Dinner in 30 minutes - Real Fast Food

What to you is fast food? I think that every person should have several tricks with a cooked chicken and also with mince meat. There are several cookbooks out there dealing with these 2 staples, however I also want to add to the mix some other staples that can quickly result in a healthy dinner. Spaghetti (any pasta really, I just love spaghetti), tinned tuna, eggs, and tinned tomatoes.


Tonight I felt like something of a 'no-brainer' dinner. Tuna pasta automatically sprang to mind. Tinned tuna, tinned tomatoes, pasta. Easy. As we are down-sizing before the move, I was stunned to see that there was NO tuna in the pantry. In 18 years, I have NEVER been without tuna.



Instead, and in a rush, here is the mid-week roast option that warms my kitchen tonight. With due deference to Hoppo Bumpo's Stand Back and Throw meals, here's my version:

Get one decent BBQ chicken. Not always easy. Gone are the days of the charcoal chicken shop of my childhood, however we have sourced a reasonable local chook haunt.

Peel any vegetable that you can find. Potato, pumpkin, carrot, sweet potato, parsnip, swede, turnip, celeriac, beetroot, whatever's in the cupboard or fridge. Chop into the size or shape that suits your family. (picture John Cleese talking to brat child in Fawlty Towers: 'What shape does he usually have? Mickey Mouse shape? Poke in the eye shape?') Speed them up in the microwave if you like. Toss them in oil (Olive here, dripping or Hi-Fri as a kid!) and cook until the desired colour is reached. If you microwave them and add hot vege to hot oil they will absorb less oil and cook faster.

Steam any other vegies that think they have got away. Zucchini, broccoli, beans, cauliflower, brussells sprouts, silverbeet, etc. Make a decent cheese sauce if this is your thing for the cauli and broc.

Carve the chook, and serve with roast vegies and lashings of gravy.


When the chook has been carved, and all meat removed for tomorrow's sandwiches, toss the carcass into a pot, cover with water, add a carrot and some celery, a bay leaf and some peppercorns, and simmer for as long as it takes to eat dinner, do the dishes, watch The Amazing Race, eat dessert, remember about the stock, and turn it off. Skim the surface if necessary and freeze in portions as stock or strain and use as a base for a soup or risotto for tomorrow.

3+ meals in one, and all yum. All done in 30-40 minutes. All for less than a grand total of $12.


What are your favourites?

xx

Paper Quilting and Canberran Local Teacher

Yesterday I was lucky enough to meet Michaela from Wren's Nest Studio. Michaela came to teach a group of us her beautiful technique and we made a letter of the alphabet, with optional embellishments.

'B' by Michaela Laurie.

Michaela has a Madeit store, where you can buy her incredible work. Do take a look. She's also at the Handmade Markets in Canberra for any locals who want to see her work close-up.

This was all new to me, and although I have not the inclination for much papercraft, I did enjoy this technique. Collage, sewing, quilting, buttons - what's not to love!

When my 'J' is framed I will show you - I'm really proud of it!

x

A jolly long rant - procrastinating over decluttering part 2

It's a beautiful time in our house at the moment; a time of rediscovery. It's about this time of the year that we move house; every 11 or 12 months for the last 4 years, we have de-cluttered, donated, packed and moved our possessions, configuring them into different houses, rooms, styles, eras, cupboards, garages, and spaces. Inevitably what follows is then a second decluttering of the items we can't house. Kids find toys they had forgotten, books shoved down behind bookshelves, and I find my kitchen cupboards contain more than I use.

As I face this again, I feel weighted down by the enormity of the task.

This is of course a problem I have created. I hoard. I have periods of great collecting, gathering, nesting. This is usually proceded by guilt, clutter and confusion. At times I discard with disregard for the items, as long as I am freeing up space. Space that is for more crap.


Now as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so too is crap. There would be no trash n treasure without that fine line between junk and gold. One person's need is another's excess.

My issue with all things trash and treasure, is sentimentality.

To be sentimental about a thing in the literary sense evokes memories, moments passed, an earlier (and happier?) time. To define this word using a dictionary, MY version of 'sentimentality' is reduced to:
"false emotion" "insincerely emotional" "the effort by an author to induce emotional responses in the reader that exceed what the situation warrants" "evoking a predictable emotional response with a clichéd prompt".
Not sounding too good is it?!

The question remains though; what to keep and what to toss.

My parents have lived in the one house for over 35 years. The house has grown to adapt to their needs, spacial requirements, age and stage. As we now visit there with our own kids, my brother and I DO get a kick from seeing the books, toys and in some cases clothes of our childhood being used by our kids. This makes me wonder - is it my duty to keep things in case Miss 3 and Master 7 want them in 20 years? Under what circumstances can things be discarded without guilt? Am I keeping these things because they previously belonged to or were made by Nan? Is it triggering a memory or is it feeling about a certain item. Once I HAVE these things, are they of any use stashed in a box or cupboard?

The dilemma of course highlights the excess within which we all live. I am surrounded by 'stuff' as I have explained before. I seem to gather my 'nest' around me and get cosy within it, clucking and fussing until a visitor's face betrays their shock at the state of my rooms! I have been the brunt of thoughtless comments that "it's ok for the kids to run wild at Jess' as there's nothing that matters if it's broken". Harsh words but true to some extent.

I am in awe of some amazing people, like Eilleen, who can start again from zero-ish and rebuild, only having the items that are used and thus needed. Some people don't cling to memories or to the past. Some keep their houses minimalist but have boxes elsewhere. I however don't have the luxury of a shed, a garage, a storage container to keep my excess caged, I need to make some decisions.

Per example; wedding presents. Ten years ago we bought 'stuff'. Some of it we use, most of it has been passed on to others as our needs and tastes have changed. Wedding presents, so commonly requested via bridal registers reflect older tastes as well. We have some beautiful items in their boxes, rarely used. We don't believe in 'saving for best' but glass salad bowls just aren't practical in our day-to-day! To keep or to part with? Tastes change, cupboards can only be so full. TLK tells me that if it doesn't make you smile then throw it out. Of course memories of the wedding make me smile, remembering who gifted these items to us makes me smile, but I have other ways of remembering this. Lots of things make me smile but are not things to keep. After an hour or so of packing though, NOTHING makes me smile other than being outside in fresh air kicking the footy with the kids!

'Kicking the footy' by Kym Hart

The give-away-or-sell-? situation has never been an issue for me - I have always donated. I would rather someone get some use from an item and Salvos benefit from my 'trash'. I'm also too lazy to arrange to sell. At the moment though, the $$ is needed. Amazing that I feel like I'm cheating the Salvos by selling my own goods, but there you go. We're funny humans aren't we?!

Eilleen has taught me that shopping is not a hobby, not a leisure pursuit, not a habit I want my kids to inherit. As I look around me, I see so many things that DO make me smile, and I realise that I need to give myself permission to err, need to forgive in me the mess and clutter, and embrace the bower bird within. I am attempting not to buy things that aren't neccessities, use what I have, finish the UFOs, practice gratitude rather than wanting, and spend more time just kicking the footy. Things are just that, things. Maybe if I repeat that enough times to myself I will believe it...

If you have read through this, then thank you for hanging in there! Yes, this IS a craft blog, and things are being made and planned to be made. Now the rant has excaped, perhaps I can make room to create.

xx

School holidays - the halfway point

If we mums are honest, there are two positions to take on school holidays. Position one is the mother who loves spending more time with her kids, being creative, making, baking, visiting, reading, playing, being buried in the sandpit. Position two is the mother for whom the school holidays are a mere countdown to school going back.

I have discovered that I sit neatly on the fence at this stage in my kids' lives. Master 7 as many of you know has Aspergers' Syndrome. The first few days of the holidays are thus awful for him as he adjusts to changes in his daily routine, and for greater chunks of the day allocated to unpredictability. There are only so many things I can plan to do in a day, and some days even though he sees it drawn or written down, he wants to do something else. Understandable. It's ok for him to spring something on me, just not the other way around. Miss 3 loves drawing, painting, making; the most portable of activities and easily adaptable to the plans for Master 7. Messy crafts just don't tend to go down well every day here...



We are now halfway through the ACT holidays, and the kids are flagging. They want and need some routine, and mornings provide that. Afternoons however seem to go on forever! Mr BB is away for work for a couple of weeks, and so there is no respite from Mum for the little people.

I have therefore dusted off some tried and true activities that you may want to try to get you through the next few days. As they are familiar, Master 7 is happy to try them. As they are creative, Miss 3 is all over them.

Toilet roll craft. Rattles, binoculars, didgeridoos, rockets, cars, slides, tunnels, planes; there is no end to the uses of the rolls. Try some of these web sites for additional ideas and printables to help you.

DLTK is a winner for most crafts and activities here.

Have a puppet show using the creatures from here.

If you find the idea of craft using toilet rolls eeewwww, then just use cardboard tubes from food wrap, al-foil, etc. Cut them using a bread knife, the sawing action makes it easy.

You can also add some fabric scraps to make serviette rings here.

My other tip. Don't underestimate the power of Google. Any kids' craft, craft recipe, technique etc can be found this way. Similarly the search function of YouTube. Bubble mixture, street chalk, bakers' clay, edible paint, papier mache, crystal garden, hand plaque,or even a vinegar volcano

Finally, everyone's favourite, with thanks to k3 crafts:

Uncooked Play Dough

2 cups of plain flour
4 tablespoons of 'cream of tartar'
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
1 cup of salt
2 cups of boiling water
food colouring

Just pop it all in a mixing bowl and mix!

It looks as though it is not going to mix well at first but hang in there and throw it onto the bench to knead, and it will come together really nicely.

We put different things in ours also such as glitter and sand. Just be careful you don't put things in like rice as they tend to go mouldy - we find glitter is really good.

Hope this helps everyone.

Cheers and Happy Play Doughing! (get into it, it is really relaxing to knead)

Yes, these are generally all messy, but they'll love them, and anyway, who vacuums daily on the holidays?!

xx

Demecull

Light on pics, heavy on words. Rant warning !!

Odd heading isn't it? It was the word verification for a comment I made on a blog this morning. It made me laugh a little as I had only just finished saying that when we move house I will need to be strict with myself, and have a little cull.

No sooner had I said that to Mr BB then I typed "demecull". Demi-cull! What a great term for packing! Anything I don't use regularly, love to death or need for practical reasons will be going to the great op-shop lottery. Knowing me I will buy a lot of stuff back - this has been known to happen...

There is an episode of the tv version of Winnie the Pooh where rabbit tidies, and as he only has one of a pair of bookends, he takes the single to the tip. Later he sees it at Piglet's and wants it as a pair for the one he just threw out. As we the viewers know, it's the same single one.

Yes, I have done this with Tupperware, fabric, teacups, linen, all manner of things. I see something such as a book, and grab it, only to flick through the pages and see my handwriting in the margin, or my kids' names on the inside cover...

We have moved more than some, less often than many more, with 5 moves in 7 years. It gets very tiring, and one becomes rather good at down-sizing. I know I have donated more than I have bought from Salvos, however as I look around my house, I realise that the next move (in the next couple of months) will require further down-sizing.

Always in the back of my head is the sad story featured on Oprah of a woman who couldn't stop buying things. Her house was FULL of bags of things. Furniture was obscured by STUFF, and it was controlling her life. I keep this picture as a reminder that her 'stuff' was collected and spread out in a warehouse. This pic shows about a third of her excess.


Friends wonder why I have so much STUFF. It's not just that I have it, but I seem to have it ALL out and ON DISPLAY! My cupboards are not utilised well, and my shelves are heaving under the strain. I have decided that this is just me and part of who I am. I have always had clutter, and have never known how others manage to live so tidily. I've also decided that this endearing trait is because I have so many interests and hobbies.

So is it only interesting people who live within clutter? Are all messy people interesting? Of course not. However I think that all the interesting people I know, love, admire, and treasure have fabric stashes, heaving bookshelves, and boxes and cupboards full of UFOs.

My dream is to have a grown-up's bedroom devoid of clutter, just dedicated to restfulness and sleeping. This I am reminded of daily as I climb out of bed and squish between the boxes and crates that double as bedside tables.

As I attempt to accept this trait within myself, why then do I get frustrated that Master 7 lives within a nest of his creations also? Why do I expect order and reason from the rooms of my off-spring when I find it so hard to achieve myself?!

So I return to the Demi-cull, the (half-arsed?) method of decluttering that I formulated in a random moment of procrastination this morning.

I will pick a shelf, a drawer, a cupboard, a shelf, and decide on the spot what isn't coming to the new house. Only things that bring joy shall be retained, unless they have an inherent usefulness I cannot ignore (there would be so much more room in the laundry without that big machine but I think it should come...) It is likely that all things will make it to the new house, however in the absence of a garage, I will be forced to make some big decisions. The trick is, that once sorted, the stuff has to GO. That's sometimes hard too. I have been known to drive around with items in the boot of my car for weeks, only to be brought back into the house at a later date.

In 2 weeks I think I will try my luck at the local weekend Trash n Treasure market. Perhaps I can fund part of the move, or failing all else, get the money for bread and milk! I do know that without trying I can fill the boot and car just from excess in the garage, let alone what's in the house!

I have tried to embrace things like Fly Lady, but they just do not work for me. There are always too many little bits of crap that creep into my life, demanding accommodation. I think an intervention a la the now defunct "Your Life on the Lawn" tv show. Any suggestions on where the hell the Demi-Cull should begin??!!

xx

Sorting things out

I seem to have lost my way a bit lately - sewjo gone, blogging seems hard. Remembering why I started and what I love about it all, and hoping that my creativity returns. Maybe playing with the buttons is in order... back soon -

xx