Friday - Catch Up Day

Good to catch up on some jobs before the weekend. Lounge, dinning and kitchen still tidy so will focus on bathroom. Do have some washing to do, but thankful for the baking.
Tonights dinner will be Pasta dish. Will use our Tomatoes to make the sauce, with the last of our Basil.
Will come back later to share more :)

Thrusday - Baking Day

Today's the day I need to fill a couple of containers with baking to last us till next baking day hopefully.
Will be making coffee cake with coffee icing (to use up some coffee beans, that have been stored in the cupboard). Will also make 2 batches of biscuits, chocolate chunk cookies and gingerbread men. And if I have time will make a peppermint slice.
After the baking will clean up the kitchen. Hopefully will have that done before dinner time. Dinner will be Clara's Poorman's Meal (from my Clara's Kitchen cookbook)
Better get children to school now :)

Catching up on Cleaning

Arrrrrr! what a mess, but with a bit of time and effort

Ahhhh! much better and ready for when the kids come home.

Dinner tonight is Steak with mushroom sauce, sweetcorn and broccoli. I was able to pick up 5 steak pieces for $6.38. DS7 has aspergers and wouldn't eat the steak, but will eat sausages.

Wednesday - Errand Day

For Errand Day my planner, to look upcoming events we need to prepare for. Need to look at our budget. Also my Bible to prepare for women's study.

First thing this morning I have abit of time to do some planning for the coming days. Then I have women's study. A lovely time with some dear ladies from my Church. An encouraging time, with friends who are also mum's and Nana's :)
I have to get back to this being the day I do my shopping. But today will be spent catching up on the cleaning I was meant to do yesterday.
As well as a look over at our budget.
But right now better get children to school.

Waste Not Want Not Food and Hand Powered Gadgets

Had some leftover banana, apple and cream. As well as some chocolate chips (not enough for cookies). What to do so they don't go to waste. Make a family favorite ABC Muffins (Apple, Banana and Chocolate)

Had to take a photo quick, they don't last long in this house :)

ABC Muffins
1C mashed banana
1/2C Brown sugar
1/4tsp salt
1/4C oil
1 large egg
1/2C milk
1/4 to a 1/2C chocolate chips
1 apple, grated (I do it with the skin on)
2C self-raising flour
Mash banana, sugar, salt, oil, egg and milk mix together in a large bowl. Mix well, then stir in chocolate chips and apple. Fold in flour until just mixed. Spoon into muffin pans and bake, for 10-12 mins. Cool on rack, can freeze these for another day, or eat in two days.

Ways to save power in the kitchen, a hand powered chopper instead of a electric food processor. Chops onions, garlic and fresh herbs really well.

My newest hand powered gadget is an Apple peeler. It cores as well as slices the apple to. And you can used with potatoes, beetroot, and pears.

So easy to use, so will be preserving some apples soon :)

I love gadgets like this that are better and faster then I am (doing the job), but are not another machine we plug into the wall. Next will be a hand beater, my electric beater Sparks when we use it.

Tuesday - Cleaning Day

Not today, instead of cleaning I helped my sisters by looking after their daughters. We went to the park and played on the swings and slides. They are 2 and 3 years old, and very cute. Worth having a day off cleaning to play with them :)
And soon we are going to a Whanau Night (Family Night) at my children's school. And have dinner there, so less dishes to do.
It finishes early so can get DS7 to bed early tonight, he is already tired after a big day.

Monday - Washing Day

Love my washing machine.

But no so happy with my clothes line. Mainly because it needs a tidy up around it. That wood is from the old deck, some of it we hope to reuse. The grass needs to be cut and I'm sure it is covering some of the concrete under the washing line.

The biggest job near the washing line is the fence. we have 2 types by the washing line and one of them take a bit of our land, and is mostly covered with jasmine. It's on the one day list to put one type of fence in place and recover some of our land and have less jasmine to prune. But for now I don't use most of this washing line, as I should.
Today I need to catch up on washing, and bed making. With lots to catch up on (thanks dear children for cleaning your rooms), I better get started. But first today's dinner.

Something fast and easy for today, pasta with corned beef, carrots and courgettes. Will grate some extra cheese on top, and serve with silver beet.

Progress with the Raised Garden Bed

Adding soil to the raised garden bed. A slow process as it is moving soil from near the chicken run to here and adding a few bags of compost (and some of our own compost).

DH added a growing frame for me. Just need to finish adding more soil and we will be ready to plant.

Slow and steady, looking forward to planting. Will be planting beans, silverbeet and lavender here. Will be removing the grass around the bottom of the raised garden bed to replace with gravel or shell. will help to make that area easy to walk around (wet weather makes it muddy), and less lawn to mow for DH.
Other happenings at Little House in the City is our egg production is up.

One away from a full carton.

And with our supply of eggs we have been able to bake, make hollandaise sauce, and tonight's dinner of tuna and corn fritters. As well as a good supply of eggs our dear hens have been working hard in their chicken run to dig up the soil and cut down the grass and weeds. Mumma hen likes to come and work beside me, while I work in the garden near their chicken run. This week we let her out to free range in our garden as I worked. She had a good dig around our mandarin tree. And when she was finished she walked straight back into the chicken run. A good little Mumma hen. :)

Marmite Rationing in New Zealand

Our good old Marmite is in short supply and we are being asked to ration it until they can start production again.
As the news says
Marmite panic-buying empties shelves
Does get you thinking about what if we had to ration more then just Marmite?
What if we went back to the 1940's and rationed our sugar, butter etc?
I love reading The 1940's Experiment blog, and seeing how she is living on a rationing diet. There have been others who have tried as well, but Carolyn has lasted longer then a week or a month.
I have also been reading up on some helpful rationing books.

The Food Facts for the Kitchen Front has some great rationing recipes. It's reproduced from the original 1941 edition.

Another great book is Eating for Victory. Which is reproductions of official second world war instruction leaflets, put into a book.

But I will share more tomorrow as I going to have some quality time with my DH.

Wet Day so a Good Preseving Day

Rain coming down heavy. DS13 wanted to catch some water for the garden :) Every bit helps.

So no gardening today, but a good time to add more preserves for winter. Feijoas and Apples today.

It's also a good day for homemade soup with chicken stock from the roast chicken we had last night. And veggies from our garden. Good old comfort food :)

More Work on Deck and Chicken Run

My dad at work on the deck. With our new temporary Chicken run in the background.

Mumma Hen enjoying more space to roam around. What a wild wilderness it is.

Today with some help of the children and DH we made a temporary chicken run around the chicken house. We have plans to make a better run but for today in the beautiful sunshine we wanted to let our chickens enjoy some space. And watching them now, I'm so pleased we did it.
And the deck, so happy to see more of it being put into place. And when it is done we can give more attention to our veggie garden.

Taxi Service

My poor mum has been car-less for a few days.  So I have been busy not just driving my children around (school run, friends etc), but also my mum, sister, and nieces. Made me think of a story I have read recently, with an Amish teen in it who drove around the People. He had a cash box in the front seat, to keep the money which was used to pay back the car loan he took out. Maybe I could do the same for petrol. :)

So I have not had much time for photos, but I was able to bottle up a jar of feijoa and apple. Next will have to make another jar of peaches with the last from our tree. Did make a wedding card for my cousin, over in England (another $1 saving, and some homemade love for their special day).

But now it's time to get children to bed. :)

A Walk in my Garden

Our new deck is half finished, and looking alot better then old deck.

A friend passed on this box of free plants to us, I'm having fun finding out what they all are.

Got right on to planting 2 of our free plants. An eggplant (can't wait to see what type) and a chili plant.

Our feijoas are almost ready.

Was able to do a garden harvest. Did find some feijoas on the ground, so will cook those soon. The cucumber I picked because the weight of it had the top into the ground and was starting to rot. The lovely yellow courgettes ready for dinner.

Dinner tonight is Bean and Sausage Casserole surprise. The surprise is that there are lots of extra veggies in there then the recipe says. Including our yellow courgettes.

I had to pop this in as part of my walk was to the letterbox. And this is what I found, some free tea thanks to itry .
Prefect for afternoon tea today.

Preparing for Winter

My start on preparing for winter. 1 litre jars of peaches, pear and plums. Sadly was abit early for the fejoias. But our 2 trees have started to drop their fruit, so will have to cook up with apple. I'm hoping to get some more apples to bottle up to. Our dear little tree only has 3 little apples growing. So will be on the look out for cheap apples.
My plan is to not have to buy any can's of fruit for winter puddings. I hope to get better at harvesting and collecting free fruit.
Sadly our tomatoes this year have not done so well, partly to do with the weather. But I have been able to make one large container of tomato soup. It's in the freezer for now. Might be able to make one batch of tomato relish I hope. Yummy on roast beef mmmmm!

Foraging Day

Today going on a search to find fejoias for bottling up :)
Have been given a bag of pears from friends, so will be bottling those too.
As well as our own peaches yum.
I have been down with a terrible cold, and recovery has been slow. But I'm so excited about today's bottling adventure. I don't know if anyone else gets joy from bottling fruit? Or loves opening their pantry to see the jars all filled ready for winter. But I do :)
I was so worried my cold was never going to go and I wouldn't be able to do it.
So heading off now to search a park for fruit :)