Sorry I haven't blogged these last few days, I have hubby fairly sick and we all have the flu...I will be back shortly.

Have a go, why not!

Anything is easy once you know how................How true is that statement? Yep, very true....

So if your about to try something new, a new challenge that you haven't done before....like me and knitting.....I encourage you to have a go.... Do some research.....You have the biggest library in the world, right at your fingertips......not sure how to do something.....just google it.....That's how I learn't to cast on...knit, then cast off.....I will make another dishcloth, then have a go at purl, and stocking stitch....I learn't today that stocking stitch is when you knit one row like I have been doing; then the next row you knit purl....it looks really nice....but I won't push my newly learn't skill yet...and get a bit more practice knitting.

Here is my dishcloth....knitted on size 8 needles, cast on 43 stitches....knit 70 rows. 

When I got to the suggested 50 rows it looked pretty short, more like an envelope, so that's why I kept going on to do the 70 rows...checking every 5 or 10 rows.

Well I finally finished the dishcloth....I even made a pot scrubber to go with it on the round loom.....I found the string at the op-shop for .50c so I thought why not try it...then if it works, I will investigate better thread for the pot scrubbers......

I still think those knitting needles are slippery little suckers...the cotton loves to fly off the end any chance it gets.....but I am getting used to it....and am becoming more aware of what can happen, with each stitch.

I must say, I used my dishcloth tonight to do the dishes after tea, and wipe down the bench.....It is the absolute best dishcloth I have ever used.....I know now what all the hype has been for......I better get knitting, so I have another one....

Hope you like my dishcloth and pot scrubber....

if you have any suggestions as to what better 'thread' to use for the pot scrubber, please let me know.

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Here is another lovely gift I got from freecycle today.....they must be nearly 2 litres in size...

Straight into the dishwasher, then in to my stockpile as lovely canisters.

7 great canisters from freecycle. Thanks Alicia, I hope you enjoy the jam & pickles.

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Chicken kebabs & Cheap chicken soup

When we submit to the take-away beast, it is usually a spare of the moment thought, or because we are not organised....or sometimes we are just too exhausted from the days workload, and have not organised anything for the night's meal. When I buy take-away it is always for one of these reasons....but then I always beat myself up at the huge costs, compared to making a meal from scratch.....

If I wanted to buy chicken kebabs on a stick from the take-away shop....I think they are close to $3.50 each.....Last night I made 20 for the family...way too many but I found this little gadget at the op-shop and just couldn't resist having a go at it. It cost me $2.00.

2 kg of chicken breasts...$18.00

Roll in seasoning from mostly home dehydrated vegies and mix herbs.

I forgot to take a photo of them after I grilled them, but they were delicious. They could have been better if I had just cut the breasts into thinner strips, so they would cook quicker. 

But I just had to try that gadget

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CHEAP CHICKEN SOUP

I had no idea that chicken frames were so cheap...If I want to make stock, I usually wait until I am cooking a chicken. At the price of $1.25 a kilo, I am not waiting any more. These four frames cost me $1.75. 

 I put them all in my large crockpot to cook....look at the meat that is on them....wow!!!
I then removed them from the hot stock to cool enough to take the meat from the bones....saved the bones to make stock. (mentioned later)   

After pulling the meat from the bones, I put the bones in my large crockpot and covered with water. I also added to the stock:
Vegie scraps from prep for soup.like the carrot ends.....and the ends of the swedes I got marked down....I also had kept the radish stalks, finding them lovely dipped in home made yoghurt the other day...so the rest of them went into the stock..... I picked some forgotten butter beans today which were getting too big to eat raw.....so some of them went in, but most of them went in the soup. I also added some dried herbs from the garden because its pouring rain....hey! I don't want to get wet...We are all suffering with colds at the moment, this is why I decided on a nice nutritious soup for tea.

Yes, I have two crockpots going, mine and my mothers.

Below: As it took a while to do a little shopping, because I simply had no energy to do it in the first place.....I knew that putting the vegies in the crockpot would probably not cook them in time for tea, so I cooked them on the stove until nearly cooked....also adding 'soup mix' and dried cracked wheat to the water. All good, cheap fillers.

While shopping, I found two french bread sticks for $3.00....I cut them in three, then halved them....smearing my home made pesto on them, and adding some grated cheese and parmesan cheese from the freezer....I never store grated cheese in the fridge, it goes mouldy too quick.  On to the griller, ready to brown at the last minute.

Here is the stock I am cooking....it has the chicken bones in it.
I will leave this to simmer all through the night....making a lovely stock to strain...
Don't stir your stock and it will be lovely and clear.

 Here is the chicken soup, nearly done, but I forgot to thicken it.....

 I opted for thin noodle pasta, but added some dehydrated mushrooms as well...

Once cooked, I will add this to the soup.

 The Pesto bread turned out yummy.

 Here is the chicken soup finished, after adding the cooked noodles and mushrooms....I also thickened it with 3 beaten egg whites, and have frozen the yolks to be used at a later date. You can freeze eggs as long as you separate them...its handy if you write how many yolks on the bag...or how many whites in a bag.

Not a bad meal for 5 people with leftovers to have in toasted sandwhichs tomorrow for lunch.

Everyone was full, fed well, and at a limited cost. 

apple cider & dishcloth nearly done

It's absolutely pouring buckets and buckets of rain today. There was no point going to the local markets today. The 3 water tanks are over flowing. In the midst of the heavier downpours the tanks cannot cope and the overflow is pouring and going everywhere. While I like the thought of the tanks being full to the brim, I also wonder about the younger seedlings in the garden....so today the rain is bittersweet. 

MEGA QUICK APPLE CIDER

On a plus, because of the rain, I am staying indoors, and because of my aches and pains today has been one of those slow days. However, I did make an apple cider ..not starting from scratch, but one from a 2 litre bottle of Apple Juice......

It is so simple.....

Take a 2 litre Apple Juice, pour yourself a glass of juice to drink.....leaving space in the top of the container. With a soda bottle lid, carefully just cover the base of the lid with bakers yeast. 

I poured mine into the teaspoon to show you, just how little amount you need....

Now pour that yeast into the apple juice.

Put the lid on the container, give it a shake to dissolve the yeast, 

and store on the cupboard for a day or two...If it is a warm day, I would check the cider the following day...Yes, it can be that quick. If the weather is a bit cooler, you may need to wait another day or so, 

but do check it daily.

 Remember, yeast ferments and eats away at the sugars......the longer you wait, the dryer the cider. 

If you prefer a sweet cider....only leave it a day or two to ferment.

 If you prefer a dryer cider, wait a week or so, but I warn you, It will be dry dry dry!!! 

The family all love this sweet cider drink....if you leave it to ferment, it will turn alcoholic, but we like it as a young brew...You will not know the difference from the shop Sparkling Apple Cider or Sparkling Apple Juice...In the shops its name is something like that.

I challenge you to make you own

Quick Sparkling Apple Cider....

and come back and tell me all about it. 

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A day of not achieving much, but sitting watching an earlier recorded program called The Victorian Farm. I love this documentary. If you get a chance, you should look it up. It's an excellent program based on living the life of a Victorian farmer in the Victorian period.

I bet your wondering, when is she going to show us that dishcloth she is making? Well the time has come......it's not finished, as I pre-warned....it's not perfect, but I wasn't aiming for perfect. I think it's going to be a good dishcloth, especially for a first knitting project.

38 rows finished

Mum also took up the challenge

and is inspired  making her want her own dishcloths

for her little unit behind our home.

Below is the one she has knitted.

Dishcloth completed by my mother

Cotton dishcloth/s continued

First of all, I want to welcome my new followers, I hope that you enjoy reading my blog. If you have any ideas to share, feel free to comment on anything I have been up to. Its late Friday here, I hope everyone has a productive and comfortable weekend. Hubby has a tooth to be extracted in the morning, but we will go to the markets before hand to see what bargains can be had. I will go with him, and even hold his hand if he wishes. He would do the same for me.

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BACK TO THE DISHCLOTHS...................

Well, I am still knitting this dishcloth, I have had a few glitches..and hiccups....I have fixed a few on my own and hailed mum to help with the others. There is only one mistake in my dishcloth so far, and I am ok with that. It is my first dishcloth, only knitting when I was a child....I can't recall actually making anything when I was a child, but I do remember learning on 4 inch hardware nails. Imagine that...lol  At this time, I am up to row 18. How many more rows do I need to finish this first dishcloth?  .....Only 32 rows to go...Oh My!!!!!!!!

I think I may have to knit one for every day of the week before I use any, because if I stop for a while after I finish this first one, I may not have the nerve to continue. Sure, while the knitting is running smoothly, and there are no problems, I am enjoying the act. Unfortunately, when I notice I have either made a mistake or are beginning to make a mistake, my nerves shoot through the roof, my fingers get tingly or go into spasm, what ever that is, I don't like it. If I was in the kitchen, and something went wrong, I would just use my experience to know how to fix it....

I have no experience in this field of knitting. None, Zero, Zip!!! I can't fall back on what I did last time I stuffed it up....I can't fall back on anything. On top of learning how to knit, I also have to learn to recognise what a correct stitch looks like, and then to top it off, I have to learn how to fix an incorrect stitch....Ahhhhh!!!!

I would much rather be in the kitchen, doing what I know....but I always tell me children to stick it out, try something new, at least have a go. I hated knots in Brownies, Girl Guides and even in Venturers........Out fishing, any rope on the boat is my enemy, although I can re-rig my own rod.  I have to work this out. I have to come to grips with this. If I give up now, or even once I have finished this cloth, what message would I be sending my children?

I want to use cotton dishcloths, there are plenty of resources here at home, to make them, so really.......it would be senseless to NOT make them. It would be senseless to keep buying dishcloths....Chux and the like are so not needed, and certainly not wanted in my kitchen, nor in my house.

Maybe tomorrow, I will post a photo of my achievements with my first dishcloth. But know this! It will not be finished tomorrow, but it will be a huge achievement for me. Remember, I am only upto about row 18, so it's not very big yet.

Cotton dishcloths & Chemicals

Ok, so I have taken up this challenge from the Down to Earth Forum.We are to knit a dishcloth. It doesn't sound that hard, after all, millions of people knit. I learnt to knit on 4 inch nails when I was little, having mum cast on & off for me...I wonder do I still have that skill? I don't think I do.

I have taken the inspiration for this challenge from a lovely lady in WA, who swapped with me, a knitted dishcloth for a piece of my  "mother of vinegar". Now really, myself not being a knitter would have thought that the time taken to knit a dishcloth would be worth far more than any old 'mother of  vinegar'. I told Harriet that I would love to have one of these dishcloths that everyone has been raving about, but knowing the work that must go into one, I would be just as happy with some recipes of hers.

Much to my delight, a few days later; Yesterday in fact, I received a lovely parcel in the mail, with a new dishcloth for me.

Thank-you so much for this dishcloth Harriet, it is absolutely lovely. I carried it around with me all day yesterday, occasionally bringing it out of my hand bag to once again admire. Holding it up to my face, it feels so soft...

is it too good to use on dirty dishes...????

When I do start using it, I know that it will be far superior than the recycled flannel pillowcase pieces I am using at present. So I must say again, Thank-you so much Harriet, this gift from you is greatly appreciated.

Teamed nicely with my home-made soaps,
unfortunately the photo doesn't do the lovely knitted pattern
on the dishcloth any justice. 

I can only hope that the dishcloth that I knit, is a fraction of the quality of this lovely dishcloth. 

I never like to give up on anything so I will be trying my hardest to do this.

I have always told my children to 'try it, before you say you can't do it, or like it"

so Rose, I take you up on that challenge. 

Check back in a few days to see how my dishcloth is going.

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CHEMICALS AND THEIR COSTS

Over the last week or so, I have been organising my price diary...I have always tried to keep track of the cheaper prices in my head...but now that I have a price diary, it's one less thing I need to store up there....I can refer to the diary at any time, as it is small enough to keep in my handbag. While researching on the phone, I found a chemical company not far from home in Corrimal, that has really cheap chemicals.

They normally only sell 25kg bags of each chemical, but as I don't have the space, I opted for 5 kg buckets. They will make these up for you, but you have to order ahead to give them time to do the order. I didn't have to have an account with them, nor did I need a credit card or a business.....I found them through the Yellow Pages phone directory, and rang them, along with many others. 

UF Chemicals in Corrimal; is now the place where I will be buying most, if not all of my chemicals.

The prices are as follows......

Other suppliers of chemicals I use				UF Chemicals prices
	Seller	old price $ per kg	Old per   5kg $	new price $ per kg	per   5kg $	Savings per 5kg
BAKING SODA Bi-Carbonate of soda OR Sodium Bi-Carbonate	Woollies Warilla	$4.30	$21.50	$2.09	$10.45	$11.05
CAUSTIC SODA	Corey Wong Warilla	$4.62	$23.10	$3.52	$17.60	$5.50
POTASSIUM HYDROXIDE Caustic Potash	Hounds Chemicals-Unanderra	$15.00	$55.00	$3.96	$19.80	$35.20
WASHING SODA Dense Soda Ash OR Sodium Carbonate	Woollies Warilla	$3.13	$15.65	$2.42	$12.10	$3.55
Total savings on chemicals when buying from UF Chemicals                                                 $55.30

I'm off now to check out their online catalogue, to see if I can make any more savings...I wonder what else they sell, that I use? 

Making Yoghurt in my crock-pot

Even the best cooks can make mistakes, I am not one of the best cooks, but my boys think I am. Yesterday I scorched the milk, and still went ahead and made yoghurt...

Here is what happened....

I had made heaps of yoghurt years ago with mum, she had an easi-yo yoghurt maker......but I had to refer to the Internet for memory joggers first up. 

I poured 2 litres of milk into the crock-pot, and according to a lady on the internet, I was to leave it for 2 to 3 hours on high, or just before it comes to the boil.....so thinking I had plenty of time to attend to other things, I continued on...."What's that funny noise?' I'm saying to myself while looking around the kitchen.....
it was the crock-pot on a full rolling boil.......
I had scorched the milk.
Now do I waste it or continue on to see if I can still make it.?..
you know I am not going to waste it without trying first...
I tasted the milk and it didn't taste burnt, so I kept going.

Washing out the crock-pot after scorching the milk.

Adding the starter culture to the milk.

 Once the crock-pot was cleaned, I poured the milk back in. When it was warm to the touch I added a small tub of natural yoghurt as the starter. 

 And wrapped it up and put it to bed for the rest of the day and night. I was lucky enough that when I bought my crock-pot it came with this beautiful sleeping bag. 

Last night before going to bed, I checked on the milk
It had worked..much to my delight.
It didn't look like much was there though....
but I kept going and decided to strain it overnight....

I knew those ANZ money bags would come in handy one day....I just knew it.

Best to turn the bag inside-out so you don't have to scrape around the seams.

This morning, I checked on the yoghurt...

and it was still draining, but feeling the bag, I decided it was thick enough.

After straining overnight

The crock-pot was used to catch the whey.
I will use some of the whey today
to make scones and a loaf of bread.

Out of the 2 litres of milk and the small tub of natural yoghurt, 

I got 541 grams of yoghurt and about 1 litre of whey. 

This is great, I think Natural yoghurt is a bit pricey in the supermarket. 

Left: Now take some aside to use as the starter culture for the next batch of yoghurt.

Right: Take some and add your home-made jam....(strawberry here) and mix through. 

That was with breakfast!!!

Centre back: Place the rest in the fridge to chill....

This lot will be used as plain yoghurt.....and sour cream

hmmm I think fig and ginger yoghurt is looking good for tomorrow...

the possibilities are endless!!!

It is the perfect consistency for sour cream.

See, it is worth it to keep on going....you just never know, even the worst blunders can turn into something great.

Have you ever salvaged what you are cooking and followed through with the recipe?

Did it work? Did it blunder? 

I would love to hear about it. 

THERE'S TOO MANY CONTAINERS IN THE WORLD.....

I'm always trying to careful with what containers are coming into the house, if an item isn't bought in bulk, what other ways can you use the container, once it is empty? I do store empty containers, sometimes not even knowing what they can later be used for.....There is just too much landfill in the world and its time we really started thinking about it, one household at a time.

Today I decanted Baking Soda into an old powder container. Always label a new container VERY CLEARLY. There must be no misunderstanding as to what is inside the container. The blue powder container in the background is being thrown out because after pulling the lid off, it cannot be pressed back on. What a waste of plastic. In the past I have been known to buy carpet deodoriser,  (which I will also use for baking soda), but now I am thinking more clearly with what I buy, I am using up what I have in the house, and slowly converting to more natural and simple cleaning products. I have paid money for the products still lurking around the house, so better to use them up, and then convert to the more simple products, slowly converting the rest of the members of the house along the way. I even store rice and other foods in cordial bottles, my husband doesn't like home made cordial. 

I checked the price of sugar and salt shakers for my baking soda, which were between $5 and $9...I guess my powder shaker will do well at my sink...heaps cheaper than the fancy one. 

I'm not up to date with greenhouse gases, and climate change. While these words don't come easy to me, I still wonder about all the natural destruction happening in the world, is it us to blame, have we done so much damage to the world it is now beginning to show its wrath?  I know a lot of work is being done to help 'repair' the planet today and I think recycling is the future...It needs to be taught more in schools.....Today it is covered a lot more than when we were children...although a childhood memory of recycling comes to mind.............

I can recall collecting aluminium cans and soft drink bottles for pocket money.....There were many times when us kids, including the neighbours; would go door knocking, asking for empty 'glass' soft-drink bottles...The bigger kids would push the wheelbarrow, once it was full, we would take them to the supermarket to be exchanged for cash. Us kids could eat lollies for the whole weekend....we had pic-nics under the neighbours trampoline and there was always plenty of soft drink and lollies for everyone to enjoy the whole weekend......

Recycling containers for other uses.
Think about the container you are buying, not just the product.

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ATTENDING TO MY VINEGARS

Today I am adding to my collecting of growing vinegars....I am so impressed at how easy this can be to do. I traded some red wine with a new friend from the course... she is going to give me some home made tobasco sauce...Yummm.....

Left: Both jars had the same amount of red wine to start with,
Right: shows after the wine has been topped up with vinegar.
also shows the mother has been added.

Clearly label, include the type of wine and the date. 

 As it was day 8 for the fruit vinegars, I also strained them, and added a vinegar mother to them. 

 The aroma, so far is lovely, I even tasted the pineapple vinegar, and it won't be long before I could use it. It is a nice flavour now, and still not matured fully yet. I will be adding vinegars to my cooking and salads so much more....I think I will be able to illiminate buying salad dressing altogether.

After straining, I added vinegar mother, then topped up with white vinegar

Place gauze on rim of jar and place in a cool cupboard to mature. 

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CHEESECAKE FROM QUARK

From the quark I made in the cheese course, I made two cheesecakes...it was really simple....adding all to the  whizzer to mix quickly. I had found a few pastry cases on quick-sale, and decided to use them for this purpose. 

As we were all fairly full from tea, we shared half a cheesecake with some home-made ice-cream.....plain cheesecake was delicious....especially with the ice-cream. We haven't had ice-cream in the house for years.

For tomorrow night's cheesecake I will probably put some frozen berries on top...I get them when they are marked down and either dehydrate them or freeze them....will have to see what I have in the freezer tomorrow, it won't need many.....

The other cheesecake will go back in the box the base came in, and be put in the freezer as a quick dessert.

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HOME MADE ICE-CREAM

I have been thinking about this Peach Ice-cream ever since Rose put it on her blog....So thanks Rose for the inspiration, however I only had one peach.

A recipe can always be a compromise....I never had 4 peaches. 

My ice-cream was made up of 

1 peach, 1 nectarine, 2 chopped frozen bananas. 

Yep, using what you already have is the way to go....I didn't have enough lemons to make the 1/2 cup of juice , so I substituted the rest for lemon juice ice-cubes from the freezer. 

Some fresh, some frozen..

2 chopped frozen bananas, 1 peach, 1 nectarine, 1/4 cup caster sugar, 1/2 cup lemon juice

mash to a pulp and cool for 2 hours.

 Strain fruit pulp and seperatly mix 1 cup milk and 2 cups cream.....keep milk mix cool. 

Add fruit juice to milk mix and stir well. 

 Add whole mix to ice-cream machine and mix for 25 minutes...then while machine is running, add fruit pulp and mix for another 10 minutes.Place in freezer to freeze completely.

Oh soooo yummy. 

Hope you had a good day too. I would love to hear what your plans are for the day.

I got mentioned.

I happened to be looking at another blog I like to read called Green Change and I was gob-smacked when I seen that I got mentioned.......thanks for the credit and link Darren. 

Darren writes :

here are some posts that have caught my attention recently:

• Jason posted about his fruit tree swales, giving me more ideas for my swales. He also left a very detailed and well-thought out comment on my post – thanks!
• I ‘met’ (via email, through another new friend) nellymary, another local Illawarra blogger. She posts a lot of great info about simple living, frugality, gardening, preserving, bread- and cheese-making, stockpiling, fishing and more. Check her stuff out at Just Like My Nan Made (great blog name, by the way!).
• More tinyhouse fantasising, this time looking at the incredibly well-crafted Innermost House.
• The New York Times reports that the US is seeing increasing interest in farming as a career for younger people, although they don’t seem to be pursuing the industrial model. Instead they’re getting into the local, organic, specialty side of things.
• The idea of wind knitting is kind of cool - using wind power to run mechanical knitting machines.

from one Illawarra Blogger to another....keep up the great work.

Cheese prep after the course

After completing the two day full on, non stop, cheesemaking course...
I have a certificate which you can view on the left of my blog.......
to show I am a Master Cheesemaker....a very tired one at that....
It has taken me until about lunchtime today to really start feeling normal again...Taking extra pain relief had caught up with me and made me awfully groggy yesterday, sleeping most of the day.

Only ever making one cheese and a ricotta from the whey...In any one day....over the entire weekend course I made Cheddar, Camembert, Stabilised Camembert, Whole Milk Ricotta, Traditional Whey Ricotta, Chabichou, Quark, Greek Feta, and Mozzarella.

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CHEDDAR CHEESE 

Before waxing a cheese, I like to chill it in the fridge for a few hours. If you don't chill the cheese, depending on the temperature of your kitchen, you may have to hold the cheese in front of a fan between each dip, to help cool the wax.  Either or both methods may be used. 

Dip the cheese in the melted wax as below.

Be careful to note any air holes in the wax, and make sure they are filled in the next dipping.

Label your cheese clearly on a small piece of paper....Include the date the cheese was made or waxed..whichever one you choose, use this for all cheeses. Also add the time allowed for maturity to be reached. This cheddar is recommended to mature for 6 months. 

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CHABICHOU CHEESE 

I marinated all of this cheese in 20% Olive Oil and 80% Rice Bran Oil....with dried mixed herbs, and a crushed garlic clove. I never sterilized the herbs as I am not intending to keep this cheese long.

I could have kept half of this cheese and use immediately on crackers as a spreadable cheese. As I had plenty of ricotta, I decided to marinate all of the Chabichou.

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GREEK STYLE FETA -MARINATED CHEESE 

You can see here that I used bay, peppercorns, garlic and mixed herbs to marinate. The ratio of oils were 20% Olive Oil to 80% Rice Bran oil, but you may use any lightly flavoured oils you have on hand. 

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MARINATED MOZZARELLA CHEESE

After making the mini pizza's the other night, I had one ball of Mozzarella left....so I decided to marinate that as well. 

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WHEY & MILK RICOTTA WITH FRESH HERBS

Seeing I had so much ricotta, and given it is really popular here and doesn't last long in my house...I decided to mix cheeses together and mix chopped chives from the garden.

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STABILISED & TRADITIONAL CAMEMBERT

We also made a stabilised Camembert and a Traditional Camembert, The stabilised variety is also the one you will find in your local supermarket. These have been placed in my cheese cave and are maturing nicely. 

I will turn them every second day until a nice layer of white mold is covering, then wrap in grease-proof paper and then wrap in foil.