down to earth

How do you blog? What makes your blog so popular? What's your blogging secret? These are three questions I'm often asked. The simple answer to the second two questions is: I'm not sure. And because I think the first question is about the practicalities of blogging, the ins and outs of it and why I do what I do, I'm going to write about that today.

I started this blog on 14 May, 2007 with a post about Brandywine tomatoes. Since then I've written 1624 posts, 44,333 comments have been published, there are 3672 followers and there have been over 4 million visitors. When I started, I thought I would write about our everyday life and that would make a fine record for us about when we planted and what we harvested, and as one of our sons was living in Canada then, he could see that everything was fine and dandy at home. I had also started writing a book that I couldn't get published and I had a lot of material that I thought was worth sharing, so I logged into Blogger one day, and here I am. I never set out with the idea of creating a popular blog. If you care too much about being popular you concentrate on the wrong things, and it comes across as desperation. My aim was to connect to like-minded people and to share what I know - it is my responsibility as an older woman to do that. It surprised me when so many people connected with me here, and stayed. When I first started collecting statistics for my blog, I thought the counter was wrong because it kept telling me there were always a lot of visitors.

In the beginning I wrote every day as I was firmly convinced, and still am, that to create a relationship with any readers who wandered my way, I had to give them something original and interesting to read when they arrived, and the promise of something new tomorrow. Writing every day gave my early readers a little unspoken promise that if they came back, there would be something waiting. It also revealed a little bit of Hanno and me, and the life we were living, and I hoped that visitors would take the time to give a little bit back too. That happened, we made the connection I wanted to make and over the years I've developed friendships with some of the readers here and built up an idea in my own mind about what many of you are like in real life. Each comment adds to that.

I used write my blog when I got up every morning - 4am. If I did that, I had enough time to give it the attention it needed while still having time for the work I did later in the day. One thing is for sure, you can't write about a life you don't really live. I put my camera in my apron pocket in the morning and if I do something I think I might write about, I grab the camera and take the photo. Now I find it's better if I start writing the blog the afternoon before, then I edit it, or add to it, the next morning. I usually have it published some time between 4am and 6 am.

My subject matter often comes from what I do during the day but it also includes occasionally responding to emails, step-by-step guides, recipes and thoughts I have about this and that. I am not self-conscious at all about writing my thoughts on death and ageing and I hope the posts I write on those subjects, as well as the unrealistic desire for perfection, help bring those topics into general discussion more. At the moment, not many people talk about those things and they are as important as happiness, health and slowing down.

I have no formula - I don't write a certain number of words, I just stop when I feel I've conveyed what I hoped to. If you read about what makes a successful blog, many writers say you should be mindful of keywords and to create headlines that reflect popular keywords. I don't. I think the way to get readers is to write well, almost every day, and to comment on other blogs similar to your own and join forums about your subject. And you have to give it time - time to write well, time to develop your own voice and style, and time for readers to find you.

I have never set myself up as an expert. I just want to share what I know and what works for us here. I think there are many ways to live a simple life, ours is just one way. I hope that what I write helps people believe they can make the changes they want to make. Over the years I made sure I was not swayed by advertisers and people wanting space on my blog - I get emails almost every day asking for that. I have done some bartering deals and lived true to my values, and despite being offered some incredible incentives, I only blog about and promote products I use here. I couldn't honestly recommend anything I haven't used myself and, more importantly, would continue to use.

Now that I've been writing for so long, I think, but I'm not sure, that if there is a secret, it's regular interesting content. And you have to write from the heart, you have write well, you have to be believable. I hope I have done all that. There are still many things I have to learn, there are always changes being made here so I guess while we keep evolving, I'll keep writing. To tell you the truth, this blog has become a friend to me and I would miss it if I stopped. In the silent early morning hours, with a cup of hot tea steaming beside the keyboard, I've shared many thoughts and words here but I am still amazed that from this silent spot, as soon as I hit "publish" these words travel out in to the wide world, to you. Don't you think that's incredible?

Back when I was a young bride, living in what was then West Germany, I was taught to cook two basic meals by Hanno's mum - Kartoffel Puffer or potato pancakes and Fleish Rouladen - stuffed beef rolls. Over the years I've probably made hundreds of Kartoffel Puffers, they're a regular in our house and everyone I serve them to loves them. We went off meat for a long time and ate only vegetarian meals for about eight years but now we're back eating meat and I've re-discovered Beef Rouladen. I think Frau Anni Hetzel would be very pleased. I know her son is.

This is a relatively cheap meal and although it's easy to make and thought to be quite unsophisticated as a main meal, I am standing up to say it's a favourite here and for that reason, I'd like to share it with you. When we get our bulk meat order, I always ask the butcher to thinly slice the round steak for me which I package as two slices per bag. I used two bags for this, four slices, so we could eat it one night and serve it again the next night.

You'll need one slice per person of thinly sliced beef steak. It can be one of the tougher cuts because it will be slowed cooked and will become tender during that process. So if you have blade or topside, or round, they're ideal. If the slice is not so thin, cover it with freezer wrap and thin it out with a meat mallet, making sure you don't belt the living daylights out of it and make holes in the beef. You'll need toothpicks or kitchen string to tie up the rolls and a frying pan with a lid that can go into the oven. If you don't have one, you'll need a frying pan, then an oven proof dish with a lid.

INGREDIENTS

Beef

Large onion, chopped

Mushrooms, any kind, sliced

2 rashes/slices bacon

Salt and pepper

Mustard - optional

Plain/all purpose flour
Water
Sour cream - optional

METHOD

Cut the bacon into small pieces and fry in a pan until cooked. Take off the heat and drain. Keep the pan on the stove as you'll cook the meat in it soon.
Place your beef on a board and cut off any fat. Thin the slice out with a meat mallet if it needs it.
If you're using the mustard, spread about a teaspoon of it over the meat slice.
Place some bacon, onion and mushrooms on the beef slice, add salt and pepper and roll it up tightly. Secure with string or a toothpick.

When all the rolls are prepared, place them in the pan you browned the bacon in. If you have any onion or mushrooms left over, put them in the pan too; they'll add more flavour to the sauce.

Brown the meat on all sides. Take some time with this step - this is where you add the most flavour to the meat and sauce. All that caramelisation on the meat and on the bottom of the pan is the flavour. If you don't brown the meat long enough, the meat won't caramelise, if you do it too fast, it will burn and become bitter. Take your time.

When you're happy with the browning of the meat, add two tablespoons of plain/all purpose flour and stir into the pan juices. Add some salt and pepper then allow the floury juices to develop some colouring.

When everything is combined and the flour is brown, add enough water to come half way up the side of the rolls. Put the lid on, bring it up to the boil, then put the pan in the oven to cook slowly (175C/350F) for 45 - 60 minutes.

Beef Roulladen is traditionally eaten with red cabbage and potatoes so out to the backyard I went and picked some. We had a few small red cabbages that won't grow much now that the warmer weather is here so I picked them all.

To cook the red cabbage, place a sliced onion and two rashers/slices of bacon in a frying pan and cook until golden.

Add the chopped red cabbage to the bacon and onion, add about ½ cup water, salt and pepper to your taste and cook for five minutes or until the cabbage wilts. Then add one tablespoon of sugar and one tablespoon of vinegar and stir in. Bring this back to the boil, turn the heat down and simmer slowly for 10 minutes.
To thicken the cabbage, mix 1 tablespoon of cornflour with ¼ cup of water and pour it over the red cabbage. Stir it in well, bring back to the boil, slowly, then simmer for a further five minutes.

Check the beef rolls after they've been cooking for ¾ hour. They'll be ready when they're tender and the sauce is brown and nicely thickened. Take them out of the oven and on to the stove top. If the sauce is not as thick as you would like, with the lid off, put it on the heat on the stove top, and let the sauce reduce for a few minutes. Just before serving, I added some sour cream to the sauce but this is optional.

Our beef Rouladen was served with crushed potatoes, with butter and parsley, and the red cabbage. We felt like we were dining in Hamburg.

Some cooks add dill pickles to the stuffing and although it's delicious, I prefer the mushrooms and it was the way my mother-in-law showed me, so that's what I stick to. If you have no potatoes, you could serve this with dumplings. Please don't add any soup mix or stock cubes to this recipe, it is full flavoured just with the water and the pan juices. The bonus is this meal as no preservatives or artificial colourings and flavours that are usually added to soup mix and stock cubes.

I hope you try it. If you do, let me know and give me your blog link so I can see what you did and if your family enjoyed it.

ADDITION: My recipe for kartoffel puffer is here.

It's been a drawn out job this one, but finally, after rain delays and Hanno feeling a bit under the weather himself, the fence is set to be finished this morning. The chooks and I will be really happy as it means they can free range again and wallow in their favourite spot - under the palm trees. These trees are their summer retreat - we keep the soil damp for them so they nestle in under there, stay cool and out of sight of any bird of prey flying overhead.

Hanno removing the original fence in late August.

But we really needed to ramp up our fruit production and if we were to do that, the chooks had to be kept away from the fruit trees we'd already planted and those we hoped to plant. Our solution was to move the already build picket fence from the front of the vegetable garden to fence off the fruit, which is at the other side of our back yard.

New posts had to be cemented in to keep the fence upright for the next 20 years or so.

When the new posts were in and set, the fence was brought over in pieces, ready to attach to the posts.

The old fence only covered about two thirds of the length, so we had to buy another fifty dollars worth of posts and pickets.

Hanno built the new fence from those raw materials and it matches up very well.

When I came home from the Neighbourhood Centre yesterday afternoon, he was placing the final section. So I grabbed my camera to show you the excellent work he's done. Today the gate will be put up and the small opening on the other side of the shed blocked off, and the job will be finished. Then I'll open the gates for the chooks to roam free again. We might have a lemon cordial to celebrate. :- )

We have a big backyard and a lot of hard work and effort goes into it, most of it is done by Hanno. I'm thankful I have such a capable husband, but I know that we're both slowing down now so it's great that a job like this is still within his capabilities. In there now are bananas, grapes, loquat, oranges, loofas, passionfruit, mandarin and pink grapefruit; I have a vanilla orchid to plant near the loofas and a Reed avocado ready to go in. Hopefully we will find a suitable raspberry to plant as well. We'll really concentrate on that mixed fruit orchard now and hopefully reap the benefits of it for many years to come. I can already see the day when I ask Jamie or Alexander to come with me to pick bananas and oranges. Maybe when we do that the first time, I'll tell them about the time Opa moved the fence from the vegetable garden to create the orchard.

I know women like seeing other women's sewing rooms and craft rooms, so I thought my gentlemen readers might like a glimpse into Hanno's work shed. This was taken yesterday afternoon. In there, Hanno makes and mends a lot of the things we use and over the years it's been a garage for cars our sons had. It now stores our trailer and hay pile, old furniture and bits and pieces that don't fit anywhere else.

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If you're in Brisbane or on the coast here, you might be interested in coming to the first Real Food Festival in Maleny this weekend. Maleny has some incredible primary producers and artisan food makers, they'll be featured at the festival. There will also be workshops, cooking classes and farm tours. Here is the link for more information.

Have a lovely day.

Last week I had a delightful email from a woman who told me that after reading here for a few months, she made big changes to her life and is now reaping the benefits of those changes. She decluttered, started cooking from scratch and living within her means; she has a plan in place to pay off her mortgage in ten years - she'll then be 41. She wrote to thank me for motivating her towards change and to tell me how surprised she is by the strong feeling of independence and of being in control she now has. It's always wonderful getting emails like that mainly because I absolutely understand what they're saying; it mirrors the changes I made in my own life which resulted in similar feelings of empowerment.

If someone had told me before I started living to a budget, cutting back, slowing down, decluttering and generally living below my means, that I would be reinvigorated by it, I would not have believe them. I didn't really think much about how my changes would make me feel, I just needed to save money and that was that. Now, years down the track, I feel more in charge of my life than ever before; I feel independent and strong, and optimistic about staying that way.

I don't write much about this feeling of empowerment but it is always there and it is enduring. I guess it starts building when new skills are developed. There is always a better way of doing things, new recipes to learn when tastes change, improved methods when you've been doing a task for a long time. Then small changes turn into bigger ones and the learning continues. The more you do, the more you learn, and the more you're capable of doing. Then your changes enable you to pay off debt faster. That builds self confidence and the feeling that even if life doesn't always go as planned, you would cope, no matter what. Add to that a feeling of independence that comes when you stop buying fashions and fads. You don't get swept along by popular opinion, you stay true to your own values, confidence builds and you know, deep down to your bones, that you can look after yourself.

And that's all we really need to do. If we can look after ourselves and our families, if we have confidence that even if the economy bottomed out and stayed that way for a prolonged period of time, we would have the capabilities to not only get everyone fed, but to thrive, then that serves us for that day and the next, and it builds our feelings of independence and of really owning our own lives. If living simply makes you feel empowered when times are tough, imagine how you'll feel when everything is fine and dandy. You'll feel like you can do anything, and maybe you can. And that, my friends, is a great pay off for any sacrifice you may make along the way.

So if you're new to all this, I encourage you to dive right in; there is a wonderful life waiting. If you're convinced you'll be giving up many of the things you love and be restricted as you cut back and live on a budget, when you get used to your new life, worries about deprivation will be replaced by confidence and that feeling of independence. Your life will open up and instead of seeing difficulties ahead, you'll see challenges, opportunities and freedom. And I promise you that will outlast any feeling you get from a new pair of shoes or going to a concert that you can't really afford.

I would be lost without my freezer. Having baked goods in the freezer is another reliable way to save money. If you have those days when visitors drop by unannounced and nights when you're running late and too tired to cook a family meal, think of your freezer as your friend. If you fill it when you have time on your hands, it will safely keep your home cooked bread, cakes, biscuits, soups, stews, and much more, to be served after a quick defrosting.

Home baked bread freezes well, so does bread dough. To bake dough that has been frozen, defrost it, wait for it to return to room temperature, allow it to rise, then bake as normal.

Of course you could always buy frozen food at the supermarket, but do you really want to pay more than double what it would cost you to make it from scratch? At Coles today, a frozen pizza will cost you $6.41 for a family size (500g) pizza; 450g of bruschetta bites - that is bread with tomato, salami and cheese topping will cost $7.48! BTW, for our north American friends, 500 grams is about a pound. And 280 grams of Malaysian chicken curry (frozen) will set you back $6.08 - that is one small serving, so if there are four in your family, your meal will cost almost $25. If you want a dessert, grab some Coles dessert strudel cake 600g for $10 or an apple and berry pie for $5.38. Any one of these food would cost you much less to make, the majority would be less than half. The biggest bonus though, from my point of view, is there will be no preservatives in the food you make at home and you will know exactly what you're eating.

So it makes a lot of sense to me to add home cooked food to the freezer when you have some time. I have fallen into the good habit of cooking double the amount whenever I cook now and as a result, I have frozen soup, casseroles, pies, cakes, muffins, scones and bread in the freezer most of the time. On the weekend, I made a plain cake, similar to a Madera cake. I used this Plain Cake recipe on the lovely Gooseberry Jam blog but substituted whey for the milk and added about two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice; the rest was exactly the same. It's a delicious light and tasty cake. I used my long bar tin, cut the cake in half and put half in the freezer. Also in there at the moment are scones and muffins. Here is a very long guide to some great freezer meals.

Plain un-iced cakes freeze well. If you want an iced cake, ice the cake after freezing.

There are rules to be followed for frozen foods, here is a great guide from the UK. Baked sweets and cakes freeze really well so if you want to freeze some cake, bake it but don't add any icing/frosting. It's best to freeze the cake un-iced. After defrosting, ice the cake, or add your topping, just before you serve it. The majority of bits and pieces added to cakes freeze readily - nuts, apple, coconut, choc chips. Things like fruit pies and biscuits can be prepared and frozen uncooked. They can be cooked when defrosted. Biscuit/cookie dough will serve you well if you roll it in a long roll to be sliced off as you need biscuits/cookies. Don't forget, some home made baby food will freeze well. Be guided by your freezer guide, your common sense and your cook books.

If you have the time to freeze food on the weekends, or if you double cook and freeze like I do, freezing food will save you money because you won't be tempted to buy fast food on those busy days. Take good care of your freezer, pack it well and keep a record of what you have stored, as well as the date you stored it. Stocking your freezer with food ready to go will give you a treasure trove that will save you money, time and those feelings of guilt when you buy fish and chips, pizza or burgers on the busy days when you're too tired or too late to cook.

I'd love to see your favourite freezer meals. Care to share your best frozen food recipe with us?

ADDITIONAL READING
How and what to freeze
Freezing baby food

Here is quite a good guide to how long various foods will keep in the freezer.

Freezing your own home prepared food.

This is a good article on freezing food
Guide to freezing food

I come from a family of cooks and book lovers. Both my sons and my daughter-in-law are fine dining chefs, my father was a baker. I am a keen amateur - made that way because I understood, from an early age, the role good food plays in a family and in the family budget. So it will come as no surprise to you to know that even though I rarely follow recipes, cookbooks are important to me. I have quite a few of them, but nowhere near as many as I could have; with books, and everything else, I choose carefully and maintain a less is more approach. I like reading cookbooks because they inspire me to try new things, and they keep me enthusiastic about growing fresh food in the back yard and presenting that food on a plate.

I have been thinking a lot about death recently. Don't worry, I'm not sick, I feel healthy and full of joy, but the human mind, being what it is, thinks what it does and I just go along for the ride. Lately, the ride has taken us to death and who will be given my possessions when I die. I am not a wealthy woman but I have a few things that are precious to me and many things that are practical and helpful. I have one of my mother's cookbooks, it's a very old CWA cookbook from the Barossa Valley. I was excited to see Maggie Beer refer to her identical copy on The Cook and The Chef a couple of years ago. A few weeks ago I was reading through mum's book and I thought it was a real pity that she didn't write some of her recipes in the book before she gave it to me. I love seeing any good recipe, handwritten. I would have loved to have some of my mother's.

This is cookbook given to me by my mother - she wrote my name in the top right corner, though it's barely legible now.

All through my life, I've had the attitude that there is no use regretting things not done; if it is important enough to me, I should do what I can to change what I can. So I've started handwriting my recipes in my own cookbooks - with the expectation that after my death, these books will be warmly accepted and fondly held by my sons, my daughters-in-law, my grandchildren and their grandchildren. I would like them to add their own recipes alongside mine to build up a collection of cookbooks that will become family treasures and I hope my own book, Down to Earth, will sit alongside these cookbooks on those future bookshelves.

In the photo above you can see my handwritten recipe (double-clicking will enlarge it) for one of my favourite leftovers meals - Colcannon Hash with Leftover Corned Beef; a meal I grew up on no doubt because it trickled down through the years from my Irish ancestors. I hope this meal will be enjoyed by my family 100 years from now and that they pass it on again. I have chosen three books to write in so far. The Real Food Companion by Matthew Evens that is pictured above, The Thrift Kitchen by Suzanne Gibbs and Kate Gibbs and Feast by Nigella Lawson. They're all substantial books - in content and structure so I know they'll stand up to many long years of use, but I settled on those three because they're the hardcover books I use the most. The Real Food Companion and The Thrifty Kitchen will hold my day-to-day family favourite meals, Feast will hold our celebration foods and notes about significant milestone foods - a hazelnut torte for our wedding cake, the first solid foods Jamie and Alexander eat, the menu, including wedding cake, for Shane and Sarndra's wedding in our backyard, the first meal I cooked with Sunny, my grandma's gem scone recipe, and much more.

I intend to make notes in Nourishing Traditions, Wild Fermentation and my mum's CWA book too, but they all have soft covers and I doubt they'll stand the test of time as well as the others; still, they're part of my plan. I will also make reference to this blog post in the cookbooks and probably print it out and stick it in, so those who hold these books in the future can read about who, how and why these family records were created. I wonder what they'll think of them, if it will be a total surprise that we ate this food or if it will be familiar to them. I hope each branch of the family will add somethings of their own to the books to pass along. Food has the capacity to bring people together - even over the generations, and of all the things that will come and go over the years, food is the one thing I'm sure will still be part of every future life.

I would love you to share this with me and create a cook's archive for your family. It's simple to do; it just takes time and a book you have probably already have sitting on your shelf. Why not come along for the ride, I think we'll create something important for our families and a treasure that will last for a very long time. In one month, I intend writing about this again and will put out a call to everyone who joined in, to send a picture of one of their pages. I'm going to post every one of them to celebrate home cooking and family treasures. Will you join me?