• Meal prepping is booming
• Knitting and Nalbinding - here's what we know ...
• Old, broken stool restoration
• 92 year old grandmother at the edge of the world
• About 13 years ago Hanno painted our roof with solar-reflective white paint, here’s why
• Home Maintenance - the roof

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. 

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.

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'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:

 

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

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. 

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.

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 🥰.