Hi, I've been slack the last few days on here, but definately not slack on the home-front.
It's the last day of the school holidays tomorrow and I've thoroughly enjoyed the time off and have achieved quite a lot.
I've made a batch of lavender-scented soap which is curing at the moment, forgot about the camera but will take one tomorrow. I can also cross off laundry detergent. I've picked what seems like a gazillion calendula flowers, picked off the petals, shaken off the aphids and spread them onto 3 trays of the dehydrator. 2 trays are now dry and have been put into a "jar". I'll be lucky if I get a cup of "dried" calendula. Never mind, it's all I need to get some calendula salve under way.
We spent yesterday afternoon in "town". It's our youngest girls birthday on the 22nd and I wanted to get her birthday present sorted. I've caved and bought her a little mobile phone, nothing flash, a little cheapie. There will be rules with it. Also bought her a mink blanket for her bed, she is in the midst of going from the girlie "pink" phase into a "blue" phase. She is growing up so fast, her friend came with us for the day. I have to say, she is a chip off the old block! We gave her $20 and she came home with $15!! I bought some bath towels, 8 in total and never paid over $7 and good quality at that. Also managed to find a few bargains for myself, trackies, jeggings, underwear, socks, couple of long-sleeved tops and a pair of shoes.
The only reason I've managed to have this little splurge is......I received my tax refund! $1200 which is a fortune to us at the moment. The rest will be put a way for that "rainy day".
Today was spent going through paper-work and burning which is no longer needed, catching up at long last with the washing and the bathroom was given a scrub from top to bottom and is now sparkling.
We have visitors arriving from Taupo tomorrow, so I'm guessing a few wines will be in order. The boys will most probably go for a dive, the weather is good here at the moment. It's supposed to pack in again on Sunday.
Meals over the past few nights have been:
Monday: Venison with coat n cook, mashed potatoes and peas
Tuesday: Lamb Mince chow-mein with rice
Wednesday: flounder, mussel fritters with potato fritters and salad
Thursday: Bacon bone "boil-up" with puha and doughboys.
I put a dye through my hair today and will be getting it cut tomorrow..... will feel like a new woman!!
Thursday, 12 July 2012
Monday, 9 July 2012
OCM and Mudcake
A knock on the door around 7.30am woke me this morning. I'm on holiday at the moment and enjoying my little sleep-ins. The frown turned to a huge smile when it was the courier delivering my order from www.lotusoils.co.nz . This little shop is like Aladdins Cave as they are actually not too far from where I live and I've been there several times. The courier did the job for me this time as I've taken my car off the road in a bid to cut down on vehicle expenses. Soap-making definately on the agenda for tomorrow.
I've spent a lot of time on the net today and have been researching the Oil Cleansing Method after reading about it here http://littlehouseinthesuburbs.com/2012/06/washing-oily-skin-with-oil.html . Really interesting, so much so that I went up to the local supermarket to buy castor oil and sunflower oil. I have combination skin so mixed the oils 25% castor oil to 75% sunflower oil. Applied it as recommended and wow, my skin is so soft. Within an hour or so my skin had absorbed the slight oily feeling and tightened up considerably, even to the point that maybe I might need to add more sunflower oil to the mix as the castor oil is drying to the skin. I'll keep to the regime for the next few weeks and see how it goes.
I did manage to bake a chocolate mudcake today and it's quite delicious!!
I've spent a lot of time on the net today and have been researching the Oil Cleansing Method after reading about it here http://littlehouseinthesuburbs.com/2012/06/washing-oily-skin-with-oil.html . Really interesting, so much so that I went up to the local supermarket to buy castor oil and sunflower oil. I have combination skin so mixed the oils 25% castor oil to 75% sunflower oil. Applied it as recommended and wow, my skin is so soft. Within an hour or so my skin had absorbed the slight oily feeling and tightened up considerably, even to the point that maybe I might need to add more sunflower oil to the mix as the castor oil is drying to the skin. I'll keep to the regime for the next few weeks and see how it goes.
I did manage to bake a chocolate mudcake today and it's quite delicious!!
I am home alone at the moment, the girls and dad have gone to our friends home to say goodbye as they leave for Australia tomorrow to start a new life. The husband called in here on Saturday and I said my goodbyes then. I couldn't face seeing him again as everytime I see them brings tears to my eyes. It was a month this past weekend that they lost their 20yr old son to suicide. We will miss them dearly, and wish them all the luck in the world on this new venture. Gosh, even now I'm crying!!
Sunday, 8 July 2012
Still dreary!!
Gosh, we've had some fairly serious rainfall here. Spied small splotches of blue sky today which is good.
The ground is very sodden and looks terrible with our tracks of mud out to the back paddock to feed the animals and get firewood. The chooks are enjoying all the worms tho.
Lazy meals the last couple of days, steak and egg sandwiches on Friday night with home-made foccacia bread. Washed down with a few glasses of wine and watching the rugby. Hamburgers last night with lamb patties, rocket, sprouts, beetroot relish, mayo and egg......yummo! All homemade right down to the hamburger buns.
Sunday kitchen again, not quite as frantic as usual but made 2 litres of lemon squash, bread, and a quick lunch today of fried bread with bacon and tomato "chunky" soup. I have taken out steak for dinner although no-one is hungry yet.
Hopefully my online orders will arrive tomorrow. I'm almost out of my stockpile of washing powder I bought a while ago on special. Prior to that was making laundry liquid but will give the powder a go this time. Soap-making is on the cards too this week.
The ground is very sodden and looks terrible with our tracks of mud out to the back paddock to feed the animals and get firewood. The chooks are enjoying all the worms tho.
Lazy meals the last couple of days, steak and egg sandwiches on Friday night with home-made foccacia bread. Washed down with a few glasses of wine and watching the rugby. Hamburgers last night with lamb patties, rocket, sprouts, beetroot relish, mayo and egg......yummo! All homemade right down to the hamburger buns.
Sunday kitchen again, not quite as frantic as usual but made 2 litres of lemon squash, bread, and a quick lunch today of fried bread with bacon and tomato "chunky" soup. I have taken out steak for dinner although no-one is hungry yet.
Hopefully my online orders will arrive tomorrow. I'm almost out of my stockpile of washing powder I bought a while ago on special. Prior to that was making laundry liquid but will give the powder a go this time. Soap-making is on the cards too this week.
Thursday, 5 July 2012
Rain, rain, go away!
I think the rain is starting to ease at last. Very sloshy outside, not that I ventured out too much. I did catch a ride up to the supermarket with my neighbour to pick up my "groceries" for the week. Spent $41 on 4 litres milk, 1 litre cream, 1 loaf of bread, 250g pot of yeast, dishwashing liquid, dog food and some frozen veg. Determined to stay away from the supermarket until next pay day which is Wednesday. Used up the yeast on my last loaf of bread which we finished off this morning as toast, hence the need to buy a loaf of bread.
Made a beef stew for dinner last night, but didn't actually start cooking until quite late as I was on here. Pulled out the pressure cooker, browned off the meat and put it in the cooker with the rest of the ingredients, peeled some potatoes, frozen veg on the stove and "presto" dinner was cooked in just over 40 mins.
Plenty for tonight too, was lovely on toast.
Spent some time online today ordering soda ash from Lotus Oils for homemade laundry powder and coconut oil, lavender and eucalyptus oils for soap-making. Brought out my boxes of quilting scraps and played around with my rotary cutter and sewing machine and came up with a small pin-cushion and a mug-rug. Just have to handsew the binding down and it's finished. I've started cutting up pieces for another "qayg" table-runner. The only thing that puts me off is that I don't have a dedicated area for sewing as yet and the dining table is it, which is not really ideal. In the warmer months I use the sleepout but with no heating there's no way you'll catch me out there in the middle of winter.
Lets hope the weathers kinder to us tomorrow.
An introduction and rambling.
Okay, here goes, my first ever post.
I've been thinking about starting a blog ever since I first laid eyes on Rhonda's Down to Earth blog quite a few years ago. (Can you tell I'm a procrastinator?) I even went so far as setting up a blog template yonks ago but by the time I'd summoned up the courage to post I'd forgotten the password to get in. Anyway, I've spent the last few days playing around, changing the name, the look......my mind and now, here I am.
This is my diary of my life I guess. I don't expect to get many visitors and I expect I could sound incredibly boring to some people so I'll give you a little insight into my world.
I work 15 hrs a week as a teacher-aide at a local school. I love to cook and dabble in different crafty-type activities such as quilting, sewing, making soap, lip balms and body bars. I'll go hard-out with my craft of the moment and then lose interest and start something else.
Our garden is someplace else where I've been procrastinating. We have in the past had wonderful food-producing gardens but over the past year I haven't managed to keep it up and have only a few herbs, salad green and perpetual spinach in one small bed. Big changes are coming, have planted out quite a few seed trays over the weekend so things are looking up in that direction.
The main focus of this blog will be food, I cook mostly from scratch and we very rarely have takeaways. My aim is to diarize most meals that I prepare and cook, hopefully with photos. Enough rambling and lets get on with it.
Sunday is usually my biggest day in the kitchen with baking, making yoghurt, bread and usually a roast of some description using the leftovers for lunches during the week. It is the school holidays so a beef stir fry with rice was the choice this week. A plain white plaited loaf, fruit-cake, and chocolate brownie filled the oven.
I've been thinking about starting a blog ever since I first laid eyes on Rhonda's Down to Earth blog quite a few years ago. (Can you tell I'm a procrastinator?) I even went so far as setting up a blog template yonks ago but by the time I'd summoned up the courage to post I'd forgotten the password to get in. Anyway, I've spent the last few days playing around, changing the name, the look......my mind and now, here I am.
This is my diary of my life I guess. I don't expect to get many visitors and I expect I could sound incredibly boring to some people so I'll give you a little insight into my world.
I work 15 hrs a week as a teacher-aide at a local school. I love to cook and dabble in different crafty-type activities such as quilting, sewing, making soap, lip balms and body bars. I'll go hard-out with my craft of the moment and then lose interest and start something else.
Our garden is someplace else where I've been procrastinating. We have in the past had wonderful food-producing gardens but over the past year I haven't managed to keep it up and have only a few herbs, salad green and perpetual spinach in one small bed. Big changes are coming, have planted out quite a few seed trays over the weekend so things are looking up in that direction.
The main focus of this blog will be food, I cook mostly from scratch and we very rarely have takeaways. My aim is to diarize most meals that I prepare and cook, hopefully with photos. Enough rambling and lets get on with it.
Sunday is usually my biggest day in the kitchen with baking, making yoghurt, bread and usually a roast of some description using the leftovers for lunches during the week. It is the school holidays so a beef stir fry with rice was the choice this week. A plain white plaited loaf, fruit-cake, and chocolate brownie filled the oven.
Monday we travelled into Hastings to replace the printer and picked up bits and pieces from Binn Inn and the Asian Grocery Store. In our rural town supermarket I can pay $7 for a pack of nori-sheets which I refuse to do yet I can buy 3 packs for the same price at the Asian store. Binn Inn items were lentils, seeds and baking soda. Back home again where dinner was put on and bread-maker on for the dough cycle. (my breadmaker is ancient and is only ever used for the dough cycle) I usually find I can get a bigger loaf made from the oven. The recipe I have makes a decent 1kg of dough and I adjust flours etc depending on what I'm making. Today was multi-grain.
Yesterday I spent re-doing my husbands CV, he is applying for a couple of jobs in Australia, but more on that if or when it happens. My lounge looks like a chinese laundry at times, so difficult to get the washing dry in this horrible weather, so some of it gets bought in to dry near the fire. I refuse to use a dryer. Youngest daughter had a friend over for the night, they watched movies and then co-erced older daughter to play cluedo with them. Dinner was Wonton Soup, all homemade and not too bad, seconds all round.
Just to round off the night.........an earthquake!! We get the odd tremor now and again but this was one of the strongest and went on for a good 25 seconds.
Okay, that's enough for now........phew, first post done!
.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)