Food, Home Maintenance, eCookbook and Gracie

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. It's a lovely way to mark my special day. I haven't taken any new photos for this post, mainly because I didn't have any spare time and I thought it was a good way of featuring some old photos I'd forgotten about. 

I'm having some work done on the front verandah and had workmen here to check what could be done. Just before he got sick, Hanno noticed some problems in the concrete on the verandah and he never got back to it. He was always focused on home maintenance and said that if maintenance wasn't carried out when it was first noticed, the problems only got worse and it took more time, energy and money to fix. So now, after waiting two years to have someone look at this, it looks like major work. They're going to remove the top layers of cement, with some thick patches of paint attached, then level and tile it all. Before that's done, I have to take all the plants and furniture to the back verandah. Shane was here on Tuesday to remove the front tank for me. I'm really happy he'll use it in his own vegetable/flower gardens. I'm not sure yet when the main work will start but I'll start my work over the weekend.

I've decided I'm not going to do the eCookbook. I had to resurrect Word which I was very happy to delete when I finished writing my books and when I looked at it again, I was lost. I spent the first six weeks relearning it. It's bad enough just dealing with the text but when I tried to insert photos, it was difficult keeping my place and working out where to insert page breaks. Over the past two weeks I've been trying different apps and I worked out it would take me another two months to finish the first book. I even tossed up the possibility of stopping the blog to keep writing the eBook. Then I started thinking about my promise to myself about only doing what I wanted to do, and I don't want to do the book. It was a purely financial decision to cover some expenses I had so apart from disappointing you - and I hope you aren't too disappointed, I'm pleased to leave it behind. And that will give me the time to write blog posts to my heart's content. I still get a lot out of my blog, I love helping people and sharing what I know and that is best done here, on this blog where I have no word or photo limits.

Most of the recipes I was going to share are on the blog, I was going to update them, but they are there. There's a search bar on the right side of this page so all you need to do is to search for what you want to find. And I'll make sure I add the foods and meals I'm cooking to my blog posts as I go along.

I made a big pot of beef, barley and root vegetable soup last week. I enjoyed that for a few days and also stored two litres of it in the freezer. In the middle of winter, when it's really cold, I'll defrost it, turn on my heater and enjoy it. I'm making pikelets this morning. I've made the batter and will cook them when I finish here.  I have some double cream I have to use up and will make the choice of strawberry or cherry jam while I make a pot of tea.

Aldi seems to have lowered a few prices recently so I've been shopping there. I never shop at Coles but Woolworths, while saying they're dropping prices, it seems to be the same to me. If you're struggling with the cost of living now, I hope you can keep your head above water until things change again. It's difficult because there seems to be no way out but usually it's a matter of small things making a big difference. I've found some old posts that might help with with food costs but if you don't already cook from scratch, that is what will save you the most money, as well as be a huge improvement in the taste and nutrition of the food you serve.

https://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2021/10/main-meals-cooked-from-your-rotating.html
https://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2018/01/food-shopping-organising-recipes-and.html
https://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2015/01/healthier-and-cheaper-cold-cuts.html
https://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-german-beef-fest.html
https://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2011/04/saving-money-on-meat-buying-in-bulk.html
https://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2013/11/frugal-food-savoury-mince.html
https://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2010/08/home-cooking-what-decadence.html

And finally, I have no doubt that those of you who follow Gracie closely won't be surprised to know she is still sitting at the bookcase looking for mice.  She has also expanded her search areas to a cupboard in my office (she's there now) and another bookcase in the lounge room. 😑

I hope you're doing well in your home during these hard times.  It won't last forever, we just have to keep going and take one small step at a time. If you have any tips for the rest of us, please share them in the comments.  xx ❤️

Where happiness is lurking

It's my birthday today, I'm 76. 🙂  I love being my age. Every stage of life brings new joys and challenges and now is no different. I know some people fear ageing but I think life gets better the older you are. I have all the time I want to do as I please and when I was younger it was the opposite. I have no doubt there will come a time when it will get harder but until then I'll live every day to the full and enjoy each day.

After 13 years on book shelves in Australia and around the world, Down to Earth looks to be on its last legs. My royalties are telling me that story and I think The Simple Life and The Simple Home will follow. The number of borrowers in libraries is still high but the libraries have cut back the number of copies they're keeping. It's been a wonderful ride to be on and I'm very grateful to everyone who bought my books, I hope you got the value, inspiration and encouragement you were expecting. If you want to buy my books, look around now because I'm not sure how long they'll be available. There is a paperback and hardback edition of Down to Earth.

I've changed a fair bit in my home this year. Things I don't use have been given away and I'm aiming to create a home that is comfortable, welcoming, easy to look after and which will encourage creativity. In the past week I've created a new drawing space in the lounge room; it faces a window and has good light. At the moment I'm working on a daily journal with watercolor drawings but my long term goal is to paint watercolour portraits. I have no unrealistic ideas about my talent as an artist but like everything else I've ever done, I'll work through it regularly and hopefully improve. Whether I reach the stage I'd like to be at is anyone's guess but I'm looking forward to the time I spend at that desk.

I bought a heater recently after years of using the reverse cycle air conditioning which I didn't like at all. I really wanted to put in a chimney and wood heater but it would have cost a lot of money so I looked around for something else. I had no idea these heaters existed but I found an electric heater with a pretty realistic fire glowing in the front. I love it. As you know I had a thousand dollars credit on my electricity bill so I withdrew some of that credit and used that to buy it. My bill tells me the lowest usage level they bill for is a one person household, I use half that. So officially, as far as the electric company is concerned, I'm half a person. 🫤 I'll be happy to use the heater when it's cold and enjoy looking at the flames while I warm up.

Vegetable and meatball soup (above) and Shepherd's Pie, made with the leftovers from a half leg of roast lamb (below).  Both delicious.

I've been living alone for two years now. It looks like the trick to solo living is to have a loose plan every day and to stay active. I’m getting by nicely using a combination of technology, creativity, old-fashioned housework and home cooking. I don't spend a lot of time online or watching TV but I want to keep a clean home, I want to eat the food I like, I want to develop my creativity and I want to be productive. I don't have specific meal times - I eat my main meal between 12 noon and 2pm and at other times I eat if or when I'm hungry.  I make my bed before 9am but all other housework happens when I feel like doing it. I do have a cleaner who comes in for two hours once a fortnight as part of my home care plan, so far it's all working very well.  

The gardeners come once a fortnight - they're on my home care plan too.  They do a great job mowing, cleaning up and weeding. The garden beds are gone now, except for the last bed near the chook house but I'll leave that one because it provides a logical boundary. Most of the weeds that were climbing the fences have gone as have all the sapling trees that had come up all over the place. We've always had these jobs to do but it was one of the jobs Hanno did every so often and I never had to worry about anything like that. I was so lucky to have a him as my husband.

Gracie made me do it. 😑

But I was happy with the end result.  It's less for the kids to deal with when I'm gone. 

We had two mice here in the house last week and I was pleased to catch them in traps and get rid of them. Since then Gracie was convinced there were more behind the bookcase. I couldn't hear anything but I thought that maybe the two mice produced a litter and those babies were too small to call out. Gracie sat at each end of the bookcase for hours and eventually I gave in and decided to have a look.  That meant taking everything off the bookcase because I couldn't move it otherwise. When I had it all on the kitchen table I decided I had to continue on with my Swedish Death Cleaning and nothing would go back that should be thrown out or given away.  I was so pleased I did that. It feels like I should have done it a year ago but it's done now and I'm happy with the way it looks.  And no, there were no mice under or behind the bookcase but Gracie is still sitting there. Terriers never like giving up, she takes after me. 😎

Have you made plans for yourself to help you achieve your dreams? Don't just drift along - if you have goals, go for them. No one is going to hand you your ideal life on a silver platter - we all have to work for what we get. I've worked hard all my life and continue to do it because I know that's where happiness is lurking. I hope you discover that simple truth too.  Take care, friends. xx

Square toast bread and other treasures

I've been writing about change recently, mostly because I've undergone significant change in the last two years but also because that’s what we all do - we change. Change is healthy, it shows we’re evolving and not standing still. However, my change topic today is not about personal change, I’m changing the shape of my bread, it will be square, and the recipe is changing to suit the shape. I have many posts here about baking bread and yes, I've been through all the changes you're currently going through - sourdough, artisan bread, sandwich loaves, ancient grains, rye, milled oats and the rest. But now I'm focusing on square toast bread and, of course, scones. I will bake scones using the recipe now engraved on my brain that was taught to be by my mum when I was about 10 years old. She used to tell me I had "a light hand" and that was what was needed to make good scones. Who knew!

Almost all the bread I eat now is in the form of toast, generally one slice with my breakfast. It bugged me that my tall loaves had to be put through the toaster twice so the complete slice was toasted from top to bottom. Then I came across Japanese square bread made in a loaf tin with a lid. Now that I think back on it, I'm amazed that I didn't think of this sooner and looked for the right tin to bake it in. But I'm there now so that's all that matters.

I bought my loaf tin at Amazon au I've been using it for a couple of months now and I'm very happy with it. I don't grease the interior of the pan nor do I use parchment paper, The dough goes in, bakes and it comes out as a perfect square - there’s no sticking to the loaf tin and no fiddling with it.

The first problem I came up against was my normal milk bread recipe, even when I adjusted the amounts in the first loaf I baked, it was too big. I was getting a square loaf, but there was too much dough in the tin and because the lid stopped the dough from rising, the bread was dense. I kept working on it and I’m pretty happy with my recipe now. It makes slightly more dough than I need but I always take a small portion off to make pizza.  I looked at the Japanese recipes traditionally used with this loaf tin but they used a fermented starter that had to stay in the fridge overnight and I didn’t want that added hassle. 

I've been baking bread for over 20 years now and most of that time I baked every day. The reason I didn't give up on it was I simplified the process so it didn't take a lot of time. People were shocked when I said I was using a bread machine to knead the dough - I still use one now to do the same thing - but back then most of the people who baked bread used the traditional methods which I thought took too long. I worked from sunup to sundown in my home, cooking from scratch, preserving, gardening, keeping chickens, harvesting, composting, making simple cleaners, recycling, mending, sewing and knitting, and saving 20 minutes, or 2 ½ hours a week, made a big difference to me. I needed a way of making good bread that was just another task, not a time sponge. Now, of course, bread machines are commonplace and although I usually don't buy everything new that comes along - I have no airfryer, pressure cooker/Instapot, Thermomix or coffee machine, my bread machine will probably be buried with me. 😀

My next step is to source quality bread flour online so I don't have to rely on the white bread flour available at the local supermarket. I'm thinking I'll probably go for the Wholegrain Milling Co.'s Stoneground flour from Gunnedah - they have a selection of white, wholemeal and rye. If you have a favourite flour, please let me know about it. This is my current recipe:

500g bread flour
2 teaspoons dried yeast
300g warm water
2 tablespoons milk powder
1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar
20g melted butter

 

I bought too many citrus last week so I've been drying a few lemon and orange slices. I also discovered 20 red and green chillies growing in the back yard so made up a few jars of sweet chilli sauce. I bottled it yesterday so that will sit in the fridge for a few weeks to mellow and I'll have some delicious quick sauce for pasta and for adding to soups and stews. I had steak, onions, mushrooms, broccoli and carrots for lunch yesterday so today I'm making miso and pumpkin soup. I'll make enough to store for later in the month too. The sweet chilli sauce recipe will be in the PDF/ePub cookbook.

And there have been a few repairs to do this week too. I've had to learn about repairing all manner of things since Hanno died but it's been good for me to do it. Sarndra helped me replace a venetian blind in my office that refused to open or be adjusted in any way and this morning I learnt how to unstick a press-in bathroom plug. I also had to fiddle with the back door lock to free it up and reapply a skirting board that fell off. What next? LOL

Hello to Judith Waller in Victoria. Thanks for your letter Judith, I appreciate you thinking of me. xx

I hope things are going well in your home. Thanks for your visit today I hope you're enjoying this time of year. Stay safe and well. xx

ADDITIONAL READING:

Great vintage bake-off: why lamingtons survive while fruitcakes fell from favour

Play outside and sing together: what living in Denmark taught me about raising ‘Viking’ children

‘Every household needs to work out a system for their fridge’: how to throw out less food

This is real freedom

One of the things I love about living alone is that I can do whatever I want to do. I've always been independent and a loner but this puts a new sparkle on the edge of it. This is REAL freedom. But hand-in-hand with that freedom is the importance of maintaining relationships with family, friends and neighbours.  My family continues to support me with phone calls, messages and visits which I know will carry on until I die. Thankfully, we are that kind of family. I have a couple of online friends who I speak with online or on the phone and two other friends I see every few months - it works well for me, keeping me in touch with the people I love while enjoying my independence and time alone. My neighbours seem to have adopted me since Hanno's death and I can rely on them for almost anything ... except getting rid of snakes. LOL I am reluctant to ask for help but sensible enough to know when I need to. 

Yesterday, I did my grocery shopping, came home having bought a new moth orchid, repotted it and two other orchids and then had a tea and toast breakfast at 10am. I worked on the cookbook for three hours. At 2pm, I cut up tomato, onion, cucumber, lettuce, avocado and chilli, made guacamole, and had lunch of corn chips, salad and guacamole, then I finished off the fresh pineapple I cut up the day before.  From 3 - 5pm I was mending and sewing, then took Gracie outside again until it was almost dark. Inside again, I showered, read for a while, made some notes about ideas I'd had through the day, read The Guardian online and went to bed. It was a good day.

Spending time with Gracie is very important to me and seeing as she likes to be WITH me, I have to juggle time working on the computer and being outside with her watching her chase March flies and lizards or watching what's happening in the neighborhood - which usually is not much. There's virtually no traffic, but a lot of birds and after 3pm, neighbourhood kids playing in the street. Every couple of weeks I wash Gracie, or groom her, she hates having all that done but being a Scotch Terrier in a warm climate, she tolerates it and me fussing over her.

Here are my beautiful sons, Shane and Kerry, when they were in grade one and preschool, they are now in their 40s.

I think a lot about my life and my good fortune to have met Hanno all those years ago and how grateful I am to have this life. I have a wonderful family, I have nothing to complain about, I have more than enough, I'm happy to live on less than I earn and feel fortunate to own my home and have no debt. I've met many interesting people, made a living being a writer since I was about 30 years old and have an abundance of optimism and general good health. I wonder too about the state of the world, how wars break out and how it is usually the innocents who pay the ultimate price for that. Hatred, aggression, greed, jealousy, sexism and racism are reported on the news everyday - it never goes away.  And yet here I am, a dog at my feet, reading this blog post I just wrote and wondering how I got so lucky.

Addition: I've just restored the comments. I hope they aren't swamped with spam like there were before, if so, I'll deal with it then. Please comment here rather than Instagram.

Grocery shopping and bill paying

I gave up looking through supermarket specials catalogues years ago when I realised that 90 percent of what they reduced in price was junk food: fizzy drinks, sweets, chips, biscuits, sugary cereals, cake mix, canned soup etc.. Grocery prices started rising before Christmas and while many of us are used to higher prices, we're all looking for value for money so it's still very difficult shopping for fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, dairy, eggs, staples and cleaners. I put cleaners in there because although I don't buy washing liquid, spray and wipe or any of the common cleaners, I do buy borax, washing soda, laundry soap, vinegar, disinfectant, oxy-bleach, dish liquid and White Magic Flat Pot Scrubbers. Those scrubbers are very effective, they're $5 each, you can wash them in the dishwasher or the washing machine and they last well for at least six months. 

This is my general cleaning kit. It contains disinfectant, a homemade spray of water, vinegar and a few drops of dish liquid, small bottle of vinegar, brushes, eucalyptus oil, bicarb soda, a duster and rags.

This is a robot wet mop brought back from South Korea. Sunny and Kerry gave it to me as a Christmas gift a few years ago.  It's fabulous.  It uses plain water with a dash of vinegar.

I use the borax, washing soda and laundry soap to make laundry liquid, I use vinegar, disinfectant and dish liquid for general cleaning and the oxy-bleach on stains or in the washing machine to make sure everything is cleaned to the standard I want.  One 10 litre batch of homemade laundry liquid lasts for about four months, so I'm not weighed down by the cost of buying a bottle of Cold Power or Radiant every week or two and bringing in all that extra plastic into my home. Buying ingredients for homemade cleaners will save you a lot of money and it's ongoing so the savings continue over the years.

I usually have my groceries delivered from Woolworths but two weeks ago I decided to do a test shop. I always knew Aldi was cheaper because we used to shop there but I moved away from them when I thought the quality of their fruit, vegetables and meat weren't as good as they once were. To help me with my test shop, I made up my shopping list on the Woolworths app as I usually did but didn't pay for it - I just had the list in my phone. The app automatically creates a shopping list on your phone with weights and prices. Then I went shopping at Aldi and as I walked around the shop, I could compare the Aldi prices with the exact price Woolworths were charging for the same product. An average Woolworths shop cost me around the $100 mark (that's for me and Gracie) and the Aldi shop was around $80. So I'm back at Aldi for the time being. I've always believed Aldi sold the best dairy products and I'd pleased to tell you that they still do. Their butter is $6.39 per 500g against Woolworth's Western Star butter at $8 per 500g, recently reduced from $9 per 500g. Their milk, cream, cheese and yoghurt are all excellent and cheaper than the same products in Woolworths. I'm pleased to say their nuts, tissues, tea, and general groceries are cheaper too. Most of their products are made in Australia, their fruit, vegetables and meat are all local and for the foreseeable future I'll be shopping there. If you think you might change too, download the Woolworths or Coles app, make up your shopping list and take that list to Aldi to make a real comparison. I hope it helps you make the most of your grocery money.

Get into the habit of shopping with the UNIT price in mind, not the product price. The unit price must be displayed near the product price for you can compare before you buy. For instance, I buy a 1.5 kg bag of Australian traditional rolled oats, grown on Australian farms and it costs 17 cents per 100 grams or $2.60 per 1.5 kg. If I bought Uncle Toby's traditional oats, they would cost me 65 cents per 100 grams or $6.50 per kg. I've eaten rolled oats since I was a child and there is no difference in the taste of these oats. Getting into the habit of shopping by unit price, you will save money. Look at generic brands too. Some, but not all, of the generics are good but you have to test them first. If you want to test a product, buy the smallest size you can and go for it. You might be in for a pleasant surprise.

If you cook from scratch or you're planning to, having the staples you need in your pantry will make cooking easier and will open up a wider range of meals you can make on a regular basis. Your staples are the ingredients you have on hand to make the food you usually eat. My pantry staples are: plain, self raising and bread flour, cornflour or arrowroot (to thicken sauces), salt, pepper, curry powder, chilli, onion and garlic powder, dried italian herbs, dried oregano, ginger powder, mustard seeds, sweet paprika, honey, sugar, brown sugar, cocoa, shredded coconut, cinnamon, nutmeg, vinegar, tea, rice, barley and pasta. In the freezer I keep two 500g blocks of butter and in the fridge I always have milk, mustard, dried yeast, eggs and cheese. I usually have the following in my stockpile cupboard: tins of salmon and tuna, baked beans, tomato paste, tinned tomatoes and passata. The start of a lot of meals I cook are onions, carrots and celery but when I cook asian food that changes to garlic, ginger and green onion, so I have those ingredients on hand too or will be ready to buy them when I shop again. If you can work out what ingredients you need in your pantry/fridge/freezer to cook your favourite meals without going to the supermarket you'll make things easier for yourself. Set yourself up with the ingredients you need but don't go overboard on things like spices because they'll go out of date before you use them. Just get the basics - salt, pepper, flour, sugar, tea, coffee, rice and whatever it is you need every week to keep you going.

I wish I had more information on bulk meat shopping but I haven't bought bulk meat for years. If you have family or friends who will share the purchase with you, and you have a large freezer, it's an excellent way to save money on meat. Here is the last blog post I wrote on bulk meat.  You can get a general idea of the process in that post and it will give you an understanding of weights as well as how to order.

Rice pudding is a delicious breakfast porridge and is much cheaper than commercial cereal. I make rice pudding or rolled oats porridge for six months of the year and when I see the prices of those other cereals, I just smile and walk on.

Rice pudding - ½ cup white rice with 2 ½ cups of milk and a 1 tablespoon sugar. Place everything in a saucepan, bring to a gentle boil while stirring so it doesn't catch, then simmer for 15 minutes. OR, make it the night before, store it in the fridge overnight and reheat in the morning.

Australia's vintage recipes

Looking through my collection of 1970s and 1980s recipes.

Try to be flexible too. If you don't have fresh garlic, use garlic powder; if you don't have passata, use tinned tomatoes or make a cream sauce. As you become a more experienced cook, you'll know what you can use in place of something else. There's one thing for sure, when you're a cook, you're always learning. I've been cooking from scratch for most of my 75 years and I know there's still a lot to learn.

I really wish I still had a chest freezer. I have the freezer at the top of my fridge but a chest freezer would help me shop less often.  I'd be able to store milk, packs of flour, blanched vegetables bought on special as well as more cooked meals. If you're just starting out, think about getting a chest freezer, it's a very wise investment.

The harmful effects of ultra-processed foods such as cereals, protein bars, fizzy drinks, ready meals and fast food.  

Paying the bills

In the past, Hanno paid all the bills and I had to learn, very quickly indeed, about how to do it so I didn't pay late fees or have the electricity cut off. Now I have a master bills list which is made up of all the bills I pay during the year: every month, three-months, six-months and 12-months. I made that list by going through the previous year's online bank statements. I also add up how much I spent on groceries in the previous year and focus on reducing that with smarter shopping. Like my bills, yours are probably paid in a variety of ways - by Direct Debit, BPay, Credit Card or online transfer. When you set up each account, choose the payment option that's easiest for you. Having a list made up will help you organise your bill paying and when you see amounts deducted from your bank account, you'll be able to check them off your master list or if their not legitimate, you can report it to the bank immediately.

When I get an online notification about a bill and it's not due for payment for a couple of weeks, I put the date due in my online calendar and set the calendar to send me an email reminder three days before the due date. That's been working well for me but work out what will help you and make it a regular thing. 

~~~  🌿💜🌿 ~~~

I'm finishing this post now but I feel I still have important things to tell you 😵‍💫. I might remember them later today, if so, I'll add them here.  I do hope you're helped by some of the above. Grocery shopping is an important part of family life and in these difficult times, we all need to save where and when we can.

I hope you're doing well and looking forward to the change of seasons like I am 🥰.  

What I used to do and what I do now

When I simplified my life I thought not much would change in the future. Looking back on it now, things didn't change for many years but when the changes came, they were terrifying, challenging and, eventually, wonderful. I’d never thought about living alone until it happened and then I thought I’d just carry on as before. But it didn’t turn out that way - many of my changes were big and difficult and now my life is very different to what it used to be. So I thought it might be a good thing to write about here - to help others as they age and because I want my blog to be a journal of my life and it wouldn’t be a true and genuine account without these final chapters.

The catalyst for my life change was Hanno becoming sick and eventually dying of brain cancer and Parkinson's disease. Long term readers might notice I left out the diagnosis of dementia which I now believe was false. It wasn't the only false diagnosis he was given but let's just leave it at that. When Hanno died, I fell in a heap and sat on the front verandah staring into space and I stayed there until I realised that I had to do something to get myself moving again. Afterall, I didn't have Hanno there to ask our mutual question: "What are you doing? There's work to be done." The only thing I could think of was to restart my decades-old housework routine and see where that took me. I wasn't sure what would happen, maybe I'd come up with a great idea on how to live well, maybe I'd sell the house, maybe I'd go back to the seat on the verandah. I just didn't know. But what did happen was subtle and reassuring - my housework nurtured me by providing a familiar way to spend my hours and that in turn removed my anxiety and sadness. I felt my life taking shape again, I started with making my bed in the morning, taking Gracie outside and sitting to watch the sunrise, making breakfast, thinking about lunch, cleaning the kitchen, then moving on to whatever needed to be done that particular day. I also included a lot of downtime when I'd read, paint and write because I wanted my creativity to thrive again.

I was diagnosed with a non-malignant brain tumour in 2019. It makes me dizzy and unable to bend over or look up to do things but mainly it's made me think in a different way! It's made me more organised and patient, two things that weren't a big part of my intellectual or emotional makeup before. Now I do what has to be done, not find reasons not to do it and that has made life much easier, especially as I haven't had Hanno asking the "What are you doing? ..." question. I can easily motivate myself to do almost anything now and I'm more inclined to forgive mistakes, in myself and others.

I met Hanno when I was 28, he died when I was 74, so it took a while to work out what made sense at this stage of my life. In the old days, I'd stockpile, bake bread every day, make almost everything from scratch, preserve food, make soap and simple cleaning products, I'd grow food, cook and store it, shop mindfully, I gave up recreational shopping (including thrift shopping), I decluttered, recycled and composted. But that all changed when I was alone. Initially I stopped baking but started again when I didn't want to drive to the bakery to buy bread, and I missed my daily piece of toast. Instead of baking a loaf every day, I now bake about once every two weeks and wait until the loaf is cold, slice it, bag it in a reusable plastic bag and store it in the freezer. When I make biscuits/cookies, I make a full batch but divide that and freeze half the dough. It tastes just as good when it's baked and if someone comes over I usually have something in the freezer I can defrost and bake for them. Instead of growing or buying a large amount of tomatoes for relish or strawberries for jam, I buy those things in season when they're at their best and cheapest and preserve smaller amounts.  Around Christmas time, I bought four punnets of perfect local strawberries and made two jars of strawberry jam - that will probably last me most of the year. Instead of buying fresh tomatoes, I bought tinned tomatoes and made the relish I usually make for Christmas lunch. I still have six jars of that which I'm using as pizza sauce, sandwich relish and as a base for curry and pasta sauces.

I've cut my food waste by about 90%. I did that by using the Zwilling vacuum seal glass containers and plastic bags. I wrote about that twice last year, here are those links:  Zwilling vacuum seals one,  Zwilling vacuum seals two.

Now I eat when I'm hungry and go to bed when I'm tired - even if it's 4pm. The time of day and day of the week don't matter because the daily decisions I make usually only relate to me.  I can do whatever I like, whenever I like. If you were to walk past my place at 2am and hear the gentle whir of a machine, it would probably be me sewing. Having no timetable or deadlines eases stress, especially after a writing career that is based on deadlines. I feel happy and lucky that this is what my life is now. Of course, I miss Hanno and think of him everyday, but I talk to the photo of him in the kitchen and I'm pretty sure he'd like the way I've rebuilt my life.  

Another one of my changes is to have my groceries delivered once a week. For me, it's cheaper than going to the supermarket and roadside stalls. With my pensioner's discount, it costs about $2 per delivery. So I don't have to struggle getting the grocery bags in and out of my car, I'm not tempted to buy things I don't need and I save on petrol because I don't drive the 20 minute journey there and back.

One thing I've always been mindful of is eating fruit and vegetables every day, mainly for the fibre but also for the vitamins and minerals they contain. When I was cooking for two, Hanno liked having a cooked breakfast and lunch and he'd often have a toasted sandwich for dinner, so there were always a variety of vegetables cooked twice a day. Now that I eat one meal a day and that might be soup, homemade sausage rolls, eggs, steak, chicken or a casserole, I make sure I get enough vegetables by making up a bowl of coleslaw every week. I store it in a Zwilling vacuum glass container and have a coleslaw side dish with whatever I eat as my mail meal. I have at least two pieces of fruit a day and drink tea, water and milk.

I still cook all Gracie's food and alternate between red meat and chicken. About once a month she has a couple of days eating raw meat. I used to give her chicken necks too but she had trouble chewing them so I stopped giving them to her. She has a cup of Black Hawk high quality dog biscuits in the morning and drinks only water.

Overall, I cook and bake from scratch and although I eat the food I like, usually it's the simple food I grew up eating. I eat very few processed foods or drinks, I know the food requirements for my age group and I generally eat between 6am and about 2pm. I eat less than I did when I cooked three meals a day and I feel better for it. I still keep a small stockpile of tea, small tins of red salmon, baked beans, jam, relish, pickles, rolled oats, grains, pasta, rice, sugar, vinegar, honey, various flours and spices. I usually have frozen butter, bread and a small amount of meat and chicken in the freezer. The pandemic proved to me that anything can happen at any time so I stockpile foods that will store well and keep me going until the food deliveries start again.

Today I’m making a new version of choc chip biscuits/cookies. If I like them I’ll include the recipe in my eCookbook. I’ve started work on it, made changes already and now I think I’m happy with what I’m creating. Originally I was going to write one document but then realised it would be too big and didn’t want the bother of handling and emailing such a large file. I decided then that I’d break it into several sections, then decided against that because that would be a bother too. LOL Now I'm writing a savoury book and a sweet book. I’ve lived with that decision for a couple of weeks now and it still makes sense to me, so I’m guessing that’s what I’ll end up with. I hope to release the savoury book in June.

In my next post, I'll carry on with the same theme of what I used to do and what I do now. Those topics will be Gardening, Organising money and paying bills, Grooming and feeding Gracie and a third post on this subject on Spending time alone and with Gracie, Organising my time, Doing what I want, Maintaining relationships - family and friends, neighbours, My health.  

I hope there will be a few things in these posts that will help you as you grow older. It's an interesting and significant journey that not everyone is fortunate enough to make.

Starting a simpler life

When I started living a simpler life over 20 years ago, I saw it more as a collection of skills rather than a way of life. It took me a few months before I connected the dots and that showed me that when each skill was seen as part of something bigger it made more sense, and all these things made life easier.

For example, we’d kept chooks, grown vegetables in the backyard and eaten organic food for many years. I’d baked bread on and off for that time too and when we lived in the bush, we stockpiled. But all these things seemed to be disjointed and random. They were things we did when we had the time for them but never part of a particular lifestyle.

I wanted to live in a way that made sense environmentally, made a better family life and that challenged and rewarded me. So I looked at what we were doing. It helped to have a name to call it so we could focus on"simple living" and not all the single elements like chooks, stockpiling, organic vegetables, slowing down, budgeting, cooking from scratch etc. When I had the name for it, I discovered I wasn't alone in my thoughts. I found people writing about living how I wanted to live and that motivated me like nothing else. I knew I didn't have to move to the country to live the way I wanted, I knew I would have to learn how to do a lot of the things I wanted to do and I would have to budget and save as much as I could.

I'd already realised that shopping was a wolf in sheep’s clothing that would give me all I needed and wanted. It had to stop and when it did, I suppose that was the first conscious step I took on the road to my simple life. I stopped handing my money over to large corporations to buy the latest fashions so I could look like everyone else, buy convenience rather than do my own work and buy services I could do without. That made the biggest difference.

I created a plan to stop shopping for what I wanted and buy only what I needed instead. I changed the way I shopped for groceries, I cooked from scratch and made as much as I could myself. Another aim was to rethink how I viewed housework and to make what I did in my home meaningful and rewarding. I did it by realising that every single thing I did at home, I did for my family or myself. Knowing that, and really understanding it, made that change possible. It was like a light turned on inside my head; one of those classic cartoon moments when the light globe comes on and you can almost see new ideas forming and old ways melting away. If what I was doing at home was for us then what greater incentive could I have? However, the work wasn’t all mine, I think housework should be shared. My kids grew up keeping their own rooms tidy, making their beds and doing easy household chores. When they left home, I usually worked in the house and Hanno worked outside, but there are many times we crossed over and I'd do one of "his" jobs and he did one of "mine". I then realised that the work we do in our homes contributes significantly towards how we feel and that flows into other parts in our lives.

I am proof that change is possible. If you were to ask my advice on moving towards simplicity, I'd tell you to focus on yourself first and to understand that you may already be doing a lot of the things that make up this way of living. If it still feels disjointed to you, try to connect the dots in YOUR life. Work out for yourself how not shopping for convenience and things you don’t need, saving on your grocery bills, cutting back on your use of water and electricity helps to pay off your debt. Work it out on paper if you have to. Convince yourself. Develop a plan and new values that will facilitate and support your simple life. When you focus on a simpler future, when you do the work, it will change how you think abut housework, and the satisfaction you feel will help you to keep going. The rewards you gain are massive and you’ll discover the feeling of living debt-free, spending more time with your family and living in a calm and stress-free home. And I that, my friends, is the glittering prize.

Nicole Lutze is advertising her new natural cleaners workshops in March. They’re being held in several locations on the Sunshine Coast, cost $5 and are being sponsored by the Sunshine Coast Council. Click here for more information. 

🌿 🌿 🌿

Housework changes us

I used this quote at the beginning of chapter five in The Simple Home, Laundry Love. It's one of my favourites:

“Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

That is how I feel about the work I do here in my home. I end up with the prize, this is how I win it.

Back in the day, I used to multitask, take shortcuts and do only the work that was necessary for a clean and tidy house. I didn't think about comfort, warmth, wellbeing or safety. It was only when I started to slow down and appreciate the work I was doing that I realised how important it was. Housework changed me from being a busy, tired and overworked mother, wife and writer into what I am today. When I gave up work at 55 and concentrated on building a simpler life, housework was my steady guide. It taught me that I could modify what I did to suit how I work, and to hope for the unexpected and challenging because that was what would keep me productive and interested in my home. When I understood that, the rewards were abundant.

Over the years I moved furniture around to better suit the way we live, I started stockpiling, changed the way I shopped for groceries and although I'd always cooked from scratch, I started baking bread every day too. We got rare breed chickens. I began growing food in the backyard, preserving, volunteering, budgeting, sewing and mending. And I was knitting - I started knitting organic cotton dishcloths, and I still do that now. 🙂

One of the important parts of this new lifestyle for me was my mindset. I promised myself I'd be kind, generous, non-judgemental, respectful and accepting. That made a big difference. Surely those values should be part of any simple life. It doesn’t make much sense without them.

Cutting up old sheets and pillowcases to use as cleaning rags. 

It might seem strange to you now but over the course of your lifetime, you’ll save hundreds of dollars by cutting up old towels, sheets, tea towels and T-shirts to make cleaning rags. I estimated once that using rags instead of store-bought cloths would save at least $1000 over the course of the average housekeeper’s life. Anything made from cotton or linen is suitable, and because they’re old and well used, they’ll be seasoned, absorbent and soft. To clean the rags, just throw them in with the normal wash, or in with the mats if they're really grubby, and when they're dry, store them in your rag bag. When their life is over, throw them into the compost. Click here for Down to Earth rags post.

Speaking of rag bags.

This post is a sample from The Simple Home, my final book. It'll give you a good idea how I work with household linens, sewing, mending, knitting and general craft work.

MOVING ON

After many years of using a homemade laundry liquid I've move on to homemade laundry powder. The liquid takes slightly more preparation time and I preferred it because I used it combined with bicarb soda for bathroom cleaning. That paste is like Jif but with only four ingredients so I know I'm not spreading around chemicals that might cause harm. My homemade laundry powder recipe has four ingredients and costs in the region of three dollars to make a very large batch - 10 litres in liquid form. That's much cheaper than the supermarket powder or liquid and you're not bringing all those heavy plastic bottles into your home. You can add any oxy-clean type stain treatment (Vanish or Disan) to the mix if you've got kids or a partner with dirty work clothes. Making your own laundry powder/liquid will take 10 minutes and cost around $3.  

I still make my cleaning paste with the bicarb. I just mix half a cup of laundry powder, add two tablespoons of bicarb and enough water to make a paste. Store it in a sealed container.

SHARP KNIVES

When I was decluttering the other day I found my dad's honing steel. It really looks its age and more like a pirate sword than a modern steel. It's still sharpens knives well though. One of my chef sons was shocked by the knife I gave him to carve the ham on Christmas Day. LOL I had been using one of those drag through knife sharpeners but that's in the recycle bin now and I'm a changed woman. Here is a good video I found on how to use a honing steel.

COOKING FROM SCRATCH

I cook all my meals from scratch but I don't expect anyone else to do that. If you want to start scratch cooking, do it one night a week, make enough for two meals and either freeze the second portion or serve it the following night. Cooking meals with ingredients you have in your home is much healthier and cheaper. You know what's in the meal, it tastes better, and you can make it exactly to your liking or health requirements. Food with ingredients you have never heard of, frozen meals and ultra-processed foods aren't healthy.

Chicken schnitzel and salad.

One thing I know to be true is that when you do simplify your life, be that a lot or a little, life will be easier. Start slow with what you're struggling with at the moment - budget, cooking, cleaning or whatever, choose one thing and work your way through that. Just use the parts that suit you and your life, leave the rest for now. When you feel confident with that, choose something else. 

I helped my family out with some home cooking late last week because they had a lot to do. A simple meal of bone broth and vegetable soup, lasagne and cinnamon tea cake filled them up and gave them a break from cooking. I love it when I can help. 

If you work outside the home for a living, you'll fit your simple tasks around your family and your job, but don’t make the mistake of putting off the decision to move towards a simpler life because you are working. You'll make things easier and cheaper for yourself if you start some of these simple tasks during your stage of working outside the home. You'll learn and practise some of the skills you'll need when you're living a simpler life.  Just as an example on a starting list I'd suggest making your own green cleaners, cooking one or two meals per week from scratch, stockpiling, menu plans and growing a few herbs and green leaves in pots. That will get you started and you can add more tasks when you're ready for them. Remember, there isn't a one size fits all approach to this.

It won't happen overnight and you must remember we all go through stages - that's a chapter in Down to Earth (the book). I can do what I do because I'm 75 years old and I have time but my age also restricts because I don't have the strength I once had and I have a non-malignant brain tumour that makes me dizzy when I bend over or look upwards. But no matter what stage you're at, we will all be restricted by something that will probably disappear one day - the kids grow up, you stop or start working outside the home, you pay off your mortgage etc. Making your own homemade cleaners, menu plans, mindful grocery shopping, budgeting etc will all make your life easier and only take a short amount of time to set up. Once you get used to it you'll wonder why you waited to do it. 😊

I believe there are many ways to live simply. I have lived in Europe, in the Australian bush and in the city, in houses, flats and caravans, and I know with no doubt, I could have lived simply in all those places. Whatever your circumstances are, you can fashion a life that will simplify your daily tasks, help you nurture yourself and your family and lead you to discover that a simple life is like a patchwork quilt - it's pieced together slowly, unpicked sometimes, composed of a mish-mash of colours and textures and is different for everyone, depending on the fabric of your life. But when one stands back from a completed quilt, its complexity becomes apparent. It's no longer pieces of this and that, it builds into a functional piece that gives warmth, beauty and comfort. That's how your simple life will build too.

If you're struggling to simplify, have a look in my right-hand column → and you'll find my archive listed year by year. I think beginners would find the 2007 - 2014 years the most helpful. OR, just under that, all my topics are listed - just click on the topic name to go there.

I had my latest Covid vaccination on Monday. This is a new vaccine that covers variants that appeared over the last year or two. The advice from my pharmacist was to have a booster every six months from now on. That’s the advice for everyone in Australia over the age of 75, everyone else is yearly.

Today's lunch was a pork chop with coleslaw and salad, and a couple of ripe yellow peaches. I’ve been eating a lot of peaches and nectarines since the season began here in December. They're my favourite fruit.  🍑 ❤️ 🍑. This afternoon I've been sewing, watching the test cricket and finishing off this post. I hope your day has been joyful.

ADDITIONAL READING

Beer, bread and beyond: the ‘mind-blowing’ potential of Australia’s mountain rye and other perennial grains

Purls of wisdom: the wellbeing benefits of knitting and crocheting

The incredible story of Merlin the spaniel shows how little humans know about dogs

How to make candied chocolate orange peel (and an orange old fashioned) – recipe