The Sewing Catch Up

There has been a fair amount of needlework going on amongst the flurry of activity and the hectic pace of the last couple of weeks. Given all that has been accomplished, I thought it time to post some of the resulting works.


This is the next in a line of small stitcheries that I have been working on. You'll probably have to click on the picture to enlarge it enough to see the detail. I love the little scarecrow in the middle of the garden!

Wednesday was my second Block of the Month class. This month my group did the churn dash block. There was far less piecing to happen compared to last month so I was able to complete two blocks in the two hours. I need to do the other two this week and return the 1/4 inch foot to the quilt shop.
And finally....really, finally! These are the two give aways for Kate and Tina. It took me a week to acquire the bits & pieces I needed to do the framing. I'm pleased with the result and I hope they will be a blessing to you both. They will go in the mail on Tuesday.

An Update From Yesterday:

Dinner went beautifully. The visiting kids loved the gnocchi and the adults felt spoiled by homemade pasta. Our friend decided that a pasta machine would be a wonderful birthday gift for herself this year. I suspect they will be enjoying fettuccine and spaghetti from their own kitchen in the near future!

When we popped in to Safeway for salad ingredients, I was able to pick up 4 avocados for $1.50. Normally they are more than that each so we had TWO in the salad. We all felt spoiled by that little treat!

For dessert...the apple 'thing'. I decided to make a Dutch Apple Cake. Dh had bought 2.5kg tins of pie from from SPC when he was in Shepparton not long ago. The tins were $3 each. A bargain by any standard. He had used about 1/3 of the apple tin and frozen the rest. I defrosted it and used some in the cake. I'll use the rest for more cake, or my Mum's apple slice. Actually, I could do both...and the family will be thrilled.

Menu Stretching for Guests

I was thinking as I got up this morning I hadn't posted any recipes this week. I will fix that today, and combine two thoughts at the same time.

I got home yesterday after a full day out, with friends for an after school play. We had popcorn for the kids and cheese & crackers for the grown ups ~ special cheese we'd had left from the other night. All of these things I already had and everyone was quite satisfied. Whew, no trips to Safeway!

Dh also informed me that he'd invited some friends over for dinner on Saturday (today!) because he knew I wouldn't mind LOL. Well, I don't mind, but as always my head goes into a spin that looks like this "I don't have any extra meat for another family. I didn't plan on visitors, what will I feed them?!". I'm learning to take a breath and just say OK, until I've finished that head spin. It doesn't come out very well if I panic aloud! I took a look a my menu plan, which said gnocchi for tonight. Hmmmm....yes, that's filling and it can stretch. I also just bought 5kg of potatoes on my way back from Lilydale the other day, because they sell spuds cheaper than Safeway. One thing I have learned is that whatever we are having is usually quite suitable for drop in guests. There is always some meal on my plan that will stretch out without too much effort. Sometimes I have to swap a day or two around, and it's worth the time with friends to do it.

So what's my plan now?

Gnocchi with roasted tomato sauce (that goes in the oven)
Homemade pasta with bolognaise sauce (I can make the sauce ahead)
Tossed Salad
And for dessert....hmmmmm.....something with apple.

Gnocchi with Roasted Tomato Sauce

500g potatoes
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 chicken stock cube (or 1 teaspoon stock powder)
150ml evaporated milk
1 tablespoon cornflour
1 tablespoon of the evaporated milk
Cheese

1. Peel, cube and boil the potatoes until tender; drain.
2. Mash potatoes finely and add the flour, egg and salt; mix well.
3. Turn mixture out on to a lightly floured bench and knead for a couple of minutes.
4. Take a quarter of the mixture at a time. Roll into a sausage shape until about 2.5cm/1in in diameter. Cut roll into 2.5cm lengths.
5. Shape each piece into your desired gnocchi shape.
6. Working in batches, cook the gnocchi in a pot of water at a rolling boil. Put the gnocchi in, and when they rise to the top, remove them with a slotted spoon, placing them in a greased casserole dish.
7. Add the sauce & tomatoes, mixing gently, but thoroughly. Sprinkle with cheese, either tasty or parmesan and place in the oven for 20-30 minutes.
   

The Sauce

1. Place the tomato halves on a baking tray, lined with baking paper and spray with olive oil. Place in a preheated oven (180C/350F) and bake for about 1/2 hour.
2. In a small saucepan, heat a little olive oil, add the onion and cooked until soft. Stir in the stock cube and cook for 2 minutes.
   
3. Combine the cornflour with a little of the evaporated milk. Add them together and pour into the pan. Stir constantly until sauce thickens.
   

It may look time consuming but the result is worth it. Get your kids to help you shape the gnocchi. My kids all sit on the other side of the bench and work at it together. We get it done in a snap.

Plain Pasta

2 cups plain flour
3 eggs

1. Sift flour into a bowl and add eggs into a well in the centre. Mix flour into eggs gradually.
2. Press mixture into a ball and knead for about 10 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Cover dough and stand for 20 minutes.
3. Roll dough into desired thickness and cut into desired shape.

You can do this in the food processor, but I tend not do. I also have a pasta machine, thanks to my dh, so I am able to roll it through that and then cut into either spaghetti or fettuccine. I have made lasagna using this recipe, and then made the leftover dough into spaghetti and dried it on a cleaned clothes horse that has thick rails on it.

Once you've made your own pasta you will come back to it regularly. Not on the nights you need a quick meal perhaps, but you will be completely spoiled. It is soooooo luxurious!

Mists of Winter

I took some photos yesterday morning. The fog seems to really roll in around 7.30am where I am. It amused me that the news had been warning motorists to turn on their lights and adjust their speed according to visibility. Yet where I am, we regularly have heavy fog. Often if it's bright sunshine at home, it will still be deep fog at school, which is at the bottom of a big hill. At the top of the hill, when you look out towards the Warburton Ranges, you see the hilltops sitting above the sea of wispy fog below. It's quite a stunning view!

This is outside my front door. See, you always wondered what my picket fence looked like didn't you?! Well there it is ~ the inside of it anyway.


This view is out my back door. Thanks to the flash you can see the fog too clearly LOL. Normally out the back you would see the valley and another hill rising up behind it. Here is a perfect picture of the real view.

Winter has been here officially for five days now and we are yet to hit the coldest months. However, when I am shopping tonight I will be investigating a pair of boots with a low heel to wear with skirts. My feet were frozen solid whilst helping with PE at school on Monday!

Stretching the Grocery Budget

I didn't really set out to post a series on living frugally, however a conversation I had last night with a friend made me think I should post about how I stretch out our grocery budget. In Australia, for a family of five, spending $130 or less each week is considered impossible or miraculous. We do that every week. Occasionally I need to spend $140. But not often, if I can help it!

One of the ways I stretch out my grocery budget is to use mince. Not just beef mince. All kinds of different meats! Did you know that lamb & pork mince are cheaper than beef mince? And did you know that all are cheaper than chops or steaks of their kind? I bought lamb mince the other night to make my lamb rissoles at only $8.?? per kilo. The chops & spare ribs were more like $15/kg. Of course this was in my local Safeway, and if you live in the suburbs you'll be able to get better prices than I can. The point here is that mince was up to half the price of pieces of meat. Unfortunately the same doesn't hold true with chicken. Chicken legs or wings are almost always the cheapest way to buy it.

Another thing that I changed 5 years ago is to stop buying lunch box fillers. We don't buy any 'snackety packety' things anymore. I used to buy the generic brand of LeSnack's, cheese sticks, muesli bars and whatever else took our fancy. You know, just by avoiding those things I saved about $30 a week! Now I buy a box of salada crackers and two packets of rice crackers. The rice crackers last about 3 lunch box snacks and the salads last quite a few more. I pad those things out with home baked biscuits (cookies) and muffins. At home, we often have popcorn after school. It's only $1 for a packet of popping corn...you can make that go a long way! I pop it the old fashion way on the stove top and add a little bit of butter at the end. According one of Miss Sunshine's friends, I make the BEST popcorn. I dunno, it's just ordinary to us LOL.

When my Dh first left his lovely well-paying job to be self employed, I had to be very creative about our food budget. I mentioned yesterday about vegetarian meals. At that time I was alternating meat with vegetarian meals, so that over a two week period, we ate exactly half and half. I have to say, that was not the best thing for my health, as my iron levels dropped. However, I think if we had added the 'evil wretched beanies' to our diet (that would be legumes in Mr Busy speak) things may have been better for me. We are more comfortable with about 2-3 meals that are vegetarian in a week. This month I have decided that Sunday night will be soup night. You can get away with less meat in soups, or none at all.

I hear many many women saying their husbands just will not accept an evening meal without meat. You know, my husband wasn't thrilled. Let's face it, neither was I. However, it was necessary at the time and to some degree it still is. If you don't make a big deal about it being vegetarian, you may be surprised to find that it really isn't that big of a deal to anyone else, despite the attitude that is verbalised. A hearty soup, or a pasta meal, like gnocchi or lasagna are quite satisfying. If you get brave, try making your own pasta. My husband so enjoys homemade pasta that he doesn't even stop to think whether there is meat with it or not!

Living Well on Less

This picture from art.com seemed to suit my thoughts regarding money, at the moment...flying out the window! Is that you how feel too? Like your money seems to take flight and disappear before you realised you even had it to begin with?

I know that's how it feels around here quite regularly! When I start feeling like that I take a very short walk back in my memory and remind myself how we survived when dh wasn't earning anything, in the first couple of years that he owned his own business. My those years were difficult. There were other factors about our lives that caused a great deal of stress and, for me, depression. But not earning an income beyond toilet paper and laundry detergent made life that much more difficult to endure.

We are very fortunate in Australia, that our federal government has a very generous social security system. Without that things would've been impossible. That being said, we still had to survive on not very much, and I find myself again thinking that if things continue to go the way they are, our wages again will look like they are not enough! So what is a 'professional Mum' to do? Given that my career choice is being a SAHM, getting a job isn't really on my radar. I tackle our financial management on many fronts. Since I manage our family's finances I find I am able to do many things that enable us to continue with me caring for things at home. Following are things that we do regularly to help us manage a tight budget.

1. I make a spending play each month, taking into account regular things that need to be paid each month, along with bills that come in less often, but still regularly.
2. About once every few weeks I put all our expenditure into an excel spreadsheet so that I can see how much we're spending and what we spend it on. It helps when you need to plan ahead for big bill months and when you need to fill out school fee-relief forms.
3. We only use cash. I pay bills using online facilities, but if I'm handing money over for something in person I make sure I have the cash. I withdraw what I need either fortnightly or monthly, depending on the timing of bills, from doing step #1.
4. We are careful with our power consumption. We rarely use the dryer, choosing instead to put clothes horses over ducted heating vents, which are on regularly now anyway. In warmer weather I hang washing on the clothesline outside. We only have one light switch (with two low-voltage down lights on it) on in the evening. The heater is never set over 21C. We turn it off altogether overnight. The coldest the house has ever been in the morning is 9C. An extra blanket sees us through cold nights like that.
5. The biggest way I see that I can save money is with our grocery budget. So I plan my menu carefully so as to alternate different meats with vegetarian meals. By doing this I can ensure an overall balanced diet using cheaper cuts of meat. Vegetarian meals also reduce your grocery costs. We genuinely enjoy the vegetarian meals I make. We all enjoy our meat, but I have discovered many tasty, satisfying vegie meals along the way too.
6. Once the menu plan is completed, I prepare a shopping list according to what I need for those meals and what I need to replenish. When shopping, if you set yourself a rule that you only buy what is on your list you will be amazed how much money you save!
7. Shop carefully. If you go past a Safeway, a Coles and an Aldi regularly then get to know which have the best prices and be prepared to shop in a few different places. If you have to travel to get to a cheaper shop then you should calculate how much you save and compare it to the cost of the petrol to get there. You may find you're spending more in petrol than you save, in which case, you should just shop locally.
8. Cook from scratch as much as you can. It's cheaper AND healthier. You'll save money on doctors bills!
9. We grow our own vegies in summer ~ tomatoes, zucchinis, green beans, herbs. I hope to expand our repertoire this coming year. But anything at all that you can grow, even in a pot, will help your budget. Homegrown vegies taste better too!
   
10. Finally, make use of second hand clothing shops to buy your family's clothing. I would estimate that 90% of the children's wardrobes, 50% of mine and about 10% of dh's clothing are bought at Op Shops. We have usually been able to get what we've needed. Certainly, start there and then move on to retail stores if you can't get what you need. I am currently wearing a fantastic denim skirt that I picked up from Savers in Dandenong a couple of months ago ~ it is my absolute favourite skirt for every day wear that I have right now. It cost me $7 rather than up to $50+!

When you need to employ guerrilla frugality measures, the only thing we really added was saying NO. Our children still do not attend out of school sporting activities or music lessons. We just don't have the funds to sustain an extra $250/month for the three of them to do something like that. You know what? They're are turning out to be well adjusted, normal children. They also enjoy special things with great appreciation because they have not grown up with an attitude of entitlement.

It's Monday ... you know what that means!

Yes, it's Monday, again! I'm feeling very slow today, having not yet recovered from Saturday night's frivolity. I managed to make it through the morning with Mr Busy's class. I was kept busy helping the kids with spelling words whilst his teacher finished up some one on one testing with a couple of kids. That queue never seemed to get shorter LOL.

Anyway, in the midst of having people around all weekend and being out and about this morning I have managed to put together a menu plan for this week. Amazing!

Monday: Baked Herb Ricotta, potato wedges, steamed vegies
Tuesday: Lamb rissoles (rosemary & garlic), vegies
Wednesday: Lamb Roast, roasted & steamed vegies
Thursday: Honey Soy Chicken, brown rice, stir fried vegies
Friday: Frozen fish, wedges
Saturday: Gnocchi with a tomato sauce
Sunday: Tomato & Red Capsicum Soup

Very Trivial

Last night our school had a Trivia Night, to raise money. I'd never been to one before, although we've had many opportunities between having children in Preschools and three different primary schools!

Do you know how much I don't know? HEAPS! I know I don't keep much useless information in my head....I don't have room for it. The important stuff falls out, let alone the unimportant!

Fortunately I'm not the only one. Trouble is, all the others with the same problem were on our table too LOL. Yep, you guessed it.....our table lost. Oh well, someone has to come last don't they.

The moral of the story is this: if you go to a Trivia Night at a school, make sure you get on a table with at least 2-3 other teachers and a couple of tradies. You may have some hope of getting somewhere that way.