Suburban Life – Page 3 – MakeCookGrow.com

To Do List, The Federal Budget and Other Things

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TO DO LIST

At the beginning of this year, as usual, I wrote a list of jobs I needed to do, not realising this was to be a year like no other. Most of the jobs I listed involved household or gardening tasks. Some were done quite quickly but others remained undone as life became more and more difficult. Some gardening jobs were done one morning when our son was staying. He did a great job moving enormous pots to new places and helped me fill them but told me gardening was the job he most disliked! I ticked three things off the list that day.

Another time we finally knew we’d be here for about ten days and got a handyman to repair some reticulation, re-lay some paving and repair the edging. Slowly other jobs I could do, such as planting, pruning and potting cuttings from the hydrangeas for two friends got done, too. We also got new cushion inserts for two leather sofas in the family room.

Hydrangea cuttings going well.

These sofas are 24 years old. They have been slept on by dogs and people, they have been played on by children and sat on thousands of times. Every so often I get out my tub of saddle dressing and treat them. Eventually, the finish was getting worn on the edge of some of the cushions and an arm rest. I matched the colour to a bottle of leather dye planning to find time to dye the worn patches back to original colour. Not a chance. So many other things needed my attention. I put the bottle of dye away for a quieter time.

Then late Saturday afternoon my husband was off doing jobs, I’d read the weekend papers and I decided to dye the worn bits of one sofa. Poured some dye into a food container, found a clean paint brush and set to work. The difference is very pleasing. When the dye had time to dry I treated both sofas with saddle dressing. I have some smaller areas to treat on the other sofa and I’ll do that soon. While I’ve got the saddle dressing out I treat my handbag, our watch bands and wallets and some belts. I’d really like a workshop, or a shed but the kitchen bench suffices for now. I hope I remember to put rubber gloves on before I begin dyeing next time.

I use this leather dressing on all leather goods.

renewable energy

The weekend papers are full of political rhetoric following the delivery of the 2024 Federal Budget. The information about renewable energy makes interesting but confusing reading. We are now subsidising coal as well as renewables! Electricity is more expensive because of the subsidies yet renewables are supposed to be the cheapest form of energy. Both Federal and States governments are contributing to this confusion.

To somewhat offset these ever increasing charges the Federal government is giving everyone a $300 rebate and our State Government of Western Australia is giving everyone getting an electricity bill $400 to off set increased energy costs. Of course, when any government says they are giving away money, it’s worth remembering that it is the taxpayers’ money and in both cases mentioned, is not means tested.

other things

I bought a rack to hold the lids off all the glass storage boxes as they were in a dreadful muddle in a drawer. Very satisfying. So then I bought an acrylic box for funnels and graters, with a divider to keep them sorted. So tidy. All this led to rearranging a cupboard with two power points in it. The sandwich press had always been in there, permanently plugged in and ready to use. Now the slow cooker is next to it, also permanently plugged in as I use it frequently in winter.

Lids, funnels and graters all under control in this drawer.

This meant sorting that cupboard and discarding things which led to doing another much bigger cupboard, something I’d been putting off for a long time. The outcome is three large bags of discarded things in good condition going to the Salvation Army depot. There’s still many more cupboards to do but they will have to wait.

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Olive Oil, Mother’s Day and Recycling Beads

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extra virgin olive oil

Having trouble sourcing your favourite extra virgin olive oil? Australian olive oil is in short supply due to the poor fruit harvest in 2023. Outside the Mediterranean, Australia is the greatest consumer of olive oil in the World. Each Australian consumes 2.1 litres of olive oil every year.

Image Pixabay

This doesn’t surprise me as I slosh, drip and drizzle EVOO on things I cook every day. I buy 3 litre ( 101.4 oz) tins and decant them into a one litre dark glass bottle kept within easy reach of the hotplates and food preparation area. The bottle has a pop up pourer, so no mess. Buying in bulk and decanting is more economical than buying small bottles. Storing in a dark glass bottle protects its purity.

Apparently, in Europe, the price of olive oil in January 2024 was 50% higher than January 2023. This jump in price is due to olive oil producing nations experiencing longer and hotter summers resulting in poor harvests. Some sources also mention the increased interest in the Mediterranean diet which promotes olive oil, adding greater demand in an already diminished supply chain.

mother’s day

I hope all the Mother’s had a lovely day with their families celebrating Mother’s Day. Or doing something else if that’s what they wanted! We didn’t celebrate Mother’s Day this year because I’m too sad. My Mother died in March. In memory of her I bought bunches of flowers in her favourite colours, so lilac, purple, cream, white with a dash of red. I also put a little arrangement of lilac and white lissianthus next to her photo. I miss her!

Mother’s Day Sunday was also the day we celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary. Forty years! On the Friday before we went to a restaurant on the beach and ate fish tacos, a crayfish taco and Fremantle octopus tentacles, plus roasted butternut and chips. Beautifully presented and delicious. Rain and stormy conditions were forecast but in reality there was a clear blue sky and a bright blue ocean and we were hot. A lovely way to celebrate.

Dessert of burnt honey cream brûlée with pear sorbet plus an extra scoop of pear sorbet because my husband knew I’d want to taste the sorbet even though I declined dessert. Soon it’s pear season so I’ll try making pear sorbet. It was very good.

jewellery

Last week I did a jewellery recycling workshop. Our instructor had bundles of old bits and pieces to be remade into something we’d use. I made a necklace with a ring in it to hang my reading glasses from so I knew where they were. Great idea but it was so long and so heavy it knocked things over or off the bench. Put it away to consider at a later date as the beads are very pretty.

Meanwhile, I gathered all my necklaces secured not by jewellery catches, but with safety pins. When the catches broke, as they always did, I’d secure both ends together with a small pin. As a junior primary teacher, I always had safety pins, bandaids and tissues in my bag. Today I mended every broken necklace catch. Really pleased with my fully fixed collection. Plus I’ve used some very bright beads from old necklaces to made new, less bold necklaces, more suited to my current lifestyle.

Sorting and fixing my necklaces made me realise I have a lot of jewellery I don’t use anymore. I don’t have pierced ears but had a lot of clip on earrings but I don’t wear them now. I have some pretty bracelets, too, along with a pile of necklaces. Some of the sweetest bracelets were made by children I’ve taught. I’m keeping them! Happy memories. The rest are in a bag, ready to go to the Salvation Army along with three other bags of things I’ve sorted. I quite like going into the city to drop things at their depot as I then go across the road to an Asian supermarket, buy the best fish balls and speak appalling Mandarin/Putonghua to the checkout girl. She is so polite about my accent!

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Cooking, Author Talk and Reworking Jewellery

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cooking

Are you trying not to throw away fresh food? Me too. Recently when I opened a packet of chicken breasts I wondered if they were actually turkey breasts or maybe emu! I eyed off the enormous chicken breasts for a while then decided that rather than cut them in half as the recipe directed, I needed to cut each into about six pieces. I’d chosen the recipe because I needed to use some baby romano tomatoes, baby spinach and the chicken. Plus I had everything else listed. I got to use up lots of ingredients already in the fridge.

I had to adjust the quantities of the ingredients to accommodate all the chicken! So I had to make it in two frying pans. Luckily we like chicken. We will be eating Tomato, Spinach, White Wine Chicken for quite a while. I’ve served this chicken dish with mashed potato and will also serve it with spicy rice, then couscous. The author also suggests thick noodles. Recipe (here)

At the same time I baked a loaf of sourdough. Due the heat in Western Australia, the starter was very energetic! I thought the loaf was going to bubble over the edges of the baking tin, but it didn’t and it tasted great!

Sourdough with caraway seeds. Delicious.

When rain was forecast for Sunday I decided to cook a traditional roast lunch. Our son was here for the weekend and we like to sit at the table and talk. I had to sort out so much stuff on the table, it had become a sort of dumping ground.

Sunday morning arrived bright and sunny and 21ºC. No rain in sight. Put the meat to roast, prepared the vegetables and opened the French doors so we could hear the fountain. Faux rain. Lunch was long and lovely, plus there was leftovers for a light dinner and cold roast beef and pickle sandwiches the next day.

Apple crumble and icecream with a sprinkle of cinnamon.

author talk

A while ago I wrote a review about a book I’d read by Rachel Johns called, ‘The Other Bridget’ a joke on Helen Fielding’s book ‘Bridget Jones Diary.’ Although written to appeal to a younger reader, I suspect, I really enjoyed it. The plot was clever with lots of twists and turns and it was written about an area I know well. I read a lot and it’s not often novels are set in Fremantle, Western Australia.

We were going away for a break so I borrowed two more books by the same author. Again I enjoyed the local settings and the clever story line. So when the Fremantle Library advertised an author talk with the author, Rachel Johns, I responded immediately and got a ticket. I am so glad I did, too.

Glancing around the room it became apparent those women attending were aged from their twenties through to about 70. Johns’ presentation and following open discussion with the audience was just like the books, that is, fast, funny and full of current affairs. So entertaining.

Some of the bright, chunky beads I wanted to reuse.

I had also enrolled in a course run earlier that day called UNIQUE JEWELLERY. When I was working as a junior primary teacher I always wore bright, chunky necklaces as the children liked them so much. Not really suitable for the life I live now, so I wanted to convert some of them to be more toned down. I also needed to mend some of the clasps and just work out what I could retrieve from my colourful collection.

I made a necklace with a ring for my glasses as I lose them all the time! I was inspired by the necklace the tutor was wearing with her glasses hooked on it. I think I could just wear it as a necklace, too. I also had time to repair the clasps on some necklaces. Later, I took apart some pieces to make new, less colourful necklace. I have bought a kit to renew more clasps and to make new necklaces.

Reusing beads to make a new necklace. Satisfying project.

P.S. There’s a problem with the necklace I made to hold my glasses; it is too long and heavy and crashes into the bench top and whatever I’m working on and is annoying. I’ll probably take it apart and make a new necklace. So, still misplacing my glasses, so I’ve bought a few extra pairs to limit the time spent hunting for reading glasses.

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Rain, ANZAC Day and Gardening

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rain

It’s autumn in Western Australia. We have had no rain since Christmas and are still experiencing summer like maximum temperatures. Then it rained last night. Everything looks damp, it is cooler and the air smells fresh. It’s such a relief! Old trees are dying from the heat and no rain, we were still running the air conditioner some days and I am tired of summer clothes and salads. We need a lot more rain!

Some of the pleasure of rain was diminished when I opened the fridge. A fortnight ago I put a bag of frozen prawns in the fridge to thaw. The bag had a hole in it. The mess I found the next morning took a long time, a lot of hot water and detergent and masses of scrubbing to clean up. So the fridge had an infrequent but thorough clean. Yesterday I opened the fridge and was confronted with another drama. My husband had put a two litre bottle of milk on its side on a shelf. Apparently the lid wasn’t screwed on tightly, so the fridge has had another thorough clean.

anzac day

Last week on 25th of April we commemorated ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day. We remember those who have fought in all wars. Prior to Covid, we’d join the crowd at the War Memorial in our suburb for the Anzac Day service, which was followed by a community breakfast.

Resting on arms reversed.

Due to Covid it was suggested West Australians stand in their driveways before sunrise with candles and listen to the Dawn Service on the radio. We found ourselves on the driveway in the dark. Up and down the street there were neighbours also commemorating the ANZAC day. After the service our neighbour suggested she bring out her coffee machine, we all went indoors and got mugs and folding chairs, then sat on the verge, socially distanced and a very special yearly event was established.

Each year now, we gather in a neighbour’s carport or indoors if it is raining, still with our folding chairs, candles and delicious food to share, plus family dogs. We gathered there on Thursday and watched the moon disappearing over the ocean and the sun rising in the opposite direction, we listened to the service and stood silently for the Last Post and followed by one minute of silence. A group of FA18 fighters few over in formation. A beautiful way to remember those who have fought for our country and all those who have fought for other countries, too, and enjoy the company of our lovely neighbours.

This gathering of neighbours has led to another special event, too. At various times during the years we go to each other houses, with shared food, and sit and catch up with all the news. Usually we sit outside because most months of the years it is balmy and really enjoyable to sit in the garden.

plants

Now trialing 1.25ml bottle of water feeding into the terracotta spear.

While we were away recently I trialed some terracotta self watering plant spears. These are inserted into plant pots and then a plastic bottle of water is placed, quickly, into the top. The water then seeps through the terracotta and maintains moistness for the pot plant. They worked really well! I used 200ml bottles, which lasted four days and 6ooml which lasted 11 days. I am now experimenting with 1.25ml bottles

Soaked sweet pea seeds. I hoped to find seeds collected by my Mother who grew amazing crops of sweet peas but couldn’t find the seeds in her shed.

Finally it is a bit cooler so I have planted poppies, shallots, perpetual spinach and sweet peas. My Mother grew amazing sweet peas and collected the seeds every year. Her rule was they should be planted by Anzac Day. Mine were planted a day later after soaking overnight in a saucer of water. I have also finally pruned the hydrangeas. Due to the never ending summer they just kept blooming! I have potted up ‘sticks’ to share with friends when they are ready to plant.

I remember going to a plant nursery about 40 years ago to buy an indoor plant as a gift and being very surprised seeing potted hydrangeas for sale! I just assumed someone gave you a cutting from their plant. That’s how I grew my semi sun tolerant, very sturdy hydrangeas and I’ve always potted up cuttings for friends. I don’t think either of my Grandmothers or my Mother bought many plants from nurseries. All three were fans of sharing ‘cuttings’. I’d be interested to know if you share cuttings or buy new plants.

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Autumn Occupations

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autumn occupations

It’s mid April and our daily temperatures are still around 30ºC (86º F). Often Easter time here is wet and windy but not this year. Despite no rain for us, last week some of the northern suburbs had a storm resulting in flooding and partially submerged cars. Quite unusual for Perth.

It was a bit cooler in the evening and this inspired me to make pasties. I set up a production line of meat sauce, pastry and prepared oven trays. While the filling cooked I cut out rounds of pastry. Made the pasties then cooked lots of them at once. Now they’re stored in the freezer. My husband eats them steadily until they’re all gone. Then I might make more. Depends on the weather!

Now days I buy the pastry and use a saucer to cut to size.

Pasties originate from Cornwall. They traditionally had a savoury half and a sweet half, marked with a S. They were easy for miners to take for their lunch. The crimped edge was a handle which could be discarded when the rest of the pastie was eaten.

I make them with a mix of mince flavoured with onions and Worcestershire Sauce, plus diced mixed vegetables and then a little thickening with flour. So, not really traditional but well received, anyway! And we eat the crimped ‘handle’, too.

reading

I’ve just finished Rachel Johns’ book The Other Bridget Jones. An easy and fun read, this is the story of a librarian who has a special skill for matching readers to books. Not only did I know many of the books featured but I knew the library, the pubs, the beaches and the streets, the markets. The book is set in Fremantle. I go to Fremantle every week to my yoga class. It’s not often I know the environment featured in fiction but I really enjoyed knowing the places described in this romantic comedy.

A smart, funny book, probably intended for a younger audience but I identified with the author’s respect for the power of books and the clever, if slightly predictable way the plot revealed itself. Johns, originally an English Teacher, is considered Australia’s leading author writing about modern womens’ issues. A good read, even though I’ve been married forty years and don’t share most of the issues!

The other book I’ve read this week is Dr Kate Luckins’ Live More With Less. Again, I think this book was intended for a younger audience. Although she believes she is presenting ‘a practical and optimistic guide to balancing planet friendly habits’ I found many of the beliefs this book is based on just didn’t resonate.

I kept reading because there are sustainable changes I want to make to create less landfill and avoid plastics where ever possible. I’m just not sure about the whole climate change belief this book is based on. The book does have some good ideas about how we can buy less of everything and still live well.

The most interesting chapter for me was about buying fewer clothes, swapping them, sharing and renting them and building a capsule wardrobe. I’d been talking to a friend earlier that day about building a capsule wardrobe. I realised so many of the examples of capsule wardrobes I’d seen involved way too many formal or work clothes and too few casual clothes for my retired lifestyle. So, as much as I love the French samples I was following, I actually don’t need ‘smart’ work separates. I need casual and gardening clothes and a couple of more dressy things.

Image Pixabay

The next problem was one I face every morning at the moment. I have been wearing summer clothes since last September. The maximum temperatures have been in the 30ºCs and 40ºCs for the past eight months. No matter how cleverly I arrange the tops and trousers I have, plus a couple of dresses, I am wearing the same things frequently and I’m sick of them! Ditto my sandals.

So, although I found Luckins’ wardrobe advice well thought out, it doesn’t work in my part of Western Australia at the moment. And I bought a new summer shirt because I am so tired of the ones I’ve been wearing for months and months. I’ll be wearing for a while, yet, according to the weather forecasts.

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Clothing and Natural Fibres plus Decorating Trends

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natural fibres and clothing

According to the calendar, the Southern Hemisphere has entered Autumn. With persistent high temperatures it is hard to get really interested in the pages and pages of winter clothing appearing everywhere now. A walk through the shopping centre shows clothing brands are preparing for cooler weather. A closer look reveals many of these pieces are made from manmade fibres which will not break down once they’re in landfill. Similarly, most donated clothing is not recycled and not suitable for reuse, so it becomes landfill or is sent overseas where it eventually becomes landfill also.

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According to Choice (here), Australia’s leading consumer advocacy group, each Australian buys 27kg of new clothes every year and disposes of 23kg of clothing at the same time. Australians generated 780,000 tonnes of textile waste of which only 7% was recycled, the rest became landfill.

The best outcome is to buy less, buy lasting quality and maintain existing clothes. Look for natural fibres. Channel Yves Saint Laurent who said ‘Fashion fades, style is eternal.’ He wanted his clients to discover their own style and stick with it.

Finding clothing made entirely from natural fibres is difficult and often more expensive. You’ll have to consider the cost against the number of times you’ll wear it. Learn how to launder the fabrics to keep the colour and shape. A quick search online shows many suggestions, plus a lot of information about mending.

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Before you baulk at the cost, consider the longevity of the fabric. For instance, linen has been found dating back 34 000 years in a cave in the Caucasus. Linen is made from flax which takes 100 days to transform from seed to harvesting. It requires less water than cotton, is smooth and lint free, has anti-bacterial properties and is thermo-regulating. The best linens come from France, Belgium and The Netherlands. China and Canada grow flax, but true aficionados only seek out linen from Flanders. The quality is reflected in the price. Linen is popular and easy to find at the moment. Buy the best quality you can and enjoy it forever. Think of French bedlinen, highly sort after in French markets; some sheets are over a hundred years old.

Other sustainable fibres are wool including cashmere, angora, pashmina and mohair, cotton, silk, hemp and jute and the most recent addition, bamboo. Bamboo fabric is created by crushing and submerging the cut bamboo in a solution of sodium hydroxide which dissolves the cellulose. Next carbon disulfide (a highly flammable carcinogen) is added to create a fibre which is then bleached white. The production of the bamboo fabric is probably more chemically intensive than other fabrics. Despite the advertising, bamboo is not a green fabric.

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So buy wisely, maintain your clothes and limit how many pieces you need. There are many online guides to building a capsule wardrobe, based on about 10 main pieces. Easy enough as you’ll probably already have a few base pieces like jeans, trousers or a blazer to build on.

decorating trends

So now you’ve got your wardrobe sorted, lets look at the decorating trends. Unfortunately, I discarded my full length, floral Laura Ashley dresses many years ago. It’s a shame, because looking at the decor trends in Europe I’m pretty sure Laura Ashley-like floral dresses will be the summer fashion here.

I base this on the interior designs in international decorating magazines. In one, it’s all about wallpaper and the wallpaper is Toile de Jouy. Once an Irish decorating favourite from 1760, Toile de Jouy soon swept through France and then everywhere. It was also a favourite during the Laura Ashley era. So a blast from the late 70’s through to the early 90’s. Some of wallpapers included in this article are traditional Toiles, featuring scenic vignettes, such as sprigs of flowers, horses, styles, herds of cows under trees, they’re all there. Some are more modern. Pictorial story telling in one colour on a white or cream background is everywhere. The articles suggests wallpapering one wall, or within painted panels or above the dado in bathrooms or sitting rooms. Exactly as I did in one of our houses, in 1991. Even the same colours.

So, when I turned to the page to the next article,’Heaven Above’ I was almost prepared for the next new thing. It’s wallpapering your ceiling. Not necessarily matching the wallpaper on the walls, although that is recommended but maybe a smaller pattern or even a bigger pattern in similar colours to blend with the wallpaper on the walls. These images remind me of hotels we stayed in the UK during the 80’s and 90’s, sloping wallpapered ceilings and Toile wallpaper, Toile curtains and bed skirts and even a matching Toile skirt on a kidney shaped dressing table. All those swags and ruffles.

All of which did actually prepare me for the next article called ‘Border Control’, suggesting we need definition in our decorating schemes. To do this we need clever borders created with wallpaper, paint, tiles or fabric trim. Another decorating hint in the same magazine was to brighten things up by tacking a pleated fabric skirt to your chairs. I’m experiencing deja vu. Worse still, I remember the dust in all the ruffled pelmets, curtains, Roman blinds and frilled cushions. Never again.

Trends referred to are based on articles and photographs from THE ENGLISH HOME, April 2024, Issue 230, UK Edition.

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Blue Zones and Fashion Trends

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blue zones

The Blue Zone Myth.

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Blue Zone regions are areas where people are claimed to live to a very old age. They have been studied and written about for years. What they eat, how active they are, whether they belong to a religious group and how well they connect within their community have all been documented. A lot of the data is based on government documents.

According to recent analysis, these pockets of extreme longevity seem to occur in areas with greater poverty, higher illiteracy, higher crime rates, and worse population health than the norm. They are found in Sardinia, Okinawa, the Greek island of Ikaria, Loma Linda in California, and Nicoya, a poor province of Costa Rica. The longevity of the “Supercentenarians” is attributed to the consumption of a variety of certain tubers, wholegrains, and fermented foods. A whole “Superfoods and Lifestyle” and publishing industry has grown up around these claims with much capital and employment invested in it.

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A well researched investigation conducted by Oxford University’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science tells a different story. Working with the Greek Labour Ministry they found that most of the country’s 9,000 centenarians were actually dead. A similar investigation conducted in Japan discovered that 238,000 people listed as aged 100 or more were unaccounted for. Some had died in the Second World War! The centenarians of Okinawa allegedly living on seaweed and the purple sweet potato, a superfood rich in anthocyanins and phenols, were found to have consumed less sweet potatoes than the rest of the country, less fruit and seafood, and more processed food. Japan has kept nutritional data as far back as the 1970s. It shows that Okinawa had the worst obesity problem even then. What all these regions have in common is dependency on pensions/social security. It’s worth keeping your family member on the books!

Based on an article by Dr Saul Newman The Oxford University Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science

The release of these findings coincides with a extensive British campaign to promote a plant based diet. This is also being pushed by the EU to try to influence climate change. The British model encourages children to eat from the ‘rainbow’ of foods. They’re told to eat 30 plant based foods a week. Four spices equal one plant based food, otherwise it’s fruit and vegetables, plus flour and oatmeal and other plant products and legumes. So, no eggs, meat, fish or chicken. Only plant based oils are acceptable. No butter. Only plant based milks and yoghurts and other non-diary products are allowed. Are plant based milks actually milks?

The UN is also pushing for a shift to a plant based diet, claiming this will reduce the ecological footprint of food production. Interestingly, the UN includes eggs in their list of acceptable foods. Don’t they come from birds?

One of the two major supermarket chains in Australia is also promoting a similar program of eating from the rainbow. Children can collect a chart from the supermarket to record how many plant based foods they eat in a seven day period. They write them in a colour coded column. The chart also features a box where an agreed award is listed if they meet their goal for the week. I’m assuming it’s not a visit to McDonalds.

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The whole issue of Blue Zones obviously needs more research. Some of the concepts attributed to the very old in these regions make nutritional sense, except the research suggests the younger generation eat differently, anyway. So, back to the Mediterranean Diet, which is a great way to eat with easily sourced foods.

clothes, decorating and fashion

When I read about the impact fashion posts on Instagram have, I do wonder about the age of the viewer to actually care or be influenced. Apparently millions of followers on Instagram and Tiktok do care and follow their idols’ examples of clothing and accessories closely, often checking several times a day.

When I think of fashion icons I think of Coco Chanel, who believed in restraint and advised women to take off one thing as they went out the door and the amazing Iris Apfel, who recently died, aged 102. Ms Apfel had no time for beige or the less is more dictate, she preferred a kaleidoscopic approach to dressing. This meant second hand pieces with couture, layers of clanking priceless jewels on her wrists and around her neck mixed with thrift shops pieces and always huge, colourful owl-like glasses. Joyful and expressive. So, I think we should suit ourselves, buy what we really like and keep it for as long as possible. Disposable clothing equals landfill.

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International taste in interiors has taken an about turn in the last 18 months judging by the magazines I read. Gone is white everything. Now the focus is on patterns and colours, open bookshelves displaying your treasures and lots of texture. Adding inherited pieces or second hand finds is essential and there’s colour everywhere. This looks nice and cosy in a European climate, but those intense colours and metres of curtains and ruffles might bring you out in hives on a hot summer’s day here. We are still having 30ºC (86ºF) days in Perth. Just remember, you can’t actually get personal taste wrong!

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Salsa Verde and Junk Food

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salsa verde

Do you still have an abundance of herbs? Me too. Last week we were enjoying PESTO made from fresh herbs and garlic plus extra virgin olive oil. This week I’m making SALSA VERDE. You’ll need flat leaf parsley, mint, and basil plus capers, anchovies, garlic, Dijon mustard, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. You’ll end up with a versatile, delicious, classic sauce.

Gather some basil, mint and parsley, add garlic, extra virgin olive oil, some capers, a lemon and some anchovies. (Don’t worry if you don’t like anchovies, the flavour is not strong once they have been amalgamated with the other ingredients.) I used curly parsley as that is what I had but I prefer flat leaf parsley for this sauce.

To make salsa verde, called green sauce by the English and sauce verte au pain ( because it was originally a bread sauce) by the French, you need 4 tbspn flat leaf parsley, 1 tbspn chopped mint, 2 tbspn chopped basil, 2 tbspn chopped capers, 2 drained anchovies, 1 peeled garlic clove, 1 tbspn Dijon mustard, juice of half a lemon and 1oo ml extra virgin olive oil. Also 25ml extra virgin olive oil if you plan on keeping it for a few days.

I mix the first six ingredients in a food processor until they’re roughly chopped then add the rest and mix until combined.

Purists and sensible people, who obviously refrain from eating all their salsa verde in a few days, store it in the fridge in a jar with a slick of olive oil (the extra olive oil in the ingredients list) We never keep it very long!

I have both pesto and sasla verde in the fridge so I planned a ‘make your own’ pasta dinner for tonight. I prefer both served close to room temperature so I put them out to warm an little. I cooked the pasta while I was setting a selection of tomato salsa, salsa verde, pesto, leftover bolognese sauce plus mozzarella di bufala and sheeps pecorino. Quick and easy and used up things I already had in the fridge.

I have used a lot of herbs from the garden recently as they are near the end of their season. Both the parsley and basil are going to seed, the mint needed tidying up, the spring onions needed sorting out and the chives are going to seed, too. Normally I snip the flowers off the basil to promote a longer picking season, but they’re getting a bit leggy, so I let the flowers dry out then rub them between my hands. Tiny black seeds fall out. It’s hard to really separate the tiny seeds from the broken up bits of dried flowers so I remove what I can and leave the rest. The seeds are put in an envelope, labeled and replanted later in the year. I keep the seeds I collect in recycled envelopes or paper bags in the garage where it is dry and cool.

the problem with junk food

A recent article on ABC online (here) outlines the problems with junk food consumption. It defines junk food as a broad range of ready to eat products, such as packaged baked goods, chips, lollies, instant noodles, some ready meals, soft drinks, sweetened cereals and packaged snacks. Junk food is food that has undergone significant chemical modification to enhance texture, taste, appearance and longevity.

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Recently, junk foods were reviewed by Australian and international institutions. They considered 45 previous studies published during the last three years. Nearly 10 million participants were monitored in these studies. Analyzing this data revealed strong evidence that consuming ultra processed food can result in 32 different health problems. Junk food consumers are at a higher risk of both physical and mental poor health and death.

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The risks listed from consuming junk food included cancer, major heart and lung conditions, mental health disorders and early death. The article doesn’t include specific cause and effect data, but the advice continues to recommend we avoid these foods. We all knew ultra processed foods aren’t good for us. There is probably a hint in the name ‘junk food.’

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Pesto, Foreign Exchange and Food Waste

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classic pesto

I grow a lot of basil. It’s an easy herb to grow, smells and tastes wonderful and is easy to maintain. I add it to so many summer dishes. You can grow basil in a pot or garden bed where it will get good sunlight and regular water. To keep your basil growing, remove the flowers when they appear, before they turn to seed. I leave the seeds on the soil in the pot and some will germinate again next year.

Pesto, traditionally made from basil, can be used as a dip, a spread, a sauce stirred through pasta or stirred into soups or casseroles. Using only basil leaves, extra virgin olive oil, pine nuts, garlic and a strong cheese, this is a quick and delicious spread. I use a sheeps’ pecorino from the Italian deli for its strong and delicious flavour. Also, too much cows’ milk doesn’t really sit well with me.

Gather the ingredients and a blender. Purists insist on pounding the ingredients by hand in a mortar and pestle but I can’t taste the difference between pounded or blended pesto. You choose! Make sure you have a clean, sterilised jar and lid ready for bottling the pesto. I use recycled jam jars. The ingredients I’ve listed make about one jam jar of pesto and sufficient to stir through pasta that night.

Ingredients;

50 gm of fresh pine nuts

80 gm basil leaves, no stems

50 gm of parmesan or other strong cheese of your choice, grated roughly

2 garlic cloves or 2 teaspoons of minced garlic

75 ml extra virgin olive oil

Rinse the basil leaves and pat dry. Then heat a small frying pan over low heat and gently toss the pine nuts in a little extra oil until they are golden. Be careful not to let them burn as they will taste bitter.You can substitute almonds, pistachios or walnuts if you don’t have pine nuts

Tip the pine nuts, basil leaves, garlic and grated cheese into the blender and blitz until they are roughly chopped. Run the motor and slowly pour in the oil. When it is well mixed but still has shape use a spatula to transfer the pesto into a jar. I used a 370gm recycled jam jars with a tight fitting lids. The pesto will keep for about 10 days in the fridge, if you can leave it alone for that long!

The traditional recipe for pesto uses basil, but there’s many variations depending on what is growing in your garden or what herbs you have on hand to use up. You can add mint or parsley, too. Wonderful stirred through pasta or gnocchi, under a poached egg on toast, on a pizza, stirred into soup or drizzled on a tomato salad.

foreign money

Once we used to go to the bank and organise some foreign currency to take overseas. Then that changed and we have to go into the city to specific branches of the bank to get money. We’d have to order it then wait a few days before we could make the trek into the city and collect the money. Now there is only one branch where we could collect foreign currency.

Searched online for an easier alternative and found one, an online currency exchanger. We ordered the currency and denominations we wanted and made a bank transfer to pay. Two days later the money arrived at our local post office. It was in a plastic pouch in a cardboard box. This entire transaction cost us AU$14, a better exchange rate compared to the bank. It was very easy to complete.

The money was the denominations we selected wrapped with a receipt showing the value and the number of each bank note. It took minutes to order and was easy to pick up later. So much easier than dealing with the bank. When you try and organise this with the bank they would prefer to supply a foreign currency credit card which is very profitable for them. Their deal also includes a charge incorporated in the exchange rate to pay for their time.

food waste

I don’t like wasting food! I see frightening figures quoting the amount of food first World countries send to landfill. Sometimes it takes a lot of work and planning to use everything we’ve bought. Bread is a big problem in this house. I make sourdough for myself and eat it all. Two days before the whole loaf is gone I feed the starter and 12 hours later I mix the dough and leave it for another twelve hours. Then I bake it. It’s a routine I’m used to and not difficult. Besides, the bread is wonderful!

My husband like artisan loaves he buys from two preferred bakeries. He never finishes a loaf. I can make bread and butter puddings but not in the middle of summer. I can make panzanella salads. But mostly I make breadcrumbs. I simply cut the remnant bread to fit easily in the processer and blitz the chunks until they are fine bread crumbs. I use them mostly to make meatballs, chicken balls and sometimes coated chicken. No waste.

Chop into small pieces.

Blitz.

Using a high tech funnel store the breadcrumbs in a jar.

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No Farmers, No Food and Stripping

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farmers and food production

Have you been following the news reports showing farmers on tractors blocking roads and blockading ports across Europe and Wales? Farmers in Europe, including France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain have been protesting about new regulations being introduced by the EU. In Europe, the farmers are protesting about the European Union imposing unrealistic and uneconomical rules and restrictions on their farming methods. Farmers are facing rising costs and taxes, excessive environmental rules and competition from cheaper imports. For example, the EU waived quotas on Ukraine when Russia invaded, despite Ukraine not meeting similar standards imposed on farmers in the EU.

Image Pixabay

Excessive rules being imposed by the EU require farmers to leave specific percentages of their land fallow, rocketing costs for diesel and claims inflationary control methods imposed on farmers resulted in many struggling to cover the high costs for energy, fertiliser and transport.

Image Pixabay

Different countries have specific objections but common to all are ‘suffocating’ EU policy regarding cheap imports, cost of diesel, labour and fertiliser, access to irrigation, criticism about animal welfare and use of pesticides, insufficient state aid, subsidy cuts and skyrocketing insurance costs.

Similar protests have occurred in Wales, where their government aimed to introduce regulations requiring 10% of agricultural land to have trees and 10% left for wildlife habitat. The farmers claim Welsh Labour ideology is crippling food production. Across the UK the NO FARMERS, NO FOOD movement is gaining momentum.

Image Pixabay

Australian farmers are also highly regulated and are being squeezed by the major supermarkets to absorb the ever increasing costs of diesel, labour, transport and climate change policies.

stripping

I saw online articles about stripping for ages before I realised what ‘stripping’ was in this case and went back and read some of them. Nothing to do with removing clothes, but all to do with getting things very clean, especially bed linen. All this was motivated by getting two white pillow cases from the linen cupboard and noticing they were a bit yellow in colour. I’d used them a few times years ago, washed them and put them in the cupboard until I needed to use them.

Slight yellowing didn’t appeal so I soaked them in the usual soaking products and then washed them and hung them out in the bleaching sun all day. Certainly they looked whiter but not perfect! That’s when I discovered stripping. This is a process which results in very clean, very bright washing. Just what I wanted for the pillow cases. Effective on any natural fibres, it’s a process to brighten white sheets and towels which seem to be greying or going yellow.

This discolouration is the result of residual buildup of detergent, fabric softeners, body products and body oils and general use. Stripping removes the accumulated buildup but can only be used on fabrics which can be washed in hot water. I don’t think I’d try it on coloured or patterned fabrics. but plenty of online sites do, assuming colourfastness.

Read a few articles then gathered the necessary products. You need washing soda, borax and laundry powder with enzymes. Check the label to be sure the powder ( not liquid) includes enzymes. Then wipe the laundry tub to clean before half filling with hot (65ºC/150ºF) water. You may need to add boiling water from a kettle to increase the temperature. Then dissolve 1/4 cp of washing soda ( sodium carbonate), 1/4 cp borax and 1/2 cp washing powder with enzymes in the hot water. Agitate to dissolve.

Add the washing to be stripped and make sure it is submerged. I used an old copper stick, originally used to submerge and agitate washing in a copper and to retrieve it but a broom handle or similar would do the job. Stir the washing with the stick every hour until the water has cooled to room temperature. The colour of the water may shock you!

Pull the plug and let the trough drain, squeezing out as much water as possible, then wring the washing by hand to get out more water before putting it in the washing machine. Set it to COLD and turn onto the longest wash. Don’t add powder. You may want to do two cycles. Hang out to dry or put through the dryer. Marvel at the whiteness. Very satisfying! Since treated all the bed linen, bolster covers and white pants. Surprised at how many pairs of white pants I have but they’re all very, very white now.

Poor light but actually very white!

A comment on the washing powder with enzymes I used for this process. It was very, very highly perfumed and I could still smell it after soaking and two washes. I found the actual box of remaining product so strongly scented I had to seal it in a ziplock bag to store it in the laundry cupboard.

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