make something saturday

Yesterday morning I was pottering around the house. I stopped and took a look at the two big kids and My Mr, they were all in front of screens of some form, (Miss Evie was busy doing her thing outside) ..... mmmm...... 

I thought for a moment and declared to them all "today I am going to set you all a challenge!". 

The look on their faces was priceless. 

The challenge I told them, was everyone had to make something. 

It could be anything as long as it was appropriate to their skill level and ability, any required materials, ingredients, etc had to be already in the home/shed.

I left them all to think while I continued to potter about with my chores and decide what I was going to choose off my mental "to-make" list.

Finally their decisions were made, I must say that I enjoyed watching the hive of activity as my challenge was taken up and carried out with success.

Here are the results: 

My Mr made delicious pizzas (from scratch) for lunch.

I made a phone pouch with some of my new vintage sheet FQ's.

Miss Abbey made a photo book, chose and placed some photos within.

Mr's son made a planter box using scraps of wood from the back of the shed. 

And Miss Evie made this beautiful mess!

Joy.

:: pizza base recipe::
2 cups plain flour (Mr used wholemeal)
1 heaped teaspoon of dried yeast
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3/4 cup of warm water
* place all dry ingredients into a large bowl, mix well.
add oil then water.
mix to form a soft dough.
knead well on a floured surface until smooth and pliable (approx 10 mins).
place dough back into the bowl, cover and leave in a warm spot for approx. 30 mins or until it has doubled in size.
remove the dough from the bowl and gently knead for 1 minute.
roll out to desired thickness and size.
add your favourite toppings.
cook in a hot oven.
*this makes approx 4-5 small pizza bases.

instructions for phone pouch found here.

chilli

The chillies have been generous in their production, unlike other things growing in the veggie patch this summer.

I did a little Internet searching for a chilli paste recipe (mentioned in this post) and came across an easy Sambal Oelek paste. I honestly thought that I had enough chillies, however my home grown chillies are very light in weight and this recipe calls for 200gms of chillies!! So I did need to purchase a small amount.

Ingredients:

200grams red chillies

1 cup water

1 tspn salt

1 tspn sugar

1 Tblspn white vinegar

1 Tblspn oil

Method:

Place de-stalked and roughly chopped chillies into a pan with water.

Bring water/chillies to the boil and reduce to a low heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.

Place the chillies/water into a food processor, add other ingredients and blend until finely chopped.

I also made Sweet Chilli Jam. 

This one is a favourite and has become a regular on my stove top.

Ingredients:

1kg ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped 

500g sugar

3 Tblspn lemon juice

1/3 cup white wine vinegar

6 long red chillies*, sliced (leave the seeds if you like a bit of heat)

2 tspn salt

Method:

Place the tomatoes and sugar into a large bowl, cover and leave overnight at room temperature.

Transfer this mixture into a large pan and add the remaining ingredients.

Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.

Reduce heat, simmer mixture for approx 1 hour or until a nice thick consistency.

Place into sterilized jars and seal.

*I use my home grown small chillies and use approx 12-20. 

Enjoy!

How do you use up your chillies?

all in a weekend

1. pickings from the veggie garden

2. discovering purple chillies

3. early morning trampoline stories in p.j's

4. making washing powder

5. sewing on a hot Saturday

6. a new bag made from a thrifted pillowcase, instructions found here

7. a new skirt made from a thrifted table cloth

8. & 9. new bath mats made from thrifted sheets and towels :: SouleMama style 

10. jam drops made with my neighbours' homemade strawberry jam :: Gooseberry Jam style

11. a spot of crochet

12. Sunday afternoon thunderstorm

a most enjoyable weekend here, how was your weekend? what did you get up to?

Lately...

I have had plenty on my mind, too much in fact that I have been totally pre-occupied.

I had a disastrous day in the kitchen last week, 

I burnt a pot of rice on the stove top, filling the house with smoke. 

Yes, I could hear the smoke alarm urgently beeping away but I had immersed myself in the vegie garden in an attempt to clear my cluttered mind and completely forgot the rice was cooking, 

or should I say burning. 

I literally thought that it was a neighbour's smoke alarm beeping away!

the burnt pot after several scrubbing attempts... 

Lately....

I have been knitting and crocheting Christmas presents and decorations, 

Lately....

I have been stressing about flash flooding in the backyard and cleaning up the aftermath mess
(twice in a fortnight).

Lately...

I have also managed to squeeze in a little time to get some more granny squares done on Evie's blanket. 

The stack of granny squares is growing!

Lately...

I am hoping that next week will be a better week! 

And I am planning on doing some more spring cleaning/de-cluttering in preparation for visitors next weekend, and a little bit of Christmas present sewing.

Wishing you a happy weekend!

It is a rainy ol' day here today, so we have been indoors keeping busy and productive. I have done 

some decluttering in preparation for Christmas, a little bit of housework, some cooking, baking and made a start on Christmas present crafting.

It's a doing-a-bit-of-everything-kind-of-day.

This morning the little one and I made Fruit Loaf Buns, yum-o...

Fruit Loaf Recipe: (750g)

450grams/3 cups of flour (I used 225g each of spelt and white flour)

1 & 1/2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

1 & 1/2 teaspoons Salt

1 & 1/2 Tablespoons oil

3 teaspoons Mixed Spice

2 teaspoons Yeast

270ml water

3/4 cup of dried fruit (sultanas, currants, dried apple/apricot etc)

We measured out and placed all ingredients into the bread maker and set it onto the 'dough' setting. Once the bread maker cycle was complete, we split the dough into 12 pieces, gave them a light knead, shaped into balls and placed them into the muffing tray.

We left them to rise for approx. 45 minutes before placing into the oven @ 180'C for 20-25 minutes. 

Enjoy!

What have you been up to today?

What is your favourite bread recipe?

Home

Today Evie and I enjoyed a quiet morning at home....our third quiet day at home.

Together we made some playdough

As those little hands were kept busy, I made a loaf of bread

 

and managed to squeeze in a few rows on this little project.

I also prepared a yummy lunch.

We headed off to school for an early pick up, our big girl has just returned from a 3 day camp! Very tired and weary mind you, and nothing that a late afternoon hot bath and an early delicious home cooked dinner can't fix!

Evie is very pleased that Abbey is home! So am I. 

We all missed each other a little too much.

School holidays are here again, Abbey and I have written a "holiday things to do list", we are hoping to do everything on the list and possibly more!

I especially enjoy the reduced pace of the holidays, not having the morning rush to school, no after school activities, and the occasional sleep in! (notice how Abbey has upper cased and underlined this on her list.)
Happy Spring Holidays to you! What are your plans for these holidays?

Yummy Lunch Recipe:

*Vegetable stock (I used 1 litre)

*Spring onion, garlic, carrot, celery

*Chick peas, parsley

*Bacon

In a deep pan, fry off spring onion, garlic, carrot and celery. Add bacon and continue pan frying until ingredients are just cooked. Pour in vegetable stock, gently bring to the boil. Reduce to simmer. Add chick peas and chopped parsley. Simmer until chick peas are warmed through.

Enjoy.


Play Dough Recipe:
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 tablespoons of cream of tartar
food colouring
1 cup of boiling water

Mix dry ingredients together, add oil, boiling water and food colouring. Stir and knead. Store in an air tight container.

Easy Tuna Pasta

An easy one dish wonder! A great mid week meal served with a side of steamed vegetables or a fresh salad!

Ingredients:

2 cups of uncooked spiral pasta

1 tin of cream of celery soup + water and milk (as per tin instructions)

1 x 185g tin of tuna

approx 1/2 to 3/4 cup of frozen corn kernels (or a tin of corn kernels)

salt & pepper 

grated cheese to cover top of casserole dish

Method:

-pre-heat oven to 180'C.
-allow up to 1 & 1/2 hours cooking time.

-place tin of soup into a bowl and combine with water and milk, mix well.

-add uncooked pasta, tin of tuna, and corn kernels, mix well.

-pour this mixture into your square baking dish/casserole dish, ensure the pasta is well covered with soup! -the pasta will be cooking in the soup mixture and if it is not covered it will dry bake!

this is mixture ready to go into the oven.

-cover (with lid or foil) and bake in oven for approx 60 minutes.

-remove from oven, (I usually check how well the pasta has cooked at this stage, just for my own satisfaction that the pasta is not going to be under or over cooked - test with a fork. The pasta needs to be  tender as it will be cooked for approx. another 15 minutes.)

this is how my pasta looked after cooking for 60 minutes.

-uncover and sprinkle grated cheese over the top (as much or as little as you prefer). You can also mix cheese with bread crumbs, chopped parsley and melted butter for a crunchy topping!

-return uncovered to the oven for approx another 15 minutes or until your cheese is melted and slightly golden.

golden cheese-y tuna pasta! 

Enjoy!

Yesterday...

found some treasures

made a double batch of laundry powder

prepared dinner

played a game of indoor basketball

enjoyed morning tea outside in the sunshine

watched a creation being built

pottered and picked in the vege patch

inspected 

baked some more favourites

received all of these in one delivery! (for a little person's upcoming birthday)

sorted out the spring sowing 

visited the library

added some length with the sticks

laundry powder: Home-Made Laundry Powder
morning tea: Sour Cream Apple Slice