MakeCookGrow.com – Page 5 – Some gardening, cooking, creating and everyday suburban life

Sunrise, National Gallery of London, Neighbours & Egg, Ham and Vegetable Pie

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sunrise

The days are getting longer! The sun is up before me now. I took this photo a few days ago.

national gallery of london

We have no plans to revisit the UK this year or next year but have very happy memories of previous visits to the National Gallery of London. Celebrating its 200th year, the gallery is considered one of the world’s greatest art galleries. A film has been made as part of the 200 Years of the National Gallery of London celebrations called My National Gallery. Various people working at the gallery, including cleaners, curators, security guards and the director were asked to identify the piece of work which meant the most to them and to explain why.

Great art can communicate with anyone and well known celebrities and other art lovers were also asked to identify one artwork that resonated with them and to explain why it was their favourite. Well known and not so well known people and paintings featured. Their stories were told along with stories about the original gallery, the architecture and development of the current gallery, the modernisation of the new areas and information about how some of the works travel for exhibitions around the UK.

During World War 2 the artworks were safely stored in a slate mine in Wales. Each month a painting was chosen to be returned to the Gallery and displayed. If there was an air raid warning, the painting was quickly taken off the wall and stored in a safe place below the building. During this time a famous concert pianist Myra Hess organised a series of lunchtime concerts, too.

Two things struck me as surprising. So many of the works chosen by the people being interviewed for the film were based religious or Biblical events. The second thing was with few exceptions, the artists were male. Women artists were not taken seriously. This was a thought provoking and interesting film.

JMW Turner (1775-1851) ‘An English Packet Arriving at Calais Pier’

Image, Royalty Free, Wikipedia

My husband’s favourite painting in the gallery is Turner’s ‘An English Packet Arriving at Calais Pier’ . We have visited it many times but often the gallery was crowded. He laid a plan. We’d be first in line when the gallery opened and would go straight to the painting, which was towards the back of the building. When we arrived, I talked to the guard and my husband had nearly fifteen uninterrupted minutes in front of the painting before anybody else arrived. Very satisfying.

neighbours

Do you have lovely neighbours? Since Anzac Day 2020 five neighbours on our side of the street have gathered regularly at each others houses for ‘get togethers’. Sometimes it’s to commemorate Anzac Day together, sometimes it’s ‘Christmas in July’ and sometimes it is for no reason at all, just an opportunity to chat and eat together. The dogs come, too.

Then circumstances resulted in one household preparing to move to another suburb! They’re currently packing and making moving plans. We will miss then being nearby but I’m sure we’ll keep in touch with regular ‘get togethers.’ So on Sunday we converged on another neighbour’s house to say goodbye and good luck. Everyone brought food to share and we settled in for a good catch up. Sad to see them go but they’re happy with their new house and they’ll be invited to every Neighbours Get Together.

Zucchini and Corn Fritters made with sourdough leftover mother/starter.

sorting

We’ve spent a lot of time sorting out my Mother’s house which involves a four hour journey as well as time spent doing jobs. So it’s no surprise that I couldn’t even recognise some of the things in our freezer. They might have been there for months. Time for a clean out. One of the finds was frozen ham. Half of it, chopped, was added to leftover corn from Sunday’s Zucchini and Corn Fritters, along with tomatoes and some spinach picked from the garden. Added eggs and some yoghurt and baked the resulting pie. Good to tidy the freezer and a rather nice pie, too.

Looks a bit rough, I know, but it tasted very good.

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Lego, Cooking and Painting

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lego

Sorting and emptying out my Mother’s house has made me realise she wasn’t keen on throwing out anything! I found a box in her shed with some of my dolls, their tiny teasets, many dolls’ clothes and their tiny wire hangers my Father made for my dolls’ house plus a bag of Lego. The Lego brought back so many memories. It actually belonged to my brothers but by the mid sixties they’d lost interest. I absolutely loved it.

There’s white rectangular building blocks, green roof tiles and red framed windows and doors. I designed and built mini houses. They sat on a flat base plates. There were none of the people available now in Lego, nor the fancy pets or pieces for ships, spacecraft or botanicals.

Lego was first manufactured in 1949. The plastic bricks quickly replaced wooden toys and were hugely popular. They enabled unlimited projects to be created, so long as they were square or rectangular. In the 1970’s mini figures appeared. The pieces could be taken apart and reassembled without effecting their structural integrity.

Sales began to slow down in the 1990’s due to competition from video games. Lego introduced the Star Wars and Bionicle ranges and sales soared. During this time, Lego was increasingly bought by adults to create their our designs. During Covid lock downs the sales of Lego skyrocketed, mostly selling to AFOLs ( Adult Fans of Lego) Many AFOLs have entire rooms dedicated to their collections. A television show appeared about this time called Lego Masters.

A keen collector of Lego as a child, my son’s interest was renewed during lockdown and he built many models. Last year at Christmas he surprised me with a beautiful vase and a collection of Lego flowers.

cooking

Visiting friends brought us some spinach. While it was still crisp and fresh I chopped it up and put it in a bowl with diced onion, some finely chopped garlic, three eggs and ground black pepper. I know it sounds like spinakopita and I did add crumbled feta cheese but also grated leftover red leicester from a grazing board because you know I try to avoid food waste. Didn’t have any philo/filo pastry, either, so used some puff pastry.

Constructed the pie in the bread baking tin and put it in the oven until the top was crisp and golden. This made two dinners for two hungry people!

Also made bread and butter pudding. We had leftover artisan bread. A friend also delivered a jar of orange marmalade so of course, I thought of bread and butter pudding! Nearly out of custard powder but as I read the ingredients listed on the box I decided I’d make it myself. I remember my grandmother standing at the wood stove, stirring a big pot of custard. We ate puddings with lunch every day and that often included custard on pies, crumbles, dumplings in golden syrup with added custard and stewed or preserved fruit also served with custard. We also enjoyed jelly and custard or cream from the freshly boiled and cooled milk. Does anyone still eat jelly?

Looked up a recipe and gathered the milk, eggs, vanilla, sugar and a teaspoon of butter and made a pot of custard. Worked well. I buttered the leftover bread and added the gifted marmalade, arranged it in a dish and added the custard. Sprinkle of nutmeg and it was done. My husband likes bread and butter pudding for breakfast, also lunch and particularly dinner.

painting

I haven’t been able to paint for a long time. We spend a lot of time at my Mother’s house, dispersing her things, keeping the garden tidy and dealing with business matters. When we are at our home we are also trying to keep up with our own gardening, cleaning and administration matters. Add a few regular activities and there’s no time for painting. The table where I like to paint is also frequently covered in paperwork.

Spending an hour or so for the last few weeks doing some felt making and printing motivated me to put all the paper work on the table to one side and sit down and paint. I found some YouTube videos showing artists doing quick flower paintings. Decided I could spare twelve minutes to do the same. These paintings are wet on wet and rapidly completed. That means wet paper so the colour runs a little and is easy to apply. I tried several and have concluded this is not for me! My paintings looked nothing like those being demonstrated.

So many online tutorials, so not for me!

Much happier painting from life. It took a lot longer than the flowers tutorials on YouTube.

Looking at the screen trying to work out where my paintings went wrong I realised I was actually now looking at an arum lily and leaf in a vase behind the screen. Painted that and felt relieved I can still paint, just not quick, loose wet on wet flowers.

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Plastics and Autism, Lemons and Printing

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plastics and autism

Plastics have made so many aspects of our lives easy and disposable. But there is a dark side to plastics, too. The Florey Institute has just released the results from a decade long study clearly connecting a biological pathway between autism spectrum disorder and BPA (the plastic chemical bisphenol A). Boys are particularly affected by BPA. It can disrupt male fetal development.

Autism is defined as a neurodevelopment disorder with a wide spectrum of cognitive and behavioural changes. The research has shown that high BPA exposure suppresses aromatase, a key brain development enzyme. This has been noted particularly in males and has been linked to an increased likelihood of autism.

Image Pixabay

BPA is found in packaging, food and drink containers, cosmetics, even some foods, such as chewing gum. Common items with this plastic are food packaging, water dispensers, reusable plastic drink bottles, plastic wrap, takeaway cups, waterproof clothing, kitchenware and even sunscreen. Plastic makes these products stronger and more durable. There are many reusable alternatives.

lemons

No risk of scurvy in this house! The lemons are plentiful this year and we’ve been enjoying them in both sweet and savoury dishes. We had leftover lemon juice after I’d prepared dinner but my husband had a solution. It went into a glass with a generous splash of gin. Very nice, apparently.

The Lemon Chicken I normally make is a Greek recipe. This recipe has an Asian flavoured sauce, which was a lovely change. I served it with the pieces of lemon from the roasting dish but my husband found them too strong. I really enjoyed the intense flavour. Also, I used maple syrup rather than honey. I served it on mashed potatoes but rice would be good, too, except I don’t eat rice.

https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/recipes/easy-lemon-chicken

One lemon provides about 31mg vitamin C which is 51% of the recommended daily intake. Vitamin C reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke, as does their fibre and plant compounds. Vitamin C plus citric acid, both in lemons, may help prevent anemia by aiding the absorption of iron. And they smell wonderful!

Also made these Lemon Crackle Biscuits. I omitted the desiccated coconut from the mix, so the biscuits were softer and spread out. They were delicious!

https://author-p35852-e148706.adobeaemcloud.com/shop/recipes/lemon-crackle-biscuits

We had leftover Lemon Chicken for lunch. Added mashed potato, carrots with mint and butter and baby beans. I also had leftover apples I wanted to use before we shopped again. Made an Apple Slice recipe which was easy and tasted great. The recipe actually states ‘green apples’ but I took a risk and used red apples. The slice was very good. Ran out of raw brown sugar so also used some brown sugar.

Visitors so I made a Lemon Cake which also had lemon flavoured icing and Brownies, no lemon at all!

printing

Our local library closes this afternoon and will be relocated to another building in the future. I have played mahjong there for years and also was part of an art group. We don’t know if we will be accommodated in the new venue. So we were just finishing off some printing projects this afternoon.

I had been very disappointed with the crispness of my previous prints. I cut a new plate, using the inside lining of a long life milk carton. I spent a lot of time pressing the image into the foil to ensure a crisp edge. Then I printed it in blue a few times and finally, in black. Quite pleased with the final monoprint. I have a piece of lino ready for my next project so will be drawing, carving and printing with lino.

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Literacy and Numeracy Week, Printing and Reading

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literacy and numeracy week

Celebrated on 29th -4th September, this week recognises that literacy and numeracy are the cornerstones of learning. The most recent OECD Program for International Student Assessment reveals more than half Australian students fail to reach proficiency standards in maths and 43% fail to become proficient in reading. Australian students are four years behind Singaporian students in maths and more than two years behind in reading and science.

The report also grades Australian classrooms as amongst the most disruptive ( in terms of disorder and noise.) We rank 71 out of 81! This makes me question the role of ‘student- centric learning’, the fashion of recent years. The teacher is seen as a guide or partner in the child’s education, not as a responsible adult familiar with educational philosophy. Education moved from a system based on knowledge, facts and experience to one based on political ideology.

This appalling information was published around the same time as the Australian Education Union rejected the Victorian Education Minister’s directive that all school in that state would employ the explicit teaching of phonics for a minimum of 25 minutes a day. The union says this displays a breathtaking disregard for teachers and advised their members to ignore it. Phonics is one of the most efficient and powerful ways for children to learn to read and spell.

Countries performing well according to statistics, employ ‘old fashioned’ educational styles. The slightest errors (eg. forgetting a pen) can result in demerits (two equal detention). The students sit up straight, all facing the front. Strict and explicit teaching methods, walking quietly between classes and being prepared plus greeting teachers politely are some of the criteria putting the children at these schools in the highest performing levels. Many are in disadvantaged areas. There is enormous parental support for these schools.

(Some of these figures are taken from an article written by Colleen Harkin, published 31 July 2024.) https://www.spectator.com.au/author/colleen-harkin

printing

Following the felting activity last week, I did a printing session this week. No, not learning upper and lower case letter formation! We created a template from a milk carton, inked it, pressed paper over the template then rubbed the paper to transfer the image onto the paper. Basic but satisfying activity.

Not really pleased with my print but next week will refine the activity.

reading

Piglet, by Lottie Hazell, was a very popular book earlier this year. Now I’ve read it, too. This is the story of Kit and Piglet getting married. Thirteen days before the wedding Kit reveals an awful truth ( it’s never actually named, but you imagine infidelity). They go ahead. They’ve bought and decorated a house, planned a honeymoon, sorted the flowers, the feast, her parents have paid for the wedding gown and all is set to go.

I was very surprised at the complex planning that goes into a grand wedding and the cost. Do the bride’s parents still pay for the wedding? This wedding was very grand until Piglet, the bride, realised at the altar she didn’t want to go ahead. The dream was spoilt. What happened next was pretty awful.

Piglet is a successful publisher of cookery books and I wondered what she was called at work. Her family, his family and all their friends called her Piglet, or Pig. Her family called her that as a child because she had a healthy appetite. Awkward name for an adult. Her younger sister was anorexic. This is a story about appetite and ambition.

I can see why it was a popular bookclub book. Feisty discussions, I’m sure!

I also read Sally Hepworth’s Darling Girls. We follow the lives of several girls in a toxic foster house. A sobering book but it does have a happy ending. I’ve read other books by Hepworth, an Australian author. This is a thrilling psychological murder story. Hepworth apparently interviewed social workers, psychologists, police, lawyers and foster families before writing this book. I read it in a day and a half. Not much else got done.

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Making Felt and Seasonal Vegetables

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making felt

I enrolled in a FELT MAKING course. I’ve made felt before but it was a long time ago. We were given 30g of wool. We set up our work places and began teasing our skeins of wool into small pieces. We created a square of five layers of the wool, each layer place in opposite directions, teased out and overlapping each other. We were shown how thick the finished piece should be and how to tidy the edges. Then we rolled the square onto a sushi mat and covered it in a sheet of plastic to create a sausage. Then we rolled this back and forward.

Teasing the wool into thin sections, each overlapping to create a square. We created five layers.

We all worked on the same project.

The wool was rolled many, many times to make the felt.

In the second session we unrolled our fabric, covered it in a piece of tulle, drizzled some liquid soap onto it, sprayed it with water and began rubbing it with a scrunched up soft plastic bag. After rubbing it repeatedly, we rolled it up and secured it, then rolled it backwards and forwards on a hard surface about one hundred times. Uncovered the felt, washed it repeatedly in warm water, then ‘bashed’ it on the draining board. Rinsed it after multiple ‘smashings’ on the draining board.

By now the piece of felt had shrunk and was quite compressed. Later I washed the rest of the soap out then ironed it with a steam iron. Finished!

seasonal vegetables

Our green grocer only sells seasonal vegetables. This suits us as it generally means the produce was grown nearby. I’d decided to stir fry some vegetables to go with some salmon and wanted Chinese cabbage. The Chinese cabbages were really fresh and attractive, but were being sold in lots of four. I only needed two for dinner but ended up with four.

I had already made some of Nagi’s (recipetineats.com) Asian Cooking Sauce which she calls Charlie-My All Purpose Stir Fry Sauce, so prepared the salmon and a pile of vegetables. This included zucchini as I’d used some in a ratatouille I was making and there was some left. Regular readers know my ratatouille mix never includes eggplant but often includes all sorts of other things. This time its Chinese cabbage! I try to avoid food waste.

All Purpose Stir Fry Sauce.

I cooked rice for this salmon stir fry. I don’t really eat rice, which often caused comment when we were in Asia, especially when we lived there, but my husband likes it. Rice is almost sacred in Asia but I become very skilled at avoiding it. I would cover it with sauce or food and leave it on the plate. It was considered polite to leave food on your plate! There’s no photo of the stir fry because the minute it was done, we ate it.

The other seasonal food on display at the green grocer was apples. So many types of apples! We bought Pink Ladies and Gala, a big, flavoursome, crunchy apple. We eat them raw, stewed or baked. Plus an end of season pineapple which was very sweet and delicious. Also eaten before I thought to photograph it!

Enjoying the apple season. The Gala apples are crisp and very sweet.

The next day I grated a zucchini to make a Zucchini Slice. I followed an online recipe. There were interesting comments about Zucchini Slice recipes. One site said it was their most often hit on recipe, another asked if it was a typical Australian recipe as it was very popular. One of my neighbours makes it every week for breakfast, lunch or dinner, whatever she fancies. It is delicious and versatile. You can eat it hot or cold, take it in a lunchbox and even freeze it.

Traditionally, Zucchini Slice has grated zucchini (courgettes), grated cheese, beaten eggs, S.R. flour, an onion, some bacon and some mildly flavoured oil. Of course, mine was a bit different as I had a Chinese cabbage to use up ( they don’t keep for very long after picking) so that was finely chopped and added. Also, I had some cheeses left from a grazing board and some other knobby bits, too, so grated them and used them up. There was a wedge of camembert, too, but that didn’t make it into the slice. I ate it.

The Zucchini Slice was very good. It made three generous meals for two. It was easy to make and we enjoyed the mix of flavours. So many recipes online if you’re interested!

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Draught Stopper

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How do you keep the cold out in winter? After six months of high temperatures and no rain, Western Australia’s southern areas are making up for lost time! Very cold nights and a lot of rain. It feels like the winters we had as kids. Cold nights, frost on the grass then warming sunshine around mid-morning then more rain. It’s an old fashioned winter.

Our house is pretty draught free, except the door in from the garage rattles in the wind. When I tackled a low shelf in the laundry, untouched since we unpacked our things out of storage, nearly fifteen years ago, I found a thick mattress topper and a polyester filled pillow. No idea where they were used before but I immediately knew how I could used both items. I’d make a draught stopper to put against the garage door. Last year I used a bolster off an upstairs settee, time for a purpose built, recycled material draught stopper. Draught stoppers are also called draft excluders and door snakes.

Folded the topper in half longitudinally and rolled it up after I’d teased the polyester out of the pillow and placed that in the middle. Nice fat sausage. Stitched it up. Knew I had a metre or so of red velvet. Measured out how much I needed and cut. The next drama was finding a zip as long as the sausage.

Off to the fabric shop. A lovely assistant asked me what length I was looking when I was standing in front of the zipper display. I explained the length I needed and she told me zips are not available in that length. She then took a roll to the cutting table and showed me a continuous zipper. Never seen one before. She showed me how they work and cut off the length I needed. Worked like a dream!

Once I’d stitched in the zipper I cut two end pieces using a bread and butter plate as a template. I had some pretty pink piping which I thought would look good at each end but when I was looking at the door where the stopper will be, I realised it is very close to a Burmese red altar table with all the carved details highlighted in gold.

Originally thought I’d use this pretty pink and white piping but realised the light gold and dark gold piping would work beautifully next to the Burmese Red and gold altar table.

Burmese red Chinese altar table.

I had used a gold and cream piping on two tapestry cushions I’d made some years ago. Found the piping and there was just enough! Next challenge was working out how to join the ends. Thank goodness for YouTube. Bit of a faff, but I couldn’t remember how I’d done it before and watching how it was done professionally set me on the right track.

Used some leftover piping from these tapestry decorated cushions I made many years ago.

Not confident to just machine sew both layers of velvet and the piping I pinned then hand tacked it. Much easier to accurately machine sew the two layers of velvet and the piping. Pleased with how it looks. Now in position against the door. Stopped the draught, looks good next to the red altar table.

I have made many draught stoppers, door sausages, whatever you call them. I made four for my Mother who always felt cold and thought the sliding doors let in cold air. I made some for my son. I have made bolsters for our bed and for an upstairs settee. I haven’t ever made them with piping/cording. I wont be doing it again, either, anytime soon. It was fiddly and took ages to get just right. Of course, now it is finished I am pleased with it!

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Half Way Through 2024

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CHRISTMAS IN JULY

We have great neighbours. We meet several times during the year at one another’s houses and catch up. We meet one another in the street in the street, or drop in for coffee or sometimes meet at the shops, but these planned catchups are a chance to eat and chat together. Everyone brings a plate of food to share and usually their dogs.

We’d invited everyone to a Christmas In July get together. I’d had plans to decorate and really get in the swing of things, but other events intervened. My husband made a slow cooker of glühwein and the gorgeous scent was still in the air the next morning. We had a delicious quiche, a poppy seed cake and a bowl of strawberries and raspberries, plus a grazing platter and sausage rolls. I heated and lit a plum pudding. Such a lovely evening.

The glüwhein smelt and tasted very good, especially on a cold night.

Many Christmas traditions followed in Australia originated in Europe. Winter in the Northern hemisphere is cold and there might be snow. Christmas in the Southern hemisphere in in the middle of summer and temperatures in the mid 30ºC and higher are common. Despite the heat many people continue to have a leg of ham but serve it with salads and seafood. The food served at Christmas time is changing. Summer fruits, such as watermelon, rock melon, pineapple, strawberries and stone fruit are in season and popular Christmas foods. We always have cherries!

planning

A report on the TV news the other night was urging us to get our Christmas gift shopping done. It’s still six months away! Supplies are slow to arrive. Due to the unrest in Yemen shipping routes have changed. Ships cannot use the Suez Canal and are going around the Cape of Good Hope, a much longer journey . Shipping costs have increased by at least 50%. Someone actually told me last week that she’d already bought all the gifts for her grandchildren and was giving gift cards to the adults on her list. I was very impressed! I’ll think about it soon. Maybe.

This is one wall of two walls of built in bookshelves in our upstairs sitting room. I keep suggesting an audit ( reducing the number of books) but the idea is not well received. Many of the shelves have books two layers deep. I try not to think about the dust.

Luckily we are a family of keen readers. It is wonderful to have a pile of new books to read as soon as Christmas Day is over. Usually we select our own books. I wrap them all. A few years ago I bought some pretty, printed fabric draw string bags to use instead of wrapping paper, then forgot all about them. Found them recently and have put them with other Christmas paraphernalia.

cooking

Our neighbour will be coming home from hospital tonight or tomorrow and will need to rest. Her family will be in and out, so I’ve made a lemon slice to take in when it’s cool. I actually made two because we have so many lemons this year and we really, really like this slice! Recipe (here)

Also made some Asian Fish Cakes. I tore the recipe out of the Sunday paper and assumed it would be online on their site. It’s not! I was attracted to the recipe because it used smoked salmon and we had quite a lot in the freezer. Apart from coriander (mine has gone to seed) I had everything else on hand. Strangely, the recipe stated one of the ingredients as ‘store bought mashed potato’. I’ve never actually seen mashed potato for sale, but I haven’t looked, either. I peeled and boiled some potatoes and used that instead. I hope the bought potato didn’t have some extra ingredient or flavouring, but the fishcakes I made still tasted very good.

Last week a friend expressed surprise that I used bought salad dressing on a salad I make regularly and had just written about in my blog. It set me thinking and I decided experiment with my favourite (currently) salad dressing. I grow shallots just to make this dressing! So, here it is….

DAVID LEBOVITZ VINAIGRETTE

Whisk* one tablespoon of Dijon Mustard and 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar. Then gradually add 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil until emulsified. Add one tablespoon of finely minced shallot, a pinch of salt and a grind of black pepper. It doesn’t separate or split.

*After I made this for the first time, I couldn’t be faffed whisking. Now I put the mustard and vinegar in a jar, shake, add the oil a tablespoon at a time, shake, add the shallots, salt and pepper, shake. Use immediately or store in the fridge in the jar. If it becomes too thick dilute with more EVOO.

Very good dressing.

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Versatile Salad and Hidden Plastic

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versatile salad and lunch

Another salad recipe in winter? I began making the original version of this salad when I was working. The vegetables are cut into smallish pieces, so I could eat my lunch walking around the playground, on duty, or sitting at my desk marking. Sometimes I even had a few minutes to sit in the staffroom and eat. Unlike carrot sticks, pieces of celery or lettuce leaves, all a bit awkward eating in a rush, this combination of finely chopped vegetables is easy to eat using only a fork.

No longer eating on the run I still make this salad as we both like it, it lasts well for three days in the fridge, it can be made with a variety of vegetables and it is healthy! Originally I chopped tomatoes, red onion, boiled potatoes and celery. Local celery has been dark green and bitter for some time so I began finely chopping cucumber and adding that instead. Tastes good.

So, wash and chop your vegetables into small pieces. I used two tomatoes, half a cucumber, three small boiled potatoes and a third of a red onion. When everything was chopped and stirred in the glass storage dish, I drizzled bought, 99% fat free Italian dressing. The bought dressing doesn’t separate like home made dressing and it takes us a few days to eat this so it needs to stay emulsified.

I add protein and maybe some bread and lunch is done. I often have fish balls, bought at an Asian supermarket. My husband prefers anything but fish balls.

It is school holidays here in Australia at the moment. I really enjoy school holidays, despite being retired for seven years. Why? Because I catch up with three lots of staff from the three different schools I taught at from the mid nineties until I retired. Almost everyone else is retired, too. I really enjoy these catch up lunches. The other lovely school holiday thing is spending time with my cousin, also a teacher. She arrives mid-morning, we have coffee and chat, then we go out for lunch and chat then much later she drops me home! This year we had lunch here and my niece joined us. Best way to catch up on everyones’ news.

hidden plastic

Some of the products containing plastic on this list from the blog Moral Fibres (wendy@moralfibres.co.uk) surprised me. Based on the above blog I’ve made a list of many things containing plastics you might not have considered. I certainly got a few surprises.

1. Chewing gum is based on polyethylene. Polyethylene is used to make plastic bottles and bags.

Image Pixabay

2. Clothing made from microfibre fleece, polyester, acrylic and nylon is made from plastic. Every time you wash these items, microplastics are released into the waterways.

3. Disposable Coffee Cups are lined with a fine layer of plastic so they don’t collapse when filled. Take your own keep cup.

4. Aluminium cans are lined with a thin layer of plastic resin, usually epoxy, which is linked to a number of health issues.

5. Glass jars don’t contain any plastic and are infinitely recyclable, but the lids are lined with PVC. Yes, I’d never thought about that, either.

Image Pixabay

6. Alternative/vegan plant based leather. All of these products are coated, or sandwiched, with PU plastic or bioplastic to make them durable and water resistant. This includes the very expensive brands which claim to be ethically aware and produce vegan based leather. It’s plastic, then biological leather then another layer of plastic. And very expensive with a short life span.

7. Produce stickers. It’s hard to avoid them, especially on bananas and citrus fruit.

8. Teabags are still being heat sealed with polyethylene. Check online to see if your preferred tea uses plastic.

9. Tetra paks, used for plant based milks, juice and long life milk look like they’re made from waxed cardboard. Actually, tetra packs are generally 75% paper, 2o% polyethylene and 5% aluminium.

10. Tin and aluminium cans are lined with a thin plastic coating containing bisphenal A, or BPA which may leak into the contents.

11. Sunscreen contains microplastics! They bind the ingredients and are very cheap. I’m a bit shocked as I use sunscreen 365 days a year.

Image Pixabay

12. Bandaids and other sticking plasters, even the fabric sort, contain plastic.

Lots to think about in this list. For more information, read the blog listed above.

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Olympics, Lily Brett

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the olympics

Lit in the Games’ founding city, Olympia, the torch relay marking the beginning of the 2024 Olympic Games began in Athens and arrived in Marseille on the 8th of May. It will arrive in Paris on the 14th of July, marking the beginning of the Torch Relay around the City. It will finally return to Paris on the 26th to mark the beginning of the Olympic Games.

Image Pixabay

The hosting country says this year, the traveling flame pays tribute to the memory of those who marked France’s history, displays France’s creativity, honours the country’s natural heritage and demonstrates the natural vitality of local athletes.

Rather than holding the opening ceremony in a stadium, for the first time ever, the games will begin with a water parade. The boat parade will proceed down the Seine on July 26th, through the heart of Paris, finishing at the Iéna Bridge in front of the Eiffel Tower. The boats will carry 10,500 athletes, coaches and staff, leaving from the Austerlitz Bridge.

Image Pixabay

Events will be held throughout France during the Games. This includes this year’s surfing competition, to be held in Tahiti, on Teahupo’o Beach. A new event in this year’s Games is Breaking, formally known as Break Dancing. It was officially inaugurated as an Olympic event following an exhibition of Breaking at the Youth Olympic Games, held in Buenos Aires in 2018.

The French Olympic mascot is an anthropomorphized Phrygian Cap, with sunglasses and a scarf in red, white and blue stripes. Historically significant to the French, the cap frequently adorns Marianne, the statue outside every French town Hall, symbolizing Liberty.

lily brett

I thought I had read all of Lily Brett’s books excluding her poetry. I don’t really like reading poetry, much preferring to have it read to me. She writes fiction and nonfiction. Brett is an Australian who has lived with her artist husband, David Rankin, in New York for 40 years. Both Brett’s parents were Polish Jews, both were incarcerated in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Brett was born in a refugee camp before coming to Australia. She feels her parents generation who survived the Holocaust just want to forget and move on, but their children need to know what happened.

Walking past a ‘take one, leave one’ shelf last week I spotted ‘Between Mexico and Poland’ by Lily Brett! Published in 2004, it somehow passed me by. I read it in a few days and really liked it. Brett’s themes are often very dark, but the she changes the mood with humour and clever observations. She returns to Poland to try and find her family history. Her father has no interest in Poland or it’s history but accompanies her because he knows Poland and he doesn’t want her to go there alone. When they find the family house, they discover the people living there still using things belonging to his family.

One wish Brett’s father frequently expressed was that one of Brett’s books be made into a film. This has now happened. Starring Stephen Fry as Ruth’s father (closely based on Brett’s father) father and Lena Dunham as Ruth/Lily Brett, the book is based on her 1999 book, Too Many Men. The film is called Treasure and the book is about to be reissued and is now also called Treasure.

Her father left Melbourne when he was 89 to live with Brett and her husband in New York. He died in 2018, just before his102nd birthday.

winter salad

People to lunch and I wanted to make a salad using roasted winter vegetables. Every recipe I found included kale. Kale is very popular in roasted vegetable salads. Kale and I don’t get on. So I roasted butternut pumpkin (squash), red onion, cauliflower and carrots. Also roasted some pumpkin seeds which were crunchy and added a burst of flavour.

The next dilemma was the dressing. Every recipe I found had honey or maple syrup. That didn’t appeal so I made up a dressing of extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, a splash of vinegar, some mustard, all shaken in a jar. Wish I’d listed amounts when I was making it because it was good.

Added an avocado. Served with chicken. Enjoyed our lunch and very good company.

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Focaccia, Orchids, Uranium Power Stations and Other Things

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focacCia

Social media is full of people making focaccia, so I did, too. There’s so many recipes online, but I chose one which involved leaving the dough to rise in the fridge. I have never left yeast recipes to develop in the fridge and wanted to see how it went. Not so well is the answer. I didn’t need to ‘knock’ down the dough for the second rising as it wasn’t fat and puffy. Checked the date on the yeast, well within ‘use by date’ so I put the focaccia in the oven at 80º C F/F. It rose enthusiastically.

Left it for 2 hours and when it was light and puffy I increased the oven temperature to 215ºC F/F and cooked it for 25 minutes.

I will make focaccia again during winter but will try another recipe. I always search online and am now compiling my own recipe collection, making my collection of recipe books obsolete. I have had two extensive culls of recipe books but still have too many. I also find we eat differently now. Often I cook proteins such as curries, ragu and bolognese, and stews in the slow cooker, then we eat some and put the rest in the freezer. Then I can just add vegetables. Plus we don’t eat a lot in the evening anymore.

Served with Saturday family lunch to accompany beef ragu and vermicelli. Unfortunately, we discovered the warm, fresh focaccia was irresistible!

It’s a family lunch as our son is here to go to his 20th year school reunion. I can’t believe it is 20 years since he left school!

So many lemons this year. They are very juicy! Lemons feature in our diet for twelve months of the year. We also have a lime tree so there’s probably no vitamin C deficiency in this household.

orchid update

Each stem is continuing to grow a flower so I’m pretty pleased.

I have another orchid which is also on the end of the table so gets the same amount of dappled light, watered at the same time, same soil but keeps growing leaves but no flower stems. Any suggestions?

nuclear power

The Opposition party has announced its intention to develop nuclear power stations in Australia as part of their platform at the next Federal election. The announcement generated enormous debate. The one morning I turned on the TV news as I was up very early, all I got was debate about developing nuclear power stations in Australia. Flicked from station to station and ended up watching the BBC news. No mention of nuclear power there. But, if this government has introduced nuclear powered submarines, how can they be so anti nuclear power stations?

other things

We sat in from of the fire in the sitting room this week. The cold weather with heavy rain arrived while we were away. Before we left it hadn’t rained for months and was still hot during the days. Not anymore!

That’s when I noticed this piping was detaching from the cushion. You know I’m keen on mending and maintaining, so I immediately threaded a needle and restitched the piping to the cushion.

This is one of several tapestry cushion we bought back from our house in China.

We both read all the time. When we are going away we buy second hand books, read them, share them, then leave them at our accommodation. I didn’t read all the books I took away with me so had two to finish when we got home. Then I visited the library.

Did you read Claire Keegan’s previous book, Small Things Like These? It was a very popular book, so when I saw her next book, So Late In The Day, I immediately borrowed it. I’m glad I did, too. It’s a day in the life of Cathal, the day he was supposed to get married. His frugality and thoughtlessness result in Sabine, his bride to be, leaving him.

He likens his behaviour to that of many young men in Ireland. He remembers laughing at cruel pranks played on his mother by his father and brothers and feels that’s just how life is for women. Beautifully written but I feel no sympathy for Cathal!

The second book, Carys Davies’s Clear, is beautifully written. It is set in a remote island off the coast of Scotland in 1843. This is the story of two men thrown together, in isolation, by circumstance. They find friendship and understanding through necessity. One man was sent to the remote island to evict the other man. Due to an accident he finds himself being nursed by the other man. A story of solitude and connection. A great read.

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