My New Toy

No blog yesterday because my new toy arrived with the postie. It was a lovely day, so when I'd put it together Munty and I had to zoom off to the beach to try it out. It's a metal detector. I've always thought they looked like fun, and I can combine it with beach fossicking, getting some fresh air and exercise, and walking the dog.
So this is what I found on my first day of figuring out how it works.....

A 1926 Aussie threepence, a 1936 sixpence, a 1963 florin and a piece of junk jewelery!

I would have bought the metal detector second hand, but there weren't any for sale. I prefer to buy preloved to fit with my ethic of reducing consumerism, and reducing outgoings so that I can continue to not have to return to the workforce. 
We needed to buy a bigger settee, and today picked up this one from a purchase on Trade Me. It's in perfect condition, and looks like it was made for the place.

We are about to head off to the beach again as it's another beautiful day, and Derek's all keen to try out the metal detector after seeing what I found yesterday.

What a Waste!

Yesterday an article in the Advocate reported that Australians throw away one out of every five bags of groceries they buy - or $1250 NZ dollars worth of food per household annually.
To highlight the issue of food waste, the United Nations Environment Programme has chosen "Think, eat, save" as the theme of World Environment Day, held each year on June 5th.
It doesn't mention New Zealanders, but I presume we can take it that we are just as bad.
In honour of that we are having leftovers for dinner tonight! Actually I love leftover nights as it means I don't really have to cook.
Also, I'm not shopping this week. It makes me get creative with what I have and use things up. I might not even shop next week.

One of my favourite ways of using up sad veges is to make a vegetable curry:
Cook a chopped onion with curry paste or powder, add a tin of tomatoes, tin of chickpeas, any veges to use up and a bit of water. Cook until tender.

Fruit that is getting past attractive either gets stewed or made into juice with my juicer.

We don't have as many leftovers as some might as we have a dog who will eat anything. I read that dogs and cats need more fat than humans do - so he gets all the pan scrapings and meat trimmings.

On a totally different note..I have added in some of my cards I have just made, after getting all inspired by some little art works by Dick Frizzell. I intend to sell my cards at the market in town and/or on Felt.co.nz, which is the NZ equivalent of Etsy.

Slow Living

"The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land."  Abraham Lincoln

I have come to the conclusion that slow living may not make for very exciting blogs at time, in view of the fact that it means a lot of time is spent gardening and creating in the kitchen. But people who are following slow living will understand that. Others might not.

Today's blog will be of random bits and pieces then, just to stir it up a little.

A little piece of my driftwood art - "I Love You"

It is pouring with rain again today...and I want to retreat to my studio but it is across the drive...through the rain.

RECIPE FOR DISHWASHER POWDER

2 cups of washing soda

2 cups of borax

6 tablespoons of citric acid

1 cup of baking soda

Combine all ingredients (I use the food processor to pulverise it all to a powder) and use as usual. Put white vinegar in the rinse compartment.

Not only does this mean an environmentally safe mixture for our septic tank, but I'm pretty sure it works out cheaper (I'll have to work that out) plus no packaging, as all these ingredients can be bought from Binn Inn in bulk with my own containers ...win win win.

A while back we bought a huge old holey tapa cloth off Trade me,  and have been having fun doing things with it. 

Drainpipe with sewn on tapa cloth cover

Breakfast - morning tea - dessert - and good for you!

Today has been cold and wet. That means it's a good day to line up something on TV (I like Ellen) and do the ironing.
Next up cooking. Brought to you today by the soundtracks of Elton John's "Captain Fantastic", Paul Simon's Greatest Hits and Rod Stewart's "Night on the Town" - with thanks to the person who threw them out --see earlier blog "One Man's Trash."
I whipped up one of my old favourite recipes, which I will share.

CITRUS OATMEAL PANCAKES

This is the quadrupled recipe, it makes about 20 pancakes, most of which I put in the freezer with a piece of baking paper between them. They microwave back really well. So if you don't want that much - divide it down by 4.

3 cups of standard rolled oats

3 cups of milk

2 cups of flour

8 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons of melted butter

juice and zest of 2 oranges or lemons

8 teaspoons of brown sugar (I use 1/4tsp stevia and less sugar)

Mix oats and milk in a bowl and leave to stand for 5 minutes. Add sugar and whisk 30 seconds.

Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Add melted butter, juice and zest.

Stir it up - it should be a bit sloppy.

Cook in a lightly buttered pan, turn over pikelet style.

I use an icecream scoop to measure out the mixture, and flatten the mix down in the pan a little so it cooks through.

I use milk made from milk powder in a lot of my baking. It works out cheaper, there is less packaging, it means I'm not using up the fresh milk supply, and the people who don't like powdered milk in our house can't even tell.

The best thing to go on these, sometimes with fresh fruit or yoghurt, is my ...

MOCK MAPLE SYRUP

2 large tablespoons of golden syrup

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

juice of 1/2 - 1 lemon

Warm the golden syrup, and stir the next 2 ingredients in until combined.

It's nicer than the artificial maple syrup you can buy, and waaay cheaper than the real stuff. 

TOMATOES

Just a little pic of my tomatoes which are still producing in the first week of winter. The plants don't look that great, having succumbed to powdery mildew. I treated them with a baking soda solution that i read how to make somewhere, and although they still have it a bit, we are getting nice tomatoes off them anyway. They are "patio" tomatoes, designed for growing in pots. We have them in an enclosed outdoor area so they are like in a hothouse.

The chairs belonged to my parents and have been repainted and covered about 4 times in their 50 or so years. I include a little written history and a swatch on the back of one chair, under the upholstery, that one day might be interesting to someone.
The tomato stakes are upcycled fibreglass poles from a now extinct tent.

Pipis

Collecting shellfish only 5 minutes from home is one of the privileges of living on the coast. Hopefully it will be a privilege for generations to come - that pipis are plentiful, and their environment is clean, and that they remain safe to eat.

We had a lovely morning down at the estuary together gathering shellfish, enough to take home to family who don't have access to them because of age or distance. We had pipi fritters for lunch, a new experience for some

of the family.

Yesterday we drove to Paihia where our band was playing. I was ashamed to see how much rubbish there was on the roadside up there - right in tourist country. Hmmm, might have to see if there's something we can do...

One man's trash...

Family arrived last night, and Michael produced something he thought we might like that he found after someone had thrown it out. He knows us well - it is a pile of old LPs, to add to our collection. Real classic rock etc - Genesis, Elton John, Paul Simon, Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart and more!. All look to be in pretty good condition and I'm going to enjoy some new (old) soundtracks to my work routine. Why would someone not just have donated them to a charity?? I don't understand the throw away mentality. 

I made some date scones,(on request from Derek as they are his favourites) for morning tea. This is a really easy (peasy) recipe that I have adapted from one of Jo Seagars.

DATE SCONES

1 cup dates

75g butter

1 1/4 cups milk

3 cups self raising flour

1/4 tsp salt - optional ( I don't put it in unless making cheese scones)

Set oven to 220 Celcius

Pour boiling water over one cup of dates and leave them to sit.

Heat the butter and milk in the microwave approx 2 minutes until butter is melted.

Drain then chop the dates, add to the milk/ butter. 

Add the flour. Mix will be quite wet. Place heaped desertspoonfuls on a floured baking tray quite close together.

Bake at 220 for approx 15 mins, or fanbake for approx 9 minutes.

Incoming....pizza

We found out yesterday that lots of family are coming for the long weekend - yay!
Plans of moving my worm farm into a better residence have been shelved in favour of cleaning up the studio in preparation for use, general cleaning and food preparation.
Living out of town (only 35 mins), I try to only go in once a week, to save time, energy and petrol. So it means being prepared for surprise guests.
It's amazing how fast the days go, with slow living!
I'm making pizza for tonight, which takes a bit of effort. It's so much nicer - but probably not really cheaper in this instance.

PIZZA DOUGH

1 Tablespoon of active yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
300 mls warm water
3 cups high grade flour
1 tablespoon olive oil

1. Mix yeast, sugar and  water in a bowl. Leave in a warm place for 10 mins until frothy.
2. Mix flour and salt in a large bowl.Add yeast mix and oil. Mix to a soft dough and knead for approx 5 mins.

3. Place dough in a large oiled bowl, cover (clean tea towel will do). Stand in a warm place until doubled in size - approx 45 minutes.
4. Push fist into the middle of the dough. Knead for 1 min.
Roll out to 2 bases. I roll them fairly thin to crisp up, and they rise a bit when cooking.

Ready to go in the oven

5. Apply toppings and cook at 220 C for approx 10- 15 mins.
6. Pour self glass of red wine.


It's now 5 months since I gave up my job (happily), and I have not missed it at all, nor have i been bored. It's a pretty safe bet that it will continue to be like that. There's always so much to do - I love it!