Solar

What a wonderful sight!
At last our solar panels are up - all 16 of them. Still waiting for conection to the grid though.

Handmade

Earlier in the year I started a little shore at Made It to sell my hand made childrens cloth books and other handcrafted items. I love craft and I love others appreciating my handmade items too.

Today I just wanted to share some lovely finds for those that are concerned with loving our world a little more and being kinder to the enviroment. Oh, and because they are very practical, cute and unique.
Owl shopping or library bag.

Citrus dish soap for use washing the dishes and keeping the kitchen sparkly and fresh.
Enviromentally friendly chenille dishcloths made from recycled fabric.

Vegetable /fruit eco shopping bags to cut down on plastics at the supermarket.

Draft stopper snake to keep your home draft free and help reduce heating costs.

Then and Now

Sometimes it is good to look back and realise just how much progress has been made in the garden.

Front garden in 2008 above and below at beginning of this year. There is always something in flower in the front yard - roses, agapanthus, diamond frost which is the white flowers at the front (always flowering). Amongst all jthat there is a fig tree in a large pot, a mango tree, blueberry bushes and strawberry plants, thyme, and parsley is also growing in gaps.

Below is the raised vege patch in Sep 2008 when it was newly built

And how it is looking now. At the moment I have snow peas as tall as the fence, beetroot, silverbeet, turnips, chillis, eggplants, parsleys and some young tomatoes.

The long backyard when we first moved here - all lawn and no trees or shrubs.

Now the backyard is lush and green. There are now passionfruit vines, 5 citrus trees, 2 apples, lemon grass and herbs galore, peach tree, 4 olives all planted amongst fragrant flowers and bushes.

Mandarins

The little mandarin tree is loaded and the mandarins are very sweet and juicy. Delicious eaten just are.

But some will be made into marmalade for the pantry.

As a special desert last night I made Mandarins in Ginger Syrup.

Here is the recipe

1 1/2 cups water

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup thinly sliced peeled ginger

4 green cardamon pods

3 whole star anise

6 mandarins

Bring water, sugar, ginger, cardamon,star anise to boil until sugar dissolves. Then simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat cover and allow to stand for 15 min. Strain syrup and discard solids. Chill until cold.

Peel, remove any pips and slice mandarins into rounds. put into a serving bowl and add syrup. Cover for an hour before serving.

Oh they were delicious and I will definately be making these again.

A little break

But I am back and aiming to blog once a week. Hmm, wonder if that will happen!

While away I aquired this collection below. My aunt is cleaning out my nans house and I have inherited these amongst other things.
They are salt cellars, Salts, and were used in the 1800's and earlier and up to about 1950 to hold salt. In those days salt wasn't fine enough for a salt shaker. IT came to the table in one of these dishes with a cute little spoon. Evidently my nan liked them, so started collecting them. Luckily they are only small so I could bring them home safely wrapped in my suitcase. Next visit I will bring the rest home with me.

This is my favourite - a cute green glass swan with little spoon.

I also brought this back. It is an early baby bottle and was used by my nan as a baby. Evidently it is dated early 1900's and as it says on the bottle is the " improved baby feeder" The top is intact and is a cork with a porcelain top with a hole in it - no soft sipper or spout back then.
I also came home with loads of old clothes - hats, gloves, lace baby outfits etc. They belonged to my great grandma. My nan grew up very poor and never threw anything away! Hence her old home is full of old treasures. She was a real collector/hoarder. And I for one am very glad that she was. I will share a few more pictures of my treasures next post.

Now holidays are over I am itching to get back to the sewing machine. I have a few more childrens cloth books almost finished. My little Made it store needs more stock. I am happy to report I have sold two of my cloth childrens books - hurray.

In the Garden

My poor garden has been sadly neglected over summer. The only veges to do well have been chillis and pumpkin vines (I say pumpkin vines because the pumpkins didn't grow well) - I did make a few meals of stuffed pumpkin flowers and will share the recipe in another post becuase they were yummy.

Despite the neglect the herbs are all thriving. My mushroom plants are growing fantastically. This herb is amazing. The leaves taste just like mushrooms and are great in stirfrys, casseroles, omelettes or sandwiches. It is high in chlorophyll, calcium and protien - a little wonder herb.
Read more about them here http://www.herbsarespecial.com.au/free-herb-information/mushroom-plant.html

I have also found a use for all the olive oil tins I have been keeping. I have removed the tops, punched drainage holes in the bottom and planted them with herbs. They are just outside the door and make a nice little display.

Picking watermelons. They are all small but very juicy and sweet. They wont last long. I will be saving seeds from these to plant next year.

I have also been keeping busy on the sewing machine sewing more cloth books for my made it store.

I can't believe a whle school term has just about finished! It simply flew by.

Replacing Plastics

I have been reading a lot about plastic containers and have started replacing the plastic containers around the house. Have a look at the links below if you feel like a bit of reading.

http://www.choice.com.au/Reviews-and-Tests/Food-and-Health/Food-and-drink/Safety/Plastic-food-containers/page/Introduction.aspx
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/plastic-coding-system.shtml
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=plastic-not-fantastic-with-bisphenol-a


My pantry was the first place I began. I have replaced a lot of storage containers with glass. And I must say the pantry has never looked neater and it is so much easier to see what is in the jars. Drink bottles have been replaced by these. I love how they have big openings so cleaning is very easy. http://www.naturallysustainable.com.au/
Our lunchboxes are still plastic but I just love these cuter than cuter Eco Lunch box sets. They come in a huge range of colours too.

http://www.ecolunchboxes.com/product.html

They are on my wish list!

It will take a while to eliminate all the plastic so just doing a bit at a time at the moment but it so good to know there are some great alternatives out there.

Crafty Blog

I have been busy making a new blog in an attempt to keep the crafty side and Made it shop items seperate from this blog.

Creative Wishes

So pop over and tell me what you think. It is amazing how much time it takes to set up these things!

Meanwhile the garden is looking very neglected. The only things I am picking a lot of is herbs, eggplants and chillis. Fruit flies have found my citrus, pumpkin vines have taken over my yard and aren't even growing pumpkins!

Creating

It has been a while between posts but there is a very exciting reason for that!

At the beginning on the year I wrote a post about my goals for the year and my word for the year Create.

http://simplysuburbia.blogspot.com/2010/01/heres-to-2010.html

Creating is what I have been doing lots of!

I have been sewing.

I have been glueing.

I have been scrapbooking.

I have been hand stitchitching.
And as of yesterday I have taken the plunge and set up a shop at Made It

http://www.madeit.com.au/storecatalog.asp?userid=12610

Creative Wishes

I have always made things - sewn, knitted, papercraft, scrapbooking, card making etc. My hands need to be busy! I can't just sit and watch tv... I need to be doing something with my hands.

But most of what I have made in the past goes to friends or family as gifts.

So selling my handcrafts is a very new thing for me and something I hope others appreciate as much as I have loved making.

Creative Wishes will give me an avenue to sell some of my handmade items. I have lots of other things to list in the next week or so.

OP SHOPS

Now it is no secret that I love second hand and op shopping. But lately I haven't been getting the same buzz from entering an op shop. There are still great finds to be discovered and fantastic bargains to be had. But op shops have changed and evolved. Now they have professional window displays, clothes hanging neatly on racks sorted by colour and size. Items are neatly displayed on shelves. There are even new items for sale. One op shop I visited last week has a loyalty card - ten purchases and get the next 50% off!

I used to love the rummaging through boxes and bookshelves to find the perfect book or over looked treasure. I used to love the items not having prices and getting to the counter and getting the item for an absolute bargain. But now they are run as a business and to me have lost that special something. Maybe it is the slightly musty smell you get when entering a second hand shop or the haphazard displays, maybe they have become too neat and tidy and orderly.

Oh well! Maybe they have had to change to compete with people selling on ebay.
Still I miss the older op shops of 10 years ago.

NO, I am not lost

I know, it has been a while!

Our January was busy with sailing and camping and walking and swimming and keeping cool!

Busy time of the year with holidays and now school starting back. My baby has begun kindy and has had a great week. He is disappointed that the weekend is here and he can't go to school for a whole 2 days. Wonder how long that will last. Guitar Dude and Zippy are in high school and have settled in well (and they are glad the weekend is coming).

So now all the little munchkins have started school I am finding myself with more time for myself. I have got so many things I want to do so I definately won't be bored.

One thing I have been investigating is selling handmade craft on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/ and Made It http://www.madeit.com.au/

Made It is an Australian site for buying and selling handmade and there are some wonderfully talented crafters out there!

This week I have got my sewing machine out (first time for over a year). Part of the reason I haven't sewn for ages is because I haven't had anywhere to keep it set up. It is such a hassle to take it out and set it up on the table and then having to either eat around it or put everything away while in the middle of a sewing project. I have now found a place to set it up permantly. My laundry is large , large enough for a chest freezer and for the ironing board to be permantly set up. With a bit of rearranging I have made myself a great creative sewing place in the laundry. The freezer is going and the ironing board is folded away.

And I have been sewing!

I will share my sewing projects in another post.

After a visit to spotlight to get some material I came away amazed at the price of material and fabric. So whats a girl to do but check out the local op shops for some bargains. And there was plenty to be had too. I came home with material for $1.00 a bunch, zips for $1.00, ribbons and more.

Also picked up this cookbook for a couple of dollars. It is a 1970's book but love the recipes in it. Promotes cooking seasonal foods from scratch with real foods. It even has recipes and instructions for making marmalades, pates, sauces and killing and plucking a chook ( I can't see myself ever doing this but good to know just in case).

And some Little Golden Books illustrated by Elois Wilkin. I am in love with her illustrations of babies and little children and collect her books.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/trywhistlingthis/sets/72157605891976713/

I came across this person on Made It who makes cards from the books.

http://www.madeit.com.au/detail.asp?id=35095

I wouldn't have the heart to rip up a good book but I have come across some in opshops with ripped pages which would be great for cards etc.

How gorgeous is this drawing?

Here's to 2010

I am not one for making resoluions anymore. I have in the past and usual story I haven't kept them. I do like the idea of a WORD of the year. I know a lot of blogs have been posting their word for the year.
Eilleen at Consumption Rebellions http://consumption-rebellion.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-word-for-2010.html word is Celebrate.
Julie over at Towards Sustainabilityhttp://www.towards-sustainability.com/ word is resilience.

So I have given this a bit of thought and my word for the year is CREATE.
I want to sew more, scrapbook more. I want to continue creative a productive garden. I want to continue being a creative cook. I want to create a more patient positive me. Who else has a word of the year? I would love to hear what yours is.

At this time of the year I like to think of all I achieved over the last year (2009) and what I want to achieve in 2010.

2009 achievements:
Joined a community garden.
Simplified our eating by eliminating a lot of additives and prepackaged foods from our diets. This was a huge goal. Consistently for the last half of the year I have been cooking from scratch, buying veges, fruit, grains and meats direct and organic where ever possible.
Joined a gym with Mr Gadget.
After much planning our family went on our big overseas holiday.
Worked more on making the garden a productive enviroment.
Planted lots of fruit trees including banana, avocado, 2 apples, peach, cumquat, 3 passionfruit vines, 4 olive trees.
Increased the size of the vege patch and made a herb garden.

2010 Goals
Go to the gym at least 2-3 times each week
Finish list of repair/maintenance jobs around the house.
Paint remaining interior rooms.
Redo pool area and incorporate a water tank.
solar panels - investigate more.
Make craft and find an avenue for selling my handmade items.
Scrapbook travel photos
Maintain better communication with family and friends.
Increase social network.
Be a more positive and patient person.

Hmmm....looks like I'm going to be busy!

Cucumbers

It is raining here in NSW and I couldn't be happier. It has rained for the last 4 days off and on. My garden is getting a much needed soaking. The kids have been playing happily inside with their Christmas presents. The weather is refreshing with a cool breeze each evening - a very welcome respite from the summer heat and humidity.

The vegetables in the raised garden are really taking off. Nothing beats a good down pour to get them growing.
I am picking loads of cucumbers at the moment.
We eat them with salads but I am always after new ways of using them.

So thought I would share some of my favourite things to make with cucumbers
.

Cucumber and cream cheese Mousse

1 large or 2 small cucumbers

275g cream cheese

2 tbs mint leaves

2 tsp white wine vinegar

2 1/2 tsp gelatine

150 ml vegetable stock

Ground pepper

Blend cucumbers, cream cheese, vinegar and mint in a blender until smooth.

Dissolve gelatine in a little of the stock over a low heat until dissolved.

Once cool stir in the remaining stock. Add this to the cream cheese mixture.

Season and blend.

Refrigerate for at least 2 hurs until set.

Serve with cucumber and crackers.

Tzazziki Dip

500g yoghurt cheese

1 large or 2 small cucumbers

2 cloves garlic

tsp salt

Make yoghurt cheese by placing the yoghurt in muslin and let it drain overnight or for a few hours. The whey will be drained off leaving a thicker yoghurt.

Blend cucumbers and squeeze out excess liquid.

Blend garlic and cucumbers with the yoghurt. Season with salt and refrigerate until ready to eat.

Anyone else got some delicious dips or ways of cooking with cucumbers?

BUGS

The heat has been getting me out in the garden earlier in the morning. While the kids sleep I go out and water and do a quick tidy up.

The insects are still out. They haven't gone for shelter from the harsh sun. It amazes me , the amount of bugs out there. I am always running into spider webs and squealing at the thought of a spider crawling over me. I love them in the garden but not too close and definately not crawling on me. I f I come across spiders in the house they get killed but the ones in the garden I leave.

Noticed something has been eating my bean leaves.

And after a bit of searching found him. Needless to say he ended up squished.

And this bug was in the pool. I fished him out and he is drying in my hand. I am not sure what sort he is but the green is so bright. Superboy has been finding a few of these every now and then and always around the water.

Our week

It has gone by so quickly! Thought a quick update would be good just to show I haven't dissapeared completely.

GARDEN:

I have been enjoying the garden more than working in it. Plenty of flowers in bloom including lots of sunflowers. I should have plenty of sunflower seeds in a few weeks for my cooking. Thats if I can get to them before the birds do. At the moment we are getting frequent visits from the parrots. They are enjoying eating the seeds from the butterfly flowers.

This photo is a part of the front garden. It is a little overgrown at the moment and like a mini field of flowers. Amongst those flowers I have some herbs growing, silverbeet and squash plants. There is a young mango tree too.

READING:

I have just started reading The China Study. From what I have read so far (which isn't very much) it is proving to be a very interesting book and confirming in my mind what I already believe about what we eat affects our health.

I am also reading Cindi O Meara's book Changing Habits, Changing Lives. I am a huge fan of Cindi O'Meara. She advocates eating real food, food that our great, great grandparents would recognize. Real foods that are cooked from real ingredients.

This book is about making changes one at a time. You read the chapter and inplement that change and once you have got that change down pat move onto the next chapter and work on changing that one. Changes include such things as starting the day with breakfast. I have done that one.

Now my day begins with a cup of water with lemon juice, fruit and a boiled egg or a homemade protien shake (complete with fruit, egg, oats etc).

BAKING:

I have been cooking heaps. It is so quicker and cleaner and easier with the thermomix. After an hour and a half yesterday I had made bread, crackers, chocolate chip and macadamia nut cookies for lunch boxes, hommus dip and custard.

All made from real ingredients and no additives.

Today I am making pastry for a quiche, sorbet and more bread.

Saving Time

With this little baby.

It is a Thermomix and it is all mine. I am in love. I have wanted one of these after hearing Cindi O Meara talking about how they have made her life so easier.

Cindi O Meara is a nutritionalist with a few bestselling books and she speaks such common sense. She promotes eating food that is natural and chemical and preservative free.

http://www.changinghabits.com.au/


I almost choked when I heard just how much they were. Lets just say that they aren't cheap. The price turned me off for months and months. That is until I went to a cooking demostration and saw one in action. And I was blown away. In a little over an hour it made sorbets, dips, bread dough, coleslaw, lentil hot pot, smoothies, butter ... all in the one bowl with next to no mess to clean up afterwards.
It is a one stop kitchen appliance.
It can grind wheat grains into flour, raw sugar into icing sugar.
It can knead bread and dough.
It cooks and stirs at the same time - no need to stand over the oven while cooking anymore.
It cuts and mixes.
It can even wash itself.
So far I have made bread using wheat grains (remember the Thermomix will grind the wheat into flour.
I have made tomato sauce - it cuts the onion, tomatoes, herbs, then heats and stirs and cooks them.
Sorbet in a couple of minutes - ice, egg white, sugar, mango and banana.
Mushroom soup.
Chocolate spread (similar to nutella) but with hazelnuts. The Thermomix grinds the nuts smooth, melts the chocolate and mixes.

So enough raving! If you have a chance go and see one in action. You can only buy direct from a demonstrator which is another thing that turned me off initially. But I found there was no hard sell. The demostrator I saw using it just cooked and answered question and then let the machine speak for itself.
People who want to cook from scratch like myself, those who grow their own fruit and veges, and those like myself who just run out of time each day will love this. It is so fast and easy.

Hmmm.... did I say I love it yet?

Bulk Buying

It has been a while since I have posted. But now the holidays are over its back to day to day life.
Since being back I am more determined than ever to get back onto track with our food - both buying and eating. Before I was getting rather overwhelmed with trying to make too many big changes all at once -
- buying local foods.
- eating organic foods.
- growing our own vegetables and fruits.
- supporting local shops.
- eating foods with low or no additives.
- preparing foods from scratch, unprocessed.
- bulk buying.
- preserving our own foods.
Finding the time to do all the above was proving difficult.

Well I could go on with the list of changes I want to make.

Instead I am focusing on one thing at a time and getting that system into place and making it a habit before going onto another change.

So the first thing I am concentrating on is bulk buying. I am lucky to be in touch with a great group of people living locally who are also interested in eating and cooking more healthily. We have formed a bulk buying group and have got our fruit and veges, grains and red meats covered. We haven't found a good supplier of organic chicken or turkey yet though.

I have been part of a fruit and vegetable goup now for over 5 years. At the moment there are six of us in the group. Each fortnight we put in $30.00 and two of us each fortnight go to the farmers market and buy for the group, come home and sort it into 6. This all takes about 2 1/2 hours. Our turn comes around every 6 weeks which makes it very easy. We are going this Friday so I will take a photo of the amount we buy for our $30.00 and post it - huge amount!

We buy our grains wholesale from here
http://www.goodness.com.au/
The wholesale prices are good, its organic and products are great. We divide each up into 1 kg or more lots and share them around.

Meats (lamb and beef) are brought direct from the farm here http://www.moppitymeats.com.au/index.html. Their meats taste so much nicer than that from the supermarket!

Our eggs come from the fruit and vege market and so does our honey.
Milk I still buy from the supermarket. I wish I knew someone with a cow.

And we are very lucky to live close to this shop
http://www.bibina.com.au/content.php3?p=aboutus
They stock a huge range of Australian and imported foods and bulk amounts, hard to find ingredients etc. It is a cooks dream just to wander up and down the aisle.

CARBON MILES

We've gone through a few!

We have been here...

and here...and here...

and are finally home.

Vege Garden Dreams

Last September Mr Gadget built me a dedicated vegetable patch. A raised garden bed in a sunny corner of the garden. Prior to this my vege plantings were rather haphazard. I brought and planted punnets of seedlings in any vacant spot I could find in the garden with not much success. The seedlings were competing with other plants, in poor soil, or getting too much sun or not enough.

With the new vegetable patch I developed an interest in growing my own vegetables from seeds and also in saving seeds for use in the future.

Last summer I had great success with basil, cucumbers, eggplants and cherry tomatoes.

This winter I have a great supply of carrots, parsley, radishes, lettuce and chinese cabbage.

I have dreamt of the day I can go off to my vegetable patch and pick all the vegetables I need for the families dinner. Well yesterday I did. We had fish with lemon juice from the tree out the back and rice with home grown carrots, parsley, radishes and tomatoes. Such a small thing but to me it represented a great success and I am feeling rather chuffed at being able to provide my family with home grown fruit and vegetables.

But now I am in need of more room for vegetable growing so I have a vege patch in the front yard. I have large pots growing more carrots, Styrofoam boxes from the fruit and vegetable markets growing chillies, capsicums and more vegetables.

I have a potting area near the water tank for growing cuttings and more seeds and another seed raising area on top of the bunnys cage outside the kitchen window.

My vege garden dreams are coming true and I am happy.