Christmas menu planning

Every year we have the same menu for Christmas Day. We don't always have Christmas on the same day, but we have the same menu. Last year I got organised for this year.

I bought a small plastic sleeve photo album.


I printed out everything I need to get Christmas Day meals on the table:

• Menu

• Recipes - for everything, including the cut up vegetables for the dips

• Shopping list - one for each shop with like shops grouped on one page, so I can send different people in different directions

• List of dishes required for serving

 

• Cut up tags to put in each dish – this way I don't suddenly realise I need particular dish after it's got food in it

• Timetable for preparing the food

The idea behind the photo album is that it's small enough to take to the shops; I change information if I need to (I may one day find a better recipe for crepes or potato salad. I doubt it, but anything's possible); I can use a whiteboard marker to cross things off, then start again next year.

I printed everything on photo paper, because it's nice and sturdy. If I hand hubby a shopping list, I want to know I'm going to get it back in a decent state.

Let it go - The story of frozen (or not) food

It's somewhat amazing that certain individuals in our household have survived as long as they have. In fact, it's amazing the rest of us have survived with them.

Last Tuesday the switch to our full-size freezer was accidentally turned off. We left town on Wednesday afternoon and didn't realise until Sunday night. A costly accident, but more annoying than anything. I'd been doing so well with double-batching meals that we were looking forward to a month of minimal cooking :-(

Rubbish collection is Thursday morning, so the decision was made to switch the freezer on until then rather than have the food sitting in the late-summer heat (which is more like mid-summer) in the bin.

Tonight I've been fielding questions:
"What about ...?"
"Can't we keep ...?"
"Some of it should be okay, right?"

NO! NO!! AND AGAIN, NO!!! (I think the extra exclamation marks are warranted.)

Let it go, let it go
Can't hold it back any more
Let it go, let it go
Turn away and slam the door!

Bagels and Bread

Yesterday The Man brought home bagels. Real, boiled bagels. If you've never had bagels, you won't understand the fuss. If you live somewhere where bagels are as common as bread, you won't understand the fuss.

I was introduced to bagels in Asia, and even though I love super soft (super bad for you) white bread, the chewiness of bagels really appeals to me. Unfortunately, for many places in Australia, bagel simply means "flatish bread roll with a hole in the middle". If you've ever eaten a bagel (or two or three) you'll know that just doesn't cut it.

So, when hubby said he'd found real bagels, would I like some, I said, "Yes, please." This morning I had a blueberry bagel with cream cheese for breakfast. Mmmmm.

And the best news is, even though the bagels were found at the Ekka (the city's huge annual show or fair), they come from a regular shop, meaning I can buy them locally all year round. Well, semi-locally. They're based on the other side of town, so it means a bit of a drive. Probably not a bad thing.

The shop is "The Bagel Boys".

The bagels are available from a bunch of markets and shops in Stafford, Teneriffe, Paddington, the Valley and around that sort of area. The boys do plain, poppy seed, sesame seed, soy & linseed, onion, garlic, jalapeno, sunflower rye, everything, blueberry, and cinnamon & raisin flavours. I'm kind of hoping that "everything" does include a mix of garlic, onion, cinnamon and raisin ;-)

Game Playing

There's a game being played in our family. The others set it up, leave for the day, and I play it by myself. I'm not really enjoying it, so I'm not sure who is enjoying it. The game is called, "Hide mum's espresso cup." This is how it works.

If mum hasn't washed her cup, the game cannot be played unless someone does some washing up. If mum has washed her cup, the game may proceed. The object of the game is to send mum on a merry chase for her cup. It is very simple - for those setting it up - simply put the cup in a different place every day. I think I'm winning; I think the number of I'm-not-sure-where-to-put-this-I'll-put-it-here hiding places is running out.

In increasing order of innovation and decreasing order of logic, so far I have:
1. On the coffee machine
2. Next to the coffee machine, with the coffee
3. In the cupboard with all the other coffee cups
4. On the shelf with all the tea supplies (not near the coffee machine)
5. In the cupboard with all the glasses (a different cupboard to the one with the coffee cups)
6. In the cupboard with all the small baking ware - the ramekins, pots and measuring jugs

And my personal favourite to date
7. Under a larger cup or glass on the dish drainer.

You may think that it's a pretty boring game - easy to win - but remember, this is my coffee cup. Until I find my coffee cup I cannot make coffee, which means I haven't drunk any coffee.

Cooking adventures

Crockpot Cashew Chicken
Apple Crumb Cake
Tuna and Caper Salad
Keeping green onions fresh

Tonight I tried two new recipes, and what do you know - they both worked!

First, one of those "share and save it to your wall" recipes from Facebook. Some recipes are genuine, some; however, a simply a 'plot' to get a lot of page likes so they can sell the page for bizarre amounts of money. Still this one sounded okay and I thought I'd try it.

Crockpot Cashew Chicken

Ingredients:
1 kg (2 lbs) boneless, skinless chicken thigh tenders or chicken breast tenders
1/4 cup plain (all purpose) flour
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 Tbsp tomato sauce (ketchup)
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1/4 tsp chilli (red pepper) flakes
1/2 cup cashews

Directions:
Combine flour and pepper in large bag. Add chicken. Shake to coat with flour mixture. Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Brown chicken about 2 minutes on each side. Place chicken in slow cooker. Combine soy sauce, vinegar, ketchup, sugar, garlic, ginger, and pepper flakes in small bowl; pour over chicken. Cook on LOW for 3 to 4 hours. Add cashews and stir. Serve over rice. Makes 4-6 servings.
If you like the sauce and want to have some to pour over the chicken and the rice, double the sauce ingredients.

Comments:

Use larger pieces of chicken, say about 2 inch cubes. 

I added fresh tumeric; I add it to everything I can because it's good for you. 

The shorter cooking time in the slow cooker is a bonus if you're at home mid-afternoon. 

I probably wouldn't be doubling the recipe to get sauce, I think it would be far too strong a taste. I think you could possibly add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of stock or water in the last hour or so of cooking to create a sauce that wasn't overpowering.

I forgot to take a photo, this one (for exactly the same recipe) is from Favourite Family Recipes. Mine turned out a fair bit darker and less "clean" looking.

Home

Apple Crumb Cake
Second dish of the night was Apple Crumb Cake. I had a hankering for apple cake and my CWA cook book let me down. Unbelievable that the country women of this country didn't cook apple cakes. I was thinking about cinnamony tea cake thing we cooked in home ec all those decades ago. When I went looking for recipes; however, I found an apple tea cake with a crumb topping and I was reminded of a MASH episode in which BJ receives a Dutch apple crumb cake from Peggy. Enough coincidences for me.

The recipe is on Taste.com.au - Apple Tea Cake Recipe.

My comments on the cake: I used 'ras el hanout' instead of cinnamon. I love this spice mix. I was introduced to it by Vanilla Zulu; Mel uses it in brownies (divine). I've used it before in apple crumble. It works really well with apples.

I created the crumble mix in the blender. I use the blender for my apple crumble topping and scones (just the flour and butter stage) as well. I find it works just as well rubbing the butter in by hand, if not better. And it's certainly a lot quicker.

I wasn't sure from the instructions if the apples were supposed to be wedges or slices. In the end I decided on wedges (8 per small apple). I put most of them around the outside, based on a comment from another cook, and a few in the centre. It seems to have worked well.

This time I did remember to take a photo. A little easier, because we didn't eat it all in one sitting.

Home

Tuna and Caper Salad
And while we're discussing food. Lunch yesterday. I don't dislike tuna. Weirdly, I just dislike the idea of tuna. I look at the tin and think, "blurgh, thanks but no thanks". If I actually eat it, hey, it's okay. Yesterday, I was inspired - tuna and capers. I love, love, love capers. Not caper berries. Capers are the flower buds of the Capparis spinosa plant that have been salted and pickled. Caper berries are bigger and are the fruit, also salted and pickled. My thought process was, if I put capers in tuna it would have to improve it. Mmmmm. My recipe - one small tin of flaky tuna in springwater, a spoonful of capers, a couple of cherry tomatoes quartered, a stalk of spring onion (or green onion or shallots, depending on what you call them), and a few shredded leaves of basil. Mix. Yummy.

Home

Keeping Spring/Green Onions/Shallots
And finally, a hint for storing spring onions/green onions/shallots. When you buy a bunch of onions, pick ones with long roots still attached. If you're a disciplined type, you can stick the bunch into a glass of water. Change the water every day and rinse the onions. When you use an onion, cut it about an inch from the roots. It will regrow. If, on the other hand, you're like me and not so disciplined. Set a small flower on pot on the kitchen window and replant the onions when you buy them. Same thing - cut the onion about an inch from the top of the dirt. The onion will regrow, often several times.

I often buy spring onions, use two or three stalks from the bunch, and the rest ends up drying out in the fridge (or going slimy). This way, my onions keep for weeks, if not months. Plus I get a second and often even a third regrowth from a single bunch.

Home

Creative Journal - Day 13 (Tea)

Use tea leaves or tea bags (used or unused) or even just liquid tea (in a cup or not) to create something today.

I appear to have been missing in action for a few days. I was simply experimenting with various tea options. As a quilter 'tea dying' is a common term. Apparently, quilters use tea (and coffee) to dye fabrics to give them an 'ol' world charm'. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but most things just looked stained to me.

My first attempt, I thought I'd write a word with a crayon on fabric and dye it.

If you look really, really, really closely you might be just able to make out the word "study". However, it wasn't heavy enough to resist the tea staining and can't be seen at all in the dry fabric.

Take 2, I decided to shave wax on to the fabric, cover it with baking paper and iron it in. My theory is that the wax would penetrate the fabric and could be washed out later. Home-made batik.

Ah, all very well in theory.

The final, dry fabric has just got a slightly pink, slightly brown patch in the centre.

Take 3 (I didn't even take photos) - I piled tea leaves in the pattern I wanted on the fabric and left it sit. However, the stain spread and I ended up with just a slightly brown patch in the centre.

Take 4 (oh, yeah, that's why I've been missing in action for so long) - I taped off the areas I didn't want stained. It worked somewhat better than the first three options. Unfortunately, my perception of negative space isn't too crash hot and I was missing an outside bor
der to my image. Again, a slightly brown patch in the centre.

So, today, I finally called the tea dying quits. Instead I opted for the easy path. A "tea T".

All I can say is, good thing I drink tea every day!

Creativity Journal - Day 10 (Water)

Use only water as your medium/inspiration today.

Water has long fascinated me, particularly the impact of water on poverty. For many of us in the developed world (and I presume most readers of blogs live reasonably affluent lives) water, on demand, on tap, is a thing we take entirely for granted. If you think you don't, try this - find your main supply tap, usually with the water metre, and turn it off for 24 hours. You'll soon realise how many times you turn on the tap and simply expect water to come out of it.

This site, which I haven't explored in detail, explains some of the connections between water and poverty - http://thewaterproject.org/poverty.asp. The simple cycle is - if water has to be collected it's usually the children, and most likely the girls, that do so. Education is disrupted or worse non-existent. Children are given the task because parents are busy trying to earn a living. If the water is dirty, the ability to work by the parents or attend school by children (assuming they have time) is compromised. Simply by supplying clean water the cycle of poverty becomes so much easier to break. Illness is less common; time and energy are more available - when was the last time you piggybacked a five year old 10 kilometres and then worked a full, productive day?

As I was thinking about water, I was considering all the uses I put it to. How it is a base ingredient. Generally it has little flavour of its own, no colour, no odour, but when you add it to other things it releases flavours and odours, and magnifies colours. Here is how water has inspired me today.

I am a coffee addict in recovery. Coffee and I have an unhealthy relationship and generally I try to keep my distance. Every now and then, as a treat, I will have coffee. I don't have just any coffee. In fact, I dislike hot coffee and am rarely tempted to touch it. But iced coffee, ah. Drug of my choice. And here's how I make it.

Make a nice, strong, rich espresso.

Pour over ice.

I know it looks huge, but that is an espresso cup.
It's quite difficult to pour and take photos at the same time.

Add another espresso cup of water. Add about the same amount milk.

Enjoy.

No vanilla, no flavourings, no sugar, no icecream, no cream. Just what it says it is - iced - coffee -.

The second inspiration with water today was completely different. Yesterday I bought four plain, white, long-sleeved t-shirts. Today I bought 8 metres of plain white fabric, 8 white-on-white FQs and four packets of dye.The super-duper bright yellow is in the wash. I've also got a purple, grey and green. It's a bit of a suck it and see with the colours. The colour on the packet is next to useless for actually knowing what you'll get. Not sure what I'm going to do with the fabric, but I figured there was no point 'wasting' the dye. One packet does 1 - 1.3kg of fabric. All up, my four loads, is still under 3kg. The FQs I'm thinking of turning into scarves, maybe necklaces, some sort of accessory, anyway. The white-on-white is doing just what I thought it would do - everything but the pattern has changed colour, so they will be white-on-colour. The first load is done and I'm loving the colour. The second load is in the machine.

Dye? Water? Where's the connection? It's really quite simple, isn't it? The packet of dye by itself is useless. Wouldn't matter what I did, without water, the dye is not going to make a bean's worth of difference to my fabric. Oh, I might end up with a couple of splotches, looking like I spilt something at dinner time, but it's only with water that I can colour three metres of fabric.

Lovely white on yellow for scarves or accessory. Super bright yellow t-shirt. Just the thing for a gloomy winter day.

2 metres of matching fabric to make ... something

Tell me - how do you like your coffee? What have you successfully dyed?

 5:00 pm update - second batch is on the line. Supposedly "olive", it's very brown. The white-on-white is wonderful though. I 'accidentally' used FQs with quite dense patterns. The pieces have dyed very white. I think they will be used to 'soften' the brownness of the shirt. Pictures in a later post.

Creativity Journal - Day 9 (Breakfast)

Make something with your breakfast before you eat it.

A challenge that would be easier for me to take up in summer, or on a winter day when someone else hadn't filled the kitchen (and lounge and dining rooms) with smoke and had all the windows open. I like my breakfast hot, particularly in winter. A difficult call this morning, even without playing with it. Not to mention, I don't think too clearly first thing in the morning. The whole purpose of breakfast is to aid the wake up process.

Thankfully, I was on the end of the loaf. I'm not fond of peanut butter. I eat it if dinner seems too hard - easy protein. And, for some strange reason, I like it on toasted crusts. The main reason I don't like it is because my dad was allergic to peanuts. We weren't allowed to have any peanut products in our house ever. Of course, these days that's not uncommon, but when I was a kid, dad was the only person I knew that was allergic to peanuts. In fact, people often didn't believe me when I told them. What's changed in the past thirty years?

Some basic quilting techniques at play. I give you Vegemite and peanut butter quarter square triangle blocks. No concerns about bias here, but my beginning blocks weren't exactly square.

And for some sort of variety, a ... umm ... fish tangram (use your imagination, folks).

When was the last time you played with your food?

Day 8 update. After resoaking for a couple of hours, the pages seem to be sticking together. Unfortunately, it's not a very nice day, so no sun to help the drying out process.

Versatile fruit bread

A couple of weeks ago I made a date loaf. It got rave reviews on the recipe site, but I wasn't impressed by it. On a scale of 'sponge to mud' cake, I like my date loaf up near the mud cake end. This version was too close to the sponge cake end.

Last week I made banana bread. Every one really enjoyed the recipe. The texture of the bread was far more like the texture I'm looking for in a date loaf. Instead of trying another recipe, I thought perhaps I could just substitute dates for bananas. It turned out okay. A little too sweet with the dates, and perhaps a little short on full date flavour.

The original recipe and the date option.

Ingredients - Banana Bread
3 or 4 ripe bananas, mashed. According to one site this is about a cup of banana.
80g (1/3 cup) of melted butter
3/4 cup sugar. Original recipe was for 1 cup. Even 3/4s was on the sweet side.
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla (I only ever use beans or bean paste)
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1.5 cups of plain flour
 Ingredients - Date Loaf
As above except:
1.5 cups of cut dates soaked in 1 cup of boiling water. Next time I will put the soaked dates through the blender, which may help to 'spread' the flavour a little.
1/2 cup of sugar. This still way sweeter than necessary. Next time I will use only 1/4 cup.

Method - either
Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F).
Stir butter into fruit.
Stir in sugar, egg and vanilla.
Sprinkle salt and baking soda over the mix and stir in.
Stir in flour.
All stirring with a wooden spoon; no need for 'lectric. Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. In my small oven, after about 40 minutes I need to cover with foil to prevent the top from burning.
Eat lots of it. Good warm straight out of the oven. Good the next day with butter on it.

Porridge (Oats)

My nana used to make stick-to-your-ribs-all-day porridge. After dinner, she'd put the oats in water a saucepan to soak over night. In the morning, she'd cook it up and you'd get a lovely blob of sticky, gooey porridge.

I've never been able to replicate it. Even "traditional" oats are obviously not as hardy as oats 'back in the day'. Leaving them to soak overnight all but destroys them, turning them into something resembling school paste. A slow cooker recipe I found was (unsurprisingly really) even worse. Microwave porridge, firstly, makes a huge mess and secondly, just wasn't as satisfying; but I think I've nailed it.

The trick is a very large container with straight sides to cook the oats in. For a single serve of porridge (1/3 cup of oats, 2/3 cup of water) I use a 2 litre mixing bowl. I cook, according to the instructions, for 2 minutes, stir, cook for a further minute. For variation, when I stir I add a handful of cranberries. The result - perfect, nana stodge. Love it on a cold winter morning.

Doesn't photograph well, but it sure hits the spot on a cold morning.
The big white lump near my spoon is cream from the top of the milk.
Gotta love unhomogenised milk!

Corned Beef Hash

Got a couple of recipe type posts coming up. Here's the first one. This was a new, trial recipe for me. The others enjoyed it. Can't say I was much fussed. Sadly, I only have one photo. Taking photos of my food is a little foreign to me.

Corned Beef Hash mix

What was in my hash mix? In the photo the big, bright green 'thing' to the right - that's a spatula. Just in case you were wondering.

Otherwise - left over corned beef, carrot, baby spinach leaves, onion, celery - all put through the food processor. Really, you could put just about anything in these. There could even be some zucchini in this mix. Just put everything through the food processor or grater to ensure it's a fairly even consistency.

Grated raw potato, which isn't yet in this photo. The trick is to dry the potato as thoroughly as possible. My dad's suggestion is to use a potato ricer (pictures on this website). They look a bit like an overgrown garlic press. After pressing the grated potato, dry them on paper towel. I'm thinking another option might be to use a salad spinner (Ikea's version). I don't own either, so I squeeze by hand, and then put the potato into one mesh seize, put another on top and squeeze them together.

I also added an egg (probably needed two, but I didn't have two) and some spices.

Form about a tablespoon or so into a ball, place (don't drop) into hot oil and flatten. That's really all there is to is.

Like I said, I wasn't fussed, but it's an easy way to use up a bunch of left corned beef and veggies.

Tuesday - Friday : where does the week go?

Well, so much for posting a photo of my dinner every night! That lasted all of a day. I did take a photo on Tuesday - Indian. Wednesday we ate with friends (little rude/odd to take a photo of their table)! Thursday was a bit hit-and-miss for dinner. Friday we ate out at a restaurant (again, a little strange to take a photo).

Indian - beef madras, prahata, carrots and beans
('cause the Man can't do 'no vegetables')

So, the good stuff this week:
- I'm finally feeling like I'm over the brief course of steroids.Why anyone voluntarily takes the things is beyond me. They have a list of possible side-effects a mile long and none of them real fun.
- I've handed over my baby at work. I'm really looking forward to work on other projects, but it is really hard to let go. I just have to say "It's work; it's not personal. It is not my responsibility if the person who has been given it doesn't live up to my high standards." Similarly, if they exceed my high standards, I have to still let go!
- My next package of uni has arrived. Not sure this is a "good" point for the week, but it means I am one step closer to my Masters; one step closer to finishing this crazy journey that I swore I'd never start.
- My girl comes home from art camp today.
- I've just made a big batch of pumpkin, sweet potato, ginger and lemon grass soup. Hope it's good 'cause I'm supposed to be eating it for lunch for the next week or so!

On another note, my old (former) toxicology lecturer posted a link to research this morning. Apparently, meditation can create new brain paths. Article. In looking for info about the integrative body mind training mentioned in the article, I found this very interesting post by Jonathan Fields.

I was caught by his paragraph:

Done right, AT (Attentional Training) induces a psycho-physiological state where your heart-rate, blood pressure and levels of stressor hormones all drop precipitously, while your attention becomes highly-focused. And, inducing this state on a regular basis not only helps your mindset, it dramatically lowers your risk for heart-disease, diabetes, and various other life-limiting conditions. It helps you sleep deeper, longer and wake fewer times at night and it can lower anxiety, stress and depression. That’s where the focus has been in most of the research.

My instant thought was "this is what reading does". When I read I am highly focused; barely aware of anything going around me, but at the same time I am completely relaxed. Later in the post Jonathan actually lists some everyday activities that can induce this "Attentional Training" - running, playing music, art. When I sew I do reach a level of focus and relaxation, but not to the same extend as reading.

My conclusion - I need to read more. I haven't read (or sewed) a lot recently because of the competing demands on my time. And because I do so easily get lost in a book and it can chew up whole days. But maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Monday 2 July 2012 - getting healthy

Went back to work today. Not sure it wasn't too soon, but I don't know that I could have handled another day of doing nothing. Thankfully, felt well enough to stop the dreaded Prednisone. All swelling gone; just a few itchy spots (had to duck off to the ladies a couple of times to scratch in peace).
Another appointment with the naturapath this afternoon. She told me I'm not eating enough. I'm probably eating enough calories, just too sparsely during the day. So, got to try and put some new habits in place. Started a food diary to try and track how I do. Thought the easiest way to track dinner (which is the most variable meal) would be to take a photo. So, here's dinner from tonight. Grilled fish and baked vegetables.

Dinner

Saturday 9 June 2012

I spent most of today avoiding my assignment. Why? I'm really not sure; it would be interesting to know. The only productive thing I did all day was cook. Seems to be a trend in my posts.
Several weeks ago I bought myself a new thermos. It's a single cup size; has a wide mouth; a tea leaf basket. The best bit is, you push a button in the top and can drink from anywhere around the edge. I hate normal 'make and carry' cups; I always seem to end up with the handle facing the wrong way when I'm driving. I've also realised that keeping my cuppa in a thermos on my desk saves me wasting half cups all day. I think I'm going to give up coffee cups completely.

Friday 8 June 2012

Not sure I did much today that I wanted to do. The Girl hit her head at school and ended up with three stitches in her forehead. Not on my bucket list.
After the excitement, spent the day driving out to Dalby and back, stopping to identify various trees and culverts along the way. Again, not on my bucket list.
Avoided my assignment, watched some TV, and went to bed early.
I did cook chicken soup for dinner. The Man had planned chicken and chips but that just didn't appeal. I took his BBQ chicken, pulled it apart. Sautéed some onion, added some veggies from the fridge, the chicken and a litre of chicken soup. Wah-lah, chicken soup.

(not my photo)

Monday 4 June 2012

Today I cooked lemon pudding. For someone who has decided they don't like cooking, I seem to do it a lot for relaxation. Thing is, I love food. The pudding was a Green's packet mix. I like Green's (I also like the Green's family, who I met many years ago). However, like most packet lemon things, it is a little sweeter than I like.

I decided to fix that and fix it I did! The box calls for one egg and 1 tablespoon of water to be mixed into the sponge mix. I used a tablespoon of lemon juice instead. I think the sponge is actually vanilla or fairly plain, so the lemon juice pepped it up a bit. Secondly, I zested in some orange peel.

In the sauce - sprinkle on top, boiling water deal - I added another splash of lemon juice. Not much, only about 1/3 of a cup ;-) and some more orange peel. I used orange peel because we didn't have any fresh lemons.

The sponge didn't rise well. Maybe the acid of the juice was a factor. Maybe the overly small egg (I debated using two) was a factor. I'm not sure. But it was sure nice and lemony.

Sunday 3 June

You might be wondering why blog about this latest new beginning, particularly given my track record at regular blogging is not so wonderful. I have a lot to be thankful for, but it's easy to forget that and get bogged down in everything that's not right. I'm hoping that if I make the effort to blog it'll spark that appreciation for all that is right in the world, instead of focusing on all that is wrong.

Sunday 2 June - read for about 5 hours. Curled up in bed with the blankets, couple of cups of tea, a heat pack and a not-so-bad book, The Hunger Games. I found the premise of the book interesting. There are too many examples from history for us to be able to say we wouldn't stoop so low. The writing was a little disjointed. The main character is variously a fighter, a survivor, sullen, giggly ... images that didn't mesh together easily. I often wonder if authors write a plan before they start writing their novels - do they sketch up their characters; set out the timeline; draft out a story line. You can definitely tell those that do.

Cooked a roast beef for dinner (not my picture below; we ate it all before I thought of a photo).  I love a rare roast beef. On Saturday I bought a lump of topside; haven't a clue how much it weighed. Slathered it in garlic and Dijon mustard; put it on a rack; filled the bottom of the pan with beef stock and red wine. I've always called it French roasting; but one site says that's where you put the meat on top of the vegetables to cook. Whichever, roasting over a pan of liquid makes for a very moist roast.

It's a wee bit difficult to make gravy the traditional way (flour in the pan juices with liquid added), but I learnt a trick that works well. Mix butter and flour together into little balls, bring the liquids to boil on the stove top and mix in the balls one at a time.

New Beginnings - Saturday 2 June

Long story short - letting things get me down that really need to be shrugged off. Lost my motivation; not eating right, not exercising, not enjoying life. Being a great believer in starting over from where a body happens to be, I decided on Saturday afternoon to do just that. My basic plan is - give up coffee (sigh) and do at least one thing a day that I truly enjoy. Although I started on Saturday afternoon, it is easier to track using full days, so I'm counting '1' from Sunday. However, as a 'catch up':

Saturday 2 June - bought some "Detox & Cleanse" tea from  The Tea Centre. It's a pleasant enough drink; not sure what it's supposed to do.

I also fixed a lamp. It's bugged me for, quite literally, years. It's got a long flexible 'neck' with two prongs going into the base. One prong always comes out of the base and causes the light to droop. I finally decided I was going to replace it, but first, I'd pull it apart and see what was what. Inside the base the prong is supposed to screw into a nut; it was unscrewed. I screwed the nut back on; tightened up the nut on the second prong, and the lamp is as good as new. So simple, so rewarding, so annoying that I left it for so long.

Stickers & Doodads

I've had a busy day. Can't say I've been in the best frame of mind today. The next door neighbour rang at SEVEN AM. There went my planned sleep in. Still, things achieved.

Decided that sharp objects and measuring (requiring clear thinking) probably weren't a good idea. Took some time this morning to make some stickers for the family calendar. I use a big, almost A2 sized, desk calendar for the family. I bought some stickers, but there's things missing that I wanted and things that we don't use. I went to Word, found some related clipart, and made my own.

To find related clipart (ie clipart that's in a similar style) - search for an image in Word. Open the preview window so you can see the name of the image; usually a bunch of numbers dot jpg or wmf etc. Copy that name into Goggle; the top result will almost certainly be the Microsoft clipart site (that's the easiest way to find it, rather than navigating the MS site). Open the preview window there and there'll be a link for "style" (another number). If you click that, it'll find all the clipart that's the same style as the original.

To make my stickers, I resized all the images to 1.5cm high, printed a long strip of them, and then feed them through a scrapbook sticker maker gadget. Handy dandy thing. Think it was about $15 from KMart; rolls of tape are about $10 (but seem to last ages); works a treat. I use it for address labels, spice bottle labels etc.









My 2nd creative effort was to extend one container of fried rice into a full meal. Cut up a bunch of veggies, scramble fried some eggs, fried the veggies, added the fried rice, added a packet of fried rice flavouring. Hey presto - a full meal and left over.

And last, but not least, I've started a sewing holster. It goes around you neck; looks a bit like an extra long undone bow tie LOL. Has a pocket at each end and a pin/needle holder. It's all quilted and the one in the book looks pretty speccy. Tonight I chose some fabrics and cut them out. The idea is to quilt the fabric and then cut it to the shapes required. Hopefully, pictures to post tomorrow.

Catch Up

Wednesday - creatively talked my way into an early mark from work so I could come home and go to bed and read. It was a coolish afternoon 'cause it rained; perfect weather for snuggling up with a book. Nothing else achieved LOL.

Thursday - I cooked Burmese Chicken. A fairly standard curry recipe - cumin, tummeric, cardamon. But with lots of ginger (fresh and powdered!), lemon grass and oddly enough, cinnamon sticks. It was very good. I've tried my hand at about 1/2 dozen different curries and I'm pretty consistent at producing the goods. Which helps make up for my more traditional meals (spag bol, meat and three veg, and the like), which aren't so consistent. Or maybe its just that I don't like them whether they're good or not. The others seem to polish them off without complaint.

I've sorted my main project for my upcoming quilting retreat (just one week left)

The fabrics. These aren't my thing at all. I recognise that they're very pretty, but they don't float my boat. However, I know the person I'm planning on giving the quilt to will love them.



The book:


The pattern. The idea is that you make 6 different blocks using 6 different FQs (and a background fabric - my beige FQs). You then decide on a layout to suit yourself, filling in gaps with extra blocks or left over fabric from the FQs/BG fabric. I saw one a friend made and I loved it.