Cooking

Bits and Pieces

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roses

My Mother loved her garden. She grew vegetables, herbs and flowers of every kind. Her ideal gift was bags of mulch, fertiliser or a new plant. She loved receiving gift cards for the local hardware store. So I try to have some flowers next to her photo all the time. These are Iceberg roses. They have a lovely scent, although some of them, planted at a different time, have very little perfume.

The Abraham Darby is still flowering, too. It smells lovely.

The Mr Lincoln is a large standard rose. I have painted the roses many times because they are so lush and smell lovely.

Despite constant battles with chili thrip I have decided to keep the roses. So many people I know have dug up their roses. The experts explain how you can control chili thrip but not eradicate it. Some of the sprays suggested are not products I want to use in our garden, so I persist with the water blasting. It is successful on some roses, not others.

Soup weather is traditionally winter time, but I’ve been making soup since January. Most of our soups are flavoured with curry, because that’s one of the flavours my Husband can taste. I often use carrots as the base vegetable, too, as they blend well and thicken the soup.

One kilo of carrots makes a lot of soup base. I add whatever else is available. I begin by frying the onion then adding curry powder, then the carrots and anything else that comes to hand, so no real recipe!

I made more muffins but used passion fruit pulp instead of blueberries. I’ll make more this weekend. They were very popular.

The passion fruit muffin batter doesn’t look very enticing, but they were delicious.

picking

Apart from the last of the roses, I’ve been picking lemons and limes. Also herbs and perpetual spinach. The spinach is a versatile vegetable; it can be eaten in a salad, cooked as a vegetable or wilted into anything else you’re cooking which would benefit from a splash of green! Easy to grow from seed. I have three plants which are ‘cut and come again’. The more I pick, the more they grow.

flowers

I once read in a gardening magazine that peonies will only grow in areas where apples grow. Apples don’t grow where we live, but they are grown domestically and commercially further down south. So when I saw in our local news paper the nearby fresh fruit and vegetable market had peonies for sale I mentioned it to my husband. Well, actually I placed the folded paper, showing the ad. over his computer screen. Subtle? Effective.

Added little branches trimmed off the lemon tree. Some of the branches have immature fruit attached. The pink against the deep green of citrus leaves contrasts well. So pretty!

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Reading, Painting and Ginger Rice Chicken.

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reading

I’ve been reading a book by Pip Williams which I have really enjoyed. Amazing memories of time spent in Italy are well and truly stirred up by her latest book One Italian Summer. Pip Williams is the author of the best selling books The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder of Jericho.

One Italian Summer tells the story of Pip, her husband and two young sons moving from Sydney to the Adelaide Hills. Still feeling overwhelmed by work commitments they sign up for the WWOOFers (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms ) program. This is when farmers provide accommodation and food in return for work. The family goes to Italy. WWOOers stay for short periods of time then move to another farm, travel or go back to their home. The accommodation provided varies in this case from a woodshed with no facilities to an apartment.

Doesn’t matter how often or in what intensitivy of light I photograph, the title of ONE ITALIAN SUMMER is difficult to read.

In between work commitments the family explores nearby towns and architectural remnants of times gone by. They can’t afford a hire car so travel on trains and walk. There’s a little home schooling and lots of eating and exploration.

I’ve also been reading another Lisa See book, Peony in Love. Really enjoying it. She writes historically correct stories about traditional high ranking Chinese communities, often set in towns I know or have lived in, in China. I borrowed another book of hers from the library and took it back almost unread. It didn’t resonate at all. Seems I preferred her books about ancient China, not modern America!

The ability to read is a bit of a hot topic at the moment. Reading skills in some developed countries are declining. Philip Womack (https:www.spectator.co.uk/magazine) refers to a recent American study called ‘They Don’t Read Very Well’ which analysed the reading comprehension skills of English Literature students in two mid-western universities.

The students were asked to read aloud the first paragraph of Charles Dicken’s ‘Bleak House’. Most of the students didn’t recognize common punctuation and were unable to understand the paragraph. Intrigued, I looked it up. The punctuation makes it easy to read although some of the text would be called ‘old fashioned.’

The article goes on to say many children can hardly read. Their ‘tech blinded parents’ don’t read to them or encourage reading. Their teachers don’t have the resources nor support or are of similar age of the parents. The article states that ‘many think that making students read difficult books is elitist.’ Not very encouraging.

painting

I have painted botannicals for years. I’ve done classes, I’ve worked under a painting master in China for three years and I’ve painted at home. Usually I paint on the dining room table which is handy to all the other things I do such as cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing and so on. All major painting disruptors. Eventually I packed up all my painting things and put them away. Sad moment but we had other commitments for some months.

Then this week I needed to paint. I gathered up my equipment and settled to paining a rose at the dining room table. A camellia followed the rose . Then some tulips and another rose. Now I am waiting for a Abraham Darcy rose to bloom so I can paint that next. I’ve just read a book about old roses grown by Vita Sackville West and I think that’s what prompted the rose paintings. Really enjoying painting again.

cooking

Regular readers know I’m a fan of www.recipetineats.com. So, lacking inspiration after weeks of putting curry in everything, I got the ingredients ready to make the Recipetineats version of Ginger Chicken Rice.

Used the only mushrooms I had, but would buy oyster mushrooms to make this again.

Quick (I bought chopped chicken) and tasty, this made two dinners for two people. I’ll make it again.

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Lino Printing, New Journals and Cooking

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lino printing

Really enjoyed a lino cut printing course. I haven’t done any printing for years. Our first activity involved our drawing our chosen image onto paper which transferred onto a polystyrene type of block. We then printed this image (the fish) onto paper. This allowed us to learn how to apply the ink all over the image and place it on the paper.

Next, we transferred our image for the lino cut onto the lino block, ready to cut. This was not old fashioned stiff lino which required heating but a far softer product. It all would have gone well, except I forgot to take my glasses and had pre-drawn a complex image for printing.

Never mind! I’d made several copies of my image and we left with some extra lino, so I’ll cut it and print the bird image again. I have (somewhere) a set of cutting tools. And I’ll wear my glasses.

journals

For years I have written in a journal everyday. I used to be able to buy them at Chinese supermarkets in Northbridge and some newsagents. They were easy to find. Post Covid they are hard to find. I ordered ten from an online auction site.

What I hadn’t anticipated was that these journals would be a little bit bigger than the ones I’ve used for over thirty years. The photocopied images I cover the books with are fine, the marbled pages I glue in as end papers are too small. A morning of marbling coming up. Bit tricky, though, as it has started to rain and the rain is forecast to continue for a week. I print the in the laundry then lay the prints to dry on the paving just outside the door. Need fine weather but we’re so pleased with the rain.

Apart from the larger format, these journals have traditional embossing on the corners and binding. I hope the printed covers will cover the embossing smoothly. Don’t really like it!

cooking

Our son was here for four days and I had most of the meals prepared. I had to make dinner for one night. Checked what was in the fridge. Found eggs, bacon and cheese so the die was cast. Snipped some spring onions from out the back. Cooked up a chopped onion and the bacon, whipped up the eggs, added some yoghurt and spring onions, grated cheese , and wilted spinach and then grind of black pepper. Into the oven.

While the egg and bacon pie cooked I prepared and cooked some vegetables. Leftover apple crumble followed.

My husband can taste a range of flavours now, but curry still dominates our soups and meat dishes. This time the slow cooker was in use to make enough meals to eat some now and lots to go in the freezer.

Browned onions, then 2kg of cubed rump steak and added it to bay leaves, curry powder, beef stock, five chopped carrots and some sweet potatoes. Salt, pepper, left it to cook for five hours on ‘high’.

Next morning when the curry was cold I put two lots in the fridge and the rest into the freezer. Experience has taught me to label the boxes. We’ve had some interesting thawed dinners which weren’t what I expected!

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Reading and Cooking

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reading

Although I read a lot, it has been a while since I just couldn’t put a book down until I’d finished it! That book was Lisa See’s Lady Tan’s Circle of Women! It was lent to me by a neighbour who’d read it for her bookclub meeting this week and she thought I’d like it. Set in China in the 15th century, See’s story is based on a wealthy family and the strict rules and structures of the era. The main protagonist is based on the records of a female doctor. A really good read.

Off to the library and able to request four of See’s many books from local libraries. I get the first one this afternoon. In the meanwhile, I have read a fast paced novel by Linwood Barclay called Find You First. The main protagonist donated sperm as a student to fund his education. In his forties he is diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease and tries to find the children he has fathered. His technology business has done very well and he wants to eave each child a bequest. Things go horribly wrong! Good to read, but I think it would scare me if it was made into a film. Pretty violent.

cooking

Our son is here for four days. I was already committed for two afternoons of those days so wrote a meal plan, went shopping and cooked up a storm so meals will go smoothly. I began by cooking a piece of corned beef. The brine is my Mother’s recipe; white pepper, vinegar and brown sugar in water to just cover the meat in a large pot, cook until it is done. I know there are no amounts listed and that’s because I don’t know, I just do what looks right for the piece of meat and it always works well! I can’t remember my Mother ever measuring the ingredients, either.

While the meat was cooking I boiled potatoes and some mixed vegetables. While that cooled I made a mayonnaise to add to the vegetables to make a Potato Salad. I think there’s more flavour if you make the salad a day before you intend to eat it.

The muffins looked much better cooked than as raw batter!

That was followed by two trays of blueberry muffins. The muffins cooked while I boiled some apples. While the apples were cooking I mixed the oats, flour, cinnamon and brown sugar to make a crumble. Drained the apples, leaving some juice as I spooned the apples into a Corningware dish. Covered with the crumble and into the oven for 40 minutes. That is about eight serves of Apple Crumble. Smells wonderful.

I also have a large frozen lasagne plus spinach leaves and celery to make salads and lots of sweet potato to roast and serve with corned beef and later, lasagne. We’ve just taken delivery of an order from a local supplier who has the best glacé ginger, crystalized ginger and ginger Turkish Delight. Also in the box, macadamia nuts, rocky road, Japanese rice crackers and vegetable chips flavoured with chili and lime. My husband can taste ginger and spicy things now, not just curry, although I have made curried sweet potato, fennel and carrot soup, too. We will not starve this weekend!

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Are EV Vehicles Really Green, Butter Bells and Sweetpeas

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are e.v. vehicles really green?

Are EV Vehicles really green? No! We have been massively tricked. And our Minister For Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, is complicit in this hoax.

Nickel mining is essential in the production of EV cars. China dominates the production of EV cars and sources it’s nickel from Indonesia. Nickel is essential in the manufacture of rechargeable batteries. The two main nickel mines are in remote areas of Indonesia. There are no environmental laws or worker safety regulations and visitors are forcefully discouraged. There are no limits on the destruction of native rain forest, forced destruction of towns and farming land and pollution of fishing grounds.

Image Pixabay

The energy to drive the smelters and power stations used in production comes from low quality and cheap coal barged into the area from nearby Kalimantan. No records are kept of worker injuries but fatalities are apparently common and not necessarily recorded. This has all been funded by the Chinese Belt and Road initiative. So, how ‘green’ are these cars?

( Since I wrote this I have watched 7NEWS Spotlight, Sunday 6th April, an exposay of ‘the dirty truth behind so-called clean, green electric vehicles.’ Then the next night Channel 7 news showed parts of the documentary plus the response from our Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen. He had no answers and stormed off, refusing to be questioned. Shocking.)

Britain has gone ‘green’ on many fronts and doesn’t hesitate to highlight its policies on limiting climate change. I enjoy British decorator magazines but after 120 pages focusing on recycled everything, ‘green’ paints and glues and wearing more clothes to stay warm in winter, comes the 30 odd page review of holiday destinations. The Maldives, Iceland, Mauritius and anywhere with saunas and spas feature as desirable destinations. I assume they all walk or swim to these exotic holiday destinations.

Image Pixabay

I feel cynical about the politicians, reporters and all their support people flying from one end of Australia to the other, leading up to the Federal Elections. I think they should ride their bikes. I’m also tired of all the money being promised by ‘the government’. That’s tax payers’ money, our money. Just stop it!

butter bells

Butter bells or butter crocks date back to the 16th century. I started investigating butter bells due to frustration cause by butter left out over night in a covered dish turning liquid and tasting rancid. Butter left in the fridge overnight was hard and I had to almost slice off pieces to put it on my breakfast toast. Not ideal. Softening the butter in the microwave resulted in it separating and tasting awful very quickly.

My butter bell sits on the counter top in a cool corner and keeps the butter soft and fresh. I bought a ceramic bell but there are also glass bells. ( I originally bought one from an online auction site online but had to return it. The lid didn’t fit properly on the base. Annoying. Go into a kitchenware shop and check the fit first!) To set it up, spoon the softish butter into the top cup smoothing the surface with the back of the spoon. Then estimate the depth of water needed so the butter is in contact with the butter. I change the water morning, some sites say every two or three days.

I am really pleased with the butter bell. Soft spreadable, fresh butter.

planting

Image Pixabay

Traditionally I’d plant sweetpea seeds around St Patrick’s day. It was easy to remember as the 17th of March was my parents wedding anniversary. I’ve just planted them because it has been too hot until now. It’s still warm during the day but getting cooler at night. My Mother grew forests of sweetpeas, mostly self seeded in the later years. They had reverted to various shades of purple and were highly scented. They will probably be a surprise to the new owners of her house. I hope they enjoy them.

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Early Onset of Myopia and a Quick Lunch

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Myopia and Children

Myopia, short sightedness, is increasing at an alarming pace in children. Globally, the rate of myopia rate tripled between 1990 and 2023, according to the British Journal of Ophthalmology. In fact, the World Health Organisation predicts that by 2050, half the world will need glasses. Ten percent will be high myopic which can result in severe complications and even blindness.

Myopia increases the risk of ocular disease. This includes cataracts, glaucoma, plus retinal detachment. Alarmingly, the greatest rise in retinal detachment is amongst young patients. One third of all people suffering from myopia go on to develop macular degeneration. This leads to visual impairment and eventually, blindness.

It’s estimated percentage of children in Britain with myopia is 15-20%. East Asia and Singapore are way ahead in data collection. In Singapore, the ‘myopic capital of the world’, 80% of adults are myopic. Myopia affects around 96.5% of 19 year old males in South Korea. Typically, East Asian children start school earlier, work longer days, do far more homework and spend very little time outdoors.

Why has this happened? Put simply, children are not spending time outside. Daylight is thought to stimulate the release of dopamine in the eyeball, inhibiting eyeball growth and distortion. The other critical change is the amount of time children are spending in ‘near work’ on screens. The recommendation for children to prevent myopia is 20/20/2, that is for every 20 minutes of near work, spend 20 minutes focusing on something in the distance, and the most important part, spend 2 hour outdoors every day.

Leisure activities have changed for children, too. China has the highest rate of video gamers (12.4 hours a week) and myopia in the world. Screens are blamed for the massive increase in myopia. Jonathan Haidt, who wrote the best seller The Anxious Generation claims the wide adoption of smartphones since 2010 plus the gradual erosion of outdoor play has resulted in a catastrophe of poor teenage mental health and higher rates of suicide and self harm. He refers to the current generation of teenagers as ‘anxious, sleep-deprived, narcissistic, and susceptible to terrible influencers and the rest.’

All images in this entry Pixabay

Children need to avoid myopia. It can’t be stopped or reversed, so best avoided all together. Apparently, the best way to avoid myopia is put down the screens and send children to play outdoors.

baby cos lettuce with Pesto dressing

After twelve weeks of attending appointments we had a little break. All my husband’s post radiotherapy scans are now back, as are blood tests. Good results. Next week he starts immunotherapy. One of the problems with spending hours at the hospital was the food available. It was pretty grim unless I went to the Childrens Hospital. Although that added several thousand steps to my step count, it also took a lot of time, even though I didn’t sit down to eat.

So I’ve mastered quick meals I can make. My new favourite was so easy! I just washed and halved a baby cos lettuce, then drizzled vinaigrette over it. The dressing was simply 6 dessertspoons of olive oil and 2 dessertspoons of vinegar, then a grate of black pepper and a sprinkle of salt. I added a dessertspoon of pesto, shook the jar, then poured it over the lettuce. The second time I made this salad, I added slithers of preserved lemon to the dressing and would do that again. I crumbled sheep feta over the lettuce, but if you were eating at home you could add smoked salmon, tinned tuna or shredded chicken.

Added a spoonful of pesto to the vinaigrette, shook until it blended in, then poured over the lettuce. Crumbled feta on top.

My husband’s sense of taste has not returned although sometimes he can taste tea, but it doesn’t taste like tea! Today I made a buttered chicken curry. I was heavy handed on the spices and chopped the chicken pieces into slithers when I served my husband. He can taste the heat but not the flavour. Fingers crossed this improves with time.

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Pesto, Nutrition and Sharpening Knives

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making pesto

It’s that time of the year when the tomatoes are mostly finished but the basil is still thriving. So I make pesto. You can buy the basil if you don’t have any growing but make sure it’s not an Asian basil which has a slight aniseed flavour. The leaves should be medium sized and green with no yellow tips or black spots. Wash the basil then collect the other ingredients.

PESTO

45g toasted pine nuts (about 5 minutes in the oven, don’t let them burn)

1.5 cups basil leaves

60gm pecorino or parmesan cheese

5 tbspn olive oil

2 small cloves of garlic

Process the basil, pine nuts (cooled), garlic and cheese, then drizzle the olive oil in a steady stream into the machine. Purists use a pestle and mortar, I use a food processor. Scrape into a jar when you’re happy with the texture. Coat with a layer of olive oil to prevent oxidisation.

Pine nuts can be replaced by pumpkin seeds or walnuts. I’ve been reading Norman Swan’s What’s Good For You. ( He also promotes the usual; daily exercise, avoiding processed foods, getting enough sleep and maintaining social connections) Based on years of research he recommends following a Mediterranean diet. Pesto ingredients get the tick of approval. And it tastes amazing!

I use sheeps pecorino because I like the strong flavour. I only made a small amount this year as my husband can’t taste anything at the moment. I stir a spoonful into tomato pasta sauces, a smear on cheese and tomato toasted sandwiches and a drizzle on cheese on crackers. If I was making gazpacho I’d drop a teaspoon of pesto into each bowl. Enjoy!

a nutritionist’s hints for well being

Laura Southern, a nutritionist, in this week’s The Australian Weekend Magazine writes about optimal gut health. She says the way we combine foods can increase the absorption of nutrients and antioxidants and help good bacteria to survive the digestive process. Here are her six top recommendations.

Add honey to Greek yoghurt. Honey’s prebiotic properties feed and support the probiotic in the yoghurt as it is digested. This can reduce infection and inflammation.

Image Pixabay

Eat black pepper with turmeric. Research suggests turmeric has anti-inflammatory, antioxident and anti-cancer properties. It is also thought to strengthen the intestinal barrier, balance the microbiome and also aid digestion. The piperine in black pepper can increase the absorption of curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric by 2 000 percent.

Drizzle olive oil on salads. The antioxident properties of olive oil to lower bad cholesterol and raise levels of good cholesterol is well known. Now there’s evidence showing the polyphenols in olive oil can be absorbed by the intestine, increasing beneficial bacteria in the gut. Eaten with green salads, olive oil helps balance the microbiome.

Image Pixabay

Miso paste and bok choy. Miso paste is made from fermented soybeans and grains. It is packed with millions of probiotic beneficial bacteria which nurture the gut. To feed the good bacteria, add bok choy or seaweed flakes.

Stir cinnamon into stewed apples. Cinnamon increases the anti inflammatory impact of polyphenols in apples. Their soluble fibre, pectin, is also a prebiotic.

Image Pixabay

Sprinkle seeds on porridge. Betaglucan, the fibre in porridge, acts as a prebiotic. Adding chia seeds and flax will supply vitamins, minerals and cancer protective antioxidants and stimulate gut movement.

sharpening knives

Blunt knives are really annoying. I like to keep ours well honed. I use a whet stone to sharpen them regularly. The name derives from the actual process of sharpening the blade, called ‘whetting’, using a whet stone. The whet stone needs to be submerged in water until bubbles stop rising.

I place the stone on a hand towel so it doesn’t move then hone the blade in smooth motions along the stone. I start using the coarser side then finish with the finer side. Quick wash and it’s all done!

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Beef Stew and Other Food, Plus Making a Notebook

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really good beef stew and other food

If you live in Western Australia where it is still really hot, you’ll wonder why I’m making beef stew. Last November my husband was diagnosed with Parotid Salivary Gland cancer. Initially he was going to have it surgically removed but a PET scan showed the cancer had spread. What followed was radiotherapy, usually five days a week, plus frequent visits to the radiologist, the oncologist, a dermatologist, a speech therapist, a swallow specialist, a dietician, three different sorts of dentists all orchestrated by the wonderful cancer co-ordinator. Immunology and three monthly PET scans to follow.

He can now swallow soft, finely cut real food! He has no sense of taste but was tired of meal replacement drinks, scrambled eggs, chicken soup, Weetbix mushed into milk and cool, easy to swallow but tasteless icecream. I stumbled upon this stew, called Martha Stewart’s Beef Stew on https://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/martha-stewarts-slow-cooker-stew/ I made it in the slow cooker and then stored portions in the freezer. It is a really wonderful, easy, quickly reheated stew and I can slice or mash the pieces so he can chew and swallow. No flavour, as he has lost the sense of taste, but he enjoys eating real food again. So I keep making it despite the heat!

I didn’t have diced tinned tomatoes with chili so used plain tinned tomatoes and I didn’t add garlic, either. Otherwise, I followed the recipe. I think the vinegar ensures soft, fall apart meat but also makes the gravy really delicious, too. I used Apple Cider Vinegar, but the recipe suggests any vinegar will work. I cooked it on high in the slow cooker. Easy, tasty, ingredients on hand. No one knows when or even if his sense of taste will return.

Meanwhile, I made myself a feta and spinach pie. I had thawed the spinach, diced the onions and crumbled the feta, left the eggs to reach room temperature and went freezer hunting for the roll of filo pastry. Found it, but instead of sheets of pastry I found shards of broken, shattered sheets of filo. It had reached the end of the road! So, as I have done before, I used some shortcrust pastry. Tasted good but I missed the crunchy, crumbly, buttered flavour of filo pastry. Also, my usual recipe makes three meals for the two of us, so I was really tired of it! To use it all I had it for lunch and dinner for three days. Enough!

I’m still trying to eat at least thirty different foods every week. I wasn’t meeting this goal in the last fortnight, at all. Cooking for myself came last on my To Do List. Trying to make smaller meals to eat over a few days. Made ratatouille and added shaved Massadam cheese both times I had it. I don’t make big pots of it as my husband doesn’t eat it, anyway. This has resulted in a greater variety of foods, but not thirty different ones!

making a notebook

I write in a journal everyday and have done for more than thirty five years. I buy notebooks from the newsagent, cover them and add marbled papers as inner lining pages. So when I saw an advertisement for a notebook making session I was quick to enrol.

We were shown how to stitch the signatures (pages in sets of five sheets, folded in half to make ten pages and stitched down the spine.) how to sew and knot them together, glue a mull, or fabric strip, along the spine, then glue on a ribbon page marker. Next the outer fabric cover and finally, the lining pages front and back. Lots of cutting and gluing and I’m really pleased with the outcome and hoping the class will be offered again. I loved it!

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Bookmarks and Reading, Tomatoes and Plastic Utensils

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bookmarks and reading

Tidying up and sorting through your Christmas and Valentines Day envelopes, do you wish you could recycle some of the very pretty envelopes? Me too. I read a lot and often scramble for a bookmark. Now I’ve made a few from leftover envelopes. You could use coloured or patterned envelopes to make the bookmark. Gather a few envelopes and a pair of scissors and you’re ready to create.

1. Cut a triangular corner off the envelope. Glue down the flap at the back. Let it dry.

2. Fold the triangle in half longways.

3. Cut an arc shape from side to side. You can pencil the arc before you cut.

4. Viola! Pretty heart shape bookmark.

If you lose it just make another one.

I’ve read four books lately. Three ‘whodunits’!

An engaging book, but not of the happy ending genre! This Australian author writes clever and rather scary books.

I enjoyed this clever story so much I recommended it to my husband. Then I borrowed another one of her books and suppose I will enjoy it when he’s finished it! Complex plot and an ending I didn’t see coming.

This starts off as a nice story about two women living next door to one another and how they became friends. It finishes with one of them in prison and the other hiding the truth and bringing up the prisoner’s children. No happy ending here !

Not a murder story, but an account of one woman’s life as a wife and mother. Anne Tyler is a prolific American author. She has a wonderful way with words and is keen observer of women’s lives. A reviewer whose column I enjoy recommended this book as one which had stayed in her mind for 20 odd years. I ordered the book. It began well, with typically lyrical descriptions of the main characters, but then, when the family was at the beach one day, the wife just walks away and hitches a ride to another town and starts another life.

Set in the late 50s, she successfully flies under the radar for a few months. She narrows her life to eating, sleeping, working and not much else. She doesn’t seem to miss her husband or children. When a family member finds her she pleased to hear news of her family but doesn’t return to her hometown.

Eventually she returns for her daughter’s wedding. It’s a total fiasco and she resorts to feeding everyone and cleaning up, just like she did before walking away. She decides to stay. A puzzling plot.

tomatoes

Tomatoes with balsamic vinegar, chopped red onion and basil. Delicious.

Sadly my tomato crop is coming to an end. Fresh, warm, thin skinned truss tomatoes are delicious! I have saved the seeds from one of the biggest, reddest tomatoes to plant next summer. These are heirloom seeds which are true to the parent plant. There’s no genetic modifications and the fruit is always predictable. I actually planted some seeds for another tomato this time, as well, and they didn’t fruit. Disappointing. So I just stay with the seeds I got from my Mother.

These truss tomatoes are reliable and explode in your mouth, releasing sweet flavour and no tough skin. At the end of the tomato season I chose a really luscious tomato, cut it in half and squeezed the seeds onto paper towel. When the seeds and remaining pulp was dry I wrote a label on the paper and stored it in an envelope in the laundry cupboard ready for the next tomato season.

Some growers suggest leaving the scooped out seeds and adhering pulp in a jar for a few days so they ferment. Apparently this prepares the seeds for germination. I have never done this and have always had great germination rates.

The tomato process is save seeds from the best tomatoes, plant the seeds, watch them grow, then paint the tomatoes and finally, eat the tomatoes.

plastic utensils

First we were told to throw out plastic utensils, particularly black plastic utensil, due to toxic chemicals. This still remains good advice, as concerning levels of cancer causing flame retardants are present in black utensils. One recent report has ‘corrected’ the probable risk of toxic chemicals but emphasize the risk is still concerning.

Meanwhile, the sales of stainless steel utensils increased by 13% last year . During the same period sales of silicone utensils increased by 70%. Do your own research and decide if you need new utensils!

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Making, Cooking and Other Things

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making

The collection of beads used to make a new necklace. The (sadly) broken white bead was right at the front.

When I was a junior primary teacher, my necklace made from these faux pieces of licorice allsorts was a bit of a hit. Not so much now when I go out to mahjong or shopping and certainly not at yoga! Then I bought a black and white striped shirt. Eying off my necklace collection inspiration struck and I knew I could reuse some of the licorice allsorts pieces and bigger beads from a necklace I dropped on the floor. One of the pieces broke on impact. I wore that necklace often, so hunted down a replacement. Now I will reuse pieces from the original.

Put the large beads from the broken necklace and pink pieces of licorice allsorts and smaller black pieces together. Changed things around a few times. Then I made the new necklace. I already had the string and the catch for this new necklace. There may be more soon. My elderly neighbour can’t be bothered with necklaces or earrings anymore and has given me several necklaces made from glass beads. Very pretty and ripe for reusing.

sourdough

I’ve been making sourdough bread years. My first sourdough starter died when we were away for a long period but the replacement has been bubbling away happily for a long time. Until it didn’t look sprightly at all. Read lots of articles abut reviving runny starter. Followed the instructions and fed it twice, using more flour than water, let it rest between each feeding and it’s back to normal. I will make a loaf tonight and bake it in the morning.

Most online examples of sourdough loaves are boulés, round balls, and are baked in a Dutch oven. I make my loaves in a loaf tin as this results in slices of similar size, which I prefer.

Sourdough baking appeals to a wide range of people. Reading some of the advice was daunting but I found an easy method which worked. Sourdough bakers who post online are totally passionate about their bread and jump through all sorts of hoops to make it and some, like me, use the same recipe and are happy with the outcome.

The newly ‘recovered’ sourdough starter made a very good loaf of bread.

There’s so many recipes for using the discard from feeding the starter and so many for adding things to the bread, too, but what really caught my attention was the names people give their starters! One blog lists 160 potential names, some very funny. Another list included Must-Tang-Sally, Lazarus, Doughkey Pokey, Festus and Sour Seymour. Mine is called The Flour Child!

other things

I’ve read two books this week. I spend quite a bit of time waiting while my husband has treatments and also, there’s not much on TV. Currently we are watching on ABC iview The Secret History of the English Garden. Monty Don is the commentator and it is one of many programs about gardens he’s has visited. It is very interesting and he is a born storyteller. Really enjoying it and learning a lot about the role of gardens in history. Also seeing some amazing gardens.

The first book I read was The Night We Lost Him written by Laura Dave. Like her previous book I wrote about The Last Thing He Told Me, this is a book about lies, intrigue and the secrets of successful men. The families left behind struggle to find out what really happened. A great read.

The second book written by Nadine Williams, an Australian journalist, is about her third marriage (having vowed to never marry again) and how it led her to France. From France With Love, A Story With Baggage details how she met Oliver, how they traveled together to France and then try to sort out their cultural differences on a road trip around the country. I seem to be attracted to books about visiting France, living in France, renovating in France….I enjoyed this book . It is funny, sad and informative. I am looking online for her second book.

Tim Spector’s book Food For Life which I wrote about a few weeks ago makes alot of sense. A diverse diet results in a healthy gut but I’m struggling to eat thirty different foods every week. I was relieved when I read spices and herbs count as different foods as that got me a bit closer to goal. Close but not perfect.

Meanwhile, I have picked my first tomato of the season. Two days later there were many ripe ones. Delicious. Do you grow any food?

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