The Weekend Kitchen

This weekend saw me continue to make the most of food we have on hand instead of going shopping.  We has a small amount of a beef tagine leftovers frozen in the freezer which was a lot of sauce and not a lot of meat.  I decided that it really needed something to go with it to bulk up the meal that would also soak up the juices.  Normally I would have used couscous but I decided instead to go for a Olive and Thyme Bread and it was a winner.  I made a half batch of the below recipe but I should have made the full recipe as the bread did not last long at all.

Olive and Thyme Bread

3 Cups Bread Flour , plus extra for kneading
1 1/2 Cups Warm Water
1/2 Cup Chopped Black Olives
3 TBS Olive Oil
3 TBS Fresh Thyme or 2 Tsp Dried Thyme
1 TBS Dried Yeast
1 Tsp Sugar
1 Tsp Salt

Mix the dried yeast with 5 TBS of the warm water and the sugar and leave 10 minutes for the yeast to activate.
Once the yeast mix is frothy add the rest of the water, salt, olive oil  and thyme and mix to combine.
Add the flour gradually and mix to combine.  The dough will be quite sticky and once all the flour is incorporated add the olives and mix them through.
Cover and leave the mix to rise somewhere warm for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes take the dough out of the bowl and tip onto a floured bench and knead adding flour as you go until the dough is soft and no longer sticky.
Shape into loaves and transfer onto a baking tray lined with baking paper or into an oiled bread tin.
Leave to rise again until double in size.
Heat your oven to 220 degrees and once your bread has risen bake for 30 minutes or until cooked.

Making A Dog Coat On The Cheap

The weather has been getting really cold here at night over the last week getting down to just 2 degrees the other night.  We decided that this year we would get Jessie a dog coat to wear at night to help keep her warm in her kennel.
Last year we created a mattress stuffed with hay to keep her warm but it was dusty and we think it made her itchy.  We have also tried an actual dog mattress but Jessie turned it into a wrestling toy and pulled out all the stuffing.  So this year we have lined her kennel with a thick layer of newspaper topped with a layer of carpet, topped with an old doona (duvet) cover.  But even with these layers beneath her we thought a coat would be the best thing for her.
So I headed off to the local op shop to see if they had any polar fleece jumpers I could convert.  As it turned out I was able to pick up a polar fleece blanket that was being sold as a dog blanket as it had a hole in it.  It was only 50 cents and perfect for what I wanted.  I also picked up a set of double bed vintage sheets in good condition for $3.00 and a brand new coffee plunger for $3.00.  I have been on the look out for either a new tea pot or similar to make herbal tea in.

Op Shop Finds

I spoke to Liz the other day about the dog coats she made and decided that I would just make a paper template and sew it up from there.

My Paper template

I used a double layer of fabric as it was quite thin.  I sewed the two pieces together and inserted the tummy strap at the same time, then I turned it out so the seams were hidden.  I only had some narrow Velcro so I added 2 strips to the tummy strap and 2 strips to the front.

The finished product

Then it was Jessie's turn to model her new coat.

Jessie's new coat

 Doesn't she look pleased... not.

"Really?  You are really taking my photo while I sit here looking soooo impressed"

Jessie does not seem to mind her coat at all but when Hubby let her off from her kennel this morning the front of her coat had come undone and she had walked out of it.  I wondered if that would happen when she stretched because it was such thin Velcro that I used so I might have to add some stronger stuff or a button.

What have you been sewing lately?
Have you ever made pet coats?

Plastic Bag Obsession

Is it just me or are shops obsessed with trying to give customers plastic bags?

Hubby's pet hate is being offered a plastic bag for one or two items and he often comments that when he refuses a bag people look at him like he is a freak.  But what other people think does not stop us from refusing plastic bags.


The other day I was getting some groceries and the check out girl started packing them into plastic bags even though my green bags were sitting on top of my groceries.  Then when I pointed them out to her she asked me if I just wanted to take the ones she had already packed.  I told her that no I did not want them left in the plastic bags as we do not use plastic shopping bags.
She looked at me in a confused manner and asked "what never?"
I then simply said to her that I always carry green bags or cotton bags with me because I do not believe in using plastic bags.
She then said to me "oh yeah I keep green bags in my car boot, but I never remember to take them into the shops when I get my groceries so I end up with heaps of plastic bags from that.  I said to her that if I ever forget mine I just pack all my groceries back in the trolley and load them into bags when I get to the car.
Then she tells me she would be embarrassed to ask shop assistants to put things other than groceries in those bags.
I think she was pretty shocked when I replied saying "I think you should be more embarrassed accepting a plastic bag in this day and age when we know how much environmental damage they do and they are so easy to replace with re-usables".
She was not very talkative after that.
When I looked up the lady in the next checkout over, who was having her groceries packed into plastic bags, had obviously been listening because when she caught my eye she glanced down at all of her shopping packed in plastic bags and blushed badly then looked away.
There were other shoppers at the checkouts waiting so I have no doubt they all heard what I said as well and I am sure I gave them something to talk about.  And hopefully they do talk.

Perhaps this is a tactic we should use...

We are not 100% successful in keeping plastic bags out of our house and rubbish bags pose a big challenge but we really try and lately I have been looking at what to do with the ones we are left to deal with.

I know plastic bags are only a recent invention and humanity got by without them in the past so there is no doubt in my mind it can be done.

What tactics do you have for avoiding plastic bags?
Do you find that you are bombarded with plastic bags even when they are not really needed?

The Garden Whip Around

There are only a few things happening in the garden at the moment but when I took a wander the other day I took some photos.

Our blood orange is loaded with fruit and the poor little tree is groaning under their weight.

Our Kaffir Lime is the same age as all our other citrus but is twice the size and twice as healthy.  It never seems to be affected by bugs when the other citrus are and it is fruiting for the first time this year.

This cherry tomato is self seeded and is growing like crazy even though we have had some cool nights, down around 2 degrees c, it is flowering and fruiting and it produces quite large cherry tomatoes which are about the size of an Australian 20 cent piece.

Sometimes growing pak choy can be a challenge here as the grasshoppers love to eat it and usually just leave a few stalks sticking up in the air.  This year I tried again and sowed a lot of seeds close together and they have done really well.  I am just thinning them out a few every day and adding them to dinner.

The late beans that I planted have climbed up their frame and are starting to flower.  Hopefully we will get a good number of beans before the weather really gets cold.

In other areas of the garden we have been topping up the mulch and we have planted some native grasses all around our water tanks.

Everything in the shade house is growing so well since the rain we had last month.  The little native violets are growing so well they are about to take over the path.

We have also gotten another job ticked off "The List" - installing garden edges.  We have used granite rocks that we collected from a local council dump which did some of edges.

And we used hardwood timbers slabs and old fence posts to do the rest of the garden beds.

It is such a good feeling to have this job done as it means we are pretty much finishing all the jobs on the list, not that we will not find other things to do.

What's going on in your garden?

Slow Living Monthly Link Up April 2014

Linking up with Christine again this month and this month seems to have been quite busy.

Nourish -Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch over packaged, over processed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead.
All of our meals were cooked from scratch this month and I have been really focused on using up the food we have on had rather than doing any shopping.  We will be killing "Freezer 2" our cow (yes that really is her name) soon and we are trying to clear out our freezer of as much as possible.  We still have a small amount of  "Freezer 1" left (a couple of lots of corned beef and roasts) but there is also a bit of frozen fruit, some of our home killed roosters and other odds and ends.
Also Hubby has been off work since the end of January with an injury and as he is self employed he is on a income protection payment which is about half of what he normally earns so money is a bit tight at the moment.  This is an even bigger incentive to not go shopping and to use up things that we have on hand, so the pantry is also getting a clear out.

Prepare - Stockpile and preserve. Freeze extra meals or excess garden/market produce. Bottle/can, dehydrate or pickle foods to enjoy when they are not in season.
Hubby has been off work since the end of January with an injury and as he is self employed he is on a income protection payment which is only about half of what he normally earns so money is a bit tight at the moment.  So instead of add ing to our stockpile we are actually making use of it since we are currently in a situation where we have had to cut costs.  This is an incentive to not go shopping and to use up things that we have on hand, so the pantry is also getting a clear out.

Chocolate Crunchies on hand for a sweet treat 

Reduce - Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.
I have been culling my old life style magazine collection and have only kept recipes that I want to try and ideas for the new house we will be building.  After tearing out these pages all the magazines went into the recycling bin.  Now that we have finished renovating we have been finding new homes for all the building materials we have left over.  We could try and sell some things but most things are not really salable so we are giving it away with the belief that what goes around comes around.

Green - Start (or continue!) using homemade cleaners, body products and basic herbal remedies. The options are endless, the savings huge and the health benefits enormous.
Just the usual happening on this front.

Grow - plant/harvest. What's growing this month? What's being eaten from the garden?

The garden is pretty bare at the moment but I have managed to get some seeds planted and garlic in.  I have a late crop of climbing beans in and hopefully will start flowering soon, I have some pak choy that was sown last month and we are thinning it out and eating it and there are self seeded cherry tomatoes coming up all over the place.  I also have an egg plant bush that is still fruiting so we have enough veggies that we do not need to buy many to fill in the gaps.
The citrus are also fruiting and even though the trees are quite young we have already had a few lemons and limes and there are blood oranges to come.

Create - To fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others.

I have picked up the crochet needle again and I have been practicing getting my stitches even and a good tension.  I will be going back to the pattern for the baby booties that I attempted and failed at as mentioned last month.

Discover - Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests.
I have been reading lots over the last month.  Liz lent me some great books and I am working my way through them.

Enhance - Community
Planning for this years Classic Car Show is well under way again and will be keeping me busy for many months to come. Other than this I have taken a step back this year as I have other things I need to dedicate my time to.

Enjoy - Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment.
Hubby and I have had 2 camping trips in the last month one where we got rained out and one that was everything it should be, relaxing and spent with good company.  Even Jessie enjoyed herself.

Jessie chilling out and not letting her favourite toy out of her sight,
just in case we want to throw it again.

We also had a nice day at the beach.  Sometimes the simple things are the best.

What have you been up to?