredient popping up in the middle of a recipe method or omitting the amount of a given ingredient leaving it to your unguided imagination, or measurements such as one breakfast cup of milk, or cut up small. I love old books but I have to confess I think food is getting better so I find that turning to online resources with the added bonus of reviews rather than the One Shilling Mrs Beeton's (who by the way was never a Household manager herself and plaigarised much of her content...) is a more reliable method of finding recipes.

I use my Margaret Fulton cook books, a large expensive one called "The Cooks Book", a Mrs Beeton's cakes and baking (definitely not a Victorian era collection of recipes but instead trading on her name years after her untimely death probably from Syphilis) and my bread maker recipe book but everything else I regularly turn to is an online recipe I have pasted into my own recipe book.

I find online recipes can be a bit unreliable too, like a recipe for "Rich Tea Biscuits" which were claimed to be a British favourite- perfect for dunking so I started the recipe and then wondered why there was no sugar, or currants and realised to my horror I was in the midst of a batch of scones! North Americans call scones biscuits. Luckily I improvised and ended up making a passable oat biscuit (a proper biscuit) instead.

I like the fresh loaf for it's amazingly helpful bread obsessed forum members, Taste.com.au for it's variety of recipes from many sources and comments and any number of vegetarian and Indian food websites. And of course blogs, probably a food blog with step by step instructions and photos, so thank you to those who take the time to post such helpful things- you are better than a Mrs Beeton!

Smashed Pinky and a Nigella Crush.

Well having a business takes up so much time but I am pleased that this week things have been a wee bit quiet, it has allowed me to regroup and for us to re-evaluate the direction the business is going in, things are going to be getting pretty exciting again with high hopes and hard work ahead but we think it will pay dividends.
I smashed my pinky finger in the car door and much to my slighty queasy astonishment the nail has cracked across to the bed and looks like a nasty bruised zombie finger now. Quite fascinating but extremely painful and I am wondering how it will heal. The nail shouldn't pop off because the crack has allowed the blood that would normally build up and make the nail black to drain out slowly. I haven't posted a picture in the interest of keeping my band of followers.. it is quite hideous really! The blood kept flowing but didn't stop me from being part of a belly dancing performance at a 50th Wedding Anniversary party last night- I am getting $15 for it- I wonder if I can claim my costumes as a business expense?
The finger has made gardening a bit tricky but we have made a valiant effort planting beetroot today, I don't know if it will grow well but Sir Talks Alot wanted to plant some beetroot so there we go!
 We walked to a hardware shop today and I had an exciting time with two curious toddlers, the younger one causing semi deliberate chaos and the older being a wee bit clumsy which had the same result of knocking over various cyclamen on display for mother's day. The boys love the water features at the Garden centre and Sir Talks Alot is very interested in all things gardening and cooking now, choosing bananas and broccoli at the fruit shop and following me around the garden about 1 foot behind at all times. He understands about composting and improving the soil but unfortunately his little brother will not stay off the newly turned soil and both of them regularly fall over into the garden beds for no apparent reason- it is not deliberate but a bit exasperating anyway!
We have been doing a lot of walking lately, the littlest man in the pram with a scoot board attached to the back for Sir talks Alot and we are finding it easy to walk about and have some family time which is really cutting down on non essential car use and getting us some good old fresh air and exercise!
I think Sir Talks A lot has developed a bit of a crush on Nigella Lawson- he has previously told me that "Nigella is a weally nice lady" and that she is such a busy lady (this is said in a very admiring tone- I think he rates busyness very highly) Today he tells me that I don't need to listen to Nigella talking, after all the show is on for him- it is his special show...he was requesting to watch Nigella last night instead of In the Night Garden last night but the thing that has tipped me off is the fact that he claims Nigella loves him and told him so.. apparently when she was making Peaches Melba she said his name and told him she loved him! I don't know if this is the result of recurrent congestion in his ears or maybe Nigella is his imaginary friend... (a much better influence than that crooked Billy Bond, a wolf who comes down our chimney and then steals our telly, only to sell it back to us at the Royal Oak Pub...that wolf is a bad influence on our boys). I haven't the heart to tell him that maybe he is mistaken about being the object of Nigella's affections!

Confused Weather

I was entertained by last nights news telling me the sea off Swansea was going to be confused today. I don't know about the East coast but I was utterly baffled by today with howling windys and torrents of icy rain interspersed with bright clear blue skies!

We managed to fit in a very busy day of work for the business and a walk in the afternoon, even planting the garlic out with Sir Talks Alot- they are going to have two tyre beds- last year they had only a styrofoam box and were planted on Winter Solstice which resulted in lovely but rather small bulbs- I am hoping that the larger space and earlier planting will yield bigger bulbs. I was so proud of how quickly my little man learned about planting garlic- it only took us a couple of minutes working together! He marched back in and told his daddy very proudly "Pwant the garwic pointy end up wike this Daddy!"

I have been embracing the cooling weather and home grown pumpkins with much cooking. 

Pumpkin and date loaf is popular with Master Me Too whilst the glorious husband and Sir Talks Alot seem to be addicted to home made crackers. The first batch  needed work, I will make them thinner and cut them with a scone cutter next time but the key to making them "crackeresque" is beating the dough with a rolling pin which is fun.

Tonight I had a hankering for some comfort food so made a vegetarian "shepherds pie" not really very shepherd-ish though without any lamb. It was great and surprisingly hit the spot tasting better than the original in my humble opinion!

Vegetarian "Shepherds Pie"

1 cup brown lentils- pressure cook in two cups of water for half an hour. put aside.

about 300g of pumpkin and same of potato(my pumpkin was a bit underripe and therefore starchy- I would err on the side of more potato)- cut into 1inch chunks(peel the pumpkin)and cook for about 15 mins in microwave until soft enough to mash. Mash with one tablespoon of butter.

return pressure cooker to  high heat with some olive oil and add:

half and onion (chopped)

1carrot (medium dice) and fry for about 5 minutes then add

1 small garlic clove (bashed but not minced)

half a teaspoon curry powder- fry for about two minutes (lots of stirring too) then add

1can tomatoes 

lentils from above,
I also found about quarter of a can of baked beans in the fridge and in they went too!

half a teaspoon of mixed hebs

half a teaspoon of stock powder

a few drops of soy sauce

cook over medium heat until nicely thickened and reduced.

pop into lovely dish and top with pumpkin and potato mash and a little grated cheese, if you have a good fierce grill brown off the top or just bake it at 200c for 20 mins.

Very well received by the small loud people who I live with (including the cat)

I haven't included a picture as brown stew like foods photgraph so badly!

Redeeming Features cookery!

Well, life is always full of challenges big and small isn't it!
Sir Talks A lot is displaying "challenging behaviour" at present which can be quite exhausting especially when little brother Master Me too is copying everything.
Poor Little Sir Talks A lot (AKA Beany) has a recurrent middle ear infection and this always results in a burst ear drum- the Dr refuses to take my word for it and little man is on the second course of his strong Antibiotics but I don't think they are working, last time this happened he needed cortico steroids and a different anti B. I have told the Doc this but he doesn't believe me so we have to let him find out for himself.. in the meantime we have a cranky defiant little man at home whose behaviour is no doubt worsened by having a painful, smelly, gunky ear. At least he loves the outrageously artificially raspberry flavoured medicine!
I have pulled out two of the courgette plants as they weren't producing and they were getting too much powdery mildew.
Working on plantings for Autumn as it is just around the corner- well the day after tomorrow to be precise! Gardening is a humbling experience and I have so much to learn, not just from my voracious research and question asking but just through painful experience and failure too...ahhh I guess that is life in general too!
I have cleared out some of my less loved clothes and they will be picked up by a freecycle member tomorrow, so far I have moved on a chair, two tyres and a bread slicing guide.. oooh it is addictive to pass things onto people who really want them!
I have had two culinary victories with my "redeeming features" cookery.
"White Dip Bean Dip" as named by Beany is actually just this recipe here from Andrea Meyers: http://www.andreasrecipes.com/2008/04/24/cannellini-bean-dip-with-herbed-pita/
but we had ours with home grown cherry tomatoes, beans and toasted fingers of homemade bread which had been collecting in the freezer awaiting being turned into breadcrumbs (they were drizzled with olive oil and rubbed with homegrown garlic)
Beany made it with me when Master Me Too was napping and we had much fun ands enjoyed eating it with me, Master me too gobbled up the leftovers when he got up

Tonight we had vege rolls which were a (surprising) hit with the little men.
I was making it up a bit as I went along but roughly:
two sheets of puff pastry
1/4 cup frozen peas
1 "portion" frozen spinach (approximately 1/4 cup)
1 small potato diced.
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 small tsp stock powder
(cook the ingredients so far in a microwave proof bowl for about 5 mins until potato is fairly soft)

Add 1/2 cup grated courgette
4 tbsp (ish) cottage cheese(creamed not low fat)
a couple of handfuls of rolled oats
one handful of sultanas
a handful of mung bean sprouts
1 egg
Mix together thoroughly

Cut each pastry sheet in half and place 1/4 filling in centre of each piece of pastry, form into rolls, place seam side down on baking tray and bake at 200c (fan forced) until puffed and golden brown.
I am sure that I have had more blog worthy happenings than a couple of meals and a burst ear drum by proxy but the migraine I have had in response to a surprise thunderstorm has left me little vague and scattered...
Hope I make a modicum of sense!

Mumbling along as it should...

We have had a breakthrough here at Apple Isle Cottages.
It is in large part due to a book called Divas and Dictators by Charlie Taylor, a great book about behaviour modification techniques, specifically his 6 to 1 principle of using six pieces of praise to every one of criticism when dealing with your child and I am astounded how quickly his techniques are working.
We have not been having fun lately with two very demanding little boys but they have responded so quickly to the heaps of praise and specific treats that life has become easier in just a couple of days. Huzzah for Mr Taylor we say!! Some of what he suggests is forehead smackingly obvious, or at least it should be but that doesn't undermine its worth at all.
Today the boys "helped" me cook a fresh stripy heirloom zucchini from the garden, our first! Master Me Too (16 months) is very passionate about cooking and resents not being able to see the cooking action or take part in it.
Sir Talk A Lot (three years old) has been delighting us with his counting prowess, his little brother copies everything he does and has been found poking his finger at the counting book saying "two, two" in an adorable effort to be just like his brother.
The boys had a wonderful time being totally rapt in watching Nigella's Express and Gardening Australia today ... they really enjoy their gardening and cooking- I hope this sticks, I think it is so important for kiddies to enjoy "real" things like cooking, working the garden, fixing, cleaning, creating etc rather than things I consider "unreal" such as video games and obsessions with following (but not necessarily playing) sports.
When the boys were bathed, read to and tucked in bed I fossicked some compost out from the heap and fed the zucchinis, beans, pumpkins, borage, potatoes. I added some more scraps and comfrey to the heap which is breaking down well.
I had fun pruning some vigorous non fruiting "poky outy" bits of the wild blackberry bush we are taming out the back. I have picked enough for my first batch of blackberry jam now which is good as we are on the last jar of strawberry I made earlier in the year.
The library always provides us with wonderful treasures and apart from the Charlie Taylor book I am also reading a lovely little book called "four Tenths of an Acre" by Laurie Lisle which is an absolutely delightful read about the evolution of her garden and experiences of life.
Aren't Libraries wonderful?
I hope for many more days like today....

And So It Begins

First of all I would like to formally welcome you all to my first blog which is likely to be of no real interest to anyone but myself so if you happen to take the time to read it I am most gratified and hope it warrants any attention you may bestow upon it.
I have a busy life, not busy like most people's, no social calender, no office to trudge to every day, but busy with a new small business, two small children, a tumbledown house in a new state and the beginnings of a vegie garden messing up the long neglected back yard.
My long suffering and much adored husband and I moved from Sunny Queensland Gold Coast to Launceston Tasmania in January of this year and so I guess we are about to celebrate our one year anniversary in Tasmania.
We don't like waste here in our house and that is reflected in how we live our lives. Food and garden scraps are composted (food only after it is offered to the peculiar little Devon Rex cat who chooses to reside with us). Things are bought second hand where we can which is not only cheaper but means I don't feel guilty when I stain or break something and has the knock on effect of being better for the environment. To some it may seem I am an environmentalist at first glance if I am truthful it is our dislike of waste that has lead to our life style being of benefit to the planet and not a feeling of obligation to reduce my carbon footprint.
There, that feels better- what a confession- I am not a ramapant greenie, I just happen to act like one!
I of course bear no ill-will towards mother nature and am very fond of the beauty and bounty she supplies but it hasn't been my only motivation in changes I have made in my lifestyle.
We repair things when we can and repurpose things in a new way if we can.
I was always amazed at the amount of perfectly good things thrown out in the Gold Coast council cleanup- such a wasteful community up there- we have found Launceston is less like that and people are more understanding of a our mend and make do attitude.
I sound very pious and wholesome BUT I will confess that I struggle with things like keeping the house and garden in a reasonable state so I have invented my own philosophy-
The Dull Roar
it is basically an attempt to keep our heads over water domestically.
I will never have a display home clean home- even if it was just me I'm a grubby little devil who likes doing grubby things like cooking and gardening and the house would never stay clean and i also have two grubby little children and a much cleaner husband who also has grubby hobbies like renovating and repairing cars and don't forget the cat- did you know that dark Devon rex cats sneeze dark tears everywhere?
I do however recognise that a certain level of social responsibility and cleanliness is required so I am trying to work out a plan to keep the mess and rudeness down to a dull roar...
So far..
* Set the fabulous vintage kitchen timer to 15 mins and do something to help the tidiness and cleanliness. Washing pots and sweeping the floor, wiping benches generally takes less time than this.
*Time savers- food in the freezer for the boys day care lunches
-teaspoon of generic brand nappysoaker in the loo overnight to be flushed away in the morning.
-spraying the floor and cleaning with a damp towel (pushed around by my feet!) instead of mopping which never really worked.

hopefully I will build up a repertoire which will allow me to get on with running our business and doing the fun frugal stuff I enjoy, cooking, making my own salves, vegie gardening, newly interested and converted to jam making, make my own bread (use a cheaty machine- how I love it!)making my own yoghurt, cutting my boys hair (actually only one of the boys is fun to do haircuts on the other is tooo hoppity) making yoghurt....

I am looking at ways the Dull Roar Philosophy can be applied to other parts of life too...