Saturday 30 July 2011

Storage box filled with the 1990's.

Every time I leave my house I am on the prowl for free. Free is my new black. I find that no matter what it is - useful or not, if someone offers it to me for free - I swiftly snatch it up. The other weekend we drove by one of my lucky thrift shops and sadly sitting outside in the two day torrential rain - there she was - water logged and clothed in last decades fabric of choice - a giant flip open bench seat. I hopped out of the car at the red light - not able to even wait for Hayden to find a parking spot - and raced inside to offer her a warn home and a gentle touch. Unfortunately, today was not my lucky free day. But I did part with the $8's worth of coinage in my pocket and became the proud new mumma of someone's discarded "junk". 


*Unbeknownst to us - the storage box was filled with 40kg (90lb) of home and garden and in flight (that normal people leave on the plane) magazines from the late 1990's. Awesome. 





My first, and most satisfying job, was to strip all the old and dust laden fabric off this new treasure. The bottom was easy to disrobe but the lid was filled with ancient coil springs and layers of what seemed to be archaeological remains. Grosser than you can ever imagine. 





After the removal of a zillion nails and staples - and after letting it dry out for almost a week - I got the boys to cut out a spot for your hands to slip in to make opening the box semi possible. They also cut some wood to make a top for the lid so I had something to adhere the new padding to. I gave the base a generous sand and used a watered down paint to make an almost stain effect. After attaching the fabric to the lid - I used a white material and some fancy silver pins to hide the ugliness of the lids underbelly. We reattached the top and the transformation was complete! 


I decided to give my sun-room/entrance a new look - I had no problems with it before but I am totally in love with it now!





Tuesday 26 July 2011

Taxi's trip to Corn fritter ville

Marrying into a family with three professional Chef son's and a Mother-in-law who more than knows her way around a kitchen, can be greatly intimidating. At family gatherings I tend to hang back, stay out of knives reach and only contribute when absolutely necessary - like doing the washing up or taking a quiet nap in another room (my husband will agree that this is generally the best way for me to peacefully help in the kitchen). 

My Father-in-law is lumped into the same kitchen outcast boat as me. He is great at what he does but most of the time we would rather leave the inventing up to the skilled professional hands. One thing that Taxi does know best, is how to make a marvellous Corn Fritter. Simple? Yes. Delicious? Oh my word! How could they not be? You've got cheese, potato and egg all fried up in a self contained heavenly patty! So amazing. We ask for these every time we visit the in-laws. They have got to be the perfect gloomy winter morning treat.

*Note: You could totally gourmet these up with fanciness but you would probably ruin what Taxi has perfected over all these years. 

All ingredients get thrown into the same bowl - 1 can of creamed corn, 1 medium onion that is diced, 2 grated up medium sized potatoes, 1/2 a cup of grated cheese,  1 heaped cup of self rising flour, 2 eggs, 1/2 a cup of milk, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 a teaspoon of cayenne and some black pepper. Mix.


Spoon some of the sloppy mixture onto a medium temperature oily pan. Brown up both sides - don't be too concerned if they are still a bit soft in the middle - little bit of raw mixture won't kill you!


 Eat these with whatever extras you are fond of. I always find that we make way too many and just end up eating them all day long. I have no problem with this. I don't think you will either.


Sunday 24 July 2011

Would you like Cheese with that Banana Bread?

I always remember seeing my mom do strange things with food. She would take a pan - heat to a high enough temperature to overcook anything that remotely touched it - open the fridge - take out three days worth of left-overs and proceed to smash it all together into something semi smouldering and worthy of a good ketchup dousing. In my memory, the food we ate at home was great (the left-overs that were fused into one were really delicious the first time around) - dad would always try new creations and my sister and I would always try and avoid the things we gagged on. It was a good balance. 


I feel like I took some of my dad's culinary genes away with me when I flew the coup. My chef husband believes that I have mastered the art of rich home style comfort food - and I bet the elastic waist on my "jeans" says he's telling no lies. Over that past few years baking has taken up the forefront in my kitchen escapades. I don't do anything fancy, I don't use magic or wizards, I just bake tasty delights. It soothes me to bake and eases the stress I accumulate from thinking about exercise. It caps off my day and makes my family leave me in peace for 30 minutes because they know I will deliver them something deliciously worth not harassing me for. 


All your dry ingredients go into a bowl. 1 and 3/4 cups flour, 3/4 cups sugar (brown or white or half and half - be crazy) 1 teaspoon baking powder, half a teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 of a teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Do the same for the wet. 2 eggs, 1/2 cup soft butter (or margarine), 2 or three of the nastiest smelly black bananas you can find - smoosh them up, if there happens to be any firmness left in them - and add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Put dry into wet. I threw in about half a cup of toasted walnuts because we had them sitting around - feel free to omit or replace with something more to your liking...like chocolate. 




Line a loaf tin with baking paper and crank your oven up to 185c. Dump your mix into the tin. I also added a crumble on top. My sister gave me this basic recipe and it is so delicious. You can easily use this on Carrot cake, Zucchini bread, muffins or even add in extra spices. Take 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup flour, 1/3 of a cup sugar, 1/2 a cup oats and mix it all together with your hands. Sprinkle it all across the top and cook the Banana Bread for 50 to 60 minutes.  




  This has to be one of my most memory inducing treats. Warmed up with a thin coat of margarine and a medium width slice of cheese - that's how my mom likes it - and I must admit, sometimes I follow in her strange food footsteps. (But maybe try it without the sweet crumble top coat first)













Thursday 21 July 2011

Age before beauty

There is nothing worse than feeling your age - unless you the ripe 'ol year of two and your only worry is where your next snack is going to emerge from and how to convince mom to give you something with less nutritional value. To feel and look younger than what your drivers license confirms is probably the goal of most of the aging population - myself included. You eat healthy, get plenty of outside time and try to avoid crows-feet by wearing sunglasses bigger than a softball - but despite all that, your genes are what decide your fate on the other side of the hill. If your genes aren't looking all too promising, maybe a little D.I.Y spruce up is in order. 


And that is exactly what these three old lanterns - from my favourite local junk shop haunt - deserved. 






The technique I applied for getting these lanterns pretty again can also be used for softening your accumulated hard edges as well. First step: grab a wire brush. Second step: use the wire brush. (don't be afraid - put your back into it) Once you had a good go at the surface aging - get some course sandpaper for all those hard to reach bits. Don't be shy - they need a good scouring too. 




Once you are happy with the layers of grime, rust and hard labour you have removed - give a soapy scrub down and apply a generous coating of oil. Mid-life recondition is complete. Now go put you feet up and have a drink - your ankles are probably bigger than rugby balls and your blood thicker than gravy. 







Wednesday 20 July 2011

Farming the market - stewing the fruit

Farmer's markets have to be the best place on Earth! Where else can you gather (other than your local highly overpriced and zombie filled supermarket) your much needed fruit and veg for the week, free range eggs, handmade wears, live music (classics from everyones childhood) and a cooked-especially-for-you lamb filled Roti? Nowhere!


Saturday morning is by far the highlight of my week. It means I have two days that I can hunt for bargains, eat delicious food with my much loved family and possibly swap the child for some quietly desired craft time. First port of call is the Farmers market - family time done the right way - eating steamed pork buns at 9am and foraging for previously captured goods. It's like Heaven on Earth - or at least Heaven in the Newtown School parking lot. 


This week I grabbed a huge bag of apples and some rhubarb to have with my morning oats. I give them a stew with a few other delights and am set for a few weeks of breakfasts. 


Peel and cube up some apples (maybe 11) - I leave a few with skins left on to give some extra texture but by no means do you have to do this - roughly cut some rhubarb (7 stalks or so) - chuck them into a large non oiled pot that is heated to medium. In this concoction I added some raisins, two vanilla pods - cut open and de-vanilla-ed - throw in one and a half teaspoons of cinnamon, one teaspoon of nutmeg and about a 1/4 cup of sugar. For the sugar, start out with less and bring it up to your sweet tooth once it's cooked out for a while.


Now you just let it stew away. Come back and give it a stir around every once and a while but don't feel the need to hover over it and constantly check it's progress. Turn the temperature down and just let it roll. Keep in mind that the more you stir the more the fruit breaks up and makes a mushy consistency - if that's what makes you tick - stir til your hearts content! The stewed fruit is done when you are happy with it. I generally have enough of the mixture to stock up the freezer - it's delicious with some natural yoghurt, vanilla ice cream or my favourite is plain ol' oats. Enjoy!



Sunday 17 July 2011

Dreamin' of my childhood and failures in Math class

When I was growing up sticking pins in the walls was semi forbidden and poster putty was always readily available. If tacks got the lucky approval of mom and dad - you wouldn't dare move it and you better have got it straight the first time! Maybe that's why I felt a tinge of guilt when I was hammering almost 250 flat-head nails into the sparse white wall in our rented home. My childhood rebellion had reared it's ugly head and forced me to be destructively creative despite the better teachings of my parents. The practical side of my rebellion - the one that feared getting caught and kept me on the right side of the law - continued to remind me that putty is cheap and painting relieves my uninvited pent up stress. So I sucked it up and went for it!

This was my husband's creative space filling idea - but see since I am the holder of all the patience - I was naturally selected for it's timely execution.

To start off you need to find the centre of the space you would like to fill. Pick a spot and poke a pin in - tie a string to the pin and have the other end tied to a pencil - shorten or lengthen your string according to the size of the circle you are keen on. Draw a circle. 


 Use a level or something else that works for you, to find the four 1/4's of the circle. Mark them off. Now this is where I get Math ghetto on ya. I do not know Algebra. I know my version and it did me right. What you need to figure out next is how much space to put between each nail. I took a piece of string - ran it along one 1/4 section and measured the string I used on a soft sewing measuring tape. I divided that amount by the total number of nails I wanted to use in each section. Like this: String length was: 64.5 and I wanted to use 15 nails = which equals 4.3 cm between each nail. (I did find that on my last nail of each section I had a odd amount of cm's - but just divided it up the best I could and it made no difference to the design outcome)

  
Once all of you nails are in the fun begins! Pick two nails on opposite sides of your circle (tie one end to a nail) - by no means does it have to be exact or even close to even sections. Start stringing your yarn back and forth - left side of one and right side of the other - you can go fully around or stop wherever it pleases your eye. Go crazy! Try new starting points and layer it up! There is honestly no right or wrong to this design feature - don't like it? - take it down and try it again!






Saturday 16 July 2011

No bones about it

I love chairs. Big chairs, mini chairs, long chairs, short chairs, stool like chairs, - chairs of all shapes and sizes tickle my proverbial fancy. I'm not sure why chairs pull at my heart strings so - but I do know that if I had the space and a budget of unlimited means - I would be a chair cat lady. Chairs would be spilling out of my house, onto the lawn and crapping in other peoples flower beds.  


The way I look at a chair before purchase or prior to presenting my pleading case to the wiser half - is, does it have good bones? I could care less what it's material skin looks like or it's muscle and padding - the bones are all I desire. The easiest way to transform a new-to-you piece of furniture is to give it new skin.


I bought a used bench seat off of a lady and she gave a second, slightly more beat up, slightly mouldier and rustier version of the one I bought for free. I was thrilled. Some people might say, "Nah lady, keep your crap!" - but not me. I sanded back the rust, eradicated the mould and have now given her a new jacket. Seriously, the easiest thing you can to do jazz up an old piece. 






First thing you need to do is strip the material off the piece. Try to get as many nails/staples off the base as you can but I wouldn't worry too much - sometimes there can be hundreds (as I so rightly found out). If there are way more than you want to tend to, just staple over them with your new material and no one will be the wiser! The size of your material totally depends on the item you are recovering. Just lay the item top down on your fabric and cut around it - making  sure you leave enough excess to run up the sides, on to the back and fold over to create a clean edge.  






I like to staple the long sides first - when you are stapling your fabric give it a bit of a tug to keep it tight when you adhere it to your base - it will help to create a nice clean top with no ripples or bumps. I even put a bit of pressure on the base to squish down the padding - creating an even smoother finish. When you start on the last two small sides you want to tuck in the edges like a fancy present you are giving to your favourite wife on a holiday you don't believe in. This is probably the most challenging part of the recovering process. Hold strong - you will get it. And once you've put it all back together you are done! 



Wednesday 13 July 2011

For all those Tea drinking, denim lovers out there

Growing up in small Northern British Columbia town, I naturally have denim surging through my veins. I remember seeing so many intriguing variations as I wandered the main street in what could be considered my own creative denim rendition - a triangle of floral material sewn into each leg to fool you into thinking it was the 1970's and I was fronting the hippie movement. Others that seemed to arrive like clock work - or when the ice began to melt and the sun lured out our vitamin D deficient limbs  - the too short denim shorts with the pockets dripping out the bottom. See, back in my day these shorts happened by accident - mis-measures and crooked lines birthed their creation but hey, they were your only pair of winter worn jeans that wouldn't last another year at full length, so they would have to do, too short or not, those puppies were getting worn! 

So, in honor of my childhood, I made this Tea cozy out of scrap denim. This Cozy is dedicated to Terrace - which right now is in full summer swing - how I wish I was there to see you in all your denim cut-off glory. 

I don't really have measurements for this cozy or even clear instructions. All I basically did was draw a large shape that resembled a Tea pot without a handle - kind of like a half circle with a spout. I doubled up the fabric and cut it out. I also cut a second set of a different fabric to use as a liner. I stitched the liner - good sides facing together - to the denim. I only did this on the bottom and the opening of the spout - the rest of the seams will be hidden so it would be a waste of time. 





* If you so desire - add a fun little design to the fabric before stitching it all together. You can sew something on, do some hand-stitching or even bleach a hand print or some love hearts like you would in grade school. 

Now you get to sew it all together. For good reasons, leave the bottom and the spout unstitched - you will find out later when trying to use the cozy why this is a handy step to adhere to. When doing this cozy I added in a strip of stretch fabric to make it fit the variation of Tea pots I own - you don't need to do this unless you are a collector/hoarder like me and have multiples of everything. Once it's all sewn together - you are done! Brew a delicious pot of Tea and enjoy the fruits(?) of your labour. 

Monday 11 July 2011

Part knife block - part necessary safety measure

I'd never been a big fan of knife blocks, until that sunny afternoon when my small child came into the living room with a large Chef's knife that he had blindly pulled from the top kitchen drawer, passing it to me and proceeding back in to grab another - I decided that it was possibly time to consider an alternative living arrangement for the sharp objects.

This knife block is great - you can make it as big/little as you want and as ugly/pretty as you see fit. Super easy to construct and holds whatever size knives you possess. Start out by cutting 5 pieces of wood (a box without the top) - it will be filled with wooden skewers, so the height of the four sides should be the height of a skewer. We did the two big sides 200mm x 200mm and the two smalls 200mm x 100mm. The bottom length should be 200mm plus the thickness of your wood x 2. The wood we used is 7mm thick - so the length of our bottom piece is 214mm. The width is the same as your small side - 100mm. 


Nail all your sides together - making sure that the small sides "cap" the ends of the box. (I am not sure if "cap the ends of the box" is a carpentry term but people make stuff up all the time - this box ain't fancy - figure it out!) Get the bottom on and start filling with skewers! 


You can leave the wood on the knife block raw - which looks pretty cool  (if you don't use old nasty pieces of wood from pallets you find down dodgy alleyways - which we do) or you can paint it up to match your hip decor - either way, it's a pretty fun little build and keeps little children fingers safe from the chop. 

 

Saturday 9 July 2011

Tortilla's in a half shell, Tortilla power

Seriously good tortillas are made by hand and preferably by someone that doesn't get as easily distracted as me. I am a master at the multi-task, which has proven to be detrimental to my culinary craft - in large - my meat cookery. My husband once said, "You can't over-cook a chicken thigh, Baby" - sadly for him and his shriveled up Thursday night dinner - he was mistaken. Luckily though, these tortillas cook really fast and take no time at all to prepare. And if you leave them unattended your home will swiftly fill up with smoke and jolt you back to your stove to rescue the chard remains of a delicious floury treat. 

Place 1 Cup of Milk and 3 Tablespoons of Oil into a saucepan and get slightly warm. Pour the warmed  mixture over 3 Cups of All Purpose Flour, 2 Teaspoons of Baking powder and 1.5 Teaspoons of Salt - get your hands in there and start forming a dough. Knead the dough on a floury bench-top for a few minutes and leave to rest for 15. 


Once you have tended to your crying child, dirty dishes and soiled carpets, portion the dough into 12 to 14 balls. Roll the balls out a thinly as possible - keeping the counter surface lightly floured. 




Heat up a dry pan to medium/low heat and start cooking a single Tortilla at a time. Once large-ish bubbles start forming under the skin, it's time to flip. The second side only takes a few moments to finish off. 


Eat these with family, neighbours (http://www.albrown.co.nz/), or your favorite Latino friend. I guarantee you can not screw this recipe up. 

 
 

Tuesday 5 July 2011

I own these cookies

I hope someday my son refers to this recipe as "mom's oatmeal cookies" or maybe something with a bit more personality and creative wording - but non the less, my cookies. I have had this recipe for years and have baked the cookies with my spin since I first laid eyes on that tragic recipe. They aren't anything fancy, have magical powers, or can do your laundry - all they can do is make you forget about your diet and thrust you into a new career as a bounce music dancer. 

Take 3/4 of a cup of unsalted butter (or margarine, as I am so inclined) and 3/4 of a cup of brown sugar. With a  fork cream these two together, add an egg and a teaspoon of vanilla. Wet stuff - done. For the dry - add 3/4 of a cup of plain flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, salt and cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg. Chuck that into the wet and mix (sans machine- avec fork or spoon). Now this is where you can get creative. Add in something delicious - your favorite chocolate treats, raisins, cranberries - I tend to use the darkest  chocolate I can get my hands on. You can use as much or as little as you want.


 Now you need add some oats. The amount you use all depends on the wetness of your cookie mix. Start out with 1.5 cups and see how it feels. Today I used 2 cups and last time I used 2.5. You will rarely need to use more than that. Your oven should be at 180c. With a larger dessert spoon scoop out onto a tray and cook for 8 -10 minutes.


Bread for the working man - or partially stay at home mom

After a few semi-failed bread recipe attempts, this one, courtesy of  http://dacrestreetstudio.com/, has righteously taken the lead position. This recipe could not be simpler or more delicious.  

Take 4.5 cups of high grade flour, 1/2 a cup of mixed grains and seeds, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon dry yeast, 2 cups of normal 'ol water and mix it in a bowl with a spoon of your choice. It should become stringy and come away from the sides of your bowl. Cover and leave for 12 hours - or for however long a person without children generally sleeps for. 


Pop the oven on to 200c and scoop your dough onto a floured counter top - cut in half and knead a bit - just enough to form two loaf like shapes. Bake in a vessel of your choice - we chose our handy wooden baking boxes. Bake for 20 minutes or so (if you used the wooden boxes - bake for 10 min, take the bread out of the structure and continue for a further 10 min to crust up the sides) and let it hang out 'til the next day before you dig in. 


Monday 4 July 2011

"Holzbackrahmen" - wooden baking frame - New Zealand styles

When we decided that baking our own bread was going to be a serious venture I had a hunt for some bread tins. All I discovered was that they are ridiculously overpriced. So, staying true to our family roots (being super cheap and not liking to part with hard earned cash), we opted for making our own. After some trial and error we found our groove and are pretty stoked on what we have created - and partly copied from the Germans.

To start, grab some untreated wood - we used pine, 9mm thick and 90mm wide (http://www.onlineconversion.com/length_metric.htm) Cut two small sides, 100mm in length and two long sides, 250mm. And start nailing those bad boys together! 





Once you have nailed your boxes up good and tight, you want to give them a generous slather in cooking oil and a nice hot pre-use cook in the oven. Heat them up at roughly 200c for 20min. You'll want to re-oil again after they cool and before every use.